Still undergoing playtesting, my recent Perl foo on parsing Silent Hunter III’s random campaign mission layer has resulted in the ImprovedConvoys mod. With a few more changes, I’ll move on to modify the few task forces represented in the random layer such that they’re seemingly more realistic, or at least less boring. Task forces were rare and varied enough that there’s no one magic template to use for their organization, but the current model of five destroyers and one to three battleships is simply boring.
Improved Convoys version YYYYMMDDHHMM.
GOAL: To reasonably recreate convoys to the extent possible with the SH3 game engine using available historical information pertaining to compositional elements. WORK IN PROGRESS: This mod is still a work in progress, and subject to radical changes at any time. Presently some convoys are unmodified from the original game, as information on their composition is less available and less richly detailed. Not all convoys feature historically realistic speeds yet, but are left at their original values pending investigation. The single merchant reduction still has to be properly tuned. Realistic convoy report frequency and Liberty ship adoption curve have not been implemented yet. CHANGES: Convoys in the RND layer of SH3 v1.4 (and before) were completely unrepresentative of actual convoy operations from 1939 through 1945. To counter this, ImprovedConvoys: * Adds nationalities to convoys in historical proportions * Adds cruisers and escort carriers in convoys that might have them * Adds Captain Walker's Second Support Group to Bay of Biscay in '42-'45 * Rebalances convoy type proportions, with most convoys heavily cargo * Implements adoption curve for American Liberty, Victory and British Ocean ships * Increases convoy sizes for 1941-1945 * Increases escort variety * Corrects the entry date of the Victory to Feb 28th 1944 (actually Jan) * Corrects British Ocean class misreported as American Liberty class * Corrects contact report and frequency to reasonable levels * Corrects C Class destoyer so depth charge racks are available in 1939 * Reduces frequency of convoys in 1939-1940 * Reduces single merchant reports and traffic to 8% in 1939 * Reduces single merchant reports and traffic to 2% in 1940 * Reduces single merchant reports and traffic to 0.8% in 1941-1945 * Reduces single merchant traffic to 20% off U.S. coast until 1943 (Drumbeat!) * Reduces single merchant traffic to 8% in the Mediterranean Sea Please refer to the included files: ImprovedConvoyInventory.txt OriginalCampaignInventory.txt Both contain detailed output regarding the composition of the original convoys and those included in ImprovedConvoys. STRONGLY RECOMMENDED MODS: There are a few mods that you really should install for ImprovedConvoys to play best on your SH3 installation. * SonarDC_20 or SonarDC_Fix by Jungman -- Now you can evade Elite escorts SUGGESTED MODS: * Hampton Class Cruiser Mod by Sergbuto -- An extra cruiser to attack CREDITS: Special thanks to all the great folks that have contributed thoughts, facts, analysis, and playtesting time without which this mod could not exist. Thanks to CCIP for the original challenge. Thanks to Observer, Nico71, Der Teddy Bar, Egan, iambecomelife, timetraveller, Jace11, Pentallion, Shadow9216, Wulfmann, Chock, pampanito, Weird Guy, Happy Times. Thanks to sergbuto for fixing the C Class destroyer to have depth charges! And thanks to everyone I forgot that made helpful suggestions and comments!