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Post by choros22 on Oct 18, 2013 7:09:11 GMT -6
Hi again.
Yeah I must have downloaded the patch before it was updated. I re downloaded the patch and now it works.
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Post by jaycee on Oct 19, 2013 5:21:05 GMT -6
Regarding the scenario editor - I'm not having any luck here!. I keep reading the manuals, but what is missing is a step by step guide. For instance, if you hadn't said about right clicking on the flag I would never have found the add ship feature. Got over that hurdle, now trying to create the opposition in the obb they are coming up on the wrong side. Even though I click on the blue flag, they are coming up as part of the red tree. Also tried a pick force battle - got the sides okay then error messages for every ship come up at short intervals and none can go faster than 5kts. Attachment Deleted
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Post by Fredrik W on Oct 19, 2013 8:17:13 GMT -6
Regarding the scenario editor - I'm not having any luck here!. I keep reading the manuals, but what is missing is a step by step guide. For instance, if you hadn't said about right clicking on the flag I would never have found the add ship feature. Got over that hurdle, now trying to create the opposition in the obb they are coming up on the wrong side. Even though I click on the blue flag, they are coming up as part of the red tree. You need to create the force for the enemy. Make sure you set that to side 1. Then you can create divisions and ships subordinate to that force. Also tried a pick force battle - got the sides okay then error messages for every ship come up at short intervals and none can go faster than 5kts. Trying to replicate that in a random battle in the Adriatic, but it works fine when I try it. What settings did you use? Does it happen every time you play a random battle?
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Post by jaycee on Oct 19, 2013 9:26:38 GMT -6
I just had another go, it really isn't straight forward to use the scenario editor. I gave up trying a battle with a few ships and went with the 2 italian ships against 1 AH ship. When I pressed save - it was going to put the scenario in the Flags folder, is this right??. I changed the location to the scenarios folder and found it there. Tried to run it, various error messages came up. Only had one Italian ship and that has no fuel, game stuck on pause, speed 5kts. Turned it off in frustration. I've spent approx 6 hours getting nowhere. It is supposed to be fun. I really do think you need a step by step guide posted.
Also, where and how do you get to use any ships you've created?. I haven't found it yet. I know the ship exists in custom files but where does the prog let you use/access this to use in a battle?.
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Post by Fredrik W on Oct 19, 2013 10:22:43 GMT -6
Sorry, I guess that could have been better explained in the scenario editor manual, but creating scenarios is not uncomplicated.
Use the set Fuel All menu command for the divisions to get initial fuel.
Save your own ships and scenarios I the Custom Files folder.
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Post by julianbarker on Oct 19, 2013 10:57:04 GMT -6
Since successfully installing the latest version in two of three scenarios I have played destroyers supporting a cruiser division that is laying mines has sailed straight into the just laid minefield sinking a destroyer. I don't remember ever seeing that happen before as friendly destroyers have always avoided newly laid minefields.
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Post by jaycee on Oct 19, 2013 10:58:39 GMT -6
I don't agree, it is complicated. various error messages come up, it seems easy to get it wrong but not easy to correct.
I selected the ship from the list and the boxes for the ammo and fuel levels were both 100% on that screen, so that does nothing??. baffled!!
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Post by randomizer on Oct 19, 2013 11:13:57 GMT -6
The scenario editor does have some quirks, one of them is that when saving a scenario for the first time, the default folder is the last one you accessed.
If you last accessed the ...\Flags when you were defining the scenario and then saved your work, this happens.
The scenario editor does seem to produce assorted error messages, particularly when trying to manipulate the ship trees or deleting/editing objects. I have found, having built over forty scenarios from scratch now, that saving, exiting and restarting frequently helps. The editor reloads in seconds and in the long run it's less frustrating.
To add your custom ships to the Battle Generator files:
Let's say you wish to add SMS Goeben to the Austrian order of battle so that she may appear in an Adriatic random battle.
Open the appropriate battle generator files with a text editor, M$ Wordpad or Notepad are fine but do not use Word, Open Office Writer or comparable word processing programs. These are found in the ...\Scenarios folder with a *.qbf file extension. In this case you're looking for Adriatic.qbf.
There are two paragraphs for ship text entries named [Ships0] and [Ships1] corresponding to the sides. Austria is Side0
Ship entries look like this, read in four columns, Type;Class name;Ship name; Available date as month-year:
BB;Tegetthof;Prinz Eugen;0714 B;Radetzky;Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand;0610
We're now ready to add SMS Goeben
BB;Tegetthof;Prinz Eugen;0714 BC;Moltke;Goeben;0814 B;Radetzky;Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand;0610
Save and close. Goeben will now be available for any scenario from August 1914 and later.
Caveats:
The only acceptable punctuation in the ship entries is the semi-colon ( ; ). Anything else will cause grief.
It does not seem to matter whether classes are in order or not, FW can weigh into this but I have never noticed.
The old Forums had a tutorial for creating custom battle generator files but it's been lost.
Thanks.
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Post by randomizer on Oct 19, 2013 11:33:30 GMT -6
Since successfully installing the latest version in two of three scenarios I have played destroyers supporting a cruiser division that is laying mines has sailed straight into the just laid minefield sinking a destroyer. I don't remember ever seeing that happen before as friendly destroyers have always avoided newly laid minefields. This has always potentially happened and generally occurs when the escort crosses the minefield after it activates. There is free movement across the line of mines while they are being laid but the minefield activates once the message window "XXX is finished laying mines" is closed and then ships entering the mine field are vulnerable. AI controlled ships do not use waypoint navigation, the computer provides course/speed to get them to their station and needs time to recognize when a obstacle like a minefield is in the way. Should the minefield activate when it is between the ship and its station, the situation that you have described becomes likely. Minelayer escorts should be on Screening mission in Screen formation so that they will try to stay ahead of the minelayers. Following a ship that is dropping high-explosives into the water in front of you is probably a bad idea more often than not. Small consolation but quite a number of mine warfare ships and their supporting units suffered these sorts of accidents in real life. Thanks.
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Post by choros22 on Oct 20, 2013 19:22:23 GMT -6
Hey again. I replied days ago but it didnt seem to go through. Yes I reinstalled the updated patch and everything worked fine thanks. Looking forward to the Russo-Japanese war, keep up the good work
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Post by jaycee on Oct 22, 2013 17:19:30 GMT -6
Thanks Chris for the help re - adding my custom built ship, Italian cruiser Libia, to the files in the Adriatic. Followed your instructions and it appeared in a random scenario, only trouble - some swine torpedoed it!! :-) In spite of that scored a crushing victory over the AH Navy. Thanks again enjoyed that!.
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Post by randomizer on Oct 22, 2013 20:10:44 GMT -6
Excellent, he said using his best C. Montgomery Burns imitation. Monty Burns
We're here to help should you want it. Thanks.
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Post by jaycee on Oct 23, 2013 13:49:01 GMT -6
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm doughnuts!!!
I must mention the update that adds the shell type on the log, nice touch. Thanks again, keep up the good work.
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Post by vonfriedman on Oct 24, 2013 9:08:34 GMT -6
Just some questions: are minelaying cruisers more vulnerable to gunfire etc. when encumbered with mines? is the risk of hidden enemy minefields reduced if a BB division is screened by minesweepers?
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Post by randomizer on Oct 24, 2013 10:04:13 GMT -6
Yes. Mines can detonate catastrophically destroying or crippling the ship when hit and ships may jettison their mines uncommanded if they find themselves in action. There is no way to force a ship to dump its load of mines, the AI captain will make that decision.
The more ships that enter a mined area, the greater the chance is that something will strike a mine since the ship type is largely irrelevant. This applies to screening ships as well and since there is no minesweeping as such, you cannot expend screen units or minesweepers to clear minefields for high-value units.
Since minesweepers cannot actually sweep mines, why are they there?
In the Campaigns minesweepers exist mostly to provide targets of opportunity and a footprint at sea but at some point they may be required to complete point-carrying objectives. In real life, the trawlers, drifters and obsolete torpedo boats that made up the majority of the naval counter-mine elements did endless, dreary and dangerous but absolutely essential work every day. They suffered many losses, to the weather, marauding enemy destroyers and of course the very mines that they existed to sweep. In the duration of a Steam and Iron campaign turn the representation of mine warfare is reasonably accurate and representative of the event. There are few instances where minesweepers swept a path through a known minefield and were immediately followed up by high-value units. Those that there were, at the Dardanelles in 1915 and the Bay of Riga in 1916-17, the results were the same, some high-value unit struck a mine anyway and the big ship operations were terminated.
So, real-time minesweeping functionality might be a potentially satisfying activity from a Player standpoint, within the historical scope of the simulation, it is not really necessary. As mine and counter-mine technology advanced this approach may become less reasonable but in the SAI age it is pretty accurate overall.
Thanks.
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