[REL] Extended campaign: Open Horizons 1943-1945

[Zedi]

Open Horizons is the extended and reworked (ex) Black May campaign that will allow players to play two more years using the latest technology and weaponry available in SH5. This campaign consist in 8 objectives/missions, including 2 important historical missions. The campaign is designed with care to the historical accuracy, meaning that you will not be forced to sink the whole allied fleet, hunt elite capital ships nor search for days and month for a single ship in the oceans of the world. Overall, the objectives structure is something like this: five mission in 43, two in 44 and one in 45. I dont wanna spoil the fun and give out the exact date when they will be available, I advise to check the map time by time to see if is anything new there. But pay attention to the map in September 43 and June 44

Every year (43-44-45) the player will get a yearly tonnage mission. Fail on that: the next year requirement will be lower. Accomplish it: you will get another extra cross on the campaign progress bar. If the player will finish all the missions before the end of the year, the game will not stop and the player can go out on regular patrol and sink what he can until the next year. Also, is not mandatory to finish any mission. If you feel stressed by the missions requirements, then just go and hunt convoys and do whatever you like, the game will still continue to work until May 45.

The best part in this mod is the brilliant dynamic campaign. Even if the player will skip all the missions, he will still have a great time with this campaign just because the campaign generator will spawn some very large convoys and fierce escorts. Last time I tested this mod, I encountered a huge ocean liner escorted by 6 destroyers rushing on high speed in the middle of Atlantic. The surprise was so big, that I even forgot to open fire. The campaign is filled with surprises like this all over the sea, its really a great joy to play this campaign.

This mod is not finished and is not entirely tested. I had no time to finish every single details in this mod and instead of delay it few more months, I decided to release it as it is and let the community enjoy playing SH5 until the end of the war. If anyone wish to improve it, work further and finish all the details, feel free to do it. Right now, I don't have any time to work further on this mod.


Known issues, stuff that need to be finished:
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- In the bunker when selecting any other mission than the yearly missions, you will be sent to patrol in the middle of Atlantic. I had no time to correct this "detail", so please just ignore the patrol area and head to the mission/objective area. This is the place where you will always find your target.
- I planned to send a radio message to the player every time when a new mission will be available. Due the fact that the custom missions overlap the main campaign engine, sometimes these radio messages fail to be sent. If you still receive any of these messages, means that somebody in Bdu loves you.
- Bad grammar and scenario writing skills.
- Available only in english


Not tested:
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- Nothing after September 43 was tested, so I dont know how the things will work after that date.
- Soon after the allied landing in France in 44, the sub base should switch to Bergen. If this not happens, be kind with the radioman and see if he can help with the resupply.
- The political territory should change according to every country historical status. This part required a huge amount of work thus there can be still some unfinished stuff, or it may not work correctly at all.


Using/Enabling the mod:
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There is two way to access this campaign:
- The regular mod, by completing any previous campaign: Arctic Convoys, Black Pit, Distant Water.
- Create a new game and on the campaign selection screen just type this: silentotto. This code made by the devs will unlock all the campaigns in the game, but be aware.. you will have no renown point and not even a deck gun on your sub. All the equipment will be from the early war time period, except the radar. So you will need to work hard to equip your sub with the latest weaponry and equipment. There is a known bug when using this trick, it may happen that after accepting the first mission you will not see a loading screen when you request to start the mission and you will find yourself teleported in your sub. If so, just "end patrol" and request again a mission.

Here is a very useful mod for those who start this campaign using "silentotto" and are annoyed by the lack of equipment on the sub and no renown points.


Recommended:
This campaign is best to be used with the following mods:
IRAI - for intelligent AI.
Environmental MOD for Silent Hunter 5 - the improved weather conditions will make a huge difference in this campaign.

Also, Additional Merchant Ship is very recommended.


This mod was created with love and respect to the great SH community, no pixels was harmed under the development process.
A BIG thanks to Elanaiba for helping with some important advices, hints and tips.
JSGME ready.

Dont forget to save the game before engaging the enemy. Sink'em all!


Download:
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Open Horizon


Note to Modders
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You are free to include this work in your mods at your discretion. Also, you are more than welcome to fix, develop and finish this mod.