SH3 Commander (current v2.7)

[Konovalov]

Originally Posted by Pioneer

I'm using SH3 Commander for the first time

Your only regret should be that you didn't try it earlier.

It's a bit like the American Express card. You know, "don't leave home without it."

[JScones]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Love the experienced crew as well, but I'll have to be selective in the early part of the war; after the very first patrol of the war I was advised that two crewmen had completed "two or more war patrols"!:rotfl: Well, I'm not complaining about something so minor that would take so much work to change, if possible at all; especially when it only involves one patrol out of many careers (when a captain retires or dies I start a new career that same month).

Those guys will be mighty offended if they knew that you have totally written off their Spanish Civil War experience.:rotfl:

You can reduce the likelihood though if you want - checkout the below block in SH3 Options.cfg:

;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[CREW SETUP] ;THIS BLOCK CAN BE DELETED IF UNWANTED
;When "Select to randomise crewmen details" option is selected, determines the
;percentage likelyhood of a crewman having previous experience. Usage:
;<YEAR>=<percentage between 0 and 100, ie 40 = 40% chance that crewman will be experienced>
;EKIIChance=<percentage between 0 and 100, ie 20 = 20% chance that crewman will have EKII>
;MaxPatrols=<maximum number of patrols crewmen have undertaken. Applies to all years>
;Set all values to 0 to disable feature
1939=25 <- change to 0 or a much lower figure
1940=30
1941=40
1942=40
1943=40
1944=35
1945=25
EKIIChance=15
MaxPatrols=6

[irish1958]

Originally Posted by Pioneer

I'm using SH3 Commander for the first time after getting a major RAM upgrade. Launched my first patrol and was pleasantly suprised.

Then I went and read the "readme" file.

Typical, I put to sea without finding the nightclub. Can someone write directions so that when I get back I might find it. Thanks in advance.

While in port (and only in port), uder "Action" the nightclub option will be there when you click on it.

[Pioneer]

Originally Posted by irish1958

While in port (and only in port), uder "Action" the nightclub option will be there when you click on it.

Is that after the first patrol or is it available prior to the first patrol?

[Sailor Steve]

It only kicks in after the first patrol.

They don't tell ya where it is until you've proven yourself. "Shh, it's a secret."




Jerks.

[Pioneer]

...and apparently I didn;t prove myself in the first patrol.

Can someone send a wench around to escort me to the Nightclub please. Apparently, I am unable to find it on my own.

[Sailor Steve]

Okay, here's what'cha do:

1) Fire up SH3 Commander

2) There's nothing there. It's waiting for you to start a new career or load a saved one. Click on one of your saved careers

3) You'll now see your kaleun's picture and status stuff. At the bottom is 'Actions', and a blue 'Click for available actions'. Click on that.

4) Options will be displayed: 'Update your personnel file', 'Manage your crew', 'Go to nightclub', 'Delete this career'. You know what to do next.

[Pioneer]

I was looking for it "from the dockyard."
I didn't realise I'd have to leave the shipyard.

Thank your wench for me.

[Gairith]

Been using SH3 Commander since inception, still lovin it.

Thanks for the hard work!

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Sorry, if this was discussed or explained before:

I started a campaign isung English language text, then switched to German when on patrol and noticed that all the record for this patrol was gone in SH3 Commander log (Personnell File). Before the patrol ended (I usually play a patrol for several days) I switched back to English and now the record lacks one ship (still says 7 were sunk, but only six named with dates in the log - looks like I tried to cheat editing files and failed :rotfl. Is there any fix for that?

[JScones]

Originally Posted by Abd_von_Mumit

Sorry, if this was discussed or explained before:

I started a campaign isung English language text, then switched to German when on patrol and noticed that all the record for this patrol was gone in SH3 Commander log (Personnell File). Before the patrol ended (I usually play a patrol for several days) I switched back to English and now the record lacks one ship (still says 7 were sunk, but only six named with dates in the log - looks like I tried to cheat editing files and failed :rotfl. Is there any fix for that?

Yes, don't change language text mid-career and CERTAINLY not mid-patrol!

To maintain optimum performance SH3Cmdr assumes that once you select a language, you will keep that language. Indeed, over 90% of players would do this. Thus it uses text from the currently selected *_menu.txt file to match to the contents of your existing log files (for various necessary reasons). If some log files are written in a different language, then the ship and plane entries will not appear in your Personnel File as there'll be no matches found; for all SH3Cmdr knows you could have installed a Swahili language pack and since deleted it - and it ain't going searchin' for it!

[Turm]

JScones, a question on the "randomise number of days spent in base" option, if I may!

I'm a bit of a slow player, so I've only recently completed my first GWX2 patrol, 29 days through September 1939 in a Type VIIb. So I docked on 29th. After exiting and restarting, I upgraded the hydrophones (took 1 day, maybe 2) then launched my second patrol. This began on October 4th, a mere 5 days after I arrived in port!

From what I've read (not a vast amount) this isn't very common or realistic - much time was needed to load the boat with food, fuel and munitions, for maintenance and repairs, and not forgetting the essential shore leave for the crew - so I'm just wondering how the randomisation feature works for the days spent in base? I don't want to always be in base a fixed number of days (not very immersive), but I don't want to be back out to sea within a week of returning either, because it will take me forever to reach 1940 at the speed I complete my patrols :rotfl:

Is there no minimum value on the randomisation, or is it as low as 3-4 days? Maybe in special circumstances crews were sent out this quickly in reality, perhaps especially early war when there were so few boats available, but just wondering what I should expect with this setting in future. If it's going to vary too wildly, I might enter numbers manually myself, picked from my head between 20 and 40 days or so. I've read the manual top to bottom, but can't find more details on this.

Another comical 'side-effect' of this - I went to the effort of reading the messages_en.txt file before my patrol (I use the expanded one from danurve also), to check all the important news from BdU that I was sure to miss on the radio through October whilst in port, but as it happened I wasn't in port for long enough to miss any!

Many thanks for all your efforts with SH3 Commander, JScones! I look forward to the forthcoming v2.8. An excellent production all around, and helps to add a lot of immersion around the game.

[JScones]

Originally Posted by Turm

JScones, a question on the "randomise number of days spent in base" option, if I may!

I'm a bit of a slow player, so I've only recently completed my first GWX2 patrol, 29 days through September 1939 in a Type VIIb. So I docked on 29th. After exiting and restarting, I upgraded the hydrophones (took 1 day, maybe 2) then launched my second patrol. This began on October 4th, a mere 5 days after I arrived in port!

From what I've read (not a vast amount) this isn't very common or realistic - much time was needed to load the boat with food, fuel and munitions, for maintenance and repairs, and not forgetting the essential shore leave for the crew - so I'm just wondering how the randomisation feature works for the days spent in base? I don't want to always be in base a fixed number of days (not very immersive), but I don't want to be back out to sea within a week of returning either, because it will take me forever to reach 1940 at the speed I complete my patrols :rotfl:

Is there no minimum value on the randomisation, or is it as low as 3-4 days? Maybe in special circumstances crews were sent out this quickly in reality, perhaps especially early war when there were so few boats available, but just wondering what I should expect with this setting in future. If it's going to vary too wildly, I might enter numbers manually myself, picked from my head between 20 and 40 days or so. I've read the manual top to bottom, but can't find more details on this.

Another comical 'side-effect' of this - I went to the effort of reading the messages_en.txt file before my patrol (I use the expanded one from danurve also), to check all the important news from BdU that I was sure to miss on the radio through October whilst in port, but as it happened I wasn't in port for long enough to miss any!

Many thanks for all your efforts with SH3 Commander, JScones! I look forward to the forthcoming v2.8. An excellent production all around, and helps to add a lot of immersion around the game.

The randomised days in base feature was extensively researched before being added (this should not surprise anyone, although it seems that newer players tend to not realise that one of the aims of SH3Cmdr has always been to provide an historically-based enhancement to SH3). The boundaries that SH3Cmdr uses are averaged based on *actual* patrol turnarounds and were obtained from multiple written sources.

The default settings used by SH3Cmdr are:

During 1939 between 5 and 30 days
During 1940 between 5 and 45 days
During 1941 between 10 and 50 days
During 1942 between 15 and 55 days
During 1943 between 20 and 60 days
During 1944 between 25 and 65 days
During 1945 between 25 and 65 days

Quick turnarounds early in the war were not that uncommon, especially for the Type II boats.

However, as with nearly every setting used by SH3Cmdr, you can change them to suit your interpretation of "realistic" or gameplay style (another aim of SH3Cmdr). To do this, open ..\SH3 Commander\Cfg\SH3 options.cfg and look for the below lines:

[RNDDAYSINBASE] ;TURN FEATURE ON/OFF FROM WITHIN SH3 COMMANDER
;"Randomise number of days spent in base" option
;YEAR=<MinDaysInBase>|<MaxDaysInBase>
1939=5|30
1940=5|45
1941=10|50
1942=15|55
1943=20|60
1944=25|65
1945=25|65

Should be straight forward from here.

[Turm]

Many thanks for the reply

I know SH3 Commander is built around good research with the intentions of bringing realistic features, but due to my small number of completed patrols I don't have a vast amount of experience with it, even after a lot of time actually playing SH3 over the years! I certainly wasn't trying to pick fault. The 5 day turnaround surprised me from the accounts I've seen in the handful of books I've read (so far). I wasn't sure if it was a glitch or if the turnarounds could actually be that short.

Very interesting information about the number of days spent in base over the years of the war. I certainly won't change the settings - I trust the entries you have already! I don't have my own interpretation of 'realistic', since I am sure that more time was spent researching SH3 Commander than I have spent reading books

I did look in the randomisation .cfg file, but didn't think to check the SH3 options.cfg. Thanks again for taking the time to reply Apologies if I seem like a new player who is (for want of better words) wasting your time

And as before, I really appreciate the time you've invested in SH3 Commander. It's fantastic

[JScones]

Originally Posted by Turm

I did look in the randomisation .cfg file, but didn't think to check the SH3 options.cfg. Thanks again for taking the time to reply Apologies if I seem like a new player who is (for want of better words) wasting your time

I've added a task to my "to do" list, that being to add to the Help file where to go to change the default days in base boundaries.

Being randomised, you have a 1 in 26 chance of being in base for 5 days, so it shouldn't occur too often. Having said that though...

Also note that the days in base value is the greater of the SH3Cmdr calculated days or the days taken to repair any damage. In other words, if the calculated DiB value was 5, but the days taken to repair damage was 10, then the DiB would be 10.