[REL] A new set of campaign layers

[tater]

Now with more TROMy goodness!

New, Improved Campaign Layers version 0.78 (JSGME Ready):

http://files.filefront.com/Improved+.../fileinfo.html

Beta Version 0.78
Removed some idiotic US traffic (some based from such famous 1943/44 us bases as RABAUL, lol).

Beta Version 0.77
OK, I'm starting to feel like a mini-supermod (because 1 thing was done by LukeFF )

Included DynamicMiss changes by LukeFF

Included ship eqp changes from my Corrected Ship EQP 1.0 mod.

Included my Jap_DD_Yugumo mod (Radar fix reccomended, but I'm leaving it out for now)--this is just a variant Asashio with surface radar earlier in the war. If you've been playing without the radar fix, ALL ships have had surface search radar for a while anyway.

Various TF layer tweaks (been meaning to do that, and wulfmann got me convinced it was too ugly to leave as-is :-)
More TROM-based IJN traffic!

Kaibokan added, and 44 traffic reflects smaller escorts rather than DDs now. (Kaibokans are hit and miss, sometimes they seem to be dumb as stumps, sometimes they are the devil. Simple addition to give the japanese a badly needed escort beteen the SC and DDs considering kaibokan+ matsus were the most built escorts by far.

Several new patrol objectives added, including a new photo mission to Tarawa. It's a little flakey, needs testing! Others include a few new patrols for the Brisbane boats.

Airbase Replacement mod (linked below) still reccomended since it shortens CV plane ranges. (I only leave this out so people can still use Leo's excellent mod)

Radar fix reccomended! (link below)

IJN radar fix (not included, I forgot! Will be in 0.78):
http://mpgtext.net/subshare/544IJN%2...0fix%202.0.rar

Beta Version 0.76
Paramushiro Patrol Fix (thanks, LukeFF!). Caused Alaskan careers to crash.
Variant CVs added without planes on deck.
CV airgroups considerably reduced.
Various group tweaks.

Airbase Replacement mod reccomended since it shortens CV plane ranges (link below)
http://mpgtext.net/subshare/864Airba...eplacement.rar

This mod does a lot to the airbases. I have a stand-alone version as well, but this is the add-on just for the campaign.

Airbase Replacement mod readme:

Airbase Replacement Mod version 0.9

This mod does a number of global things to aircraft and airbases. There are 2 versions, one for my campaign, and a stand alone. The latter includes the CV airgroups changes, the former does not since those changes are built into my campaign.

Changes from stock game:

Aircraft bomb loads corrected to historical norms.

CV aircraft have had their range reduced way below actual combat radius. CVs didn't fly all their planes around as CAP. By reducing the range, I am concentrating them closer to their ship---which is where planes flew CAP looking for subs if they did at all. It does no good for a zero to fly around alone looking form subs 800km from a CV steaming at 17 knots.

CV airgroups grossly reduced. CVs didn't fly many planes for CAP. The bulk of the CAP is zeros (no bombs), with a few bombers in there so that if a zeke spots you, you can expect a followup. Dive.

New airbases added: Flyingboatbase, small flyingboat base.
Old airbases are more specialized. Small has just "CV" planes. Floatplane base is actually used (just petes).
Normal has Zero and Betty (later Q1W1).
Larger has more planes but same as normal.

Airbase map is totally redone (jap only right now). There are many more airfields, but most are "small" with the lower ranged CV planes only. The flying boats and G4Ms still have the legs for maritime patrol. The bases turn on and off at more historical dates.

Beta Version 0.75
Various new traffic.
A few new surprises---this time not rare at all
Fixed Palau BB photo mission.

Beta Version 0.74
Added some more traffic to Carolines, Marshalls, Gilberts, etc.
Some new routes to Palau/Truk.
A surprise (pretty rare to see)
Thanks to JochenHeiden for pointing out some boring early war patrols to the Marshalls. There should be some traffic there now.

Beta Version 0.73
43a TF layer added.
42b jap subhunters added properly (stock mission is BLANK, I had followed someone else's lead and copied 42a, bu the group names are the same, possible bad mojo)
Aleutian and Kuril traffic added (after the june, 1942 invasion—patrols before then will be rather boring ).
Beery's dutch harbor starts and patrols now active.
A couple new patrol objectives for PH (replacing others).
The 07 and 08 Quick Missions are included to work while mod is loaded.

Beta Version 0.72
43a convoy layer added.
Misc tweaks, more shore defenses, etc.

Beta Version 0.71Fixes my screwed up career start that CTDs in 1943.

Beta Version 0.70You MUST use the Taihosan Maru mod made by Jace11 to play this. Heck, everyone must unless they like to CTD now and again. Link below:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=118975

I was going to eliminate ammo, but didn't have to.

I added the 1.3 PH stuff so you can see wrecks, etc.

This version includes a version of Beery's career start stuff, so there are more start dates (helps for testing aside from being great).

Also, I have started messing with the patrols a little. If you like inserting spies to Japan, etc, you won't like this. Someday they will be coastwatchers, etc, but right now they are simply gone. Some of the photo missions (all but 1 of the Japan photo ops are gone, I left the rest away from the Empire for now) are also gone. They are silly. Taking pics of ships is idiotic, that is intelligence they got by sigint. Taking a pic of things that can MOVE... the ships you photograph would easily beat you to PH if they wanted to, what's the point? "Here ya go, Admiral, pictures of where warships capable of 30+ knots were a month ago!"

Beta Version 0.69
Added a new 42a_Jap_Convoys mission.
Added a new harbor traffic for new ports of call.
Added a few new reefs.

Notes on 0.68
Fixed a CTD problem in many layers. 0.67 was an internal build.
Thanks to Jace11 for helping discover the source of many CTDs!

Notes on 0.66
Fixed a CTD problem related to convoy 132 in 41a_Jap_Convoys.mis.

Notes on Version 0.64 (beta) posted 21 June, 2007
Fixed a CTD problem related to Agano and Akizuki entry dates.

NOTE: the mod will ask to overwrite the Nematode fix mod if you are running it (you should be!). My altered large tanker is altered from the Nematode version, so it should be OK to allow it---all I did was up his max speed.


Notes on Version 0.63 (beta) posted 19 June, 2007

Fixed a CTD problem in after July, 1944.
Added NOL_Nippon.sim file to properly fix spped to 19 knots max.
Various tweaks including some frustrating TFs moving at very high speeds sometimes.


Notes on Version 0.62 (beta) posted 12 June, 2007

Added a TF and convoy layer that touch Truk or Palau for the 2d part of of 42 through middle 43. Added merchants 42b layer that goes to truk, etc.

Fixed an issue with Campaign_LOC that left the file blank (no ports anywhere!).

Roster changed for Akizuki, Agano and Taiho to correct their availibility dates. Akizuki is pushed into 1942 when she first went to sea. I am thinking of pushing her into 1943, actually. She was alone in her Class until October 42, then a 3d and 4th in January 43, etc. the "generic" choice seems to like pulling the newest/biggest I notice.


Version 0.6:
Changed all the nets to allow escorts to pass near channels.

This was not in the earlier readmes, but I thought I should add a note. There are a few places in my campaign layers right now (more as I go back and add them in future versions!) where ships actually put into port, stay a while (days most places, days or even weeks at places like Truk), then leave again. The same ships, not ships disappearing at last waypoint, then respawning to leave.

This means you might attack ships putting in to Truk on the west side of the atoll, sinking a CL, for example. The remaining 6 ships go inside. You hang around for several days waiting for more traffic. After a week you decide to spend a day or two at the east channel out of the lagoon. What luck! Ships are standing out sea at 7 knots! Wait a while... looks like the same TF you saw a week ago, even minus the CL you sank! They must be heading for Rabaul---the ones that survive, that is. Your attack is foiled by an escort who drives you down as they speed away at 18 knots. Damn. You maintain the patrol for another 3 weeks off Truk sinking a merchant, foiled with bad torpedos on the few attacks you make. Time to think about heading back to the barn, you need some time at the Royal Hawaian. A day or so on the east side again before heading NE to PH. Sonar contact SSE, warships! You set up in the hops you can attack with most of your remaining fish, which are mostly in your stern tubes. They appear over the horizon in your scope... Damn! It's that same TF again—back from Rabaul where it was at anchor for a week—zig-zagging at 17 knots...

^^^ Palau/Truk/Kavieng/Rabaul is like that in the spring right now. I have a little test of it on the China coast (clear to Burma)as well. I want the whole map to be like that.


Notes on Version 0.5 (beta)

Tweaked things a little generally.

Added Truk as a going concern. Convoys/TFs head there through the spring of 1942. Note that I only have this through spring in detail. Truk has another resupply that is periodic til later in the war as well, but 0.5 is really early war.

Reefs added to Palau and Truk. Used sub nets for reef. Hitting a reef is bad, mmmm'k? You are welcome to infiltrate truk lagoon, or the Palaus, but I'd watch for traffic in and out, then figure out where they come from. The channels WERE in the right places, but the AI was too stupid to deal with them being narrow, and I wanted the to and fro traffic to be escorted.

Just don't go into the lagoons if you wish to be realistic. There are MINES and ASW assets in there if you do. Beware.

I need feedback on Truk and Palau. Thanks!



Here is a replacement Beta set of campaign layers. I won't call them historical, a better name might be "reduced traffic layers with zig-zags." All the japanese random traffic layers (merchants, convoys, TFs, sub hunters, etc) have been altered in some way. At minimum, all the groups now zig zag---don't trust contact reports for heading since they WILL show heading on a zig or zag, not base heading! Most have timing between sorties increased, particularly TFs.

Thanks to Mcoca for his Automated Editor, and Lurker_hlb3 for help making sense of the code. Thanks to Jace11 for helping discover the source of many CTDs!

Musings:
In addition to zig-zags, the traffic is generally reduced, and the contact reports are as well. I now play without the shortened contact report range since it doesn't matter much with this set of layers.

The TFs have some better arrays of forces. All move faster than stock. I deleted the majority of the oilers with TFs.

I started early war, so once things get to '44, it's closer to the stock game. OTOH, the large convoys, etc, make more sense then as well.

I'm not happy with the south traffic to Rabaul. The stock layers take a jag mid ocean for no reason. It;s as if they thought Truk should be there, but had no idea where. A future version will route all such traffic via Truk, but it's a ton of work.


Files that change from Stock Campaign:
All the random Jap_ mission files that involve traffic. Merchant, convoy, troop, TF, and subhunters. Think I altered some Jap_ harbor traffic as well.

US harbor traffic reduced at PH, Midway, and maybe Australia as well.

Campaign_LOC has Midway's airfield object (that includes the giant port facility) removed. Gone. Midway now has palm trees and buildings. It still has too many buildings, and it shouldn't have trees, but at least it looks inhabited, but not like the Brooklyn Naval Yard. Honaria is also gone (hopefully I remembered to axe the harbor traffic there, too). Truk added, along with a few places in the Marianas.

Battle of Midway altered to my current version.

A new test layer is in there as well. It's a combo of some coastal traffic (small shipping worth a fish, not junks) along the chinese coast (all the way to Burma), and some supply runs to Truk and Rabaul using some novel techniques (least I think they are).

Campaign.cfg changed to add my test layer.

Sea and Roster files altered to change the Minesweeper and Subchaser to "corvettes" so that they will function as escorts.

Sea file for the large tanker altered in the cfg file to up the speed to 19 knots from 12 (historical) so it may be used properly as a Fleet Oiler and not slow them down.

NOte: The Sea/Roster changes will break any mission/patrol that has minesweepers or subchasers explicitly placed in them, likely with a CTD. There are not too many of those I think, but be aware of it!

No Version may be used for any commercial purposes.

[nomad_delta]

Sounds excellent; I'll download & try it out for my next campaign. I'm switching to 100% realism for my next run so that should be interesting.

Just out of curiosity, did you happen to change the cargo loadouts for any of the merchant shipping? I'd read elsewhere that the reason it can often take so many torpedos to kill merchants and especially tankers in the stock campaign is that they're almost all empty or carrying only basic freight. That is, no oil or fuel for the tankers, and never any ammunition or such for the merchants, making them much harder to kill than they should be.

I think someone had mentioned that it should be possible to use Mcoca's Automated Editor to apply random cargo loadouts to the entire campaign to fix that, and I was thinking of making an attempt at that myself. If you've already done something similar, though, I'll just use yours.

Thanks!

nomad_delta

[tater]

I changed a bunch by hand, but not all of it, no.

Was on my list of things to do.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Thanks tater for your efforts on this, d\l now

RDP

[tater]

Very much beta, that's why I made it easy to install/uninstall

tater

[ReallyDedPoet]

Appreciate it

RDP

[thasaint]

Originally Posted by nomad_delta

Sounds excellent; I'll download & try it out for my next campaign. I'm switching to 100% realism for my next run so that should be interesting.

Just out of curiosity, did you happen to change the cargo loadouts for any of the merchant shipping? I'd read elsewhere that the reason it can often take so many torpedos to kill merchants and especially tankers in the stock campaign is that they're almost all empty or carrying only basic freight. That is, no oil or fuel for the tankers, and never any ammunition or such for the merchants, making them much harder to kill than they should be.

I think someone had mentioned that it should be possible to use Mcoca's Automated Editor to apply random cargo loadouts to the entire campaign to fix that, and I was thinking of making an attempt at that myself. If you've already done something similar, though, I'll just use yours.

Thanks!

nomad_delta

agreed

in a jap bound convoy i hit a large modern tanker with 6 torps and it sailed along at the same speed like nothing happened, hits spread out, including 1 under the stack... wouldn't a tanker bound for japan be filled with oil or fuel or something?

[Lagger123987]

What's Compagin Layer?

[tater]

SH4 uses a layered set of missions to generate a campaign. It's broken into time periods, and for each block of time there are missions for lone merchants, convoys, troopships, task forces, etc. All these are "layered" (loaded on top of each other concurrently).

I took the existing layers run in the campaign and made some changes.

I reduced a lot of the traffic so it didn't feel as much like a shooting gallery.

I altered the composition of the TFs so they would be a little more different from each other, and not so much like the entire Combined Fleet every few days.

I also set all the traffic to zig-zag, instead of the straight line paths they take in the stock game.

[tater]

I started messing with things a little more seriously. So far I've only done the 2 earliest TF layers, but I added Traffic to Palau and Truk, and from there to Rabaul and Kavieng. Now I need some coastal guns.

I also think in lieu of reefs, I'm gonna net in Truk. It'll be full of juicy targets, but god help you if you try and go in there. Ditto Palau.

[tater]

Version 0.62 up.

Fixed my screwy campaign_LOC that caused no ports on map!

Added some 42b layers (that means stuff to Truk, etc from sept 42 through aug 43).

Toned down the earliest convoys a little more. Many will be convoys in name only.

Direct link to DL:
http://mpgtext.net/subshare/962Improved%20Campaign%20Layers%20v0.62.rar

tater

[Bando]

This is a great mod.

Thank you

[Bando]

Tater,

Just did another patrol, all the harbours were gone. Is this intentional?
I could end my mission at Java, but no harbour there (on the map).:hmm:

The zigzagging convoys and the speed of the warships and takgroups make life in an S class miserable..........
as I said, great mod

Bando

[tater]

Yeah, I screwed up the harbor file and it was blank!

New versions (0.61+) correct that.

Version 0.62 here:
http://mpgtext.net/subshare/962Impro...rs%20v0.62.rar


tater

[Bando]

d/l now, thanks