Ship name decals and messages

[Mopy]

Heyas,

I think It'd be a nice idea to have a location on each ship type which houses a decal printed from a large number of ship names. It'd be nice to be able to make out a name of a ship that I'm sinking and to hear any distress calls or messages sent from it through radio messages, either while sinking or along the lines of the 'survivors picked up from' messages.

Makes experiences a little more personal, rather than what can seem like non stop experiences of generic clone of X cargo that goes down silently, seemingly disconnected with the outside world.

I have no idea if SH4 had this (never played) nor if it would be realistic, but I often see ship names in old photo's. Whether that was widespread or not, I'm unsure.

Just a thought :sunny:

I've read lots of the posts here and don't think it has been mentioned yet in this context. Apologies if it has and I missed it.

[Sailor Steve]

Merchant ships always have their names painted on, EXCEPT during wartime. Warships are another story - it varies from navy to navy, and it changes over time, much like the American practice of removing the camoflage paint from their aircraft and having them be bright shiny metal, but only after we were sure of air superiority.

Distress messages would be nice, though.

[Mopy]

heheh just my luck. I didn't know that :up:

I'm guessing it would be quite easy to work out that it was you that did the damage based on the distress signal anyway. Nevermind about the names if it isn't realistic.

[Sailor Steve]

Oh, I think it would be cool too, but probably a lot of programming for little return. Just having the correct name for the ship type makes me happy (which is why I spend so much time on the Ship Names mod for SH3 Commander).

Me? Toot my own horn? NEVER!

[mookiemookie]

Merchant ships always have their names painted on, EXCEPT during wartime.

Really? I've seen film of the Radames (http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/929.html) being sunk and the name is very clearly seen (it's actually in the title screen video for GWX), but that ship was Egyptian. Was it only the belligerent nations that removed the names?

[FIREWALL]

This falls into more realistic massages catagory. Something I would really like. :up:

[iambecomelife]

British cargo ships were mostly painted in camo by late 1940 - 1941, with no names visible.

The same goes for American merchantmen after early 1942.

Plus, there's the issue of having the correct names based on ship type, shipping line, and so on.

However, what I really would like to see is pennant numbers for warships. As for merchants, perhaps they should at least make the hulls symmetrical & with large textures so that names, neutrality symbols, and other things can be added by modders after the fact.