[REL] Trigger Maru Overhauled

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

First, make certain the artwork (O_BaseRedMrkr) is in the Terrain / MapLocations folder of the game. Your text font is set to Chalk, so you would probably want to change that to the "18" selection at the bottom of the drop-down list there (I cannot remember the name, but like "FP???18"), and you can also change the color of the text if desired. A big thing is your "zoom" levels. You have 20000 and 10 set. So you'll "see" it when zoomed way out, but not close in. The upper end would usually be 2000k and the lower would be 2, or 5 tops. That will change the figure required for Scale, with the 5 setting taking about 27.1 and the 2 taking about 10.8+. You'll have to experiment there, of course.

yeah, except for the font-change-suggestion, i've done all of what you have posted.

for the last year or so, i've migrated what you did in FOTRSU with Map Location to the other modsets that i play, specifically with copying the Red Marker dds and then implementing that in the "Patrol" missions. that, coupled with Triggers and Events, let me know when we've actually arrived at our patrol zone so we can start the clock for the patrol time.

going to have to check and see if i copied Red Marker to the proper folder. it is buried in six-deep-subfolders and it is possible that i was off a level. i've been that before.

thanks for your thoughts!!!

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

First, make certain the artwork (O_BaseRedMrkr) is in the Terrain / MapLocations folder of the game. Your text font is set to Chalk, so you would probably want to change that to the "18" selection at the bottom of the drop-down list there (I cannot remember the name, but like "FP???18"), and you can also change the color of the text if desired. A big thing is your "zoom" levels. You have 20000 and 10 set. So you'll "see" it when zoomed way out, but not close in. The upper end would usually be 2000k and the lower would be 2, or 5 tops. That will change the figure required for Scale, with the 5 setting taking about 27.1 and the 2 taking about 10.8+. You'll have to experiment there, of course.

so....riddle me this, Boy Wonder:

How can the ME allow users to see a terrain option (O_BaseRedMarker.dds) if it is NOT stored with all of the other terrain files in the instance of SH4 that we are currently editing, namely TMO?

the answer is because the user forgot to change the shortcut properties of the ME to point to the TMO installation rather than FOTRSU installation.

madness!

[propbeanie]

If you use the ME to noodle in Stock, and then using a different hard drive (as an example), start the ME to noodle in Dark Waters, it will pull your last use, and open stuff in the Stock folder, not DW, no matter what short-cut you use. It is irritating like that... Same with MultiSHx and even LAA and the 4Gig Patch...

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

If you use the ME to noodle in Stock, and then using a different hard drive (as an example), start the ME to noodle in Dark Waters, it will pull your last use, and open stuff in the Stock folder, not DW, no matter what short-cut you use. It is irritating like that... Same with MultiSHx and even LAA and the 4Gig Patch...

yes.
i knew that.
when i switched modsets from FOTRSU to TMO_BH and then very quickly to TMO 2.5, i forgot to change the pointers.

Definitely a User Error.

[KaleunMarco]

i ran into some very odd behaviour in the middle of our first real mission and had to perform a clean installation of SH4 1.5 and then TMO+RSRD.

as such i lost my fixes for mundane errors such as the one below. this also what happens when the user has contracted half-zeimers disease.

i wanted to look at a mission with the ME and when i fired it up i received three errors messages concerning the PL_Conteverde missing from the Platforms Library. What is the Platforms Library?

[propbeanie]

Well, the PL_ConteVerde is a special "BEAST" (if the shoe fits, wear it)



Anyway, look in the Sea folder for the ship, and compare the cfg file's Type= line to the Roster file's version, and you'll either find that one is Type=103 and the other is Type=109, or maybe you'll find a 2nd, slightly differently named version of either the ship or the Roster file... -OR- the cfg file is missing in the Roster... Since it is a Stock ship, it is most likely properly named in the Names.cfg file (all of those together are the "platform")... You do have to match either the Sea cfg to the Roster cfg to the calls in the Campaign, or match the calls in the Campaign to the Roster to the Sea... Stock uses Type=109 all of the way. I do not remember TMO nor RSRDC off the top of my head... didn't the RSRDC patch fix that though?? Maybe not.

PS: my current version is "full-zeimer's"... working on ALL-zeimer's... - kind of runs in the fam damily...

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Well, the PL_ConteVerde is a special "BEAST" (if the shoe fits, wear it)


Anyway, look in the Sea folder for the ship, and compare the cfg file's Type= line to the Roster file's version, and you'll either find that one is Type=103 and the other is Type=109, or maybe you'll find a 2nd, slightly differently named version of either the ship or the Roster file... -OR- the cfg file is missing in the Roster... Since it is a Stock ship, it is most likely properly named in the Names.cfg file (all of those together are the "platform")... You do have to match either the Sea cfg to the Roster cfg to the calls in the Campaign, or match the calls in the Campaign to the Roster to the Sea... Stock uses Type=109 all of the way. I do not remember TMO nor RSRDC off the top of my head... didn't the RSRDC patch fix that though?? Maybe not.

well, gosh, opie, i am sorry to have asked the question.

no, RSRD did not cure this issue, although i must have cured it previously because i havent received that error in recent memory. but i lost whatever fix i implemented when i re-installed TMO+RSRD from scratch. (i got a really screwy set of performances that i have never seen before and could not trace the error, so i had to byte the bullet and erase the board.)

so, the problem is either mis-matched Types between Sea and Roster cfg files
or
a naming convention mis-match between the entry in Names.cfg and the folder/files in the Roster folder and Sea folder for Conte Verde
or both a. and b. above.


i already know that the Roster cfg folder/file are not named the same as the Sea folder/file, so i guess i can fix that by using the Names.cfg as a base name and then inspect the Roster and Sea\dotCfg files internal reference.

thank you for reminding me.

see what a hassle starting from scratch causes!!!!

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Well, the PL_ConteVerde is a special "BEAST" (if the shoe fits, wear it)

Anyway, look in the Sea folder for the ship, and compare the cfg file's Type= line to the Roster file's version, and you'll either find that one is Type=103 and the other is Type=109, or maybe you'll find a 2nd, slightly differently named version of either the ship or the Roster file... -OR- the cfg file is missing in the Roster... Since it is a Stock ship, it is most likely properly named in the Names.cfg file (all of those together are the "platform")... You do have to match either the Sea cfg to the Roster cfg to the calls in the Campaign, or match the calls in the Campaign to the Roster to the Sea... Stock uses Type=109 all of the way. I do not remember TMO nor RSRDC off the top of my head... didn't the RSRDC patch fix that though?? Maybe not.

the issue was the ship type. changed the Roster and Sea .CFG files to 103 and...bingo...no more error message.


i've worked this one into my mini-mod-to-correct-the-errors so if i have to re-install TMO i won't have to remember.
4:30 into the clip



thank you again, kind sir, for politely reminding me of that unexpected circumstance of TMO.

[KaleunMarco]

we were on patrol near Peleliu, April 1944. Gato class.
encountered a small but heavily defended convoy.
sank two ships and then had to pay the piper.
took damage to almost all torpedo tubes, batteries, dive plane transmission.
we foxed our way out of it, and escaped. luckily we were able to surface and repair things well enough to head home.
on the return trip to base, i saved the game with the thought that i would like to see just how much damage we took.
docked at base, handed out a few awards, saved and exited.
i browsed to the in-game save, to where i thought the damage would be logged, namely ActiveUserPlayerUnits.upc.
to my surprise, no piece of equipment had anything other than zero for DamageHitpointsConsumed=.
and i thought: how could this be? most of the equipment that took damage was severely damaged so there had to be hit points consumed.

so, which of the save files would record the damage taken during a mission?

Generic Mod Enabler - v2.6.0.157
[C:\Ubisoft\TMO_2_5\MODS]

100 TriggerMaru_Overhaul_2-5
101 1.5_Optical Targeting Correction 031312 for TMO 2.5
102 1.5_OTC for 16 to 9 Aspect Ratio_TMO
104 EZ Plot V2.0
300 RSRD ver 5 for TMO
301 RSRDC_V5xx_Patch1
400 Webster's Eliminate Floating Plankton
450 jimimadrid Torpedos

[propbeanie]

I have tried to track damage, as well as a few other things, and it looks like that kind of data is in one of the binary files that this "player" doesn't know how to read... probably just as well, because I'd probably overwrite something important anyway, or end up with a byte mis-match with that one file that holds that info... uhhh uhhh... can't remember the name, and now I can't find it... sigh - it is a BOTHER getting old, ain't that right Aktungbby?... Vinny? Hello?? lol

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

I have tried to track damage, as well as a few other things, and it looks like that kind of data is in one of the binary files that this "player" doesn't know how to read... probably just as well, because I'd probably overwrite something important anyway, or end up with a byte mis-match with that one file that holds that info... uhhh uhhh... can't remember the name, and now I can't find it... sigh - it is a BOTHER getting old, ain't that right Aktungbby?... Vinny? Hello?? lol

so the answer is: damage is stored where we cannot see it?

i did not want to change anything.....i just wanted to see how badly they were damaged.

so annoying.

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by KaleunMarco

so the answer is: damage is stored where we cannot see it?...

Not 100% certain, but that is what it looks like to me, since I can't find it in any text-based files, and I have done a LOT of searching in the Save folders. Now, it could well be labeled something else, and that would not surprise me at all to find that. There is liable to be just a series of numbers somewhere in the files, no labels, that designates the amount of damage incurred, and how much time is left for repair completion - of which we KNOW that time-to-completion doesn't get saved...

[KaleunMarco]

PB,

i know we have encountered this problem before but i can neither find it in my notes nor via a search.

as a kaleun starts the mission, mission orders are displayed.
when Objective: <null> displays, something is out of whack with the MIS file of the mission and i'll be @!#$# if i can find what is out of whack.

any hints?

[propbeanie]

That usually means that there is an Objective in the mis file, but that it is not properly linked (such as an Objective needs a MapZone, but the zone was left out of the Objective page). It can also be from building a mis file, and then later accidentally deleting the Objective... in either case, the game cannot find the Objective, but there is a mis file that it found. If you can open the file in the ME, then you'll be able to find the issue rather easily by comparing the Objective page and the first listed Primary Objective with the Language Localization, and looking at the "brief" for the various Objectives, and comparing those to the actual Objectives page. Or just run the "Validate Mission", and see if it give something useful. Sometimes though, the file will not open in the ME, and you'll have to use a text editor to hunt through the file with...

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

That usually means that there is an Objective in the mis file, but that it is not properly linked (such as an Objective needs a MapZone, but the zone was left out of the Objective page). It can also be from building a mis file, and then later accidentally deleting the Objective... in either case, the game cannot find the Objective, but there is a mis file that it found. If you can open the file in the ME, then you'll be able to find the issue rather easily by comparing the Objective page and the first listed Primary Objective with the Language Localization, and looking at the "brief" for the various Objectives, and comparing those to the actual Objectives page. Or just run the "Validate Mission", and see if it give something useful. Sometimes though, the file will not open in the ME, and you'll have to use a text editor to hunt through the file with...

yeah, i did all of that with no joy. i asked just in case i couldn't remember one of those small, semi-important details that is a requirement to make this house-of-cards stand up.

i stripped the mission down to the objectives, and deleted the TSR, and started from scratch.
it.works.now.

this game never ceases to amaze me on its lack of cohesion. i mean look at all of the different ways that dates are handled. drives me nuts. n-v-t-s, nuts.