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Observer · 11-15-05, 08:34 PM

Hmm...must have missed this thread, but anyways.

I think the confusion might be based around the classes of ships chosen by the developers for SH3. Instead of generic classes of merchants, we are handicapped by specific classes of ships which are intended to represent the wide variety of merchants sailing the ocean during WWII.

Using the T2 tanker for example, this specific class of tankers, was built between 1942 and 1945 (also built after the war, but not relevant to the purpose of the discussion). If we used the T2 in it's absolute specific sense, we would have no medium sized tanker prior to 1942.

The random tonnage mod does not treat the specific classes of merchants included in SH3 as the class their name might represent. Instead, I use these classes to represent a variety of possible tankers sailing between 1939 and 1945.

The numbers used in the mod included with SH3 Commander uses data from about 3000 different ship sinkings to develop a range of possible tonnages for generic classes of ships. For the purpose of the random tonnage mod, the following are examples of rules I applied to ship classes (not all inclusive):

C3 Cargo - Represents a large sized dry cargo merchant
C2 Cargo - Represents a medium sized dry cargo merchant
Small Merchant - Represents a small sized dry cargo merchant
Coastal Merchant - Represents a class of tramp steamers
T3 Tanker - Represents a large sized class of tankers
T2 Tanker - Represents a medium sized class of tankers

The values for the tonnage variations are based upon some distribution curves for each class with a 2% increase per year in the seed tonnage value (the value used in the Ship displacements.cfg) and a possible plus or minus 15% variation in actual tonnage. This means it's possible to get some tonnage values at the low end, as well as the high end. In about 1000 different simulations of possible values (using Monte Carlo analysis) the average results were representative of each class ships using, for example, those classes above.

You are welcome to see the data, analysis and statistical basis for each seed value used in the Ship displacements.cfg. Let me know and I'll send you a link to the file.

If you are not satisfied by this answer and the low tonnage still bothers you I suggest:

1. Change the Ship displacements.cfg to tonnage values to stock and set the upper, lower and YearlyAdjust to 1.0. You could also tweak these down to provide a smaller variation, but I think variety is the spice of life, and I like not knowing how many torpedoes it's going to take to sink a big tanker/merchant and if it's going to be "worth" the effort.
2. Change the specific merchant class names to something more generic in the EnglishNames.cfg. If you don't want to make the changes I can post the version I use.

11-15-05, 08:34 PM	#8
Observer Commander Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 477 Downloads: 6 Uploads: 0	Hmm...must have missed this thread, but anyways. I think the confusion might be based around the classes of ships chosen by the developers for SH3. Instead of generic classes of merchants, we are handicapped by specific classes of ships which are intended to represent the wide variety of merchants sailing the ocean during WWII. Using the T2 tanker for example, this specific class of tankers, was built between 1942 and 1945 (also built after the war, but not relevant to the purpose of the discussion). If we used the T2 in it's absolute specific sense, we would have no medium sized tanker prior to 1942. The random tonnage mod does not treat the specific classes of merchants included in SH3 as the class their name might represent. Instead, I use these classes to represent a variety of possible tankers sailing between 1939 and 1945. The numbers used in the mod included with SH3 Commander uses data from about 3000 different ship sinkings to develop a range of possible tonnages for generic classes of ships. For the purpose of the random tonnage mod, the following are examples of rules I applied to ship classes (not all inclusive): C3 Cargo - Represents a large sized dry cargo merchant C2 Cargo - Represents a medium sized dry cargo merchant Small Merchant - Represents a small sized dry cargo merchant Coastal Merchant - Represents a class of tramp steamers T3 Tanker - Represents a large sized class of tankers T2 Tanker - Represents a medium sized class of tankers The values for the tonnage variations are based upon some distribution curves for each class with a 2% increase per year in the seed tonnage value (the value used in the Ship displacements.cfg) and a possible plus or minus 15% variation in actual tonnage. This means it's possible to get some tonnage values at the low end, as well as the high end. In about 1000 different simulations of possible values (using Monte Carlo analysis) the average results were representative of each class ships using, for example, those classes above. You are welcome to see the data, analysis and statistical basis for each seed value used in the Ship displacements.cfg. Let me know and I'll send you a link to the file. If you are not satisfied by this answer and the low tonnage still bothers you I suggest: 1. Change the Ship displacements.cfg to tonnage values to stock and set the upper, lower and YearlyAdjust to 1.0. You could also tweak these down to provide a smaller variation, but I think variety is the spice of life, and I like not knowing how many torpedoes it's going to take to sink a big tanker/merchant and if it's going to be "worth" the effort. 2. Change the specific merchant class names to something more generic in the EnglishNames.cfg. If you don't want to make the changes I can post the version I use.