SH3 Commander - Time Spent In Base?

Enfilade · 10-14-05, 10:31 PM

I've noticed some odd behaviour when attempting to use the 'time spent in base' options in SH3 Commander (using latest version). In my previous career, for example, I specified 'random' for time spent in base between patrols. As it was 1939, the range provided was between 5 and 30 days I think. So I was startled to discover that my next patrol began exactly ONE day after the previous one had ended! The men were very unhappy! I thought I'd see if specifying a set number of days would resolve this. So when my current patrol ended on 20 December, I changed the 'time spent in base' option to a set figure of 23 days in SH3 Commander, then launched the game through Commander as per usual. However, my new patrol is beginning on January 1... not a pause of 23 days. Anyone experienced similar things?

Scared Bunny · 10-15-05, 09:55 AM

Yes, I noticed it, too. The next day after you arrive in port you are in the mission setup room, but when you start your next mission, the random amount of time is added to the date. So when you start a mission and are in port, look at the date in lower right corner, and you'll see that it is some days later depending on the year.

The most bugging thing is that you can only use the tech of the day that you last entered port, and your next mission date might be more then a month later if you play in 1944-45. Also, I wonder if this might be a problem if you for example enter port on say May 1st, 1945, the ready room then displays the 2nd of May, but when you start a new mission: blam, it's the 13th of June 1945, the war is over, and there you are in your U-boat, ready to sink...dolphines.

BladeHeart · 10-15-05, 11:29 AM

If the random days in base is causing problems you can always fix the period before the next patrol via SH3Cmdr.

This is particularly important if you use the milk cow mod, etc.

JScones · 10-15-05, 11:55 AM

You must remember that the days in base value means just that - the number of days that you will spend in the command room between the end of your last patrol and the start of your next patrol. So, let's say you finished your last patrol on 1 July 1940 and the randomised days in base value is 20. When you dock and reenter the command room it will still be 1 July 1940. You buy a few things, paint an emblem or two and the date increases to 15 July 1940. Still irrelevant. However, when you start your next patrol, you'll find that the start date is 21 July 1940. Of course, if you do a few major upgrades and the in base date goes beyond 21 July 1940, your patrol will start on the later date.

If this is not the case, then you may have some problems with your installation of SH3 Commander. Try setting a fixed period as Bladeheart suggests and post back if the last patrol end date + the days in base value does not equal the day that you get back into the sub for the start of the next patrol.

Enfilade · 10-15-05, 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JScones

Try setting a fixed period as Bladeheart suggests and post back if the last patrol end date + the days in base value does not equal the day that you get back into the sub for the start of the next patrol.

Hmmm.. well, as I mentioned in my post I did try setting a fixed period of 23 days after my first patrol. The first patrol ended on Dec 20. But my second patrol began on January 1, LESS than 23 days. The problem in both cases is that the next patrols are starting too early.. both in the case of the 'random' settings and the 'fixed period' settings. Everything else has seemed fine with the program. (Actually, the only other thing that might be amiss is the lack of radio news broadcasts via gramaphone. I had one such broadcast in a previous '39 career.. but in two subsequent careers - late '39 - early '40 from memory - no gramaphone material. Like to know if this is normal for this period of the war...)

Beery · 10-16-05, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enfilade

Quote:

Originally Posted by JScones

Try setting a fixed period as Bladeheart suggests and post back if the last patrol end date + the days in base value does not equal the day that you get back into the sub for the start of the next patrol.

Hmmm.. well, as I mentioned in my post I did try setting a fixed period of 23 days after my first patrol. The first patrol ended on Dec 20. But my second patrol began on January 1, LESS than 23 days. ...

You're checking the date while in the U-boat during the next patrol, right? You're not checking the date before you start your next patrol, right? If you're looking at the date while in base, that won't be the next patrol date. You never get to see your next patrol date while you're in the base. You only get a current date, which may be the date your last patrol ended, or it may be pushed forward a few days due to upgrades. It will never reflect your next patrol date.

Beery · 10-16-05, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enfilade

...the only other thing that might be amiss is the lack of radio news broadcasts via gramaphone. I had one such broadcast in a previous '39 career.. but in two subsequent careers - late '39 - early '40 from memory - no gramaphone material. Like to know if this is normal for this period of the war...)

There are only two gramophone radio messages in 1939 (one on September 1 and one on October 17). From January until May 1940 all you'll hear is a music track. There just aren't that many German radio broadcasts available from this period.

Enfilade · 10-16-05, 05:15 PM

..[/quote]

You're checking the date while in the U-boat during the next patrol, right? You're not checking the date before you start your next patrol, right? If you're looking at the date while in base, that won't be the next patrol date. You never get to see your next patrol date while you're in the base. You only get a current date, which may be the date your last patrol ended, or it may be pushed forward a few days due to upgrades. It will never reflect your next patrol date.[/quote]

No, I'm looking at the start of the next patrol while I'm in the U-Boat just before putting out to sea. (F7 in-game screen, top right corner for date). I should mention one other anomaly that I noticed yesterday: I just started a second career (using SH3 Commander to launch it - same as first). My first career (the one referred to in my queries above) is about to begin second patrol on Jan 1, '40 as mentioned. Thus, at mission load screen I get the news for December '39 as usual. My SECOND career is starting in September 39. But during mission load, I also get the same news for December 39 as in first career. This doesn't affect the actual start date of my second career, however. It still starts on Sept 3, '39 as it should. Just a bit odd. Question: if I reinstall SH3 Commander, I'll probably lose my generated personnel file for each of my two kapitans, won't I?

Beery · 10-16-05, 07:12 PM

I just can't imagine how SH3 Commander could possibly install a newsmod for three months in the future. If anything was wrong with the mod itself in terms of the date-based files you'd see no news at all. The only way you could possibly see a date that far in the future would be if you had gone from a January 1940 mission to a September 1939 mission without exiting the game and re-launching it via SH3 Commander (which is what you must do before each patrol in order for the mod to work at all).

As for the reduced time between patrols, I just can't think of any way that could happen, except perhaps if you set a value for the number of days spent in base, then set it to randomize the time spent in base (which overrules the 'set number of days spent in base' feature). Then it would leave the time you set in the 'set number of days spent in base' box (slightly greyed out) which I guess you could glance at and think it was still active, but it would actually randomize the days, so if that was the case you could get fewer days than you exected to see.

Enfilade · 10-16-05, 09:49 PM

I think what I did this time to see if it would fix the problem is untick all the 'time spent in base' options before launching the game. I was first on randomise, then set it to 23 I believe... now I've unticked all options. As for news mod, it seems that I'm getting the news mod for my first career in my second career... no idea how that might happen. Maybe I forgot to exit game before going into my second career. I'll bet that's what caused the news mod problem.
Re the other issue, I'll see what happens when I finish my current patrol and play with the option some more in Commander. Think I will try setting the number of days to 40 to see if it will work. All I can think is that I may have mistakenly made some sort of change during patrol (when boat was docked for example) which might have caused a problem. But I really have no idea on this one.

10-14-05, 10:31 PM	#1
Enfilade Gunner Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 91 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	SH3 Commander - Time Spent In Base? I've noticed some odd behaviour when attempting to use the 'time spent in base' options in SH3 Commander (using latest version). In my previous career, for example, I specified 'random' for time spent in base between patrols. As it was 1939, the range provided was between 5 and 30 days I think. So I was startled to discover that my next patrol began exactly ONE day after the previous one had ended! The men were very unhappy! I thought I'd see if specifying a set number of days would resolve this. So when my current patrol ended on 20 December, I changed the 'time spent in base' option to a set figure of 23 days in SH3 Commander, then launched the game through Commander as per usual. However, my new patrol is beginning on January 1... not a pause of 23 days. Anyone experienced similar things?

10-16-05, 07:12 PM	#9
Beery Admiral Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Silver Spring, MD, USA (but still a Yorkshireman at heart - tha can allus tell a Yorkshireman...) Posts: 2,497 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	I just can't imagine how SH3 Commander could possibly install a newsmod for three months in the future. If anything was wrong with the mod itself in terms of the date-based files you'd see no news at all. The only way you could possibly see a date that far in the future would be if you had gone from a January 1940 mission to a September 1939 mission without exiting the game and re-launching it via SH3 Commander (which is what you must do before each patrol in order for the mod to work at all). As for the reduced time between patrols, I just can't think of any way that could happen, except perhaps if you set a value for the number of days spent in base, then set it to randomize the time spent in base (which overrules the 'set number of days spent in base' feature). Then it would leave the time you set in the 'set number of days spent in base' box (slightly greyed out) which I guess you could glance at and think it was still active, but it would actually randomize the days, so if that was the case you could get fewer days than you exected to see. __________________ "More mysterious. Yeah. I'll just try to think, 'Where the hell's the whiskey?'" - Bob Harris, Lost in Translation. "Anyrooad up, ah'll si thi" - Missen.

10-15-05, 09:55 AM	#2
Scared Bunny Swabbie Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 7 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Yes, I noticed it, too. The next day after you arrive in port you are in the mission setup room, but when you start your next mission, the random amount of time is added to the date. So when you start a mission and are in port, look at the date in lower right corner, and you'll see that it is some days later depending on the year. The most bugging thing is that you can only use the tech of the day that you last entered port, and your next mission date might be more then a month later if you play in 1944-45. Also, I wonder if this might be a problem if you for example enter port on say May 1st, 1945, the ready room then displays the 2nd of May, but when you start a new mission: blam, it's the 13th of June 1945, the war is over, and there you are in your U-boat, ready to sink...dolphines.

10-15-05, 11:29 AM	#3
BladeHeart Chief Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 320 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	If the random days in base is causing problems you can always fix the period before the next patrol via SH3Cmdr. This is particularly important if you use the milk cow mod, etc.

10-15-05, 11:55 AM	#4
JScones Navy Seal Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 5,501 Downloads: 19 Uploads: 0	You must remember that the days in base value means just that - the number of days that you will spend in the command room between the end of your last patrol and the start of your next patrol. So, let's say you finished your last patrol on 1 July 1940 and the randomised days in base value is 20. When you dock and reenter the command room it will still be 1 July 1940. You buy a few things, paint an emblem or two and the date increases to 15 July 1940. Still irrelevant. However, when you start your next patrol, you'll find that the start date is 21 July 1940. Of course, if you do a few major upgrades and the in base date goes beyond 21 July 1940, your patrol will start on the later date. If this is not the case, then you may have some problems with your installation of SH3 Commander. Try setting a fixed period as Bladeheart suggests and post back if the last patrol end date + the days in base value does not equal the day that you get back into the sub for the start of the next patrol.

10-16-05, 05:15 PM	#8
Enfilade Gunner Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 91 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	..[/quote] You're checking the date while in the U-boat during the next patrol, right? You're not checking the date before you start your next patrol, right? If you're looking at the date while in base, that won't be the next patrol date. You never get to see your next patrol date while you're in the base. You only get a current date, which may be the date your last patrol ended, or it may be pushed forward a few days due to upgrades. It will never reflect your next patrol date.[/quote] No, I'm looking at the start of the next patrol while I'm in the U-Boat just before putting out to sea. (F7 in-game screen, top right corner for date). I should mention one other anomaly that I noticed yesterday: I just started a second career (using SH3 Commander to launch it - same as first). My first career (the one referred to in my queries above) is about to begin second patrol on Jan 1, '40 as mentioned. Thus, at mission load screen I get the news for December '39 as usual. My SECOND career is starting in September 39. But during mission load, I also get the same news for December 39 as in first career. This doesn't affect the actual start date of my second career, however. It still starts on Sept 3, '39 as it should. Just a bit odd. Question: if I reinstall SH3 Commander, I'll probably lose my generated personnel file for each of my two kapitans, won't I?

10-16-05, 09:49 PM	#10
Enfilade Gunner Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 91 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	I think what I did this time to see if it would fix the problem is untick all the 'time spent in base' options before launching the game. I was first on randomise, then set it to 23 I believe... now I've unticked all options. As for news mod, it seems that I'm getting the news mod for my first career in my second career... no idea how that might happen. Maybe I forgot to exit game before going into my second career. I'll bet that's what caused the news mod problem. Re the other issue, I'll see what happens when I finish my current patrol and play with the option some more in Commander. Think I will try setting the number of days to 40 to see if it will work. All I can think is that I may have mistakenly made some sort of change during patrol (when boat was docked for example) which might have caused a problem. But I really have no idea on this one.