[REL] FOTRS Ultimate Project

[propbeanie]

I would not call it a "fix" for the deck gun. in the true sense of the word, but rather a work-around. As posted above in Submarine Equipment UpgradesV90RC2.pdf, some boats are only stern mounted guns, others are only bow mounted guns. We'll see if that does the job. I have been attempting to test the bow mounted boats, but haven't gotten one to show yet. I might have to do another patrol to get further beyond the date. I'm in the Tambor, and it shows the gun should upgrade sometime after July 31, 1942. I started my career in the Middle of 1942, and have only been out twice on shorter patrols, and it is now August 3rd, so I'll run out on a short one again, and see if I can get a 4" deck gun when I come back in... As for the 5" guns, they didn't come in until late 1943 in real life, and January 1944 in the game, but again, it depends upon where you are based, and some unknown game mojo that I am apparently not familiar with - because I usually get things several weeks later, if at all... - as a side note concerning guns, the 4" guns that you can get were initially coming off of the "S" Class pig boats, and then being re-fitted onto the newer boats... there were no "new" 4" guns... some of the 5" guns came off of BB and CA secondary batteries, and were similarly re-built and re-fitted to the subs... kinda scary...

Maybe someone will feel adventurous enough to do "mine tubes" for the US subs. I have not even begun to look and see if it is possible to do such. What I would like to see is a NavalBase with limited torpedo and fuel availability, such that if you come into Fremantle in early 1942, you don't get a full tank of diesel, and you only get a dozen Mark 14 torpedoes. Combine that with 8 mines, and you've got a more "realistic" load-out... - Thanks for the "thanks", good sir! We all appreciate it.

[h4rdliner]

Anyone has to fight with Crash to Desktop? I have it like every 30 Minutes, dont see an System when it Crashes, seems random. Would be not so bad, but in my last Savegame, i have an Enemy Taskforce about 20NM Infront, i dont see them but i hear them in the Hydro, on this save it Crashes every Minute. Load save -> 1-2 Minutes -> Crash. Maybe an Buggy ship loading results in a Crash?
I have only Sh4 and Fotrs, everything is installed correctly, an normaly works besides the 30 Min Crash.

[Immelmann]

Originally Posted by h4rdliner

Anyone has to fight with Crash to Desktop? I have it like every 30 Minutes, dont see an System when it Crashes, seems random. Would be not so bad, but in my last Savegame, i have an Enemy Taskforce about 20NM Infront, i dont see them but i hear them in the Hydro, on this save it Crashes every Minute. Load save -> 1-2 Minutes -> Crash. Maybe an Buggy ship loading results in a Crash?
I have only Sh4 and Fotrs, everything is installed correctly, an normaly works besides the 30 Min Crash.

Last night while playing a save of the same task force contact with the excessively rolling Takao that I had reported earlier.

https://clips.twitch.tv/EasyColdMouseRalpherZ

[merc4ulfate]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

I would not call it a "fix" for the deck gun. in the true sense of the word, but rather a work-around. As posted above in Submarine Equipment UpgradesV90RC2.pdf, some boats are only stern mounted guns, others are only bow mounted guns. We'll see if that does the job. I have been attempting to test the bow mounted boats, but haven't gotten one to show yet. I might have to do another patrol to get further beyond the date. I'm in the Tambor, and it shows the gun should upgrade sometime after July 31, 1942. I started my career in the Middle of 1942, and have only been out twice on shorter patrols, and it is now August 3rd, so I'll run out on a short one again, and see if I can get a 4" deck gun when I come back in... As for the 5" guns, they didn't come in until late 1943 in real life, and January 1944 in the game, but again, it depends upon where you are based, and some unknown game mojo that I am apparently not familiar with - because I usually get things several weeks later, if at all... - as a side note concerning guns, the 4" guns that you can get were initially coming off of the "S" Class pig boats, and then being re-fitted onto the newer boats... there were no "new" 4" guns... some of the 5" guns came off of BB and CA secondary batteries, and were similarly re-built and re-fitted to the subs... kinda scary...

Maybe someone will feel adventurous enough to do "mine tubes" for the US subs. I have not even begun to look and see if it is possible to do such. What I would like to see is a NavalBase with limited torpedo and fuel availability, such that if you come into Fremantle in early 1942, you don't get a full tank of diesel, and you only get a dozen Mark 14 torpedoes. Combine that with 8 mines, and you've got a more "realistic" load-out... - Thanks for the "thanks", good sir! We all appreciate it.

Mine tubes are the same as torpedo tubes. The mines went out of the torpedo tubes. You are merely putting out a mine. A Gato could hold 40 mines because the size of the mine meant you could place two mines in the space of one torpedo.

When I had the Tambor on the current career I switched to forward deck gun and lost the crew compartment which made the weapon useless. Upon receiving the Gar then the Gato I made sure to keep it on the stern. When I got the Balao I switched back to the bow mount when the 5 inch upgrade was offered as a test but again lost the crew compartment making the weapon useless.

[merc4ulfate]

Originally Posted by h4rdliner

Anyone has to fight with Crash to Desktop? I have it like every 30 Minutes, dont see an System when it Crashes, seems random. Would be not so bad, but in my last Savegame, i have an Enemy Taskforce about 20NM Infront, i dont see them but i hear them in the Hydro, on this save it Crashes every Minute. Load save -> 1-2 Minutes -> Crash. Maybe an Buggy ship loading results in a Crash?
I have only Sh4 and Fotrs, everything is installed correctly, an normaly works besides the 30 Min Crash.

I do not save around other ships or land. Yes might be a buggy ship in there it happened to me in the last version. Was it a clean install and did you perform the installation exactly like Capt Scurvy instructed?

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by h4rdliner

Anyone has to fight with Crash to Desktop? I have it like every 30 Minutes, dont see an System when it Crashes, seems random. Would be not so bad, but in my last Savegame, i have an Enemy Taskforce about 20NM Infront, i dont see them but i hear them in the Hydro, on this save it Crashes every Minute. Load save -> 1-2 Minutes -> Crash. Maybe an Buggy ship loading results in a Crash?
I have only Sh4 and Fotrs, everything is installed correctly, an normaly works besides the 30 Min Crash.

Do you have the LAA applet enabled correctly on the SH4? Encountering a lot of traffic can and does bring a computer down if you do not have LAA enabled. Most of the Taffies are less than 24 vessels, but a few are larger than that. Throw in a few airplanes, and if the game is restricted to 2 gig of addressable RAM, you might crash, dependent upon the system.

Let us know your computer system specs, with cpu, amount of RAM, hard drives, OS (including whether 32-bit or 64-bit), but also the path where you installed the game, and as to whether or not you emptied the Save game folder ("C:\Users \UserName \Documents \SH4" by default). Thanks

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by Immelmann

Last night while playing a save of the same task force contact with the excessively rolling Takao that I had reported earlier.

https://clips.twitch.tv/EasyColdMouseRalpherZ

Same group as before, you say? I am on the wrong computer to watch the videos. They just won't go on this beast I'm on now... You had them on radar in the previous vid, correct? Did you say how many are in the group altogether? In the one with the CTD, again, my computer on playback is very herky-jerky, pausing from 3 to 10 seconds between every one-two seconds of vid... but I'm guessing you're in the same area between Davao and New Guinea, just east of those islands, by that "shoal" water - and you say they're actually traveling relatively southwest, not northeast? If so, then this would be after the weird "turn" by southeast Mindanao, as shown in that ME map in an earlier post... I am working on some re-routing of Task Forces for the release after the one incubating now, so I might send you the files when I finish with them... let you see if you can break them...

[Immelmann]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Same group as before, you say? I am on the wrong computer to watch the videos. They just won't go on this beast I'm on now... You had them on radar in the previous vid, correct? Did you say how many are in the group altogether? In the one with the CTD, again, my computer on playback is very herky-jerky, pausing from 3 to 10 seconds between every one-two seconds of vid... but I'm guessing you're in the same area between Davao and New Guinea, just east of those islands, by that "shoal" water - and you say they're actually traveling relatively southwest, not northeast? If so, then this would be after the weird "turn" by southeast Mindanao, as shown in that ME map in an earlier post... I am working on some re-routing of Task Forces for the release after the one incubating now, so I might send you the files when I finish with them... let you see if you can break them...

Yes to all. Additionally enemy aircraft had forced me to dive at least twice. They had to be from the task force as no enemy airfield was in range. This is a similar scenario to the CTDs that I had reported a month or two ago where the Makassar Strait opens into the southern Celebes sea. Although I was well submerged in both instances and am only guessing that planes might have been loading in or attacking me. Both times I was using time compression submerged.

Tonight I think I am going to reload the save and see if I can break contact and then run around the North side of the shoals as they pass to the south of them and then see if I can lay in wait.

[propbeanie]

Thanks for the clarification, good sir! Your running to the other side of the possible shoal water, whether you know where they're going or not, would still make for a good video - surely they'll not run through the shallows and run the risk of grounding, would they?... - Oh! do you know how many are in the group yet?...

[Immelmann]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Oh! do you know how many are in the group yet?...

Looks to be 12, half of them destroyers.

[propbeanie]

OK, thanks for that. As I'm editing the TaskForce layers routings, I find that the 43a_Jap_TaskForce_008 group does NOT come up from New Guinea and go "right" to the NNE, and then do the weird turn to the east of Mindanao. Where you encountered it means that it made a right turn se of Mindanao and came directly across south of Mindanao to where you encountered them. The "Loop" probability on waypoint 415 to 443 is set to 100%, so the group cannot go from 415 to 416 and do the turn at 428-429-430. The only route for them to be where you saw them is to go from waypoint 133 to waypoint 429, a relatively straight shot. I do not like these inexplicable bad spawns... by my count, there are at least five ships that are not set correctly in the water. The first is the DD in the opening scene of you vid, sitting too high. The 2nd is the wildly rocking Okinoshima, sitting out of the water. The third is the CA across from it, too high in the water. The fourth is the CVE in front of that, too high in the water, and the fifth is the tanker, which is ~way~ too low in the water. If you find more of that, let us know please. I'm building some test missions to look at the ships individually in RGG. thanks.

Edit: OK, not for sure for certain, but I have found some Waypoints that are outside the boundaries of the groups' tops speeds. ie: group 010 has a ship with a top speed of 15 knots - which would be the maximum for the group, but the group is set to 18.3 knots (eighteen POINT ~THREE~??? say wuh??) at a waypoint nearby to the incident. More 'vestigatin' is called for...

"Poor little guy... probably kept up with you for a mile or so... tough little mutt..."

[Immelmann]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

OK, thanks for that. As I'm editing the TaskForce layers routings, I find that the 43a_Jap_TaskForce_008 group does NOT come up from New Guinea and go "right" to the NNE, and then do the weird turn to the east of Mindanao. Where you encountered it means that it made a right turn se of Mindanao and came directly across south of Mindanao to where you encountered them. The "Loop" probability on waypoint 415 to 443 is set to 100%, so the group cannot go from 415 to 416 and do the turn at 428-429-430. The only route for them to be where you saw them is to go from waypoint 133 to waypoint 429, a relatively straight shot. I do not like these inexplicable bad spawns... by my count, there are at least five ships that are not set correctly in the water. The first is the DD in the opening scene of you vid, sitting too high. The 2nd is the wildly rocking Okinoshima, sitting out of the water. The third is the CA across from it, too high in the water. The fourth is the CVE in front of that, too high in the water, and the fifth is the tanker, which is ~way~ too low in the water. If you find more of that, let us know please. I'm building some test missions to look at the ships individually in RGG. thanks.

You're welcome. Yes what you say is consistent with my observations of the formation. If I find more I will let you know. Last night I was successful in reestablishing contact after breaking off and navigating north of the shoals while the task force passed to the south of them. This time I was able to actually put two boats on the bottom. An IJN destroyer with a MK27 and that Tanker that was way too low in the water (MK27 & later finished with deck gun after dark). Having no propulsion, after the MK27 hit, the formation had abandoned this ship. On second contact the flat top was also pitching more than I observed on first contact. Or seemed to me to be anyway. Wind was still at 8 m/s. Due to geography and the task force direction of travel I surmised that the group must be heading for the northern end of The Makassar Strait where it opens up into the Southern Celebes Sea. So I made haste for that position and believe that I got there ahead of them due to Japanese air cover direction of travel seeming not to be from the direction of any airfield in range. Saved and ended session there as I lay in wait hoping for a third contact with the same Task Force. This kind of running gunfight is new to me in SH4 and frankly a lot of fun. I guess it goes without saying that the full videos of my recent streams are available in the video section of my twitch profile page. Although there may be muted sections due to twitch AI making a copyright violation decision about music played on stream. Last night's stream was actually broken into two video segments however due to some disruption in my internet connection.

[propbeanie]

Yes, 16 knot average setting for Makassar Straits, headed for Batavia. Unfortunately, the slowest ship in the group can only do 15 knots, and some of the waypoints are set to 19 knots, which I'm sure contributes to the issues experienced here... I have found multiple TaskForce groups in two files now, that are routed across land in some of the atolls. They almost ~all~ have weird turns in their routing, sometimes as much as a 170 degree turn between three waypoints (ie: heading of 85° at Waypoint 1, reach waypoint 2, and then have a heading of 255° to reach Waypoint 3, like a ">" shape), all for waypoint "loops", which I am going through and eliminating, unless they are "smooth" transitions at the loop points... This will take a while.

Several of the video and / or social media sites have been getting hacked the last few days, which would explain some of their issues, along with the DRM. The DRM in Windows 10 has reached out and bit me myself and I, with music my band had recorded years ago, that I had edited and then experimentally applied "copyright" to (for internet upload) on a Win7 machine that I no longer have. I apparently do not have the "rights" to the music on my new laptop - even though it is mine... very frustrating.

[Jackdaw]

No idea if I'm right here, but since I did not find any grief box ...:
- Another problem -

Ultimate0.8 -
Coastal Merchant [NKSQ] - Draft:


Recently, NOV. 1944, I wanted to do a couple of test shots with contact and magnetic pistol. Target was the Coastal Merch. Six perfect shots around the recommended depth settings; all missed?
I was excited! Little annoyed, I set another torpedo at 2.60 m - hits, destroyed! Now suspicious, I searched.

The NKSQ.cfg gives the draft at 5.48 m / 17.97 (18) ft. ID Book 5.50 m. The cfg also points out that the NKSQ uses the Taihosan model. Taihosan cfg gives the draft at 3,70 m/12,13 (12) ft.

Maybe this little thing could be fixed in a next version of the mod, Thanks!

P.S .: Will not try for long now. Is it sufficient to change the NKSQ cfg accordingly or are other files affected?

[torpedobait]

Originally Posted by Jackdaw

No idea if I'm right here, but since I did not find any grief box ...:
- Another problem -

Ultimate0.8 -
Coastal Merchant [NKSQ] - Draft:


Recently, NOV. 1944, I wanted to do a couple of test shots with contact and magnetic pistol. Target was the Coastal Merch. Six perfect shots around the recommended depth settings; all missed?
I was excited! Little annoyed, I set another torpedo at 2.60 m - hits, destroyed! Now suspicious, I searched.

The NKSQ.cfg gives the draft at 5.48 m / 17.97 (18) ft. ID Book 5.50 m. The cfg also points out that the NKSQ uses the Taihosan model. Taihosan cfg gives the draft at 3,70 m/12,13 (12) ft.

Maybe this little thing could be fixed in a next version of the mod, Thanks!

P.S .: Will not try for long now. Is it sufficient to change the NKSQ cfg accordingly or are other files affected?

I believe all 3 of the "Ada Maru" type freighters/auxillary ships have a draft problem as well. The manual claims something over 20' (I don't have it handy right now, so this is strictly from memory), but it takes a torpedo setting of 10' to get a hit. I also think this is a known issue that Propbeanie said would be addressed in a subsequent release. I'm just bringing it up as a reminder.