[REL] Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate, full release

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by Michael Wood

...
I started in the S-35 and was ordered to Lingayen Gulf. Not there, yet. It may be a hot area. Noticed that the officer limit for the S-Boat is still five, which the program assumes to be chiefs and officers, not just officers. And, many of the officers in all boats are still wearing the wrong collar insignia.

The airplanes ate up too much time, and real life decided to get in the way of all things fun, so the insignia and officers took a back seat for now. I did get to a few things, like the 4" gun on your boat, early in the war, but you might have also noticed that for whatever reason now, it offers a 3" aft gun as an "upgrade", in addition to the 3" fore gun... I did not change any of those settings though, so that needs looking into also. Of course, do NOT attempt to "upgrade" your 4" fore gun on the S-Boat to a 3" aft, since it will not function as intended. The torpedo loadings when returning from Patrol are still whacky also. You might also notice the "typing" as you come into the Manila office at the start, that it continues typing, while the the text appears to "jump" up a pinch... I forgot to draw the text box in 1024_768 ini bigger for that 2nd line, so we'll deal with that in the next release also. s7rikeback is working right now on future "efficiency" changes in the ships' dat files, which we hope will further improve load times and renderings.

As for where you are headed, depending upon your assignments, you might be going to Lingayen Gulf too early to catch anything, and just before the transports arrive, and then you get sent elsewhere. Others are sent there the day after they arrive... seemingly, the patrolling DD assigned to protect th transports apparently don't hang around long enough though, so we'll fix that next version also... time permitting of course - thanks for the comments!

[propbeanie]

OK, click on the "Spoilers" for the pix, but beginning yesterday, this Mavis caught us on the surface:

 

zoomed shot, prior to them turning toward us for a 2nd attack

gave us a little damage, no injuries, but the Mavis has "staying power", so we were down for a while...

Beginning this morning. We were following ordered protocol with a periscope patrol beginning about 0630 hours. Came up for some quick air, and low and behold, now a Pete finds us on the surface... At first, it didn't look like they'd seen us, but a couple more bobs up to PD and there they were, so this was the order of the day three times:

 

of the three sightings, only the one attack, and it wasn't close, but they know fershure ferserttin now that I are there, and just about where to find me... On the 2nd quick drop to 150 (and radical change of course), I got some sonar lines and a report "Warship, moving away, long range".

 

So on the next time up to PD, we looked north. No sign of anything of course, so using my handy-dandy "cheat" device, I zoomed that a-way, because I are an "Official FotRSU Tester" of course... lo and behold:

 

Looking north across the group

 

Looking front-to-back through the group

Some "close-ups":

 

Further investigation, and there are a couple of DD and a CA hanging back... why? So, like 7 or 8 escorts, a CL, 2x CA, 2x Seaplane tenders, and one CVE (actually, CVL).

 

looking in my sub's general direction, about 6 miles to the south

 

looking East toward Palau at the other two hanging back

I don't stand a chance of catching them in my S-Boat, what with them over 6nm away at least, traveling at a good clip and all, plus that shtinking latest Pete is bound to show his face sooner rather than later... Anyway, the overall:

 

I'm having a blast, even though I haven't taken shot one yet...

[torpedobait]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Glad you like the look and feel of the mod. What type of "Insertion" do you have, and to where? I went through and tried to limit some of those 2nd missions, similar to what you get at the Beginning, to where you get only a select set of missions for your 2nd patrol, so long as you don't stay out too long for your first patrol...

Second patrol assignment was to take a 6-man squad and drop them on Leyte maybe 30-50 miles south of Manila harbor. On leaving Surabaya and before getting to the deep waters of Makassar Strait, lookouts spotted an IJN Fubuki DD heading WSW. I turned towards him and went to PD (out of range, of course) just to see what was what. Sonar soon picked up multiple warships, reported as "closing". I thought they should be going away, so despite the near presence of the DD raised the scope for a quick look-see. Holy Crap! There was a Maya Class CG heading straight for us, now going due South. Behind the Maya were two escort carriers, another Maya, and several light cruisers, all surrounded by DD's. No way was I going to pass this up. I surfaced enough to use the radio, sent a contact report, and went immediately back to PD, apparently unnoticed. Must have been rookies on the near DD (Thank you!). Orders came to attack the TF without endangering my primary mission. Easier said than done.

As the Fubuki closed and then passed, I turned to the NE to gain some space between us and the line of bigger prey, turning back to the WNW in time for a shot at the carriers. It was pretty dark by then, so when I raised the scope no one spotted it. I was lined up perfectly on the Maya, but I swung the scope to the right for the lead escort carrier. Bingo! I fired two Mark 10's at her front quarters and dropped the scope. When the stopwatch showed about 10 seconds to end of run, I raised the scope and thought I picked out the second carrier and fired my remaining loaded torps. Down scope, turn away to ENE and head to 160 feet on silent running. Heard four explosions in rapid succession and started congratulating myself for sinking two escort carriers (about 30k tons) on getting the "she's going down" message.

However, in my haste I had retargeted the first carrier, so she got all four torps. That's ok - one was a pretty good kill for an S-boat. Funny, the escorting DD's never found me. No pinging, but they did depth charge the hell out of the spot I had fired from - bet they killed a lot of fish. We snuck away undetected and when out of sound range surfaced and continued our run to Makassar Strait. Before getting there, we spotted a Fast Merchant, also on a WSW course, and out of range of our now reloaded tubes. On a hunch, I again turned North and went to PD. Sure enough, when I raised the scope there he was, now on a due South heading. One torpedo in the bow quarter and she blew herself to bits. Must have blown her own bottom out because she went down in about 3 minutes. The rest of the mission was routine.

Dropped off the Army squad on Leyte around midnight right in front of a village. Something I noticed about that - I don't always get the "ready to launch raft" message if I approach on the surface, even after stopping. So I always submerge about two miles out and make my run in, stopping and surfacing about 600 yards from shore. I always get the launch cue doing it that way. I'm not saying it's a flaw - just pointing out that a way to be sure to complete the insertion successfully is to approach the launch point submerged, stop, and then surface.

The rafts behave much more like they should, and the insertion team makes for shore as they should. Don't know if you changed any of that, but it was never so smooth in prior versions of any mod. I like it!

Btw, on the way back I ran into a few more merchies to add to the total, expending all 11 torpedoes. A very successful patrol, that ended at Perth/Fremantle. Made one more patrol with some success, and I'm getting ready for my fourth, this time out of Brisbane.

Sorry for running on like this, but I had to tell someone!

[fitzcarraldo]

Starting now with a Gato, new FOTRSU version. Good weather in Pearl. Hope I will have a good patrol.

Regards and many thanks for the good job!

Fitzcarraldo

[torpedobait]

The red flares fired by torpedoed or gunned ships is a really nice touch! Also, thanks for fixing a long-standing but small irritant, that being the link direct to the boat from the Captain's desk in the office. Just wanted you to know I saw these and appreciate the attention to detail.

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by torpedobait

The red flares fired by torpedoed or gunned ships is a really nice touch! Also, thanks for fixing a long-standing but small irritant, that being the link direct to the boat from the Captain's desk in the office. Just wanted you to know I saw these and appreciate the attention to detail.

You are welcome. I made the base of the submarine model "active" also, with the intent of having it take the player directly to the torpedo screen, but the devs apparently didn't include a built-in link for that... I'm trying to work around it, but I can't remember how... what's my name again?...

[fitzcarraldo]

Originally Posted by torpedobait

The red flares fired by torpedoed or gunned ships is a really nice touch! Also, thanks for fixing a long-standing but small irritant, that being the link direct to the boat from the Captain's desk in the office. Just wanted you to know I saw these and appreciate the attention to detail.

+1.. The red flares is an inmersive element I ever missed in SH4. That's awesome. Congratulations!

Fitzcarraldo

[granite00]

I'm sorry if this has been asked before. I know most mods are not compatible with FOTRSU. Is there a way to use the TMO black dot ship contact icons instead of the stock icons that immediately indicate a target's direction?

[propbeanie]

I think we have an add-in for that about ready to go... We'll have to consult with the author, if we get a reply. That should be close to compatible with what we have now. You just have to change all of the ShipName_shp files to a dot, or blob, or smilie face, or whatever... Most of them are already like that from the previous versions...

[s7rikeback]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

I think we have an add-in for that about ready to go... We'll have to consult with the author, if we get a reply. That should be close to compatible with what we have now. You just have to change all of the ShipName_shp files to a dot, or blob, or smilie face, or whatever... Most of them are already like that from the previous versions...

Pb, the original FoTRS had those icons ingame, both me and capnScurvy removed them due to popular requests and went towards the original stock version. Green being friendly & blue being the bad guys!!! there's more to change than just the shp files, they would also have to change the Air_shp files & land based_shp files, plus others elsewhere.

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by s7rikeback

Pb, the original FoTRS had those icons ingame, both me and capnScurvy removed them due to popular requests and went towards the original stock version. Green being friendly & blue being the bad guys!!! there's more to change than just the shp files, they would also have to change the Air_shp files & land based_shp files, plus others elsewhere.

Plus we've added a few new ships since... But the airplanes and land units could be done separately also... but how "detailed" do folks want? Three add-in mods, or thirty?...

[granite00]

I'm thankful for the depth of this mod, period.

If the map contacts are fairly easy to change, I'd be happy. I was hoping that it wouldn't be too difficult (sort of like reversing what RR's EZPlot did for RFB and TMO). This seems more complicated than I thought.

[ironkross]

A few months ago I got back into subsims after maybe 7~8 years. I wanted to play SH3. I tried using Grey Wolves mod (on Win7) but gave up after 3 complete installs/uninstall/wipe/reinstall of SH3 and the mod. Finally gave up on that and played it with LSH3, but still had problems simply starting up the game. I had to start with SH3 cmdr, end process with task mgr, and restart cmdr just to play.

So I loaded up SH4, DL'd the FotRSU mod, and installed according to the instructions. Starting out at Pearl Dec 8th '42- the game started without any hiccups, and everything looks great, runs great.

I wanted to thank you for getting this mod right. When I started the game I really expected some kind of glitch (only because of my previous experiences.) Pleasantly surprised with it playing on the first try.

[Wolfcat]

Is it possible to combine FOTRS with RSRD? I am mainly interested in having historic battles in my campaign. Or it is not necessary because FOTRS already incorporates the features in RSRD? I am kinda new to FOTRS, so not knowledgeable of all the history.

[merc4ulfate]

First CTD new version.

This might be an Allied plane issue.

Sargo class out of asiatic fleet.
Love the messages and issue of order immediately following completion of the first. Went to north Luzon by way of San Bernadino at first, picked up personnel back at Dock two second, then headed to Java third. Just North of Java spotted a Torro but no way to get a good angle. I noticed a down flyer in the water and rescued him. Looked at the Torro again with Allied planes flying overhead on course for Torro.

Saw a second downed pilot and rescued him. Looked back at Torro no other downed pilots sighted so resumed course for Java new home base.

This is where the CTD happens.

Clean install
LAA
Generic Mod Enabler - v2.6.0.157
[X:\FOTRSUNEWEST\MODS]

100_FalloftheRisingSun_UltimateEdition_v1.004.a_EN
901_strategic_map_symbols


I suspect this might be an allied air craft issue simply because they were coming from Java. No other help I can give . I had no saves along the way. This was the first mission I tried in the new campaign.