[REL] Damage assessment

[cothyso]

BARF Damage Assessment v1.1 merged with Haramirs Escorts Self Awareness Mod v1.1

I'd suggest you guys start working together on this.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/mj3m1g...ARF_DA_1.1.rar

[Arclight]

Noted, let's wait for it to move out of beta though. Currently working on merchants surrendering myself, so maybe next release.

Thank you for the merge.

[Westbroek]

Arc,
You gotta know that I sprinkled this mod into my modsoup right when you released it and it's really brought the game to life for me.
If people aren't commenting it's probably because for the first time they're preferring to stalk convoys and watch them limp along desperately after being hit over typing about mods. Forsooth,that's my condition.
Great work.
W

[Arclight]

I just wish I had time to play myself. Took a few hours to play Arma yesterday with some of the guys here at SubSim, and I had to catch up to over a page of posts.

Working to expand this, to include the possibility to make merchants surrender, ie. unarmed single merchants. Though I'm currently focusing on a different project.

[PL_Andrev]

Originally Posted by Arclight

Changes AI behaviour with regards to keeping speed and sensor effectiveness; enemies will slow down after taking some damage and be less aware of their surroundings.

This description is true only for AI ships or for our uboat too?

[Arclight]

AI captains only. Supposed to simulate a captain slowing his vessel to avoid further damage caused by water being forced through the hole(s) in the hull.

You are in control of the boat, no amount of AI scripting can take that away... as far as I know.

[utops]

Why not randomize damage aspect? In sh3 with GWX i have filling,that damaged ships go down by random damage gain and place where eel struck the ship and if this was possible in sh3,why not to put similiar sinking/damage mechanics in to sh5?
Im a sinking/damage mechanics fetishist so i probably never be happy with this aspect of the sh5

[Arclight]

You wouldn't happen to know about Better and Realistic Flotation, you know, the mod this was made for?

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=164953
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=1607

[Mraah]

ArcLight,

I like what you did ... ... but I have a suggestion or two.

I've been reading the book "Black May" and it has very detailed descriptions of merchants getting torpedoed from the captain's perspective as well from the U-boat. From most (if not all) the merchants that were torpedoed, they ordered the engines stopped ... even with one torpedo hit. This was done not really for damage asessment but mostly to allow the ship to stop so they can lower the lifeboats and toss the confidential doc's overboard. Apparently, human lives were more important than sitting on a torpedoed ship in the middle of the atlantic.

With this in mind I have a few suggestion's ... This is theory and not tested.

The first thing to do is create three more states (using 2,3 and 4 ie strategy StateDmgAssessment2(Ship) ) that have a precond of
Ship:IsType( MERCHANT ) == true. This will ensure that warships continue to chug along and not think about stopping the ship to lower life boats.


1 ... Under your new state "strategy StateDmgAssessment2(Ship)" you can set this to read the changes ...
Ship:GetDamage() >= 0.25 and Ship:GetDamage() < 0.45
Ship:SetThrottleRatio(0)
Ship:SetWeaponFactor(1)

2 ... Under your new state "strategy StateDmgControl2(Ship)" you can set this to read the changes ...
Ship:GetDamage() >= 0.45 and Ship:GetDamage() < 0.65
Ship:SetWeaponFactor(0.2)

3 ... Under your new state "strategy StateDmgAssessment3(Ship)" you can set this to read the changes ...
Ship:GetDamage() >= 0.65 and Ship:GetDamage() < 0.85
Ship:SetThrottleRatio(0)
Ship:SetWeaponFactor(0.2)

You could add a "WaitAction" time to the first damage state(25-45%) if you think it can still get under way after some time ... but for the most part, they were all scrambling topside to get off the ship.

Now, as far as the player knows (assuming HP bars are OFF), when he hits the merchant it will stop (like is should) but he doesn't know if it's abandoned or merely performing damage control. He can come back later and finish it off (like they did) risking a surfaced gun attack. But, the player can basically get an idea based on the fire/smoke volume anyway.

Just some ideas ... it might spark up a new idea later on.
Keep up the good work!

Rob

EDIT NOTE .... Note that #2 above "StateDmgControl2" doesn't change the throttle to (0) but keeps it at 0.2 ... perhaps it should read 0.1 or 0.05 or maybe 0 with a WaitAction.

[Arclight]

Sorry, can't do that. Will just cause players to tag each ship with a few shells so they come to a stop and then leisurely start torpedoing an entire stopped convoy.

Using "SetWeaponFactor" breaks the AI btw, don't think it's implemented yet.

Also, I think setting throttleRatio lowers the max permanently; ie ships that have throttleratio set to 0 can't move after that anymore. Better to use "SetThrottle" if they need to get underway again. (unconfirmed, testing for that now)

How about I just release my tweaks for surrendering? Unarmed (or weapons disabled due to damage), single merchant will surrender if you approach him on the surface, coming to a full stop. About the best I can do without breaking the game, or rather, avoid people abusing it (you know how it goes).


For example:

 
  Ship:IsType( MERCHANT ) == true and
  Ship:IsDocked() == false and
  Ship:ContactDetected() == true and
  Ship:GetDamage() < 0.85 and
  Ship:CanFireCannons() == false and    #won't surrender if armed
  Ship:GetShipCountInGroup( MERCHANT ) < 2 and #won't surrender if in group
  Ship:GetContactDepth() > -10 and    #only surrender to surface contacts
  Ship:GetContactDepth() < 5 and
  Ship:GetContactRelDist() < 500     #enemy must demonstrate hostile intent (close distance)
 }
 action
 {
  # -- surrender actions -- #
  #Ship:WaitAction( 10 + EXIT_TIME );
 
  ## set ship efficiency  
  #Ship:SetSensorFactor( SENSOR_LOOKOUT  , 0 );
  #Ship:SetSensorFactor( SENSOR_HYDROPHONE , 0 );
  #Ship:SetSensorFactor( SENSOR_RADAR   , 0 );
  #Ship:SetSensorFactor( SENSOR_SONAR   , 0 );
  Ship:SetThrottleRatio(0);

[Zedi]

Originally Posted by Arclight

Sorry, can't do that. Will just cause players to tag each ship with a few shells so they come to a stop and then leisurely start torpedoing an entire stopped convoy. ...

True, I would do that.

I found this mod combined with "Better and Realistic Flotation" and "Critical Hits Torpedoes" to be the best one so far because I was very pissed to see tankers that got 3 hit and are already half sunk still zig-zag'in on full speed and no way to catch them. More than that, they never sunk.. just keep going for days half sunken. And after a save/load game, they are back on full hp

And another important thing.. if I manage to hit the ship in the engine compartment, thats ship should stop. There is no way for a ship to continue to sail on full speed after his engine got blown up.

About surrendering.. what's the point in it? U-boot take no prisoners for obvious reasons. They slow down or stop because of damage not for surrending.

Thank you for this mod, is a really good one and works just great!

[Arclight]

Point of surrendering is forcing them to stop, and then sink 'em. Stationary targets are easier to hit.

Think it was actually quite common for U-boots to force a merchant to stop, let the crew disembark and then sink the vessel.


Hit the engineroom and a ship will stop, unless they have more than 1 engineroom. T3 has 2, battleship has 4. Just count the number of screws, that will tell you how many enginerooms there are. Needs a pretty clean hit though.

Maybe I'll change it so they stop earlier (in damage control state).

Maybe tweak torpedo's a little too, so you do more reliable damage.

[Sgtmonkeynads]

Talking about the ships " Hot Spots" wasn't there a version of a rec.Manual for sh3 that had those spots highlighted, so you knew where to better aim? This would be handy.

If you know what I'm talking about, send me a link. I will try to reproduce it for sh5. I just don't have the time to look up every ships infor right now. Thanks.

[Arclight]

No, me neither.

Hot spots are the engine rooms, fuel bunkers, ammo bunkers and keel; all x5 multiplier. Look for the superstructure bit with a funnel, below that is the engineroom. Fuelbunker is ussually low in the hull, below the front edge of the bridge, stretched along the keel for tankers. Ammo bunkers are ussually just under gunturrets.

[pythos]

Not sure if this has been noticed or not.

I have hit three tankers with two torpedoes each.

The results with this mod have been the same.

The tanker races off at 11 or so knots. Before the hit it was going at 5 or 8.

Some have been hit in the bow, one I know got hit under the stack, and one got hit right under the center Island. They have all been able to race off, leaving me with the option to use the deck gun to knock them out.

The tanker is burning like a bonfire, but it takes the unrealistic deck gun work to finish them.

Not sure if the script for the tankers were done or not.