[REL] FOTRS Ultimate Project

[s7rikeback]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

An interesting discovery s7rikeback. I had ended up installing a "game booster" app on my bigger computer, because I could get the Museum to run on the little machine, but not the big one, and the most obvious difference between the two computers was what loaded in systray at start-up. The game booster thingie shuts down 'un-needed' processes in windows when you run the game, and presto, the Museum ran... However, looking back, I had just done a 'fresh' install of FotRS Ultimate v.1beta, and that might be it. When I get back to my computer at home, I'll have to look at the date / time of that...

Hmm i've never used a game booster on any of my systems.. XP or any more modern ones..

[propbeanie]

I hadn't either, but I did delve into the "dark arts" of editing things by "hand" in XP and Vista for better efficiency with multi-track audio recording and editing, and video import and editing. It used to be important for those kinds of things, but usually not for games. It wasn't until I could run the Museum on the dual-core with 2gig of ram, but couldn't get it to go on the quad core with 8 gig of ram, both with Win7-64, that I tried other options... I'm back home now, and I'm going to experiment with my installs and the Museum.

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by s7rikeback

Also found that if I installed all alpha updates in order plus the beta over a clean 1.5 it WILL always cause the museum to CTD during loading on both my systems

However if I only install the Beta over a clean 1.5, the Museum works each and everytime unless I mess a config file up during cloning.

Regards,
s7rikeback.

Well, I had to do several things to test this. First of all, since I had a good, relatively fresh install of FotRS Ultimate on a pristine SH4 v1.5, I left it alone. No sense in tempting the fates... I then took another copy of my SH4 v1.5 (what's that make on this computer?? 6 copies now??) and started with my old copies of FotRS starting with v1.3, and then added in the mods, running the game once, then removing them before updating to the next version and repeating the process. I tried to run the Museum in them all, and only had troubles with the last alpha and the beta. The last alpha almost ran the Museum, but crashed once it displayed the Iowa. The beta crashed prior to creating the actual Museum window. When I was finished with that, I deleted the whole structure, brought in another copy of SH4 v1.5 and added the beta version straight away. When I went to do the Museum, it did get further than before, which was I'd get to "Find 'em, Chase 'em, Sink 'em" and then crash, but I again only got to the Museum Window itself, see a little bit of daylight, the sound of water & wind, and CTD, no Iowa. So, it was an improvement, but still didn't do it. All I had to do this time to get it to go though, was to "kill" the GoPro systray thingie, and the museum runs like a champ like that.

There may well be something getting left behind when we go from version to version of FotRS, if we don't start with that "pristine" Silent Hunter v1.5 install. It might be advisable to put such in the ReadMe when we do a public beta. I'm inclined to think it's the My Documents save area being the culprit, since I didn't touch it until I did the last round...

[cdrsubron7]

Hey, did I miss much today? I was on the golf course with the Admiral this afternoon, then we went had drinks at the Royal Hawaiian afterwards.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Well, I had to do several things to test this. First of all, since I had a good, relatively fresh install of FotRS Ultimate on a pristine SH4 v1.5, I left it alone. No sense in tempting the fates... I then took another copy of my SH4 v1.5 (what's that make on this computer?? 6 copies now??) and started with my old copies of FotRS starting with v1.3, and then added in the mods, running the game once, then removing them before updating to the next version and repeating the process. I tried to run the Museum in them all, and only had troubles with the last alpha and the beta. The last alpha almost ran the Museum, but crashed once it displayed the Iowa. The beta crashed prior to creating the actual Museum window. When I was finished with that, I deleted the whole structure, brought in another copy of SH4 v1.5 and added the beta version straight away. When I went to do the Museum, it did get further than before, which was I'd get to "Find 'em, Chase 'em, Sink 'em" and then crash, but I again only got to the Museum Window itself, see a little bit of daylight, the sound of water & wind, and CTD, no Iowa. So, it was an improvement, but still didn't do it. All I had to do this time to get it to go though, was to "kill" the GoPro systray thingie, and the museum runs like a champ like that.

There may well be something getting left behind when we go from version to version of FotRS, if we don't start with that "pristine" Silent Hunter v1.5 install. It might be advisable to put such in the ReadMe when we do a public beta. I'm inclined to think it's the My Documents save area being the culprit, since I didn't touch it until I did the last round...

Yes, I wouldn't recommend layering all the versions at all. You should start with a pristeen stock installation and just install the latest one alone.

If we add something in a new version, layering works. But if we took something out, after you layer it will still be there! That's bad, by the way.....

[cdrsubron7]

Could someone please take the degree reading from Binoculars view on the Bridge and darken it so we can see. With so much fog being around in FOTRSU it's very hard to read.

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by cdrsubron7

Hey, did I miss much today? I was on the golf course with the Admiral this afternoon, then we went had drinks at the Royal Hawaiian afterwards.

Not really... I got sunk again by a Hunter / Killer group off of Honshu - third time now?...

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Yes, I wouldn't recommend layering all the versions at all. You should start with a pristeen stock installation and just install the latest one alone.

If we add something in a new version, layering works. But if we took something out, after you layer it will still be there! That's bad, by the way.....

Just testing what s7rikeback note on the previous page, and making sure of how I'd done my "update" to the beta. I'm not sure now that I'd deleted my save folder stuff... ?? What did I have for breakfast?

I'm at present trying to do another campaign (since I got sunk again yesterday - dang them DDs). I've set the AI Setting mod thingie to #1 Level in an attempt to complete ~something~. I'm also not going to go above TC 2048. I know I'll be tempted to speed things along, but I'm thinking that the TC is some of the issue with the game.

On another note, I've been assigned another agent insertion, this one to Hokkaido, near Tomakomai. This is about the fourth time I've gotten these type of assignments in a similar number of campaigns. All have been to the Japanese Islands, with three now to Hokkaido, and one to Honshu. I've also gotten a similar number of photo recons. Did the US do that much surveillance of Japan early in the war? Also, was there ever an "extraction" of said "foreign service agent"?

[cdrsubron7]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Not really... I got sunk again by a Hunter / Killer group off of Honshu - third time now?...

Try using the Anti-Hunter Killer mod in the SAR folder, pb. The only Hunter groups left if you try it will be around Honshu (main island of Japan) and Truk. But not in all instances.

On another note, I've been assigned another agent insertion, this one to Hokkaido, near Tomakomai. This is about the fourth time I've gotten these type of assignments in a similar number of campaigns. All have been to the Japanese Islands, with three now to Hokkaido, and one to Honshu. I've also gotten a similar number of photo recons. Did the US do that much surveillance of Japan early in the war? Also, was there ever an "extraction" of said "foreign service agent"?

I'm wondering if some changes should be made to the Special Missions. Lifeguarding and Agent Insertion could be left along with supply drop-offs. But Photo Recons that require harbor penetrations especially in and around Japan should be eliminated. the Yellow Sea mission also. Agent insertions on Japan or Formosa should be eliminated. Like someone else has mentioned this is the time to make changes while we're working on things. Yes, I believe there where actual agent pickups made by US Submarines during the war, pb.

[cdrsubron7]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

You could try the AOTD.DE web site cdrsubron7, and see if you can find any info there. Traffic has been light there lately.

https://translate.google.com/transla...-sun/?6884464c

that link will take you through Google Translate to their Fall of the Rising Sun pages. This is where I found the most useful clues when chasing down "The Sound". They have a "Bug Reports" kind of sub-forum off of that (Technical Aid).
.
.
http://www.aotd.de/FOTRS/

is their download section, and you might find a ship or two in there. Just be polite...

While perusing the download section I came across a couple of interesting jpg that where worth mentioning here.

the first is of a new merchantship, the NACA4 that wasn't added to FOTRS for whatever reason. There is a complete Sea folder for this ship and I suppose a Roster cfg.file can be made so it could be added to FOTRSU.



The other picture is off a new periscope view, not sure where it came from if it FOTRS or what. Still pretty nice looking though.

[propbeanie]

While I am getting rather frustrated with the Hunter / Killers, and I've yet to survive past a third patrol, only once past a 2nd patrol... - it is what is Fall of the Rising Sun v2, so should probably stay, but with a warning label applied, pictures included... for the new user. If I cannot get very far with this one, I will almost ~have~ to do that cdrsubron7, because I'm wanting to make sure that a person can actually get through a career without CTDs into oblivion, which is why I dropped the v1.3 years back.

If you look through the AOTD.DE forum there, you'll find a few threads of "contention and discord" among some of the members. Using Google, one loses some in the translation, and I can seldom tell if someone has apologized and all is well, or if there is still a problem, but that was one of the ships imported from elsewhere that was complained about (if I'm remembering correctly again). The couple posts I saw, it having been a case of not knowing the original source of the files, and not having gotten permission from the original author. I can't see why that one was left out. Maybe it's just a different skin on another ship?

I was just over there again, trying to find the thread I'm talking about (I must be going blind online too... :wink, and didn't find it. However, I did find a post where the person was complaining about his sub crew's inability to report planes when they're in closer that 6k He almost got torpedoed by the plane and managed to damage it, but it flew away - I think, like I say, I might be better off getting my high school German back out and just using it instead of Google...

[cdrsubron7]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

If you look through the AOTD.DE forum there, you'll find a few threads of "contention and discord" among some of the members. Using Google, one loses some in the translation, and I can seldom tell if someone has apologized and all is well, or if there is still a problem, but that was one of the ships imported from elsewhere that was complained about (if I'm remembering correctly again). The couple posts I saw, it having been a case of not knowing the original source of the files, and not having gotten permission from the original author. I can't see why that one was left out. Maybe it's just a different skin on another ship?

So, there were a few other reasons why FOTRSU v2.0 didn't make to a full English version. The only reason we heard was that Madmax lost his job late in life and didn't have to time to mod any more. It sounds like a few skeletons in the closet were being rattled also. Oh well, hopefully we can make up for it with FOTRSU.

I've always had a suspicion that some of the ships in FOTRS came from SH3, but that's just a wild guess on my part.

[dom111]

I'm almost certain that I read about integrating the Spyron Flotilla campaign in the FOTRSU mod, but I can't find anything of this now. Did I dream it or...???

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by cdrsubron7

... I've always had a suspicion that some of the ships in FOTRS came from SH3, but that's just a wild guess on my part.

Quite a few came from SHIII, hence the issues with some of the German vessels, among others, in FotRS. It could also be why some ships don't show up in the Names file. Most of the contention that I saw on other sites was not anything that kept content out, other than maybe a little bit, though I cannot find any direct evidence of such. It might just be that they ran out of time, or got tired of the process, or maybe someone couldn't get the Museum to run... - I say that in slight jest, but there is a thread over there about that issue, where some folks couldn't get the Museum to run. No solution found, as far as I can tell, similar to "The Sound" and a few other issues they had, which is why (besides his own experience) CapnScurvy will keep repeating the "emulate stock" mantra...
'
'

Originally Posted by dom111

I'm almost certain that I read about integrating the Spyron Flotilla campaign in the FOTRSU mod, but I can't find anything of this now. Did I dream it or...???

Permission has been refused, hopefully only for the time being. Maybe once the author sees FotRS Ultimate Edition, and is able to play it some, modding it to what he likes with the "approved" mods, he'll change his mind. Until then, fingers crossed, 'cause it is fun in stock with it.
'

[John Tigers]

Hi FOTRSU-Makers!

I think,you know about this with to drop out a Agent with the SpecOps-Boat.
He paddled with SpecOps boat with the head down to the shore, but it looks stupid!
Maddy (an German FOTRS-Modder) has tell us about this,this is an SH4-Stock-Problems and it´s can´t never be fixed.Is he right? Hm and i think now,maybe you can fix it or not? I hope,i get an new reply from you!

[Rockin Robbins]

@John Tigers I'm afraid Maddy hit that one right on the head. Everyone has taken their best shot at handling the upside down specops boat and upside down lifeboat. Nobody's been able to do anything with it.

@team as for the hunter-killer groups. The argument that we want to be pure Maddy has limits. Those limits are where leaving the game the way it is makes for an unplayable mod. FOTRS must be an excellent mod in its core state. When experienced players are killed every time we have a mod that will be dropped like a red hot ingot and we can't afford that. The core mod will have all but three hunter killer groups killed. The hunter-killers will be available in a plugin mod for those who brag about killing off the escorts and then picking off convoy members with their deck gun as then get a suntan on deck.

Thanks Propbeanie, I'm going to spend some time laughing at Google translate and reading the AOTD bulletin board today. It's nice to know that they had issues that we've been dealing with.

Never forget: AOTD mods didn't achieve the popularity of RFB, TMO or GFO because they were buggy and unreliable. Leaving the problems in there doesn't honor Maddy's contribution to the game. Fixing them in the core mod exposes their best work so that players can appreciate their contribution.

That's why CapnScurvy's work went into the core mod.

I'm reading Clear the Bridge right now researching sensor ranges. O'Kane detects a ship at 14,000 yards on radar and comments that is half the normal detection range because of radar anomalies. That solidly points toward the stock game being on the money with radar ranges for ship detection.

Also, I'm in favor of removing all the harbor photography missions from the core mod, I believe secret agent insertion missions should be rare. We don't feel the same about lifeguard missions as real submariners did. They were the highlight of their careers to them and so I believe we should leave them in. Same with supply dropoffs. And I agree with cdrsubron7 that the yellow sea mission can be deep sixed in the core mod.

Now all these things could be made available with mod plugins for those who are easily amused taking improbable photos in impossible places that never had those missions in real life. Power to the player!