[REL] Trigger Maru 1.7.6 (Updated 24Jan08)

[Frederf]

Love TM1.4. Just a few oddities:

1. Dutch Harbor has a japanese airbase!? (Dec 42)
2. No hydrophones above 40'?
3. Placement West of Pearl/ IDL not needed for people on 100% realism. 2 versions?
4. Feeling less than 100% happy about the radar work around, any other way?

I would suggest that the accurately sized sun and moon be incorporated into "TM1.5" as it's a no-brainer and easy to add. Once the glitches are worked out of the Realisitc Sinking Physics mod I'd say that is a no-brainer addition as well. Also if you could find or convince someone to update the recognition manual with lengths and armaments, etc, or at least a different bar-scale at the bottom (more, smaller bars) that would be much appreciated. Also splitting the merchant book into "most likely enemy" and "most likely friendly/ not gunna see" might be helpful too. If you can get key binds to cycling manual pages then you would truely be godlike.

Oh and once manual navigation becomes feasable I would ask you have a version that doesn't have the submarine circle and disabled ctrl-left click, for us true masocists.

I'm sure you're looking at the new scene.dat improvements.

If there are many versions of the Mk14 torpedo (improvement, bug fixes) throughout history it would be really cool to have Mk14, Mk14A, Mk14B, etc versions become available in limited numbers (heck even having only a few shiny new WORKING ones at first introduction) as history dictates would be awesome. I'm sure any real skipper would know what revision each of his torps was. If I'm not mistaken they are all labeled "Mk14" despite several different performance profiles all given the same name.

Once a real campaign layer comes out I wouldn't mind you including that either. I mean fun's fun but who wants to be stuck between 3 convoys inside 30nm? (Happened to me on stock layer) Kinda kills the joy.

Maybe reduce the radius on the sub tenders so you actually have to drive up to them.

I like the slower reloading deck gun. Keep an eye out for realism oriented deck gun mods. I think you may have over done it with the left-right accuracy. Seems to me that missing too much/not enough elevation would be one's primary concern at sea. Again I understand that it's there to keep us from becomming little battleships and you're right on.

Also consider adding a new ammo type to AA guns with 0 rounds just for the ability to always reload a fresh magazine into the gun without having to waste the old stuff. If all AA guns in the game have HE/AP then this won't be a problem (unless you can't switch to a round type with no more left?). I'd consider having a "safety" round type but I think the AI would just switch from any type with 0 rounds to a type with some ammo left so no real benefit. Sometimes it's hard to get those deck gun jockeys from shooting those last 3 rounds

I'll keep my eye out for more suggestions and look for bugs. (only obvious thing I saw was the enemy airbase in Alaska).

[Dave]

I have downloaded and installed TM but i do not seem to have any indication on the start up screen that it has changed anything. Is this correct, i still get the movie

Thanks
Dave

[tater]

Originally Posted by Don cossack

Hi ,

Has someone experienced a CTD when launching the "against all odds " mission with
TM 1.4 actived. (CTD occured during loading screen)
In fact with only the GFX part is active, no pb.

Hope this help
Brgds
Don Cossack

It's just that any single mission with a subchaser or minesweeper will CTD because I changed their types from patrol craft and minesweeper to "corvette."

I can up a stand alone mod that will change them so they match TM.

Oh, if you only had the GFX on, then it must be different.

Only missions 07 and 087 were problems that I knew.

[tater]

This is a different set of missions (07 and 08), but here you go:

http://www.mediafire.com/?8yyymuttdtc

[Marko_Ramius]

Hi Ducimus,

I didn't test "Real Sinking Physics", but it seems a lot promising IMO, so have it in TM would be maybe some great addition.

[Huchel]

Just an FYI, I started getting a CTD when starting the game with TM installed along with some other mods. I reinstalled the game, patched, and tried again and was still getting the CTD. I played around and narrowed the problem down to TM, the main mod and not the gfx one. Turns out I had recently updated my codecs and they were hanging up on playing the 0 byte movie files that TM uses to bypass the intro movies. I restored those back to default and it works fine again. Obviously this isn't a huge hassle, but if anyone is having similar problems, it's something to check into.

Also, this is listed as a known issue on the front page.

[USS_Mustang]

Please help me. I'm a complete moron when it comes to installing all these feature packages. How do I do it? I want better game play.

Thanks!

Manny

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Huchel

Just an FYI, I started getting a CTD when starting the game with TM installed along with some other mods. I reinstalled the game, patched, and tried again and was still getting the CTD. I played around and narrowed the problem down to TM, the main mod and not the gfx one. Turns out I had recently updated my codecs and they were hanging up on playing the 0 byte movie files that TM uses to bypass the intro movies. I restored those back to default and it works fine again. Obviously this isn't a huge hassle, but if anyone is having similar problems, it's something to check into.

Known, issue, and was posted as such.

From the first page:

Compatiblity & known issues:

- You must be in port (not at sea) before enabling this mod.
- For some uses the 0kb movie files cause crashes at game startup. If your game crash's, remove those files from this mod.
- Due to extensive file changes, this mod is not compatible with any other large mod package.
- This mod is NOT compatiable with ANY mod that tries to alter the AI behavior.
- 50 cal machine gun has limited arc of fire. (consider it a novelty item)
- AI german Uboat does not have a proper wake, nor do damage decals display correctly.

[Ducimus]

Just FYI, having been innundated with innane requests over the course of time, ive decided that in TMaru 1.5, i am going to combine all the optional mods into a mini mod pack that will be found in the support directory that will designed to be overlayed on top of TMaru 1.5. It will be called "Tmaru EZ MODE". stock fuel, no nomograph, no contact map mod, dumber then rocks AI, etc etc. Realism scores will reflect this.

At its core, TMaru has always been and will always be designed for the more seasoned sub simmer in mind who knows how to attack and evade, and expects his or her skills in submarine simulations to be put to the test on more then a couple occasions. As tempting as it is to dumbdown the core mod so people stop complainng about the AI, or stop ask me "how do i undo this?" even though ive posted how to a dozen times or what not, im not going to do it. Hence, the EZ mode optional mod!

[Palidian]

So is it ok to give an unrealistic detection ability, IE cheat, to make up for poor tactics?

Originally Posted by tater

You are confusing what is possible to mod, and what is not.

AI behavior is a combination of hard coded stuff that is a black box to us, some cfg settings that are specifically behavior modifications (time to remain looking before they break off, etc---very few of these), and detections as it informs AI "decision making."

The AI behavior is very much driven by the arbitrary set up of the detection parameters. Sure, the down angle of a sonar might be a fact we could possibly research, or even the connection between surface area and detection probability, but the "sensitivity" setting? It's made up. Many of the setting are for tweaking the AI since thei behaviors are hard coded to react a certain way to certain stimuli. The detection rules define the stimuli. It's our only way to mod the AI behavior.

tater

[Palidian]

This is why I believe it would be better to make several small mods then one large mod. Then people can pick and choose.

Originally Posted by Ducimus

Just FYI, having been innundated with innane requests over the course of time, ive decided that in TMaru 1.5, i am going to combine all the optional mods into a mini mod pack that will be found in the support directory that will designed to be overlayed on top of TMaru 1.5. It will be called "Tmaru EZ MODE". stock fuel, no nomograph, no contact map mod, dumber then rocks AI, etc etc. Realism scores will reflect this.

At its core, TMaru has always been and will always be designed for the more seasoned sub simmer in mind who knows how to attack and evade, and expects his or her skills in submarine simulations to be put to the test on more then a couple occasions. As tempting as it is to dumbdown the core mod so people stop complainng about the AI, or stop ask me "how do i undo this?" even though ive posted how to a dozen times or what not, im not going to do it. Hence, the EZ mode optional mod!

[Ducimus]

I can't be all things to all people. Ultimatley you can choose to use this modpack, or not to. You have that choice. You can also choose, given the resources available on this forum, create your own modpack, or choose to run single individual mods. Creating those choices however, is really not my, or anyone elses, responsiblity or mandate.

[tater]

Originally Posted by Palidian

So is it ok to give an unrealistic detection ability, IE cheat, to make up for poor tactics?

The short answer is "yes."

I think you miss the point, however. My point was that the way the AI actually behaves, the actual "AI" and not the sensors, etc, is a black box to us. The code takes certain inputs--which we do have control over---and reacts to them as the hidden (to us) code tells them to. We can observe the way they behave under different conditions, however.

Then, by tweaking things like the sensors---which contain some variables that are arbitrary and are used to balance them in terms of gameplay---we can exercise a modicum of control over the AI.

The arbitrary variables are particularly interesting to look at. Things like the time to lose contact. Utterly arbitrary what value you pick. Sensitivity values are also arbitrary (they need to be tweaked to provide realistic outcomes). Other stuff like the angle down a sonar can ping, that's NOT arbitrary, but the data is likely pretty thin to give it an actual value.

Imagine you are the AI. You have certain hard rules, and maybe some probabilistic options. If X, then Y. If A, then 50% of the time do B, 20% do C, 20% do D, 10% do E. That sort of thing. If we can tweak what values get plugged in for X and A (or how often, whatever), we have SOME control of the reaction of the AI even if the 2 routines are impossible to change.

tater

[R Hardman]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

I can't be all things to all people. Ultimatley you can choose to use this modpack, or not to. You have that choice. You can also choose, given the resources available on this forum, create your own modpack, or choose to run single individual mods. Creating those choices however, is really not my, or anyone elses, responsiblity or mandate.

My choice is this modpack as intended. It's brilliant.

[Archie]

Originally Posted by R Hardman

My choice is this modpack as intended. It's brilliant.

Hear, hear