[REL] FOTRS Ultimate Project

[Rockin Robbins]

Pass the word to all crew. We've been spotted! Courtesy of Lead Duck at https://translate.google.com/transla...-sun/?6884464c
Wish I could make this larger. You can enlarge in in your browser to read the Google Translate text.


It's gratifying that Lead Duck didn't condemn our whole operation as one of piracy, not honoring the Aces of the Deep and AOTD_MadMax as we intend. It's unfortunate that his (and I presume others there) is of multiplayer use almost exclusively, since the situation here at Subsim is the opposite. Very few here are interested in multiplayer at all.

And he practically wet himself in glee at our addition of OTC elements and RazzleDazzle! Lots of comments over there about texture problems. I think it's safe to say that if they had our stuff they would have been happy to use it!

Lead Duck talks about the possibility of one of them coming here to greet us. I, for one, would be honored if they would!

So our top secret project is busted! We'll see if any other AOTD personnel come out of the woodwork after three years of inactivity over there and hopefully we will perk their interest. Exciting times!

[propbeanie]

I have found some useful info on the AOTD site. Without it, we might still be looking to eradicate "The Sound". There are a few things I've found on another site that I'm gathering up for a text file to post on the Google Drive. All indications point to a lot of user error (failure to READ the documentation - that's something new, eh?) and a whole lot of impatience from the SH4 community he was part of back then. There are some clues to issues in this stuff, and reasoning behind some of the stuff he did with the sensors and AIRPLANES! He purposefully (by accident - you'll have to read the file) made "normal" airplanes capable of coming down just to strafe your boat, even at night... Eee-yup, found 'em - Super Evil Airplanes. After reading more on this other site about the reasoning for increasing the ASW H-K Groups, I accept their reduction in number, if not outright removal... More later.

Edit: Case in point - Maddy was recomending after v1.2 release that a user have at least 2gig of ram, and as powerful of a vid card & cpu as you could get...

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Pass the word to all crew. We've been spotted! Courtesy of Lead Duck at https://translate.google.com/transla...-sun/?6884464c
Wish I could make this larger. You can enlarge in in your browser to read the Google Translate text.

Ratz... I' m on the tablet & Translate does not work on it... Is that thread in the general population there, or in the FotRS sections? I missed that one. Maybe one of them can have the old team get online with us and clear a few things up. It somewhat concerns me though that thread is from June, and only 3 replies.

[Rockin Robbins]

Trying to register at the AOTD website now! http://aotd.de/dockyard/de/

That registration is beastly hard to find. Up periscope!

......or not. Registration might be broken over there. I press Anmelden, the "working" animation asterisk goes forever and I'm never registered!

[Rockin Robbins]

Got to the main forum home page and Säsch has a post saying registrations have been closed due to bots infesting the registration process. He asks people wanting to be members to e-mail him, which I have done.

We shall see what kind of reception we get!

I think we can explain why the hunter-killer groups survived the cut by their emphasis on player v player online gaming rather than single player use of SH4.

[propbeanie]

An interesting quote from AOTD_MadMax from another German site I found, in an update on the progress of v2 anticipated release in February of 2012:

When I first started in 2008 with FOTRS I did not realize how Extensively FOTRS could be times and I have thus served the usual SH3 Modtechnik so used many files with embedded TGA's.

Jetzt rächt sich das da die TGA´s unheimlich Speicher eurer Grafikkarten fressen und das Spiel langsam und instabil machen.

Now avenges the devour the TGA's eerie memory of your graphics card and make the game slow and unstable.

Es sei aber erwähnt das selbst die Ubianer, also die SH4-Entwickler den gleichen Fehler machten was aber bei der originalen SH4-Version mit den paar Schiffchen kein Problem darstellte.

It is however noted that even the Ubianer, so the SH4 developers made ​​the same mistake but that in the original SH4 version with few boat no problem posed.

Die USS Colorado des originalen SH4 hat leider noch TGA´s als Texturen und die ganz normale Textur der Colorado ist über 3 MB groß, dazu kommen noch die Ambientocclusion-Map mit 4 MB und die Light-Map mit 4 MB.

The USS Colorado the original SH4 has not yet TGA's as textures and the normal texture of Colorado is about 3 MB in size, add to this the Ambientocclusion map with 4 MB and the Light-Map come with 4 MB.

Zusammen also gut 11 MB die in euren Grakaspeicher gepumpt werden müssen für nur ein einziges Schiff.

Together so good 11 MB which must be pumped into your Grakaspeicher for only a single ship.

Jetzt mit dem DDS Format hat sich das auf knapp über 3MB für alle Grafiken dieses Schiffes reduziert.

Now with the DDS format has it reduced to just over 3MB for all graphics of this vessel.

If I can figure out how to link to the site, I'll edit this post, but it is in an archive section of the site, in German, going through Google translate, and the link does not copy and paste correctly for some reason...

Good luck getting in contact with them. I gave up a couple months ago after trying to register and encountering what you did, but I didn't try from the Home page and therefore did not see that post... I still have no idea how well Google translate would do with the way I speak getting turned into German... jibberish?... I'd probably insult someone quite by accident...

[Jeff-Groves]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

@John Tigers I'm afraid Maddy hit that one right on the head. Everyone has taken their best shot at handling the upside down specops boat and upside down lifeboat. Nobody's been able to do anything with it.

Huh?
Show me the problem as I've never even heard about this.


I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that understands the SH4 animations and can change them.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

Huh?
Show me the problem as I've never even heard about this.


I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that understands the SH4 animations and can change them.

Yes, if you can fix this you're an SH4 hero! And I'm sure you're right about being the only one to understand the animations. It seems randomly inflated rafts with agents and lifeboats from sunk targets appear upside down and rowing perfectly happily! This has happened from day one in the stock game and every mod.

[Jeff-Groves]

So it's not always happening then? May be why I've never saw it.

[propbeanie]

I've got SH4 early in it's life, like v1.03 or something, and I updated the stock version almost religiously to 1.4. Then they did their v1.5 shenanigans, charging money for the privilege, and I almost quit the game. I had the raft / lifeboat issue anytime there was slightly rough seas, especially when you'd put an agent and/or supplies in the water. Not "stormy" weather, but not glassy smooth either. What I guess you could call "medium" seas. They wouldn't always turn over, but a good portion of the time they would. You always got credit for them though, because they kept on a-rowing to shore, even though drowning... - I almost got sunk the first time I saw it happen, because I expected to have to rescue the dude, but there were a couple planes coming in, and my boat comes first... After a while, we came back up, and lo and behold, get the report that he'd made it. I never stuck around for them after that. I don't care if they row the boat sideways...

I've got video somewhere on my hard drive, of a lifeboat full of fellers, just a paddling away from their sinking ship (courtesy of the USN), the lifeboat capsized, and would consistently disappear beneath the waves for moments at a time, always bobbing back up topside, everybody still onboard... then they'd turned upside down, paddles still going like fury, rolled back over, and they were all still there, oblivious of their plight...

I'll see if I can find that tonight.

Edit: I got to looking, did the Uboats add-on really come out in October of 2007?... I think I finally bought it in 2013 or 14... Probably after I couldn't get the SSI Silent Hunter to run in XP anymore...

[propbeanie]

In the Area 51 drive, WIP / Propbeanie Spreadsheets is MaddyDevelopment... dot text file. Ignore the actual brain fahrt at the start, with "synapsis" instead of "synopsis"... Infamous words of Plankton from SpongeBob: "I've been to COLLEGE!!!"...

[Rockin Robbins]

propbeanie, just finished reading your Maddy duimp. One thing that disturbs me is that map display of radar was purposely removed. We have to get it back as no decent alternative is available for us to have as accurate positions as the real submarines. The should be fairly easy.

Yes, it sounds like he was as hounded as Ducimus was and I know what that does to a guy. We're a team and can withstand more of that without damage.

That was a very sobering read. Especially repeated claims of "there are no bugs in FOTRS" followed by immediate bug reports. Still, I celebrate their accomplishments and we will make those accomplishments relevant again.

[propbeanie]

They had a "shop", if you will, of 20 users where they did their testing, and it worked there, so therefore, it should work everywhere... But yeah: "no bugs, but coming out soon is our bug fix"... There are quite a few bugs in the stock game though, that some mod foundations are built on... Like you say though, beautiful stuff, better graphics than what I liked so much of in v1.3, in spite of some of the frustrations of game play...

I definitely don't understand the reasoning behind the radar "fix", their idea of radar versus sonar "range", the purposefully making the crew mute and unable to announce planes in close, etc. (almost vindictive), and then when someone complained of it still being too easy, it's almost like Maddy said "OK, fine, here you go..." and put in all those H-K groups... Did you see the one where he was noodling with an airplane, and was trying to get it to launch torpedoes at a ship, but accidentally made them (the torpedoes) invisible, and that's where he figured out he could put "dummy" torpedoes on an airplane, thereby forcing the plane to attempt to torpedo a target (your sub, for instance), and since it was down low launching its fake torpedo, it would also naturally shoot it's cannon and / or machine guns at the target?

Then he lost his job, with no one in the public forums there asking if he needed anything... XTBilly, you OK man?... We're concerned brother.

[Rockin Robbins]

Agreed. XTBilly really started us thinking big about what FOTRS Ultimate might be. In 2010 I was in the same position, losing my job of 23 years and slung out in a job market where a mid 50s candidate was never going to be hired by anyone. Ended up buying my job and now I run a self storage business. I write my own check, but it's smaller than my old one. I'm in a situation where Obamacare sucks down half of my income but it's survivable until I can transition to Medicare. Unfortunately, Medicare is being cannabalized by Obamacare, which is destroying the people who like me, are now paying more for health insurance than they ever paid for any house, car or combination of the two in their lives. And with a $3,200 deductable, the insurance is worthless in terms of benefits anyway.

So Billy, we're with you. Some of us have swam in the waters you find yourself in. Just like in a submarine during a war, sometimes survival is victory. There is deep satisfaction in survival!

[cdrsubron7]

I echo pb's and RR's thoughts, Billy. Hang in there, buddy. Things will get better.