[REL]The Wolves of Steel - SH5 Megamod

[vdr1981]

Originally Posted by les green01

some games i find a nice polish merchant but then i dont enter the bay i stay about where i spot the polish dd's maybe i should go in the bay

I personally find harbor raids in any SH game somewhat cheap kills but why not, it's up to you... You may meet few surprises in some ports as well.

[les green01]

dont mean harbor raiding but sit between the 3 ports

[Demon777]

2 vdr1981

as usual, thanks for your detailed changelog!!
a question regarding TDW Generic Patcher. In order the changes to be activated, the snapshot should be restored AFTER the installation of 2.2.21 is completed?

[vdr1981]

Originally Posted by Demon777

2 vdr1981

as usual, thanks for your detailed changelog!!
a question regarding TDW Generic Patcher. In order the changes to be activated, the snapshot should be restored AFTER the installation of 2.2.21 is completed?

Correct...After the installation your old snapshot will be replaced by new one...

[vdr1981]

v2.2.21 Changelog:
- Edited and revised campaign traffic lines in order to ensure that by the early October 1939, all DARKENED ships bound for British ports may be considered hostile, regardless of their markings of currently neutral nations (like Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland ect).
- Edited and revised campaign traffic lines around fall of France in June 1940 in order to prevent possible friendly sinking of French ships around UK and other legit U-boats hunting grounds since they will appear as legit darkened targets (The game will consider french units friendly as soon as France fall and it's ports "turn blue").
- Fixed problem where allied convoys in Mediterranean campaigns will occasionally try to "squeeze trough" in between Sicily and the mainland Italy.
- Other various campaign fixes involved mainly around illogical and misplaced traffic which can sometimes occur when nation "change side" form Axis to Allied and vice versa.
- Added new merchant ship type to various nations roster: awesome looking "Raised Quarterdecker", entirely created , from scratch, by Kapuhy!
- Edited description and displaying messages of Campaign Advance Verifier_Testing addon. Make sure to read updated JSGME "More info" description of this addon.
- Edited instructional Campaign/Flotilla transfer radio messages to be in line with recent Campaign Advance Verifier_Testing addon description changes.
- Disabled Generic Patcher Collateral Damage patches in the snapshot for better damage distribution calculations, both for playable subs and other units. No more exploding bow when torpedo hit stern of the ship or damaged propellers if you frontally collide your sub with something. Some larger ships and warships will more frequently require more then one well placed torpedo in order to go down which is more realistic after all. (Fire up TDW Generic Patcher and restore the snapshot again if you wish to activate the changes).
- Edited and rearranged XO dialog box Auto TDC messages. After you mark the ship the XO will inform you that "Auto TDC solution are set! Fire when ready!", so if anyone still ask again "how to use auto TDC in TWoS" , I will personally shoot him with my Luger pistol!
- Increased probability to 80-90% and decreased time interval (12h) of non directional beacons activation in harbors, which can help real navigation Captains to position their boats properly for harbor entrance in bad weather conditions.
- Updated official PDF install instructions to reflect recent changes.
- Added names to ingame official credits page of recent TWoS donors and supporters: Gregory Prichard, John Damuth, Lenny Miller, Jacques Alary, Dimitris Triantis, Antti Komulainen, Wolfgang Moog. Thank you very much Captains and I hope you'll enjoy TwoS for a long time!

As always, download links are in my signature...


Happy hunting!

[gap]

Originally Posted by vdr1981

OK, here is the preliminary changelog of v2.2.21 update which you may most likely expect this evening...It's not much, I know, but with Mkiii now back in his"shipyard" , that may change soon...

Well, from your changelog, your new release is not exactly what they call a 'minor version'

Please find below my usual bunch of questions and remarks.

Originally Posted by vdr1981

- Edited and revised campaign traffic lines in order to ensure that by the early October 1939, all DARKENED ships bound for British ports may be considered hostile, regardless of their markings of currently neutral nations (like Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland ect).

I am glad to learn that you have started working on some of the ideas we have been discussing in the past. Please note that all ships in/out bond to/from British ports whether they are darkened or not should be valid targets. Just for the pleasure to confuse our SH5 players, for the first few months of the conflict I would let a few lone enemy vessels illuminated, especially non-British ships and fishing boats.

For completeness, I will mention my own elaboration of German prize rules:

• smuggling goods to from the UK or sailing too close to British territorial waters (this included neutral fishing trawlers coming too close to the UK);
  
• darkening lights;
  
• sailing within Allied convoys or under escort by an Allied warship;
  
• displaying no clear neutrality markings nor national ensign;
  
• sending distress signals or zigzagging on spotting an U-boat.

Meeting one (or more) of the above conditions would have candidated any merchant vessel as a valid target. I am sure I had already mentioned them in the past but repetita iuvant, as the Latins said

Originally Posted by vdr1981

- Edited and revised campaign traffic lines around fall of France in June 1940 in order to prevent possible friendly sinking of French ships around UK and other legit U-boats hunting grounds since they will appear as legit darkened targets (The game will consider french units friendly as soon as France fall and it's ports "turn blue").

After the Fall of France, a number of French vessels ("Free French" by then) escaped the Capture by rushing to England. I hope that, after your changes to TWoS' ship traffic layer, the running French ships can be found and sunk in British waters. Since, in game, Free France is a distinct nation with its own ensign, no confusion with Vichy French vessels would be possible.

Originally Posted by vdr1981

- Fixed problem where allied convoys in Mediterranean campaigns will occasionally try to "squeeze trough" in between Sicily and the mainland Italy.

Sicily is my home place, the chocke point that you are talking about is named Strait of Messina

Out of curiosity, can you explain more in detail what was the problem and how you fixed it?

Originally Posted by vdr1981

- Other various campaign fixes involved mainly around illogical and misplaced traffic which can sometimes occur when nation "change side" form Axis to Allied and vice versa.

Ships being surprised by sudden switches of diplomatic sides and finding themselves in potentially hostile waters, was a common circumstance during WWII and I hope this will still happen in TWoS campaign. Nonetheless, it would be odd for ships of a given nation to keep sailing in enemy-controlled waters (or, even worse, to visit enemy ports) long after such a switch had happened. I am glad that you have addressed this problem

Originally Posted by vdr1981

- Edited description and displaying messages of Campaign Advance Verifier_Testing addon. Make sure to read updated JSGME "More info" description of this addon.
- Edited instructional Campaign/Flotilla transfer radio messages to be in line with recent Campaign Advance Verifier_Testing addon description changes.
- Increased probability to 80-90% and decreased time interval (12h) of non directional beacons activation in harbors, which can help real navigation Captains to position their boats properly for harbor entrance in bad weather conditions.

Campaign Advance Verifier_Testing addon? Non directional beacons?

Sorry if my question might sound silly, but what's that?

Originally Posted by vdr1981

- Edited and rearranged XO dialog box Auto TDC messages. After you mark the ship the XO will inform you that "Auto TDC solution are set! Fire when ready!", so if anyone still ask again "how to use auto TDC in TWoS" , I will personally shoot him with my Luger pistol!

Originally Posted by vdr1981

- Added new merchant ship type to various nations roster: awesome looking "Raised Quarterdecker", entirely created , from scratch, by Kapuhy!

Well done kapuhy!

[Demon777]

Originally Posted by vdr1981

Correct...After the installation your old snapshot will be replaced by new one...

No manual snapshot in TDW Generic Patcher is needed after installation of 2.2.21?

[vdr1981]

Originally Posted by gap

I am glad to learn that you have started working on some of the ideas we have been discussing in the past. Please note that all ships in/out bond to/from British ports whether they are darkened or not should be valid targets.

For completeness, I will mention my own elaboration of German prize rules:

• smuggling goods to from the UK or sailing too close to British territorial waters (this included neutral fishing trawlers coming too close to the UK);
• darkening lights;
• sailing within Allied convoys or under escort by an Allied warship;
• displaying no clear neutrality markings nor national ensign;
• sending distress signals or on spotting an U-boat.

In essence, that's pretty much how early traffic around British waters is set now but for now all fake neutrals will have navigational lights turned off. The Captain who is trying to smuggle goods for Britain with his lights on is not a sane person IMO... Probably something similar had happen in the real life but we have to draw the line somewhere...

Just for the pleasure to confuse our uring the first few months of the conflict I would let a few lone enemy vessels illuminated, especially non-British ships and fishing boats.

That's actually a nice idea and interesting touch... I think it can be done...

After the Fall of France, a number of French vessels ("Free French" by then) escaped the Capture by rushing to England. I hope that, after your changes to TWoS' ship traffic layer, the running French ships can be found and sunk in British waters. Since, in game, Free France is a distinct nation with its own ensign, no confusion with Vichy French vessels would be possible.

No, I was talking about regular French ships which are bound for British ports for example one day before French capitulation. Due to SH world map projection, they may need 10 and even more days to reach their destination. Unfortenattely, SH AI can not reverse course and get back to port... In theory, they can suddenly become "friendly" at the moment when torpedo leaves the tube which is not good (remember recent friendly kill incident, it was french ship).

Sicily is my home place, the chocke point that you are talking about is named Strait of Messina

Out of curiosity, can you explain more in detail what was the problem and how you fixed it?

In my recent BoM testing I noticed large FPS drop while I was returning to La Spezia, just north of Sicily . It turned out that it was large convoy from Gibraltar to Alexandria which decided from some reason to take a shortcut trough Messina Strait?! It's strange because when I simulate campaign in the mission editor this wasn't the case. Anyway, one small axis threat zone placed in the appropriate place in common.mis file solved the problem...

Ships being surprised by sudden switches of diplomatic sides and finding themselves in potentially hostile waters, was a common circumstance during WWII and I hope this will still happen in TWoS campaign. Nonetheless, it would be odd for ships of a given nation to keep sailing in enemy-controlled waters (or, even worse, to visit enemy ports) long after such a switch had happened. I am glad that you have addressed this problem

Yes, they could even be seen in Kiel kanal sometimes and some axis controlled ports as well. Just like in previous French scenario, canceling or redirecting problematic traffic few days before side switching has proved as a good solution...

Campaign Advance Verifier_Testing addon? Non directional beacons?
Sorry if my question might sound silly, but what's that?

Yes, One of the modders created this addon, Old Codder IIRC... He noticed some whichcraft in SH/uplay process or code (I have no idea really) which is responsible for activating campaign transfers when time comes. The savegame actually requires several reloads in order to wake up this process from some reason and this is what this addon is for, to inform the player is this process active. It not perfect but its's quite helpful when nearing campaign transfer date...


And for NDBs, eeeeeeh...Finally someone to ask.
Do you remember strange "report nearest radio contact" command from TDWs NewUI which never actually did anything?

I discovered that on this command, the radioman will give us the bearing and the approximate range of received radio contact BUT only for static units with "docked" status?! Unlike normal radio reports on sea, these are quite rare and that's why it took eternity to figure this out...
I was wondering what to do with these since it didn't seem to me as a quite useful function. What should I do with it? To home in on bored radio operators in British ports? I already know that there is a port there and that ships are probably there, together with coastal installation and hundreds of mines which I have placed there...

Then I remembered that I have read on Uboat.net that German U-boats actually used radio navigation and I also remembered my troubles while trying to find Lorient in dense fog and bad weather while I was just few kilometers from harbor entrance.
As an ex hardcore flight sim enthusiast, I then immediately knew what to do with those "un-useful" reports...

I took the antenna from one of the imported dat coastal installations, organized it as a single ground unit, placed it on the most appropriate locations and set it in ME to send radio reports every day.
I properly renamed mentioned command to "report nearest land based contact/beacon".

It's a small geeky touch IMO, kind of non precision approach for U-boats, but it can be very immersive for real nav captains...



Although it isn't very realistic to have range reported in this case, I didn't remove it because it's heavily randomized and I needed some kind of confirmation that we are homing on a correct beacon from Lorient and not from Brest for example...

[vdr1981]

And next time Gap, don't ask more than two questions... It took me an hour to write all this down with my creepy English!

[vdr1981]

Originally Posted by Demon777

No manual snapshot in TDW Generic Patcher is needed after installation of 2.2.21?

- Disabled Generic Patcher Collateral Damage patches in the snapshot for better damage distribution calculations, both for playable subs and other units. No more exploding bow when torpedo hit stern of the ship or damaged propellers if you frontally collide your sub with something. Some larger ships and warships will more frequently require more then one well placed torpedo in order to go down which is more realistic after all. (Fire up TDW Generic Patcher and restore the snapshot again if you wish to activate the changes).

[fitzcarraldo]

Many thanks for the new update.

New campaign start needed?

Best regards.

Fitzcarraldo

[gap]

Originally Posted by vdr1981

In essence, that's pretty much how early traffic around British waters is set now but for now all fake neutrals will have navigational lights turned off. The Captain who is trying to smuggle goods for Britain with his lights on is not a sane person IMO... Probably something similar had happen in the real life but we have to draw the line somewhere...

Try to imagine early war-time restrictions as if they were anti-covid rules. General confusion, each country issuing a set of different and partly self-contradictory rules, and private citizens applying those rules according to their own interpretation, or ignoring them at all lol.

Some important belligerents, like the USA, didn't even have city blackouts in place when U-boats started knocking at their home door, and before the Nazi occupation most French lighthouses were still operational, sic!

Some allied shipmaster deciding to keep his navigation lights on (out of recklessness or in the hope to lure the Germans into mistaking them for friends) is the least we can imagine, especially outside British waters where the U-boat war was more intense and where he would have risked not only his ship and the life to be taken by a German submarine but, I suppose, also heavy sanctions by the British Government.

Originally Posted by vdr1981

That's actually a nice idea and interesting touch... I think it can be done...

Originally Posted by vdr1981

No, I was talking about regular French ships which are bound for British ports for example one day before French capitulation. Due to SH world map projection, they may need 10 and even more days to reach their destination. Unfortenattely, SH AI can not reverse course and get back to port... In theory, they can suddenly become "friendly" at the moment when torpedo leaves the tube which is not good (remember recent friendly kill incident, it was french ship).

I see your point and I agree with you, though I am pretty sure that any data-controlled event affecting game units, happens when the interested unit is outside rendering range...

Originally Posted by vdr1981

In my recent BoM testing I noticed large FPS drop while I was returning to La Spezia, just north of Sicily . It turned out that it was large convoy from Gibraltar to Alexandria which decided from some reason to take a shortcut trough Messina Strait?! It's strange because when I simulate campaign in the mission editor this wasn't the case. Anyway, one small axis threat zone placed in the appropriate place in common.mis file solved the problem...

That would be the longest "short-cut" in the history of navigation lol.
Brilliant fix by the way. I wasn't even aware that we had a thing like threat zones to control where a ship can go or not. Shame on me!

Originally Posted by vdr1981

Yes, they could even be seen in Kiel kanal sometimes and some axis controlled ports as well. Just like in previous French scenario, canceling or redirecting problematic traffic few days before side switching has proved as a good solution...

Originally Posted by vdr1981

Yes, One of the modders created this addon, Old Codder IIRC... He noticed some whichcraft in SH/uplay process or code (I have no idea really) which is responsible for activating campaign transfers when time comes. The savegame actually requires several reloads in order to wake up this process from some reason and this is what this addon is for, to inform the player is this process active. It not perfect but its's quite helpful when nearing campaign transfer date...

Ah, yes, now that you refreshed my memory I seem to remember such a nice program. I also remember another small program by another forum member used for making sure that the Windows process used by the game for campaign advance, has an high priority... Isn't that program used anymore?

Originally Posted by vdr1981

And for NDBs, eeeeeeh...Finally someone to ask.
Do you remember strange "report nearest radio contact" command from TDWs NewUI which never actually did anything?

I discovered that on this command...

I have just one simple remark here: BRILLIANT!

Originally Posted by vdr1981

And next time Gap, don't ask more than two questions... It took me an hour to write all this down with my creepy English!

Sorry Vecko, my bad. You know me, when I see something that I like I can't refrain from asking questions, and I like this last TWoS update very much

[les green01]

thanks for the update downloading now,now if someone could mod a club throw in some ladies of the night then when my capt get back from sea he won't be howling at the moon

[Propnut17]

VDR your English is much better than you give yourself credit. Take that from another flight simmer that grew up chasing NDB's.

[vdr1981]

Originally Posted by fitzcarraldo

Many thanks for the new update.

New campaign start needed?

Best regards.

Fitzcarraldo

Campaign related changes will become active after new campaign start, but you can also wait until you transfer to the next campaign chapter, the effect will be the same... So the answer is yes and no...