Convoy Discussion

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by Fifi

Yes, that’s what i meant.
To infiltrate convoy at night still surfaced like kretschmer did, merchants should not see you more than 150m away! (Rows are generally 500m spaced)
So merchants should be almost blind at night...that is not the case presently in any SH3 megamod.
Only way to represent this, is to modify the Sim.cfg night settings (and probably fog factor too for different weather types) and maybe the AI sensors dat visual adjustment...not easy task to get the correct settings for all kind of weather, keeping in mind warships must keep some better visuals at night (slightly better than merchant, but still lower than actually)
To me, and according to what Kretschmer wrote in his testimony, cargo ships should not see you surfaced at 150m when dark night, and warship should not see you surfaced at 300/400m!

Exactly. I was saying surprised none of the mods have made this possible in SH 3. Then again, I was surprised no one had made it happen in SH 4 as well. As said, SH 4 is basically a clone of SH 3, so sure it can be done.


Definitely complicated and took many hours of testing. The first step is making sure the nights are dark enough. SH 3 and 4 by default the nights even without moonlight war just way too bright. Likely done to make visual identification easier at night for player but it kills realistic night surface attacks. Mods improved it but still far too light. Once changed the environment at night with the darker nights mod with proper settings in .cfg to balance things, have desired result.


I am wondering if the darker nights mod for SH 4 would work with SH. Hmmm. I do not have SH 3 installed currently or I would check. In near future I do plan to get back into SH 3, take a little break from the pacific after a year plus working to update some things. Only modding will do in Sh 3 will be the try and make the Kretschmer style surface attacks happen, if it is not done before. Of course , if one does not exist will need someone to do the darker nights (if the SH 4 mod does not work) as that is beyond my knowledge base at moment.

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

Exactly. I was saying surprised none of the mods have made this possible in SH 3. Then again, I was surprised no one had made it happen in SH 4 as well. As said, SH 4 is basically a clone of SH 3, so sure it can be done.


Definitely complicated and took many hours of testing. The first step is making sure the nights are dark enough. SH 3 and 4 by default the nights even without moonlight war just way too bright. Likely done to make visual identification easier at night for player but it kills realistic night surface attacks. Mods improved it but still far too light. Once changed the environment at night with the darker nights mod with proper settings in .cfg to balance things, have desired result.


I am wondering if the darker nights mod for SH 4 would work with SH. Hmmm. I do not have SH 3 installed currently or I would check. In near future I do plan to get back into SH 3, take a little break from the pacific after a year plus working to update some things. Only modding will do in Sh 3 will be the try and make the Kretschmer style surface attacks happen, if it is not done before. Of course , if one does not exist will need someone to do the darker nights (if the SH 4 mod does not work) as that is beyond my knowledge base at moment.

Fwiw, moonlight has no effect on SH3 visibility.

[Fifi]

John is right, moon light has no effects.
If you want real dark nights, take the scene dat of my mod (either Ccom or LSH3)

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by John Pancoast

Fwiw, moonlight has no effect on SH3 visibility.

Really? Interesting. As said do not have a lot of experience in SH 3. Certainly does matter in SH 4.

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

Really? Interesting. As said do not have a lot of experience in SH 3. Certainly does matter in SH 4.

Unfortunately yes. Neither does depth charge noise. Btw, if you want more room inside a convoy simply change the ships spacing in the campaign.rnd file. As he mentioned, Fifi also has some nice env. mods.
Sometimes it won't save for some reason but sometimes it does.

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by John Pancoast

Unfortunately yes. Neither does depth charge noise. Btw, if you want more room inside a convoy simply change the ships spacing in the campaign.rnd file. As he mentioned, Fifi also has some nice env. mods.
Sometimes it won't save for some reason but sometimes it does.

Well, that is unfortunate. There is a depth charge noise mod for SH 4 by The DarkWraith. I thought he made one for SH 3 as well? It definitely works. Main thing (as can imagine) is gives player precious seconds to run at high speed after charges explode. I increased the duration and amount of noise each charge makes but it made things too easy after they made a few runs.

I have changed the spacing of convoys in spring summer 1944 when IJN began running alliedesque convoys in terms of larger numbers and more escorts. US started using wolfpacks (their version) and night surface attacks became the preferred method.


When I get back into SH 3 I will check out the env mods and mod the sim.cfg to see if get it where Kretschmer style attacks are possible.

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

Well, that is unfortunate. There is a depth charge noise mod for SH 4 by The DarkWraith. I thought he made one for SH 3 as well? It definitely works. Main thing (as can imagine) is gives player precious seconds to run at high speed after charges explode. I increased the duration and amount of noise each charge makes but it made things too easy after they made a few runs.

I have changed the spacing of convoys in spring summer 1944 when IJN began running alliedesque convoys in terms of larger numbers and more escorts. US started using wolfpacks (their version) and night surface attacks became the preferred method.


When I get back into SH 3 I will check out the env mods and mod the sim.cfg to see if get it where Kretschmer style attacks are possible.

Yes he made one for SH3 too but some found it to cause ctds. Others have made some too.
Haven't tried them myself; the escorts aren't very dangerous anyway so not really needed.

[iambecomelife]

Hope you guys are doing as well as can be under the circumstances. Back on the subject of attacks, I usually find that I am never kept down too long so that repeated attacks are impossible - once the DD's leave me alone I almost always use the "end run" method, racing parallel on the horizon, so I can set up another attack the following night. Unless I am low on torpedoes, damaged, approaching shallow water, or have orders to patrol elsewhere. I'm pretty sure that historically, Donitz would regard just one attack on a convoy as not being enough - leaving you in trouble once you got back to base.

And I agree night vision by non-player units is too good in stock; but I usually do OK by going to PD & using the periscope only occasionally when I get closer than maybe 5000M.