(RTP) Real Time Patrols

[Sharkley]

Ok our KTB document is all set for download if anyone is interested, it is based on actual documents, but streamlined a bit. We hope to have the online version up and running ASAP.

Check it out here: http://hosted.filefront.com/Sharkley

ANd tell me or

Many thanks

[JohnnyBlaze]

Looks good to me

[Sharkley]

Originally Posted by JohnnyBlaze

Looks good to me

Thanks, took about a hour to get it like that feel free to use it any way you see fit.

Site and forum are up.

Many thanks to Subsim for keeping us hooked on these great games, links have been provided back to subsim.

So what are you guys waiting for, this game won't play itself..

[TorpedoMo]

Sounds good, glad to see others enjoy the same playing style.

I have a few questions:

1 - Do you have a template for your patrol log ?

Its a word.doc, the layout is like the original KTBs and is also to be written like that. Another option is to write down in a real book, as I do, and send the book at the end of the patrol to the BdU!
Also we have a template for a short end-patrol report when you are back in harbour. It contains facts like the how many sea days, ammo, sinkings, damages and so on.
The deatailed report is as said the patrol log. Everything including screens is send to BdU after petrol.
If you want I send you the templates, also I would translate it to English (we're all Germans)

2 - Do you post the emails on a website or something for all to view ?

Not at the moment. The plan was to use our consisting Hp, but the script we use sucks and lacks of options, so we dropped that option at the moment. When the new Hp is build we will include the communication there.
As is found out, a forum for that works quiete well. Every Boat has its own forum where to post the radio reports. Also the BdU has one, so all players can read all reports. Top secrets could be send as PM.
I expected the email thing not to be very atmospheric or nice to look but I was wrong. Within time i like the way we communicate via Email and it works great. The reports are always send to all players, so every radio message can be read by all players.
To be practicable, some agreements have to be observed.
First the email subject has to be always in the same layout, so the emails can be sorted easy and the overview is kept (elemental for BdU)
The subject for example looks like that:
U39---8 Dezember---1430

A status report message by a captain to the BdU like that:

U-39 an BdU, 16.12.1939, 08:00Uhr

Standort: AN8257

Bemerkungen:
0103: Aufgeblendeten Schwedischen Frachter gestoppt: Autoreifen und Luftschrauben nach der Türkei. Weiterfahrt

Statusmeldungen

Wetter: Bedeckter Himmel, mittlere Sicht, See 2
Dieselbestand: 112 cbm
Proviant: 35 Tagesrationen
Beschädigungen: 2%

Torpedos: Innen 8, Außen 1
Artilleriemunition: 103
Flakmunition: 995

Kommandant


Hope thats ok in German, if you want to I write a translated one.

3 -Ho do you pull off going from a SP game to a MP game ?? do you play a career or just a single mission and all of you choose the same mission ??

The career only exist "on paper". Before starting a patrol, the captains get the mission send by the BdU via email. All get the same one. They start in SP loading the mission, and the career starts. (Every player for itself but within the synchro restrictions). The captains follow their BdU orders, f.e. do a seachpattern in a specific grid or coast near free hunt. If one player can find a convoy the BdU orders all other boats within range to the convoy led by the datas gathered by the captain who detected the convoy. This also happens in SP. While all have exact same mission data, the other players also find the same convoy if they are lead correctly! When all captains have positioned at the convoy in their SP game, the BdU orders attack and a MP mission is send to all players. In this MP mission the positions of the boats are the one in SP, so have the feeling never interrupting the game. The complete attack is done in a MP session, which can last several hours. After the last boat has finished its attack, MP session is endend and the BdU edits now the SP mission with the boats positions after the attack in MP. The mission is send to all players and the patrol goes on till the next convoy attack.

It took a long long time to edit the layers and files in the mission editor for the SP missions but the work has paid off. We have a very high demand on realism, so we created uboatmissions build on historic facts and many "tools" to create more accuracy, like the food system for the boats, the prisenordung, refueling at sea and so on. Also we created a new way of position finding, which allows to determine the boats position not only to AN23, but to AN2345 for example.
We edited a big printable map with KM-Grids where everys captain can pinpoint the other boats positions. Nice stuff!

Impressing is, how perfect wolve pack lead works with this system.
Now the leading boat has to send with short intervalls reports to all captains about course and speed of the convoy, so they can create an intercept course. Its likely you have to lead the boats even for some days if they are far away before they reach and attack can be started.
The precise you give those reports, the better other boats can navigate to convoy. The more players attack the convoy, the less is the chance that your boat is detected in MP.

This is part of the Bdu to tell which boats operate on convoy and which not, also he gives the permission to attack. And if anything unexpectd happens, tell the BdU and await answer!

Another word to the captains career:
I created fine looking medal documents which are handed to captains who have gained distinction. These documents are send by email to the players.
I did those with ps. Let me know if you want one. Its a ps file containing all pre written textfiles for all different medals and the medals itself.
So you have one file for all documents.
We made a assessment system (point system)which imply all the facts like sea days, tonnage ect. to determine who gets a medal. Its not enough to make a lot tonnage to get awards. If you bring home scrapped boat because you are a redneck captain the BdU won't be amused....and maybe you run out dry

We want to have a long time motivation. So its not that easy to get medals or promotions in short time.

Further you have the possibility to "form" your crew to a specific direction. For example technican focus for more speed (1knot), weapon focus (torpedomaate) or counterdetection focus. That only works over a longer period of time, so you do well bringing your crew fine.

Also to mention is the tonnage adaption we created. Its pritty rediculous you know the exactly tonnage of a sunk ship by the last number. As we know, commanders often over/underestimated their torpedoed ships, and not until reconnaissance like the B-Dienst got hint about the real tonnage the estimated was wrong.
So we have a variation factor that rounds up or down the tonnage of every sunk ship. So now you dont know exactly to amount of tonnage you have sunk. The real number gets determined by the BdU.
This makes the variation of tonnage between the captains and the BdU/Stab possible. And it can be to your advantage or disadvantage. Let you surprise after patrol!

So far by know,
I have still stuff left to tell, more tomorrow.

Hi TorpedoMo Hi TorpedoMo sounds like a really fun setup you are running. Like Sharkley I would love to learn more about the details of running of this. Maybe we could communicate via a PM about some questions I have. Looking forward to discussing this further. sounds like a really fun setup you are running. Like Sharkley I would love to learn more about the details of running of this. Maybe we could communicate via a PM about some questions I have. Looking forward to discussing this further.

@LarryM1953: Apreciate that. Let me know your questions!

If you all have more question, please let me know. I would be glad if many others would give this phantastic system a try!
I gladly share our tools and documents (like the ships documents or the medal document and other) with you if you want.

Greets,

TorpedoMo

[TorpedoMo]

I was wondering if you somehow extracted the mission files from a career campaign, however you create missions using Mission Editor. This is something i will look into for the future.

I'm not clearly sure how it was done in detail because one friend managed this work, while we two others worked in other parts. If you want to know more about that aspect I will ask my friend to explain it in a few words.

We shared the work that had been done, everybody had its part.
One build the missions, one build the so called "Kampagnenpäckchen" which is nothin else than some specific mods and own modifications we need for play. All the files are merged to one pack, which is enabled by the mod enabler.
My part are the documents, the ships documents, medals, templates and so on. Also its me to be asked for historic concerns about the uboat war in our group. So I look for uboat operations or patrols which can be translated to the game/campaign. For example I plan special operations like agent dropoff in St. Lorenz/Canada, build on historic dates or other operations. I created also a finer fuelgauge with the scale of cbm and not %.
Its also important to mention that you need some good guys to get that system run and keep it balancend, especially with the missions. How many ships to place the mission, how many convoys? how tough is the enemy?
We tried to avoid unrealistic, extrem sinkingtonnage which was done one by the mission itself and further with the food provisions rule, what limits the lenght of the patrol. The work payed off. After the second patrol which lasted about 40 days, the average sinking was about 45 to 50.000 BRT per captain.

A big disatvantage of the system is that there are many many ways to cheat. What the players do in SP is not to control. The many notes that have to be given in the daily status reports limit the possibilities, so rough abnormalities would be seen, but there is no real control. So do you know a player informs he was sunk in SP or does he just load the last savegame? (which is max. one day before). What if player has a lot of duds in a attack? Tell the BdU or load again?
What I try to say is that this system only works with reliable and honest guys. But if you find those, it gets a great experience.

Within time, it got a bit like a role play. One reason for that is the very expanded time you patrol lasts and the growing interest what happens to the other boats. Sometimes you maybe get a congrats message from another boat for a big sinking or so. For me it was the first time boats really work together. You have to think about what risk to run to get your boat safe home. You have to clear consider your acts in SP as in MP or maybe your career finds a end. But here the career could last theoreticly for years. At the moment we have finished our second patrol. With harbour laytime between patrols my career lasts for about 3 and a half real time month. And i hope to get to 42' hehe

By the way, we play currently with seven captains in duty, what works fine but already is much work for the BdU. For a 30day patrol there are already 210 standard status report emails to be seen , not counted all other radio messages and the organisation part.

Greets,

TorpedoMo

[Sharkley]

We now have 3 active captains, with two on patrol on one docked.

We are using a forum for communication to avoid the email problem, this way people can post in real time and other captains or guests can view then. I agree cheating could be a HUGE problem, but we are allowing a flexible gameplay style to help people find a way that "works" for them.

We feel that by providing a flexible gameplay style with some historic data we can provide the best of both worlds, of course we are just getting this little venture off the ground, so thing will surely get better as time goes on.

We are staying away from any download content now as our hope is once again offer flexibility but we'll see what the future holds. I can tell you I am hooked on this play style and I am sure as other come aboard they will find it to be a fun way to play this amazing game.

Of course we have so much more work to do, so keep us up-to-date with what is going on with you and we'll keep the updates coming !!