[WIP] Wolves of the Kaiser:1914-1918 Mod

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by CCIP

Looking phenomenal as ever, IABL! I have a real soft spot for turn-of-the-century British armored cruisers - and considering the sheer number of them, built around a very similar overall layout, this is probably one of the most important models to have in the game. And I've always been a fan of your smoke

Well then, you'll like the next ship I have planned... And if you don't like them, anybody out there, be advised that I am working on many other ships - I want a good selection of navy and civilian vessels.

Screenshots of this other ship possibly by this evening.

[Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt]

Yesssssss. I can't wait to see more screenshots
An other thing, by this weekend I will sent to you the picture of WW1 submarines.
One question, there will be in the mod the Coastal Motor Boats (first RN MTB) and the MAS torpedo boats?

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt

Yesssssss. I can't wait to see more screenshots
An other thing, by this weekend I will sent to you the picture of WW1 submarines.
One question, there will be in the mod the Coastal Motor Boats (first RN MTB) and the MAS torpedo boats?

Yes, there will be motor boats. I just read about a U-Boat that was reported sunk by one.

Making more changes to the damage model of the Monmouth Class Armoured Cruiser - I got rid of the ship halves for the "parent unit", which is SH4's Liberty Ship, believe it or not - now it has proper ship halves and it breaks in two nicely. The boats and turrets are destructible....I want to add a damaged version of the turrets ; as it is, the turrets get blown overboard if the ship explodes.







Numerous miscellaneous improvements, like fires in the right locations, better funnel smoke, and British crew to replace the Japanese. Still need to redo the portholes and eliminate one anchor hole (IIRC there are only two anchor holes on the Starboard side).

These screenshots also show changes to the bridge camera. I narrowed the field of view, so that ships look much more massive when you approach them. Watching the squadron steam past was much more dramatic...the ships seem more solid, and less like toy boats.



A squadron on maneuvers. Last night I followed these ships on patrol off the coast of France at about 18 Knots, using the unmodded USS Porpoise class...I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I could follow them at high time compression with no crashes, freezes, or stuttering! Frame rate was excellent, and my computer is far from brand new. I tracked them for more than a day. Just imagine what you can do once all the different ship models and campaign layers are in - there will be German raiders, destroyers, and torpedo boats you can link up with...plus lots of other units going about their business.

[iambecomelife]

Oh, and you will need to be careful while sailing! I tried an illegal Starboard to Starboard pass with my sub while taking these screenshots, then tried to cross the "Monmouth's" bow (or was it the "Kent"?) anyways, she rammed me...the bridge watch did not look pleased with me.

The next ship in the pipeline!! If 6" guns are too small for you, how about a couple nice 9.2" turrets???


Just a tiny sample of what I am going to do to shore installations...I want this game to have an early 1900's European feel. Again, SH4 has so many possibilities. And they are destructible, so friendly & enemy ships can conduct shore bombardment missions against military structures... When shot at, they catch fire nicely. I will be creating ruined versions of buildings using the object remains controller in S3ditor.

[Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt]

One thing, but are you interested to add Brazilian Navy's ships? (on wikipedia, I read that one german submarine was sunk by brazilian destroyers).
Remember that Brazil entered in the war on October 26th 1917.
these are the brazilian ships that partecipated in ww1:
Bahia class light cruiser:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/5t...ma9w/bahia.png
http://www.mediafire.com/download/9s...ne_drawing.png
Parà class destroyer (based on the british E or River class DD)
http://www.mediafire.com/download/6z...ro_de_1923.jpg
http://www.mediafire.com/download/7x...a/br_dd_13.gif

[iambecomelife]

I can't guarantee that navies other than the major powers will have very many unique ships. Warships take lots of time and often require that I create unique weapons to add to the game's weapon roster. I will see what can be done. In all likelihood, minor nations will be given standardized patrol trawlers and launches, etc to represent their fleets.

[avers]

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

I can't guarantee that navies other than the major powers will have very many unique ships. Warships take lots of time and often require that I create unique weapons to add to the game's weapon roster. I will see what can be done. In all likelihood, minor nations will be given standardized patrol trawlers and launches, etc to represent their fleets.

At least for now, don't forget that u can update the mod after you've released the first version.

[Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt]

IABL, in this archive.rar there are 70 images of german, K.u.K and bulgarian submarines and a lot of images of ww1 cargos and victims of u-boats and some battleship
http://www.mediafire.com/download/4j...s+pictures.rar

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt

IABL, in this archive.rar there are 70 images of german, K.u.K and bulgarian submarines and a lot of images of ww1 cargos and victims of u-boats and some battleship
http://www.mediafire.com/download/4j...s+pictures.rar

Downloaded and reviewed. Thanks - there are some interesting shots in there.

More screenshots to come soon, and the next video is still being worked on! I resolved another problem with the mod - while inside the submarine, crew clothes were rendered too dark. I set the interior cameras to use the same post-process values as the exterior, and now everything looks much better - with no real differences in image quality.

[iambecomelife]

Yet another target for your submarines... You will find these big boys escorting Atlantic convoys or patrolling the ocean for German surface raiders. not to worry; I will be switching back to modeling submarines this evening, so I will have new screenshots of player units soon if Armored Cruisers aren't your thing.





I didn't like the sea color under foggy conditions so I redid the environmental parameters (see below) - I am happy with the results; now I just need to add the fog back - I will try incorporating volumetric fog later on.



Changes to the officer uniform - note that now, the cap's emblem is easily visible belowdecks. The uniform color is no longer bleached abovedecks, as it was in earlier versions. I will be adding new hair color and facial features soon - if you have frontal pictures of yourself or others feel free to email them to me! You might be in the game!

[Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt]

Wow, I cant wait to see that armored cruiser in the game but ecpecially I want see new creation about playable units.
good hunting IABL

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt

Wow, I cant wait to see that armored cruiser in the game but ecpecially I want see new creation about playable units.
good hunting IABL

Well then, here's a playable unit - U-87 Class Submarines!

The original model was destroyed a while back when my HD was infected. Here is the replacement...

These submarines had round hulls, instead of the "saddle tank" style of older submarines like the U-9 and U-19 classes.

Step 1 was creating a profile in wings3d with the blueprints...






Step 2 was modeling the hull form to the transverse dimension (X axis).



Step 3: Checking the skin coordinates in Wings3d. Special attention was paid to ease of skinning. One problem when I first started modeling for "Wolves of the Kaiser" was creating models that could not be skinned properly - so far, things look good with this one.

Next steps will be propellers, rudder, conning tower, and holes for vents/torpedo tubes. If you have any photos of this class, please let me know.

[Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt]

Wow, wonderful.
In my opinion, this models is more historical accurate than the old model; the other model had the bow "round", instead this model have a "sharp" bow.

[Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt]

IABL here there are other 25 ww1 Willy Stower's u-boats' paintings. (they are very very beautiful), I hope tha you will use all of them in your mod.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/6z...pictures+2.rar

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt

IABL here there are other 25 ww1 Willy Stower's u-boats' paintings. (they are very very beautiful), I hope tha you will use all of them in your mod.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/6z...pictures+2.rar

Thanks! I absolutely loved the big ones - especially of U-9 returning home next to the battleship. Can you do me a favor - try to get bigger images of the small paintings? The bigger the better, but at least 500 pixels in width. Also, if you have any Klaus Bergen or Felix Schwormstaedt paintings I would love to have them.