[JScones]

Originally Posted by RoaldLarsen

I have been using SH3 Commander for 3 months, and I think it is wonderful. Until this week, I had only one minor problem with it, but that was cosmetic only: when using realistic crew transfers, the message announcing the need to replace a crew member always seemed to use the English rank, even though I was using German rank translations.

Then you have an installation problem as SH3Cmdr will ALWAYS use the chosen in-game rank labels.

Originally Posted by RoaldLarsen

Now I have run across something that actually gets in the way of desired gameplay. According to uboat.net, U-69, a type VIIC, became a front boat in 7th Flotilla on Feb. 1, 1941. This was the first submarine command for her captain. I wished to emulate this, by starting a career in 7th Flotilla at the start of 1941 in a type VIIC.

I made sure that "SH3 Options | Career Options | Use historic U-boat availability dates" was checked.

Good.

Originally Posted by RoaldLarsen

I edited "SH3 Commander\Cfg\U-boat availability.cfg" to set 904_Month1=1 in the section [SUBMARINE1]
I even edited SilentHUnterIII\data\Cfg\Flotilla.cfg (by use of the static settings file) to make Month22=1, then checked the Flotilla.cfg file after a load to make sure that the change had been applied.

Why????? With the above option checked you WILL get a VIIC in 7 Flot as early as Aug 1940, no changes required. SH3Cmdr file settings:

904_Name1=VIIC
904_Month1=8
904_Year1=1940

That is, August 1940. Associated screen shot just to really prove this fact...


No need to change anything.

Originally Posted by RoaldLarsen

It seems that, even though SH3 Commander allows you to tweak many things in SH3, it doesn't apply some of these tweaks to its own user interface.

It seems that user is incorrectly blaming hammer for breaking nails.

Originally Posted by RoaldLarsen

One probably relevant observation: when playing around with availability dates, I would sometimes get an error diaog with the message "Invalid argument to date encode" while running the attempts described above. This would occur when restoring SH3Cmndr after exiting from SH3 after running SH3 from the "Set up for new career" screen.

Obviously you are not entering correct values.

Originally Posted by RoaldLarsen

If I set the u-boat availabilty in SH3Cmndr, then start up SH3 from outside SH3Cmndr, I can start a career in a type VIIC in January 41, but I have to use the stock crew.

My questions are:
0) Am I doing something wrong?
1) Is there a more elegant way to start a career in a type VIIC in early 1941 in 7th Flotilla, which retains the SH3Cmndr "realistic" crew?
2) Am I right that the availability of sub types for new careers in SH3Cmndr is hardcoded into the interface?
3) If I'm not right about this being hardcoded, what do I need to do to start a new career through SH3Cmndr in a type VIIC in early 1941 in 7th Flotilla?
4) If the career start sub type availability, (and the rank displayed in messages about crew transfers) IS hardcoded, is there any chance of SH3 Commander being upgraded to use the data from its configuration files to affect its own UI?

0) Most definately!
1) See screenshot, which is running SH3Cmdr "out of the box"
2) Most definately NOT!
3) See screenshot, which is running SH3Cmdr "out of the box"
4) Not necessary, see above screenshot, which is running SH3Cmdr "out of the box"

I don't know what you've done wrong (most likely a failure to rollback before tweaking though), but it seems you have really screwed up your installation of SH3Cmdr if not your installation of SH3. You may like to start everything again from scratch.