[REL] Increased ASW

After unzipping, place the increased ASW mod in the MODS folder of your SHIII directory. You must be running SHIII with the 1.4 patch and with GWX 2.0. The increased ASW mod was designed for use with GWX 2.0 and has not been tested with any other installation and probably will not work with them. The recommended installation method for the increased ASW mod is to use JSGME. Otherwise, back up your data folder, copy the mod files and paste them in their appropriate folders. Do NOT install this mod mid-patrol. You must first exit SHIII completely before enabling/installing this mod.

I've tried to keep this as historical/realistic as possible, yet also add a bit of additional 'thrill'. The changes made fall into two categories: Air and Sea.

Air:

1) setting all bombs so that they detonate when they impact the water, or just below.

2) setting the air depth charges to detonate at 9 meters (which isn't exactly historic, I'll admit; from what I've been able to research 7.9 meters seems to be the 'normal' depth setting, although I've only been able to find the tech details for British air depth charges so far).

3) setting the 'explosiveness' of air depth charges to match up to the weight of explosives they normally carried.

4) setting the sink rate of air depth charges to match the historical sink rates.
5) modified the Catalina, Sunderland, Wellington, select Liberator and select Fortress aircraft with ASW loadouts.

6) changed the Campaign_RND.mis and Campaign_SCR files so that theabovementioned aircraft carry the ASW loadouts (where appropriate).

7) ASW patrol aircraft now have the potential of spotting a submerged U-boat running at periscope depth. Their chances of spotting a U-boat and/or maintaining visual contact depends on several factors: day versus night, wind speed/weather conditions, clear versus foggy, whether they've already visually spotted the U-boat before it submerged, etc.

Basically, if you spot an aircraft at long range and dive right away you should be fine. If you delay diving you may wind up being bracketed with bombs going off on the surface above you and air depth charges going off below water *around* you. And if you get bushwacked and jumped (say, at night, or in a storm) and you get caught on the *surface*, well . . . . .

Sea:

Most British DDs and DEs begin carrying the Mark VII heavy depth charges starting September 1942. The Mark VII heavy had a somewhat improved sink rate from the addition of lead to the depth charge.

US DDs and DEs begin carrying the Mark 9 'fast sinker' depth charge starting June 1943. Designed to sink fast and detonate at up to 1000 feet, the Mark 9 was aerodynamically shaped, lead-weighted and finned. The lead weight and teardrop shape more than doubled its sink rate, while the fins spun it for stabilization while it sank and also produced a more reliable sink rate resulting in predictable depth charge patterns. Unfortunately I wasn't able to decrease its horizontal 'wandering' so I tightened the vertical as a compensation of sorts. And, of course, the Mark 9 actually *looks* like a Mark 9!

I'd like to thank the GWX team for providing such a wonderful expansion mod. I would have stopped playing SHIII long ago if it hadn't been for their work.

Thanks and credit:

skwasjer; without his wonderful Silent 3ditor I'd never have managed (or attempted!) to do any of this!

Kpt. Lehmann for permission to release modified GWX files

And special thanks and credit to: fury of a seraph; the Mark 9 graphics are entirely his work.

Feedback, comments and critiques are always appreciated!

~Albrecht von Hesse
albrecht_von_hesse@yahoo.com

http://hosted.filefront.com/vonHesse/
http://files.filefront.com/Increased.../fileinfo.html

The Mark 9:

[Graf Paper]

I hate you AvH! Making life harder for us Kaleuns! :p

Downloading and installing this one right away!

[Tomcattwo]

AvH, as these files affect Campaign_RND.mis and Campaign_SCR.mis, both of which I think are affected by Real Weather Fix 2 (RWF), I am assuming I must install this before anything that modifies scene.dat that I intend to fix using RWF, and then modify with RWF using your new files - is that correct?
R/
TC2

Originally Posted by Tomcattwo

AvH, as these files affect Campaign_RND.mis and Campaign_SCR.mis, both of which I think are affected by Real Weather Fix 2 (RWF), I am assuming I must install this before anything that modifies scene.dat that I intend to fix using RWF, and then modify with RWF using your new files - is that correct?
R/
TC2

Errrr . . . I'm not sure. As I'd said, I haven't tested this with any other non-GWX mod, so I've no idea what the result might be. The increased ASW mod doesn't effect scene.dat if that helps any. However, if the RWF mod replaces the Campaign_RND.mis and Campaign_SCR.mis files instead of selectibly modifying them, then there will be a problem.

The only change the increased ASW mod makes in the Campaign_RND.mis and Campaign_SCR.mis files are replacing the ordnance loadouts in some of the aircraft to ASW loadouts. If another mod overwrites the Campaign_RND.mis and Campaign_SCR.mis files then those changes will, of course, be lost. That should have only a minor impact to the increased ASW mod; all the ASW loadouts do is give the aircraft (that seemed to me, anyway ) assigned to ASW patrols a mixed ordnance of bombs and air depth charges. The loadouts assigned them from the stock GWX files were straight air depth charges.

If I had to pick an answer I'd say installing the increased ASW mod should be done first and then fix what you wish to fix with RWF. Let me know how it works if you try it, please.

Will this mod need to be changed or updated when GWX 2.1 is released?

[Fury of a Seraph]

Despite the array of setbacks and "head-smack-Duhs" we encountered, it was fun.
Glad you folks like it.

[Subtype Zero]

Very cool mod, von Hesse--but I am too afraid to use it!

[Kaleu. Jochen Mohr]

MORE FUN!

Is this compatible with GWX 2.1 ?

[xristoskaiti]

yes they is. look at in the file mods. install with JSGME

[A6Intruder]

Which kind of campain files did you use? I use campain files from Bigboywooly with AA ships of iambecomelive integrated. This will be gone if i use your mod? Does`t it?
Kind regards

[Phoenix3000]

Hi Albrecht,

I installed your mod earlier and assume it doesn't conflict with GWX2.1, OLC's Ubermod (Scene part), Water Stream etc. etc. No errors appeared when enabling via JSGME, so hopefully it's OK.

I took it for a test run on some of the single missions, and all I can say is I survived one mission only

The destroyers kept finding me, no matter what I did - at one point a Catalina providing air-support for a convoy got a full spread around me and sent me sinking!!

This has certainly made the hunting harder, and I've only tried this up to 1942.... can't imagine I will survive much longer when I start a patrol

Good work there mate!

Px3000