[REL] Battle of Midway Campaign Layer Fix v0.5

[tater]

Version 0.7 cause it's (still) pretty beta

JSGME Ready.
http://www.mediafire.com/?f7wt2xutllx

Ver 0.7
My bad, I had the subchasers (part of the invasion forces) set to type=1 (as they are in my campaign) since this allows them to be escorts.

Fixed for general use now.

Ver 0.6
Notes:
Fixed a few things per Jace comments, dunno if I got all of them. Made a single mission version, and it worked until I torpedoed the Nagumo group leader which CTDed me. :/


README:
This is a fixed up Battle of Midway in the CAMPAIGN. This is not a single mission!

The mission is not changed from the layers in the stock SH4 game except for a few things, so don't expect perfect historical accuracy! I might work to make a better version, this is just a version better than the crappy stock version in terms of units used, timing, etc. I only changed IJN units since I don't expect to see the US units much. Except that they move way too far west... that bugs me, maybe I need to change the US stuff, too. I'd delete that, but I haven't gotten that far yet, wait for version 2, lol.

Changes from stock mission:

1. Massive changes in the exact Japanese units shown. All units are now named with their real names. Every DD. All ships except transports. Some substitutions are made. All Kageros Class DDs are subbed with the nearly identical Asashio, Fuso for Nagato, etc. The entire order of battle for the warships on the IJN side is now there. All of them save a few oilers since that would require modding people's tanker speeds and I wanted this vanilla.

2. Massive changes in the formations of the ships. The Kido Butai is set up somewhat properly in a 7-8000m box formation. The Guard DDs behind each CV may or may not leave station, unfortunately. The other groups are made up in terms of how they are arrayed. Anyone with a better idea for the formations of the Main BOdy, Invasion Force, etc, please let me know.

3. A few waypoint changes to get the timings at least somewhat right. Units were still set to start on january 1st in the stock Midway mission. this is now fixed, they start June 1st instead.

4. The stock layer has these ships at sea to start---so does this mod. A future version would back them up into port, but that fouls all the timings up, and this was a quick job for version 0.5, so they start at sea like they do in the stock game.

Enjoy!

tater

[ReallyDedPoet]

Nice to see you tightened this aspect of the game up ( at least the Midway stuff ), look forward to trying it out, nice work

RDP

[Jace11]

Ok I've had a look at it.

I posted one of mine today too somwhere, very similar, though I haven't renamed every ship..

Anyway, watch-out for your larger task-forces running aground in empire waters, I ran the simulation and some destroyers cross land. Just have the task force disappear at an earlier waypoint instead of trying to get a 20k wide formation through a 15k channel.

Also..

Unit config dates.. I have found, by default the game sets units in scripted layers to 1 1938 config...

This is bad, they can then be without radar upgrades, weapon upgrades, airgroup changes, I noticed some of your ships are like this - havent checked all though..

BTW nearly all scripted layers by the dev time are like this... shame the "auto camp editor" cant auto update configs..

[Jace11]

Another thing, have you checked your Nagumo force will appear...? I should have mentioned this in the other thread..

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...ghlight=Midway

The problem wasn't the date the layer was called, though it is good practice I think to call the layer first in campaign.cfg - then mission start date, then units spawn date - in chronological order - any other order can create problems...

The problem is the nagumo force spawn before the mission start date.. 06/01 whereas mission starts 06/04..

So it never appeared.. some guy called marky claimed he found the task force in vanilla, but he may have just found the shokaku in the invasion force, many many others reported the task force missing, his two threads devoted to Midway, showing he sank a carrier simply clouded the issue beyond resolve. I know there is something wrong with the layer though.

Though another guy was saying he ran vanilla and saw them on time, however many more people said they waited and never saw them.

Suggest you change your Nagumo force spawn date, or move mission start date earlier. You will then need to call the layer earlier in campaign.cfg..

Once done they appear on time..

[tater]

Ah, rgr. I ran it through time comprssion in the editor, but didn't catch that

[tater]

Version 0.6 up with some fixes per Jace11 (linky top of page)

Here too:

http://mpgtext.net/subshare/192Battl...way%20beta.rar

[tater]

I was hoping to be able to test it easily, but it's hard to do.

I tried changing the campaign.cfg to allow this mission to laod in single missions. Nothing (I made a mission with a tambor right on the path of the nagumo force).

When I made a copy of the mission with an added tabmor for player and made a single mission it worked, but CTDed if I attacked the lead ship in the nagumo force. Grrr.

[tater]

I figured out what the dates in Campaign.cfg are for, Jace.

They are the dates for your PATROL.

Ie: "Load this mission if a patrol starts between this date range."

For Midway it's 1942 02 02. If you start a patrol on/after Feb 2d, and stay out for months (refitting, presumably), you will still see the Midway layer load. If you went out in January, and never RTBed, Midway wouldn't ever load since at the time of your patrol's start, it wouldn't be told (by Campaign.cfg) to load it up.

This is how they get away with not having to load all the damn layers at the same time. You only load the layer you add between a date range to reduce overhead.

tater

[tater]

I tested this time by altering the campaign.cfg to allow this layer to load in Single Missions. Then I made a single mission with naught but a Tambor in the path of the Nagumo Force.

Worked like a charm.

Sank the lead ship, no CTD.

I think it works.

Worst thing is the damn CVs sink with 1 torpedo (shokaku, anyway) every single time for me.

[Jace11]

So you didn't change the mission start date or when the Nagumo Force appears?

Ok, maybe the campaign can cope with spawns before mission start date.

[tater]

I did move all the start dates inside the mission (including the mission itself) to the same date, 19420601.

What I didn't change was the date in the Campaign.cfg file once I realized what it was for.

[kakemann]

Thanks a lot tater!

[dean_acheson]

Tater,
is there a tutorial on how to mod into the campaign file?

I've been reading through Samuel Morison's History of United States Naval Operations in World War II and was thinking last night that I would love to work a bit on this, esp. some of the earlier stuff including the ABDA and Java campaigns.... as well as some of the stuff coming up the Slot.

That's it, sorry for the inexperience...

[tater]

You can open the files in the campaign folder with the editor and have a look.

If I was making a new battle, I would start over and make a new, scripted mission. You'd only have to add it tot he Campaign.cfg file for it to be added to the campaign. The only trick in that file (copy and paste another battle's entry as a model (make sure the name/number is changed to the new mission, and next number) is the dates. The dates in theat file are NOT the battle dates, but a window for patrols to bother loading the battla mission data.

As for the mission itself, that's simple finding the editor tutorial and messing around. http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=115221

Here's a campaign.cfg entry:

[Section 8]
FileName=data/Campaigns/Campaign/41a_Jap_Convoys.mis
StartDate=19390101
EndDate=19420401
GameModes=SingleMission,SinglePatrol,Career,Multiplayer Cooperative
InclusionProbability=100
MinimumDifficultyRating=0
MinimumPlayerRating=-3 
EntryFocalPointLong=0
EntryFocalPointLat=0
MaximumDistanceFromStartPoint=90000
ExclusiveLayer=No
ExclusiveLayerID=0

The start/end dates (red) are what I was talking about regading the patrols. You need to start your patrol on/after that start date. If you start before that date, the file won't be loaded (otherwise you'd be loading missions from the whole war every patrol, slowing things down). I think all the mission stuff loads at the same time, even if the mission doesn't start (and units appear) until later in the patrol.

The game modes (green) are important to show what type of game gets to load this layer. So if it only says "single mission" it would not load up in the campaign. Note that the random layers in there load up during single games, but not the scripted battle layers.

As an example, you could make my midway layer a single mission in an odd way (I did to test). Edit the Midway entry in campaign.cfg so that it also appears with "SingleMission" in the list. Then make a new single mission. In that mission place a player sub at the right spot NW midway on June 3 or 4 (can merge the mission to see where if you need to). Save the mission with nothing but that player sub there. Since the mission will now load into single missions like the traffic does, you will see my forces stream by.

[dean_acheson]

well, bare with me, I've never even messed around with the mission editor, except a bit in SH3, and was a bit less than successful....

I am a bit more excited about this though...