SH3PATROL – General Announcement

[bigboywooly]

Originally Posted by Stiebler

The addition of U-tankers to NYGM, HT and other mods has resulted in the need for new patrol grids where ‘NULL’ would previously be assigned. This occurs whenever your U-boat docks at a German base, such as a U-tanker, that is not its home port. The time at the base also needs to be reduced to a day or two.

I designed SH3Patrol to generate sensible random patrol zones appropriate for your port and your U-boat type with a minimum of overhead (program size is 180 Kbytes, mostly Windows data added by Microsoft),
Stiebler.

well it does say at the top the addition of utankers to OTHER mods so thought it might be available as a seperate download

Dont want NYGM am more than happy with GW thanx

[Stiebler]

From J Scones:

Originally Posted by Stiebler
It is not designed to replace the popular SH3Commander, but will sometimes provide solutions in circumstances where SH3Commander fails.

Sorry about the delay in the reply - I've been on holiday.

Circumstance in which SH3Patrol provides a solution where SH3Commander does not:
Providing a new patrol area *after* docking at a U-tanker, surface tanker or German port that is not the home base.
SH3Commander does allow the player to type in a new patrol grid under these circumstances, but the new patrol grid is always overwritten subsequently by NULL (this is a 'feature' of stock SH3, not of SH3Commander).

Improvements of SH3Patrol over SH3Commander:
1. SH3Patrol needs to be run once only after docking at a U-tanker/surface tanker in order to set a date randomly selected between 1 and 5 days. There is no after-effect on the player's files. SH3Commander also allows the player to set the time at these ocean fuellers, but the time then has to be reset after returning to base.
2. Patrol grids provided by SH3Patrol (whether at home base or elsewhere) are randomly selected from a lookup table that contains entries appropriate to the base, the U-boat type and the date. No more will players be sent to patrol the English Channel in a Type IXD2 U-boat.
3. Alt-Tab from SH3 or NYGM TW 2.0 (when docked) takes you straight to SH3Patrol on the main Windows screen, and reduces the tedious need to reload the whole game in mid patrol (ie, after docking in mid-ocean).

Let me emphasise again: I have no intention that SH3Patrol should replace SH3Commander. My program provides merely a more convenient way of handling dates and patrols after docking at a U-tanker/surface tanker/ port-other-than-home-base. SH3Patrol will be used only occasionally, and is designed not to clash with SH3Commander.

****

For those who have asked that SH3Patrol be made available for mods other than NYGM TW 2.0:
It is my intention to release a stand-alone version soon. But the NYGM team - and NYGM users - deserved the first release. Meanwhile, those who wish can just copy SH3Patrol out of NYGM TW 2.0 and use it with other mods. But if you've downloaded NYGM TW 2.0 (as you must to use SH3Patrol at this time), while not try out NYGM, the most realistic U-boat mod ever released?

Stiebler.

NYGM Tonnage War Mod - Leading Edge Realism

[JScones]

OK. So there are no *failings* with SH3Cmdr per se, for it acts as designed (because yes, it does a lot more than just allow the changing of patrol grids which is why the need to reload in toto to overcome SH3's loading of core files at start up). That's all I needed to confirm. Thanks.

FYI clarification re "2. Patrol grids provided by SH3Patrol (whether at home base or elsewhere) are randomly selected from a lookup table that contains entries appropriate to the base, the U-boat type and the date. No more will players be sent to patrol the English Channel in a Type IXD2 U-boat.", SH3Cmdr R2.5 allows for randomised grids to be selected based on Flotilla and Date and uses the same logic as SH3 does. In other words, grids selected are within the same set that SH3 draws upon.

[Stiebler]

For those want to try out SH3Patrol for themselves, it is now available for download at FileFront:
http://www.filefactory.com/?b949e8

The downloadable file is a standard zip file, named SH3Patrol1_2A.zip, and is very slightly improved over that provided with NYGM TW 2.0. Full instructions are included as a rich text format file (.rtf, open in WordPad, or any word processor).

A brief summary of its advantages can found at the top of this thread. It is mainly designed to aid those who use the U-tankers, and is not intended to replace SH3Commander.

Stiebler.

NYGM - LEADING EDGE REALISM

[hardcampa]

Hey Stiebler,
I added it to ftp://gibbage.mine.nu as well.. hope you don't mind.

[Onkel Neal]

Now available in Subsim Downloads

[Stiebler]

To HardCampa and 'Uncle Neal',

Many thanks for making SH3Patrol more readily available.

Stiebler.