[REL]The Wolves of Steel - SH5 Megamod

[vdr1981]

v 2.2.23 Changelog:

- New addon - YellowSubmarine's "New Sextant", which adds universal time for in-game sextant and set of corrections for celestial objects, for full celestial navigation in SH5. Note that the New Sextant will appear in your JSGME only after you enable regular "Real Navigation" addon.
- Added set of Alpheratz's dedicated nautical almanacs and tables which will finally make a dream of full celestial navigation in SH5 world, using Sun and stars, possible! Also, added document with link for Alpheratz's high quality video tutorials on his YT channel, which will allow that even casual SH5 players master this form of art quite easily and without much effort. Huge Thanks for Alpheratz! Subscribe on his channel and support his work! For more info check TWoS Documentation folder/Real Navigation section.
- Added missing R01 radar nodes for destroyers and frigates. All intended ships will now be able to use assigned radar equipment at designated date span. Thanks to Kapuhy for noticing this.
- Added Kapuhy's Captain Class Frigates to the British ship rooster!
- Removed mid/late war escorts ability to detect surfaced contacts with their hydrophones. They can now only detect surfaced submarine visually or by radar. Only the most modern hydrophones available near the end of the war and on very few escort types will keep partial ability to detect surfaced contacts.
- Watch officer's "Stop reporting visual contacts" ability duration increased to 1 hour for easier transition form coastal waters to open seas with less TC drops. (In your current campaign duration will still remain 30 min until campaign restart or new sub offer from BdU, even though in dialog menu it'll be shown "1 hour").
- Reorganized composition of some late war convoys in order to avoid occasional appearance of neutral illuminated ships in them.
- Removed American escorts and majority of cargo ships from early Mediterranean GM (Gibraltar to Malta) convoys. Possibility of occasional appearance of American tankers still remains though...
- Completely reorganized units skill settings trough out the entire war period in all campaign chapters, varying from average/competent at the beginning, to the veteran/elite near the end of the war.
- Reduced number of assigned escorts in few late war convoys with extreme number of destroyers in order to reduce FPS impact on the game.
- Added few missing encrypted BdU orders base transfer messages.
- Added Encrypted BdU Orders support for two more campaign chapters, Arctic Convoys and The Black Pit.
- Added patrol radius and time duration data for secondary "intercept" missions in the campaign. Hopefully, this should solve the confusion commonly involved around these type of missions...
- Fixed few broken "spy/commando team deliverance" missions from Arctic Convoys campaign chapter.
- Reduced max appearance range for important radio contacts (convoys and taskforces) to 2000 km with map hold time of 24h and for opportunity radio contacts (individual ships and port radio beacons) to 500km with map hold time of 6 h. These settings should significantly reduce annoying TC drops on open ocean when radio contact is in 40km range.
- Few Options File Editor/Viewer tweaks: TC drop on sub sensors contact detection increased from 30 to 40 km (useful for hydro hunt of incoming convoy), increased range and possibility that BdU will send ("yellow") contact report if opportunity radio contact is spotted in your vicinity (within 200km - 80% of chances, previously 160km-70%) - (To activate the changes run "Restore Stock OFEV Settings.bat" found in "The Wolves of Steel - Documentation" folder).
- Added "preview" images to optional addons, small tutorial with pictures for "casual" Real Navigation ect.
- Reduced overall game saturation by 10-15% for less "cheerful" atmosphere.
- Slightly increased Sun/Moon size for more realistic appearance and easier sextant measurements.
- Removed some of the irrelevant in-game charts (ship posters) in order to make space for Alpheratz's celstial navigation tables.
- Short Sunderland model as proxy for Italian z-501 Gabbiano flying boat had been replaced by German Bv-138.
- Two new names on TWoS deserving modders in-game credits list: Alpheratz and YellowSubmarine! Welcome on board Captains!
- Updated TWoS credits page! Special thanks to the latest outstanding TWoS supporters/donors who are making this expansion to keep going: Slaven "Ypsan" Caleta, Robert Hancak, Alexander Sosenko, Alan Brazier, Christopher Kelley, Michael Von Franck, Thomas "excel4004" Pentenrieder and Andreas Ferkaljuk - Thank You very much Captains and happy hunting!

Download links in my signature...

Happy hunting!

[Tonci87]

Wow, congratulation on the update!

Now all the game needs is my opinion this:

1: Better AI for planes. For example, planes should drop their bombs on the position where the submarine submerged. Now you are safe once you get below the surface. Planes on a bomb run will immediately abort the run once the submarine has submerged.

2. Better AI for ships. While I was still playing my campaign I noticed that convoys almost always travel in a straight line. There is no zig zag movement, unless you have been detected. This makes it very easy to set up near perfect shots. Also Destroyers stay within the formation as long as you have not been detected. They do not sweep ahead or to the sides.
Unfortunately this makes most engagements play the same way. Predictable

Id say these points are the main reasons preventing me from starting a new campaign in SH5 at the moment.

I know, doing something about the AI is very difficult, but it has been done in the past. SH3 with GWX unfortunately has better AI than what we see now in SH5 + TWOS.

[Muckenberg]

Good day
thank you for updating. It's great that you repaired US Navy ships in the Mediterranean.
I have a question about the port of Toulon. To one of my questions, he answered that it should not be a problem to entrust port security to the French Navy. Will you consider this for some next update?
Thank you for answer.

[kapuhy]

Thanks for the update! (and thanks to Alpheratz and YellowSubmarine for sextant addon - I'm totally gonna get lost at sea until I learn celestial navigation on my next playthrough).

One small question: did you change anything in cfg files for airbases between 2.2.22 and 2.2.23?

[fitzcarraldo]

Many thanks for the new update!

First I need to end my actual patrol for see the changes. Now in the South Atlantic...

Best regards.

Fitzcarraldo

[vdr1981]

Originally Posted by kapuhy

One small question: did you change anything in cfg files for airbases between 2.2.22 and 2.2.23?

Negative...v2.2.22 deals with airbases cfg files.

[vdr1981]

Originally Posted by Tonci87

Wow, congratulation on the update!

Now all the game needs is my opinion this:

1: Better AI for planes. For example, planes should drop their bombs on the position where the submarine submerged. Now you are safe once you get below the surface. Planes on a bomb run will immediately abort the run once the submarine has submerged.

I can not agree more. I once asked TDW pretty much the same question but all he said is that there isn't much space for planes AI improvements. Yes, planes are quite dumb when it comes to bombs BUT, when they got rockets in later campaigns it's a completely different story IMO. I commonly get sunk on my first patrol when testing late war campaigns...

2. Better AI for ships. While I was still playing my campaign I noticed that convoys almost always travel in a straight line. There is no zig zag movement, unless you have been detected. This makes it very easy to set up near perfect shots.

This is not entirely true. Here's few examples how convoys constantly change their course, which can make most of the radio reports from BdU unusable...



As you can see, I wouldn't call it a straight line exactly...

Also Destroyers stay within the formation as long as you have not been detected. They do not sweep ahead or to the sides.

This is the case in SH3? I never noticed that...

SH3 with GWX unfortunately has better AI than what we see now in SH5 + TWOS.

I don't know, this is a subject for wider discussion. I found SH3 destroyers to be much more predictable and somehow all the same. I remember that one of the main tactics to avoid destroyer attack in SH 3/4 was so called "down a throat shoot from stern tube" (or something like that). Although quite ridiculous IMO, it become something like legitimate tactics in previous SH titles...Yes, IRAI isn't perfect but it has it's advantages...Same goes for SH5+TWoS, but you already know that!

Id say these points are the main reasons preventing me from starting a new campaign in SH5 at the moment.

And I'd say that only learning celestial navigation using Alpheratz's video tutorials is reason enough to start new campaign...

[vdr1981]

Originally Posted by Muckenberg

I have a question about the port of Toulon. To one of my questions, he answered that it should not be a problem to entrust port security to the French Navy. Will you consider this for some next update?
Thank you for answer.

Yes...I didn't have time to do enough research now about composition of the fleet, dates ect...Probably in some of the future updates...

[Tonci87]

Originally Posted by vdr1981

I can not agree more. I once asked TDW pretty much the same question but all he said is that there isn't much space for planes AI improvements. Yes, planes are quite dumb when it comes to bombs BUT, when they got rockets in later campaigns it's a completely different story IMO. I commonly get sunk on my first patrol when testing late war campaigns...

Yes, rockets are very deadly, but mostly because your crew calls out the target very late if the sky isn´t completely clear.

This is not entirely true. Here's few examples how convoys constantly change their course, which can make most of the radio reports from BdU unusable...



As you can see, I wouldn't call it a straight line exactly...

I mean, once you have them in your sight. It becomes kind of repetitive. Destroyers around the convoy, always in kind of the same formation, no evasive or preemptive movements unless you have been spotted, etc...
Even if you attack a convoy, they will go back to their previous movement pattern after some time.

I don't know, this is a subject for wider discussion. I found SH3 destroyers to be much more predictable and somehow all the same. I remember that one of the main tactics to avoid destroyer attack in SH 3/4 was so called "down a throat shoot from stern tube" (or something like that). Although quite ridiculous IMO, it become something like legitimate tactics in previous SH titles...Yes, IRAI isn't perfect but it has it's advantages...Same goes for SH5+TWoS, but you already know that!

The down the throat shot is a valid tactic, that was used IRL

And I'd say that only learning celestial navigation using Alpheratz's video tutorials is reason enough to start new campaign...

That is indeed tempting.

[gap]

Originally Posted by Tonci87

1: Better AI for planes. For example, planes should drop their bombs on the position where the submarine submerged. Now you are safe once you get below the surface. Planes on a bomb run will immediately abort the run once the submarine has submerged.

That's a pity. I have accurate models and detailed information on US and British airborne depth charges, but apparently due to the AI limitation that you pointed out, in SH5 they will be of little use

[Tonci87]

Just a very wild idea here. Would it be possible to create a invisible dummy target on the surface at the players position once he gets detected by airplanes? And then the planes could drop on that?

[Muckenberg]

Originally Posted by vdr1981

Yes...I didn't have time to do enough research now about composition of the fleet, dates ect...Probably in some of the future updates...

Thank you for answer.
At what time period would you like the composition of the French fleet in the Mediterranean?
I could look in my books and write the different types and names of French ships.
Would November 1942, for example, suffice?

[skin-nl]

Thanks for the update Vecko

[gap]

Originally Posted by Tonci87

Just a very wild idea here. Would it be possible to create a invisible dummy target on the surface at the players position once he gets detected by airplanes? And then the planes could drop on that?

mmm... spawning simple 3D objects or even shells, bombs or torpedoes by means of any controller with a particle effect bound to it, is well doable. Nonetheless, under many respects, "unit" objects are different from other objects if only because the game keeps track of them, even when they are outside rendering radius, not to mention the fact that they need some properties to be assigned like speed, direction, veterancy level, nationality, n.k. The game engine might crash whlle trying to spawn an unit as if it was a simple particle but, even if it worked, I see other problems.

- One or more "dummy units" would spawn every time the U-boat submerges. After a while the ocean would be full them. What would be their destiny?

- When you think you are invisible under the water surface, those units might give up our position not only to aircraft but also to surface eneny units.

- Due to AI limitations, any unit can only have one enemy target at any given time. When an enemy aircraft is on an attack run against us, it has our boat as its target. If we submerge and another unit spawns in place of our boat, the switch of target might not be immediate. The aircraft might abort its initial dive, re-align and the attack the enemy unit, giving us the time to dive anyway.


With the above considerations in mind, I am not saying that your idea is totally unfeasible, but its implementation might be (much) more complicated than you can think

[SixthFall]

Hey everyone! Love the mod, but I was wondering if there is a way to make the UI larger? I play on a 65 inch 4k tv and the UI is so small it's basically un readable. I did do some searching and couldn't find anything. Thanks guys!