Weapons Officer Identify Target

Hello fellow Subsimers

I don't normally post with problems, I usually try to work them out by myself.

The problem i have is: I want to do full manual targeting, but I need the weapons officer to be able to at least Identify the target for me.

If I was playing the GWX mod by itself, then I wouldn't need to worry about it. I could do it myself. However there are so may ships in The Merchant Fleet Mod that it takes forever to scroll through the recognition manual.

"But that's what they did in real life" I hear you say, and you would be right except for the fact to get to the ships in the middle of the manual, you have to scroll through until you get to the one you want. With MFM installed the ship could be half way to China before you found it.

In real life wouldn't they just open to the page they wanted.

OK enough of that. What i want know is how to have the WO identify ship, and only the identify ship icon available to me when i switch to full manual targeting.

I do have some minor editing skills, but have been struggling to find a solution ( no pun intended ) for many weeks. I did notice that in OLC gold IId this is exactly the case. However I run a WS mod and would like to modify it.

If someone would kindly point me in the right direction I would much appreciate it.

My Mod List:

A few of these are merger mods I created myself

b25_Louder_Diesels
TheDarkWraith_Ship_Plane_Fire_Damage_v1_4_SH3
radiolog_basic
Das Boot Clothes
GWX - No Medals on Crew
Real Depth Charge
GWX2 Contact Lines
Merchant_Fleet_Mod_3.2 wdc
TKSS18 German U-Boats Compilation
FixAllSubGWX
New U-Boat Guns Fixed Reworked (for German U-Boats Compilation)
GWX3 Type2 Interior
German u Boats Exaust Texture fix
Adjusted Deck Gun and Throttles
M.E.P v5
M.E.P v5- VisualSensors for GWX3
Shallow Waters ASDIC for M.E.P v5
Ahnenerbe WideGui 1920 x 1080 Final
Console without Swastika
Menu (mask512)
Shortcuts for German U-Boats Compilation Mod
Supplement to V16B1 (JSGME)


Many Thanks

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by u47 1956

OK enough of that. What i want know is how to have the WO identify ship, and only the identify ship icon available to me when i switch to full manual targeting.

You can't. I don't know if the Watch Officer can identify the ship anyway. It's the WE (Weapons Officer) who does that, and to make him work you have to have the box 'Disable WE Assistance' unchecked, which means it's no longer at 100%. Once you've done that you can click on the WE and ask for identification. Then you can click on 'Ship' on the Clipboard and it will take you directly to that ship in the Recognition Manual.

Hi Steve

Yes i meant the WE (Weapons Officer), sorry.

I do know about leaving the WE assistance unchecked, but if I do that he will not only be able to Identify the ship but also give me a firing solution as well.

This is probably hard coded in one of the files.

This is how I am playing at the moment, but the temptation is there in pressure situations to get a solution from him.

I've just discovered it is the same with the OLC gold IId, but there is no solution button to click on.

So it looks like I will have to edit the menu_1024_768.ini file and try to remove the target solution button from the WE. A big challenge indeed. The file then has to be renumbered, but I do have the renumbering tool.

Your reply has made me look at it from a different angle and I now have a starting point, so thanks for that.

by the way, you can change the gamplaysetting.cfg file ( located in ..data/cfg ) so you can still play at 100% realism.

Cheers

Graeme

Bingo!!!!! Problem Solved

It didn't take long to find the button in the menu_1024_768.ini file. I then deleted it and renumbered the file. No go, it came up with a heap of errors when loading the game. I assume all these were links to the button.

Then i thought why not just move the button off screen, so I changed the screen coordinates for the button to a huge number and saved the file. When I ran the game the button was nowhere to be seen. exactly what i was after.

I then edited the gameplaysettings.cfg file so I would still be able to play at 100% realism.

So now i can play with "Disable WE Assistance" uncheched and not be able to get a solution from the Weapons Officer. I can also quickly find the ship in the manual as 'Sailor Steve' has described in his post.

Thanks again Steve

Cheers

Graeme

[ThePrody]

Originally Posted by u47 1956

Bingo!!!!! Problem Solved

It didn't take long to find the button in the menu_1024_768.ini file. I then deleted it and renumbered the file. No go, it came up with a heap of errors when loading the game. I assume all these were links to the button.

Then i thought why not just move the button off screen, so I changed the screen coordinates for the button to a huge number and saved the file. When I ran the game the button was nowhere to be seen. exactly what i was after.

I then edited the gameplaysettings.cfg file so I would still be able to play at 100% realism.

So now i can play with "Disable WE Assistance" uncheched and not be able to get a solution from the Weapons Officer. I can also quickly find the ship in the manual as 'Sailor Steve' has described in his post.

Thanks again Steve

Cheers

Graeme

Thanks a lot for this simple solution, now i can play with the WE only for target identification (its a must with all these merchant ships mods out there) without seeing the "devil's button" - (solution to target)

[PapaSmurf]

Originally Posted by u47 1956

Bingo!!!!! Problem Solved

It didn't take long to find the button in the menu_1024_768.ini file. I then deleted it and renumbered the file. No go, it came up with a heap of errors when loading the game. I assume all these were links to the button.

Then i thought why not just move the button off screen, so I changed the screen coordinates for the button to a huge number and saved the file. When I ran the game the button was nowhere to be seen. exactly what i was after.

I then edited the gameplaysettings.cfg file so I would still be able to play at 100% realism.

So now i can play with "Disable WE Assistance" uncheched and not be able to get a solution from the Weapons Officer. I can also quickly find the ship in the manual as 'Sailor Steve' has described in his post.

Thanks again Steve

Cheers

Graeme

I'm not as smart as you are to figure this out. If you ever get time would it be possible for you to write out a step by step procedure for everything you did so us dummies could do what you did? If it's too much trouble don't worry about it. I'm glad you found a solution to your problem.

[ThePrody]

maybe i can try it, for me it worked fine :
in the silenthunter3/data/menu folder you have a file called menu_1024_768
Open it with notepad and find this :
[G3F I247]
Name=&WP Solution to target
Type=1032;Button
ItemID=0x3F130003
ParentID=0x3F130000
Pos=194,-494,60,60

....

Pos = "something" represents the coordinates , where the button is positioned on your screen, simply replace those values (194,-494,60,60 or whatever values you have there) with some huge numbers .
Mine looks like this :
Pos=1948888,-4948888,6088888,6088888

You will never see that button again .

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by u47 1956

Hi Steve

Yes i meant the WE (Weapons Officer), sorry.

Now that I re-read your post I see that you said "Weapons Officer" at the first. I only read the "WO" part, so it was my mistake.

I do know about leaving the WE assistance unchecked, but if I do that he will not only be able to Identify the ship but also give me a firing solution as well.

That's odd. I have 'Manual Targeting' turned on, but I don't use it because I'm terrible at it, and all the tutorials in the world haven't helped. I use the WE to get the solutions, but you don't have to. When you lock on the target, click on the WE Icon and select 'Torpedo Attack'. A set of three panels appears in the middle of the screen. The one on the left is 'Identify Target'. Click that one and the name on the notepad will change from "Cargo" to "Small Freighter", or whatever. Then click 'Ship' at the top of the notepad and the Recognition Manual will open to the correct ship. From there you can do it yourself.

by the way, you can change the gamplaysetting.cfg file ( located in ..data/cfg ) so you can still play at 100% realism.

Yes you can. Better to set it for 99% though, because at 100% you can't teleport home, which becomes vital if your rudder is destroyed. In real life this was bad, but not catastrophic, as you could steer the boat (a little) using the engines, and the game won't let you do that.