[REL] Real Fleet Boat 2.0

[Treetop64]

Originally Posted by Luno

Good afternoon Skippers,
2) The Earth's diameter was increased to increase viewing distance (reduce earth's curvature). How is this like to play with? This seems like a pretty extreme way to address the problem of the watch crew calling out visual contacts before the player. Is this also why sub ranges were increased?


Hope everyone has a great day!

Makes no discernible difference as far as how the game plays, and other than the visual improvement of being able to see land masses at much further (and realistic) distances, it makes no negative difference to how the game looks. It's a big improvement over stock view distances, that's for sure.

Ships viewed on the horizon still appear to "rise" out of the sea the closer they get, as it should be.

Unless you plan on launching your sub into earth orbit, there is no concern with this adjustment.

Do enough modding and you learn that, depending on how the original developers made their product, certain creative measures have to be taken to get the final effect you're looking for. I've modded other games - not SHIV, however - and this is true for all of them.

[propbeanie]

That last especially is good Treetop64. Historically speaking of the modding of SH4, and probably 3 at the time, it was discovered that the crewmembers of your submarine (and probably other vessels), can see "through" the horizon and call out "Ship spotted, bearing..." So "flattening" the curve of the earth allows the player to "see" what the AI "sees". CapnScurvy speaks to this in his Optical Targeting Correction (OTC) mod's documentation.

[Luno]

I'm all for workarounds that work. Again, I'm really happy with what the RFB team has done here, if I wasn't clear.



It's really no small feat considering parts of the code are locked in the .exe and the rest is pretty much obfuscated. On top of that, the pace of the game is glacial, so testing is all the more difficult.

Ships viewed on the horizon still appear to "rise" out of the sea the closer they get, as it should be.

Unless you plan on launching your sub into earth orbit, there is no concern with this adjustment.

I get you are being tongue-in-cheek, but while your the first sentence shows you comprehend my concern, your second sentence suggests it is irrelevant. If the earth is flatter, the effects of curvature will be much less pronounced.



I appreciate the help though

So "flattening" the curve of the earth allows the player to "see" what the AI "sees"

This is good. Did you notice any adverse effects? For instance, players may have to re-learn what distance they are seeing objects at than what is intuitive from observing reality for many many years. Maybe it makes the stadimeter much more useful than it should be, because you can see the whole height of the target from waterline that much sooner.


What do you folks think?

[propbeanie]

No adverse affect that I have noticed. All the change does is alter the perspective for the player, such that you "see" sooner what the crew announces as having "seen" already, and you can assume that an initial announcement is from a lookout in the shears, able to see further over the simulated horizon than you can. In actuality, the AI "sees" through things, like the ocean water at the horizon. The stadimeter, like other aspects of the game, is only as accurate as the computer display allows, as well as the player's accuracy in placing it for targeting...

[Treetop64]

Originally Posted by Luno

I get you are being tongue-in-cheek, but while your the first sentence shows you comprehend my concern, your second sentence suggests it is irrelevant. If the earth is flatter, the effects of curvature will be much less pronounced.


I appreciate the help though

I'm sorry you took it that way.

The issue isn't irrelevant, per se, but again it's indiscernible as far as enabling realistically functional spotting for the player is concerned. Nothing adverse or unnatural looking is apparent during play. The end result looks right and works as intended.

If you prefer to continue making yourself aware about the mechanical specifics of the actual modification performed then that is certainly your choice, but that would be missing the point.

[Luno]

Thanks guys.

[Macgregor the Hammer]

I've really enjoyed playing RFB. It's definitely a number of steps above SH4 out of the box and different than FotRSU. There's a number of concepts I am look for in the long haul, one is keeping the same boat and crew that grows with it. I like the ship physics, the option to use Max Optics and when I get it, the radar suite. I've played a couple radar training missions and the radar is much more authentic than any other megamod I've played.

The one thing I haven't experienced yet is depth charges. Without combing through the 'command.cfg' file, is there a designated key short cut for "rig for depth charge"?

Great work fellas !!!!

MacG

[KaleunMarco]

Playing RFB 2.0.
Edited a Career Photo Mission (.mis) and added a capital ship as a guarantee that there would be a ship to photograph.
i made sure that the dates are appropriate for the time frame of my career.
When i start the mission and sail to the proper port, the ship i created is NOT present. So....where is it?

i have used this technique previously and it has worked without fail: clearly something is different....i am just blind to that fact.

i've zipped the dotMIS Folder from the \Data\Campaigns\Campaign folder so that if anyone wants to take a whack at, let me know, i will PM the mediafile link to you.


Generic Mod Enabler - v2.6.0.157
[C:\Ubisoft\SH4_RFB\MODS]

1_RFB_2.0
3_SMMO for RFB 2.0
5_Stop The Shouting
6_OTC RFB 2.0
7_Increased binoculars for RFB OTC
8_RFB_LocNames

[propbeanie]

Go ahead and send it this way. Remember though, that RFB uses the Stock game as its backdrop, unless you add RDRDC to it, and SMMO just dolls things up on the menu a bit... Remember the SCS Foto Op:

[Unit 1]
Name=Photo South China Sea 02_JP Huge European Liner#1
Class=PLConteVerde
Type=109
Origin=Japan
Side=2
Commander=0
CargoExt=1
CargoInt=0
CfgDate=19400101
DeleteOnLastWaypoint=false
DockedShip=true
GameEntryDate=19411207
GameEntryTime=0
GameExitDate=19451201
GameExitTime=0
EvolveFromEntryDate=false
Long=12040704.000000
Lat=643365.000000
Height=0.000000
Heading=207.164993
Speed=0.000000
CrewRating=3
DelayMin=0
ReportPosMin=-1
ReportPosProbability=100
RandStartRadius=0.000000
NextWP=0

Things that bugger missions:

1. Do not do a group or unit name that is too long. Even Windows can get lost.
2. A ship name (Class) is case sensitive - be certain
3. Do not do what the devs did, and mis-label the Type=
4. The Origin country and the Side must match
5. Depending upon the vessel, the ConfigDate can loom large. Make sure it is appropriate
6. DeleteOnLastWaypoint can be a real bugger. If you only have one WayPoint, the vessel deletes just after spawning. Either set to "false" if a docked ship = true, or add another waypoint
7. Dates and times of spawning in and out are rather obvious (0=midnight)
8. EvolveFromDate influences when "travel" begins with a scripted ship. If set to true in this example, and you do the mission in 1944, the ship itself entered in 1941, and is long gone. If false, it won't spawn until your sub does.
9. If a docked ship, be sure Speed is zero.
10. RandomStartRadius determines how far away from the Lat & Long figures the ship can spawn away from, so have that at "zero".

An RGG complicates things, but if you take some of the settings, such as

DelayMin=1
DelayMinInterv=1
SpawnProbability=100

and

MaxInst=1
MaxUnitsCreated=1

You should end up with one and only one unit spawning when you want it to... maybe... it might be 24 hours late... I cannot remember now... lol - Don't forget to use the Report lines to your advantage for the testing phase...

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Go ahead and send it this way. Remember though, that RFB uses the Stock game as its backdrop, unless you add RDRDC to it, and SMMO just dolls things up on the menu a bit... Remember the SCS Foto Op:

You should end up with one and only one unit spawning when you want it to... maybe... it might be 24 hours late... I cannot remember now... lol - Don't forget to use the Report lines to your advantage for the testing phase...

well, you pointed out my mistake: i used the ME to create the unit and i expected the ME to use the appropriate parameters. Dumb Ass!!!!

so, i used Notepad to make a few changes to the parms based on your display and at least one of them fixed the problem.

thank you!

[propbeanie]

You are more than welcome. Ain't it wonnerfull? The editor helps with some things, but trashes others. Remember, lurker_hlb3 always warned folks about using the editor to even so much as look at his files, and some settings do indeed go back to Stock ME settings if you "OK" anything with the ME, even without any edits. Editing with a text editor is generally called for after an ME edit, even for SingleMissions. Look in the FotRSU mod, Support / ExtraInfo / MissionEditing for the [ENG] Mission Editor V17.pdf file, which is Dietrich's Nordfront version of the ME manual. Written for SH3, it does apply to SH4 for over 90% of the manual, the main differences being in the functions of the Mission menu, and the addition of MapZones & Locations.

[scrim]

Just checking, is this mod compatible with the German U-boat campaign?

Because I'm getting weird bugs like you wouldn't believe it.

[propbeanie]

Well, RFB (Real Fleet Boat) is Fleet Boat centric, and as such, tunes things for the US submarines at the expense of the German side of the game. That said though, there shouldn't be that much of a difference... What folder do you have SH4 installed in, and did you empty the Save folder after activating your last mod?

[scrim]

D folder, with Steam and using JSGME to enable the mods. Initially had a bit of a hassle getting it working, but I resolved that (likely indeed by emptying the Save folder as you suggest) a month or so ago.

Mainly I'm having problems with:

The crush depth of the Type IX. It gets destroyed at 170m, rather a bit more shallow than the 230m test depth.

Torpedos seem to disregard targeting solutions at times, and at other times wildly misinterpret them.

The periscope (and to a lesser extent the bridge UZO) have a strange tendency to lose lock on ships. The periscope is even capable of losing lock on ships at <1000m in broad daylight.

[propbeanie]

Well, RFB v2 does alter the IXD2 settings, so what you are experiencing could well be from the RFB mod.