REL- Unofficial fix for GWX's lack of Aircraft

[Ducimus]

EDIT:
New version:

The file:
http://www.ducimus.net/sh3/release/R...lied_Air_v2.7z

The readme:

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An unoffical fix for the lack of allied aircraft for GWX by ducimus

Quicklist changlog


- increased maximum range of various aircraft

- increased various airstrike probablities

- increased amount of squadrons that various airbases have.

- added additional airbase that covers all of biscay bay from jan 42 to 31May43.

NOTE ON BISCAY BAY AIR COVERAGE:

There are primarly two airbases that exist in GWX.

The first one enters the war 1/43 and exists tell wars end. It centers on the shallows area south of Rockall banks and covers only the northern portion of biscay bay. The second airbase enters the wary in 6/43 and lasts tell wars end. This base is located about 110 KM NE of Lisbon in spain and covers 90% of biscay bay. These two bases overlap providing complete air coverage. The base i added is located in the same location as the aformentioned 2nd GWX airbase and starts in 1/42 and is removed 31/5/43. One day before the 2nd GWX airbase comes online. This way you'll have aircraft in the bay beginning in 42, and shoudlnt have a triple layer of aircraft coverage like version 1 of this mod after 6/43.

Another note, is that on closer examination, i noticed that the option to "Delete on last waypoint" was checked for all of the GWX default airbases, and no other bases that i noticed. I don't know if this was intentional or an oversight. But I think this might explain why i personally noticed an abundance of aircraft elsewhere, but not in biscay bay. Regardless of reason why these options were checked, i unchecked this option on the two existing GWX bases in biscay bay. My feeling is that it's entirely possible aircraft were being removed from the game before they had a chance to contact the player.

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ORIGINAL POST.
Im leaving this as a backup incase someone wants to use the previous version:
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Tired of cruising through biscay bay like you own the joint? No longer!

This i an unoffical fix for GWX. It's only been lightly tested to make sure that, yes indeed, you will see more aircraft. You may infact experience ALOT of aircraft (BUAHAHHAHAHAH) *cough* *cough*.

Anyway, from another thread I gather the GWX team is aware of this problem and has coupled the offical fix with other fixes in a cumulative patch. This mod is for people who can't wait, or who think that surface travel by 44 should be a near suicidal act. :rotfl:

Heres the read me:

//format wordwrap

An unoffical fix for the lack of allied aircraft for GWX by ducimus

Quicklist changlog


-increased maximum range of various aircraft

- added additional airbase that covers all of biscay bay from jan 42 to wars end.

- increased various airstrike probablities

- increased amount of squadrons that various airbases have.

- assigned MK I aerial radar to air units that did not any radar at all.

- increased maximum ranges on aerial radars. New values = Default value + 4000. For example the mK I aerial radar now has 12,000 meter range instead of 8.
(Note: ALL OTHER VALUES IN THE AI_SENSOR.DAT ARE UNCHANGED)


POSSIBLE ISSUES:
You may experience an overabundance of aircraft and/or experience an airstrike while leaving port.

This mod was LIGHTLY tested. From what i tested, you'll experience some aircraft in 42, in 43 you'll get harrassed quite a bit, and by 44 you should be praying to the powers that be for a snorkel. Running on the surface is probably suicide in 44.

Most of that was probably unneccessary, but in the course of tracking down the problem, this modelt sort of just grew. The gist of the lack of aircraft, i beleive has to do with the AI_visual sensor. SImply put, given the way the sea state effects visiblity, the AI can't see much in rough weather. In aircraft that have no radar, it means that they can fly right by you, and not realize your there. In the end, you never (Or vary rarely) saw planes.

So what i did was make sure all allied planes have at least a MK 1 radar unit (some didnt have any radar at all), then increased the max range on all airborune radar by 4000 meters. Result is planes now have a garunteed way to see you if your within their radar range. ESPEICALLY in late war. Given the range of RWR in GWX, you can be a tinsy bit more liberal with your time compression. Honestly though, if i had a working tweakfile for GWX's sensors.dat (i suck at hex editing), id seriously lower the RWR range to make it a "just in time" warning.

Anyway, who, what ,where's, and why's aside, heres the D/L link

http://www.ducimus.net/sh3/release/R..._Allied_Air.7z

[_Seth_]

Good one, Ducimus!

[Venatore]

Thankyou Ducimus. This is more like it evil, evil and evil.

[Ducimus]

Heh, you want to talk evil, you should have seen that swarm of planes that came out when leaving port in 44. I intentionaly placed the extra base i added so the biscay sally bases are in range of allied strikes. (there was acutally a fairly large gap in air coverage in location and year, hence the needing of another base )

From the test i ran in 43, in seemed spot on. 42 felt a bit lacking but adequate, although i did get attacked at night. The one in 44 was umm.. well.. it was race to get water 20 meters deep to at least get to periscope depth. the 2cm guns ran low on ammo pretty quick.

[Venatore]

If you read those books Iron Coffins, Donitz & the Wolf Packs, U-997 the boat that escaped to Argentina, U-boat Peril, U-boat War, Hitlers U-boat Fortresses, The U-boat Offensive 1941-1945 and Wolf Pack there is a common theme, if you were on the surface in 1944 you were dead

You as a player should be wanting the snorkle apparatus as the war goes on soooooo bad that it should be one of your biggest frustrations in the game, by you not have it as a player in the late war years, it will mean most certain death to you and your crew. There are true stories of 2-4 U-Boats keeping together as a very close pack trying to survive, using all their AA guns as one hitting force, and this was just trying to leave the damn harbour

So to me this is a most excellent mod, I should be dreading this as a player, thinking to myself whats the point, I'll never make it to the end of my career alive

THATS HOW IT WAS !!!!!

[AndyW]

Uhm, nice fix, but I think 3 to 4 air attacks in late 43 / early 44 every night is enough for me. Especially if cruising surfaced at night is the only chance to gain miles as there is no chance to stay on surface during daytime anyway.

Cheers,
AndyW

[JU_88]

thank you, thank you....

Will this exact mod be in the official GWX patch due out on January 31st?

Or has the development team come up with their own fix for lack of aircraft?

Thanks.

[GT182]

I remember in my Vanilla SHIII that there werelate war airsrikes on Lorient and St. Nazzaire that would make you cringe. I counted 12 B24s for one strike on St. Nazzaire alone. And if I remember correctly it was in late 43 or early 44 and at night. Luckily we were out aways and they didn't see our sub and attack, but it was close. Not sure if it was a mod that did this or just SHIII.

No matter what Ducimus, you've just raised the "pucker factor" by 90%. I think I'll get a laptop or move my computer to the bathroom. With your mod I think I'll be messing my pants alot, just trying to leave port.

[Zinmar]

Umm....that was WAY to much information!!!!!

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by AndyW

Uhm, nice fix, but I think 3 to 4 air attacks in late 43 / early 44 every night is enough for me. Especially if cruising surfaced at night is the only chance to gain miles as there is no chance to stay on surface during daytime anyway.

Cheers,
AndyW

Does that mean this mod is working as advertised? Like i said, i only lighty tested it to make sure i was seeing more planes. (IE, I ran through biscay only a couple times in 42,43, and 44 )

EDIT: If you are seriously experiencing too many night air attacks, go the the data/cfg folder in this mod, open up Airstrike.cfg and find this value:

Night Modifier=0.4

And change it to 0.2, which was the default value. I bumped it up a tinsy bit.

Originally Posted by von Zelda

Will this exact mod be in the official GWX patch due out on January 31st?

Or has the development team come up with their own fix for lack of aircraft?

Thanks.

The dev team will have their own fix in place. From what i understand the work is already done, but their including it into a cumulative patch. I went ahead with this mod anyway because i was 90% done/had it figured out by the time i found this out. I don't know when that patch will be released, but personnaly, once i realized i wasnt seeing very many planes, i got that itch i had to scratch. I wasn't going to start another game until i had some sort of fix for it.

In the end, if your still not seeing what you think is the proper amount of aircraft after the patch, ill rerelease this mod to make it compatable if there are any file conflicts that arise as a result of the patch.

[cobalt]

thanks so much, you know ive played this game at least 8 months and havent been sunk by a plane once?

[Phoenix3000]

Hi guys,

Ducimus, great idea for a mod!

Quick question if I may - I'm trying to install it via JSGME, but I get the error "Canpaign_LND.mis" has already been altered by the "GWX - Dec 23rd Corrections" mod.

Is it OK to go ahead, or not advisable?

Cheers!

Px3000

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Phoenix3000

Hi guys,

Ducimus, great idea for a mod!

Quick question if I may - I'm trying to install it via JSGME, but I get the error "Canpaign_LND.mis" has already been altered by the "GWX - Dec 23rd Corrections" mod.

Is it OK to go ahead, or not advisable?

Cheers!

Px3000

Go ahead. I installed that fix directly into my SH3 directory without using JSGME, so the LND layer is the same one from the "GWX - Dec 23rd Corrections"

[Phoenix3000]

Sorry if i'm reading your reply wrong - are you saying it's OK to install via JSGME - or to manually copy the files across?

Cheers!

Px3000