[REL] Merchant Fleet Mod for Silent Hunter 3

[Laffertytig]

fantastic matey, that sure did the trick

got another mod question. are all the mast heights and ship lengths correct in this mod for manual targetting? ive installed the OLC mod which recommends using the tribute to maual targetting mod.

is that really necessary?

[Reece]

Originally Posted by pickinthebanjo

Yeah same here, by the way what's your system specs?

Sorry I missed this!
Win XP Pro
4Gb Kingston HyperX ram
Asus M3A32-MVP motherboard
AMD Phenom II X2 550 BE CPU
HIS HD 4850 Turbo 512mb GPU card

[Reece]

@ Laffertytig, most of these ships are covered by Ricks rec manual sil tga files (another mod), I'm sure they are correct!

[Seminole]

Originally Posted by Laffertytig

fantastic matey, that sure did the trick

got another mod question. are all the mast heights and ship lengths correct in this mod for manual targetting? ive installed the OLC mod which recommends using the tribute to maual targetting mod.

is that really necessary?

I've been using this mod quite a bit for the last week or so and I have not had any problems with the mast heights. The stadimeter is as accurate with these ships as it ever was .

One thing though...I did have to turn Weapons Officer Assistance back on.I have to use him to ID the ships now. Otherwise it is very difficult to make a positive ID on these new ships before they sail away over the horizon, leaving you puzzling over what was that beautiful merchantman you just saw........theres just too many of them to go leafing through the Rec. Manual yourself.....

[stoppro]

hello reese just a quick one ? would win xp 64 require that 4gb file exe you linked to?

[Reece]

Originally Posted by stoppro

hello reese just a quick one ? would win xp 64 require that 4gb file exe you linked to?

Yes, I believe that it is the same as Win 7 64 bit.
If you edit the boot.ini file in Win XP 32 bit you still have to edit the sh3.exe file to use the extra 1Gb memory otherwise SH3 will only use 2Gb, not that I recommend doing this with XP.

[Laffertytig]

Originally Posted by stoppro

hello reese just a quick one ? would win xp 64 require that 4gb file exe you linked to?

a huge resounding yes to that question ive not ran a campaign yet do i dunno how stable its gonna be but at least it loads now.

[stoppro]

I understand just checking thanks

[Seminole]

Originally Posted by Reece

In Win 7 64 bit you still have to edit/patch the sh3.exe file, stock only uses 2gb, editing will allow it to use 4gb.
Edit: If you want a 4gb patched sh3.exe file you can get it here:
http://www.filefront.com/16964861/4gb-sh3.exe-file.rar/

I applied this patch and starting the sim with it I saw no difference while playing out a patrol....but what the hey. It didn't hurt anything either. Thats always a positive.

I do have a question though. If you apply this patch and then start the sim using SH Commander....will you still get the ability for SHIII to use 4 megs of memory?....or does the JS Commander continue using the stock SHIII.exe to start her up?..or does SHIII Commander just use whichever SHIII.exe you have installed?

[Reece]

Originally Posted by Seminole

I applied this patch and starting the sim with it I saw no difference while playing out a patrol....but what the hey. It didn't hurt anything either. Thats always a positive.

I do have a question though. If you apply this patch and then start the sim using SH Commander....will you still get the ability for SHIII to use 4 megs of memory?....or does the JS Commander continue using the stock SHIII.exe to start her up?..or does SHIII Commander just use whichever SHIII.exe you have installed?

Yes, SH3Commander just sets up file variables for SHIII then sh3.exe is executed. Regarding the memory you will only notice a difference in the amount of mods that can now be added not in performance.

[Seminole]

Then I probably needed it just for the Merchant Mod...as you know..its a whopper....

[Reece]

Originally Posted by Seminole

Then I probably needed it just for the Merchant Mod...as you know..its a whopper....

I couldn't so I selected 50 of them and runs ok, I also can't load either the
Animated Sub Pens or FM Interior let alone both together with full merchant fleet mod!!

[Seminole]

I dislike saying anything that might be considered as negative about this mod because I'm having such great fun with it.

I did however notice one thing that might grate somewhat on the ultra-realism fans.Doesn't really bother me all that much though...

Many of the merchants I have encountered(and sank) from September 1st, 1939 through January 1940 are map marked in Red as legitimate targets...but...they are carrying the colors and markings of neutral states.. Sweden. Greece.Norway.Holland. I sailed past a Norweigan freighter docked in Kiel,marked as a neutral(green), only to encounter(and sink) another Norwegian merchantman,en route to my assigned patrol zone, who showed up on map in Red...

I can't say what happens after January 1940 ..I have not gotten farther that yet.


...and all this makes me wonder if some of the neutral map targets,that I have not gone to intercept, are not in fact British or Polish ships ...though none of the neutrals that I did get a positive ID on turned out to be actual enemy ships.

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Seminole

I dislike saying anything that might be considered as negative about this mod because I'm having such great fun with it.

I did however notice one thing that might grate somewhat on the ultra-realism fans.Doesn't really bother me all that much though...

Many of the merchants I have encountered(and sank) from September 1st, 1939 through January 1940 are map marked in Red as legitimate targets...but...they are carrying the colors and markings of neutral states.. Sweden. Greece.Norway.Holland. I sailed past a Norweigan freighter docked in Kiel,marked as a neutral(green), only to encounter(and sink) another Norwegian merchantman,en route to my assigned patrol zone, who showed up on map in Red...

I can't say what happens after January 1940 ..I have not gotten farther that yet.


...and all this makes me wonder if some of the neutral map targets,that I have not gone to intercept, are not in fact British or Polish ships ...though none of the neutrals that I did get a positive ID on turned out to be actual enemy ships.

This mod requires you as commander to decide if a neutral is a legitimate target. this parallels the situation they were faced with in real life. A Swedish freighter might operate under German escort in an iron ore convoy from Narvik to Germany - it might well later be used to transport military supplies from Canada to the UK in a British convoy. If you check uboat.net you will find that dozens if not hundreds of neutral ships were sunk by the U-Boats because they were carrying contraband, sailing in British convoys, or operating around the British Isles.

In addition, some of the friendly ships with neutral hull flags may be considered German blockade runners. To avoid being challenged by British warships, German freighters had materials on board for camoflaging themselves as neutrals - sometimes several times in a single voyage.

The skin packs are designed to phase out neutral markings for countries like Belgium and Norway as time goes on, if you use them on the dates suggested. However, there will always be some situations where you have to take into account deck cargo, vessel behavior, location, etc to determine whether or not an attack is permitted.

This is another reason why I recommend using a mod that grays out all of the contacts, so that you actually have to approach a ship instead of knowing instantly if it's friend or foe.

[Seminole]

Lets see...if I played with all gray markings and investigated every report F,E,or N.......nah...the wife would kill me.......'cause I would be playing 24/7 I think....