[2024.1] Enhanced BdU Convoys Reports

Current version: 1.1

BdU CR started in early 2021 as the first addition to the game that brought a mechanism to report convoys to the player, and was loved by many. This feature was then integrated in the base game in update 2022.1 in a very similar manner than this mod had been doing it. While great, that does not mean BdU CR was dead! After some pondering I decided to release an updated and enhanced version of BdU CR, now called Enhanced BdU Convoys Reports that came with the same feature as the old BdU CR and some new things. Finally, the mod was updated to accomodate changes for the game’s release, preserving functionalities and changing some UI elements.

As per the previous version, the mod simulates radio communications between BdU and the player U-boat. A complex system ensures that reports are generated for groups that are actually detected by NPC U-Boats, and that reports sent to the player only concern groups that can be intercepted. This works similarly to the new vanilla reports. By default, vanilla reports are enabled and so you will get both vanilla reports and modded reports. This works fine because vanilla reports are worded to come from other U-boats directly, with varying formats, whereas modded reports are worded to come from BdU on the German mainland and follow a standardised format.

Following full release of the game the old UI elements for reporting groups on the maps were retired so if contact visualisation is enabled in the game settings BdU CR now draws a point on the map at the approximative location of the report, and the point’s name contain some essential information. If contacts are disabled for the highest difficulty level, no point is drawn on the map and the report is only available in the journal.

Most of the main parameters are user-moddable. You can disable vanilla reports if you want, and the mod will supress them so that you only receive modded reports. This modification is savegame compatible. All settings can be found in the BDUCRSettings.xlsx file located in Steamsteamappsworkshopcontent4948402405515122Data Sheets; a screen cap of the sheet is shown below. Please refer to this page for explanations on the meaning of those settings.

As per previous versions mode reports (but not vanilla reports) can be disabled from within the game by clicking on the radio room icon and selection the “disable reports” icon in the wheel that pops up (right). Re-enabling reports is done in the same fashion (left). Note an officer is not required at the station to perform this action. The setting automatically resets to enabled when you dock to a friendly port.

Another big addition in version 1.0 is German air patrols! This mod is the first mod to ever use the German Aircraft Bundle created by the madman Link himself, which allows us to use a variety of German bombers, seaplanes, and fighers in the game (please make sure you subscribe to the bundle otherwise you won’t see any patrols). German air patrols will spawn from newly added airbases in Germany, France, Denmark, and Norway, and will be able to provide reports to you in addition. They will even fight in the background against Allied air and naval assets! Now you need to make sure you identify that plane you see before you order crash dive for no reason 😉

Attention! As of v1.1 Custom Actions is not required anymore as the mod implements custom actions directly.

• German Aircraft Bundle
• Shared Bundles for Entities

Enhanced BdU CR v1.0 is not savegame compatible due to it editing the sandbox.xlxs datasheet.

Changelog is available here.

Much thanks to Alligator, Salamander, Link, and FreekOly for their coding advice, suggestions, and work on making possible the use of German aicrafts! Special thanks to McDewgle and Jäger for their early work on planes textures, and to FreekOly for re-doing the mod’s icons.

Much thanks for the people below that translated the mod as well!

• Polosek for the Polish localisation
• the Cursed Jäger, kretze, and Inferi for the German localisation
• Tokyo for the Turkish localisation
• CadetCommand for the Chinese localisation
• BeeTLe BeTHLeHeM and flyingdolphino for the Italian localisation
• GJC for the Portuguese localisation
• Canoneer and Hard for the Russian localisation
• Haakon XIII for the Spanish localisation
• Myself for the French localisation

If you want to translate the mod in your language (currently missing are Czech, Ukrainian, Japanese, and Korean) please get in touch with me.