Editing damage in SH4 save games

[LeeVanSpliff]

Greetings guys.

Been reading this forum for quite a while. This time I can't find the answer to my question so here goes:

I'm sailing my S-18 Class around the Solomons (fairly high difficulty, everything but external cam and stabilizer view). I got hit by a few bombs (this is the first time I've had time to take a campaign very far so I was a bit of a moron on the whole radar thing), but I managed to stop the flooding and keep my boat alive. One of my diesel engines took full damage though and I assumed that I'd have to limp my way home on one engine.

When I found out that I couldn't move I browsed these forums and read somewhere that it is not possible to run on one engine. Since I'd rather like to continue my mission with the hull damaged and wounded crew members I thought I'd edit the save game and change the damage from 1 to 0.99 (first time I edit a save game in one of the Silent Hunter games, so I'm a bit of a newbie).

I identified the right save folder by checking the save game name in the ReplayInfo.rep file, read through the ActiveUserPlayerUnits and found my engine with 1.000000 damage. I changed this to 0.999000, saved and loaded up the game, but the engine was still damaged beyond repair. I also tried 0.000000 damage, but to no avail. I also reduced the DamageHitpointsConsumed to 0 (from 100).

Could anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? I'm also wondering if it could have anything to do with these lines (I've noticed that the numbers at the end are somewhat higher than for the other pieces of equipment):

DamageDescription1=NULL,0,0.2,0,1,1,small malfunction,0,0,NULL,0.3,0.4,12.6879
DamageDescription2=NULL,0.2,0.6,0,1,1,Misaligned Axis,0,0,NULL,0.5,0.4,15.2271
DamageDescription3=NULL,0.6,1,0,1,1,fuse blown,0,0,NULL,1,0.2,19.785

I know that I could just reload an older save game, but I'd rather keep my damaged sub and learn a bit about how the save games are structured.

Hope someone can help!

[Gregz0012]

I would like to know the exact same thing. What files to edit and what values to set to repair diesel engines!

Anyone?

[Orion2012]

this was posted a while back and no one seemed to know...I'm curious as well so BUMP

[Digital_Trucker]

Did you also check these lines?

EfficiencyHumanFactor=0.792071
EfficiencyMechanicFactor=1.000000
Efficiency=0.792071

I'm just guessing at possibilities here and these lines are pulled from one of my saved games with no damage to the sub.

BTW the lines that you referenced in the initial post are exactly the same in my saved game file except for the last numbers of each line, but my saved game is for a Gato, so it's possible that that is the reason for the difference.

[LeeVanSpliff]

Originally Posted by Digital_Trucker

Did you also check these lines?

EfficiencyHumanFactor=0.792071
EfficiencyMechanicFactor=1.000000
Efficiency=0.792071

I'm just guessing at possibilities here and these lines are pulled from one of my saved games with no damage to the sub.

BTW the lines that you referenced in the initial post are exactly the same in my saved game file except for the last numbers of each line, but my saved game is for a Gato, so it's possible that that is the reason for the difference.

It's been a while, but I believe I tried setting all the efficiencies to 1.000000.

I was wondering about those numbers at the end too (they're not exactly self explanatory are they?). I tried copying the lines from my other diesel engine over - I can't remember if it just didn't work or that was the particular change that made the game not load properly.

Edit: Arg I've overwritten that save game so I can't test any theories.

[Digital_Trucker]

Originally Posted by LeeVanSpliff

Edit: Arg I've overwritten that save game so I can't test any theories.

To borrow a line from an old Saturday Night Live skit "Oooooooo, I hate it when that happens"

[Seminole]

Getting stuck in the open ocean without any chance of getting the engines restarted has happened so often to me ...I religiously keep separate unique saves all throughout each patrol.

Plus... doing this also thwarts that "saved game refuses to reload because the file has been overwritten too many times" demon.

If it were possible to alter the files you asked about ...and I knew which ones they were I would tell you...but alas I don't....and I would be doing it myself when the need arises.

Lets hope it is possible and that somebody knows and will tell so we can both benefit.

[Gregz0012]

I have been playing with my save file for a while now with no joy.