Modding Silent Hunter 1.

[Sheppard]

Actually I just remembered I made an error in decipering a variable:

Displacement, Surfaced : 1860
Displacement, Submerged : 2428
Displacement Coefficient : 2438 << this isn't a coefficient.

It's actually the "death displacement".

See, when you get damaged, your sub will start shipping water on board; and this will affect your displacement. Eventually, if you take on enough water, your submerged displacement will go above the Death Displacement; and you'll die.

I found this out when I tried to mod in the Nautilus into the Tench Slot -- the surfaced displacement -- 3,533 tons was above the death displacement; so each time I loaded the game, I died instantly from flooding.

This mechanic is probably to simulate eventual death if you're stuck on the ocean floor above crush depth, but your boat is filling with water.

[Sheppard]

The variable at offset 272 is definitely the diesel fuel consumption rate.

It's however, set for an extremely large value; it's the daily fuel consumption in gallons if your engine(s) are running full tilt.

I think I've also figured out what these are:

Surfaced Motor Coefficient Astern Modifier?
Surfaced Motor Coefficient STOPPED
Surfaced Motor Coefficient 1/3 Ahead
Surfaced Motor Coefficient 2/3 Ahead
Surfaced Motor Coefficient Standard Ahead
Surfaced Motor Coefficient Full Ahead
Surfaced Motor Coefficient Flank Ahead

They're how much of your main propulsion plant is used to reach that speed (and also how many lights come on in the main propulsion control panel for that).

If your submarine has 2 electric motors; then if you have 200 for a submerged flank coefficient; you need to have both electric motors online to reach flank submerged speed.

I noticed this because now that I've got all the coefficients pulled out with my early editor and plotted in Excel for all eight subs; plus all the other variables; I can now discern data patterns.

Case in point:

Narwhal. 1 diesel and 2 electric motors; and her coefficient curves break down as:

Surfaced Astern Modifier 150
Surfaced Stopped Coefficient 0
Surfaced 1/3ds Ahead Coefficient 10
Surfaced 2/3ds Ahead Coefficient 33
Surfaced Standard Ahead Coefficient 50
Surfaced Full Ahead Coefficient 75
Surfaced Flank Ahead Coefficient 100

Submerged Astern Modifier 5
Submerged Stopped Coefficient 0
Submerged 1/3ds Ahead Coefficient 20
Submerged 2/3ds Ahead Coefficient 66
Submerged Standard Ahead Coefficient 100
Submerged Full Ahead Coefficient 150
Submerged Flank Ahead Coefficient 200

While the Gato/Balao/Tench classes all have 4 diesels and 4 electric motors; and have the following coefficients:

Surfaced Astern Modifier 100
Surfaced Stopped Coefficient 0
Surfaced 1/3ds Ahead Coefficient 40
Surfaced 2/3ds Ahead Coefficient 93
Surfaced Standard Ahead Coefficient 186
Surfaced Full Ahead Coefficient 320
Surfaced Flank Ahead Coefficient 400

Submerged Astern Modifier 10
Submerged Stopped Coefficient 0
Submerged 1/3ds Ahead Coefficient 50
Submerged 2/3ds Ahead Coefficient 120
Submerged Standard Ahead Coefficient 190
Submerged Full Ahead Coefficient 270
Submerged Flank Ahead Coefficient 400

[Sheppard]

I may have discovered the electric charge/discharge system variables.

What threw me off is that they are negative; so they have lots of 244/etc variables, so they appear to be placeholders at first.

So; there are two sets of four variables each. Each set appears right after the engine requirements for that mode (surfaced or submerged).

I think what clinches it is Narwhal.

While all subs have evenly matched charge/discharge statistics -- e.g. the S Class has the following stats:

DIESEL
-180
-150
-80
-50

ELECTRIC
-180
-150
-80
-50

And this sets the pattern for all the other boats; equal charge/discharge....except for Narwhal...

Which is...

DIESEL
-90
-50
-30
-10

Electric
-180
-100
-60
-20

[Sheppard]

I've advanced as far as I can in understanding the file format.

I think that unfortunately, battery capacity and oxygen capacity are hard coded as global variables; or if they aren't it's almost impossible to find them without a memory search to find the variables that keep changing when you're submerged; because there's no digital gauge that displays their status; just an imprecise analog gauge.

[TorpX]

Have you looked at any of the files related to the patrol zones and shipping?

[Sheppard]

No; I've been too busy trying to do a what if -- USS Nautilus ten years early.

[Hitman]

Looks great Maybe the old SH1 realism fix by Vickers could give you more clues?

If I had to request one and only one change to the code, that would be to reduce the shipping to about 10% of what it is now during the patrols

[TorpX]

Originally Posted by Hitman

Looks great Maybe the old SH1 realism fix by Vickers could give you more clues?

If I had to request one and only one change to the code, that would be to reduce the shipping to about 10% of what it is now during the patrols

That, and the inexplicable goof in the patrol zone dimensions, were my big peeves.

[Sheppard]

I believe I've identified four unknown variables in WEAPONS.DAT for torpedoes.

Like SUBS.DAT; speed in knots and range in yards is...for fluff purposes only.

The actual data is held in horsepower/drag variables, and there are two sets of it; one for each "FAST/SLOW" setting.