OK, thanks for that torpedobait. Kind of goes hand-in-hand with the previous statements concerning re-fits and upgrades. For reference, I will link to Ducimus's post from way back when again:
Of refits, new commands, rank, and retirements Post #10
Post 10 is the one with the boring details. In brief:
1. When a player qualifies for an upgrade, based upon points and Patrol Renown, they will be offered the next available boat as an upgrade, or if they score high enough, 2 or 3 boats above what they have now, if they are available.
2. If a new submarine is not available, then the player will get a new conning tower, which will then allow new guns and other equipment...
This is why you sometimes do not get a conning tower, even though you need one badly, in order to mount the 40mm guns...
Now, FotRSU, in a continuing effort to "simplify" the update process for the submarines, added more "UpgradeClass" levels to the mod several versions ago, also in an effort to slow the acquisition of a Balao too early for the game's "logic". As such, each boat is considered an "upgrade". This is nice, if you want to advance through the boats, but NOT nice if you want that "new" conning tower on the sub you have. There is almost always a "new" boat available. We have fallen back to a near-Stock number of UpgradeClasses again, and the conning towers do indeed come in a timely fashion now... usually.
Plus, if you look at Ducimus's math in that post link above, you can end up basically with a "divide by zero", which under normal circumstances is a CTD, but in SH4 just means that you have dug yourself a hole that you probably cannot climb out of, if you have a bad patrol during the first or 2nd patrols of a career. This is not cool either, since the boat and conning tower "upgrades" are based on renown ~and~ on Patrol Rating renown... There is no way to "mod" this behaviour out of the game.
Now for an update on the current status of v1.2 - we may have found the issues (multiple) with the SJ radar, maybe even a partial problem with the ST, since it had a similar setting to the SJ, but is a later, not-as-important radar... I cannot find the lineage of the problem (s), but it / they crept into the mod about the same time as the deck gun issue. There were several things done, and I was certain it was a date issue, because it seemed to happen on all of the boats. Then I encountered a string of tests where I had no problems whatsoever of the SJ radar not showing correctly, then a string where it did not show on any of the boats encountered. It did indeed have to do with the boat used, in that it was only the Supported shaft radar... I think we have found the main issue, though there were several smaller ones also (including dates). I do want to especially mention ETR3(SS) for his help in basically walking through the ID and NameDisplayable and other file items, showing what they actually linked to, which helped immensely for clarity... Also, s7rikeback "listened" to more gobble-dee-gook than anyone, and kept a smile on his face, despite what was going on around him at the time... Another day's worth of testing to make certain we have it all, and we will then "build" what we have and hopefully get this out in a few days.
1. Deck guns can now be swapped bow for aft, and vice versa
2. Reminder "circles" put around Pearl, Brisbane, Dutch Harbor, etc., to remind the player to remove their gun crew from the guns, and to Save the game prior to docking.
3. SJ radar that shows when it should, and can be "purchased" early for a renown price.
4. ST radar that shows, but needs more testing to be certain it at least has a semblence to an SJ-I / ST combination.
5. Various other "pretty-ups" and fixes...
Irritating thing is, we will probably have to change the Support folder again... sigh... lol
