[REL] Real Fleet Boat mod kicks off

[Egan]

I've just backed up the entire camapign + associated files in preparation of work starting on my new Ops-Mod thingy. A slippery slope indeed.

Thats beside the point, though. I'm intrigued by the new campaign files. Lots in there to fix. Lots to add. Lots to remove...:pEasier to work stuff out but I had real problems last night editing one of the files - Every time I tried to save it I ended up with a blank file. can't remember this happening in Sh3 so if anyone has any ideas givev me a shout.

Right. I have a spanking new overclocked 7950 GT and a DVD RW to install - Should you see a blinding flash of light followed by a puff of acrid smoke that was probably me.

Cheers!

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by Beery

But trips to Hokkaido aren't all that historically accurate for boats based in the Aleutians. I'm hoping someone makes a campaign for the Aleutians once the next RFB mod is published. It shouldn't be too hard - probably just a matter of getting the old campaign editor up and running and sending the odd ship between Hokkaido and the bits of the Aleutians the Japanese have invaded.

At least one submarine, S-34, was deployed to the Kuriles in April 1942, from Dutch Harbor. You can read up more about it and other North Pacific operations in Samuel Eliot Morison's Volume 4 of his History of United States Naval Operations in World War II.

[akdavis]

Here are some sinking locations for boats out of Dutch Harbor:

2 Jul, 1943
While on her 6th war patrol USS S-35 (Lt. H.S. Monroe) torpedoes and sinks the Japanese crabbing ship Banshu Maru Nr.7 (5490 BRT) off the west coast of the Kamchatka peninsula, Aleutians in position 52.30N, 156.12E."

26 Oct, 1942
While on her 5th war patrol USS S-31 (Lt. R.F. Sellars) torpedoed and sank the Japanese transport ship Keizan Maru (2864 BRT) off Paramushiro in position 50º10'N, 155º36'E.

6 Jun, 1943
While on her 7th war patrol USS S-30 (Lt.Cdr. W.A. Stevenson) sinks the Japanse sailing vessel Nagashige Maru Nr.2 (30 BRT) with gunfire south of Kamchatka in position 50.45N, 156.56E.

10 Jun, 1943
While on her 7th war patrol USS S-30 (Lt.Cdr. W.A. Stevenson) torpedoes and sinks the Japanese merchant Jimbu Maru (5131 BRT) in position 50.23N, 155.36E.

20 Sep, 1943
While on her 7th and final war patrol USS S-28 (Lt. V.A. Sisler) sinks the Japanese auxiliary gunboat Katsura Maru (1368 BRT) some 165 miles southwest of Paramushiro, Kurile Islands in position 49º05'N, 151º45'E.

Also, Halibut did a patrol:

9 Aug, 1942
USS Halibut (Cdr. P.H. Ross) departs Pearl Harbour for her 1st war patrol. She is ordered to patrol off the Aleutians.
23 Sep, 1942
USS Halibut (Cdr. P.H. Ross) ends her 1st war patrol at Dutch Harbour.
2 Oct, 1942
USS Halibut (Cdr. P.H. Ross) departs Dutch Harbour for her 2nd war patrol. Once again she was ordered to patrol off the Aleutians.
31 Oct, 1942
USS Halibut (Cdr. P.H. Ross) ends her 2nd war patrol at Pearl Harbour.

Several boats left Pearl Harbor to patrol Alaskan waters:

Growler:
29 Jun, 1942
USS Growler (Lt.Cdr. H.W. Gilmore) departs Pearl Harbour for her 1st war patrol. She was ordered to patrol in Alaskan waters.
5 Jul, 1942
USS Growler (Lt.Cdr. H.W. Gilmore) torpedoes and sinks the Japanese destroyer Arare (offsite link) and damages the Japanese destroyers Kasumi (offsite link) and Shiranuhi (offsite link) off Kiska, Aleutians in position 52º00'N, 177º40'E. (see map)

Finback:
25 Jun, 1942
USS Finback (Lt.Cdr. J.L. Hull) departs Pearl Harbour for her 1st war patrol. She is ordered to patrol off the Aleutians.
12 Aug, 1942
USS Finback (Lt.Cdr. J.L. Hull) ends her 1st war patrol at Dutch Harbour.
23 Aug, 1942
USS Finback (Lt.Cdr. J.L. Hull) returns to Pearl Harbour to refit for her 2nd war patrol.

Trigger:
26 Jun, 1942
USS Trigger (Lt.Cdr. J.H. Lewis) departs Pearl Harbour for her 1st war patrol. She is ordered to patrol of the Aleutians.
8 Aug, 1942
USS Trigger (Lt.Cdr. J.H. Lewis) arrives at Dutch Harbour.
15 Aug, 1942
USS Trigger (Lt.Cdr. J.H. Lewis) ends her 1st war patrol at Pearl Harbour.

Triton:
25 Jun, 1942
USS Triton (Lt.Cdr. C.C. Kirkpatrick) departs Pearl Harbour for her 4th war patrol. She is ordered to patrol in Alaskan waters.
4 Jul, 1942
USS Triton (Lt.Cdr. C.C. Kirkpatrick) torpedoes and sinks the Japanese destroyer Nenohi (offsite link) off Cape Sabak, off the southeast tip of Agattu, Aleutians in position 52º15'N, 173º51'E. (see map)

Grunion:
30 Jun, 1942
USS Grunion (Lt.Cdr. M.L. Abele) departs Pearl Harbour for her 1st war patrol. She is ordered to patrol off Kiska, Aleutians.
15 Jul, 1942
USS Grunion (Lt.Cdr. M.L. Abele) reports that she had attacked an enemy destroyer but that all three torpedoes fired missed the target. Shortly after this report Grunion torpedoes and sinks the Japanese submarine chasers Ch 25 and Ch 27 (both 460 tons) west of Sredni Point, Kiska, Aleutians in position 52.02N, 177.42E. She reports these result immediately. (see map)
28 Jul, 1942
USS Grunion (Lt.Cdr. M.L. Abele) reports an attack on unidentified enemy ships six miles southeast of Sirius Point, Kiska. She was depth charged after this attack but sustained no damage.
30 Jul, 1942
USS Grunion (Lt.Cdr. M.L. Abele) reported heavy antisubmarine activity at the entrance to Kiska, and that she had ten torpedoes remaining. She was ordered to return to base at Dutch Harbour.
31 Jul, 1942
USS Grunion (Lt.Cdr. M.L. Abele) possibly torpedoes and damages the Japanese transport ship Kano Maru (8572 BRT) off Kiska, Aleutians. Grunion might be sunk by gunfire from her quarry some 10 miles north of Segula Island. The Kano Maru was finally sunk on 8 August 1942 north-east of Kiska by US Bombers and gunfire from US warships.

Gato:
2 Jul, 1942
USS Gato (Lt.Cdr. W.G. Myers) departs Pearl Harbour for her 2nd war patrol. She is ordered to patrol east of the Kuril Islands
29 Aug, 1942
USS Gato (Lt.Cdr. W.G. Myers) ended her 2nd war patrol at Dutch Harbour, Alaska
4 Sep, 1942
USS Gato (Lt.Cdr. R.J. Foley) departs Dutch Harbour for her 3rd war patrol. Initially she is ordered to patrol off Kiska. Later she is sent to the south Pacific (Truk) via Midway and Pearl Harbour. She ended this lenghty, but unsuccesful, patrol at Brisbane, Australia on 23 December 1942.

Tuna:
13 Jul, 1942
USS Tuna (Lt.Cdr. A.H. Holtz) departed Pearl Harbour for her 3rd war patrol. She was ordered to patrol off the Aleutian Islands.
5 Sep, 1942
USS Tuna (Lt.Cdr. A.H. Holtz) ended her 3rd war patrol at Pearl Harbour.

Cachalot:
23 Sep, 1942
USS Cachalot (Lt.Cdr. H.C. Stevenson) left Pearl Harbour for her 3th and final war patrol. She was to patrol in the Bering Sea. After this patrol Cachalot was assigned to training duties.

Dolphin:
24 Jul, 1942
USS Dolphin (Lt.Cdr. R.L. Rutter) ended her 2nd war patrol when she returned to Pearl Harbour.
12 Oct, 1942
USS Dolphin (Lt.Cdr. R.L. Rutter) left base for her 3th war patrol. She was to patrol of the Kuril Islands.
5 Dec, 1942
USS Dolphin (Lt.Cdr. R.L. Rutter) ended her 3th and last war patrol. With new construction submarines available for offensive war patrols, the older Dolphin was assigned to training duties.

[Beery]

The Aleutian-based S-Boats did get as far as the Kurile Islands but they got nowhere near Hokkaido. As I understand it they never got much farther than the first island in the chain - Paramushir - which is about 6,000 nautical miles from Hokkaido. The game's closest mission goal is Hokkaido.

Another problem, as far as the game goes, is that there are no defences stopping Aleutian-based boats from getting to Hokkaido and wreaking havoc - and the harbours are going to be the targets that you get to first. I spent a day in one of Hokkaido's harbours just shooting torpedoes and then I just wandered off with no pursuing destroyers or escorts.

One more problem is that in real life the WWI-era S-18 Class boats were virtual death traps - they were not really suited to long ocean voyages. From what I've read the trip to Paramushir was a test of survival in itself and these boats were really only suited to operations in the Aleutian chain. Yet in the game a trip to Hokkaido is fairly uneventful - you never get breakdowns.

[Beery]

Originally Posted by Egan

I've just backed up the entire camapign + associated files in preparation of work starting on my new Ops-Mod thingy. A slippery slope indeed.

That is good news!

Can we perhaps hope to see a little Aleutian ops mod? The Hokkaido harbours could do with an escort each and I'd like to see some supply ships going to the Western Aleutians. Also some small navy ships? And a couple of mission goals set further East than Hokkaido?

Any chance? Pretty please?

Hehe, I'm just joking. You have to do what you want. I'm happy enough with the Aleutians base working.

I noticed that the game seems to have the campaign files separately rather than in one big file. Is that really the case or is there a big file somewhere that I've missed? If the files are split up it seems like that would make modders' jobs easier to some extent.

[Egan]

There don't seem to be any RND files or that sort of thing any more. One the whole the campaign structure seems both simpler yet more complex and I'm not entirely sure how it all hangs together so far as I've only just started looking at it. Given the difficulty I had the other night with saving edited files (it kept saving a blank version... ) I'm probably going to have to do a refresher course to get used to it all again.

One of the nicest discoveries so far, though is that you know longer seem to need to create a huge locations.cfg for adding new ports - they can now be added directly into the apropriate .mis file in the editor...I'm sure CCIP, Nico and Jace will agree that this will save a massive amount of time and frayed nerves.

I want to get the Aleutian stuff in there. I also want to add patrols to the coast of IndoChina (several were conducted very early in the war but I have't seen one in game yet.) I'm not sure yet of the relation ships between the way the campaign assigns patrols and the link between the 'Contact reports' files and the 'Patrol objectives' files.

On the face of it, to create new patrol areas specific for the Aleutian base one would simply create a new 'Patrol Objectives .mis and .TSR file and alter the flotilla .UPC file accordingly. However, things being what they are I'm sure there is something else I'm not seeing.

There are a lot of map labels I would like to get in there too but I know nothing about DDS editing and my efforts so far have merely ended with huge blue or black squares appearing on the map...

On the plus side, most of the major naval engagements and invasions are already there. Editing them would be so much easier than doing them all from scratch but we shall see.

I have a list of things I want to do so I'll add the Aleutians in. I'm going to be reformatting in the next few days but once that's done I'll get down to business.

God. It's worse than drugs.

[Beery]

Originally Posted by Egan

There are a lot of map labels I would like to get in there too but I know nothing about DDS editing and my efforts so far have merely ended with huge blue or black squares appearing on the map...

If you have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements you can get a plug-in that will allow Photoshop to work with these files. They're just like tga files. I think I posted a link to the plug-in somewhere. Here it is: http://developer.download.nvidia.com....0629.1500.exe

God. It's worse than drugs.

It is.

[Egan]

I'm using Infranview to check out the .DDS stuff just now. Problem is I can't work out how to actually make the changes. I'm rubbish at this sort of thing but I'm going to keep at it. When I open the files up I just get Blue or Black squares depending on whether it is for an Island or a narrow. Can't work out how the sim changes this to the text labels on the map. I just end up with big nasty squares...

I've just spent 500 quid on new gear so I can't really afford Photoshop. I might try paintshop as well and see.

Edit: Paint.NET with the DDS plug in works. In business now..(i hope,)

[WWSandMan]

Stupid question from an SH4 n00b... can all three of the RFB mod versions be employed at once? JSGME gave me a warning about over-writing similar files when I applied #2 over #1, so I stopped the process.

[Beery]

Originally Posted by WWSandMan

Stupid question from an SH4 n00b... can all three of the RFB mod versions be employed at once? JSGME gave me a warning about over-writing similar files when I applied #2 over #1, so I stopped the process.

Use JSGME to remove #1 and then install the latest one which you can find here: http://www.beerymod.com/SH4/RFB112.7z.

Although it seems the download site is down at the moment. Anyway the latest mod is the only one you need.

[Gizzmoe]

RFB 1.12 thread:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=110993

Thread closed, to avoid confusion.