Easter Eggs & Dev-Team Humor

[Kongo Otto]

Originally Posted by elite_hunter_sh3

On May 13, 1942, a Mexican oil tanker was torpedoed by a U-boat, killing 13 crewmen. A protest filed by the Mexican government was answered with the sinking of a second tanker. When Germany refused to indemnify Mexico, President Manuel Avila Camacho declared war on the Axis powers.
Nearly a century after a bitter defeat by the United States, Mexico sent a military force to fight against the Axis powers alongside U.S. military forces in World War II. It was the first time that Mexico sent combat personnel abroad and the first time both nations battled a common threat. This unique unit was the Mexican air force, Fuerza Aerea Mexicana (FAM). Its pilots provided air support in the liberation of the Philippines and flew long-range sorties over Formosa, earning praise from Allied theater commander General Douglas MacArthur and decorations from the U.S., Mexican and Philippine governments.

We can only hope that the U.S. and the Allies will more publicly acknowledge Mexico's assistance during WW II. The Mexicans who shed their blood in the skies over the Philippines, as well as those who volunteered to fight for freedom under the Stars and Stripes deserve no less.

[Sailor Steve]

That's a great story, Kongo Otto. Being a longtime (45 years or so) model builder, I have some decals for WW2 Mexican Air Force planes, but I never knew the whole story. Thanks for that.

[VonBlade]

Two for the price of one. (Although Monty had a right to throw a fit )

[LukeFF]

There are some really funny messages that can come up:

"MEAT RATIONING HAS ENDED IN AUSTRALIA X KANGAROOS BREATHE COLLECTIVE SIGH OF RELIEF X"

"NOW A REGULAR FEATURE X BERLIN BOMBED AGAIN TODAY BY RAF X THEY ACTUALLY DID SOME DAMAGE THIS TIME X"

"ELBA IS DECLARED LIBERATED X WHERE IS ELBA? X"

"ROMANIA SURRENDERS TO RUSSIAN FORCES X MYSTERIOUS OUTBREAK OF VAMPIRISM NOTED AMONG RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS X"

"ALLIED ARMY FORCES CAPTURE TRIPOLI IN LIBYA X MARINES REPORT “DID THAT 100 YEARS AGO, CATCH UP BOYS” X"

"JAPANESE FORCES LAND ON ALEUTIAN ISLANDS X GIVE THEM A WEEK AND THEY’LL PAY US TO TAKE IT BACK X"

"BRAZIL DECLARES WAR ON ALL AXIS POWERS X GERMAN BEER NOW NON GRATA DURING MARDI GRAS CELEBRATIONS X"

Originally Posted by LukeFF

There are some really funny messages that can come up:

"MEAT RATIONING HAS ENDED IN AUSTRALIA X KANGAROOS BREATHE COLLECTIVE SIGH OF RELIEF X"

"NOW A REGULAR FEATURE X BERLIN BOMBED AGAIN TODAY BY RAF X THEY ACTUALLY DID SOME DAMAGE THIS TIME X"

"ELBA IS DECLARED LIBERATED X WHERE IS ELBA? X"

"ROMANIA SURRENDERS TO RUSSIAN FORCES X MYSTERIOUS OUTBREAK OF VAMPIRISM NOTED AMONG RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS X"

"ALLIED ARMY FORCES CAPTURE TRIPOLI IN LIBYA X MARINES REPORT “DID THAT 100 YEARS AGO, CATCH UP BOYS” X"

"JAPANESE FORCES LAND ON ALEUTIAN ISLANDS X GIVE THEM A WEEK AND THEY’LL PAY US TO TAKE IT BACK X"

"BRAZIL DECLARES WAR ON ALL AXIS POWERS X GERMAN BEER NOW NON GRATA DURING MARDI GRAS CELEBRATIONS X"

Is there a way to open a file which contains all messages?
For the bold ones, :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[Kongo Otto]

Originally Posted by LukeFF

There are some really funny messages that can come up:


"ALLIED ARMY FORCES CAPTURE TRIPOLI IN LIBYA X MARINES REPORT “DID THAT 100 YEARS AGO, CATCH UP BOYS” X"

Now thats a real good one

[Safe-Keeper]

NORWAY DEFIES GEOGRAPHY X DECLARES WAR ON JAPAN X

:rotfl:

[GoldenEagle8]

I once got a message that said:

"THE JAPANESE HAVE CATURED JAVA X COFFEE RATIONING WILL BEGIN NEXT WEEK X JUST BE HAPPY THEY DID NOT INVADE VIRGINIA X"

[Asmodean]

Originally Posted by GakunGak

Is there a way to open a file which contains all messages?

All the messages are in whatever/Silent Hunter 4/data/campaigns/campaign/messages.txt, complete with values for time, importance and so on.
Here's the really interesting thing: A normal message looks like this (actual message from the file )

@COMSUBPAC@^...^&Fox Traffic&MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM UBISOFT ROMANIA X NOW GO SINK SOMETHING AND MAKE A NICE SCREENSHOT X

now look at these two:

@COMSUBSOWESPAC@^ASIATIC FLEET BOATS^&Operational News&MANILA UNDER CONSTANT AIR ATTACK X EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY SHIFT BASE OF OPERATIONS TO SURABAYA JAVA X

@COMSUBSOWESPAC@^ASIATIC FLEET BOATS^&Operational News&EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY SHIFT BASE OF OPERATIONS TO PERTH FREMANTLE ON WESTERN AUSTRALIA X

there are actually messages concerning the base-transfer, but they don't appear ingame. The only difference seemed to be the header before the message, so i changed @COMSUBSOWESPAC@^ASIATIC FLEET BOATS^&Operational News to @CINCPAC@^...^&Pac News (a working header from another message)

and heres what i got:


EDIT: I'm a bit confused right now, i switched it back to the (what i think to be) original settings, and it's still working (better, actually, since it's now displaying the correct to- and from). Perhaps i made some mistake reversing the changes, unfortunately i didn't make a backup. Someone please do me a favor and post the original two lines.

Great find, mate!!!

[Scoochy]

Meh? has the no notification of base transfer problem been indentified? Possible fix?

[donut]

Originally Posted by Seeadler

take a look on the badge, it is already advertisement for SH42 the nuclear was sim:rotfl:

Guess: they had to get rid of them some place.
Now for your next:rotfl: On Feb.13 1942 @ 06:55 sighted Yamato in convoy with,
Fuso,& Ise Battleships. Cruisers,Mya,Mogami,& Naka. 2 sm Tankers,& 3 DD escorts
Course 180 @ 1 degree 15'N,108 degree 13'E,speed 11Ks range, 4600 yds,(SAVED)
Forgot to send contact report,@ PD,running slow,heading 090
Fired#1,#2 ,fast,10 ft.depth,missed. Got off#3,#4,same,both impact. Headed to bottom to reload,no thermal, it's only 120 ft.,turning 1,000 rpm.Battle sta. heading 135,#1,#2,loaded to PD,2 DDs on our ass.Order 090,took 1 DD out with fwd.tube,the other w/aft tube useing spread angle to compensate for target turning.Both shots-shallow/fast,under 600 yds. Ordered course 135 ,flank, 1 more fish,& Fuso down,put 2 aft fish into Naka,shes down. Ordered course 180 helm not responding? Man we have no RUDDER the SB fell off, ! Now this is Scripted? If so it must be Dev.humor. Which means the Joker,will have to script port,&stb.screw
stearing. The only other option is Abandon ship,or drive/beach,& walk/capture !
Yamato[img]no rudder[img]
no return tocourse[img]attack[img]is this a JOKE?

[Calbeck]

Originally Posted by Kongo Otto

We can only hope that the U.S. and the Allies will more publicly acknowledge Mexico's assistance during WW II.

Let us also never forget the day L. Ron Hubbard, then commanding a light subchaser based out of Oregon on its maiden voyage (to San Diego, for rebasing), fired on the Mexican island of Matagordo, causing a minor diplomatic brouhaha. Hubbard had floated several targets off the coast and had his crew fire on them for practice, the rounds crossing over sections of unoccupied beach in the process. Technically, Hubbard had fired on the sovereign soil of an American ally.

Hubbard had gotten lost on the way to San Diego and anchored off Matagordo thinking it was a US possession. This incident, combined with a previous screw-up just days before, cost Hubbard his combat command.

Even more amusing was the aforementioned previous incident.

Hubbard's sonarman detected what turned out to be a magnetic shoal. In classic "1941" war-scare fashion, Lt. Cmdr. Hubbard not only expended his supply of depth charges but reloaded twice from local munitions tenders, while also managing to call in several other coast-defense vessels and even a couple of blimps. During the three-day "battle" a small fleet with air support was thus engaged blasting the bejeezus out of absolutely nothing.

To the day he died, Hubbard maintained that he sank at least two Japanese subs during that battle, although his own immediate claims as noted in his captain's log show no clear evidence of such beyond a claimed "oil slick" that no one else in the mini-fleet saw. -:hmm:

[Beery]

Originally Posted by Kongo Otto

We can only hope that the U.S. and the Allies will more publicly acknowledge Mexico's assistance during WW II. The Mexicans who shed their blood in the skies over the Philippines, as well as those who volunteered to fight for freedom under the Stars and Stripes deserve no less.

Yeah. The game's campaign messages contain some very poor taste comments. The one about Mexico is among the worst. There's a similar one about China (which had been fighting the Japanese for years), another about the Aleutians, another about Elba and one about the RAF.

Then there are some plain weird ones: the Solomon islands are routinely misspelled, apparently a developer thinks Caen is Cannes - I never heard of a film festival in Caen. Then there's the 'liberate Florence' one, the 'Rumanian vampirism' one and the 'Go make a screenshot' one - just odd.

[Beery]

Originally Posted by Asmodean

EDIT: I'm a bit confused right now, i switched it back to the (what i think to be) original settings, and it's still working (better, actually, since it's now displaying the correct to- and from). Perhaps i made some mistake reversing the changes, unfortunately i didn't make a backup. Someone please do me a favor and post the original two lines.

As the file was originally set up by the developers there were instances when the message would not show up (the message was set to terminate before the base changeover was to occur, so if a boat left the base after the message stopped the player would have no clue about the base change). Even when the message did get through all the 'change base' messages were listed as 'low priority' in the messages file (while messages about football teams were high priority). In fact the file has all the priorities reversed so it stops time compression for nonsense messages and fails to do so for messages of real importance.

In RFB I changed the file so that poor taste jokes are removed, base changes transmit until after the base change goes into effect (so that players always receive the message) and all the message priorities are correct. If people are interested in getting this file it's available at http://www.beerymod.com/SH4/messages.7z