[REL] Dark Waters

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by SlySkydiver

I've also noticed that on the Type XXIII and XXI I can't use the snorkel at periscope depth which I'm pretty sure I should. In fact in the XXI I can only use the snorkel if I'm surfaced!

just tested the Type 21 and discovered that SH4 will not re-charge the batteries under any circumstances.

so....use of the snorkel is immaterial if one cannot re-charge the batteries.

so, as it is, if you want to drive a Type 21, you must use the Game Option for unlimited Battery Power. you set that by clicking on the Filing Cabinets, then Gameplay Options.

[shoiga]

Hi

I use RAOBF to get target range,
But it shows different results than when measured using a ruler on the attack map.

Is RAOBF's measuring is not good for get true range?
And how about "Stock RAOBF"? mod?

Thanks

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by shoiga

Hi

I use RAOBF to get target range,
But it shows different results than when measured using a ruler on the attack map.

Is RAOBF's measuring is not good for get true range?
And how about "Stock RAOBF"? mod?

Thanks

sadly, i cannot answer your question as i use auto-targeting.

[KaleunMarco]

i have run into an old problem and all of the fixes do not cure it.

driving a 2C out of Kiel. November/December 1940.
out on the 6th or 7th patrol, we torpedo a merchie and take a CTD on torpedo impact.

rebooted.
double-checked that SH4 is LAA enabled.
did the mod soup fix.
cleared out all of the save folder with the exception of the current mission folder.

what am i missing because the next fix attempt will have to be creating a new career in the same boat at approx the same time with a new crew...and i hate doing that.

[propbeanie]

What ship was it KM? What torpedo did you use?

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

What ship was it KM? What torpedo did you use?

man....i cannot remember what i ate for lunch and you want to know the ship?!?!?

i think it was some kind of Brit tanker (no offense, s7rikeback).
and the fish was a Type II.

but see that's the thing, i have used only Type 2's for the last 5,6,7 missions and i know i have sunk a few tankers...so what was different this time? (rhetorical question)

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

What ship was it KM? What torpedo did you use?

ok...you forced me to clear-core-and-reboot.

so, i created a RGG with a variety of tankers, merchies available in the ME in the next mission. i've used this technique previously.
in the game, a small convoy was created and ran right through our position without the second-stage-spawn. very odd. but that is a different issue.

while i was sitting in the patrol zone a couple of singles passed our way.
we sunk a Hog Island merchant and something called M-KF-M (O) Merchant, whatever that means. No CTD's.

so now i am trying to figure out why torpedoing only certain ships cause CTD, especially when i am using the ME and not rolling-my-own RGG via a text editor.

a second question is: when i use the ME to create a RGG, the ships/ship-class-names do not matchup with the same fields in either the Names.cfg, the Roster\Sea Folder files or the Sea Folder files. so, from where does the ME get those description? ugh!!!

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

What ship was it KM? What torpedo did you use?

Originally Posted by KaleunMarco

ok...you forced me to clear-core-and-reboot.

so, i created a RGG with a variety of tankers, merchies available in the ME in the next mission. i've used this technique previously.
in the game, a small convoy was created and ran right through our position without the second-stage-spawn. very odd. but that is a different issue.

while i was sitting in the patrol zone a couple of singles passed our way.
we sunk a Hog Island merchant and something called M-KF-M (O) Merchant, whatever that means. No CTD's.

so now i am trying to figure out why torpedoing only certain ships cause CTD, especially when i am using the ME and not rolling-my-own RGG via a text editor.

a second question is: when i use the ME to create a RGG, the ships/ship-class-names do not matchup with the same fields in either the Names.cfg, the Roster\Sea Folder files or the Sea Folder files. so, from where does the ME get those description? ugh!!!

ok, did some more testing. changed the RGG composition.


when i caught up with the RGG there were only two ships detected by visual and sonar, a huge euro liner and a 10,500t Tanker.
i wonder why the remainder didn't spawn.



maneuvered into position and fired one torpedo at each.
as the tanker was hit, SH4 CTD'd.
however, as the fish were in-transit, i snuck a peek with the external Camera.



it appears as if i am experiencing the cast-of-thousands bug where one or more ships of an RGG is multiplied to the max.

[propbeanie]

Are you certain that is the right Group? When using a Single Mission, the majority of the whole campaign file set also loads. Also, you don't show the Properties of your Group, so is it possible you are spawning several at one time there? If you change things to be like lurker did them, you also have to limit the number of groups and the number of ships each of the groups can spawn, else you sometimes end up with Group upon Group piling together into a mess. But from what you did, you suspect the 10,500 ton tanker?

btw, the "M-KF-M" means Mast - Kingpost with Funnel right by it - Mast. I do not remember the (O)... Just another way to help identify a ship class.

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Are you certain that is the right Group? When using a Single Mission, the majority of the whole campaign file set also loads.

yes, i am certain. i created the RGG for this particular mission.

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Also, you don't show the Properties of your Group, so is it possible you are spawning several at one time there? If you change things to be like lurker did them, you also have to limit the number of groups and the number of ships each of the groups can spawn, else you sometimes end up with Group upon Group piling together into a mess. But from what you did, you suspect the 10,500 ton tanker?

i do not believe that the RGG is spawning several iterations of itself simultaneously. i say that because the spawns are set for 72 hour iterations and the group is proceeding at 10 kts so each spawn group has plenty of time to pass through the area of operations before the next one spawns.

Originally Posted by propbeanie

btw, the "M-KF-M" means Mast - Kingpost with Funnel right by it - Mast. I do not remember the (O)... Just another way to help identify a ship class.

no offense, but what idiot came up with this idea of naming merchant ships by Mast, Kingpost and Funnel? i ask because it resolves none of the questions that any sea skipper would ask: how long is she, what is her draft (draught), what is her displacement, what is she carrying, under whose flag is she sailing? LSMFT is meaningless.

ok, on to the next. so, i added some individual ships in order to test spawning as well as trying to nail down the CTD-on-torpedo-hit issue. here is the relative placement of ships from the ME. you can see the roster description underneath the ship-icon. the circled icons mark those ships that actually spawned during the career-mission. the hard-to-read Green is courtesy of the ME and not me.
the date of the mission is November-December 1940.



each one of the eight ships has availability at the time of the mission per the Roster definitions but only three spawned. WTF?
since these ships are individual placements and they are all available per the Roster definitions, they will appear only once in the mission, 100% of the time. or at least should appear 100% of the time. clearly, that didn't work so well.

and, each of the ships that did spawn were successfully destroyed with torpedoes with no CTD.

so, lots of questions which were not questionable prior to this particular mission.

• why do only three of eight ships spawn?
• if the tanker that spawned as a single ship is the same type/class tanker that spawned in the RGG of my previous attempt, why was i able to torpedo her now but previously torpedoing resulted in a CTD?
• if the tanker that spawned as a single ship is NOT the same as the tanker that (may) caused the CTD last time, why is that? the date range is the same and the class is the same.
• if the tanker that caused the CTD previous really didn't cause the CTD when it was hit by the torpedo, then what did cause the CTD?
  

i am trying to think of other scenarios that i can create and test to narrow the open items down to a single answer.
any ideas you can share are welcome.
+++++++++
p.s.
so, in pursuit of more data, i opened the .MIS for the career-mission causing the CTD with Notepad and found a couple of issues.
the ME is not creating RGG entries according to the Roster and Sea folders.
;Merchant ships
Type100=Replenishment
Type101=Tanker
Type102=Cargo
Type103=Troop Transport
---
this is a tanker definition in the mission:
[RndGroup 1.RndUnit 1]
Class=TUS
Type=103
Origin=British

Type 103 is not correct. it should be 101.
----
Here is a troopship definition in the mission.
[RndGroup 1.RndUnit 2]
Class=PPE
Type=103
Origin=British

Type 103 is not correct. the PPE is Type 109.
[Unit]
ClassName=PPE
UnitType=109

in fact, ALL of the ships in the RGG are Type 103. it would appear that the ME went "rogue", drank the Type 103 Kool-aid and that was that.

so, for the next run of this mission, i will use the ME to create and place the ships, then create the waypoints and then go back and edit the Type field with Notepad.

are we having fun, yet?

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by KaleunMarco

so, for the next run of this mission, i will use the ME to create and place the ships, then create the waypoints and then go back and edit the Type field with Notepad.

are we having fun, yet?

ok, well, i pivoted a bit.
don't know why, can't explain it, but i launched ME, not from my desktop icon but from the Explorer window. previously i was using a desktop icon.

well, the result was three error messages about ships with wrong classes within an RGG. DUH!
then CTD.

the desktop icon is pointing to ME in the FOTRSU game folder not Dark Waters.
who would have thunk that this could mess up a mission?

ok, change of plans. i will start from scratch and add some ships to the original T2C-Jun-4 mission and see if A. the ships are defined correctly and B. if i get a CTD when i torpedo one.

are we having fun, yet? another Ubi Good Deal.

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by KaleunMarco

ok, well, i pivoted a bit.
don't know why, can't explain it, but i launched ME, not from my desktop icon but from the Explorer window. previously i was using a desktop icon.

well, the result was three error messages about ships with wrong classes within an RGG. DUH!
then CTD.

the desktop icon is pointing to ME in the FOTRSU game folder not Dark Waters.
who would have thunk that this could mess up a mission?

ok, change of plans. i will start from scratch and add some ships to the original T2C-Jun-4 mission and see if A. the ships are defined correctly and B. if i get a CTD when i torpedo one.

are we having fun, yet? another Ubi Good Deal.

part of the problem was using the ME from another installation.
so, MultiSH4 users, be advised: use the ME in the folder for the version of SH4 that you are using and not an ME from any other SH4 installation.
at least i resolved the CTD issue.

the tanker availability issue is still a mystery. i'll have to put more time into it.

[U-190]

It simply holiday any!

[SonnySmiles]

I'm about to start a game but need some help
I played once before in a ixc/40 traveling from lorient to pengang
My questions are what do I do for setting up my crew
Last time I played I just filled all the compartments by saving and the reloading to fill the lot
Do I just fill the crew compartment and play? And do I fill the conning tower?
Last question guys
Does traveling from lorient to pengang upset the game as I have it all set for the Pacific theater on the mods?
Sorry for the newbie questions guys but been out the game and struggling on a crappy laptop lol
Gotta play dark waters asap lol

[KaleunMarco]

Originally Posted by SonnySmiles

I'm about to start a game but need some help
I played once before in a ixc/40 traveling from lorient to pengang
My questions are what do I do for setting up my crew
Last time I played I just filled all the compartments by saving and the reloading to fill the lot
Do I just fill the crew compartment and play? And do I fill the conning tower?

this is a personal preference. some Kaleuns like a full crew and others like to have some unfilled billets in order to move injured crew. personally, i think your crew number should correspond to their skill level. if you have a highly skilled crew you can probably operate at 100% efficiency with less than 100% of the billets filled. Less individual skills means that you probably need to have more bodies to boost the performance.

Originally Posted by SonnySmiles

Last question guys
Does traveling from lorient to pengang upset the game as I have it all set for the Pacific theater on the mods?

i have a fix for this. apply it to the end of your mod list and restart your career. it should eliminate your Kiel-based Uboat being assigned to a Pacific mission off the coast of Australia.