Newbie Help - A little overwhelmed

[musides]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Using GWX3.0 and SH3Commander (set at 15 days between patrols).....select the 7th/13th Flotilla out of Konigsberg.

What precisely is the advantage of SH3? I've read the mod page, but I'm not entirely clear what the mod does.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by musides

What precisely is the advantage of SH3? I've read the mod page, but I'm not entirely clear what the mod does.

If you mean SH3 Commander, it's not really a mod - it's a stand-alone program that gives you an easy way to select/deselect/adjust a lot of different gameplay options, which it then "mods" into the game for you in one fell swoop when you use it to load SH3.

It also lets you create and manage a career and crew in ways that the game alone just doesn't offer. You can generate a new career there and Commander will generate not only a name but a picture and background personal data for your commander. You can then pick a month/year starting date for your career, a starting flotilla, a type/number for your boat.

When you're done with a patrol and exit the game you can open Commander and update your personnel file, that creates a file showing your career history to date which can be printed out. You can review your patrol logs, and if you've selected "use real ship names" in Commander's options, you'll find that updating your personnel file triggered Commander to flesh out the patrol log supplied by the game with data for the ships you've sunk - real historical ship names, cargo they carried, how many crew.

You can also use Commander to award qualifications, medals/badges, and promotions to crewman beyond what the game will allow in the personnel interface there. And print out a list of your entire crew. If you've checked "simulate realistic crew transfers," when you start a patrol you may get a popup telling you that one of your officers has been transferred out and replaced by a different guy, or that your Bosun went AWOL, or that your radio operator was killed by partisans.

There are also many other things you can do with Commander once you get a feel for how it works and what's possible - you can use it to apply mods only in certain date ranges, or to randomize various aspects of the game that you'd like to tinker with... in short it's just WAY COOL.

[musides]

Wow!

I've been a strategy gamer for a long time, mostly Paradox games for anyone who knows them. Strategy games have a wonderful history of mods, forums, and wikis, so I'm pretty accustomed to that sort of thing, admin a few wikis, etc.

But SH3 is, frankly, blowing me away. I mean, the Grey Wolves mod is absolutely insane: even the manual is freakishly awesome. Now, what you say about this Commander program -- I mean, come on, enough already!

I'm used to free mods being "like" paid for expansions, being a good way to get more re-playability, etc. I'm NOT used to mods essentially being equivalent to a major version upgrade, and to top it off, having multiple mods like that? Holy *! I guess this means that when I start using Commander, I will have gone from SH3 to SH4 to SH5, all within the lovely confines of playing SH3.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by musides

I guess this means that when I start using Commander, I will have gone from SH3 to SH4 to SH5, all within the lovely confines of playing SH3.

Well, not really, because there is no Commander for SH4 or SH5 - so with SH3 plus Commander you get something that you can't get with the other games at all.

One of the most immersive things for me with it is the amount of time I spend going over my crew list, doling out awards and promotions and transfers, and reviewing and keeping track of my patrol logs... sometimes I'll spend 1-2 hours after finishing a patrol just doing the paperwork. And you can't have a military without a little bureaucracy thrown in.

I am really looking to do some tinkering when I finish my current career to see how many things I've done with other mods or by manual editing of files can be more easily integrated into the game and controlled or varied using some of Commander's capabilities.

I couldn't find a direct link to just the manual - I'm sure there is one, but anyway - there's a pretty good "visual tour" in this post at the Ubi forums:

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/t...627#5541014627

The screenshots give a pretty good idea of some of the basic things it can do. If you get hold of the complete manual you'll find there's lots more you can do with it.

IF YOU ARE USING GWX, make sure you also get the config files needed to use Commander and GWX together. A link to those (as well as Commander itself) plus instructions are in the first post of the stickied thread for Commander in the Mods Workshop forum.

[Draka]

Actually, you will in effect be getting a whole new game - SH5 took many things away from the sim in the name of "enhanced" eyecandy, as for instance the ability to wander through the sub and see all the crew at their stations, with some interaction available - which thanks to Flakmonkey et al we have most of that in SH3 WITHOUT taking anything away.

SH3 with the newest supermod-of-your-choice and all the added mods are what SH5 SHOULD have been - and the Ubi developers et al get paid for it, while all of this is gratis from a very selfless, extremely talented set o' folks hyar. In fact, in some of the posts on other threads where they list the mods in use, you will see caveats that unless you have a new, near top-o'-th'-line rig ya'll won't be ABLE to run them! Top THAT, Ubisoft!

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by musides

Wow!

I've been a strategy gamer for a long time, mostly Paradox games for anyone who knows them. Strategy games have a wonderful history of mods, forums, and wikis, so I'm pretty accustomed to that sort of thing, admin a few wikis, etc.

But SH3 is, frankly, blowing me away. I mean, the Grey Wolves mod is absolutely insane: even the manual is freakishly awesome. Now, what you say about this Commander program -- I mean, come on, enough already!

I'm used to free mods being "like" paid for expansions, being a good way to get more re-playability, etc. I'm NOT used to mods essentially being equivalent to a major version upgrade, and to top it off, having multiple mods like that? Holy *! I guess this means that when I start using Commander, I will have gone from SH3 to SH4 to SH5, all within the lovely confines of playing SH3.

You could always send me a signed blank cheque and I'd be galad to write out the amount

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

...or to randomize various aspects of the game that you'd like to tinker with... in short it's just WAY COOL.

Like the one I put together that randomly chooses between 100 different loading screens, and randomizes 25 different songs the band plays at dockside.

I have my Commander set up to randomize the gramophone tracks by date, since I picked up a bunch of files that were organized that way. Commander also enables a 'radio' mod that throws in speeches from Der Fuhrer and announcements about the war. After listening to them enough I've picked up enough German to tell a little of what't going on. My favorite is the one announcing Prien's victory over Royal Oak - "Der unterseeboot und der schlactshiff."

Originally Posted by jimbuna

You could always send me a signed blank cheque and I'd be galad to write out the amount

Jim, your kindness never ceases to amaze me. That you would even offer to do such a thing for a fellow member goes so far above and beyond the call of duty. It makes me proud to call you friend.
(I'll expect my cut in due time)

[K-61]

The one thing about Commander that disappoints me is that outbound ships also have a cargo detailed in the log. Most of the ships sailing out from the UK to Canada, the US and other destinations were empty, as Britain imported more than it exported during the war. Such ships sailed in ballast. I do not fault Commander for this, but it would be nice to see such ships listed as "in ballast" in the sinkings log.

@ musides,

It's always great to see someone happy with the GWX Teams
(and all the other Modders)
work.
Makes it all worth while!
Thank You.

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

(I'll expect my cut in due time)

Um, You got your cut in Texas Mate.

It's called a Tee-shirt.
And not just any old Tee-shirt I might add!
Custom made and smuggled.....
I mean imported,
to the U.S. of A. just for you!
It was even given a ride in a Limo!
(Stolen or borrowed depending on how you look at the situation)
Now you want more?

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by K-61

The one thing about Commander that disappoints me is that outbound ships also have a cargo detailed in the log. Most of the ships sailing out from the UK to Canada, the US and other destinations were empty, as Britain imported more than it exported during the war. Such ships sailed in ballast. I do not fault Commander for this, but it would be nice to see such ships listed as "in ballast" in the sinkings log.

I think this would be easy enough to edit manually, provided you kept a note of which ships were outbound when you sank them.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by privateer

@Um, You got your cut in Texas Mate.

It's called a Tee-shirt.
And not just any old Tee-shirt I might add!
Custom made and smuggled.....
I mean imported,
to the U.S. of A. just for you!
It was even given a ride in a Limo!
(Stolen or borrowed depending on how you look at the situation)
Now you want more?

This was a private transaction between the Old Sailor and the Big Buna. Just because you're a privateer doesn't mean you can horn in on private Private's private business.

Well, it does, but we're not happy about it.

Especially since I know you'll want a piece o' da action too.

But since you could probably take us both on with both hands cuffed between your knees...

Okay, how much?

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

I think this would be easy enough to edit manually, provided you kept a note of which ships were outbound when you sank them.

Exactly what I was thinking. If you really want to be historical you could give me the name of each ship sunk, and I could give you the real actual true-to-life tonnage, since I know these things. And the nationality of the ship in question

Of course changing it in Commander after the fact makes it go all wonky, but still...

[Schwieger]

Some people cannot live without SH3Commander. I myself included.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Exactly what I was thinking. If you really want to be historical you could give me the name of each ship sunk, and I could give you the real actual true-to-life tonnage, since I know these things. And the nationality of the ship in question

Of course changing it in Commander after the fact makes it go all wonky, but still...

I already do this with ship names anyway in some cases... some of the ships I sank in 39/40 were Q-ships, and since all ships from the same class are lumped together regardless of nationality, a couple of them got assigned the names of US Q-ships. None of which would have been sailing around the Atlantic in 1939/40, not to mention the fact that all the ships I sank were flying British flags. So I went in and changed them. There have been a couple other ships in classes that included more than one nationality where the names seemed distinctly American and I changed those too, using what looked like a British name from the same class list... ditto when I sank what the game ID'd as the Warspite, when it got listed as the Barham or something in my log.

What I think happens (IIRC) correctly is that if you generate your updated personnel file, the real ship names & data will go into the files that contain your patrol data. Then if you go into those files and do the necessary editing, the edits will show up in your logs in Commander. So far all the names changes I've made have shown up okay in my Commander logs, with the exception of the first one I did when I didn't follow that procedure. I don't see why it wouldn't work the same way for cargo as it does for ship names.

Of course if you change ship names, you need to add the one you decide to use to the used ship names file, and take out of there the one you aren't using so it can be used again later on if needed.

Edit: honestly for me a list of the real ship names divided up by nationality would be awesome. I don't mean a file that would be used in Commander, I just mean one for my own reference. I've considered making at least one separate shipnames file that would not include US ships, to be used up until Germany declares war on the USA. Some of the shipnames just seem so distinctly American to me that finding one in my log before that time is really jarring.

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Especially since I know you'll want a piece o' da action too.

I got one of those Tee-shirts myself.
So I have my cut.
Actually?

I have TWO of those Tee-shirts.

Nancy gave me hers.