[WIP] U.S. Medals Fix

[CapnScurvy]

I've been looking at the awards and medals issued within the game and have come up with a different plan. As you may know, there's not much we can do with the criteria for issuing awards. The criteria seems to be for the most part, hard coded in the game. However, we can work within the game structure to achieve a more accurate realistic system. There are six awards and medals available from highest ranking to lowest. RFB and TMO both use the same awards. Top ranked is the Congressional Medal of Honor, next the Navy Cross, Navy Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star, Bronze Star Medal, and although it is not an achievement award, nor does it fit in the ranking system, the Purple Heart. My contention is the authentic Navy Distinguished Service Medal has a criteria of "exceptionally mertorious service to the government in a duty of great responsibility" which in my opinion does not hold true of a sub Captain, and especially an enlisted crewman. What I have found is the medal is usually bestowed to senior "Navy Flag and Marine Corps General Officers" not rank and file sub Captains and definitely not to an enlisted man, unless he happened to be on Nimitz's "personal" staff of high enlisted rank.

So, my plan is to remove the DSM from the awards, move up the Silver Star and Bronze Star Medal in rank and add the Navy Commendation Medal as the lowest tier award. I have thought about the "Dolphins" badge for this 1st tier award but the game structure does not allow for a different award for both the Crewmen and the player/Captain. Six medals are what you have, and all are given to both Captain and Crewman alike. The "Dolphins" badge would not be appropriate for the Captain to yet earn; he should have received it long before making Captain. (Actually I think the images could be different for the two recipients, but the mouse over descriptions would have to be the same, as well as the "left hand" medal icons when they are shown either within the Captain's Award box or the Crew Management screen.) In my research I found the Navy Cross and DSM were "switched" in rank in 1943 by an act of Congress, although the criteria for the DSM was not changed. I also know I'm taking a bit of license with the Navy Commendation Medal since it was first received in 1943 (by this same Congressional Act), but it seems to be the best fit for the way the game is structured.

Something I had found within the stock game that had not been addressed by RFB, TMO or any other medals fix mod is the Captain's Office Award Box (sitting on the desk) does not display the correct medals when given. The process is when an award is gained by the player, it's displayed within the box. When you mouse click the medal, you go to another screen that shows the medal in high res with the written commendation for it. If you receive more than one, the "left hand" icons will direct you to the various medals images and written commendations. These "left hand" icons seem to be correct for the specific award given with TMO 1.5.2, however the small "left hand" icon for RFB is truely messed up as I will show you.

Getting back to the medal shown within the box when it is first opened, it does not show correctly in RFB 1.51 062308 (the current version) nor in TMO 1.5.2, and your not even close with the stock system either. I found the "order" was not correct within the .dat file that controls this particular display. Changing the listed order corrected the wrong display and now the correct medal will be found in the box when you frist open it.

In the last several days, I have talked to LukeFF regarding the needed fix for RFB. His latest beta of RFB 1.52_090708 still has the problems with the medals and I hope he will correct this soon in the next release. To test the problem in RFB, I completed a first patrol, completed two objectives, one refit. I had a total tonnage of 84,444, with 50,000 or so in merchants and about 33,000 in an Ise BB. My settings were on "noob" everything on easy. I wasn't trying to out do myself with an expert setting, just acquire tonnage and see what the given awards would be when I commited sucide every so often in the patrol. I had just killed myself and the awards were a Purple Heart and a Congressional Medal of Honor with a Bronze Star Medal in the "left hand" icon spot. I have my suspicions about the CMOH for 84,000 tons, but I reloaded the saved game and made my way back to port. Here is what the Captain's Award box showed:



The medal shown is the Congressional Medal of Honor, with the Navy Cross label, in the stock Bronze Star position!!! Triple trouble!! When you click on the medal this is the screen you get:



It's the Navy Cross in the "left hand" icons position, with the Distinguished Service Medal image and it's written commendation!! I think I've just about covered all the medals there are with this RFB modded game. The only one not covered is the Purple Heart! As a bonus picture I've thrown in what the CrewManagement screen looks like with RFB.



There's that CMOH image showing up with the Bronze Star Medal label. Is there a connection to this or what? Well yes, this was one of the telltale signs I used to trace down what the connections were between the mismatched images and labels. Again, this does not have anything to do with the Captain's Award Box, but it does show the incorrect labels that the RFB 1.51 has. Again, TMO does not look any different within the Captain's award box, it's just as messed up. But, Ducimus does get it right with the "left hand" icons for both the Captain's award screen and the CrewManagement screen. Great job Duci!! At least it's right for the medal it represents, but I further questioned the accuracy of the medal that is given.

So here is the U.S. Medals Fix mod added to the mix.



A Silver Star for 84,000 tons sunk; I think that sounds about right. You will notice the label is correct for the image even though the 3D model outline is of the old Distinguished Service Medal. Changing the "order" of the medals has corrected the misslabeling which I believe is key to the correct hard coded criteria the game uses to award a medal. Also, causing a second correction to take place:



The correct medal image is now shown in this Captain's awards screen, with the correct written commendation. The "left hand" icons are now correct, because of the menu_1024.... correction. And so is the CrewManagement "left hand" screen:



It's my belief that the controlling order of the medals in the appropriate .dat file has corrected much of the existing problems within the game. Credit should still go to many others who have worked to this end: FullMetalledges, Midnite1977, Ducimus and others. Their ground breaking work has brought us to this point where the medals may be finally correct. But, I too have yet one more hurdle to cross. The 3D models in the Captain Award Box need to coincide with the new medals. As the above image shows the Silver Star needs to have the outline of the stock Distinguished Service Medal removed and it's outline imported into the CaptainRoom.dat file. The other "new" medals should have their models changed as well. I freely admit, the learning curve to 3D modeling has been my stumbling block to releasing this fix. If any one would like to help please join in. I have the 3D's materials file image changed for the new medals, but I just dont know how to make a new model from it. I could release the fix "as is" but I would hope some 3D modeling guru could help in the last piece of the puzzle.