cant find the merchant ship mod-help

[thebigJ_A]

Oh man, that looks sweet! Why did no one tell me about it? I demand to be told all things that might possibly be of interest to me at some point in the future from here on out!

It says it's compatible with GWX, but what about OLC Gold, ACM Reloaded for OLC + Lite Map, WBNN, and TMT? (The stuff I'm running atm.)

I assume TMT would be the least likely to work with it. I also assume it's a bit of a resource hog.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by thebigJ_A

I demand to be told all things that might possibly be of interest to me at some point in the future from here on out!

As you wish.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=170090

[thebigJ_A]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

As you wish.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=170090

Hey, it worked!

Ahem. Now I demand to be given enough money to never have to work again!

This is gonna be so awesome....


But back to the real world. Does anyone know if this mod is incompatible with any of the ones I listed below?

And would I have to start a new campaign, or would installing it while in port be ok? (I really don't want to start anew. I just had my very first successful, full-realism patrol and I want to see this skipper through to the end. Just shy of 40,000 tons sunk, every torp programmed by hand. I'm so proud of myself!)

[frau kaleun]

The Merchant Fleet Mod(s) basically just adds a wider variety of merchant ships to your game, and they don't have to be specially scripted into campaign files or anything. So unless your supermod has done something really crazy with the way the data\Sea and data\Roster folders and files work, I don't think there would be a problem.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by thebigJ_A

Ahem. Now I demand to be given enough money to never have to work again!

This is gonna be so awesome....

Sorry, I lost the link to that mod. When I find it again I'll let you know.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Sorry, I lost the link to that mod. When I find it again I'll be on a beach in the Bahamas.

Fixed.

[Fish In The Water]

Originally Posted by thebigJ_A

Ahem. Now I demand to be given enough money to never have to work again!

IIRC, that one was called the Spanish Treasure Fleet mod...

The trick is to disable their propulsion and then board with a raiding party so as to avoid sending all the booty to the bottom!

[thebigJ_A]

I just downloaded it. In the readme it talks about neutrals carrying contraband, not having flags, etc., and that "It is up to you as a commander to use your discretion when making attacks".

Now, I'm a newbie skipper, so my discretion isn't worth much. It says ships around British ports are more likely to be enemy. Does that mean I can sink a neutral sailing to/from a Brit port and not take a renown hit? Can someone give me an idea what to look for when deciding who to sink in this mod?

Also, I DLd the two skin packs. I presume I apply the US+UK skin folder that's closest to the date I'm at, but what about neutrals? There's only one neutral folder and it's just dated 1940. Does that mean I should wait till January of '40 (I'm at the end of September '39 atm) to apply it, then leave it for the rest of the war?

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by thebigJ_A

I just downloaded it. In the readme it talks about neutrals carrying contraband, not having flags, etc., and that "It is up to you as a commander to use your discretion when making attacks".

Now, I'm a newbie skipper, so my discretion isn't worth much. It says ships around British ports are more likely to be enemy. Does that mean I can sink a neutral sailing to/from a Brit port and not take a renown hit? Can someone give me an idea what to look for when deciding who to sink in this mod?

Also, I DLd the two skin packs. I presume I apply the US+UK skin folder that's closest to the date I'm at, but what about neutrals? There's only one neutral folder and it's just dated 1940. Does that mean I should wait till January of '40 (I'm at the end of September '39 atm) to apply it, then leave it for the rest of the war?

The way the "neutrals" are set up in the MFM is that sometimes they will be true neutrals, meaning they spawned from a neutral country's roster, and sometimes they will be enemy ships, meaning they spawned from an Allied nation's roster. I'm referring here to the way the game determines whether a target counts as enemy or neutral and the renown credit or debit you get if you sink it. You will have no way of knowing for sure what roster it spawned from unless it's flying that nation's flag, and some of the MFM ships won't fly a flag - all you'll have to go on is hull markings. And as noted, an MFM ship may sometimes look like it's neutral, even as far as having a neutral flag painted on the side, but still "count" in game terms as an enemy ship because in that particular instance it spawned from an Allied roster instead of a neutral one.

If they spawned from an enemy roster, MFM ships should behave just like any other enemy ship - if they see you, they may start zigzagging or take other evasive action, and I assume that if they're armed they may fire on you. (Haven't played enough with the MFM in place yet to have experienced a lot of this, I'm just going on general principles and what others have said.) More than likely they will appear in the game where any other ship from an enemy roster is likely to appear, so yes it may be obvious that they are heading into or out of an enemy port. BUT - true neutrals may also be found in some of those places, so location is not always a 100% guaranteed way of making that determination.

Whether or not you take the renown hit for sinking what appears to be a neutral ship will be determined by what roster it spawned from, and only by that. If it spawned from a neutral country's roster it's not going to matter that it was sailing directly into a British port when you sank it. However if it spawned as a true neutral, presumably it won't behave like an enemy ship if it spots you. The downside to this, obviously, is that you have to be spotted in order to provoke a response (or lack thereof).

Or maybe you can see some of the cargo on deck, and it's clearly war materiel. They are arming your enemy, they are fair game in my book.

It does make things a lot trickier if you still have a renown hit for sinking neutrals. So, you can either leave it that way and take the risk or edit the basic.cfg to remove the renown hit.

One thing is, early in the war, it's much easier and safer to approach a ship - at least a lone ship - and be spotted to see what response you get before initiating an attack. As for ships in convoy, any ship sailing in a convoy with an armed escort is fair game - they've forfeited any presumed right to sail unmolested. For that reason, I've actually edited the basic.cfg to give me renown for sinking neutrals, and then I have to exercise the discipline required to attack presumed neutrals only when the circumstances justify doing so.

[thebigJ_A]

Thank you. Hmm, seems tricky. Just so I'm clear, did you mean that any ships with war material on their decks (tanks and such), or that are in allied convoys, will be spawned from the allied roster? I don't want to turn off the renown hit, because I want consequences for my mistakes, so I want to know under what circumstances a ship is definitely an enemy. I rather like the idea of uncertainty, but knowing when to be uncertain (if that makes sense) is ideal.

Any thoughts on my question regarding the Neutral folder?

Edit: Oh sweet, my picture changed to Popeye!

[Fish In The Water]

Originally Posted by thebigJ_A

I demand to be told all things that might possibly be of interest to me at some point in the future from here on out!

Very well...

In that case I shall be sure to warm up my crystal ball!