ImprovedConvoys Beta and UnRealUBoat - Udated: 03-25

[jasonb885]

Originally Posted by Wulfmann

I cannot open this7z like I can the other DLs. Not on either PC.
Wulfmann

I just downloaded it and uncompressed it myself last night.

It ought to be fine?

[Wulfmann]

I have 7z on both my PCs and it opens anything else but this one. I will reDL it. Maybe something in this one got corrupted????
Wulfmann

[Wulfmann]

Just re-DLed and it seems the first time I did not get all of it (weird) and it is now fine.
Wulfmann

[jasonb885]

Pushed out another release. Link is in the OP.

By popular demand I have added Captain Walker's Second Support Group to the Bay of Biscay.

I fixed the single merchant contacts for '43 off the U.S. coast as it was about 10 times too high.

Added HG with a CVE in '41 and bumped some escorts down from elite to veteran where needed.

[Lanzfeld]

Keep up the good work! Everytime I return to poort I have a new convoy mod to load!

[jasonb885]

Originally Posted by Lanzfeld

Keep up the good work! Everytime I return to poort I have a new convoy mod to load!

That's the idea.

The tankers are so far inside the convoy I can't hit them anymore.

[Oesten]

Is the Improved Convoys mod compatible with RUB 1.42?

Because JSGME is telling me that RUB 1.42 already altered the CAMPAIGN_RND.mis file from the stock SH3 1.4 version.

So I don't dare install it without clarification.

[Beery]

Originally Posted by Oesten

Is the Improved Convoys mod compatible with RUB 1.42?

Because JSGME is telling me that RUB 1.42 already altered the CAMPAIGN_RND.mis file from the stock SH3 1.4 version.

So I don't dare install it without clarification.

It should be compatible. If you want Improved Convoys just make sure to install the Improved Convoys mod after installing RUb.

[Wulfmann]

RUB only reduces single ship traffic and reports. It does not mod the RND file and, IMO, that is the hub of the game What Jason is doing is changing the convoys and their escorts to reflect more accurately what a U-Boat might encounter.
In a word, yes it will work fine with RUB, any version of it and will make your convoy escapades a blast.
Wulfmann

[jasonb885]

Originally Posted by Wulfmann

RUB only reduces single ship traffic and reports. It does not mod the RND file and, IMO, that is the hub of the game What Jason is doing is changing the convoys and their escorts to reflect more accurately what a U-Boat might encounter.
In a word, yes it will work fine with RUB, any version of it and will make your convoy escapades a blast.
Wulfmann

And I include my own special flavor of single ship contact reduction in the spirit of the original 20/20 mod, so you also will have realisticly reduced single ship contacts.

[Beery]

Originally Posted by jasonb885

...I include my own special flavor of single ship contact reduction in the spirit of the original 20/20 mod, so you also will have realisticly reduced single ship contacts.

What levels of contact reduction do you use? I must admit this is the one thing that I wasn't comfortable about regarding IC, and anyway I figured it was useful to have two separate campaign file versions for people to choose, just for flexibility. But if the two are similar, and if you're willing, I might like to include IC in RUb. I'm just a bit concerned that I'll start getting lots of contacts again.

What do you reckon? How would you feel about having IC be part of RUb?

[jasonb885]

Originally Posted by Beery

What levels of contact reduction do you use? I must admit this is the one thing that I wasn't comfortable about regarding IC, and anyway I figured it was useful to have two separate campaign file versions for people to choose, just for flexibility. But if the two are similar, and if you're willing, I might like to include IC in RUb. I'm just a bit concerned that I'll start getting lots of contacts again.

What do you reckon? How would you feel about having IC be part of RUb?

Actually, I was somewhat confounded by your silence. I thought realistic convoys ought to be a worthwhile realism mod, but after nearly 60 days this is your first post on the issue.

Anyway, in British waters in '39 I believe I use 20/40. I have 10/20 in '40.

For the US coast and Car it's around 40/40 until Aug 15, 1942. Since you can't even get there until you pick up an IX in, say, mid '40, I thought that was good enough. It could be reduced a bit if people are racking up insane tons off the US, though.

In the Med it's 40/20, I believe. I'll have to check on my home PC once I arrive home from work. I could VNC in, but I'm about to step out the door so I'll just check in a bit.

(Contact%/Spawn%)

The rest of the war, aside from exceptions above, it's the standard 8/10 for single merchants, random patrols, and HKs. I didn't modify the skill levels of anything. I think Pentallion had played with the skill level of American and Candian single random patrols for the early part of the war, but my goal has always been convoys so I did the least necessary to get a 20/20 variant up and running.

I ran my second '43 test campaign a few nights ago and, apart from dying rather quickly, I nearly never, ever received any single merchant contacts, except for in the Med where it's 40/20 the whole war. (Additionally I believe the Med convoys generally spawn only once a month, so it's really a dead theater down there in non-scripted stock SH3.)

In '39 and '40 with my contact range for Important and Opportunity increased to something insane, like 10,000km, I was getting a dozen or two single merchant contacts, but nearly always they were far, far outside my range. Additionally I did pick some up once in a while on the hydrophone, but it reminds me very much of my RuB1.22 experience with 20/20.

I believe CCIP and Observer have used IC a few times, so they can comment as well on the single merchant rates, if they have any thoughts. So far I haven't had any complains.

A few additional notes. I packed in Sergbuto's C Class fix so they can and will depth charge you in '39. That's because I use class GENERIC for escorts, so any destroyer may spawn based on whatever SH3 feels is appropriate based on the roster date of ships and whatever internal ruleset Ubi used.

I pushed back the roster date for Bogue and Black Swan so they can appear in some convoys where appropriate. I use the Black Swan as a generic sloop since no others are available and sloops did participate early on. The Bogue appears earlier so it can possibly appear in HG, as it did in Dec '40. (Of course it wasn't actually a Bogue class, but what can you do?)

I also pushed back the dates for American and British ships, so you will find some random merchants in '39 and '40 when single merchant rates are favorable that are C3s because Ubi choose to use GENERIC class for some single merchant groups. I consider this new behavior a feature. Norway, Netherlands, and Greece have some additional larger ships at their disposal now which appear in convoys.

The Victory won't be available until Jan '44, now, which is mostly in-line with reality. Due to convoy start dates, I couldn't move it any further forward without it not appearing in some convoys that run from Jan '44 to May '45.

You're welcome to include it in RuB, if you'd like. I'd be honored.

[jasonb885]

(Spawn/Report)

Med 20/40
All '39 40/20
All '40 20/10
All '41+ 8/10
US '39-42 40/50

[CCIP]

Well I can certainly vouch for the relative sparseness of single contacts - besides that one weird two-ship group I always meet outside Biscay (though that's mostly luck, and not much related to the mod per se as it's likely some sort of oddity on the behalf of the devs).

[Beery]

I was under the mistaken impression that the mod featured a reduction of about 40% across the board. That's why I didn't comment on it. So if that's not the case I'll be glad to include it.

The only other worries from my perspective are the Walker group, which has now been added, and the numbers of elite escorts, which were reduced drastically in Pentallion's final 20/40 mod after the devs made elite escorts inescapable in SH3 1.3. Elites are still worrisome, since they are still generally unbeatable unless you cheat. If they're very rare, they're not a problem, because some situations were inescapable, but if they are fairly common they are a game-breaker. What is the situation with elite escorts in IC at the moment?