WIP - Long Range Patrol

[Ducimus]

LRP is hereby canceled.

That is all i have to say.

[GT182]

Ducimus, good for you mate. More choices are good and welcome by most, or all, of us playing SHIII.

I can understand your feelings for the Type IXs. I've run the B, C, now the D2and love them all. The range and torpedo capacity alone make them formidable subs, especially the IX/D2. Looking forward to your mod.

[Ducimus]

Speaking of subs, the subs in LRP, the skins are all the latest of fubars skins, resized to default texture size, and then repacked into their dats. Makes for quicker loading, and less demanding on your computer.

Ive done alot of changes to them.. or rather, fine tuning. The summation of all the uboat changes are pretty much like this:

IXB,
shortest range, slowest surface speed, fastest submerged speed, least amount of hitpoints, fastest diving, now uses type 7 interior.

IXC
Middle range, middle surface speed, 1 more torpedo, standard submerged speed, middle range hitpoints, average diving speed.

IXD2,
longest range, fastest surface speed, tons of torpedos, slighly slowest submerged speed, most hitpoints, slowest diving.

All boats have the same crush depth, and they all slow crush, meaning you can, (and in some instances probably should), push your boat deeper then you normally would.
Stock files are used. No mod that gives a sub a natural negative or positive boyancy to encourage constant foward motion is being used.

Ive also given them all *slighly* more fuel then is historically accurate. (IE instead of using 12,000 @ 10 KM on the IXB, i used 12,000 @ 12kts). This gives you a little extra fuel to loiter in your patrol area. (maybe too much, i might lower it) Using the historical fuel figure, in an IXC, i barely had enough fuel to stay in the carribean 4 or 5 days if i expected to return. Hence the motivation to add a little more fuel.

[VON_CAPO]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

Ive done alot of changes to them.. or rather, fine tuning. The summation of all the uboat changes are pretty much like this:

IXB,
shortest range, slowest surface speed, fastest submerged speed, least amount of hitpoints, fastest diving, now uses type 7 interior.

IXC
Middle range, middle surface speed, 1 more torpedo, standard submerged speed, middle range hitpoints, average diving speed.

IXD2,
longest range, fastest surface speed, tons of torpedos, slighly slowest submerged speed, most hitpoints, slowest diving.

All boats have the same crush depth, and they all slow crush, meaning you can, (and in some instances probably should), push your boat deeper then you normally would.
Stock files are used. No mod that gives a sub a natural negative or positive boyancy to encourage constant foward motion is being used.

Ive also given them all *slighly* more fuel then is historically accurate. (IE instead of using 12,000 @ 10 KM on the IXB, i used 12,000 @ 12kts). This gives you a little extra fuel to loiter in your patrol area. (maybe too much, i might lower it) Using the historical fuel figure, in an IXC, i barely had enough fuel to stay in the carribean 4 or 5 days if i expected to return. Hence the motivation to add a little more fuel.

It sounds good to me.
I am looking forward to it.

[Jimbuna]

Sounds great Ducimus...this will give everyone an additional choice as to how they wish to immerese themselves...I for one will add an extra install to try it out

[danlisa]

Bring it on

I love patrolling foreign shores in my IXD2.

[irish1958]

Ducimus,
Great news. I have a large hard drive, so now I will have 4 installs. You are truly leading us in a new direction.

[Ducimus]

UBOATS.
The changes to the uboats were meant to further enhance their individual characteristics so you'd see more of a difference between them. To present a reason why one would want each uboat, and yet do so without sacraficing much in technical accuracy. Extra fuel was added to the uboats to lighten the need to use a milk cow, although you can still use a milk cow if you want. I just hate using them because they screw up my patrol logs. Also i didnt spend 25 days crossing the atlanic for only a couple days worth of hunting.


PLAYER AND AI SENSORS:
AI sensors is one area ive spent alot of time and experimentation in. Overall, you'll find that the AI is much more tenacious when it becomes aware of your presense. The max visual ranges on both the player and the AI is 14,000. Snorkel fixes are in place. A minimum surface height of 1 meter has been added to all airborne radars. However, the AI_Visual remains at its default 0 surface height. I did this because you could literally leave your periscope up all the time and never be spotted. It just made the game too easy. I have done some testing with this, and have succuesfully snorkeled under a test plane without being spotted with the AI visual at this default height.. So if you hate being dropped out of time compression by an ashcan on your wintergarden, i woudlnt worry about it too much.


STATE OF THE SEA
The state of the sea will be VERY important. You will both love and hate foul weather now. To sum, the more rough the ocean, the harder you will be to detect both visually on the surface, and underwater. The more clear and calm it is, the easier you'll be to detect. WIth this in mind, as much as i hate 15 kt winds all the time, its now a blessing in disguise.



BEING DEPTH CHARGED:
What i call the "depth charge experience" is another area ive done alot of dabbeling in. Now in an ideal world you an get under depth charges, and this is historically accurate. Uboats could dive deeper then most depth charges could that were thrown at them. Now the problem with DC's in SH3 is that you can't really limit their depth. At least, i haven't found a way to do s. Theres also a 300 meter limit at which the game will render depth charges. Once you pass about 305 meters or so, they magically POOF into thin air. Not so much as an explosion. Very disappointing. Really took the fun out of being in a deep diving sub if you ask me. Increasing the depth accuracy wasnt really the answer either. Hedghogs however, by default, are on a 1 way trip down to 1600 meters before they POOF.

The long and short of this is: Depth charges will explode a little more randomly, when near their intended mark. Ive slighly increased their depth accuracy, and when they do explode, you'll feel it as ive increased their explosion radius a tad. Hedge hogs, Ive turned into an entirely new animal. Ive increased the radius they'll do damage and increased their explosion raidus, and they will now randomly explode after 200 meters.

Theyre all now essentually mini depth charges, that function as hedge hogs when they make contact with your boat. Very nasty. What this means to you, is that if your spotted or about to be spotted late war, your going to want to go very deep,very fast. Once you pass the 200 meter mark, your odds of surviving go up, but your still never completely safe. You will hear ALOT of explosions. In all seriousness ive had tests where i was at 250 meters, watched all but 1 of the hedge hog salvo explode overhead.. the one that didnt was the one that managed to sink deep enough to get me. So even with this depth inaccuracy and ability to get under them, your still at risk.

OF AI GUNS AND ANTI AIRCRAFT FIRE.
You'll find that the guns mounted on AI ships will be alot more accurate, and fire at longer ranges then stock. You'll also find your own AA doesnt have lazer accuracy anymore. LRP includes portions of Jayce's Improved Airpower mod. Aircraft are possible to shoot down, but you'll have a much tougher time of it. In tests ive done, an IXC equiped with the twin barrel c/38's and the quad 2cm heavy flak, heavily damaged a sunderland on its first past, and was able to destroy it on its 2nd pass. The same test done with the double barreled 3.7 auto heavy flak destroyed him on the first pass when he was relaitlvy close to the uboat. So its possible to shoot down aircraft (i cant deny i love doing it), and you have a reason to upgrade heavy flak, and you most definatly should think twice about fighting it out on the surface with multiple aircraft.


EQUIPMENT DATE CHANGES.
IXC/3 conning tower is avialable in 43 now instead of 42.
Snorkel is avialable in 44 now instead of 43.
2CM heavy flak is available in 1/43
3.7 Single barraled heavy flak is avialable in 6/43
3.7 singe barreled heavy flak is avialable in 12/43

The reason for some of these changes:
Snorkel, the reality is the snorkel wasnt widely avialable until 44. A few boats had them in 43, but most did not.

The IX/3 conning tower in 43, because quite simply, im 99% positive they didnt exist until then. Most military services only changes things on an as needed basis. Major AA fire improvments weren't done until around 43, and all accounts ive read indicate that the tower didnt exist until then. Besides, assuming you did get the IX/3 tower in 42, what are you going to put on the wintergarden, that old 1938 vintage singe shot 3.7 that was on the back of an IXB? You may as well be shooting spitwads.

They heavy flak changes are i think, more historically accurate from accounts ive read. The date changes are meant to further define how they're an upgrade, not a choice of the same gun that performs the same way. They clearly perform differenlty.


THE ARGUMENT FOR RENOWN.
Ogrinally renown used to bug the heck out of me. But over time ive come to think of it is a neccessary evil. You can think of renown as influence, or to put it more blatantly, a unit vale placed upon your ranking in the "good ole boy system".. From my 7 years in the military, i can tell you that the "aquirement" of funds, equipment, material, etc are more often then not heavily influced by who you know, or how well in your with certain people. Supply sgt's dont hand the latest and greatest to any joe schome, particualrly when they have a short supply of them. I like to think of renown as a virtual simulation of how things probably really worked. As an example, in the book "iron coffins", Werener was always looking for a snorkel, he knew they existed but couldnt get a boat with one until late in the war. Simarly one of his old skippers managed to get an XXI uboat, and he flately stated to his old skipper he didnt have the same level of influrnce to get out of VII boats.


BASIC CONFIG
All type 9 uboats will now come equiped with a full load of type I G7a torpedo's. If you want other torpedo's you'll have to load them yourselves based on avialalibty at your base at the time. Ive also equiped them with along the themes of, "old tech is standard, new tech will cost you". So stuff new in 40, will be standard in 41 or 42. To this end, ive changed the IX/40 to have the latest and greatest. If you have the renown to pick up an IX/40 uboat, it will come fully loaded with the latest technoloogy or equipment you couldnt otherwise get through normal procurement.

Removed fatigue. ive tried to mess with it many ways, its no matter what its just a hassle, so i took it out.


CAMPAIGN CHANGES.

Heres a summary. At the opening of Jan 42, the Caribean and US eastern seaboard should be what it was historically, a shooting gallery. By febuary of 42, you'll start seeing air patrols. Probably not historically accurate, by i added them because things just get too easy in my opinion. ( One air patrol in particuarly im curious to see just how baddass theyre going to be :twisted: ) you should start seeing an exansion of aircover as airbases come into play in 43. Sometime in late 42, early 43 you'll stop seeing alot single merchants. What youll see instead is small convoys.

In the indian ocean you'll see relaivey the same thing, execept youll see small convoys, and large convoys. You shoudlnt see any signle merchants at all.

I've also added an HK group to represent the 2nd support group in the bay of biscay, and they'll probably be leathal. I have two words for this...."priening route"

Overall you should see the drumbeat theater and the far east most defintly worth going to, which is the focus of LRP.


FLOTILLA CHANGES

2nd flotilla is unchanged
10th flotilla starts in lorient as normal, then moves to beadoux in early 43.
12th flotilla moves to penang in penag in early 43 and stays there until late 44 after which it cease to exist.


If you want to go to the far east, you can start in the 12th in dec of 42 and travel there yourself, the good ole fashioned way, or you can use SH3 commander and start in febuar of 43 and just appear in penang. Ive also extended the life of supply ship brake, which now ceases to exist in Jan of 45 it think. So if your like me and like doing things the hardway, you can always go to the far east no matter what flotilla or IX boat your in. You dont neccessarly have to have an IXD2 to make the trip now.

Im bout out of time, ill stop there. I think ive covered most everythign anyway.

[mr chris]

Ducimus this is one mod iam looking forward too. i think i might need to make a new install when this relaesed. (number 3) Thank you for your hard work in being this to the comuinty and good luck with the remained of your work.

[Ducimus]

Im still testing right now. Im seriously considering removing the elites. Combined with some of the sonar changes, it might be a bit TOO much. The U505 mission right now, is damn bloody hard, next to impossible to survive. Of course the U505 mission was never really the best mission to test on anyway, as the AI in that mission always does better for some reason. Campaign, they're very rarely that good, even with elite AI, so im not sure right now. I may just compromise, and replace all elite AI with veteran AI, and then just hand pick which groups will be elite. Right now, ALL Hunter kill groups are elite, and so are alot of escorts.

[Ducimus]

After some reflection i think its best that i play test my creation for a couple weeks before i release it. (after all, i made it primarly for myself anyway ) I wish i could put it up now (cause i think im about done), and im sure theres at least a couple people who feel the same, but when i release this, it's going to be final. So i want to make double sure i got everything ironed out beforehand.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

After some reflection i think its best that i play test my creation for a couple weeks before i release it. (after all, i made it primarly for myself anyway ) I wish i could put it up now (cause i think im about done), and im sure theres at least a couple people who feel the same, but when i release this, it's going to be final. So i want to make double sure i got everything ironed out beforehand.

Fair enough Ducimus...still looking forward to trying it out

[Ducimus]

You know, life sucks, and so do hard drive failures. last night one of my hard drives went tit's up, and naturally, guess what was on it?

Ive recovered some of my data, but also lost a good chunk of it. So, im afraid your going to have a bit of a wait. I'll get everything pieced back together again but it will take me some time. My aplogies if you were all set at the dinner table with the smell of a nice roast in the air, so to speak.

[mr chris]

Ducimus am very sorry to hear about your hard drive blow out.
I hope you get everything back together soon. You take as long as it takes.
Im just glad that you did not lose all your hard work. Good luck with piceing back together