[REL] Wamphyri's Plane Attack Mod

[wamphyri]

Wamphyri's Plane Attack Mod v1.01
(1.01 has just some minor changes/fixes .. not worth documenting)

This mod changes how many of the planes behave. Includes fixes to things present in the stock game.


Done So Far :

- All planes either from an air base of any nation or a carrier may or may not attack. Based on their main use during the war.
- Damage of all plane cannons have been adjusted
- fixed a small stock input error that prevented depth charges dropped by planes from doing any damage.
- AI should be able to hit with all AA guns (except maybe verling.. haven't looked at it yet)
- carriers should be harder to get to if any of their planes have spotted you as they can send out attack planes.
- Removed 20mm ammo bar that was blocking sights.
- Adjusted ROF of all AA guns to more accurate values. *see below*
- Reduced the chance of a plane at night.

What I'm working on or hope to get to :

This and That


Download link - current version 1.01
LINK


Readme in zip explains how to install .. shouldn't be too difficult. JSGME compatible


Thanks to AOTD MadMax for the use of his bombdummy file. \o/

Thanks to Therion Prime for helping me get AA guns figured out.


*****
In doing an extreme amount of testing with the AA guns I found a coding bug. The AI will very often not update the position of the plane and the AA gun fire properly until it reloads the gun. So with using historical figures often the first shot will hit the plane with the others way off the mark .. or with the last hitting the plane and the shots before it missing the mark easily. I've adjusted all AA guns to have no reload so that the AI updates properly, and with historic firerates it's still much slower than it was before. They still won't hit 100% of the time and that depends on the angle, I could go into detail but I think the crew missing at times yet able to hit at times would be ideal. (the 37mm still seems to have laser accuracy but it's rof is way down). I got all my rof figures from uboat.net

[wamphyri]

If having problems with the link just try it a second or third time. If all else fails copy and paste the link. Filefront sometimes gives a URL not found error.

[robbythesub]

Thanks for your efforts- I thought I was going mad as I was overflown by 2 Spitfires in broad daylight, and they ignored me several times!

I cant believe that this game was released without aircraft attacking you, this means it is completely unfinished surely?

I will keep an eye on your mod, so keep up the good work!

[kapitan_zur_see]

Originally Posted by robbythesub

Thanks for your efforts- I thought I was going mad as I was overflown by 2 Spitfires in broad daylight, and they ignored me several times!

I cant believe that this game was released without aircraft attacking you, this means it is completely unfinished surely?

I will keep an eye on your mod, so keep up the good work!

The game is indeed extremely unfinished (I never saw such an unfinished state in my years of gaming experience that spans from amstrad CPC6128 and PC1512 onward), with lots of critical things left behind or simply forgotten ( could only be that given the fact some things can often be restored within 30 minutes of your modding time only!!).
Also, the game features quite a bunch of animations made for the crew you will never see ingame because they didn't took the time to fiddle the scripts (no crew repearing animations, always looking as cool as a cat be it under the most dangerous of situation, or during safe travel and countless of things like that, really countless).

I suspect the devs only years of devlopment wasn't even entirely span making SH5, but rather part-time in between another project (too few additions, lots of things left behind whilst retaining though 70% of SH3-SH4 and etc.

[wamphyri]

Well planes attacking is in the stock sh5 .. barely. Out of the 30ish planes in stock sh3 only 5 would attack a player. Plus you would only meet these much later in the war as some wouldn't spawn from an airbase until mid '41 and some not until '42.

[AOTD_MadMax]

Hey, you can use Bombdummy´s from RDA-Mod, no Problem !

http://www.aotd-flottille.de/Maddy/R...Beta_V1.02.rar

Regards

Maddy

[wamphyri]

Thx madmax. I'll look into using it for the next release. Btw everyone .. new release. All the planes spawned from a british airbase want you dead.

[Pintea]

Originally Posted by robbythesub

Thanks for your efforts- I thought I was going mad as I was overflown by 2 Spitfires in broad daylight, and they ignored me several times!

I cant believe that this game was released without aircraft attacking you, this means it is completely unfinished surely?

I will keep an eye on your mod, so keep up the good work!

Planes weren't equipped to attack subs until later in the war !
In the early years, they only reported your position.

[Church SUBSIM]

Can confirm this def works ... one thing though ... when I am surfaced they only use guns, when diving they came around and I heard a bomb explosion (I play without external views)

Great fix! Look forward to further revisions!

[The General]

Thank you for this MOD. Aircraft have never been a realistic part of this franchise. Hopefully with your help they will be soon

I am finding that I have a record number of Mods to get SH5 closer to what it should've been upon release . Having said that, I think the Devs deserve credit for creating something special in the time they had. SH5 certainly has the potential to be incredible and we have Dan & Co to thank for it.

The next couple of Patches are crucial.

See here:

[pythos]

Someone stated something people do not seem to get.

Planes were not used to attack until later. Hurris, spits, and so on WERE NOT EQUIPPED to attack U boats!!..They radioed your position to surface units, which in turn b-lined their way to the reported position. Or Merchants would get re-routed.

It was not until late 42, and early 43, that planes became a real threat, namely that monster the Sunderland.

Try this when you spot a British plane call all stop, and then go to high TC. I will bet, you will get pounced on by a destroyer or other warship.

Another thing. Spotting subs in a fighter was not easy. They are small, and do not leave that much of a trail at low speed. Some mods of SH3 made the attack frequency from fighters so unrealistic it made the game unreal. Just because a fighter was in the area did not mean the pilot sees your boat.

Donitz's book states that most of the early losses were due to surface action, including ramming. Planes were not a real threat until the time frame I have stated.

On that note, if a boat got spotted by an avenger, or Swordfish....they were pretty screwed, Swordfish = torpedo, Avenger = DEPTH CHARGES, large ones, and a torpedo. Catalina, and Sunderland = death in shallow waters, and a pounding in deep waters.

Please modders keep this in mind when dealing with air threats.

[Cthulhus]

Thanks !

[urfisch]

great stuff...

is the intensitiy of the attacks and the pilots experience levelled? e.g. in 1939 there are more "rookies" than in 1943?

[wamphyri]

Originally Posted by pythos

Someone stated something people do not seem to get.

Planes were not used to attack until later. Hurris, spits, and so on WERE NOT EQUIPPED to attack U boats!!..They radioed your position to surface units, which in turn b-lined their way to the reported position. Or Merchants would get re-routed.

It was not until late 42, and early 43, that planes became a real threat, namely that monster the Sunderland.

Try this when you spot a British plane call all stop, and then go to high TC. I will bet, you will get pounced on by a destroyer or other warship.

Another thing. Spotting subs in a fighter was not easy. They are small, and do not leave that much of a trail at low speed. Some mods of SH3 made the attack frequency from fighters so unrealistic it made the game unreal. Just because a fighter was in the area did not mean the pilot sees your boat.

Donitz's book states that most of the early losses were due to surface action, including ramming. Planes were not a real threat until the time frame I have stated.

On that note, if a boat got spotted by an avenger, or Swordfish....they were pretty screwed, Swordfish = torpedo, Avenger = DEPTH CHARGES, large ones, and a torpedo. Catalina, and Sunderland = death in shallow waters, and a pounding in deep waters.

Please modders keep this in mind when dealing with air threats.

This is in the stock game. The only planes that will attack appear around mid '42 and I believe they are all based on the sunderland model (many planes use the same models .. just different names).

I also have reason to believe that planes from an airbase only report the contact to their airbase, and in the campaigns most of the airbases only spawn hurricanes. That's why when you get a plane flying over you'll soon see many more flying over roughly the same patch of sea as the airbase sends out more planes to where a contact was sighted. With the medium and large airbases this would be big trouble as they can send out the sunderlands and other baddies, but you have to get spoted by a plane from that airbase.

But at the moment all of this is moot really. There are so many glaring bugs with the game that even tho I'm going to keep working on this I don't really recommend anyone use it yet. I'm hoping for another patch or 2 so they cah fix many of the things wrong with the planes and the Flak gunner.

[Furia]

Well regarding the Aircraft not being a threat for sub until the 43 is not true.

Aircraft posed a threat to the U-Boats from the begining of the war.

This boats were lost due aircraft operations of different sort.

U-55 Sunk on January 1940
U-64 Sunk April 1940
U-26 Sunk June 1940

In 1941 a total of 5 U-Boat were lost related to aircraft attack one sort or another.

While there was no specialized ASW weapons on most aircraft on the early days it is more than clear that if a sub was spotted, it was attacked.
There are records of countless crash dives due the presence and attack from aircrafts even on the early days.

Depth charges (Mk VII) were tested and installed on the Coastal Command Sunderlands by spring 1940.

While it is unlikely that Spitfires would have detected a sub due they usually were flying high, a number of other planes types were a real threat for the U-boats.