[WIP] U.S. Medals Fix

[CapnScurvy]

I've been looking at the awards and medals issued within the game and have come up with a different plan. As you may know, there's not much we can do with the criteria for issuing awards. The criteria seems to be for the most part, hard coded in the game. However, we can work within the game structure to achieve a more accurate realistic system. There are six awards and medals available from highest ranking to lowest. RFB and TMO both use the same awards. Top ranked is the Congressional Medal of Honor, next the Navy Cross, Navy Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star, Bronze Star Medal, and although it is not an achievement award, nor does it fit in the ranking system, the Purple Heart. My contention is the authentic Navy Distinguished Service Medal has a criteria of "exceptionally mertorious service to the government in a duty of great responsibility" which in my opinion does not hold true of a sub Captain, and especially an enlisted crewman. What I have found is the medal is usually bestowed to senior "Navy Flag and Marine Corps General Officers" not rank and file sub Captains and definitely not to an enlisted man, unless he happened to be on Nimitz's "personal" staff of high enlisted rank.

So, my plan is to remove the DSM from the awards, move up the Silver Star and Bronze Star Medal in rank and add the Navy Commendation Medal as the lowest tier award. I have thought about the "Dolphins" badge for this 1st tier award but the game structure does not allow for a different award for both the Crewmen and the player/Captain. Six medals are what you have, and all are given to both Captain and Crewman alike. The "Dolphins" badge would not be appropriate for the Captain to yet earn; he should have received it long before making Captain. (Actually I think the images could be different for the two recipients, but the mouse over descriptions would have to be the same, as well as the "left hand" medal icons when they are shown either within the Captain's Award box or the Crew Management screen.) In my research I found the Navy Cross and DSM were "switched" in rank in 1943 by an act of Congress, although the criteria for the DSM was not changed. I also know I'm taking a bit of license with the Navy Commendation Medal since it was first received in 1943 (by this same Congressional Act), but it seems to be the best fit for the way the game is structured.

Something I had found within the stock game that had not been addressed by RFB, TMO or any other medals fix mod is the Captain's Office Award Box (sitting on the desk) does not display the correct medals when given. The process is when an award is gained by the player, it's displayed within the box. When you mouse click the medal, you go to another screen that shows the medal in high res with the written commendation for it. If you receive more than one, the "left hand" icons will direct you to the various medals images and written commendations. These "left hand" icons seem to be correct for the specific award given with TMO 1.5.2, however the small "left hand" icon for RFB is truely messed up as I will show you.

Getting back to the medal shown within the box when it is first opened, it does not show correctly in RFB 1.51 062308 (the current version) nor in TMO 1.5.2, and your not even close with the stock system either. I found the "order" was not correct within the .dat file that controls this particular display. Changing the listed order corrected the wrong display and now the correct medal will be found in the box when you frist open it.

In the last several days, I have talked to LukeFF regarding the needed fix for RFB. His latest beta of RFB 1.52_090708 still has the problems with the medals and I hope he will correct this soon in the next release. To test the problem in RFB, I completed a first patrol, completed two objectives, one refit. I had a total tonnage of 84,444, with 50,000 or so in merchants and about 33,000 in an Ise BB. My settings were on "noob" everything on easy. I wasn't trying to out do myself with an expert setting, just acquire tonnage and see what the given awards would be when I commited sucide every so often in the patrol. I had just killed myself and the awards were a Purple Heart and a Congressional Medal of Honor with a Bronze Star Medal in the "left hand" icon spot. I have my suspicions about the CMOH for 84,000 tons, but I reloaded the saved game and made my way back to port. Here is what the Captain's Award box showed:



The medal shown is the Congressional Medal of Honor, with the Navy Cross label, in the stock Bronze Star position!!! Triple trouble!! When you click on the medal this is the screen you get:



It's the Navy Cross in the "left hand" icons position, with the Distinguished Service Medal image and it's written commendation!! I think I've just about covered all the medals there are with this RFB modded game. The only one not covered is the Purple Heart! As a bonus picture I've thrown in what the CrewManagement screen looks like with RFB.



There's that CMOH image showing up with the Bronze Star Medal label. Is there a connection to this or what? Well yes, this was one of the telltale signs I used to trace down what the connections were between the mismatched images and labels. Again, this does not have anything to do with the Captain's Award Box, but it does show the incorrect labels that the RFB 1.51 has. Again, TMO does not look any different within the Captain's award box, it's just as messed up. But, Ducimus does get it right with the "left hand" icons for both the Captain's award screen and the CrewManagement screen. Great job Duci!! At least it's right for the medal it represents, but I further questioned the accuracy of the medal that is given.

So here is the U.S. Medals Fix mod added to the mix.



A Silver Star for 84,000 tons sunk; I think that sounds about right. You will notice the label is correct for the image even though the 3D model outline is of the old Distinguished Service Medal. Changing the "order" of the medals has corrected the misslabeling which I believe is key to the correct hard coded criteria the game uses to award a medal. Also, causing a second correction to take place:



The correct medal image is now shown in this Captain's awards screen, with the correct written commendation. The "left hand" icons are now correct, because of the menu_1024.... correction. And so is the CrewManagement "left hand" screen:



It's my belief that the controlling order of the medals in the appropriate .dat file has corrected much of the existing problems within the game. Credit should still go to many others who have worked to this end: FullMetalledges, Midnite1977, Ducimus and others. Their ground breaking work has brought us to this point where the medals may be finally correct. But, I too have yet one more hurdle to cross. The 3D models in the Captain Award Box need to coincide with the new medals. As the above image shows the Silver Star needs to have the outline of the stock Distinguished Service Medal removed and it's outline imported into the CaptainRoom.dat file. The other "new" medals should have their models changed as well. I freely admit, the learning curve to 3D modeling has been my stumbling block to releasing this fix. If any one would like to help please join in. I have the 3D's materials file image changed for the new medals, but I just dont know how to make a new model from it. I could release the fix "as is" but I would hope some 3D modeling guru could help in the last piece of the puzzle.

[virtualpender]

Even if you are unable to sort out the 3D model issue, I hope you will proceed with this mod. The awards system definitely needs sorting out. Thanks for the testing and work.

[silent killer]

thanks for your hard work trying to fix the medals,so they can be earned in a more realistic manner and to appear in the proper place .

[aanker]

Did you say a DAT file controls the box on the desk? I've been using a fix I found by Ducimus that was made around April and everything is correct except for the box... which isn't a showstopper for me. However, which DAT file is it - if you wouldn't mind saying - please? CaptainRoom.dat?

I like your idea of adding the NCM however I don't think it was awarded until 1944 IRL. Of course you are correct regarding the DSM ... lol

Anyway, thanks for working on this.

Art

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by aanker

I like your idea of adding the NCM however I don't think it was awarded until 1944 IRL. Of course you are correct regarding the DSM ... lol

You're correct, but then it's no different than having the Bronze Star Medal, which was also introduced in 1944. The DSM...yeah, that one is totally out of place. I noticed the original Silent Hunter also has it in that game. Guess the devs were following that pattern when designing the SH4 awards system.

[CapnScurvy]

Originally Posted by aanker

Did you say a DAT file controls the box on the desk? I've been using a fix I found by Ducimus that was made around April and everything is correct except for the box... which isn't a showstopper for me. However, which DAT file is it - if you wouldn't mind saying - please? CaptainRoom.dat?

I like your idea of adding the NCM however I don't think it was awarded until 1944 IRL. Of course you are correct regarding the DSM ... lol

Anyway, thanks for working on this.

Art

Yes Art, the Data/Interior/CaptainRoom/CaptainRoom.dat has the Awards Box. Using Silent 3ditor open
2:Node-CaptainRoom
/370:Node-caseta (This is the box)
/373:Node-SupMed
/379:Node-deco04. (This is the stock Distinguished Service Medal)

By changing the stock listed order of the medals and using Ducimus image files, the medals seem to work out right for the medals offered. I could be off base on this but I used a bit of logic in believing the devs had "some" of the image files correct but let the math coordinates get out of place. The image's can be checked and double checked with a quick look (are they in the right place or not?). The wrong math coordinates had an easier time to slip through since it takes some head scratching to figure if their correct.

Deco01 to deco06 each have the 3d models of the Award Box medals with two UV channel images. It's these models that create the medals in the box.

Regarding the actual medals used, 1943 was the year congress did some major restructuring of the awards. We had been at war for a year and someone decided to make some changes to what was an award system from WW1. Many changes took place during this time throughout the services. The Navy Cross which had a lesser rank, switched with the Navy Distinguished Service Medal in precedence. New awards were added such as the Navy Commendation Ribbon which morphed into the medal. My dad who joined the Army Armor service proudly wore the WW1 tank insignia for his collar when he first entered the service in 1942.

The game gives us six awards and unfortunatly we can't change them mid way through the campaign (no act of congress is simulated ). Sooo, whatever we pick out has to be used throughout. I am going to look at making the "Dolphins" badge for just the enlisted men though as a 1st tier award. The problem is not so much in the image file but having the correct label show when you mouse over it.

[Sea Otter]

I think that you are working on a MUCH needed improvement. Good luck!

[CapnScurvy]

I've been working on adding the Submariners "Dolphins" to the Crew Management screen and I think I've done just about all I can do. For those that don't know what the Dolphin's Badge represents I'll give you a quick run down. The Dolphins Badge originated in 1923 for the U.S. Navy's Submarine Service. To earn one, it involves an individual "Qualifying" by learning the location of equipment, operation of systems, damage control procedures and you must have a general knowledge of the operational characteristics of your boat. Once your qualified through tests of these factors you earn your Dolphins Badge. Dolphin wearers qualify initially on one boat and must re-qualify on boats that are subsequently assigned. Here's a close up image of one.



Unfortunately as I pointed out before, the mouse over label for the Dolphin's are a compromise with the Captain's Navy Commendation Medal. There is only one .upc file listing for this 1st tier award. So the Dolphins Badge will have to share labels with the Commendation Medal. The first following image shows all the Crew Management awards that can be awarded, with the Dolphins Badge in the "left hand" icons.



With the U.S. Medals Fix installed, I had just completed a stock game patrol of one completed objective, 3 merchants sunk, 2 warships (couple of DD's) with a total of 18,986 tons to my credit. The crew received a Bronze Star Medal, and two Dolphins Badges. The Captain received the Navy Commendation Medal.



As you can see I was able to seperate the crew's 1st tier award Dolphin's image from the Captain's Commendation Medal, but again the label has to be compromised. Anyway, the medals given sound about right for the 18,986 tonnage sunk.

The next image shows the Captain's desk with all the medals showing in the Award Box.



Again, the images are of the new medals, in their corrected place, with their corrected labels (these labels do not come from the .upc data). However, the 3D outlines are of the stock medals. I have some ideas on what a Noob 3D moddler like me will try next but if I can't get it done and no one else can help, I'll probably just release the mod as is. I think it'll be better than nothing.