SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - A Great Modding Platform

From outward appearances it would seem this game has not been received well. As the negativity builds I want to make a statement about PT Boats Knights of the Sea before it vanishes off the radar. There seems to be some great disappointment in this game "out-of-the-box" but there is more under the surface than the casual gamer would see. I speak as a modder and writer of 3rd party game utility software. I wrote the file unpackers/packers for Battlestations Midway/Pacific, the original unpacker/packer for Pacific Storm+Allies, the mission editor for Pacific Storm+Allies, the Mini-Tweaker for Silent Hunter 3 and 4, and other software for numerous other games.

It is a crying shame that interest in this game hasn't taken off. It is a tragedy that Akella chose to use PT boats as the focus of this game and not naval ships in general. Limited, scripted rail-missions were written but it didn't have to be that way, as the scripting allows for any number of random events and random unit positioning. What the casual purchaser of this game doesn't know is that with simple scripting and .xml mods it is a virtual sandbox for the naval combat gamer. This game is so highly moddable that you can make it into almost anything you want. All files are accessible and in plain text format, even moreso than they were in Pacific Storm /Allies, or any Silent Hunter version, or Battlestations Midway or Pacific. The AI is decent out of the box. 3D models are excellent. The ocean rendering is excellent. Weapons platforms on naval units are abundant to the point of overwhelming. Case in point - the Hipper alone has 22 flak guns, 10 main guns, and 4 torpedo launchers, all manable in first person. No 3rd party file unpackers/packers are needed. This game is ready to mod. What is everybody waiting for?

In two months of casual modding, maybe 100 hours worth, this is what I've done:

1. Made all ship units to be playable in first person through scripting changes. 90% of all changes are in the \common\input.py and \interactive.focus.py and \naval\__init__.py files and I have modified them heavily.

2. Added first person access to all guns on all units. Access to heavy guns (main guns) was never coded, but it was easy to add that (now you get to the heavy guns by pressing the "6" key). So I can fire light guns, flak guns, main guns, torpedos, and depth charges in first person on any unit by cycling to the individual weapon I want to fire. It is definitely cool to watch a torpedo come out of the barrel while viewing right over the launcher on a cruiser, or watch a depth charge being shot right up into the air or roll off the rack on a destroyer. Man any of the 22 flak guns or 10 main guns or 4 torpedo launchers on the Hipper!

3. Got rid of the silly requirement of pressing "4" twice to get to the torpedo sight. Now, pressing "4" takes you to the cabin on any ship (plus a zoom option). Pressing a different key takes you directly to the torpedo sight (PTs). Another key cycles you through the individual torpedo stations (on ships or PTs) one by one in first person. Another key cycles you through the depth charge launchers the same way. Another key even cycles you through the searchlight stations.

4. Added workable binocular-targeting sights to some selected weapons (more to do yet), something easy to do for any weapon (a one line addition to the weapon's def.xml file).

5. Made submarine dive planes operable. Simple, they were commented out in the command input table.

6. Made font size smaller in the radio message panel. Text size was way too big. (Changes to \GUI\Skin.xml).

7. Made all ships available in network play, with all onboard weapon options playable. (Edit the NavalDescription.xml file in the \LOCALE\en folder and add new ship records there. Currently only PT boats are in the file. Script changes are necessary in order to be able to command normal ships and their weapons).

8. Allowed catapulting of plane from cruiser in multiplayer.

9. Allowed firing from binocular in multiplayer.

10. Allowed primary targeting in multiplayer.

11. Allowed scrolling of primary targets in multiplayer.

12. Though the map size seems to be fixed at about 24km square, a simple tweak allows units to leave the map without killing the mission, expanding the play area (although you are no longer on the radar screen when you leave the map). This at least makes an almost unlimited first person playable area.

13. Made new units by duplicating existing ones. The process is simple. Simply copy the ship's folder in \NAVALS and rename the new one and change its internal name, then add the new ship to the mission or replace an existing one with the new one.

14. Swapped out weapons platforms on ships to customize a ship. It's a simple matter of just swapping out the weapon socket in the ship's def.xml file plus adding the weapon file to the folder.

15. Aircraft can be focused and followed on camera, and I suspect their guns can be fired or bombs dropped too as most of the scripting code is already in place. I haven't had enough time to get into aircraft. Land-based guns seem to be accessable too with proper scripting changes.

16. I have gone through the executable game file and have found many new functions waiting to be used, including new camera possibilities. I've added two new camera functions to the camera file. Currently I'm working on two new torpedo camera views accessable by mouse click.

A MISSION EDITOR?

Mission coding in the native Python script is easily readable text, about as simple as you can get. A GUI mission editor would be nice, but would not be an absolute necessity. It is easy to add new units to existing missions, or code entirely new missions. All of the stock missions have a lot of extra fluff like voices, extra radio text, stuff you don't need for a simple mission. Tear all of that out and you are down to bare bones, add the ships you want and position them, adjust some coding where necessary, and you have a new mission. You can have missions that don't even have torpedo boats - for instance, you can make cruisers and destroyers the subject of your mission. The torpedo boat was Akella's focus but it doesn't have to be yours. The mission editor I wrote for Pacific Storm could be adapted to work with this game, though it would be a several month full-time effort to make it happen. Maybe someday, if my interest stays with this game, but no commitments.

NETWORK PLAY

Netplay is utterly simplistic out of the box, just a bunch of PT boats running around firing at each other and respawning. I don't know why Akella even bothered with this. Even adding the ability to play and spawn any ship in network play winds up being the same chaotic surface shooting gallery as it is with just PT boats.

WRAP UP

Assuming I get all my mods done, I'll probably post the files somewhere if there is interest. Right now I'm off on a winter job in the southwest U.S. and have only limited time to work on completing it. I'll be home late spring and maybe I'll have more time to devote.

It would be a shame if a dedicated modding community doesn't spring up around this game. The only thing missing is some sort of plug-in to allow creation of brand new 3D models, something which might be done eventually by a smart young guy somewhere. PT Boats is a naval combat sim just waiting for a group effort. Reskinning, tweaking missions or creating simple new missions, tweaking weapons, ranges, ammo, etc. is doable right now. It is all there for the asking. I would think there would be more people into general naval surface combat (like I am) but it seems that the submarine sim interest attracts almost everyone anymore. Sadly, I am done with Silent Hunter. The Steam requirement for SH5 killed it for me and for any game that uses it. The modding community is missing the boat on PT Boats Knights of the Sea. I never could figure out why some game company has not come out with a sandbox game for creating naval combat situations like the train simulators do for train fans: a platform totally moddable so you can make the environment you want. PT Boats Knights of the Sea could be that game for naval combat - all it needs is a way to make new 3D units and perhaps a GUI mission editor and these mods with an ongoing modding effort.

I can't believe Akella spent 7 years on this and they only went this far. It is a great platform for general naval combat. People interested in naval sim modding are everywhere. I know they are out there. My unpackers for Battlestations Midway and Pacific are nearing the 2000 downloads mark since late last summer. A whole modding group has grown up around that game. I see no general modding interest for PT Boats Knights of the Sea. Can't figure out why.

-timetraveller