[REL] Better And Realistic Flotation

Ranger Medium

[sergei]

Really?
Going to the museum I can find only two

[schurem]

Originally Posted by Arclight

You mean like a sunken ship icon on the map?

I'm not familiar with creating effects, or even coupling them to objects in the editor, but I'll keep it in mind, something to do once they sink properly.

What i meant is that when a ship changes game state from alive to destroyed, its map icon is replaced. This change in game state is not obvious if you are not looking at the map. Well it kind of is with all the 4th of july fireworks, but if its a slow sinking it isnt, right?

In SHIV the change in state was visually announced by the appearance of lifeboats. Once the ships' crew decides to abandon ship, you put a sunken ship icon on the map and add the tonnage to your log. Quite natural and i really do not understand why this feature from the previous version of Silent Hunter wasnt carried over.

Anyway, over to you and keep up the bloody good work mate!

[Arclight]

There's a third, really big one, yes. But it's German.



Alright, full release, beta tag begone, woot.

Ah, who am I kidding, too tired.



Let's see, mod changes 3 things: flotation, flooding time and HP.

The results of messing with flotation have been seen in the beta already, flooding times as well. The HP tweak raises HP a little in most cases, lowered for some small fry. Why is this done?

Because, for example, 1 of your torps caught a bad wave and didn't quite do what you wanted it to do. Result: target takes 2 hits, but where normally that should do it, it stays afloat. You fire a third fish and hit, but because the target now has 0 HP, a big hollywood themed fireball rips through the ship. We were trying to avoid that.

So that's what the tweak changes: allow for that extra coup-de-grace shot. Should even that not be enough, then the next hit will definitely finish it (few shells from DG will do nicely too), in a grand hollywood display. Note however that due to highly variable damage from torpedoes, it still might go down in blazing glory from that finishing blow, it's just a little less likely to happen.


Comes in 3 modules:

BARF full: flotation tweaks + flooding times increased
BARF lite: flotation tweaks only
BARF HP balance: changes HP to be more in balance with the mods objective


Just extract the contents of the zip to your JSGME 'MODS' folder and enable:

1. Either "BARF 1.2 full" OR "BARF 1.2 lite"
2. "BARF 1.0 HP balance" if desired


HP balance is optional, both for convenience and for avoiding possible incompatibility. Should another mod already mess with the .zon files for the ships, you can still use the core mod; ie. the HP balance is not strictly nescesary for proper functioning of the flotation tweaks.

Link is here, and updated on first post shortly.


Feedback is always appreciated, and I want to hear the bad stuff too.

Enjoy.

[Arclight]

Originally Posted by schurem

What i meant is that when a ship changes game state from alive to destroyed, its map icon is replaced. This change in game state is not obvious if you are not looking at the map. Well it kind of is with all the 4th of july fireworks, but if its a slow sinking it isnt, right?

In SHIV the change in state was visually announced by the appearance of lifeboats. Once the ships' crew decides to abandon ship, you put a sunken ship icon on the map and add the tonnage to your log. Quite natural and i really do not understand why this feature from the previous version of Silent Hunter wasnt carried over.

Anyway, over to you and keep up the bloody good work mate!

From what I can tell from the files, it's supposed to be there. Probably ran out of time.

But that's what I tried to explain; I don't know how to make that work yet, but I will keep it in mind and look into it.

[sergei]

The hitpoint tweaks are here
Good work.
Good timing.
I'm sailing out again tomorrow so I'll give this a go.

[Arclight]

Something I forgot to add: flooding time changes are global for all ships, warships included (yes, that's what 'all' means ).

Other tweaks include all Allied freighters, tankers and trooptransports.

1.0 is a complete rework; may feel a little different at first, but I'm confident it's a more refined solution.



Think that's all I had to say.

* ah wait, point on wheather: tested under 5ms winds. Perfectly calm sea might force you to spend a little more ammo, while rougher seas could save you some. Don't forget to give them some time to settle if you use the increased flooding times! (should see definitive results after 10-15 minutes)

Alright, think that's it.

[sergei]

So far during testing today, I have managed to sink only 1 out of 9 targets using 2 torpedoes.
Have waited about an hour in each case. They list very heavily but go no further.
Is this as designed?

Just seen your point about the weather, that may have something to do with it. My shooting range is set up dead calm.
Will try some more testing in 5-7 ms weather, and get back to you.

[Arclight]

Also try to work with the ship; take your average C2 for example: put 1 torp in the engine room, and she will settle with the stern fairly low. Put another in the rear most hold, and she should go down.

Put 1 in the first hold near the bow, and it will have a smaller effect (the ship is naturally more heavy in the stern). Put another torp in the bow, halfway between the bow and the superstructure, and she will most likely still hold on, though barely. Now put a third coup-de-grace in the engine room (which now should be possible thanks to HP tweak), and that will be the end of her.

It's about placement. Remember: it's possible to sink with 2 shots, not gauranteed.

Also of note; the bigger they are, the harder they fall: the Victory cargo is the most sensitive, while the hog Island is rather stuborn. Not much I can do about that without reworking the zones.cfg and changing the .zon file for the model more extensively.

[Arclight]

Now I can't do it either. Funny how something works in testing and falls on it's face later.

[GDFTigerTank]

So far I'm not a huge fan of the HP tweak.

- I've had a couple runs against a 1000 ton freighter and it always takes 2 torps now.

- the destroyer, also at 1000 tons, only takes 1. So you have a freighter that is taking more damage to sink than a warship of comparable size.

Ok, maybe the 1 torp kills are too easy and so we need the gameplay element of higher HP to keep us honest in the tonnage category... maybe it will grow on me.

Nonetheless, I'm sure many will like your HP mod, and good work all the same!

[Arclight]

You mean that small coastal freighter? Always sinks with 1 hit as far as I know, 2 are gauranteed to blow it up. I actually lowered the HP on that one.

Updated to 1.1; freighters are a little more cooperative, T3 more balanced. Link in the first post.

* yes, I see. The small one doesn't want to sink by the stern. Engine room hit or anywhere in front of the bridge sinks her instantly though.

For the record that's stock behaviour. Nothing to do with the mod.

See if I can fix that.

[GDFTigerTank]

Damn you're fast!

Downloading the update now!

[kylania]

This is probably a lot to ask, but is there a list of the "sweet spots" per ship available? Kind of like the GWX req manual?

[Arclight]

For most freighters, the stern is naturally heavy. For that small coastal freighter, aim for engine room or further front. Tanker suffers most from engine room, quite a bit of open space in the bow and beneath the bridge as well. Rawalpindi is quite vulnerable to hit to the fuelbunkers (just in front of bridge in the hull).

Some general guidelines, but ultimately you'll have to learn from experience.



Not much I can do for the small coastal merchant, even if the rear hold and stern are completely floaded, and with the zones tweaked for 5-6 times more weight, it still floats. Just too much bouyancy in the rest of it.

To be honest though, the aim is for the possibility to sink it with 1, which is quite possible as long as you don't hit at the stern.