[ReallyDedPoet]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

Its the mission objectives that are the number 1 reason im sick of Sh3.

1.Go to grid,
2. stay for a x amout of time,
3. sink ships.
4. Goto 1

Over and over and over and over and over again. How i wish could have just performed a recon, or laid mines or just.. SOMETHING to make the game more varied.

Now, SH4, has the right idea, trouble is, it doesnt always change its objectives. Overall, i think the varied objectives, ensuring you get them, is one of the stronger points of this mod. In a way, its really directed at people burnt out on the same old standard routine that they did in Sh3. (namely myself )

But ya, im going to create a few more special ops scripts to flessh in areas that lack variety of that mission type.


Now how objectives work, or are called upon works somethign like this:

You'll have a collection of mission scripts that are in a general location:

1. Patrol.
You may have 4 or 5 instances of varing patrol scrpts in different locations within the same geographical region.


2. Sink.
Missions where it sayd to "deply" and think "sink" shipping. You'll have 4 or 5 instances of this, with variong locations in the same region.

3. Photo.
Some areas have more instances of this then others. Different locations, within the same region.

4. Supply.

5. Spy.

6. Commando


Now, in all cases, (objectives 1 through 6), again, they'll all be in different locations, in the same geographic region. This geographical region is then given a name.


In this example, ill use Honshu. This name, represents an ID handle that the game associates with whatever mission you assign this ID handle.

So, "Honshu" has the following attached to it:

5 Insert Spy missions
8 Patrol missions
5 Photo missions
8 Sink missions


All of these, are assigned to the ID handle, "Honshu". So in the flotilla.upc, when you give "Honshu" as a patrol objective, the game will randomly pick a mission, in the Honshu group of missions (assuming the missions availablity date matches the current calender date in game). Or at least, its SUPPOSED to. Not saying it doesnt, but it doesnt randomize itself as near as often as it should. Otherwise, we'd never hear of a "repeat patrol bug"

Note however, that, you will never drop supplies off in Honshu, nor insert a commando team.

By way of comparision, lets look at the Phillipines, it has:

3 Guard missions
3 Inserrt commando missions
1 insert spy mission
4 supply missions
7 patrol missions
7 Sink missions.


Totally different ballgame in the phillpines.

Now how i got rid of the repeat patrol bug, was force an entry and exit date from the patrol objectives. Only one mission is avialable every 2 month period, and then it goes away until i deliberatly call on it again later on.

For example, stock assigments look like this:

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 1]
ID= PH1Obj1
NameDisplayable= East China Sea
AvailabilityInterval=1942-01-01, NULL 
ObjectiveCode= East China Sea

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 2]
ID= PH1Obj2
NameDisplayable= Marshalls patrols
AvailabilityInterval=NULL, 1944-04-01
ObjectiveCode= Marshall Islands

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 3]
ID= PH1Obj3
NameDisplayable= Empire Waters
AvailabilityInterval=NULL, NULL
ObjectiveCode= Honshu

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 4]
ID= PH1Obj4
NameDisplayable= Empire Waters
AvailabilityInterval=NULL, NULL
ObjectiveCode= Hokkaido

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 5]
ID= PH1Obj5
NameDisplayable= Caroline Islands
AvailabilityInterval=1942-01-01, NULL 
ObjectiveCode= Caroline Islands

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 6]
ID= PH1Obj6
NameDisplayable= Mariana Islands
AvailabilityInterval=1942-04-01, 1944-04-01 
ObjectiveCode= Mariana Islands

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 7]
ID= PH1Obj7
NameDisplayable= Palau Island
AvailabilityInterval=1943-01-01, 1944-04-01 
ObjectiveCode= Palau Island

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 8]
ID= PH1Obj8
NameDisplayable= Luzon Strait
AvailabilityInterval=1944-01-01, NULL
ObjectiveCode= Luzon Strait

Note that not all objective are avialable all the time. The game is supposed to randomly pick a geographic area, and then randomly pic a mission type from that areas group of missions. Which, as it seems, the game fails to do, more often then not. its a great idea for replayablity, its just not working very well.

So heres what i did to FORCE the game to vary the missions:

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 1]
ID= PH1Obj1
NameDisplayable= Training Excercise
AvailabilityInterval=1941-12-05, 1941-12-06
ObjectiveCode= Prewar_01

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 2]
ID= PH1Obj2
NameDisplayable= Marshalls patrols
AvailabilityInterval=1941-12-07, 1941-12-31
ObjectiveCode= Marshall Islands

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 3]
ID= PH1Obj3
NameDisplayable= Empire Waters
AvailabilityInterval=1942-01-01, 1942-02-31 
ObjectiveCode= HonshuPHOTO

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 4]
ID= PH1Obj4
NameDisplayable= East China Sea
AvailabilityInterval=1942-03-01, 1942-04-31
ObjectiveCode= East China Sea

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 5]
ID= PH1Obj5
NameDisplayable= Formosa
AvailabilityInterval=1942-05-01, 1942-06-31
ObjectiveCode= Formosa StraitCOM

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 6]
ID= PH1Obj6
NameDisplayable= Caroline Islands
AvailabilityInterval=1942-07-01, 1942-08-31 
ObjectiveCode= Caroline Islands

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 7]
ID= PH1Obj7
NameDisplayable= Luzon Strait
AvailabilityInterval=1942-09-01, 1942-10-31
ObjectiveCode= Luzon StraitSUP

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 8]
ID= PH1Obj8
NameDisplayable= Palau Island
AvailabilityInterval=1942-11-01, 1942-12-31 
ObjectiveCode= Palau IslandPHOTO

Note that im revolving the missions, forcing an end to the previous, and a start to the next.
Also note the objective code. This is what i call the ID Handle. What i did was break it down, to create a seperate grouping, this allowed me to directly call on that mission type. . So if you take Honshu again, where as before it was:

5 Insert Spy missions
8 Patrol missions
5 Photo missions
8 Sink missions

the ID Handle "Honshu" now only will give out the 8 patrol and 8 sink missions.

The photo missions that were assigned to Honshu, i changed the ID handle to "HonshuPHOTO". So by specifing "HonshuPHOTO" as a mission assigment, the game wil l randomly pick 1 of the 5 photo missions, and thats it.


Now, where this runs into problems, is again, the phillpines. "PhillipinesPHOTO" needs about 4 other missions that i need to script out because as it is, it will only give out the 1 photo mission.

Hopefully this all makes sense, and people better understand how missions work in Sh4.

Nice explanation Ducimus . I need to take the time and look into the " guts " of this game a little more. The above is a good example of this games potential as compared to SH3.

Again thanks for your work on this. Off to sink some now

RDP