[WIP] The "Just Follow Orders!" Mod

[rudewarrior]

Originally Posted by sharkbit

I was thinking it would be interesting to make some kind of "standing orders" mod that would include required torpedo settings, being required to cruise thru the Bay of Biscay on the surface during the day and submerged at night during 1943(I'm not sure exact dates when this order was issued and when it was changed), etc.

Everything you have mentioned here is included! I think you will be happy with what we have compiled.

Originally Posted by Missing Name

This seems like an interesting idea! I never had any idea where the exclusion zones were.... so I just avoided Great Britain altogether.

If you have a chance take a closer look at the first template in the post. It will give you a good idea of where those zones actually are. Plus you will see some other pieces of info included in there as well.

[urfisch]

interesting! thanks!

[mikey117us]

These are the Examples of what you should be receiving,
http://www.uboatarchive.net/BDUKTB.htm
I'm going to try this mod when ready it sounds great!

[rudewarrior]

Originally Posted by mikey117us

These are the Examples of what you should be receiving,
http://www.uboatarchive.net/BDUKTB.htm
I'm going to try this mod when ready it sounds great!

This is one of the many sources that we used when doing our research. The orders will not necessarily look the same or have all the same info. However, all the information supplied in our orders will be stripped down from those orders to only include information that can actually be tactically implemented.

[Sailor Steve]

I'm assuming from your descriptions that this only affects standing orders, and the regular radio messages will be unchanged?

Either way, I like it! It gets the Sailor Steve Seal of Approval!

[rudewarrior]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I'm assuming from your descriptions that this only affects standing orders, and the regular radio messages will be unchanged?

The plan is to write up a series of radio log entries that you will cut and paste into your radio log. These messages will all start with something like "JFO! Mod" to let you know that you are getting some sort of update to the orders in your Kaleun's log. The text won't necessarily be the historic text, but they will succinctly communicate current updates to your orders. This way you will have an "official" order that (assuming you want to play this way) you will have to comply with.

This way you can still keep your original messages from the Radio Log Expanded Mod if you like. So the historically accurate transmission will be there, but you will also get an independent JFO! update message that explicitly lays out the orders/updates in more exact language.

I have noticed there are some conflicts that I have found for certain dates using my sources versus message dates in the RLE mod, so we will be open to anyone who can offer historical corrections provided they can also offer a source. I am very confident in the resources we have used to assemble this info. Unfortunately, I am also confident that the modders who developed the RLE mod had good sources, too. I am a little worried that there may be some corrections that might need to be made. However, I will always be happy to as long as I can reconcile it with some sort of source.

Either way, I like it! It gets the Sailor Steve Seal of Approval!

Thank you! We are sincerely happy that this is generating interest. As we dug further and further, we kept finding information that was really relevant to how Kaleun's were forced to act during certain parts of the war, and with the development of h.sie's wonderful SH3.exe mod, it really seemed that these conditions were a necessary addition that was really missing from the game.

I'm hoping that h.sie might return to working on his wonderful mod some more. I have an idea that I would like to discuss with him that I think would make his torpedo crisis/failure aspect to the mod even more accurate and complete. Unfortunately, I only know coding theory, so I don't know if it would even work, let alone how much work it would be for him. Based on the research I have done for this mod, it would be a simplistic idea, but just don't know how simply it can be implemented, if at all.

The reason for this is that, during a large part of the war, the Germans were generally using a depth setting of 4 meters. With h.sie's mod, during 15m/s winds, this results in a lot of torpedo failures. Sometimes so much so that while "Just Following Orders!" I actually expended all of my ordinance on a lone cargo ship with no hits! I usually just go home, as getting zero tonnage on a patrol sometimes did happen (I just remind myself that getting tonnage on every patrol is probably not very realistic ) If he could successfully implement my idea, then we might be able to prevent this situation, while being even more historically accurate with torpedo failures! Then again this is a mod designed very specifically for people who want to make it harder on themselves anyway.

[Sailor Steve]

Paste the orders into the existing file? Cool! I like SH3 Gen, but I only ever use it at the beginning of a patrol to see what might be available around my assigned grid, and even then I keep the settings turned way down. I think I'll like this better.