[REL] Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate, full release

[propbeanie]

I am trying to find out fershure for certain where that "A01 Tokyo Express" mission came from (it is in TMO), because I did convert it last night, and we can include that in the next release, so that anyone else with it will have it over-written with a valid FotRSU scenario. I can assure you guys, it was not the Asashio causing the issue in that mission. You start the scenario with several DD coming at you (2x Minekaze, the Asashio , and a Mutsuki) with another couple of Asashio escorting a Naka, not too far behind (btw, the groupings have been revised ). The first group is sent through the shoals between a couple of islands in the Western Islands chain, which your sub is pointed towards at the start (though your boat's waypoint is set to the northwest), while the second group comes behind but then goes East of the chain about the time you would be encountering the first group, sort of like the 1st group warns the 2nd of your location. Go in the direction you are pointed at, NOT the waypoint. What happens with the original file is that as you get into position to shoot at the first group, the 2nd group is within spawn range, and since the Naka tries to spawn in an invalid condition, it apparently renders the whole scenario a mess. As soon as a "collision detection" kicks in, boom - CTD. The other situation with the Asashio that jldjs encountered, was in the Battle of Midway scenario in the career mode, and there were two Asashio whose names "resolved" to the same ID, hence a similar situation, in that the game doesn't know what to do, so it CTDs...

Dependent upon your computer, you should be able to Save the game at just about any juncture, though the less going on around your submarine, the better (ie: the smaller the file, the better). In other words, if your framerate is stable at 30+ fps, you should be fine. You are advised to be submerged at 150+ feet, but only because you just never know what the game-state will be when you come back in later. If the game's "clocks" are out of sync, you might think its night time, while the game says it is daylight, and that will be resolved when you reload. You might be in the middle of a typhoon, with fog so thick that you can't see beyond 400 yards (is that even possible??), and that will also be resolved when you reload. I have had the game bring me back into sunshine with calm seas, and an airplane overhead diving at me... But as jldjs also mentions, do a 'new' Save each time, with a different name. I use a "Date / Time / Condition" kind of thing like "194302120450Calm150Dark" or some-such, and the next might be "194302141742Storm120Day". Once I come back in from patrol and have a pre-base Save I made, and an "EnteringBase" (whatever the game names the automatic Save), I will delete the earlier Saves.

Originally Posted by propbeanie

I am trying to find out fershure for certain where that "A01 Tokyo Express" mission came from (it is in TMO), because I did convert it last night, and we can include that in the next release, so that anyone else with it will have it over-written with a valid FotRSU scenario...........The other situation with the Asashio that jldjs encountered, was in the Battle of Midway scenario in the career mode, and there were two Asashio whose names "resolved" to the same ID, hence a similar situation, in that the game doesn't know what to do, so it CTDs...

How will we get all of these corrections you've mentioned in the above? Will there be patches or new, full releases?

Regarding TMO as stated above, I've never used TMO so there's no way I could have gotten it from there. Within all of my numerous zip files and mods, etc. for SH3, SH4 and GFO, I found one Tokyo Express mission in a Webster's GFO mod that I once used. I believe some of these missions came from Webster and/or a Tambor198. It was numbered SM12 not A01, so I dare say it was not my source. My bet is on the Steam v1.3 download.

[propbeanie]

Could be... I'll look through my GFO and see about that one. In the meantime, I have run through the edited scenario three times now, and it seems to be functioning as intended now. When I did the first two runs, I went North and encountered the 1st group just south of the shoals the first time, sank a Minekaze, and got chased and sunk by all of the others. Second time, I waited (both times, I dove when the fishing boats came along) for the group to come to me after I went northeast just a pinch. Got into the group, came up to PD, shot all 6 bow tubes at 3 DD, and then 2 rear tubes at the same Minekaze from the first run, and sank the same Minekaze... Five of six hits, all five duds from the bow tubes. Yikes! got chased and sunk by all the rest again...

So I gave up on trying that side, and just went east on the third run, and found the Naka group just east of the Westward Isands... (??). I closed on the surface until about 9k yds, to the south and east, then dove to radar depth, then to PD as they closed. I could see most of the group rather well in the periscope, and shot when the Naka was really close. For whatever reason, the Asashio DD had dropped back, and almost immediately after the Naka took a hit under the bridge (first hit was to the engines), the weather kicked-up nicely, with lots of wind and chop, so I turned the bow tubes to the starboard Asashio, the bow pointed at the port Asashio. I sank the starboard DD, but it did take three hits, the last from uncomfortably close range... hmmmm. The others turned and ran... ?? Pix, or it didn't happen, right? As information, I turned off duds, and was using auto-targeting, else I would probably have "died" again...







As info, if there were egregious errors, we would do a temporary patch until we could make the next full release, but we do try to avoid patches. We should have a full release out soon. Watch the first page of the thread for announcements - Post #5 - issues and possible fixes are also listed there.

[granite00]

Now might be a good time to remind users of Rockin Robbins'
Silent Hunter 4 Corruption Management System

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by granite00

Now might be a good time to remind users of Rockin Robbins'
Silent Hunter 4 Corruption Management System

You guys are giving yourselves away! Look in the Extras folder of the mod...

[torpedobait]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

The conning tower explains a ~lot~... while there is no renown payment required for the radar, there is a renown payment required for the "upgraded" conning towers. You have the pre-war conning tower, before the shears had their wrap removed, and the "cut-out" for the rear AA. Look at the pictures I posted about the same boat, but Single Mission configured for June of 1942. The shears only have the framework, and there is an AA platform. That is the improved conning tower, first "upgrade". I use that term loosely, since like a submarine "upgrade", it has to be paid for with a good patrol score and commander ranking. You cannot have a patrol that is below "Average", and especially early, and it is best if you have the first four of them in the "Good" category, which is above 800 renown. If you don't get above that, you are then not eligible for a boat or conning tower upgrade, and hence will not get the SJ radar - ever - until you get a new conning tower. See the "Of Refits.pdf" in the Support folder, which is a copy of one of Ducimus' posts from years ago. This is the reason for us putting extra objective assignments in the "Early" patrols...

Ok, I get it. I think. With few exceptions I've never scored poorly on a mission. I tend to meet the objectives and then amass tonnage. Where I made my mistake apparently was in accepting the new boats! I have NEVER been offered a refit conning tower, but I do get new boats, usually after three or four patrols. Occasionally it will only take three good ones, and the max so far as I remember has been five patrols.

I've never really tracked the renown earned from these missions and that now seems to be the key to both boats and refits. I'm currently conducting an experiment: I reloaded the saved patrol that started just before I was offered the Gato boat. If I do as well as the time before, I hope to be offered the Gato again. This time I'm going to turn it down and see if it will offer me a refit for the conning tower. It does seem strange though that they didn't make it an either/or choice, doesn't it?

I'll let you know.

[propbeanie]

No, won't happen that way. Read that Ducimus "Of Refits.pdf" (found in the Support folder) and you'll understand it better. The game gives you a choice of either yes or no, to one question or the other. If you answer "no", that's it, no further logic is involved. It might ask again at the conclusion of the next patrol, but will usually skip one, and it also has to be a good patrol. We did a LOT of testing on this. If you qualify points-wise, and a new boat is available, you are asked if you want a new boat. No question about a conning tower. However, if you qualify, and there is not a new boat available, then you'll be asked if you want a new conning tower - if ~that's~ available. See the "Submarine Equipment Upgrades" pdf for most of the Pearl dates for the equipment. The conns are not listed there, but the Gato.upc says 1942-05-01 for the first cut-down "MedWar" conn, 1943-01-01 for the late-war, and 1944-01-01 for the "elite" sail, where you can mount the 40's. So, if you came in just prior to 1942-05-01 and qualified, you would not have been asked the question. You then go back out on patrol roughly 1942-05-25 or so, with the old conning tower and no surface radar. If you instead come back in after 05-01 but prior to 06-01 and qualified, you would then be offered the new conning tower. So it is really a strange set-up in the game. It should be, that if you decline the new boat, it gives you a conning tower, if available - but it does not work that way... No matter what though, if you get a new boat after the date for the new conning towers, you should be getting those ~and~ the radar, if available... sometimes, if it's close to the date of availability, it will ask for a "renown payment"...

[merc4ulfate]

No Tokyo Express here.

I would like to say I do hope everyone has seen the Donation banner. It would be a lovely gesture to donate to the site if you haven't already. From general news, hosting forums and a huge download section the web site has a lot to offer us. A lot of people spent a lot of time on this mod and space cost money.


I sacrificed three bottles of rum ... yes I know ... it is truly sad ...

BUT


Please consider giving back in support of the web page.

[ThePainSheriff]

This mod looks amazing! When I try to start a fleet boat career, however, it crashes ever time. The difficult artillery mission in the sub school worked though. I suspect it's because I didn't delete previous save games like the manual says. I couldn't figure out how to and I thought since I reinstalled SH4 clean it probably deleted them already. But when I click on the "Load Game" option my old saves are there. It seems the "Save Game" option is gone though, so I have no idea how to delete them. I guess I'll have to reinstall everything again too.

[propbeanie]

No, hopefully you won't have to re-install the game. If you have not used MultiSH4 v1.5, then your Save folder is usually in "C:\Users \UserName \Documents \SH4", where "UserName" is the name you log into your computer with, and "Documents" might be "My PC", or "My Computer" or "This PC", all dependent upon which version of Windows you are using. Usually, the Windows File Manager (This PC, My Computer, etc) will have short-cuts available in the left section of the Window, and you could just click on the "Documents" folder short-cut icon, and look for an "SH4" folder in there. Open that folder, and delete the "Data" folder below that. Start the SH4 game again, and it will recreate the Save folder, and bring in all the new mod parts it needs.

Another thing to check is the use of LAA or some other applet that can set the "Large Address Aware" bits on the SH4.exe file. The file has to be write-enabled though first, so go into the game folder, find the "Sh4.exe" file, right-click on it, and choose "Properties" with a left-click. That will usually open a small window to a "General" tab. In the lower portion of that is "Attributes", and there will be a little square tick box for "Read-only". Be sure that is empty, then you can run LAA and flip the necessary bits for the game to address more of your computer's RAM. After you have activated the FotRSU mod, there should be a "01_FotRSU_Support_TOC.bat" that you can double-click on to start the "01_FotRSU_TableOfContents.pdf" that is in the Support folder. It has links to other help files in the Support folder.

[ThePainSheriff]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

No, hopefully you won't have to re-install the game. If you have not used MultiSH4 v1.5, then your Save folder is usually in "C:\Users \UserName \Documents \SH4", where "UserName" is the name you log into your computer with, and "Documents" might be "My PC", or "My Computer" or "This PC", all dependent upon which version of Windows you are using. Usually, the Windows File Manager (This PC, My Computer, etc) will have short-cuts available in the left section of the Window, and you could just click on the "Documents" folder short-cut icon, and look for an "SH4" folder in there. Open that folder, and delete the "Data" folder below that. Start the SH4 game again, and it will recreate the Save folder, and bring in all the new mod parts it needs.

Another thing to check is the use of LAA or some other applet that can set the "Large Address Aware" bits on the SH4.exe file. The file has to be write-enabled though first, so go into the game folder, find the "Sh4.exe" file, right-click on it, and choose "Properties" with a left-click. That will usually open a small window to a "General" tab. In the lower portion of that is "Attributes", and there will be a little square tick box for "Read-only". Be sure that is empty, then you can run LAA and flip the necessary bits for the game to address more of your computer's RAM. After you have activated the FotRSU mod, there should be a "01_FotRSU_Support_TOC.bat" that you can double-click on to start the "01_FotRSU_TableOfContents.pdf" that is in the Support folder. It has links to other help files in the Support folder.

Thank you for the detailed instructions, you guys are awesome. Will try this when possible. That is my issue. I had been searching for the save folder in the root game folder rather than the documents.

Thanks!

[merc4ulfate]

I had a CTD last night around Balikpapan. I think it was a plane spawn maybe I had been buzzed a couple of times by aircraft in the shallows of the harbor.

Aug 42 Sargo Class.

I also ran a test mission for the Three Task Force moving towards the Mariannas. I got a CTD after my engagement with the First Task Force like in the last version. This was ran from a single war patrol menu not campaign.

[propbeanie]

Same, usual questions from me though merc4ulfate: I am supposing your were in career mode with the Balikpapan issue? From Fremantle? Do you remember your orders? How did you get those orders, from the Captain's Office going on Patrol, or a Status Report? Some new orders were added to the DynamicMiss file that are not accessible any other way than doing a Status Report and all Objectives completed. It is next to impossible to test all of those "in the laboratory", so only "the wild" can find issues there quickly from there. Davao Gulf and Balikpapan are both represented there. There is an airfield nearby, and if you were seen, they would send planes your way ceaselessly...

I am not completely understanding the "3 Task Force" thing, but if that's the mission from before when we were testing the Battle of the Philippine Sea, then that test mission would now be invalid. Only use the "SM04 Battle of Philippine Sea.mis", which on the Single Mission menu is "Battle of Philippines Sea" - er, let me say this: "~Should~ be the 'Battle of Philippines Sea' on the menu..."

[ThePainSheriff]

LAA appears to have fixed the CTD issue for me. Thanks for the help. Can't wait to learn all the nuances of this mod!

[propbeanie]

You are more than welcome. Consult the "SH4_Q-Ref_Card_Back.jpg" and "SH4_Q-Ref_Card_Front.jpg" files in the game's 'root' folder for pictures of the keystroke short-cuts. I printed them out on cardstock in landscape mode, front & back, and have it laying nearby when I play... I still can't remember all the short-cuts...