Continuation of H.sie's patches by Stiebler.

[Stiebler]

Owing to unfortunate personal circumstances, H.sie has said that he is unable to continue his patching mod for SH3.exe (see this link:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=174225 ) for a time of uncertain extent.

I have decided therefore to start a separate thread so that my own ideas and coding, which were being adapted by H.sie for incorporation into his 'V15' patch for SH3.exe, are available to all users.

I have created, with H.sie's permission, a special patch which includes all these items:
1. H.sie's original V15E3 patch, which includes all his fixes up to and including H.sie's fix to place the Watch Officer on the bridge when you surface the U-boat.
2. Our new silent-running mod, which includes a mixture of both our coding.
3. My U-tankers fix and code, another essential fix!
4. My Bdu Congratulations fix and code.
5. My War News fix and code.

Let us be clear about this: the patch, like H.sie's original, is not an executable file of itself. It is a patch for those who already own legitimately Ubisoft's SH3 U-boat simulation, which can still be purchased from numerous outlets, including Amazon. It patches Ubisoft's file SH3.exe in order to fix well known flaws, it does not replace it. We have no intention of breaking Ubisoft's copyright.

Moreover, as with H.sie's original work, you must have a version of SH3.exe which lacks the Starforce protection. Recent boxed commercial editions of SH3 work well, and are very cheap. There have been some complaints to H.sie that versions downloaded from Steam are not suitable. Instructions are provided with the patch kit, which will convert your existing file SH3.exe into SH3.old. However, I would advise very strongly that *first* you make a separate backup in a different folder of your existing SH3.exe file!

At some future date, we hope that H.sie will be able to include items 2-5 above properly into his original patch. However, I have tested this combined package thoroughly with NYGM, and it functions correctly during complete war patrols and is stable (no CTDs). I have every confidence that it will also function correctly with GWX, stock SH3, and other super-mods.

The Silent-Running Fix.
When the U-boat is silent-running, the pumps are turned off and therefore water slowly creeps in through tiny leaks and collects in the bilges. This makes the U-boat heavier, and it begins to sink very slowly, unless the U-boat is moving fast enough for the hydroplanes to counter the sinking motion.

This is now mimicked with our mod which works by slowly lowering the dial on the player-set depth gauge. The result is that the mod will work with all the super-mods, regardless of how their trim/buoyancy is set.

However, there are defects with this approach - for example, blowing tanks in an emergency will not set the depth gauge to surface level, which you must do yourself. In fact, control of the U-boat becomes an interesting challenge now. And I leave players to find out how to manage it themselves! (It is quite easy when you know how.) But one thing is sure: you cannot now creep at slow speed into a convoy while silent-running from a long distance away. And you must manage silent-running and depth when the escorts attack you.

The U-tankers Fix.
Everyone complains that, when you dock at a U-tanker in mid-ocean (in the super-mods), you lose all your current renown/tonnage for medal purposes, you get a full refuelling, full repairs, full torpedo load-out (which you cannot select) and you lose the patrol grid which BdU ordered. And then you start again from the tanker a month after you docked! (unless using SH3Patrol or SH3Commander). And JScones always complained that it added an extra patrol to the count of patrols which the U-boat had really made, so his popular SH3Commander retired you prematurely as commander.

No longer! Now you 'pseudo-dock' at the U-tanker. When you are close enough, you press ESCAPE, then 'Exit Patrol', just as if you were planning to dock.
However... when you are asked 'Continue mission' or 'Dock at U-463' (for example), you click on 'Continue Mission'. *Now* you carry on your patrol with the same torpedo load-out that you had when you reached the U-tanker, you retain the patrol grid details, you receive some repairs to your hull-integrity (but not to equipment) and you receive a fuel upgrade, of up to 30% of the full capacity. (So if you had 50% fuel when you docked, you will now have 80% fuel.)

Unlike conventional docking at a base, pseudo-docking is only possible if there is no 'heavy fog' and windspeed must be 10 m/s or less. Also, you can only pseudo-dock at U-tankers, not at surface tankers (eg Brake, or Charlotte Schliemann), nor at land bases.

SH3 has needed this mod for a long, long time. (But you can still choose to dock in the old way, if you wish.)

War News Fix.
These are the messages found in data\campaigns\campaign\messages_en/de.txt. Whenever you receive a message, your time compression (TC) falls to 1. Very, very irritating, as you try to sail at TC=2048 across the Atlantic while reading a good book.

The only solution in the past to this problem has been to remove the radio operator, so you don't get the messages at all.
But with this new fix, the messages just go past without affecting TC. The messages are not lost, they are stored anyway by the game, so you can always read them at your convenience later. This mod should appeal especially to players of GWX.

BdU Congratulations.
No matter how many ships you report sunk, BdU says only 'Keep up the good work', or similar, without any variety. Now there is some variety, depending on tonnage sunk. However, you *must* first locate file data\menu\en_menu.txt (or de_menu.txt), then go to command '4198=Keep up the good work' and insert an asterisk, to give '4198=*Keep up the good work' (or similar, depending on super-mod and language). Now the mod will work properly.

Similarly, whenever you are out of torpedoes when you make a radio status report, BdU always orders you to return to base without other comment. This is not very useful. If you want the congratulations here too, then place an asterisk for command 4199 also.

Download the file V15_Stiebler_Patch.7z from:
http://www.subsim.com/mods1/nygm/V15_Stiebler_Patch.7z

Enjoy it. Feedback appreciated.
[Edit: Forgot to mention - latest version (1.2) of the Options Selector for H.sie patches is also included with the download.]

Stiebler.

[brett25]

Sieibler, very cool work, as always mate, pseudo docking idea is brilliant! Are you certain about the historical amount of water build up vs negative buoyancy? Sounds like it would occur but nothing too dramatic. What would be our sink rate now? will test with NYGM, thanks

[nemo7]

A MUST HAVE.
Congrats matey..

[dcb]

Originally Posted by nemo7

A MUST HAVE.
Congrats matey..

I second that. Great mod

[reaper7]

Well done mate, the fixes sound great.
Look forward to using them

[LGN1]

Hi Stiebler,

great work! Thanks a lot! I will test it as soon as possible.

Just a few questions:

1. How does the Silent-Running Fix interact with the anti-humming bird mod? Is it save to use both in parallel? I guess yes, but a confirmation would be great.

2. War News Fix: Does TC still drop to 1 if you receive a radio message about a contact (not only on the map, but also with a text message)?

3. BdU Congratulations: If the return message is replaced, does it take the new message from the same pool as the congratulation messages?

4. Are you planning to finish h.sie's CO2 work, so that it works historically correct

Again, thanks for your efforts!

Kind regards, LGN1

[Magic1111]

Wow, wonderful MOD !

In my opinion an Must-have-MOD !

Thanks stiebler (and h.sie) !

[fitzcarraldo]

Dowloading now, I´ll test it.

It seems awesome...Many thanks, Stiebler!!

Best regards.

Fitzcarraldo

[Rubini]

Hi Stiebler,

What a good news! Thanks for more this great mod!

I can't test it now but just few comments on the Utanker functionality - is't possible to add just one torpedo (or a random number from 0 to 3) when "docking at a utanker? Also could be possible to go ahead a random number of hours (let's say 1 to 7 hours for example) to simulate the time expent on the milkcow? If possible these two random functions will add even more to realism and uncertanty to the game!

[fitzcarraldo]

Hi Stiebler:

I applied the patch, now. And I´ll test in a few minutes...

Only a little (but annoying) issue: in the instructions txt, you tell to put the files "somewhere", or preferibly in mods folder. Well...I can patch my SH3.exe with all the contents of the patch in the root folder (my C:\SH3, where is the SH3.exe). Only in this folder, the bat files works...

Many thanks!

Fitzcarraldo

[NGT]

Hello Stiebler,

Great news, indeed,

I assume the Pandora's Box (SH3.exe patching) will stays open for longtime….


You say: "you can only pseudo-dock at U-tankers, not at surface tankers (eg Brake, or Charlotte Schliemann), nor at land bases."

Why?

If you can associate only U-boot from Submarine folder, so, perhaps we can assimilate some ships, or/and bases, to an invisible U-boot (a U-boot with transparent skin?)

Thank you very much for your time on moding.

[Stiebler]

Questions answered in order:

@LGN1:
1. How does the Silent-Running Fix interact with the anti-humming bird mod? Is it save to use both in parallel? I guess yes, but a confirmation would be great.
Answer: Safe to use both.

2. War News Fix: Does TC still drop to 1 if you receive a radio message about a contact (not only on the map, but also with a text message)?
Answer: Yes (actually it drops to TC=8, if you have default settings). The war news uses a different code flow from the other messages.

3. BdU Congratulations: If the return message is replaced, does it take the new message from the same pool as the congratulation messages?
Answer: Yes (and no restriction on language). You can change the messages in file HsieContents.txt, which is used by the Options Selector. However, *NO single message can exceed 30 characters* (otherwise it will be truncated by the Options Selector, to save a CTD with SH3.exe.)

4. Are you planning to finish h.sie's CO2 work, so that it works historically correct?
Answer: No, I don't know how, and besides H.sie is likely to resume work on his own mods/ideas at some later date.

@Rubini:
is't possible to add just one torpedo (or a random number from 0 to 3) when "docking at a utanker? Also could be possible to go ahead a random number of hours (let's say 1 to 7 hours for example) to simulate the time expent on the milkcow? If possible these two random functions will add even more to realism and uncertanty to the game!
Answer: I agree with this idea. I was hoping H.sie would know how to add the torpedoes(!) - he has already made the torpedo reload fix. As for adding a few hours, I did consider that, but really it makes no difference to the patrol if you leave the tanker immediately, rather than after six hours. The more changes that are made to code, the greater the chance of a bug arising.

@Fitzcarraldo:
Only a little (but annoying) issue: in the instructions txt, you tell to put the files "somewhere", or preferibly in mods folder. Well...I can patch my SH3.exe with all the contents of the patch in the root folder (my C:\SH3, where is the SH3.exe). Only in this folder, the bat files works.
Answer: The SH3.exe file must be placed in the same file folder as the patch kit, in order that the patch functions correctly. I would advise very strongly that you place everything in its own folder, run the patch kit, then move the patched SH3.exe file into your main setup for SH3. Better still, install the new SH3.exe file with JSGME, so that you can easily reverse the process. But be sure to have a backup of the original SH3.exe file somewhere.

@NGT:
"you can only pseudo-dock at U-tankers, not at surface tankers (eg Brake, or Charlotte Schliemann), nor at land bases." Why?
Answer: The tankers need to be identified. All U-tankers begin with 'U-'. Surface tankers could have any name, which will be hard to distinguish. How can the code tell the difference between 'Brake' and 'Penang'? - both are seen by the game as bases. So we identify tankers as 'U-'. (You could rename 'Brake' to 'U-Brake' in your campaign files, if you wish.) There is also a major difference of operation. When a U-boat docked at a rocking U-tanker in mid-ocean, the crews mostly remained on board their own U-boats and the two U-boats would separate as quickly as possible. Surface tankers could be placed in ports or in quiet areas of the major oceans. In either case, most of the U-crew would be allowed on board the surface tanker for many hours, in order to give them a rest. The crew really did 'dock' at a surface tanker.

Thanks for all the feedback. I hope you all remain as enthusiastic *after* you have tested the patch.

Stiebler.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by Rubini

Hi Stiebler,

What a good news! Thanks for more this great mod!

I can't test it now but just few comments on the Utanker functionality - is't possible to add just one torpedo (or a random number from 0 to 3) when "docking at a utanker? Also could be possible to go ahead a random number of hours (let's say 1 to 7 hours for example) to simulate the time expent on the milkcow? If possible these two random functions will add even more to realism and uncertanty to the game!

I agree with the torpedo idea, that would be great.

As for the time delay, my suggestion is to find the milkcow and then spend the six hours or so beside it before actually docking to it.

This way you can, in addition to simulating the time spent, also simulate the risk of being spotted while refueling and reloading. If an enemy spots you during the time you wait, you have to start all over again after the enemy has departed (or was destroyed).

You might also consider a few minute delay before moving or diving if spotted, to simulate the need to cut the fuel lines between the boats first.


Finally, thank you Stiebler and H.sie for coding all these wonderful realism fixes for our enjoyment. The time and effort you've put into this is very much appreciated.

[irish1958]

Does this patch interfere with the 4GB patch? I assume it does not.
Thanks for this work. I hope hsie works it out and can return soon. We at SubSim will miss him.

[Hitman]

AMAZING

I'm very happy that you continued the path opened by H.Sie, the old SH3 still can give a lot of fun

Now if only you could find a fix for the air cover at high TC

I suggested long ago to extend the area where the game recognizes you as "close to land" and thus allows only low TC, would that now be possible with your coding abilities?