Taking requests for the final SH3 Commander

[JScones]

Originally Posted by baxter

JScones said:

That's sounds great!

I've already "pulled out" the random days in base parameters so that users can edit them.

[JScones]

Originally Posted by Church SUBSIM

If I understand this right if I want to have the Chamberlain Speech where he declares War with Germany, Churchill's Interview and follow up then a Nightly BBC broadcast round table all play for September 3, 1939 I simply create (or add to if it exists) with the following directory:

SH3 Commander\Date\19390903\data\Sound\Gramophone

What I will get then is that file being played just for that day? Or will it just be loaded once that day is hit and then be available from then on? (Meaning I would have to remove it once that date has passed?)

SH3 doesn't have the ability to play files at specific dates or times. SH3Cmdr overcomes this somewhat by copying files into the game based on the next patrol start date. But, this means:
-All files up to and including the next patrol start date are copied across;
-The copied files will play throughout the duration of the patrol.
-The files will be continually copied into SH3 until new versions with the same file names are found (then they will be copied into SH3).

So, using your example, if you add the files under 19390903, they won't actually appear in the game until the *2nd* patrol (which could be in October), as the first patrol will, by default, start on 1 Sep '39 and the speech wouldn't have been made yet.

[Church SUBSIM]

Thanks for your response.

I am going to make a "Monthly News Cast" that will combine all the broadcasts for a given month and then place them in the first of the month folder then.

Love this program ..... a fantastic tool.

[lafeeverted]

Originally Posted by JScones

Yeah, what you're proposing sounds good - I'll think of how best to implement it...

Let me know if I can help

[JScones]

Originally Posted by lafeeverted

Let me know if I can help

Will do. I'll be off air for the next two or three weeks while I relocate interstate, then I'll be back again...

[JScones]

Originally Posted by Church SUBSIM

I am going to make a "Monthly News Cast" that will combine all the broadcasts for a given month and then place them in the first of the month folder then.

Yeah, or maybe two per month - one containing files recorded during the first 15 days and one containing files recorded during the last 15 days of the previous month. ie...

19400101 - containing files recorded during 19391216 and 19391231
19400116 - containing files recorded during 19400101 and 19400115

It's a slight compromise, but it avoids you having a file recorded on say 22 Jan playing for the full month.

Alternatively, you could put the files in the following month, so that 19400101 contains all the files reocrded during 193912, but I don't think this is what you want to do?

Anyway, just some thoughts for you

EDIT: I've just seen your radiomod...cool...I'll give it a try.

[Tikigod]

Can you add a mini kriegsmarine map or just a general mini map that pops up when we click on to edit the next patrol grid. The size of the nightclub image is fine. I just want something that has general coordinates to get an idea where I want to plan to go for my next trip.

Something liek this but put in a box like the nightclub.


Also would be nice to have choice to launch in windowed mode or full screen...so you don't need to go in game select option then relaunch sh3.


Thanks.

[rcs929]

Perhaps random mechanical failures or problems that occur in patrol that can be repaired. I would recommend making it optional though as I can see it may be annoying to some. Sorry if this was mentioned already.

[JScones]

Originally Posted by baxter

JScones said:

I took a long look at this using my careers in SH3 Commander to figure out typical patrol lengths in the game. Basically I think your numbers will work well. The only thing I can suggest is you might want the next to last group (2 in 3 chance of retirement) to have a lower upper limit, like maybe 440 rather than 480. My average patrol in a type VII runs 28 days, so using that number a career total of 480 is 17 patrols, or more if the first few patrols were shorter ones in a type II. But even without any adjustment I think this would be a major improvement over the patrol only method currently used by SH3 Commander.

OK, I can now go down two paths:

1. Base the retirement solely on the number of days spent at sea. Actually, the above values are based on this option. It appears I confused myself by multiplying average patrol lengths by the number of patrols, which is the same as just totalling the number of days spent at sea and using it (ie 17 patrols totalling 250 days is the same as 17 x (250/17)) and ignoring the number of patrols.

2. Base the retirement on the total number of days spent at sea x the total number of patrols completed. So 17 patrols totalling 250 days would actually yield a result of 4250. 5 patrols totalling 150 days would yield a result of 750.

So, which way's best? Anyone here have any ideas or wants to volunteer and play with some figures?

[baxter]

JScones wrote:

OK, I can now go down two paths:

1. Base the retirement solely on the number of days spent at sea. Actually, the above values are based on this option. It appears I confused myself by multiplying average patrol lengths by the number of patrols, which is the same as just totalling the number of days spent at sea and using it (ie 17 patrols totalling 250 days is the same as 17 x (250/17)) and ignoring the number of patrols.

2. Base the retirement on the total number of days spent at sea x the total number of patrols completed. So 17 patrols totalling 250 days would actually yield a result of 4250. 5 patrols totalling 150 days would yield a result of 750.

So, which way's best? Anyone here have any ideas or wants to volunteer and play with some figures?

Using these values:
Type II Patrol = 15 days
Type VII Patrol = 30 days
Type IX Patrol = 60 days

I compared the 2 methods. For the sake of example I compared careers spent exclusively in each type boat. An example based on days at sea alone, looks like this:

Type II Career with a total of 20 patrols = 300 days
Type VII Career with a total of 10 patrols = 300 days
Type IX Career with a total of 5 careers = 300 days

When the number of patrols is used as a multiplier of the days at sea, these are the patrol totals needed to reach approximately the same total value for careers in each type boat:

Type II Career with 15 patrols = 225 days at sea x 15 patrols = 3375
Type VII Career with 10.5 patrols = 315 days at sea x 10.5 patrols = 3307
Type IX Career with 7.5 patrols = 450 days at sea x 7.5 patrols = 3375

So, if I’m not missing something here, I think the method of using the number of patrols as a multiplier is going to provide the most realistic results by avoiding the possibility of unrealistically high numbers of patrols before retirement. Also, going back to the data I got from U-boat.net, the fact that the Type IX commander will generally have more days at sea before retirement than the Type VII commander is realistic…in the careers I looked at Type IX commanders averaged 293 days at sea and Type VII commanders averaged 229 days.

[JScones]

Thanks Baxter! Sounds good to me. Do you wanna have a go at adjusting the figures to be reflective of the preferred logic?

"result between 0-80 = 0 chance of retirement
result between 81-180 = 1 in 6 chance of retirement
result between 181-280 = 1 in 3 chance of retirement
result between 281-380 = 1 in 2 chance of retirement
result between 381-480 = 2 in 3 chance of retirement
result between 481-~ = 5 in 6 chance of retirement "

[baxter]

JScones wrote:

Thanks Baxter! Sounds good to me. Do you wanna have a go at adjusting the figures to be reflective of the preferred logic?

This is what I came up with:

"result between 0-300 = 0 chance of retirement
result between 301-1000 = 1 in 6 chance of retirement
result between 1001-2200 = 1 in 3 chance of retirement
result between 2201-4000 = 1 in 2 chance of retirement
result between 4001-6500 = 2 in 3 chance of retirement
result between 6501-~ = 5 in 6 chance of retirement "

It seems to work OK...there's no formula, I just tried patrols of different lengths for different boats. Overall it probably represents a slightly lower scale than the one for the "days at sea" method that you developed (meaning with this one high numbers of patrols are a little less likely). Someone doing a full career in a Type II still has a chance of breaking the all-time record of 16 patrols, but to make that unlikely also makes 10 patrols in a Type VII that much harder. Anyway, you said it will be adjustable for each user so people can set it to their preference.

[JScones]

Thanks. These figures will do for starters. They're stored in the data file thus:

[REALISTICLENGTH]
;"Simulate a realistic career length" option
;RANGE=random number range
;PATCMPLTDxDAYS=RNDVALS (between 0 and RANGE - 1)
;where N = nil and RNDVALS are seperated by commas.
;List must be in ascending order and start with 0.
RANGE=6
0=N
301=0
1001=0,1
2201=0,1,2
4001=0,1,2,3
6501=0,1,2,3,4

so are easily changeable.

[CCIP]

JScones,

I don't know if this has been brought up in this thread or not (eh, 11 pages...), but with all the new U-boat skins coming out lately - I was wondering if it's possible to add a skin selector utility to commander.

Better yet, it would be great to have a method of giving each career boat a unique skin (so that when loading a specific career, Commander would load a specific skin for it). Sounds like it could be done. Any possibility of that?

[JScones]

Interesting idea CCIP...Something to ponder... :hmm: