[REL] Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate, full release

[propbeanie]

OK... I did manage to break it... Same exact scenario. Start at Pearl on a Narwhal, after 3 patrols, upgraded to a Tambor. Transferred to Midway. Moved my deck gun. Did 3 more patrols, and was upgraded to a Gato. Did 3 more patrols, and March 20, 1943, upgraded (early) to a Balao, and lo and behold, no deck gun. However, this is NOT an FotRSU issue. I am almost certain we could induce it in TMO, and possibly in Stock, depending upon what the actual cause is, as mentioned, whether the moving of the deck gun on the Tambor, or the use of the Narwhal, or maybe that combination. Either way though, it is possible to get things back, though it definitely involves more than just the "AdditionalRepository" in the crew member slots. I will attempt to re-create this another way, and have a write-up, hopefully by tomorrow, on what to additionally edit in the upc file in the Save folder. It is based upon Coletrain's solution, but is more involved. More later.

[propbeanie]

Possible Deck Gun Fix For Failed Balao Boat Upgrade:

OK, this will be similar to the Coletrains’ method, as documented elsewhere on SubSim, and also in the “ColetraiinsAndOthersDGfix.pdf” file in the FotRSU Support folder, under the heading at the top of the file “Possible Deck Gun Repairs – Old Way, no positions with gun”. What happens in FotRSU though, is that you have no crew, no gun, and no UpgradePack, so they all have to be re-built. There is more than one way to skin this cat though. The easy way is if you have a previous Saved game that has a boat with the same gun, you can just copy appropriate sections. If not, you can base what you need off of one of those copies, or copy and paste from this text, and edit as necessary.

First of all, this situation does not happen except under certain circumstances, of which more digging is required to ascertain what those situations are. As WK4K and propbeanie have both found in their instances was that they started their careers in a Narwhal, were upgraded to a new boat class, and then transferred to Midway. Propbeanie moved the deck gun on his 2nd boat. His third boat, the Gato seemed to be fine. In both instances, the upgrade to a Balao resulted in the loss of the deck gun – complete loss, not just the crew slots.

If you encounter this situation and you have a Saved game prior to being awarded the Balao, you could roll-back to the previous Save and hope that the gun comes properly later. Do not count on that though… Once you are awarded the Balao that does not have a deck gun, you need to Save the game while in the office. Use a new named Save slot, such as NewBalaoNoGun, or some such, so that you know beyond a doubt that is the correct Save. Notate the time and date you make the Save. This will be important. You then have to completely Exit the game back to Windows, and navigate into the proper Save folder. If you use MultiSH4, run it from the game folder, and look and see what you named the Save folder. If you did not use MultiSH4, then it should be in the “C:\Users \UserName \Documents \SH4” folder, with “UserName” being what you log into Windows with, and “Documents” being dependent upon your version of Windows. It might be “My Documents”, etc…

Thankfully, you will only have to edit one file, but there will most probably be some more, extensive edits. Navigate into the Save folder, such that you go inside the “data” folder, then inside the “cfg” folder, and then inside the “SaveGames” folder. In my particular case, it is “F:\Users \propbeanie \Documents \FRE \data \cfg \SaveGames \”. Once inside that folder, you should find numbered folders. Choose the folder that corresponds the closest to the time & date you notated earlier. In my case, that was folder “00000012” Date Modified of “10/19/2020 4:37 PM”. Navigate into that folder and find the file “ActiveUserPlayerUnits.upc”. Open the file in a plain text editor, such as Notepad, or Notrpad++. Wordpad and Word, along with other text editors will function for this purpose, but you do have to be careful and “Save As...” instead of a plain Save, else you will add unwanted data to the file.

Once you have the file open in your text editor, you need to ‘find’ “UserPlayerUnit 1.Compartment 7” (Stern Gun Mount specific) with the “Search” function of your text editor. The 2nd line of that section should say “ID=BalaoGunS”. If that is not the 2nd line, then you would have a different problem, and should seek help with a description of what you have. Notice that line four of this section says “NameDisplayable=Aft Deck Gun”, which is the default location of the Balao boat’s deck gun, if all had gone well with your upgrade. The Coletrains’ and the wolfeinsamer methods both have you search on and find “UserPlayerUnit 1.Compartment 7.CrewMemberSlotAdditionalRepository x”, with the "X" corresponding to the member number, and then you remove the “AdditionalRepository” text for the four crewmember slots in FotRSU. Thus far, this is the same as all previous methods of restoring the deck gun. However, you might notice not just discombobulated entries for the gun, but their missing altogether. So you will need to copy the following text, and insert it between the “[UserPlayerUnit 1.Compartment 7.WeaponSlot 1]” headings last line of text, and the “[UserPlayerUnit 1.Compartment 7.CrewMemberSlot 1]” section heading:

[UserPlayerUnit 1.Compartment 7.WeaponSlot 1.Weapon]
ID=4in50calUS
NameDisplayable=4inch .50 Caliber Cannon
WeaponInterval=1900-01-01, 1999-12-31
WeaponSlotType=NULL
AmmoTypesAccepted=4inAPUS,4inHEUS
AmmoTypeLoaded=NULL
AmmoMagazineSize=1
AmmoMagazineRemaining=0
WeaponCrewMembersSlots=4
ExternalLinkName3D=4_50_soclu
FunctionalType=WpCannon
Hitpoints=100.000000
EfficiencyHumanFactor=0.000000
EfficiencyMechanicFactor=1.000000
Efficiency=0.000000
Damage=0.000000
DamageHitpointsConsumed=0.000000
RemainingRepairTime=0000-00-00 00:00:00
DamageDescription1=NULL,0,0.2,0,1,1,Jam,0,0,NULL,1 ,0.3,0.149237
DamageDescription2=NULL,0,1,0,0.5,1,Chamber Explosion,50,5,NULL,1,2,9.87833

This is if you are in a time period where the boat would be using the 4inch deck gun. If instead, you are after 1944-01-01, then you would change the “ID=” line, and the “NameDisplayable=” line to reflect the proper gun “ID=5in25calUS” and “NambeDisplayable=5inch .25 Caliber Cannon”, which are derived from the Weapons.upc file in the game’s “UPCData \UPCUnitsData” folder.

Next, you need to actually have the weapon in the UpgradePackSlot on the boat. Search on “UserPlayerUnit 1.UpgradePackSlot 2”, which in FotRSU is the “ID=UpgAirSearchRadar” section. (UpgradePackSlot 1 should be the “ID=UpgSurfaceSearchRadar”.) You most likely do NOT have an “[UserPlayerUnit 1.UpgradePackSlot 3]” section, which is the “ID=UpgDeckGun” section. The next section after that should be the “[UserPlayerUnit 1.FunctionalSubsystem 1]”. You will have to copy and paste this section between the last line of the “[UserPlayerUnit 1.UpgradePackSlot 2]” section and the “[UserPlayerUnit 1.FunctionalSubsystem 1]” section:

[UserPlayerUnit 1.UpgradePackSlot 3]
ID=UpgDeckGun
NameDisplayable=Deck Gun
Type=NULL
AcceptedTypes=USDeckGunBow,USDeckGunStern,USDeckGu nImpBow,USDeckGunImpStern,USDeckGunHvyBow,USDeckGu nHvyStern,USDeckGunHvyDbl
UserCustomizable=Yes
IDLinkUpgradePackSlots=BowDeckGun,SternDeckGun
CurrentUpgradePack=4inch .50cal Stern Mount
IDLinkUpgradePackSlotsLoaded=NULL

Save the file, making certain that it remains named “ActiveUserPlayerUnits.upc”, as a plain text file, and no extra data or file extensions added. Then try that “ NewBalaoNoGun” Save again, and see what happens...

It is assumed that it is the Narwhal that knocks things out of kilter, but it might also be the fact that a previous boat had its deck gun moved. The Tambor is also a stern mount, and it was moved to the bow, so it might be that when the Balao come along, and it is another stern mount, that the gun crew was already "moved", so no crew, you get no gun... we don't know yet. It might be one or the other, or maybe the combination. We hope to find out later.

[Rinaldi]

Will preface this with saying I am still on 1.24 as haven't made port yet for the patch.

If you manually go onto the radar station, for the rest of the session, the AI rating on station will not call out contacts he may detect. Not sure if there's a permanent fix but there is a simple workaround: save, exit to main menu, load back in.

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

May have asked this before and if did, forgive me.

Has it been attempted to make the AA guns act as deck guns? I would be willing to sacrifice crew manned AA guns if they would fire them at ships instead since it cant be both(why the devs didnt make them multi purpose, who knows) . Or is this hard coded?

Fleetboats rarely used their AA guns on aircraft, used them shoot up surface craft, would really add to the sim if could order the deck gun plus 40 and 20 MM target surface vessels together.

I also want to bring this up again, and ask if this can be done via a simple .txt fix? Like Bubblehead I'm wholly willing to trade the ability to defend myself against air threats for the ability to put maximum fire down on surface targets - especially as we get into early 44 in my current campaign!

I also want to ask, for the AA and MGs on armed merchant men, do they play by these same rules or are they able to fire at both my sub and allied air?

Yet another edit:

In the .upc files for individual submarines, four main weapons are defined under "FunctionalSubsytem", they are:

- WeaponMainCannon;
- WeaponSecondaryCannon;
- WeaponFlak; and
- WeaponDecoy

Now these are fairly self-explanatory, so I am assuming by changing one of the flak mounts (say, for argument's sake, the fore AA gun on a Gato class) to either WeaponMainCannon or WeaponSecondaryCannon, Crewmen will fire at surface ships instead of AA.

So for example:

[UserPlayerUnit 1.FunctionalSubsystem 29]
ID= FlakGun1
NameDisplayable= 1st Flak Gun
FunctionalType= WeaponSecondaryCannon
IDLinkFunctionalSubsystemSlots= CTForeAA, 1

That should make the fore AA gun behave as a deck gun instead, correct? With the US ships and later U-Boats having so much deck weaponry I could split the difference and keep rear AA for its intended purpose. I may test once back in port by creating a mini-mod and confirm this.

[propbeanie]

The radar station is not like the sonar station, is not like the watch crew. You can "see" the blips on your radar screen. Your radar screen is "to scale". You can also "see" the contacts on the NavMap. The loss of a vocal prompt can be brought about in several ways.

First pertains to how "busy" a given scene is. If there is a lot going on, radar reports seem to be below other reports. Also, as with sonar, if something is within visual range, you'll NOT see the radar report on the NavMap. Also, the "beam" on the FotRSU radar is smaller, such that if you are in mildly rough seas, your radar beam may well go over the top of a surface ship, and / or below an air threat, and you will "miss" a contact, as in real life.

Second pertains to the use of Time Compression. Dependent upon your computer, you will lose audio streams when using "high" TC, with "high" being defined by your computer. 1024x is the recommended max TC, but under certain circumstances, 4096x will be fine. Other times, even 256x is too high. It all depends upon your computer, and the amount of "traffic" around your submarine. Suffice to say that anything above 8x will "mute" certain sounds, and then you are at the mercy of the game as to whether a given audio stream is restored.

In line with that, the third way for the radar vocal reports to be lost is by "shelling-out" to Windows, whether a purposeful switching to the desktop, or a Win10-induced interruption, they all result in the same thing as far as a "legacy" DirectX v9.0c 3D game is concerned. The game was written to the Windows XP GUI, single-threaded with set address spaces, and since Vista, Windows keeps getting more "virtual" as it "matures". You leave the game, and the game may not find its "resources" where they were when you shelled-out. This is fixed by what you did, in Saving the game, Exiting, then Loading the Save upon restarting the game. There is no other "fix" for this (actually, "these" issues). It is the nature of the beast. Do not shell-out to Windows, do not use high time compression.

The secondary cannon is a "deck gun" on the submarine. It was used for a time in TMO (RFB??) but dropped. I do not recall why, but needless complexity comes to mind. A cannon shoots at ships. An AA gun shoots at planes as far as the submarines go. However, if you have ever surfaced close to some merchants and / or warships, you get everything thrown at you from 50cal (and lower) machine guns, up to and including 18.1" 3-gun turrets on a BB Yamato Class. We do not plan on attempting to "fake" the game out in this manner. Not worth the effort. If you want to use a 20mm to pluck away at unshielded deck crew on a merchant, man the gun yourself, but you cannot properly aim the weapon anyway, just like the deck gun. If you don't know the range, you can't aim the deck gun properly either, and the AA guns do not have a range scale to judge by... In my opinion, the guns don't even work properly as AA protection... It's not until you get to the 40mm that you actually have something slightly useful as a secondary deck gun... Part of the problem (again) is the way the game was built, where all sorts of "weapons" share "ammunition" (and other assets) with each other, so the 20mm is rather weak, doubling as a "machine gun", and not an actual "cannon" with exploding "bullets". As to the edits involved in doing what you want, it involves every step of a "weapon" definition, and not just a single upc file, but several in the UPCData folder, as well as the submarine folder.

[Bubblehead1980]

Curious. I placed the LCVP and LCVA from FOTRS into TMO. What is the basic load out for LCVA? Troops? I see the crates, jeep, oil drums are options, just wondering what the basic is for the load out.

[Privateer]

Found these downed airmen just south of Kiska and I was unable to rescue them. Is it a bug or intentional? I was at 1 kt and all-stop, no icon popped up. It was completely random as well, I didn't have a mission for it.

https://imgur.com/sNq1WTs

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by Privateer

Found these downed airmen just south of Kiska and I was unable to rescue them. Is it a bug or intentional? I was at 1 kt and all-stop, no icon popped up. It was completely random as well, I didn't have a mission for it.

https://imgur.com/sNq1WTs

unfortunately, in SH4 your mission objective must be to rescue survivors in order for that function to work.

very similarly, you cannot take photos of ships, etc unless you have a mission objective for it.

tip: if you want to rescue downed airmen, transfer to Brisbane and drive any boat other than a Gato or Balao during 1942-43. you should be assigned rescue missions in and around Guadalcanal.

good luck!

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by KaleunMarco

unfortunately, in SH4 your mission objective must be to rescue survivors in order for that function to work.

very similarly, you cannot take photos of ships, etc unless you have a mission objective for it.

tip: if you want to rescue downed airmen, transfer to Brisbane and drive any boat other than a Gato or Balao during 1942-43. you should be assigned rescue missions in and around Guadalcanal.

good luck!

Is that a FOTRS thing? I put random survivors in waters and even though no assigned to lifeguard, can rescue them.

[Rinaldi]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

The radar station is not like the sonar station, is not like the watch crew. You can "see" the blips on your radar screen. Your radar screen is "to scale". You can also "see" the contacts on the NavMap. The loss of a vocal prompt can be brought about in several ways.

First pertains to how "busy" a given scene is. If there is a lot going on, radar reports seem to be below other reports. Also, as with sonar, if something is within visual range, you'll NOT see the radar report on the NavMap. Also, the "beam" on the FotRSU radar is smaller, such that if you are in mildly rough seas, your radar beam may well go over the top of a surface ship, and / or below an air threat, and you will "miss" a contact, as in real life.

Thanks for the response. This was on a single contact. Let me rephrase: the contacts will not appear on Navmap even when they appear on radar screen after the player goes onto the station manually.

None of the other factors in this instance was at play. Again, all FYI as this is relatively easy to avoid and fix in game and caused me no issues. I did the Radar manually when I realized what was happening, sunk 'er, saved, reloaded, and went on with my game.

Needless to say, by the way, I love this mod. You guys have made a game that's over a decade old (!) fresh and exciting again. I don't think I could go back TMO or RFB: I get depth charged routinely, aircraft still occasionally catch me off guard even with SD, surface attacks are never not exhilarating, etc. The list goes on. Hats off to the team.

[torpedobait]

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

Is that a FOTRS thing? I put random survivors in waters and even though no assigned to lifeguard, can rescue them.

It isn't a FOTRS thing at all , in my experience. I find I can rescue any individual or raft-full of survivors who put out a pink flare, regardless of boat type, year, or area, as long as they are US, which may require a visual ID . My approach is to coast up to them within 2-3 hundred yards, bring up the Binoculars Order Bar, and use the binoculars (not the UZO) and steady the crosshairs above the survivor(s). When the crosshairs turn "red", and the speed is slow enough (2 knots is plenty) the Rescue button on the Orders Bar will light. Mouse over that button for a few seconds and the survivors should magically teleport on board. Not an easy thing to do in rough seas, by the way!

I know we get no game credit for rescuing survivors unless it is a stated objective, but it seems harsh to ignore fellow countrymen or allies and just sail off. I try to get them all.

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

Curious. I placed the LCVP and LCVA from FOTRS into TMO. What is the basic load out for LCVA? Troops? I see the crates, jeep, oil drums are options, just wondering what the basic is for the load out.

I almost forgot that you will have to add the actual load-outs from the higgins cargo dat. The Sea cfg files, along with the eqp define the boats' / ships' characteristics, if they can carry a "loadout". You can put cargo or soldiers, or a jeep inside of the NLCVA. The LCVP is "set"... Just like other ships' loadouts, only a separate dat file for the contents. So for every 2 loads of soldiers, you might have one with a jeep, and another with crates, for their support once on the beach. It would be really nice to have a tractor or two (armed and unarmed), or even a DUKW... but how often would you see them anyway?...

Originally Posted by Privateer

Found these downed airmen just south of Kiska and I was unable to rescue them. Is it a bug or intentional? I was at 1 kt and all-stop, no icon popped up. It was completely random as well, I didn't have a mission for it.

Originally Posted by torpedobait

It isn't a FOTRS thing at all , in my experience. I find I can rescue any individual or raft-full of survivors who put out a pink flare, regardless of boat type, year, or area, as long as they are US, which may require a visual ID . My approach is to coast up to them within 2-3 hundred yards, bring up the Binoculars Order Bar, and use the binoculars (not the UZO) and steady the crosshairs above the survivor(s). When the crosshairs turn "red", and the speed is slow enough (2 knots is plenty) the Rescue button on the Orders Bar will light. Mouse over that button for a few seconds and the survivors should magically teleport on board. Not an easy thing to do in rough seas, by the way!

I know we get no game credit for rescuing survivors unless it is a stated objective, but it seems harsh to ignore fellow countrymen or allies and just sail off. I try to get them all.

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

Is that a FOTRS thing? I put random survivors in waters and even though no assigned to lifeguard, can rescue them.

Not an FotRSU thing at all. Stock works the same. As torpedobait says, proper technique is required, and all I would add is that coming into the "rescue" bow-on is the "smoothest" ride, resulting in less submarine pitch and yaw, making it easier to pick-up and rescue. You can also click on that "Lifesaver" menu icon to effect the pick-up. Note also that you ~MUST~ be on the full Bridge View. No "blended" views. Since those parachutes you saw Privateer, were colored blue, that meant they were "friendly", and able to be rescued. You do not have a lifeguard mission though, so you only get the renown points, which in FotRSU is currently set to 150 points. It would certainly be nice if the game had a "hook" for a rescue though, as well as one for "damaging" a ship, but alas, no such luck...

Originally Posted by Rinaldi

Thanks for the response. This was on a single contact. Let me rephrase: the contacts will not appear on Navmap even when they appear on radar screen after the player goes onto the station manually.

None of the other factors in this instance was at play. Again, all FYI as this is relatively easy to avoid and fix in game and caused me no issues. I did the Radar manually when I realized what was happening, sunk 'er, saved, reloaded, and went on with my game.

Needless to say, by the way, I love this mod. You guys have made a game that's over a decade old (!) fresh and exciting again. I don't think I could go back TMO or RFB: I get depth charged routinely, aircraft still occasionally catch me off guard even with SD, surface attacks are never not exhilarating, etc. The list goes on. Hats off to the team.

You can have what we'll refer to as a "blended" screen, which can work rather well on an approach. While you are on the NavMap, click one time on the radar menu button, and you should still be on the NavMap, but with the Radar screen's menu at the button. Make certain the SJ is turned on and on Sweep. You will not see the "flash" of the contact every round of the sweep, but you should receive enough to do a mark-up for course and range. Once you are set, either turn the SJ off (recommended) or stop the sweep. Another technique you can use it to go to the radar PPI (Plan Position Indicator), and with the SJ on and contact(s) seen, make a note of where the contact(s) are, then turn the sweep off (Focus), and then make a mouse click on the screen and bring the sweep around to "Focus" on the target(s). Once you have the beam sitting where you want, go back to the NavMap and make your marks. Or you could use the scale on the PPI, noting the range and bearing, and transfer that to the NavMap. Turn the radar off after though, because even earlier in the war, the game allows the AI to "see" they are being painted, and they start to act erratic and/or come after you. Someone else might have a comment or two on how they use their radar. What we want to have is Nisgeis's 3D TDC & Radar and for it to be FotRSU compatible, but that will take time, and we haven't begun the process... but with it, you could send radar data to the TDC directly. In FotRSU, the current radar set-up can only help you a bit in targeting. If it is storming, or the fog is thick, you can use a combination of your periscope pointing at the enemy (sonar lines), and the radar to "target" a contact, but it does not work as well as the 3D TDC mod in TMO...

[Privateer]

Originally Posted by torpedobait

It isn't a FOTRS thing at all , in my experience. I find I can rescue any individual or raft-full of survivors who put out a pink flare, regardless of boat type, year, or area, as long as they are US, which may require a visual ID . My approach is to coast up to them within 2-3 hundred yards, bring up the Binoculars Order Bar, and use the binoculars (not the UZO) and steady the crosshairs above the survivor(s). When the crosshairs turn "red", and the speed is slow enough (2 knots is plenty) the Rescue button on the Orders Bar will light. Mouse over that button for a few seconds and the survivors should magically teleport on board. Not an easy thing to do in rough seas, by the way!

I know we get no game credit for rescuing survivors unless it is a stated objective, but it seems harsh to ignore fellow countrymen or allies and just sail off. I try to get them all.

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Not an FotRSU thing at all. Stock works the same. As torpedobait says, proper technique is required, and all I would add is that coming into the "rescue" bow-on is the "smoothest" ride, resulting in less submarine pitch and yaw, making it easier to pick-up and rescue. You can also click on that "Lifesaver" menu icon to effect the pick-up. Note also that you ~MUST~ be on the full Bridge View. No "blended" views. Since those parachutes you saw Privateer, were colored blue, that meant they were "friendly", and able to be rescued. You do not have a lifeguard mission though, so you only get the renown points, which in FotRSU is currently set to 150 points. It would certainly be nice if the game had a "hook" for a rescue though, as well as one for "damaging" a ship, but alas, no such luck...

Got it, thanks for clarifying that guys!

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Possible Deck Gun Fix For Failed Balao Boat Upgrade:

OK, this will be similar to the Coletrains’ method, as documented elsewhere on SubSim, and also in the “ColetraiinsAndOthersDGfix.pdf” file in the FotRSU Support folder, under the heading at the top of the file “Possible Deck Gun Repairs – Old Way, no positions with gun”. What happens in FotRSU though, is that you have no crew, no gun, and no UpgradePack, so they all have to be re-built. There is more than one way to skin this cat though. The easy way is if you have a previous Saved game that has a boat with the same gun, you can just copy appropriate sections. If not, you can base what you need off of one of those copies, or copy and paste from this text, and edit as necessary.

First of all, this situation does not happen except under certain circumstances, of which more digging is required to ascertain what those situations are. As WK4K and propbeanie have both found in their instances was that they started their careers in a Narwhal, were upgraded to a new boat class, and then transferred to Midway. Propbeanie moved the deck gun on his 2nd boat. His third boat, the Gato seemed to be fine. In both instances, the upgrade to a Balao resulted in the loss of the deck gun – complete loss, not just the crew slots.

If you encounter this situation and you have a Saved game prior to being awarded the Balao, you could roll-back to the previous Save and hope that the gun comes properly later. Do not count on that though… Once you are awarded the Balao that does not have a deck gun, you need to Save the game while in the office. Use a new named Save slot, such as NewBalaoNoGun, or some such, so that you know beyond a doubt that is the correct Save. Notate the time and date you make the Save. This will be important. You then have to completely Exit the game back to Windows, and navigate into the proper Save folder. If you use MultiSH4, run it from the game folder, and look and see what you named the Save folder. If you did not use MultiSH4, then it should be in the “C:\Users \UserName \Documents \SH4” folder, with “UserName” being what you log into Windows with, and “Documents” being dependent upon your version of Windows. It might be “My Documents”, etc…

Thankfully, you will only have to edit one file, but there will most probably be some more, extensive edits. Navigate into the Save folder, such that you go inside the “data” folder, then inside the “cfg” folder, and then inside the “SaveGames” folder. In my particular case, it is “F:\Users \propbeanie \Documents \FRE \data \cfg \SaveGames \”. Once inside that folder, you should find numbered folders. Choose the folder that corresponds the closest to the time & date you notated earlier. In my case, that was folder “00000012” Date Modified of “10/19/2020 4:37 PM”. Navigate into that folder and find the file “ActiveUserPlayerUnits.upc”. Open the file in a plain text editor, such as Notepad, or Notrpad++. Wordpad and Word, along with other text editors will function for this purpose, but you do have to be careful and “Save As...” instead of a plain Save, else you will add unwanted data to the file.

Once you have the file open in your text editor, you need to ‘find’ “UserPlayerUnit 1.Compartment 7” (Stern Gun Mount specific) with the “Search” function of your text editor. The 2nd line of that section should say “ID=BalaoGunS”. If that is not the 2nd line, then you would have a different problem, and should seek help with a description of what you have. Notice that line four of this section says “NameDisplayable=Aft Deck Gun”, which is the default location of the Balao boat’s deck gun, if all had gone well with your upgrade. The Coletrains’ and the wolfeinsamer methods both have you search on and find “UserPlayerUnit 1.Compartment 7.CrewMemberSlotAdditionalRepository x”, with the "X" corresponding to the member number, and then you remove the “AdditionalRepository” text for the four crewmember slots in FotRSU. Thus far, this is the same as all previous methods of restoring the deck gun. However, you might notice not just discombobulated entries for the gun, but their missing altogether. So you will need to copy the following text, and insert it between the “[UserPlayerUnit 1.Compartment 7.WeaponSlot 1]” headings last line of text, and the “[UserPlayerUnit 1.Compartment 7.CrewMemberSlot 1]” section heading:

[UserPlayerUnit 1.Compartment 7.WeaponSlot 1.Weapon]
ID=4in50calUS
NameDisplayable=4inch .50 Caliber Cannon
WeaponInterval=1900-01-01, 1999-12-31
WeaponSlotType=NULL
AmmoTypesAccepted=4inAPUS,4inHEUS
AmmoTypeLoaded=NULL
AmmoMagazineSize=1
AmmoMagazineRemaining=0
WeaponCrewMembersSlots=4
ExternalLinkName3D=4_50_soclu
FunctionalType=WpCannon
Hitpoints=100.000000
EfficiencyHumanFactor=0.000000
EfficiencyMechanicFactor=1.000000
Efficiency=0.000000
Damage=0.000000
DamageHitpointsConsumed=0.000000
RemainingRepairTime=0000-00-00 00:00:00
DamageDescription1=NULL,0,0.2,0,1,1,Jam,0,0,NULL,1 ,0.3,0.149237
DamageDescription2=NULL,0,1,0,0.5,1,Chamber Explosion,50,5,NULL,1,2,9.87833

This is if you are in a time period where the boat would be using the 4inch deck gun. If instead, you are after 1944-01-01, then you would change the “ID=” line, and the “NameDisplayable=” line to reflect the proper gun “ID=5in25calUS” and “NambeDisplayable=5inch .25 Caliber Cannon”, which are derived from the Weapons.upc file in the game’s “UPCData \UPCUnitsData” folder.

Next, you need to actually have the weapon in the UpgradePackSlot on the boat. Search on “UserPlayerUnit 1.UpgradePackSlot 2”, which in FotRSU is the “ID=UpgAirSearchRadar” section. (UpgradePackSlot 1 should be the “ID=UpgSurfaceSearchRadar”.) You most likely do NOT have an “[UserPlayerUnit 1.UpgradePackSlot 3]” section, which is the “ID=UpgDeckGun” section. The next section after that should be the “[UserPlayerUnit 1.FunctionalSubsystem 1]”. You will have to copy and paste this section between the last line of the “[UserPlayerUnit 1.UpgradePackSlot 2]” section and the “[UserPlayerUnit 1.FunctionalSubsystem 1]” section:

[UserPlayerUnit 1.UpgradePackSlot 3]
ID=UpgDeckGun
NameDisplayable=Deck Gun
Type=NULL
AcceptedTypes=USDeckGunBow,USDeckGunStern,USDeckGu nImpBow,USDeckGunImpStern,USDeckGunHvyBow,USDeckGu nHvyStern,USDeckGunHvyDbl
UserCustomizable=Yes
IDLinkUpgradePackSlots=BowDeckGun,SternDeckGun
CurrentUpgradePack=4inch .50cal Stern Mount
IDLinkUpgradePackSlotsLoaded=NULL

Save the file, making certain that it remains named “ActiveUserPlayerUnits.upc”, as a plain text file, and no extra data or file extensions added. Then try that “ NewBalaoNoGun” Save again, and see what happens...

It is assumed that it is the Narwhal that knocks things out of kilter, but it might also be the fact that a previous boat had its deck gun moved. The Tambor is also a stern mount, and it was moved to the bow, so it might be that when the Balao come along, and it is another stern mount, that the gun crew was already "moved", so no crew, you get no gun... we don't know yet. It might be one or the other, or maybe the combination. We hope to find out later.

"It is assumed that it is the Narwhal that knocks things out of kilter, but it might also be the fact that a previous boat had its deck gun moved. "

Maybe not, as I just finished multiple patrols in a Gato, always from Midway, and came in from last patrol April 20 '43, was offered the Balao, took it, and got no deck gun or crew slots. I never used a Narwhal, and never moved the deck position when I had a Sargo(?), Tambor, and finally the Gato. I have the save before entering Midway. I reran, refusing the Balao, and continue with the Gato. FYI.

[propbeanie]

Just for clarification jldjs, had you looked at your crew page, and there were no slots for a deck gun crew, or you looked on the hardware page, and no gun listed on the boat, or no gun listed in the left-hand column (inventory), or all of the above, or a combination? In my particular "find", there were "none of the above"... hence the "fix" above, which is based off of coletrains' method, with additions and edits for FotRSU...

[torpedobait]

I just had an unsettling experience early in a new career. Upon attempting to get the mission orders for what would be my 6th patrol on 8/1/42, 3rd patrol in USS Tuna (SS-203), a Tambor Class boat and 3rd patrol out of Fremantle, I instead got a CTD. I mean a CTD as in straight to Desktop, no stops or messages along the way.

I was in Fremantle having successfully completed five patrols, starting in Manila on 12/08 /1941 in USS Sculpin (Sargo). I took the upgrade to the Tambor boat when offered after 3 successful patrols, completed two more successful patrols in that boat, and encountered nothing unusual that I know of.

While in port prior to trying to depart Fremantle, I gave out promotions and medals as authorized, and upgraded the bow-mounted 3.5" Deck Gun to a bow-mounted 4.5" Deck gun. I was also offered an upgraded Surface Search radar, but I chose not to take it at this time.

I saved the game there in the Office, loaded the save game as is my custom to ensure it will load if I need it, and went to get my next mission orders and departure date. That's when it crashed.

I can go back to the start of the previous mission, or the one where I had just arrived in Fremantle at the end of that mission, but if that doesn't work I'm stuck.

Do you think there is something amiss in the Mission files for that boat type and/or dates out of Fremantle?

UPDATE: I went back and loaded the save file I took when I first entered base after completing the 5th patrol. As soon as it loaded, I went straight to the next missions map without making any changes to crew or deck gun. Same results. It crashed immediately to desktop. That tells me it's more likely in the mission files area and not in any of crew or boat changes I had made earlier.

Here are my mods again:

Generic Mod Enabler - v2.5.0.150
[G:\Ubisoft\Silent_Hunter_IV\MODS]

100_FalloftheRisingSun_UltimateEdition_v1.24_EN
101_Patch_v1.2To_v1.26p
399_NoScrollNavMap
450_Lite Fog v2 + 300' Underwater Visability
452_MoonlightzSonarLines
801_UMark Invisible
901_strategic_map_symbols