How does the game produce convoys?

[RingMyBell]

I am having great fun playing a 1942 career with the 11th Flotilla in Bergen. I'm curious as to how the game generates large PQ convoys for me to attack. Are they all pre-scripted? Or is there some randomness to convoy generation (i.e., time and location of appearance, specific route, speed, ship composition, etc.)?
A related question: Is it possible for a player to manually edit one of the game's files to increase the number of convoys produced? And if so, is there any reason that would be a bad idea?
Thanks!
P.S. My manual torpedo targeting accuracy has much improved thanks to tips I received on this forum a few weeks ago. Thanks, mates!

[CapZap1970]

Convoys, ships, planes and all units are scripted in the SCR, LND and RND files in the Campaigns/Campaign folder. They have specific routes and dates where they appear and dissappear. Of course, you can add convoys or single ships, or airplanes to your liking using the SH3 MisEditor, but if I am right, there is limit to what you can add to those layers before it starts doing funny things. I am not 100% sure about it, but maybe someone will shed more light on this. Hope this little piece of info helps you.

[Hebe Vollmaus]

I try to split this.

Originally Posted by RingMyBell

I am having great fun playing a 1942 career with the 11th Flotilla in Bergen. I'm curious as to how the game generates large PQ convoys for me to attack. Are they all pre-scripted?

Yes. All Ships are scripted. The Game uses a great amount of randomisation.
But also this random is relayed on scripting. For example You may be attacked by Air-Groups, but this would not happen when no Airbases are scripted in.

Or is there some randomness to convoy generation

No and Yes.
No - since the randomness comes from the scripting.

Yes - If its scripted - there is randomness in Convoy generation. Funny heh?

Over scripting you tell the game if a ship may appear or not by a Percent amount. The game decides on this percent if the Ship will appear or not. So is in some way random. This is scripted in a special file for Random (RND) named "Campaign_RND.mis".

There is also *_SCR.mis and *_LND.mis for (SCR) Scriped- and (LND) for Land-units.

Please open these files with the Sh3MissionEditor (ME) to see for yourself.
But Do Not change these files!

(i.e., time and location of appearance, specific route, speed, ship composition, etc.)?

Randomness in time, location, appearance, route - all only if scripted.
Speed - not random, is always scripted.
Ship composition - also in some way random. The game decides itself when (Dates) some from user scripted Equipment will be shown!

What exactly is etc?

A related question: Is it possible for a player to manually edit one of the game's files to increase the number of convoys produced? And if so, is there any reason that would be a bad idea?
Thanks!
P.S. My manual torpedo targeting accuracy has much improved thanks to tips I received on this forum a few weeks ago. Thanks, mates!

Yes. The Devellopers have put the Sh3MissionEditor.exe among the files in the main-directory of SH3.

There are always reasons for and against something.
Against - for example, someone has put some brain into the composition of the (SH3 game or a used Mod) released Convoys.
For - The game is made in a way that it is (more or less) easy to modify almost everything in the game.

Please - Never ever change files directly in your SH3-installation.
Always use JSGME (JoneSoft Generic Mod Enabler) for any changes!

Greetings.

[RingMyBell]

Thanks to both of you for your explanations! It is quite interesting to use the Mission Editor and see how the convoys are produced.
I look forward to learning how to use the Mission Editor to create interesting missions.
SH3 is a collective work of genius!