[WIP] A New MegaMod

[Rongel]

I'm pretty sure i'm asking for trouble here, but I've been silently building a currently nameless megamod that is based on my own mod soup and sobers mod list.

I think SH 5 can be now very playable and enjoyable, but getting it to work is just too big challenge for many players. It kind of breaks my heart to read posts from new players who want to play the game, but are getting sucked into the black abyss of the mod soup chaos.

So the idea here is to merge the most important and stable mods and modify them, so that they work flawlessly together. Key elements are stability, playability and historical accuracy. Some reasons why I want to make this mod:

1. To create one big mod that is stable and radically improves the game, making SH 5 more accessible to new users. No more messy mod soup, or JSGME bugs.

2. Pre-set user configurations that are designed to work together (keyboard commands and TDW's UI user options pre-configured). You don't have to change any settigns before starting the game, except to patch the game with TDW's patcher.

3. And finally fix many small little bugs and add details to the whole game, so it is not just a collection of mods, but a real "megamod" with some personality in it. Currently this "smoothing around the edges" is impossible because everybody is using different mods.

This megamod would be built around TDW's great mods, and users would have to download the patcher as well, and patch the game themselves (but there would be instructions what patches to use).

This is the mod list and installation order I'm currently using, and to make this I ask permission to use following mods. This is probably the most difficult part, because some modders have dissappeared in to the shadows...

So if you are author of some of these mods, please tell if it's okay or not to use your mod! Ofcourse full credits are given to the authors.

# Compatible Conus00's Graphic Mod+SV's work (Conus00)
Window_Lights_Redone_V1 (az)
SteelViking's Interior Mod V1.2 (SteelViking)
SteelViking's Interior Mod V1.2.2 Patch (SteelViking)
# DynEnv v2.9 - 1. Main Mod (Stoianm & Gap)
# DynEnv v2.9 - 12. Sounds (Stoianm & Gap)
# Small_trees_SH5_V1 (Echolot)
# sobers best ever fog V22 SH5 (Sober)
# SH5_7A_Conning_Fix x (TheBeast)
Fuel Gauge WoGaDi_SteelViking's Interior (BIGREG)
Fix clock rear torpedo room VIIA (BIGREG)
# Equipment_Upgrades_Fix_v1_4_byTheBeast (TheBeast)
# Equipment_Upgrades_Fix_v1_4_Patch_1 (TheBeast)
# Equipment_Upgrades_Fix_v1_4_Patch_1_HotFix (TheBeast)
# Equipment_Upgrades_Fix_v1_4_Patch_1 (available by date) V9 by sober (Sober)
# SH5 Longer Repairs v.1.01 (Rongel)
# FX_Update_0_0_22_ByTheDarkWraith (TheDarkWraith)
# Bullet_spark_test (Rongel)
# SH5 Starshells patch 1.0 (Rongel)
# NewUIs_TDC_7_4_2_ByTheDarkWraith (TheDarkWraith)
# NewUIs_TDC_7_4_2_New_radio_messages_German (TheDarkWraith)
# Sjizzle's - Charts for NewUIs part1_07.06.2013 (Sjizzle)
# Sjizzle's - Charts for NewUIs part 2_07.06.2013 (Sjizzle)
# Manos Scopes-patch for 16x9 (makman94)
# IRAI_0_0_37_ByTheDarkWraith (TheDarkWraith)
# TDW_No_Contact_Colors_1_1_0 (TheDarkWraith)
# TDW_Waypoint_Contacts_Same_Shape_No_Color_1_1_0 (TheDarkWraith)
# R.E.M_by_Xrundel_TheBeast_1.2 x (Xrundel & TheBeast)
# R.E.M_by_Xrundel_TheBeast_1.2 - no hyd on surface - NewUIs-IRAI compatible (Xrundel & TheBeast)
# Cerberus62 Corrected Depth Charge Projector 1.0 (Cerberus62)
# MightyFine Crew Mod 1.2.1 Stock faces (Heretic)
# MCCD_1.04_MFCM_1.2.1_compatible (Athlonic)
Speech fixes and additions (german version) (KarlKoch)
# TDW FX Fix for Sobers chimney smoke (pedrobas)
# OPEN HORIZONS II v2.3 (Trevally)
# OPEN HORIZONS II v2.3 patch1 beta
# SH5Lifeboats_by_Rongel_TDW_stoianm_v2.11 (Rongel, TDW, stoianm)
# Targor's SH5 Wooden Lifeboats ver. 0.4 (Targor Avelany)
smaller flags for Warships 1_0b (uekel)
# SH5 External Cargo 1.1 (Rongel)
# Reworked Morale and Abilities v.1.2 (Rongel)
# Enhanced FunelSmoke1.2_by HanSolo78 (HanSolo78)
# Stormys DBSM SH5 v1.3 Basemod (Stormy)
# Stormys_DBSM_SH5_v1.3_optional_louder_engine_sound s (Stormy)
# Battlestations sound mod 1.1 (modified) (Rongel)
# Trevally Automated Scripts v0.6 (Trevally)
# Trevally Harbour & Kiel Canal Pilot v3.1 (Trevally)
# gap - armaments & equipments patch v 0.2 (Gap)
Shadow Improvement ModLR (SteelViking)
# SH5 Torpedo Malfunctions (Rongel)
# IO_StrategicMap_7_4_2_for_TDWv742 (Obelix)
# Nauticalwolf's_Damage_and_Torpedo_UI(g)_Mod_v1.1 (damage-part)

(# permission granted)

This mod would have several authors, my role is to merge individual mods together and add some icing on top. I'm not here to make the future of Silent Hunter 5, and this modpack won't be for everyone. The point is now just to make this game fun and accessible, and I think it's now the right time for that!

[Trevally.]

Woot

You can use any mod you like from me Rongel
If you need any help or want to edit - please just ask

and Rongel

[SnipersHunter]

Thanks dude

[Targor Avelany]

Go for it!!!

[Rongel]

Originally Posted by Trevally.

Woot

You can use any mod you like from me Rongel
If you need any help or want to edit - please just ask

Thanks man! Of course OH II will be a big part of this mod, don't want to mess with the campaigns, but maybe just add some cargos to port traffic, and make sure the ships are behaving nicely in harbours (i'm looking at you Memel ).

Go for it!!!

Thanks Targor! Your wooden lifeboats will be included!

[Trevally.]

Originally Posted by Rongel

Thanks man! Of course OH II will be a big part of this mod, don't want to mess with the campaigns, but maybe just add some cargos to port traffic, and make sure the ships are behaving nicely in harbours (i'm looking at you Memel ).

Sure np Rongel
We know haw to fix the black ship in Memel - so any other changes you want - send me a list

[Rongel]

Originally Posted by Trevally.

Sure np Rongel
We know haw to fix the black ship in Memel - so any other changes you want - send me a list

Concerning Memel, I have found out that those Ehrenfels cargo ships are really unstable and not very well balanced (I think they are the ones that can tip over when destroyed), so if you put them to harbours, they will cause problems and probably blow up!

And the hospital ship works when I delete it in mission editor, and put it again in harbour. All textures are showing. But if I edit the project again and save, it turned black again. So there must be some error in the editor and probably in the ship too. I'll look into this, and report more later!

[gap]

Awesome idea Rongel, please go on with it!

A few suggestions, if I can:

- preconfiguring New UI's with the most wanted/practical user defined settings, would alleviate newcomers from having to mess with the option viewer/editor. You could use your favorite settings. The one exception should be avoiding the activation of features which require the usage of TDW's patcher, as not everyone is able to use it (read: Steam users). This precondition would be overridden by the implementation of the next point though (see below).

- Including pre-patched exe, act ad dll files would also be a huge help for newbyes and Steam users, BUT I am a bit worried that we would run into legal issues. Better scrapping this idea until we are 100% sure about its practical feasibility.

- Instead of using FX_Update_0_0_21 + New Torpedoes Explosion, you could feature directly FX_Update_0_0_22, thus adding support for TDW's Ship Radio Damage patch. With some basic manual tweaks of its Zones.cfg, the latter mod should be safe as tested by VDR1981

- If it is not too much hassle for you, making IO StrategicMap compatible with the latest UI version and including it into your megamod, would also be a cool thing. It is not the most important feature though, this is obvious.

P.S: I think there is no need to say that you are free to use/tweak any of my mods

[Rongel]

Thanks Gap! I was excepting some suggestions from you obviously!

- preconfiguring New UI's with the most wanted/practical user defined settings, would alleviate newcomers from having to mess with the option viewer/editor. You could use your favorite settings. The one exception should be avoiding the activation of features which require the usage of TDW's patcher, as not everyone is able to use it (read: Steam users). This precondition would be overridden by the implementation of the next point though (see below).

- Including pre-patched exe, act ad dll files would also be a huge help for newbyes and Steam users, BUT I am a bit worried that we would run into legal issues. Better scrapping this idea until we are 100% sure about its practical feasibility.

Yes, preconfiguring is a important part of this mod. I want to make it easily playable without exessive modding. And because TDW has made his works really configurable, you can always change options if you don't like my settings. But to keep things simple, I think I will concentrate on the non-steam version, so it will be necessary to patch the game with TDW's tools. Maybe there will be support for steamers later!

- Instead of using FX_Update_0_0_21 + New Torpedoes Explosion, you could feature directly FX_Update_0_0_22, thus adding support for TDW's Ship Radio Damage patch. With some basic manual tweaks of its Zones.cfg, the latter mod should be safe as tested by VDR1981

The reason why I put FX update 0_0_21 is that I've been using it myself, and it seems very stable. There was some speculation if the new version caused crashing, so I decided to play it safe. Can people confirm that 0_0_22 works?

- If it is not too much hassle for you, making IO StrategicMap compatible with the latest UI version and including it into your megamod, would also be a cool thing. It is not the most important feature though, this is obvious.

Yes, I really like IO StrategicMap as well, and would put it on the list, but sadly it doesn't seem compatible with the new UI version. Maybe somebody will make a compatibility patch to it???

P.S: I think there is no need to say that you are free to use/tweak any of my mods

[Obelix]

Great idea!

Originally Posted by gap

Awesome idea Rongel, please go on with it!
- If it is not too much hassle for you, making IO StrategicMap compatible with the latest UI version and including it into your megamod, would also be a cool thing. It is not the most important feature though, this is obvious.

I can help with that.

[THE_MASK]

Nice idea , you can use any of my mods in this mega mod .

[Targor Avelany]

@gap and privateer:
Understood the concept. Thank for very good explanation. I assumed that something along those lines should exist, as it is basic concepts of inheritance and child objects.
Considering the comment in regard to limitations that we currently have with the gr2 files for every model hat we will be working on we will need to decide if we should be doing it dat or gr2 files based on what exactly we are looking from it: animations, ability to link/child it out, add properties.
We currently can do a lot with dats, but I'm still not sure how well the interlacing the dat and gr2 files could be. I know TDW, for example, was able to merge dat animated file on a gr2 model: his flag mod. So far in my attempts I was it able to achieve even that. And that is a simple repetitive animation.

But now I'm just thinking aloud. A little rumble.

Will continue working on the balloon tomorrow

[gap]

Originally Posted by privateer

Seems you have the concept down Mate.

I am glad to hear it, and always grateful to you for having put us in the right direction

Maybe I have found yet another application for this brilliant concept. As you know, stock SHIII, IV and 5's ship cargo meshes are modelled as an entire block of crates, barrels, etc. rather that being composed by individual elements. The zone that their damage box is assigned to, is set as 'not destructible', but as soon as as you switch it to 'destructible' the trick becomes evident. Well, during a test carried out with Rongel's help, we were able to put aboard the ships of a whole convoy some custom made cargo models, each one composed by 60 iterations of the same barrel mesh. No stuttering was reported until Rongel made the barrels to explode. Due to the way I set their zone, the first damaged barrels started a chain reaction, and the huge explosion which followed caused severe lagging (Rongel, correct me if I am wrong).

The main cause of the lagging was probably the triggering of 80 explosion effects, or rather than the physical animation of so many individual objects at once, or both. I any case I have already thought of a workaround for avoiding this and, most important, the whlole test had demosntrated the validity of the concept you have pointed us to

Originally Posted by Targor Avelany

@gap and privateer:
Understood the concept. Thank for very good explanation. I assumed that something along those lines should exist, as it is basic concepts of inheritance and child objects.

Originally Posted by privateer

Considering the comment in regard to limitations that we currently have with the gr2 files for every model hat we will be working on we will need to decide if we should be doing it dat or gr2 files based on what exactly we are looking from it: animations, ability to link/child it out, add properties.
We currently can do a lot with dats, but I'm still not sure how well the interlacing the dat and gr2 files could be. I know TDW, for example, was able to merge dat animated file on a gr2 model: his flag mod. So far in my attempts I was it able to achieve even that. And that is a simple repetitive animation.

But now I'm just thinking aloud. A little rumble.

Will continue working on the balloon tomorrow

This is the work plan I am suggesting:

I think we should keep the GR2 model you are currently working on as air unit, for usage as land based balloon. This will have a couple of important advantages:

• Ability to use multi textures on the same model through cfg file settings, which we would loose if we made the balloon body external from the main unit file. Just make sure to use the cfg#TXR tag on balloon's main material, for letting us to set different roundels (or no roundel) throughout the campaign.
  
  
• Ability to assign a LOD model to it, likewise other GR2 units (and unlike dat units). This is going to be especially useful where many balloons are gathered in a coastal area, reducing performance hit. On this topic, we should check if there is any special extended property that we must set properly for the LOD model to be shown at the wanted distance.

As for shipborne balloons, imo we should import them into a dat file for maximum compatibility with dat ships, and set them similarly to carrier's planes. Some remearks:

• Maybe it is better if we use directly the lod version meshes on data balloons (I think I have sent them to you already).
  
  
• We can make them more nice by giving them some swinging effects, and for completeness we could add to their meshes a simple winch model. Some of the pictures displayed in the websites I have linked on OH's thread show those winches.
  
  
• The lenght of shipborne balloon suspension cables should be a lot shorter than for land based balloons. I don't remember exactly their usual operation altitude, but again the websites I have used as sources have all the information we need.
  
  
• If needed, the "privateer concept" is a cheap way to model more than one shipborne balloon, each with different height and texture. This would be done by combining a single balloon body mesh (with different diffuse textures mapped on) and 2-3 cable meshes of different lenghts, everything packed in one file
  
  
• The smaller balloon model used on sea-going vessels (the one manned aboard by D-Day landing crafts) would be a nice addition, but we can let it for a future expansion of the mod.

That's all for now. What do you think?

[Rongel]

Hey Targor, I got this weird, although pretty humorous result when using your lifeboats: they start to sink as soon as they are spawned

No wooden lifeboat stays on water. You can see the installation order I'm using at the front page, can you help to solve this mystery? Either something is over-riding it's functions, corrupt install or something else. I think it's still a powerful image:

[plj]

Secret wish to become a u-boat crew ?