Weird icons and other questions

[Sergio65]

I've been playing the stock UV for about a year now, and only now gotten around to installing the latest patches. I then loaded up the Coral sea scenario (#1) to try out the new features.

It was during the action phase of each turn that I noticed weird icons appearing at random locations throughout the map. The best way to describe them is an airplane inside a red circle with a line drawn thru it.

They first showed up during a B-17 raid on Rabaul, and were positioned over just about every major Japanese base on the screen, but it didn't stop there. I would then see the icon over allied bases, or even in the middle of the jungle in New Guinea. There was even an instance where the screen then moved over to Townsville to indicate an allied routine convoy heading back to Brisbane, and the icon appeared over the great barrier reef.
[&:]

They only showed up during the action phases of each turn, and would disappear during the orders phase, only to reappear in even weirder locations in the next turn. Sometimes I would see only one, sometimes as many as 10 icons.

Any idea what they are mean to represent, or better yet, how to get rid of them?

[Fux]

As you describe the symbol ist seems to me that you mean the "no-fly-symbol" due to bad weather over bases or towns meaning that no aircraft can take off or choose the affected location as target. If you don`t like the symbol you can try another "no-fly-symbol" from Spooky´s page:

http://mathubert.free.fr/

In your next action-phase try to pay attention whether the symbols really appear over locations that are not cities or bases. If this is the case I would recommend a fresh install and patching process of UV.

Fux

[Sergio65]

Thanks for the reply. It does make sense now, although still seems odd where they sometimes pop up. In any event it happens only during the action phase, so no big deal.

[Sergio65]

Two more questions, one related to the patch upgrade, another generic:

In the stock version of UV there were several scenarios that had ships available in setup which are no longer available in the upgraded version. For instance, Coral Sea listed 4 APDs located at Noumea, while scenario #7 had a Cruiser (Chester?) and several DDs anchored in Luganville. All these ships were independent, as in not part of a TF when the game starts. In the upgraded version these ships are no longer there. Any reason for their removal?

Also, what is the purpose of listing ships in the ship availability screen of short scenarios when their arrival time is after the last turn. Coral sea is 15 turns long, but I show several ships enroute to Noumea with ETAs of 19 days.

[Fux]

Glad, if I could be of any help. [:)]

Regarding your new questions I can only guess.

1) Either players wanted these ships to be removed from the OOB to balance the scenarios or the hardcore shipaholics [;)] here found out that these ships had not been available at the timeframe of the scenario.

2) I can also just guess here...Maybe initially the scenario had been much longer and was cut for the release version or it has to do with the way the game is coded.

When looking closely to the available aircraft types you will find out that some types are listed and you also will receive replacements for them but neither will you receive new squadrons nor will existing squadrons upgrade to these types. The B-17G Fortess is an example of such an aircraft. (The existing B-17E squadrons will upgrade to B-24J).
So there are some more "curiosities" in the game but for an 100% answer I think you will have to do a forum search as most of the hardcore captains have moved to WITP.

Fux

[Sergio65]

With regards to bases, what do the numbers indicating port and airfield capacity represent? I understand one is the current level of each facility, but what do the numbers to the right in parenthesis represent?

[CMDRMCTOAST]

They represent the size the facilities can normaly expand too and then
they can expand 3x above that at extra cost in supplies and takes longer to build.
9 is the maximum you can build too.
a 6 size can go to size 9
a 5 can go to size 8 etc....

[Sergio65]

Thanks for the answer.

Another question: what does the messages "TF must unload now" mean? I've just seen it appear atop an enemy TF that has docked at Kavieng. The TF has just suffered damage from my own airstrikes. Is it that several ships are close to sinking, and the supplies must be offloaded immediately or risk going down with the ship?