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AG124
08-31-09, 05:17 PM
I think we should have some serious discussions regarding the choice of ships for SHV. However, on a positive note, after the dev team's mostly excellent and thorough selections for the SHIV rosters (with the exception of CVs), I expect a decent roster for most nations in SHV (at least, superior selections to those found in SHIII, which I continue to believe was largely lacking in both merchant and warship classes).

I assume that appropriate models from SHIII and SHIV will reappear; thus, we can probably count on the following warships (Allied nations only, right now):

UK:

BBs:
- Revenge Class
- Nelson Class
- King George V Class

CVs:
- Illustrious Class

CVEs:
- Bogue Class

CAs:
- Kent Class (maybe even London and Dorsetshire Classes, with some 3d changes).

CLs:
- Dido Class
- Fiji Class

DDs:
- C/D Class (maybe some other early A-I Classes too)
- J/K Class (maybe some other L-T Classes, with 3d changes)
- Tribal Class
- V/W Class (Old)
- Town Class

Other:
- Hunt I/II/III
- Armed Merchant Cruiser
- River Class (probably correct model this time)
- Captain Class (either US version)
- Black Swan Class
- Flower Class
- Isles Class
- Generic SHIV Armed Trawler
- Elco Torpedo Boat

US:

BBs:
- New Mexico Class
- North Carolina Class
- Iowa Class
(Colorado Class available, but probably unnecessary for ATO - I'd still like them to be included though)

CVs:
- USS Wasp ("Early War Fleet Carrier/Fleet Carrier")

CAs:
- Northampton Class
- Baltimore Class

CLs:
- Omaha Class
- Brooklyn Class (could have St. Louis class too, without too much work)
- Cleveland Class

DDs:
- Clemson Class
- Somers Class
- Fletcher Class

Other:
- Evarts Class
- Buckley Class
- John C. Butler Class
- Generic SHIV Armed Trawler
- Elco Torpedo Boat
- Maybe the subchaser that didn't make it into SHIV...?

Right now, France has no unique ships from either SHIII or SHIV, and the USSR has only potential lend-lease ships.

In terms of the European Axis, Germany has most of its important ships available (with the exception of the Scharnhorst Class, and all CLs). Italy has only the Soldati Class DD, although this class could produce some other, similar classes.

Personally, I would like to see a few new ships added to these existing ones, including a small number of French vessels, at least two early-war UK CV classes (Courageous Class, plus either Ark Royal or Eagle), two new UK BB/CBs (Queen Elizabeth/Warspite profile, and Renown class/Renown profile), US New York Class BB/Texas Profile, two new US DD Classes (maybe Mahan and Allen M. Summer), at least one Soviet DD, and a few Italian warships of all types.

And of course, we need a good variety of generic merchants, plus a few well-recognized mass produced designs (i.e. Victory, Liberty, T2, North Sands). Some of the Japanese designs from SHIV could easily pass for Western designs (and I would accept some SHIV merchants as such), but I would prefer to see at least mostly new merchant designs. In regards to SHIII merchants, most of the decent models there have already been included in SHIV, with the exception of the Patapsco Class Tanker/Small Tanker, and Small Coastal Vessel (I hope these two, plus the SHIII conversions from SHIV, will be included in SHV). The Coastal Merchant, Small Merchant, Passenger Liner, C2, C3, T2, and Trawler from SHIII can be forgotton, as far as I am concerned.

In regards to the above, I would like to comment that SHIV had (by far, in my honest opinion) the greatest merchant selection of any subsim ever released before it; thus, I have full confidence for the merchant selection of SHV.

Also, the excellent decision to allow customizable random tonnages for merchants in SHIV should be applied in SHV, IMO.

Anyway, final points for comment:

1. Does anyone here have any thoughts for the Merchant or Warship rosters in SHV? Please feel free to discuss and share.

2. Do any Dev team members have any information which they can share at this stage, regarding such information as which national rosters will be fleshed out (and how), or what directions will be taken with merchants? I assume it's a bit too early, for this, but one never knows until one asks.

JU_88
08-31-09, 05:43 PM
Hey AG, good to see you about. (you might want to edit that sig BTW)
I reckon its probably too early for them to discuss the rosters, I would guess that most of the 'ATO relevant' ships from SHIV will make it into SHV though.

Its true that its not too hard to make multiple classes of certain ships, when there is large number or similarities between them
You know, I was looking at the Elco the other day and realised how easy it would be to Kit bash a Higgins 78 from it. the the Hull is the same...
'Sister ships' are a 3d modlers wet dream - two for the price of one lol.

Thats the good thing about the Generic merchents also, you can have one hull model, with 3 or 4 different Super structures, cargo and crane sets.. throw in a few different skins and you basically mix'n'match to have a whole range of unique looking ships with relitively little effort, all things considered....

Anyone got any ID on any of the ships in the trailer or screen shots so far?
I See the Mosquito is in there :up: (from the preriscope bit in the trailer)

iambecomelife
08-31-09, 06:43 PM
So far we have seen the following in the trailer:

-Small British Escort (Trawler? Flower Class)? at 1:20

-Larger British Escort (prob. "Black Swan" Class) at 1:41

-Generic British Split Superstructure Merchant at 2:05 (burning)

-Hog Island Merchant at 1:35

-Liberty Cargo at 2:05 (and in screenshots)

-Large Tanker (prob. T-3 Tanker) at 1:35 and 2:00

The Liberty Ship looks much better than the one from SH3/SH4.

Not too happy with the Hog Islander, which looks like the beam is too wide.

Other ships look passable.

I agree with most of AG124's selections, although I really want to see a "New Orleans" class CA - my favorite US warship.

I think that fleet train ships & auxiliaries have been badly neglected - we could use oilers, ammo ships, repair ships, and destroyer depots. Actual replenishment operations would be a huge plus - imagine an oiler ploughing through high seas with its hoses strung out between a couple warships. Sneaking into a harbor and seeing men loading torpedoes from a destroyer depot onto a Tribal class. Torpedoing a tanker and watching as a salvage tug fights fires and tries to tow it to harbor. We need more interactions between ships than enemy vessels firing guns at each other.

As for merchants, I have already recommended to the developer that they do what JU-88 recommended and have an array of ship parts that can be randomly assigned to merchants in "modular" fashion, like legoes. Ten to twenty derrick rigs, wheelhouses, superstructures, and smokestacks could produce an incredible variety of cargo ships. There could be certain rules to make sure that ships looked appropriate:

-Assign modern funnels 1, 2, 3, and 4 only to modern motorships

-Assign tall, thin funnels 5, 6, 7, or 8 to old-fashioned ships

-Assign dual funnels to all whale factory ships

-Assign small wheelhouses only to old-fashioned merchants

and so on. My dream would be ships whose length and width varies semi-randomly with tonnage adjusted appropriately, & with the hulls being segmented so they can break up in a variety of locations.

Then there are skins. I REALLY hope that they add identification aides to neutrals - hull flags, country/homeport in block print, company names, and running lights.

http://uboat.net/allies/ships/photos/ar/rio_tercero.jpg

http://www.armed-guard.com/almerial.jpg

I appreciate that in SH4 they finally made it possible to assign names based on skin and nationality, and I really hope this feature remains. That way we can have correct names based on country and funnel markings - a big thing for a pedant like me. :rotfl:

If they do not go for this type of system I hope that it's at least easy to extract the model files and retexture/resize them. Here's a good list of semi-generic looking merchant ships IMO:

-"Cyclops" class heavy steamer (9,100 GRT)
-Better "Hog Islander" class medium steamer (5,400 GRT)
-"War" class medium steamer from 1917-1918 programme (5,100 GRT)
-"P.L.M." class collier (5,400 GRT)
-"Anglo Canadian" class split deckhouse motor freighter (5,300 GRT)
-"Hartlebury" class long bridge deck freighter (5,000 GRT)
-"Cairnmona" class split deckhouse steam merchant (4,700 GRT)
-"Larpool" class long bridge deck steamer (3,900 GRT)
-"Baron Carnegie" Class steamer (3,400 GRT)
-"Alssund" class steam merchant (3,300 GRT)
-"Kenordoc" class steam merchant (1,800 GRT)

-"Imperial Star" class refrigerated motorship (10,700 GRT)
-"Fernplant" class motorship (5,300 GRT)
-Doxford-type motorship - composite superstructure variant (5,000 GRT)
-Doxford-type motorship - split superstructure variant (5,500 GRT)
-"Corneville" class motorship (4,500 GRT)
-"Alfred Jones" class motorship (4,000 GRT)
-"Almena" class refrigerated motorship (1,600 GRT)

-"San Melito" class steam tanker (12,300 GRT)
-"Victor Ross/Geo W. McKnight" class motor tanker (11,000-12,000 GRT)
-"Arthur F. Corwin" motor tanker (10,500 GRT)
-"Ariston" class motor tanker (10,300 GRT)
-"Castor" class motor tanker (8,700 GRT)
-"Den Haag" class motor tanker (9,000 GRT)
-"British Aviator" class tanker (7,000 GRT)
-"Allan Jackson" class steam tanker (6,600 GRT)
-"War" class superstructure amidships tanker (5,100 GRT)
-"Grey Ranger" class fleet oiler (3,300 GRT)

Most of these ships can be found on uboat.net or other websites with old ship photos.

JScones
09-01-09, 02:08 AM
It would also be nice if, for sunken ships, the logs recorded more than just the ship class label and tonnage. At the least the nationality should be recorded as well. And preferably the "real" ship name (or number). Crew numbers and cargo manifest would be a nice addition too.

I'd be happy, as I'm sure Observer, bigboywooly, Sailor Steve and AG124 would be too, to give the devs the exhaustive list of ship names and crew/cargo details already compiled--over 10,000 names--that SH3Cmdr uses to support this feature. This would take much of the "sting" out of adding a similar feature direct to SH5.

THE_MASK
09-01-09, 02:24 AM
I dont know why they cannot include a ship builder program into the mission editor and let the game owners build ships/boats . The devs could put in the main ones and let the community do the rest . Just another reason to buy the game . What do you think , sober out .

JU_88
09-01-09, 12:28 PM
For me, lit neutral ships (at night) would be great! and -if it not too much messing about to make it workable- would be even better if they 'flicker' then go to black as the ship sinks...
Ah but wait, we're not supposed to sink neutrals are we? :D

Jimbuna
09-01-09, 12:32 PM
Q Ships

JScones
09-03-09, 04:41 AM
For me, lit neutral ships (at night) would be great! and -if it not too much messing about to make it workable- would be even better if they 'flicker' then go to black as the ship sinks...
+1. :up:

Sailor Steve
09-03-09, 10:32 AM
It would also be nice if, for sunken ships, the logs recorded more than just the ship class label and tonnage. At the least the nationality should be recorded as well. And preferably the "real" ship name (or number). Crew numbers and cargo manifest would be a nice addition too.
Personally I would like to see the Recognition Manual have class names and generic tonnages, as it does now, and as has been mentioned by others have the captain enter in the log the attack and what information he has on hand - i.e. no more "Ship Sunk!" Or have that info entered automatically. The name and tonnage should only be available after being confirmed by BdU. The cargo and crew info might not be known until quite some time later. If all that isn't possible at least not have it all confirmed until the end of the patrol.

Also mentioned earlier, but bears repeating: Some ships take hours to sink - hours the kaleun doesn't have to hang around. He should be credited with those, whether he sees them or not.

And the reverse: Sometimes ships were recorded as sunk and they somehow made it to port. The captain has to live with disappointment sometimes.

JScones
09-04-09, 04:07 AM
Actually, SS, after I wrote that I saw IABL's great suggestion (here (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=1163211&postcount=76), with my subsequent comment) which effectively made my above post redundant!

I'm with you - give the Kaleun a Lloyd's Register and Weyers Taschenbuch der Kriegsflotten and let him record what he sees, with subsequent confirmation (or not) from BdU.

Maybe not something for the more casual players though, so maybe an option...

JU_88
09-07-09, 06:03 PM
Thats what i'd like to see..
A MAC!
No, not the Apple or sub machine gun variety, but a Merchant Aircarft Carrier (coversion)
its success in convoys pretty much gave birth to the escort Carrier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_aircraft_carrier

http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/ships/EmpireMacKay.jpg

http://www.histarmar.com.ar/InfGral-2/Merchant-Aircraft-Carriers/MVEmpireMacKendrick.jpg

pretty important unit if you ask me :D Just need to stick a flight deck on a tanker and have it spawn Swordfish.
Acually I'm surprised no-one made one for SH3!

iambecomelife
09-09-09, 04:13 AM
Thats what i'd like to see..
A MAC!
No, not the Apple or sub machine gun variety, but a Merchant Aircarft Carrier (coversion)
its success in convoys pretty much gave birth to the escort Carrier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_aircraft_carrier

http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/ships/EmpireMacKay.jpg

http://www.histarmar.com.ar/InfGral-2/Merchant-Aircraft-Carriers/MVEmpireMacKendrick.jpg

pretty important unit if you ask me :D Just need to stick a flight deck on a tanker and have it spawn Swordfish.
Acually I'm surprised no-one made one for SH3!

I agree; I would have recommended "HMS Audacity" if she hadn't been just a single unit i/s of a class. A MAC is a good compromise.