[REL] Trigger Maru 1.2 (Updated May 22nd)

[Spadefish]

[quote=Bando]Ducimus,

And one last thing. Whenever I reach a refit tender, i get refitted in a nanosecond. I think it should take time, and furthermore it's maybe more realistic that the tender has only a couple of torpedoes, AA ammo, Deck gun Ammo and diesel for you. And after refitting you cannot refit there for say two weeks.
Just a thought.

After the instant refit I TC ahead 6 hrs then leave port. According to my uncle (11 war patrols) that is about the actual time it would take to load fuel and/or stores. He said the average stop at Midway after leaving Pearl to top off with just fuel was about 4 hrs give or take for tide and weather conditions. Longer if last minute repairs had to be made. So I just use 6 as an average. At Guam later in the war he stated that a quick patrol refit was about 12-24 hrs, depending on the # of torps and stores to be loaded in addition to fuel. This was done if a boat had only been out a short time (@ 2-3 weeks) and had had a field day in the Convoy College area or East China Seas and had expended all torps. The Skipper was also given quite a bit of discretion at this point on whether he wanted a quick turnaround or not, depending on what countermeasures had been like and the "mental" state of the crew.

Ducimus, I also told him about your Bungo Pete mod (Excellent by the way!). After a pause on the phone he said that Bungo was more real than is generally known and that he believes Beach combined 2 or 3 particularly troublesome Jap skippers and crews into one creation (Bungo). He's 83 and this is the most I've heard from him about his operational sub career in the 48 years I've known him. No problem talking about liberty runs but doesn't like to talk about the actual patrols much. Wants me to show him the game though. He lives w/his daughter and her family. I may see him this summer on vacation so I think I'll take the game along and set it up on her computer (I talked to her and it meets specs). Will be cool to see what he thinks and to hear his memories.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by jerryt

Yep that worked. Saw three waves of Jap planes, some had torpedos.
I never did hear Roosevelts speech though. I did get some announcements over the radio, and on the clipboard, but nort the speech. Is there something else I need to enable for that?

One other thing. I use the clear water mod, which adjusts something in the scenery.dat file, which of course changes yours. What does the change to the wave atenuation do exactly? I likes my clear underwater views.

Because i scrapped the prewar start, i moved roosevelts speach from the 8th, to the 9th.

As to the scene.dat, id highly recommend leaving the current one in place, is it is the single most important file that improvesy our visual acuity. If your not sure of that, all you have to do, is look at a distant object with the scene.dat included in Tmaru, and then look at the same distant object with another scene.dat. The wave setting i changed in the notes, was basically a suggested change that helps it so your boat isn't "riding on rails" in heavy seas and travels accross the water a little more realistically.

Originally Posted by Bando

Question, when using the "report nearest visual target" I get a bearing and a (I presume) estimated distance. This distance is in feet. I have a calculater on my lap to devide this number by 6076 to get the distance in miles, so i can plot them (playing 100 percent realism). Is it possible at all to get the estimated distance in miles, or yards right away??

That bugs the hell out of me too, and if i could fix it i would. Unfortunatly i think this is all on ubi to fix.

Originally Posted by Bando

Another question. The radar operator gives a heads up of a contact like "350 long distance". He can actually measure the distance with gradually increasing accuracy when closing the target, he doesn't do that however. Is it possible at all to do this, as it makes plotting a lot easier.

Anything dealing with how the game handles measurments is hardcoded.

Originally Posted by Bando

And one last thing. Whenever I reach a refit tender, i get refitted in a nanosecond. I think it should take time, and furthermore it's maybe more realistic that the tender has only a couple of torpedoes, AA ammo, Deck gun Ammo and diesel for you. And after refitting you cannot refit there for say two weeks.
Just a thought.

If theres a file (yet to be found) that dicates how long certain thigns take. IE, time in between patrols, time to refit, etc, then we can change how long things take obviously, but i dont know if you can limit how many times you can refit or not. I wish we could too.

Originally Posted by Bando

EDIT
I installed the mod using GMSE. After the loadup screen, in main menu I loaded my save game (in port) and got a new mission. The loadup screen for that new mission is filling out the red bar, after that should come a screen that says "please wait", but than at that moment I ctd. Tried new career, same result. Threw every other mod out but yours, still ctd.
Deleted the movie files (0KB) => ctd.

:hmm: If your starting an new career, and it CTD's, what date, and flotilla are you choosing? I'll see if i can't reproduce it on my end and post a fix. If theres no specific way to make the CTD occur again, only thing i can think of is

a.) D/L the mod again, maybe you got a bad D/L.

b.) make sure there aren't any residual empty directories in the games file structure from other mods. Those can sometimes cause a CTD.

c.) Reinstall SH4 1.2 (not the most wondful option i know, but its sometimes necessary if you mod your game alot. Don't feel bad, i do this more then id like too )


@Spadefish, if your uncles on the verge of opening up to tell his story, thats a great thing. I'd be facinated by what he'd have to say too, its not often you meet someone who was there and alive to tell about it.

edit:

Originally Posted by Gatlin01

Excellent mod!!
After finally downloading and installing. In command of the USS Grayling well to say the least I wasnt expecting my first mission to head in the the bungo straights, I had to go do a photo recon in Tsursaki Harbor. On the way in no Bungo Pete, atm I`m on my way out of the harbor.

I increased the time that bungo will spawn, so they'll be a greater period of "no bungo present" in that area. I did this primarly because i knew the game would send you to that area more, and as often as he was present, it would be a deathtrap. Rather then "nerf bungo" too much, i gave you a greater period of breathing space. If you have good timing, you might never see him. If you have bad luck, you may see more of him then youd like, and wIth bungo, seeing him Once is enough!

Originally Posted by zylark

AAaaaaaaaaaargh. Mkay, did a patrol with this new incarnation, and I have one question: What did you do to the friggin DDs!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and this isn't a complaint. It's a compliment.

Time to get careful

Yup. If your careful, the DD's wont do much. If you screw up, they'll be all over you like pack of dogs on a 3 legged cat!

[Ducimus]

Oh ya, just an FYI.

Take your time on patrols. The other day it occured to me that if you run a quick patrol, your liable to see a repeated mission. Not an issue with pearl harbor, but possibly the with the asiatic fleet. A side effect of creating a scripted mission sequence. Missions exist for a 2 month time period, before the next one is assigned.

So if a mission was assigned from 01Jan42 to 31Feb42, and you left on Jan 1, and returned on feb1, you'll get a repeated mission. On the other hand if you left on 31 Jan, and returned on march 1st, you wouldnt.

The problem is primarly with mission types where only one type of that mission exists for that area. An example being the phillipines. I think theres only 1 photo op mission for that area. (where has Honshu has 4 or 5 different photo missions) So, going through that career track again, your going to get a tit for tat repeat with the phillpines.. So i need to script more photo missions so i can vary what your going to go photo.

This will be a project for the next version i think. Scripting more special ops type missions to reduce the chance of an exact repeat when replaying that flotilla.

[Bando]

Spadefish and Ducimus, thanks for your reactions.

Spadefish: I know I can wait for an X time, but my bunkers and torpedo rooms are all filled up. You seem to get information from your uncle who has been there (I think I'd hang on his lips (a Dutch expression) when he'd started talking). He must have some very interesting stuff somewhere in his head. Maybe he can tell you whether they'd get all the stuff filled up to 100%.

Ducimus: I start the career in manilla dec 41. I strap myself to an old S class and try to do damage out there. At the very last moment, just before I get controol of my little sub it ctd.

I'm sorry to hear that the other items seem to be impossible to grab your hands on, but otoh it's a great game as is so far, especially with all you modders. Hats off for all you gents.

I'll try reinstalling a little later in the week and report results.

Thanks again

Bando

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

Because i scrapped the prewar start, i moved roosevelts speach from the 8th, to the 9th.

As to the scene.dat, id highly recommend leaving the current one in place, is it is the single most important file that improvesy our visual acuity. If your not sure of that, all you have to do, is look at a distant object with the scene.dat included in Tmaru, and then look at the same distant object with another scene.dat. The wave setting i changed in the notes, was basically a suggested change that helps it so your boat isn't "riding on rails" in heavy seas and travels accross the water a little more realistically.

Ok, I'll put it back in and load my saved game on the 8th so I can hear the speach. Just something to maybe think about for the scene.dat. I use rRedwines 60m underwater visibility mod, because I like the underwater views. I don't know if it would be a PIA to add that as an option or not. Then again, if you can point me to an editor that works with the .dat files, I could see if I could add it myself.
Thanks again.

[Bando]

Hello Ducimus,

I just did a whole new reinstall of everything, the game, the patch, the mods and everything works just great.

One happy simmer on this side of the world.

Thanks a lot

Bando

[Ducimus]

Great, glad to hear everythings working ok!

[ReallyDedPoet]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

This will be a project for the next version i think. Scripting more special ops type missions to reduce the chance of an exact repeat when replaying that flotilla.

This is a nice option in SH4 as compared to SH3, liked the fix in FTT, good to hear you will be fleshing it out a bit more in Trigger Maru.

RDP

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by reallydedpoet

This is a nice option in SH4 as compared to SH3, liked the fix in FTT, good to hear you will be fleshing it out a bit more in Trigger Maru.

RDP

Its the mission objectives that are the number 1 reason im sick of Sh3.

1.Go to grid,
2. stay for a x amout of time,
3. sink ships.
4. Goto 1

Over and over and over and over and over again. How i wish could have just performed a recon, or laid mines or just.. SOMETHING to make the game more varied.

Now, SH4, has the right idea, trouble is, it doesnt always change its objectives. Overall, i think the varied objectives, ensuring you get them, is one of the stronger points of this mod. In a way, its really directed at people burnt out on the same old standard routine that they did in Sh3. (namely myself )

But ya, im going to create a few more special ops scripts to flessh in areas that lack variety of that mission type.


Now how objectives work, or are called upon works somethign like this:

You'll have a collection of mission scripts that are in a general location:

1. Patrol.
You may have 4 or 5 instances of varing patrol scrpts in different locations within the same geographical region.


2. Sink.
Missions where it sayd to "deply" and think "sink" shipping. You'll have 4 or 5 instances of this, with variong locations in the same region.

3. Photo.
Some areas have more instances of this then others. Different locations, within the same region.

4. Supply.

5. Spy.

6. Commando


Now, in all cases, (objectives 1 through 6), again, they'll all be in different locations, in the same geographic region. This geographical region is then given a name.


In this example, ill use Honshu. This name, represents an ID handle that the game associates with whatever mission you assign this ID handle.

So, "Honshu" has the following attached to it:

5 Insert Spy missions
8 Patrol missions
5 Photo missions
8 Sink missions


All of these, are assigned to the ID handle, "Honshu". So in the flotilla.upc, when you give "Honshu" as a patrol objective, the game will randomly pick a mission, in the Honshu group of missions (assuming the missions availablity date matches the current calender date in game). Or at least, its SUPPOSED to. Not saying it doesnt, but it doesnt randomize itself as near as often as it should. Otherwise, we'd never hear of a "repeat patrol bug"

Note however, that, you will never drop supplies off in Honshu, nor insert a commando team.

By way of comparision, lets look at the Phillipines, it has:

3 Guard missions
3 Inserrt commando missions
1 insert spy mission
4 supply missions
7 patrol missions
7 Sink missions.


Totally different ballgame in the phillpines.

Now how i got rid of the repeat patrol bug, was force an entry and exit date from the patrol objectives. Only one mission is avialable every 2 month period, and then it goes away until i deliberatly call on it again later on.

For example, stock assigments look like this:

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 1]
ID= PH1Obj1
NameDisplayable= East China Sea
AvailabilityInterval=1942-01-01, NULL 
ObjectiveCode= East China Sea

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 2]
ID= PH1Obj2
NameDisplayable= Marshalls patrols
AvailabilityInterval=NULL, 1944-04-01
ObjectiveCode= Marshall Islands

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 3]
ID= PH1Obj3
NameDisplayable= Empire Waters
AvailabilityInterval=NULL, NULL
ObjectiveCode= Honshu

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 4]
ID= PH1Obj4
NameDisplayable= Empire Waters
AvailabilityInterval=NULL, NULL
ObjectiveCode= Hokkaido

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 5]
ID= PH1Obj5
NameDisplayable= Caroline Islands
AvailabilityInterval=1942-01-01, NULL 
ObjectiveCode= Caroline Islands

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 6]
ID= PH1Obj6
NameDisplayable= Mariana Islands
AvailabilityInterval=1942-04-01, 1944-04-01 
ObjectiveCode= Mariana Islands

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 7]
ID= PH1Obj7
NameDisplayable= Palau Island
AvailabilityInterval=1943-01-01, 1944-04-01 
ObjectiveCode= Palau Island

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 8]
ID= PH1Obj8
NameDisplayable= Luzon Strait
AvailabilityInterval=1944-01-01, NULL
ObjectiveCode= Luzon Strait

Note that not all objective are avialable all the time. The game is supposed to randomly pick a geographic area, and then randomly pic a mission type from that areas group of missions. Which, as it seems, the game fails to do, more often then not. its a great idea for replayablity, its just not working very well.

So heres what i did to FORCE the game to vary the missions:

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 1]
ID= PH1Obj1
NameDisplayable= Training Excercise
AvailabilityInterval=1941-12-05, 1941-12-06
ObjectiveCode= Prewar_01

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 2]
ID= PH1Obj2
NameDisplayable= Marshalls patrols
AvailabilityInterval=1941-12-07, 1941-12-31
ObjectiveCode= Marshall Islands

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 3]
ID= PH1Obj3
NameDisplayable= Empire Waters
AvailabilityInterval=1942-01-01, 1942-02-31 
ObjectiveCode= HonshuPHOTO

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 4]
ID= PH1Obj4
NameDisplayable= East China Sea
AvailabilityInterval=1942-03-01, 1942-04-31
ObjectiveCode= East China Sea

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 5]
ID= PH1Obj5
NameDisplayable= Formosa
AvailabilityInterval=1942-05-01, 1942-06-31
ObjectiveCode= Formosa StraitCOM

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 6]
ID= PH1Obj6
NameDisplayable= Caroline Islands
AvailabilityInterval=1942-07-01, 1942-08-31 
ObjectiveCode= Caroline Islands

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 7]
ID= PH1Obj7
NameDisplayable= Luzon Strait
AvailabilityInterval=1942-09-01, 1942-10-31
ObjectiveCode= Luzon StraitSUP

[Flotilla 1.UserPlayerUnitType 1.Objective 8]
ID= PH1Obj8
NameDisplayable= Palau Island
AvailabilityInterval=1942-11-01, 1942-12-31 
ObjectiveCode= Palau IslandPHOTO

Note that im revolving the missions, forcing an end to the previous, and a start to the next.
Also note the objective code. This is what i call the ID Handle. What i did was break it down, to create a seperate grouping, this allowed me to directly call on that mission type. . So if you take Honshu again, where as before it was:

5 Insert Spy missions
8 Patrol missions
5 Photo missions
8 Sink missions

the ID Handle "Honshu" now only will give out the 8 patrol and 8 sink missions.

The photo missions that were assigned to Honshu, i changed the ID handle to "HonshuPHOTO". So by specifing "HonshuPHOTO" as a mission assigment, the game wil l randomly pick 1 of the 5 photo missions, and thats it.


Now, where this runs into problems, is again, the phillpines. "PhillipinesPHOTO" needs about 4 other missions that i need to script out because as it is, it will only give out the 1 photo mission.

Hopefully this all makes sense, and people better understand how missions work in Sh4.

[Gatlin01]

A++ Mod, Just a little update, I`ve nevered had this happen to me on any patrol. I`ve engaged a large convoy was able to sink 3 merchant ships before I had to do a crash dive there were 3 dd`s that spotted me and heading my way, got death charge took damage, then out of nowhere 2 jap betty`s dropped bombeds on the spot where I was at. That has nevered happened before getting attacked by planes while attacking a convoy.

Update: After constant being depth charged on by 3 DD`s, they finally sunked me.

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by Gatlin01

A++ Mod, Just a little update, I`ve nevered had this happen to me on any patrol. I`ve engaged a large convoy was able to sink 3 merchant ships before I had to do a crash dive there were 3 dd`s that spotted me and heading my way, got death charge took damage, then out of nowhere 2 jap betty`s dropped bombeds on the spot where I was at. That has nevered happened before getting attacked by planes while attacking a convoy.

I had this happen once so far. It was pretty funny; the string of bombs crossed right over the DD that was chasing me. I came up for a look and he was burning pretty good. :rotfl: Bet that captain made some calls when he got back to base.

[Strangelove]

I'm new to the Silent Hunter series, and I want so badly to like this game. This mod finally lets me actually be immersed in the sim, and enjoy it.

I just have a question about the "9km visibility" mod. Has anyone else had an experience where at longer ranges they're only able to see masts and funnels? Is this realistic?

[momo55]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

>>I just got my first photo recon assigment : carrier force in Rabaul and i'm on my way over there.
>>

I hope that one works out. I looked at the file for it, and that misison objective file for that assigment scripts the carriers in, and i assigned that mission within the time parameters given by Ubi, so i just assumed it would work. If it doesnt, let me know, ill have to change that if it doesnt.

It does work ! 2 carriers just waiting there for a photoshoot ...no problem. Toke a photo of one and "objective completed. What those intelpeople are going to see on it ?...toke the pic at 02h22 at night (no moonlight ) ...all i saw in the periscoop was a black background and a grey stripe :rotfl: .

I still find it a shame that when i recieved the order ...there was no timelimit(date&houre) indicated with that order (like in SH I ) . Not on the "mission objectives"page or map anyway.

So i dit not know how long these carriers are supposed to stay in that harbour and therefore i let go a ship here and a convoy there on my way to the reconharbour.
Attacking them at that time could seriously delayed me in the availebel time i needet to arive for the recon . If there is a timelimit at all in SH VI for photo Recon missions? Can't imagine that those carriers would just stay there ...till i'm done

On my way to Pearl now and can't wait to install Trigger Maru

Sorry for my basic englisch ...doing my best

[GT182]

Top notch mod as usual Ducimus.

[jhelix70]

Has anyone else had an experience where at longer ranges they're only able to see masts and funnels? Is this realistic?

Believe it or not, it is...because of the curvature of the earth.

I also think smoke might be the first thing spotted sometimes in reality, but a heavy trail of smoke from convoys doesn't seem to be modelled in the game.