BattleCry: Redemption, a call to all modders!!!

[Capt Jack Harkness]

I know this isn't DW related, but as there is some serious talent among these threads (as well as many people with experience of the subject matter), I figured I'd put it here.

Anyways, there is a new military simulation being put together as an MMO total conversion of Crysis, titled BattleCry: Redemption. Don't let the fact that Crysis is an FPS put you off, though, because the concept is to have the ultimate military simulation encompassing all aspects of modern warfare. This means the armies, navies, air forces, etc of numerous countries will be modelled in as exact detail as possible.

I have been given the management of the naval division of the mod, and I will lay down the basics of how the game will be played from this perspective, as well as what we need to make this part of the mod a reality.

First, each player will assume control of a character in a first person perspective, they can then choose to be a part of any countries army, navy, etc. If you choose to be in the navy, you will be an officer on any number of vessels manning any number of important positions, or commanding the vessel if you are the CO or XO. The real beauty, however, is that each vessel will be modeled inside and out in as exact detail as possible. One could explore every room of an aircraft carrier, destroyer, submarine, etc. Obviously, some of these rooms are classified and will be built on guesswork, but the look and feel should be just like the real thing; the only people that will know the difference are the players that have been on the real ships.

As for content, we are currently going to focus on the American and Russian navies. Once complete, all faculties available to the CO of the real ships will be available to COs of the ships in-game. We will have fully functional aircraft carriers deploying players in fighters, helicopters, ASW and support aircraft; we will be landing tanks and infantry on beaches, missile cruisers will be lending fire support to these land forces, submarines will be intercepting and attacking enemy carrier groups as well as performing espionage and delivering commando teams, launching missile strikes, hunting enemy subs, etc. All of these ships will be commanded by players, and all of these actions will be decided upon by players (including who is at war with whom); none of it will be scripted. Just about anything that can be done in real life will be possible in the mod (that's the theory, anyways).

With that said, I would like to ask any modder on SUBSIM with modelling or texturing experience to join the team, as the naval division consists of me and me alone at the moment. Getting the ships and weapons modelled and textured is the first priority, getting them to work will come later and will be done by those experienced in Crysis coding. Anyone wishing to join should pm me here or on CryMod (under the name r4y30n), or pm IrishDeviant on Crymod (he is the founder of the project, and approves all new members of the team).

Thanks for reading and check out the thread at CryMod.com if you're interested!

http://www.crymod.com/thread.php?thr...tuser=0&page=1

[tonibamestre]

Hey Captain, this looks a very interesting project. Concerning the Naval development,are you going to built just actual existing in service units or you have in mind older ones like 60,70,80s platforms? Midway,Forrestal,Enterprise,Coontz,Decatur,Knox,Le ahy...............

Thankyou in advance and VERY GOOD LUCK!!

[Capt Jack Harkness]

Well, no, ships are going to be limited to active duty vessels, soon to be active, and maybe some recently decommissioned ships. The mod is just too big to try to add multiple time periods, and most of the mod's supporters are just itching to try out all the latest and greatest military gear anyways.

And as for all those carrier classes you've listed, there isn't going to be every class of ship in the world in service today, only the most noteworthy, such as the Nimitz CVN, Virginia SSN, Los Angeles SSN, Ohio SSBN, Zumwalt DDG, Arleigh Burke DDG, Ticonderoga CG to name a few of the in-service American ships. They will also be getting the CG-21 cruiser, CVN-21 carrier, the General Dynamics LCS and the Seawolf SSN.

The Russians will have the Admiral Kuznetzov CV, Kiev CGN/CV (what is the Kiev's designation, anyways?), the Kirov BCGN, Sovremenny DDG, Udalloy FFG, Neustrashimy FFK, Improved Akula I SSN, Akula II SSN, Oscar II SSGN, the new Borei SSBN and the upcoming Graney SSGN, perhaps the Delta IV SSBN as well.

Part of the reason for limiting the ships is that we don't have the time to model a couple hundred ship classes inside and out, and part is because we would need thousands of players to man that many ships. Another thing to keep in mind is that the Naval Team is just one part of the game; we will have complete armies and air forces, as well, including all the modern tanks, planes, etc for the countries included.

[Molon Labe]

Good luck on the project. If you stay true to what you say and make it a simulator, not a game, then I think it's going to be amazing and I hope others follow your lead.

[tonibamestre]

Great job!! Its the most ambitious and amazing military project I have seen in years.
Would be interesting concerning the vessels,to give them capability of docking while at port,lower-raise anchors when resting at some allied or neutral bay,so as to be able to refuel and rearm underseas from replenishment units AOR.I guess these kind of units will be aswell implemented right?
Also,the correct lighting of the vessels I think is an important item to have in account.
Small satellite boats would be curious in order to transport crews in and out from any ship to the piers,just in case a big vessel is not able to dock at port.

Are these good ideas to implement you think Capt.?

[Capt Jack Harkness]

We will have numerous small vessels, like the Zodiaks and their ilk, as well as ambphibious landing craft. I would also love to have resupply ships (non-nuclear ships are gonna need them), as well as functional anchors, etc, but all these functionality questions are Josh's territory (the creator of the mod) and furthermore, much of what he has planned may change as progress continues. Of course, docking at a port will be an option, though, and I hope to implement refitting of modular systems while docked at a shipyard as well.

And for those of you that haven't read the CryMod thread, I will tell you that this mod is still mostly in the planning stages; very little work has actually been done on it thus far. Currently, my team needs to get the modelling and texturing of the ships done; all scripting and coding comes later. On that note, we are also in desperate need of experienced modellers and texture artists (especially for my Naval Team!), so anyone who feels they qualify, please PM me here or on CryMod (you can get to the CryMod thread by clicking my signature pic).

[tonibamestre]

Captain,what can you tell us about the walkaround plans inside the vessels? Are there going to be a lot of stations and rooms? How you plan the movement to be between them? For example on a sub,we will have to walk in first person all the way from stern to bow or will place peripherial icons to allow jumping quickly from the reactor compartment to the command room,etc?

Most of us would like you to explain a little the ideas and planification you have,if possible at this stage of course.

Best wishes.

[Capt Jack Harkness]

As far as the floorplans go, there will be as many compartments as possible. Of course, we will have to make some exceptions with some of the ships (the Nimitz class carrier has over 2000 compartments) but the smaller vessels should have all the rooms modelled (such as submarines, corvettes and maybe destroyers). All stations will also be modelled in as accurate detail as possible, though probably not all will be mannable; for instance, I do not think people will want to man the reactor and engine rooms and respond to telegraph calls all day.

As for the teleporting, that's a tough call at this point. Obviously, it's going to be a problem if the commander of a carrier is wandering through the munitions stores when he's called to the bridge and has to run through God knows how many stairs and corridors to get there. :rotfl: On the other hand, it's not too time consuming to get from A to B on a sub or corvette. Again, I think a lot of it will have to do with the size of the particular ship, though it also has to do with what Josh (the creator of BC:R) has in mind for the game; he's got a lot of plans for game mechanics that not even the team members are privy to (in military-speak, most of it is on a need-to-know basis).

[tonibamestre]

This is going to be a first class simulator,I like the idea. Just like you can see in Ship Simulator 2008,it gives you the impression of a total 3D inmersion,yes Sir!
As for the Nimitz,it can be pretty complicated if you think about it,its a full floating city,so perhaps would be enough with around 20 or 30 rooms-areas to walkaround through.
But probably you,Irish Deviant and Joshua have already stablished the respective implementation plans for it, right?

Anyway...VERY GOOD JOB

[Capt Jack Harkness]

Ha, actually we don't know how we're going to do the carriers... For the Nimitz, Josh (who is Irish Deviant, by the way) wants to take the Crysis carrier and add on to it, seeing as the Crytek team already put so much work into it, but to do that he needs to get permission from them. If he can't get it, we're going to be building it from scratch along with all the other carriers.

The idea, however, is to get enough compartments on them for all of the embarked pilots to have room to move around in; just like in real life, pilots will be spending their time on the carriers when they aren't flying.

I'm not sure how the spawning system will work, though. For maximum realism you would spawn in your home country and have to be transported to the combat zone, which could take a couple weeks by sea... Anyways, I think Josh already has plans for all of this, but as I've said, it's on a need to know basis.

[tonibamestre]

Jack,Battlecry will be set mostly into the Pacific area,at least on the first release.Can we assume that modelled units will be just that ones servicing on the two Pacific Fleets?
Is there any chance to built from scratch the veteran pacific fleet vessel USS Kitty Hawk which is now under an overhaul?
I assume aswell that not all the units of one ship class will be available(but would not be a deal,just changing the name and the numeral,the rest of the ship is the same for all).But I know you told us that just around 10 or 15 units from each country would be available, is that correct?

[Capt Jack Harkness]

Ha, no that's not correct. I can't state numbers at the moment because we haven't come to an agreement on what we can put in the game.

The game will be centering on the pacific and it's surrounding coutries including the western USA and eastern China, Russia, etc. Bear in mind, however, that this is only what is planned for the initial release. I can't say much about it, but we are partnering with another team that has similar goals for a game taking place in the middle east and eventually both of our games will expand to cover most all of the planet and most of the countries (of course, that's our LONG term goal).

Most vessels will either be modelled by scratch or purchased from modelling companies, although we will try to have the Kitty Hawk in game. Ideally, we will have all ships of the included classes available, so long as they are in an applicable fleet.

Once more work gets completed for the naval division, I'm going to start a naval-specific BattleCry thread on Crymod where things like this can be discussed, so check there when you can.

[akdavis]

I found some updates on this mod via Google. First thing I see is Aurora, Bird of Prey and S-37 Berkut, one of which is conjectural and the other two techonology demonstrators. Sorry, but I think you may be giving people false hopes about the intent of this mod.

Nonetheless, sounds ambitious, and that is good.