Weather = Seriously Bugged?

Spunky48 · 01-06-10, 10:34 PM

Ok, so how is it that this weather report can possibly remain exactly the same throughout almost my entire patrol:

Clouds Overcast, Precipitations Medium, Fog Heavy, Wind Speed 15 meters, Direction 221.

I ignored it for a while because I figured it would go away by the time I had to sink a ship. But no, 15 minutes later when I've found a ship to sink, I'm all lined up, ready to fire my torp as soon as I can get a nice lock in the periscope, the ship sails right in front of me. Because there was so much fog, I couldn't see a giant C2 cargo vessel right in front of me. Is there some patch or mod that fixes the ****ty weather? I'd rather not turn it off altogether if I don't have to, but that's an option as well if there's no other way to fix this.

Blacklight · 01-06-10, 11:09 PM

The weather model for SHIII is broken. The weather tends to get "stuck", usually with high wind, storm, rain, etc..
This is in the stock program and is un-moddable. I believe the latest version of GWX makes the weather a little more random, but nothing is going to be able to TOTALLY fix the problem.

We HAVE discovered a bit of a workaround. We noticed that the weather tends to change roughly every three days of game time. Saving the game, and then reloading it, resets this "timer". So, if say, you're sailing and the weather is perfect with no wind, you save the game when you're out there for two days, and then you exit, and reload your saved game, the timer will reset, giving you another three days of game time of the same weather you had when you saved. This is by no means a 100% as the weather timer DOES vary some for when it changes the weather. Especially the closer you are toward the equator where it changes the weather more frequently.

Hope this helps. Maybe some others have some other suggestions as well.

Also, if you don't know about it, ALWAYS save while surfaced. There is a major bug that will cause you to plunge to the bottom of the ocean when you restart if you save while under water. Also, if you're using the GWX mod, don't save anywhere near a base as it will cause all the ships in the base to crash and burn when you restart.

Spunky48 · 01-06-10, 11:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blacklight

Also, if you're using the GWX mod, don't save anywhere near a base as it will cause all the ships in the base to crash and burn when you restart.

This is a bad thing how? :P

I'm not using any mods though.

Edit: Is it also bugged in Silent Hunter 4?

Dissaray · 01-07-10, 12:03 AM

One thing I have read here on these forums and seen in game is that the weather tends to get stuck less often when when you keep the time compresion no higher than 128. This will also make encounters with the enemy more frequent it seems.

Kpt. Lehmann · 01-07-10, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blacklight

Also, if you're using the GWX mod, don't save anywhere near a base as it will cause all the ships in the base to crash and burn when you restart.

You are incorrect, matey. What you have described in the quote above is a stock SH3 problem and has nothing to do with GWX. The above quoted problem is common regardless of the mod used.

Saving near any campaign scripted or random layer AI unit in SH3 will cause it to lose its waypoints and travel in a straight line.

Blacklight · 01-07-10, 02:09 AM

Quote:

One thing I have read here on these forums and seen in game is that the weather tends to get stuck less often when when you keep the time compresion no higher than 128. This will also make encounters with the enemy more frequent it seems.

This is true. You definitely do get more contacts that way.

Steel_Tomb · 01-07-10, 05:42 AM

Que the obligatory "It's been stormin' for three months!!!!" lol.

Weather is a bit strange in SHIII, but there is nothing we can do about it really

.

Red Heat · 01-07-10, 07:39 AM

My aproach to the game i consider heavy heather a true ally...except the the heavy fog in some aproaches like in the earlier of the war...because with out radar its very dificult to follow a contact at the surface!

Magic1111 · 01-08-10, 05:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spunky48

Ok, so how is it that this weather report can possibly remain exactly the same throughout almost my entire patrol:

Clouds Overcast, Precipitations Medium, Fog Heavy, Wind Speed 15 meters, Direction 221.

I ignored it for a while because I figured it would go away by the time I had to sink a ship. But no, 15 minutes later when I've found a ship to sink, I'm all lined up, ready to fire my torp as soon as I can get a nice lock in the periscope, the ship sails right in front of me. Because there was so much fog, I couldn't see a giant C2 cargo vessel right in front of me. Is there some patch or mod that fixes the ****ty weather? I'd rather not turn it off altogether if I don't have to, but that's an option as well if there's no other way to fix this.

Hello !

You can use the "RealWeatherFix", look here:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...ght=weather:up:

Best regards,
Magic

urfisch · 01-08-10, 06:11 AM

the realweather-fix just fixes the bad weather problem,but not the problem itself. i also had good weather for weeks...so the former posters are right: the weather often gets stuck. only if you change your location over far distances, e.g. from the northern sea bay into the northern parts around england, or even higher into the north, the weather changes.

seems, as if weather acts for different zones, instead of different seasons, etc...

PappyCain · 01-10-10, 08:06 PM

Call me daft. Call me wingy. Call me whatever! But I love the weather. I never had it "stucK' in an endless loop. Dunno why. Maybe lucky, although I have logged a billion hours at sea. Maybe I just like whatever conditions are thrown at me when on a patrol. Fog is a great challenge as is a heavy sea when one has to manage the boat well. With good boat management and changing the course to ride out a sea is fun. Immersive. But honestly mates I have never seen an inordinate amount of heavy weather that did not eventually abate. Sort of like RL in the North Atlantic. Hmmmm.

S'
PC

GlassTrain · 01-13-10, 07:38 PM

Hitman, the suggestion on using Silent editor is awesome! I don't mind the stock campaign weather, but having the flexibility to 'set' the weather is nice!

Couple of questions....

1. How do I set the clouds to something other than 'partial' in the file? With the controller set to true, all I get are partial clouds.

2. Does the scene.dat file control the hours of day/night in the game? I had a weird problem when I completely reinstalled the game. I never initialized the simulation itself, modified the scene.dat file first and then started a campaign. The sun was high noon at 0500 and the sun came up at 21:30 around St. Nazaire!

It went back to normal when I reset the controller to false (had set it to 'true') and started a new campaign.

Thank you!

Hitman · 01-14-10, 08:57 AM

Quote:

1. How do I set the clouds to something other than 'partial' in the file? With the controller set to true, all I get are partial clouds.

Yes, the controller set to true is good only for a constant good weather and you can't change anything except the wind speed. That's the file you would enable to patrol in the tropics or in the mediterranean in summer.

Quote:

2. Does the scene.dat file control the hours of day/night in the game?

Not AFAIK

OuNiS · 01-31-10, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlassTrain

It went back to normal when I reset the controller to false (had set it to 'true') and started a new campaign.

It happend to me couple of times.
I think that if you set controller to "TRUE" engine set default values of wheater from begining (initialization) of campaign. Probably time is set the same which was at the start of campaign but it is not coherent with time in saved game.
When you start new campaign engine resets all values to default.

flakmonkey · 05-10-10, 06:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spunky48

Ok, so how is it that this weather report can possibly remain exactly the same throughout almost my entire patrol:

Clouds Overcast, Precipitations Medium, Fog Heavy, Wind Speed 15 meters, Direction 221.

I ignored it for a while because I figured it would go away by the time I had to sink a ship. But no, 15 minutes later when I've found a ship to sink, I'm all lined up, ready to fire my torp as soon as I can get a nice lock in the periscope, the ship sails right in front of me. Because there was so much fog, I couldn't see a giant C2 cargo vessel right in front of me. Is there some patch or mod that fixes the ****ty weather? I'd rather not turn it off altogether if I don't have to, but that's an option as well if there's no other way to fix this.

Ignoring the issue of glitchy weather which has already been answered, bad weather need not stop you sinking ships!

For sinking ships in heavy fog, its quite possible to go by sound only, if you can get to within 500m or so of the target`s projected course you should be able to estimate speed and sink the ship using just the hydrophone plot. At such close range any errors in range speed estimations are usually not enough to cause the torpedo to miss.

The only problem is identifying the nationality but its usually a matter of location, if youre just off the english coast its pretty much 100% that it`ll be an enemy ship.

01-06-10, 10:34 PM	#1
Spunky48 Watch Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Kissimmee, FL. Posts: 19 Downloads: 1 Uploads: 0	Weather = Seriously Bugged? Ok, so how is it that this weather report can possibly remain exactly the same throughout almost my entire patrol: Clouds Overcast, Precipitations Medium, Fog Heavy, Wind Speed 15 meters, Direction 221. I ignored it for a while because I figured it would go away by the time I had to sink a ship. But no, 15 minutes later when I've found a ship to sink, I'm all lined up, ready to fire my torp as soon as I can get a nice lock in the periscope, the ship sails right in front of me. Because there was so much fog, I couldn't see a giant C2 cargo vessel right in front of me. Is there some patch or mod that fixes the ****ty weather? I'd rather not turn it off altogether if I don't have to, but that's an option as well if there's no other way to fix this.

01-06-10, 11:09 PM	#2
Blacklight Ocean Warrior Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Connecticut Posts: 2,507 Downloads: 145 Uploads: 0	The weather model for SHIII is broken. The weather tends to get "stuck", usually with high wind, storm, rain, etc.. This is in the stock program and is un-moddable. I believe the latest version of GWX makes the weather a little more random, but nothing is going to be able to TOTALLY fix the problem. We HAVE discovered a bit of a workaround. We noticed that the weather tends to change roughly every three days of game time. Saving the game, and then reloading it, resets this "timer". So, if say, you're sailing and the weather is perfect with no wind, you save the game when you're out there for two days, and then you exit, and reload your saved game, the timer will reset, giving you another three days of game time of the same weather you had when you saved. This is by no means a 100% as the weather timer DOES vary some for when it changes the weather. Especially the closer you are toward the equator where it changes the weather more frequently. Hope this helps. Maybe some others have some other suggestions as well. Also, if you don't know about it, ALWAYS save while surfaced. There is a major bug that will cause you to plunge to the bottom of the ocean when you restart if you save while under water. Also, if you're using the GWX mod, don't save anywhere near a base as it will cause all the ships in the base to crash and burn when you restart. __________________ Be my friend or be a mushroom cloud. "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes !"

01-07-10, 05:42 AM	#7
Steel_Tomb Ace of the Deep Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Cambridgeshire - UK Posts: 1,128 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Que the obligatory "It's been stormin' for three months!!!!" lol. Weather is a bit strange in SHIII, but there is nothing we can do about it really . __________________ _______________________________________________ System Spec: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz \| 4Gb Corsair XMS2 Dominator DDR2 PC-2 6400 RAM \| XFX GeForce 8800GTS 640mb PCI-E \| Creative X-fi sound card \| 250Gb HDD \| *Rest In Peace Dave, you will be missed.*

01-07-10, 07:39 AM	#8
Red Heat Ace of the Deep Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Portugal Posts: 1,093 Downloads: 267 Uploads: 0	My aproach to the game i consider heavy heather a true ally...except the the heavy fog in some aproaches like in the earlier of the war...because with out radar its very dificult to follow a contact at the surface! __________________ "There is three kinds of man: the living, the death, and those who are at Sea." Plato

01-08-10, 06:11 AM	#10
urfisch Sea Lord Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Deep down in Germany Posts: 1,969 Downloads: 42 Uploads: 0	the realweather-fix just fixes the bad weather problem,but not the problem itself. i also had good weather for weeks...so the former posters are right: the weather often gets stuck. only if you change your location over far distances, e.g. from the northern sea bay into the northern parts around england, or even higher into the north, the weather changes. seems, as if weather acts for different zones, instead of different seasons, etc... __________________

01-07-10, 12:03 AM	#4
Dissaray 中国水兵 Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 280 Downloads: 35 Uploads: 0	One thing I have read here on these forums and seen in game is that the weather tends to get stuck less often when when you keep the time compresion no higher than 128. This will also make encounters with the enemy more frequent it seems.

01-10-10, 08:06 PM	#11
PappyCain Samurai Navy Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: on the Atlantic Ocean Posts: 559 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	Call me daft. Call me wingy. Call me whatever! But I love the weather. I never had it "stucK' in an endless loop. Dunno why. Maybe lucky, although I have logged a billion hours at sea. Maybe I just like whatever conditions are thrown at me when on a patrol. Fog is a great challenge as is a heavy sea when one has to manage the boat well. With good boat management and changing the course to ride out a sea is fun. Immersive. But honestly mates I have never seen an inordinate amount of heavy weather that did not eventually abate. Sort of like RL in the North Atlantic. Hmmmm. S' PC __________________ DID, no cheats, no shortcuts, no non-historic equipment deviations. Boat and crew safety is integral with my immersion style! Follow the historic events during your patrol: http://www.uboat.net/today.html

01-13-10, 07:38 PM	#12
GlassTrain Watch Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Peoria, IL U.S.A. Posts: 25 Downloads: 18 Uploads: 0	Hitman, the suggestion on using Silent editor is awesome! I don't mind the stock campaign weather, but having the flexibility to 'set' the weather is nice! Couple of questions.... 1. How do I set the clouds to something other than 'partial' in the file? With the controller set to true, all I get are partial clouds. 2. Does the scene.dat file control the hours of day/night in the game? I had a weird problem when I completely reinstalled the game. I never initialized the simulation itself, modified the scene.dat file first and then started a campaign. The sun was high noon at 0500 and the sun came up at 21:30 around St. Nazaire! It went back to normal when I reset the controller to false (had set it to 'true') and started a new campaign. Thank you!