Milk Cows - any way to collapse patrols back into one?

panthercules · 03-02-06, 02:32 AM

Just tried the milk cow feature in IUB 1.02 (I guess it came with that one since I'm not running any specific milk cow-type mod) for the first time. My Type IXB was down at my patrol zone around the Azores and out of torpedoes (except for a few externals that had been trapped there for 2 weeks because of the bad weather), and I noticed there was a friendly ship docked at one of the nearby neutral ports, so I thought I'd give it a shot rather than head home early (only been out about 3 weeks so far).

I was able to collect my renown, give out my medals and promotions and stuff, but could not configure my torpedo loadout (unfortunate, but expected). As I had suspected, when I headed back out the game was treating me as if I had started a new patrol instead of treating it as a continuation of my current patrol.

Does anybody know if there is a way to edit some .cfg files or something so that when I go back in to the game it will think/act like I'm still on a continuation of my current (11th) patrol instead of saying I'm on my 12th? A small point admittedly, but I would like my career records, personnel file in SH3 Commander, etc. to reflect the correct patrol instead of this fake new one. Any ideas?

baxter · 03-02-06, 12:33 PM

That's the one major limitation with all of the milkcow mod. As far as I know, no one has ever found a way to correct this. It keeps me from using the mod altogether.

trenken · 03-02-06, 01:07 PM

Can someone tell me what a milk cow is?

03-02-06, 01:10 PM

It's a specially built resupply sub which carries lots of fuel and torpedoes out into a predetermined area. When the regular U-boats run low they (theoretically) could rendesvous with the 'Milch Kuh' and thus stay on patrol a lot longer.

They also experimented with surface resupply ships. Both were in great danger from Allied planes, which by mid-war patrolled pretty much the whole Atlantic.

trenken · 03-02-06, 01:16 PM

Thanks Steve. I am a big WWII buff, but up until recently, that didn't include the sea battle. So still new to all the naval terminology.

Rubini · 03-02-06, 02:34 PM

panthercules,

I think that is possible. What I'm saying is that this is possible IF we edit our campaign and saved cfg/txt files. Some months ago I talked about this issue with Beery and JScones. JScones even told me about a possible SH3Cmdr fix for this but Beery have just opted to his simple milk cow approach that is already on SH3Cmdr (just putting more fuel on a VIIc for a specific period of time). But this approach is very "limited" IMHO . So, if a lot of guys could ask JScones for the milk cow fix maybe he goes ahead and will make the fix. :hmm:

Rubini.

baxter · 03-02-06, 05:20 PM

Rubini wrote:

Quote:

JScones even told me about a possible SH3Cmdr fix for this but Beery have just opted to his simple milk cow approach that is already on SH3Cmdr (just putting more fuel on a VIIc for a specific period of time). But this approach is very "limited" IMHO . So, if a lot of guys could ask JScones for the milk cow fix maybe he goes ahead and will make the fix.

That would be great. The extra fuel fix in SH3 Commander is a poor substitute because, amoung other things, Milk Cows supplied not only fuel but torpedos as well. I know JScones is out of touch right now due to moving, but when he's back we should definitely make the request.

AntEater · 03-02-06, 05:57 PM

How about a SH3 commander solution like this:
If you want refuelling, you go to a certain coordinate, save the game and launch SH3 commander, select some "refuel" option.
Your savegame will then changed in regards to fuel and torps (but only if the resupply is from a surface raider or a merchant, not from a milk cow.
You enter back in game and can continue....

VonHelsching · 03-02-06, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trenken

Can someone tell me what a milk cow is?

Check this: http://www.uboat.net/types/xiv.htm

ZanRod · 03-02-06, 07:46 PM

Another pic of the milkcow

German Type XIV, WWII submarine, 1940

baxter · 03-02-06, 07:57 PM

AntEater wrote:

Quote:

How about a SH3 commander solution like this:
If you want refuelling, you go to a certain coordinate, save the game and launch SH3 commander, select some "refuel" option.
Your savegame will then changed in regards to fuel and torps (but only if the resupply is from a surface raider or a merchant, not from a milk cow.
You enter back in game and can continue....

That would be a good solution, I would be satisfied with something like that.

panthercules · 03-02-06, 08:55 PM

I'll take anything at this point - I love the idea of being able to resupply, especially in my new Type IXB (I was never a fan of my Type VII just having way more fuel to simulate this, but I can appreciate that it is a workable solution for some), but I do hate the idea of screwing up my patrol logs/records.

I may backup my career files and just try messing with some of the patrol .cfg files, but I suspect I'll just wind up crashing the whole thing cause I really don't have a clue at this point what part of the file stores the fuel and torp status indicators - it would be great if all you had to do was tweak some file associated with the most recent patrol/save game to put the torps and fuel status back to 100% and then reload the most recent save (seems like you wouldn't actually need to dock with the resupply ship at all that way - just go to it (for a sense of realism at least), save game/exit, tweak the fuel and torps back to 100% outside of the game, and then reload back in at the save/exit point. Hmmmm - can't be that simple can it?

baxter · 03-02-06, 10:02 PM

panthercules wrote:

Quote:

it would be great if all you had to do was tweak some file associated with the most recent patrol/save game to put the torps and fuel status back to 100% and then reload the most recent save (seems like you wouldn't actually need to dock with the resupply ship at all that way - just go to it (for a sense of realism at least), save game/exit, tweak the fuel and torps back to 100% outside of the game, and then reload back in at the save/exit point. Hmmmm - can't be that simple can it?

Seems like it should be, but I'm not IT inclined enough to know...hopefully someone will come up with something like this. It really would add a lot to the game.

panthercules · 03-02-06, 10:05 PM

Well shoot - it turns out several of the save-game-related files are in fact just text files readable via notepad, but none of those that I could find appear to be where the data on torp and fuel status are kept - I guess that's probably in the ___.sav file, which seems to be some special, non-text format file that I can't seem to peer into

I figured it was too easy for that to work. Anybody who knows what they're doing have any ideas on where this data is stored and how one might tweak it from outside the game?

panthercules · 03-04-06, 10:41 AM

bump

So, anybody got any ideas about how to access and alter this data (torpedo loadout and fuel status) in some saved game files or somewhere? It sure would be nice to come up with a "poor man's milk cow" method that would preserve our patrol records intact

03-02-06, 02:32 AM	#1
panthercules The Old Man Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 1,336 Downloads: 6 Uploads: 0	Milk Cows - any way to collapse patrols back into one? Just tried the milk cow feature in IUB 1.02 (I guess it came with that one since I'm not running any specific milk cow-type mod) for the first time. My Type IXB was down at my patrol zone around the Azores and out of torpedoes (except for a few externals that had been trapped there for 2 weeks because of the bad weather), and I noticed there was a friendly ship docked at one of the nearby neutral ports, so I thought I'd give it a shot rather than head home early (only been out about 3 weeks so far). I was able to collect my renown, give out my medals and promotions and stuff, but could not configure my torpedo loadout (unfortunate, but expected). As I had suspected, when I headed back out the game was treating me as if I had started a new patrol instead of treating it as a continuation of my current patrol. Does anybody know if there is a way to edit some .cfg files or something so that when I go back in to the game it will think/act like I'm still on a continuation of my current (11th) patrol instead of saying I'm on my 12th? A small point admittedly, but I would like my career records, personnel file in SH3 Commander, etc. to reflect the correct patrol instead of this fake new one. Any ideas? __________________

03-02-06, 05:57 PM	#8
AntEater Grey Wolf Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Germany Posts: 936 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	How about a SH3 commander solution like this: If you want refuelling, you go to a certain coordinate, save the game and launch SH3 commander, select some "refuel" option. Your savegame will then changed in regards to fuel and torps (but only if the resupply is from a surface raider or a merchant, not from a milk cow. You enter back in game and can continue.... __________________

03-02-06, 08:55 PM	#12
panthercules The Old Man Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 1,336 Downloads: 6 Uploads: 0	I'll take anything at this point - I love the idea of being able to resupply, especially in my new Type IXB (I was never a fan of my Type VII just having way more fuel to simulate this, but I can appreciate that it is a workable solution for some), but I do hate the idea of screwing up my patrol logs/records. I may backup my career files and just try messing with some of the patrol .cfg files, but I suspect I'll just wind up crashing the whole thing cause I really don't have a clue at this point what part of the file stores the fuel and torp status indicators - it would be great if all you had to do was tweak some file associated with the most recent patrol/save game to put the torps and fuel status back to 100% and then reload the most recent save (seems like you wouldn't actually need to dock with the resupply ship at all that way - just go to it (for a sense of realism at least), save game/exit, tweak the fuel and torps back to 100% outside of the game, and then reload back in at the save/exit point. Hmmmm - can't be that simple can it? __________________

03-02-06, 10:05 PM	#14
panthercules The Old Man Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 1,336 Downloads: 6 Uploads: 0	Well shoot - it turns out several of the save-game-related files are in fact just text files readable via notepad, but none of those that I could find appear to be where the data on torp and fuel status are kept - I guess that's probably in the ___.sav file, which seems to be some special, non-text format file that I can't seem to peer into I figured it was too easy for that to work. Anybody who knows what they're doing have any ideas on where this data is stored and how one might tweak it from outside the game? __________________

03-04-06, 10:41 AM	#15
panthercules The Old Man Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 1,336 Downloads: 6 Uploads: 0	bump So, anybody got any ideas about how to access and alter this data (torpedo loadout and fuel status) in some saved game files or somewhere? It sure would be nice to come up with a "poor man's milk cow" method that would preserve our patrol records intact __________________

03-02-06, 12:33 PM	#2
baxter 中国水兵 Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: New York Posts: 282 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	That's the one major limitation with all of the milkcow mod. As far as I know, no one has ever found a way to correct this. It keeps me from using the mod altogether.

03-02-06, 01:07 PM	#3
trenken Samurai Navy Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: New Jersey Posts: 565 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Can someone tell me what a milk cow is?

03-02-06, 01:10 PM	#4
Sailor Steve Stowaway Posts: n/a Downloads: Uploads:	It's a specially built resupply sub which carries lots of fuel and torpedoes out into a predetermined area. When the regular U-boats run low they (theoretically) could rendesvous with the 'Milch Kuh' and thus stay on patrol a lot longer. They also experimented with surface resupply ships. Both were in great danger from Allied planes, which by mid-war patrolled pretty much the whole Atlantic.

03-02-06, 01:16 PM	#5
trenken Samurai Navy Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: New Jersey Posts: 565 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Thanks Steve. I am a big WWII buff, but up until recently, that didn't include the sea battle. So still new to all the naval terminology.

03-02-06, 02:34 PM	#6
Rubini Ocean Warrior Join Date: May 2005 Location: São Paulo Brazil Posts: 2,728 Downloads: 132 Uploads: 0	panthercules, I think that is possible. What I'm saying is that this is possible IF we edit our campaign and saved cfg/txt files. Some months ago I talked about this issue with Beery and JScones. JScones even told me about a possible SH3Cmdr fix for this but Beery have just opted to his simple milk cow approach that is already on SH3Cmdr (just putting more fuel on a VIIc for a specific period of time). But this approach is very "limited" IMHO . So, if a lot of guys could ask JScones for the milk cow fix maybe he goes ahead and will make the fix. :hmm: Rubini.

03-02-06, 07:46 PM	#10
ZanRod Swabbie Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Rotterdam Posts: 8 Downloads: 21 Uploads: 0	Another pic of the milkcow German Type XIV, WWII submarine, 1940