A couple of questions regarding ship cargo types and the save game files.

[General Tso]

I'd appreciate some info on the following.

1. I noticed that the .mis files have CargoExt and CargoInt entries for ships. I'm guessing that the numerical values for these fields indicate a cargo type with -1 meaning no cargo. Could somebody tell me what the actual cargo types are for each number value?

2. Is there a way to get the cargo type for each ship sunk from the save game files? While I looked at these files and couldn't find anything, I'm hoping that I missed something and somebody can point it out to me.

i think the type of cargo only effects damage/explosions and sinking rates otherwise the game doesnt keep track or record that data except for the way you already see it


what you can do is create a single mission with just you and one cargo ship and then try out each number in a mission to see what each value creates as cargo then make a conversion list chart for the numbers

[General Tso]

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately it looks like it may be impossible to do what I want. I was thinking about making a separate program that tracks the player's campaign after they exit the game. The program would also track the total number of resources located in Japan. This value would be based on a combination of Japans available resources from real history (if I can find them) and the actual tonnage sunk by the player. The total change of resources for Japan would be extrapolated from the player's totals after each mission. If the player has a good mission then all US subs would have good mission during that time and Japan's resources would decrease. If the player has a poor mission then all US subs would have a bad mission during that time and Japan's resources would increase. For example if the player sinks a lot of oil tankers - Japans available Oil resources would be greatly reduced.

I always thought that the biggest weakness in the Silent Hunter series is that there is no reason to sink a given ship. While they may be some what "gamey" there would be several interesting options available for this mod. One option would compare the player's performance to certain standards based on real life values. A rating of 100% would be good, 75% bad, 125% good etc. There could be a different rating for each resource. Another idea would be to try and end the war early be reducing Japan's resources below a certain level. This would of course be done using the external program and would not effect the actual game. The player would have to either exit or tab out of the game while in port to get their current status.

I was hoping to do the above by reading the save game files but as confirmed by Webster the cargo type isn't saved to the save game files. The only alternative I came up with would be to limit each ship type to one cargo, but that would require redoing all of the ships in the campaign files and I'm not sure if I want to do that. Does anyone have any ideas on how I could make this work?

[razark]

You could fake it, the way SH3 Commander does.

For each class of ship, it can carry certain types of cargo. After the patrol, read in the list of ships sunk during the patrol. Assign each ship a cargo from the list of possibles, and dump that out to another file. Then run your calculations on that.

I like the added interest of knowing the cargo of each of my victims. I've actually been considering trying to implement that just for my own use.

[General Tso]

I was putting some thought into doing something like that. I like your idea about saving the cargo types for each ship as the player's campaign progresses. This just might work. The next step is determining how to link the saved cargo types to the current campaign so that things work properly if the player starts a new campaign.

Edit: Maybe I'll just use the player name to link things. If the player doesn't change their name when starting a new campaign the last campaign file gets replaced.

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by General Tso

I'd appreciate some info on the following.

1. I noticed that the .mis files have CargoExt and CargoInt entries for ships. I'm guessing that the numerical values for these fields indicate a cargo type with -1 meaning no cargo. Could somebody tell me what the actual cargo types are for each number value?

2. Is there a way to get the cargo type for each ship sunk from the save game files? While I looked at these files and couldn't find anything, I'm hoping that I missed something and somebody can point it out to me.

To answer the first part of your question:

0=Freight (no effect)
1=Ammo (explosive)
2=Fuel (explosive)

im just guessing to the use of the (-) here but the -1 you refered to may indicate:


-1 = ammo stored below deck/waterline

and

1 = ammo stored above deck/waterline

[General Tso]

iambecomelife:
Thanks for the info.

Webster:
I'm just guessing myself but I think that CargoExt is for external cargo and CargoInt is for internal cargo.

Originally Posted by General Tso

iambecomelife:
Thanks for the info.

Webster:
I'm just guessing myself but I think that CargoExt is for external cargo and CargoInt is for internal cargo.

yes i agree but that "-" is there to signify something (or maybe not)

im thinking it could be something to do with how the destroyed interior cargo might effect flooding or floatation if it were above or below the waterline

[General Tso]

I think that -1 indicates no cargo. All of the warships that I looked at have cargo values of -1 while most of the cargo ships do not. -1 is often use in programing to indicate "no valid value".