Strange issue..

[ryanglavin]

I live by rollback, haha. Always manual so I always remember to do it. So what files do I check?

[Bakkels]

The file I showed you a few posts back, flotilla.cfg. If you name me the base you're starting from, I can give you the right numbers to add in there.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by ryanglavin

I live by rollback, haha. Always manual so I always remember to do it. So what files do I check?

Two questions:

1) If you are concerned about remembering to do it, why do it manually at all?

The Auto-Rollback option does it automatically so you don't need to remember to do it manually.

-and-

2) If you are rolling back manually, do you do it every time you exit the game, or only when you finish a patrol?

IIRC there are some changes Commander can make to the game files that cannot be undone just by deselecting the related option at a later date and relaunching the game. Once the change is made, if a rollback is not performed (either manually or automatically) when you exit that gaming session, the changes will remain in place until they are manually edited out of the game files (or some other mod is enabled that overwrites the affected file).

That's why I'm wondering if "start at sea" was checked at the launch of one gaming session, which ended without a rollback being done, and then unchecked at a later time. If you were in and out of the game several times before finishing the patrol, and you only rolled back after the last session where you completed the patrol, I think it would've been too late to uncheck the option and have it undo the changes made when you first checked it.

[ryanglavin]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

Two questions:

1) If you are concerned about remembering to do it, why do it manually at all?

The Auto-Rollback option does it automatically so you don't need to remember to do it manually.

-and-

2) If you are rolling back manually, do you do it every time you exit the game, or only when you finish a patrol?

IIRC there are some changes Commander can make to the game files that cannot be undone just by deselecting the related option at a later date and relaunching the game. Once the change is made, if a rollback is not performed (either manually or automatically) when you exit that gaming session, the changes will remain in place until they are manually edited out of the game files (or some other mod is enabled that overwrites the affected file).

That's why I'm wondering if "start at sea" was checked at the launch of one gaming session, which ended without a rollback being done, and then unchecked at a later time. If you were in and out of the game several times before finishing the patrol, and you only rolled back after the last session where you completed the patrol, I think it would've been too late to uncheck the option and have it undo the changes made when you first checked it.

I usually do it whenever I finish a patrol, as I like to look at the patrol log of that patrol

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by ryanglavin

I usually do it whenever I finish a patrol, as I like to look at the patrol log of that patrol

If you are going to rollback Commander, you should do it every time you exit the game - whether you finish the patrol or not. Using rollback has nothing to do with looking at the patrol logs, so I assume you mean that you manually rollback at the end of a patrol because that's the only time you open Commander again after exiting the game. But auto-rollback will perform a rollback on exit every time whether you finish a patrol or not. You don't have to remember to rollback, you don't have to remember to reopen Commander. Definitely the way to go IMO.

At any rate I suspect this may be where your persistent "start at sea" base locations are coming from.

If you launched the game one time with "start at sea" checked, Commander changed the DeparturePoint settings for all the base locations. If you exited the game after that session without a rollback, the new DeparturePoint info was left the way it was during that session with all your bases located outside their harbors. They will stay that way until you manually edit them, because deselecting the "start at sea" option probably doesn't overwrite that file again with the original data, it just prevents the same alternate data from being written in a second time.

Auto-rollback is your friend, if you're rolling back anyway there's no reason not to use it and let it rollback every time you exit the game.

[frau kaleun]

Okay... from data\Cfg\Flotilla.cfg, here is the GWX3 unmodded data for the location of the bases:

Kiel
DeparturePointLong0_0=1218360.000000
DeparturePointLat0_0=6521927.000000

Brest
DeparturePointLong0_1=-534395.000000
DeparturePointLat0_1=5805818.000000

Wilhelmshaven
DeparturePointLong1_0=973144.000000
DeparturePointLat1_0=6420906.000000

Lorient
DeparturePointLong1_1=-399068.000000
DeparturePointLat1_1=5729721.000000

Königsberg
DeparturePointLong2_0=2446551.000000
DeparturePointLat2_0=6560480.000000

St. Nazaire
DeparturePointLong2_2=-286409.000000
DeparturePointLat2_2=5673433.000000

Trondheim
DeparturePointLong2_3=1244910.000000
DeparturePointLat2_3=7612441.000000

Penang
DeparturePointLong3_1=12041654.000000
DeparturePointLat3_1=651371.000000

Jakarta
DeparturePointLong3_2=12820015.000000
DeparturePointLat3_2=-734089.000000

Bergen
DeparturePointLong4_0=637589.000000
DeparturePointLat4_0=7249043.000000

Salamis
DeparturePointLong5_0=2823883.000000
DeparturePointLat5_0=4557002.000000

La Spezia
DeparturePointLong5_1=1182453.000000
DeparturePointLat5_1=5292137.000000

Toulon
DeparturePointLong5_2=706306.000000
DeparturePointLat5_2=5173530.000000

Bordeaux
DeparturePointLong6_0=-103542.000000
DeparturePointLat6_0=5447207.000000

Constanza
DeparturePointLong7_0=3436705.000000
DeparturePointLat7_0=5297686.000000

flensburg
DeparturePointLong7_1=1133815.000000
DeparturePointLat7_1=6577820.000000

Open your current version of flotilla.cfg and find where each base is listed. Some are listed under more than one flotilla.

Wherever the base's name appears, a few lines below it you'll see coordinates listed for DeparturePointLong & DeparturePointLat for that base as associated with that flotilla.

The long strings of numbers that I have bolded above are what you need to look at, they are the coordinates that determine the latitude/longitude of the base when it appears in the SH3 world. If a base appears in the file more than once, for two or more flotillas, it should still have the same coordinates in all instances (no matter if the unbolded bit before the '=' is different).

Restoring the original coordinates should place your departure points back where they were originally, and the game shouldn't place you outside the harbor when you start a new patrol.

If it doesn't work, or your current data already matches the above, then I'm stumped.

Also: note that some of the coordinates have a minus sign in front of them ('-'). Don't leave that out if you put in the data copied above!

[ryanglavin]

Ok, this is going to sound stupid, but I haven't screwed with my SH files lately. Data is the one right inside of the main folder, correct?

[Gargamel]

Quick Question.... Is this the steam version of SH3?

And/or, When you launch from SHC, does SHC close, then reopen?

(If it is, then don't mess with any of those files until you hear my fix).

[Fish In The Water]

Originally Posted by ryanglavin

Ok, this is going to sound stupid, but I haven't screwed with my SH files lately. Data is the one right inside of the main folder, correct?

Yes.

[ryanglavin]

Originally Posted by Gargamel

Quick Question.... Is this the steam version of SH3?

And/or, When you launch from SHC, does SHC close, then reopen?

(If it is, then don't mess with any of those files until you hear my fix).

No for both. But thanks for the insight, friend

[ryanglavin]

Thanks for the assistance Frau, now lets hope it works

[ryanglavin]

Nope, nothing changed in game when I changed the values, (I'm still starting at sea)
I'm completely stumped.

[frau kaleun]

Fingers crossed.

I should say that there are some things that make auto-rollback of Commander after every session a problem, usually due to some particular game configuration... as Gargamel has noted above.

But those instances seem to be pretty rare, and usually it's not something that just 'happens' - so I would still say that unless you know there's a specific reason Commander should not be rolled back, it's best to let it auto-rollback whenever you exit the game.

Edit:

Nope, nothing changed in game when I changed the values, (I'm still starting at sea)
I'm completely stumped.

And you did make sure to save the changes to flotilla.cfg? Cuz that's a real puzzler. If the original coordinates are there, I can't think why the game wouldn't put the base and you in the harbor to start out.

Did you try starting a whole new career just to test what happens then? I don't know that it matters, but it could be worth a try.

Do this, go into My Documents and open the SH3 folder there (or whatever folder name you're using for the installation you're playing, if you have more than one). Go in the Careers folder and open the subfolder for your current kaleun.

Then open the Careers.cfg file and scroll down through the different sections. Each one should have lines for the following:

PortName=Wilhelmshaven
DeparturePointLong=976375.000000
DeparturePointLat=6422169.000000

Your PortName and the coordinates may be different, but whatever. I'm just curious what the coordinates are in the Career files for your kaleun, if that has something to do with it. Maybe something is being read from that particular career's files that is controlling where you start.

[ryanglavin]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

Fingers crossed.

I should say that there are some things that make auto-rollback of Commander after every session a problem, usually due to some particular game configuration... as Gargamel has noted above.

But those instances seem to be pretty rare, and usually it's not something that just 'happens' - so I would still say that unless you know there's a specific reason Commander should not be rolled back, it's best to let it auto-rollback whenever you exit the game.

Ok this just got a whole lot weirder...

I accidentally copied the lat/long things to my clean save, with no GWX. So obviously it didn't change anything haha.
But when I went into my GWX3.0 files, it shows it as the ones you gave me.

[Bakkels]

Well I might have a solution. And a weird one, but maybe it works:
I noticed in the Sh3Commander\cfg map, there's the 'start at sea.cfg' file. How about you just put the numbers Frau Kaleun gave you in that file, and than ENABLE 'start at sea' in sh3commander? Logic dictates that if you do that, you should in fact start in the harbor...
It's a backwards solution, but if it works it works. And if not... well than I'm out of ideas here. Let me know how it works.