Scripted Aircraft in Silent Hunter 3 (SH3)

[Stiebler]

@Areo16:

The specific intercept that I use is in the code beginning at SH3Collisions.act+02e70. Register ebx points to the active unit.

This is particularly useful, in that:
a) only scripted units (including the player's unit) pass through this code. Randomly-generated units and land units have their own code. This saves a lot of computation.
b) The SH3Collisions.act code is mostly activated only when other units are sufficiently close to the U-boat that a collision (eg with a bomb or shell) might occur.

Thus scripted aircraft can only make my new code active when they are close to the U-boat, but before the U-boat is seen, and before a radar-warning given. Then, in poor visibility, the hit-points at float[ebx+00B8] are set to zero and [ebx+00D0] is also set to zero, which kills further movement of the aircraft.

But note how useful this is: if there are many scripted aircraft flying nearby, only those sufficiently close to the U-boat will be eliminated. The others will continue to fly their scripted routes even in bad weather, so they remain still a threat to the U-boat when visibility becomes better.

I have also revised my plan stated above to provide multiple scripts at 7-day intervals for periods of months in area north-west of Spain. As just stated, most of the scripted aircraft will survive poor visibility anyway, because the U-boat is not near. Moreover - I forgot earlier - most U-boat patrols will be of at least six weeks' duration. Therefore it is only necessary to provide scripts, not for every seven days, but for every six weeks - and at 2-3 month intervals when the air cover was present, but weaker, in the same area.

Stiebler.