New: SH3 Commander Improvements - Beta Testers Needed

[Observer]

This application provides some of the added improvements to SH3 Commander mentioned in this thread:

http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=42005

Today it exists as a separate application. Before integrating this functionality into SH3 Commander, I'd like to test the core logic and ensure there aren't any bugs.

Functionality:

-Randomizes merchant tonnage. At this time tonnage randomization has not been implemented for Sergbuto's added merchants or Passenger Liner class of ships
-Allows user selected patrol start date. This date also has a random element.
-Allows the user to view previous patrols outside of the game (similar to SH3 Commander)
-Captain's Log module. Here you may enter dates and times for comments during the course of the patrol. The comments will be collected and written to a text file. After the patrol, the results of your actions will be added to the patrol log, and it will be formatted in KTB fashion. You may view the Captain's log in text or html.
-Names ships sunk during the course of a patrol for both merchant ships and warships. SH3 does not have a way to check for a ships nationality, so some names may appear odd. This is true for warship classes used by multiple countries (such as Clemson destroyers) during the course of the war. Ship names will appear in the Captain's Log, and are chosen at random. Merchant names reflect actual merchants sunk during WWII. Warships names use actual names of ships assigned to the class.



You can download the application here: SH3 Companion v4.2.6

This application require the v2.0 .net framework in order to work. You can get it here (23 MB D/L):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

If you use this application please post feedback in this thread, either suggestions for improvement or bugs you encounter in use.



This is a sample output from the Captain's Log:

Sample Captain's Log


Application screenshots:












Readme:

SH3 Companion

This is a beta version of this program.  Use at your own risk!
Currently this version only supports English SH3 patrol log files.  I would need the assistance from a person using the German version of SH3 in order to support this functionality.

Version 4.2.6 (see change log below for detailed list of changes).  

THIS PROGRAM REQUIRES MICROSOFT .NET V2.0 FRAMEWORK!  USE THIS DOWNLOAD LINK FOR THE NECESSARY FILES:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7ABD8C8F-287E-4C7E-9A4A-A4ECFF40FC8E&displaylang=en

As the name implies, SH3 Companion, is a companion to WWII submarine simulation Silent Hunter 3 and the career management application SH3 Commander by Jaesen Jones.  This application currently does just a few things:
-Randomizes merchant tonnage.  At this time tonnage randomization has not been implemented for Sergbuto's added merchants or Passenger Liner class of ships
-Allows user selected patrol start date.  This date also has a random element.
-Allows the user to view previous patrols outside of the game (similar to SH3 Commander)
-Captain's Log module.  Here you may enter dates and times for comments during the course of the patrol.  The comments will be collected and written to a text file.  After the patrol, the results of your actions will be added to the patrol log, and it will be formatted in KTB fashion.  You may view the Captain's log in text or html.
-Names ships sunk during the course of a patrol for both merchant ships and warships.  SH3 does not have a way to check for a ships nationality, so some names may appear odd.  This is true for warship classes used by multiple countries (such as Clemson destroyers) during the course of the war.  Ship names will appear in the Captain's Log, and are chosen at random.  Merchant names reflect actual merchants sunk during WWII.    Warships names use actual names of ships assigned to the class.


Installation:
Please completely uninstall previous versions of SH3 Companion before installing the latest build.  You can do this through the add/remove programs option in Windows2K/XP.  If you wish to remove all traces of the software from your system, you will also need to delete the SH3 Companion folder created in your X:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Silent Hunter III directory.  This is not necessary for an upgrade to the latest build.  Run the provided installation package.  This program will be installed to the X:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Silent Hunter III\SH3 Companion directory.  I also suggest making a desktop icon for ease of use.  If you are using SH3 Commander, DELETE the following folders from the Commander directories:  data folder from \Flotilla\902, \Flotilla\903, and \Flotilla\904.  SH3 Companion now copies the correct flotilla file to the proper location in SH3.  It provides the exact same functionality as SH3 Commander and addresses some of the sequencing issues between SH3 Companion and SH3 Commander.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  If you are using a version of SH3 Companion prior to 4.2.5 please change the extensions for saved text patrol files in the X:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Silent Hunter III\SH3 Companion\Patrol Reports directory from *.rtf to *.txt.  Text logs without this change will not be recognized in the Captain's Log.  


Using SH3 Companion:
If you are currently using SH3 Commander, in order for several of the included features to work properly, follow the procedure below when starting a NEW patrol:  

When starting your NEXT patrol:
1.  Run SH3 Companion.  Update Patrol Start date.
2.  Run SH3 Commander and update options as necessary and launch SH3 from SH3 Commander.

If you save and exit during the course of the patrol:
1.  Run SH3 Companion and launch SH3 from SH3 Companion.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Just like SH3 Commander, you cannot use the features of SH3 Companion until you have completed at least one patrol.


Uninstallation:
This program may be removed using the uninstall option in the Start->Programs->SH3 Tonnage Randomizer directory.  I also suggest manual removal of the folder in the X:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Silent Hunter III directory if you wish to remove every trace (including previous patrol Captain's Logs!).

Good Luck!  If you have any problems, let me know.


Change Log:
v4.2.6
-Update to html and text files to show total, merchant, and warship tonnages and numbers of ships sunk during a patrol

v4.2.5
-Internal code changes

v4.2.4
-Removed improper names from the available list of merchant names (Spreewald and Doggerbank)
-Added report feature to show if the ship was lost at sea during a patrol
-Changed the number of lines allocated to ship sinkings from 4 lines to two lines.  Output will now look like:
    Ship Sunk!, Grid BE96
    Small merchant, S.S. Younameit, 1500 tons
-Corrected html encoding error (UTF-8)
-Changed default html report font to courier for readability (Hanshand front no longer required or packaged in zip).
-Added pop up window allowing user to view text file (copy and paste purposes) after the Captain's log has been saved.

v4.2.3
-Corrected error incorrectly reporting tonnages less than 1000 tons
-Corrected html and text sequencing issues.  Previously if the user edited a completed patrol log, then opened the text file and html file at the same time, ship names would be lost.
-Corrected error preventing two log entries occurring at the same time from being handled properly.  For events in the patrol log occurring at the same time, they will now be given a unique number (date and time including seconds).  The event seconds can be seen in the text files, but will not show on the html output.

v4.2.2
-Internal code changes

v4.2.1
-Corrected a zero tonnage error
-Corrected date format parsing error

v4.2
-Major build.  Added several new features and output formats (see above).

[AlanSmithee]

Looks interesting. I'll test it out tonight.

[squeak]

. I'll test it out tonight.

me 2

[BladeHeart]

How's this one coming along?

I am curious as to how you access the captain's log facility whilst in patrol; would anyone care to explain this to me please? :hmm:

Thanks

[Observer]

I need beta testers and/or feedback from testers. So far the response has been disappointing to say the least. I'm almost tired of waiting, so I'm thinking today I will send the final version of the code to JScones for addition to SH3 Commander.

Accessing the utility while on patrol is not the most convenient method, but requires the user to either run in a window, or alt-tab. Fortunately SH3 is very alt-tab friendly. I've been doing this with my patrols without a problem. Window is nice because you can still see the action, but it's too small on my LCD, and there's no way to resize the screen that I know of.

[BladeHeart]

I can understand your frustration, unfortunately I am not sufficently skilled to correct any program errors so must admit to being a little shy about test runs.

I never knew you could alt-tab the game, so I will try it out and see how that goes from there.

Certainly like the idea of a log and currently write one for each patrol. Personally speaking given that log entries are made in game, access to such a feature would have be possible whilst on patrol.

[AlanSmithee]

Originally Posted by Observer

I need beta testers and/or feedback from testers. So far the response has been disappointing to say the least. I'm almost tired of waiting, so I'm thinking today I will send the final version of the code to JScones for addition to SH3 Commander.

Sorry for the delay. I've only got one SH3-ready computer available, and it's also the same computer my wife uses for grad school work. In any case, I was able to play with the captain's log features a bit, and in general they seemed to work well. I was especially happy with the random ship-naming feature. Some British ships did get American names and visa-versa, though as you noted this is unavoidable. Still, having ship names included in the log is a good improvement.

Once I figued out the log entry process I didn't really have any problems, though I do wish there was a way it could be simplified. Right now it takes multiple clicks to create new entries - IIRC, date selection -> add new entry -> select entry date -> type entry -> update entry -> Save file. It'd be good if there was some way to reduce this complexity - e.g., select a date, type your entry, hit save.

Other issues were minor. Selecting a different career under the "Select Career" tab does not change the "Select Patrol" tab to Patrol 1, but leaves it at whatever Patrol was previously selected. Also, for competed patrol logs, entry dates don't seem to appear until after hitting "View html file".

In any case, I enjoyed what I saw and look forward to a finalized version in SH3 Commander. Good work!


Edit: BTW, no problems with Alt-Tab, as it's the only realistic solution. I've never had any Alt-Tab problems other than some minor graphical corruption, and that seems to be a SH3 issue, not a SH3 Companion issue.

[Observer]

Originally Posted by AlanSmithee

Sorry for the delay. I've only got one SH3-ready computer available, and it's also the same computer my wife uses for grad school work. In any case, I was able to play with the captain's log features a bit, and in general they seemed to work well. I was especially happy with the random ship-naming feature. Some British ships did get American names and visa-versa, though as you noted this is unavoidable. Still, having ship names included in the log is a good improvement.

Once I figued out the log entry process I didn't really have any problems, though I do wish there was a way it could be simplified. Right now it takes multiple clicks to create new entries - IIRC, date selection -> add new entry -> select entry date -> type entry -> update entry -> Save file. It'd be good if there was some way to reduce this complexity - e.g., select a date, type your entry, hit save.

In any case, I enjoyed what I saw and look forward to a finalized version in SH3 Commander. Good work!


Edit: BTW, no problems with Alt-Tab, as it's the only realistic solution. I've never had any Alt-Tab problems other than some minor graphical corruption, and that seems to be a SH3 issue, not a SH3 Companion issue.

Thanks for the feedback. Admittedly the interface is a bit of a kludge. It was intended for functionality and clearly fails in the usability (i.e. it's okay, but it's not great).

On data entry, you can make as many entries as you like before saving. It's intended to work as follows:

1. Open the Captain's log
2. Select an entry date/time
3. Type the entry
4. If you wish to make another entry, change the data/time
5. Type the entry
6. When finished making entries save.

I think much of this complexity/confusion is due to the nature of the interface though. I'm working on improvements in this department.

Other issues were minor. Selecting a different career under the "Select Career" tab does not change the "Select Patrol" tab to Patrol 1, but leaves it at whatever Patrol was previously selected.

This one I can fix.

Also, for competed patrol logs, entry dates don't seem to appear until after hitting "View html file".

Are you referring to dates for the purpose of editing old entries?

The user interface enhancements, one bug I found, plus the suggestions mentioned above will be in the next release, and what I hope is the final version.

[AlanSmithee]

Originally Posted by Observer

Are you referring to dates for the purpose of editing old entries?

Yes. The old entries wouldn't appear until I hit "View html file".

The user interface enhancements, one bug I found, plus the suggestions mentioned above will be in the next release, and what I hope is the final version.

Excellent. I look forward to it!

[Observer]

Changes are coming along. I hope you'll like the new interface for the Captain's Log. Here's a look:

[BladeHeart]

Although I do have this mod installed I tried out alt-tab and the only issue I noticed was that my attack map in front of the navigator in the bridge disappeared; F6 was fine.

One problem that occurs to me might crop up is whilst using the log via alt-tab, is that you cannot read your screen and the data on it, such as weather reports, etc.

Is there a way one can press a key in game such as "=" which would then open the log and place it in front of SH3?

[Observer]

Originally Posted by BladeHeart

Although I do have this mod installed I tried out alt-tab and the only issue I noticed was that my attack map in front of the navigator in the bridge disappeared; F6 was fine.

One problem that occurs to me might crop up is whilst using the log via alt-tab, is that you cannot read your screen and the data on it, such as weather reports, etc.

Is there a way one can press a key in game such as "=" which would then open the log and place it in front of SH3?

I'll have to think on the hotkey some to see if I can get something that works. I suspect it will still drop you to desktop because you'd be switching from 3D mode to 2D mode, so it wouldn't really work the way you would like. I'll have to try it and see.

[Observer]

I'll have a new version up tomorrow...err later today.

[BladeHeart]

If this new version can work whilst remaining in the game, even if it pauses it then I'll give it a try.
If it cannot not then although I really do like the concept, its application does not suit my personal style of play.

Its a good idea regardless.

[DeePsix U-48]

Do we have an ETA for this mod? It looks great!

~DeePsix
Commander U-48