[WIP] New Orleans class

[Karle94]

Since there has been some interest in playable heavy cruisers, I have decided to make some. The first is the New Orleans class. These were some tough ships as two of them survived the forward magazine detonating after being hit by the Long Lance.

I haven´t made the wartime refit yet, perhaps in the future. She comes with the 8"/55 caliber Mark 15 guns. These were mounted on the last pair of the New Orleans as well as the Wichita, Baltimore and Oregon City class. She also comes with the SG surface search radar and SK air search radar. Unlike my previous ships these won´t have independently operated barrels. All three act as one unit, like stock ships.

I am currently testing the ship and will post any results in the foresseable future. In the meantime, here`s some pictures so you know what to expect.

Management screen:
http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0820-05-47-03.jpg

http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0820-05-52-53.jpg

In-game:
With the same guns as the Northampton, the 8"/55 Mark 14.
http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0821-27-12-78.jpg

http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0821-27-20-42.jpg

Modified the stock 5"/25 and made a new AA gun of it
http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0821-27-31-28.jpg

With the 8"/55 Mark 15 that´s going to be included in the game
http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0823-06-38-84.jpg

SG (lower radar) and SK (upper radar)
http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0823-06-48-54.jpg

[Karle94]

Just gave her a spin at Samar. Here are the results:

http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0922-42-18-20.jpg

http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0922-42-22-40.jpg

http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0922-43-38-26.jpg

http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0922-45-00-23.jpg

http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0922-46-46-28.jpg

http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0922-48-26-01.jpg

http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0922-48-19-45.jpg

http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0922-48-34-73.jpg

http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0922-48-58-48.jpg

http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0922-49-04-90.jpg

It was definetly a Kongo that pu the last nail in the Minneapolis´ coffin. That hole is too huge for any cruiser and destroyers.

The ship will hold her own against anything the size of a heavy cruiser and smaller.

http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0922-42-51-96.jpg

http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0922-43-12-57.jpg

http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42012-02-0922-43-16-96.jpg

[iambecomelife]

Very nice. These are some of my favorite WWII American cruisers, even though three were sunk in one battle.

I think I have a profile drawing of the class that you can use for the damage control screen - let me know if you want one.

[TBear]

lmao looks awsome Karle. Deffently giong for a spin in your ships when done fidling with the Furusaka testbed.

:salute:

[iowa101]

Your pretty good, I like the model, very nice indeed :yeah:

[sidslotm]

Awesome, great pix.

[USS Drum]

Karle94, are you ever going to finish this ship?
http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/yy51/Karle94/sh42011-09-1222-29-01-69.jpg

[miguelmmag]

and will you finish the HMS Hood? :DL

[Karle94]

No and yes.

[USS Drum]

Ahhhhhhhhh, I wanted to kill Yamato with that ship.

[Karle94]

Ahhhhhhhhh, I wanted to kill Yamato with that ship.

That woul´t be possible. All the guns are 3 inch guns. Destroyers, hell yeah, light cruisers, yes, heavy cruisers, eh... carriers, nope. Battleships, ain´t no chance in hell.

[USS Drum]

You don't get it, I get the Yamato crew to get out of there ship then take pictures, then I jack Yamato and kill them.:D

[Karle94]

You don't get it, I get the Yamato crew to get out of there ship then take pictures, then I jack Yamato and kill them.:D

Or you challenge them, and they die of laughter. Then you take the Yamato as a prize.

[TBear]

That woul´t be possible. All the guns are 3 inch guns. Destroyers, hell yeah, light cruisers, yes, heavy cruisers, eh... carriers, nope. Battleships, ain´t no chance in hell.

The above is a perfect match with the Takao im working on with Peabody.

Exept one small thing.

At night, stalking using type 93`s any BB will sink :arrgh!: 93`s R :rock:X

TBear

[Karle94]

This thread has gone all REL. Here it is, Oh and please do read the read me as it has some good points for ya`ll.

http://www.gamefront.com/files/21476561/USA_New_Orleans_V1.0.rar

[Zuk]

You are unstoppable Karle. :) Now my girl will go to shopping alone and my dogs will hate me. :haha:

[Karle94]

You are unstoppable Karle. :) Now my girl will go to shopping alone and my dogs will hate me. :haha:

Guess I`m better at robbing gals of their loved ones than BF3 and MW3.

[Wisq]

Been looking forward to this for some weeks now; great to see it's been released!

Quick question while I get SH4 reinstalled, since I've never used a surface boat mod before: Will the campaign still make sense for a surface boat, or will it break and I'll have to ignore it?

I remember from stock SH4, there were a bunch of missions like "sneak into this harbour and do some recon" or whatnot, which obviously aren't going to work for a surface ship. And I don't particularly remember having the ability to decline a mission, either.

Are there campaign mods that eliminate the stealth-style missions?

[Karle94]

Been looking forward to this for some weeks now; great to see it's been released!

Quick question while I get SH4 reinstalled, since I've never used a surface boat mod before: Will the campaign still make sense for a surface boat, or will it break and I'll have to ignore it?

I remember from stock SH4, there were a bunch of missions like "sneak into this harbour and do some recon" or whatnot, which obviously aren't going to work for a surface ship. And I don't particularly remember having the ability to decline a mission, either.

Are there campaign mods that eliminate the stealth-style missions?

I don`t know. Every mission is chosen at random. No one knows what mission is next.

[Wisq]

Just did a patrol with the New Orleans last night. Fun stuff!

The anti-aircraft fire is really impressive to watch. :D And it's awesome to strike fear in enemy ships and aircraft rather than vice versa for once. :D

One thing I noticed is that I seemed to be almost invincible against normal ships. I stumbled across a huge convoy, about a dozen warships and two dozen merchants. They had one heavy cruiser, and five destroyers. I could see the cargo ships all nicely lined up on radar, and a huge circle of escorts around them, and figured I would get my ass kicked, so I went in slowly and carefully at first.

After realising I seemed to be pretty much impervious to their fire, I waded on in and started blowing them all to bits. I had machine gun fire from almost every merchant, shelling from the destroyers and heavy cruiser ... no damage. A destroyer came up and rammed me, which made him capsize and sink ... no damage.

The result:

https://img.skitch.com/20120407-puimjj2c6f7tg7x599fn25pahw.jpg

There was even one destroyer that managed to sneak up and ram my backside and actually got his bow stuck in my stern. I was towing him around while he shot me at point blank range. Once I destroyed the rest of the ships and still hadn't been able to dislodge him, I figured I would just tow him to a friendly base and let them blow him up. But as I was starting to head off, we broke the connection and I sank him.

Only two things seemed capable of damaging me:

One, enemy planes. I took 2 hull damage from an attack at one point, because I waited too long to let the AA guns fire to conserve ammo.

Two, a rather weird incident in which a ship managed to get in my way so badly that I was ramming his broadside, and I fired main guns at him while ramming him, and he blew up while under my bow, and I guess the explosion (or hitting his wreckage?) was enough to actually sink me within seconds. (I reloaded and tried hitting the convoy again, this time in daylight so I could see and avoid better.)

Total for that patrol: 28 merchants (only 3 or 4 not from the convoy), 13 warships, 174023 tonnage. Yow! :D

(TMO + RSRDC + New Orleans pre-refit, no other mods, first patrol of a 1941 campaign)

Edit: Oh, and a small handful of sound issues: 1. no sound for the deck guns firing (AA sounds awesome though); 2. missing some TMO sounds (like when I call for battlestations, it's silent); 3. there's an alarm (5 pulses) that seems to go off when I get hit (cool!), but it never stops going off. Apparently my crew gets pretty shaken up by being shot at, and refuses to turn the alarm off even like a month later. :D

Edit: Deck gun sounds fixed by installing your gun sounds & muzzle flash mod. :)

Edit: Hmm, can't replenish the AA ammo at ports once it's empty. That is, the ammo on the user-fireable AA guns; I dunno about the AI ones. The deck gun refills just fine.

[Able Brown]

There was even one destroyer that managed to sneak up and ram my backside and actually got his bow stuck in my stern.... a ship managed to get in my way so badly that I was ramming his broadside, and I fired main guns at him while ramming him, and he blew up while under my bow, and I guess the explosion was enough to actually sink me within seconds. ..


My advice: Read it. Learn it. Live it.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?pictureid=5465&albumid=622&dl=1332357796&thumb=1 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/album.php?albumid=622&pictureid=5465)

Seriously though, I take it that this is viewed as a glitch in the shell damage parameters and not an aspect of the mod you're happy with. The San Francisco (CA-38) did take something like 45 hits and a Torpedo Bomber crash at Guadalcanal but her survival and eventual return to service are among the great stories in Nautical history.

As the old saying goes:

"God looks after little children, the town drunk, the villiage idiot and the US Navy.":salute:

[Karle94]

Not to mention the New Orleans and the Minneapolis which had their bows blown off. 1/4 of New Orleans` length was blown off then a torpedo detonated the main magazine. Still, she did´t sink, and made her way to a friendly base where a temporary bow was made so she could sail back to the west coast.

Both the New Orleans and the Wichita has thinner armor than the rest of the heavy cruisers in the game. They do have much more hitpoints than the rest, to ensure that you won`t sink immedietly when shells start hitting the ship.

[Wisq]

Oh yeah, I did read about the USS New Orleans history before I started playing. About how they made a bow out of coconut wood, drove backwards to Australia, had a new temporary bow fitted, etc.

I just find it odd that I was able to wade in to a group of thirteen warships, including an enemy heavy cruiser — which I didn't actually notice for a long time in all the confusion, so it shot me a lot — all firing shells at me, tons of sounds of explosions and bullets hitting the ship, and take zero hull damage, zero subsystem damage, zero crew casualties.

There's plenty of proof that it's not invincible ... aside from the ramming incident, I actually ran aground last night while trying to cross through the Torres Straits (damn tiny island didn't show up on my map) and was unable to extricate myself before flooding lowered us enough to make it impossible, and eventually sank. Lots of crew casualties, lots of system damage, lots of hull damage. But constant shelling from enemy ships? Nothing.

Just confusing, is all.

[Karle94]

Oh yeah, I did read about the USS New Orleans history before I started playing. About how they made a bow out of coconut wood, drove backwards to Australia, had a new temporary bow fitted, etc.

I just find it odd that I was able to wade in to a group of thirteen warships, including an enemy heavy cruiser — which I didn't actually notice for a long time in all the confusion, so it shot me a lot — all firing shells at me, tons of sounds of explosions and bullets hitting the ship, and take zero hull damage, zero subsystem damage, zero crew casualties.

There's plenty of proof that it's not invincible ... aside from the ramming incident, I actually ran aground last night while trying to cross through the Torres Straits (damn tiny island didn't show up on my map) and was unable to extricate myself before flooding lowered us enough to make it impossible, and eventually sank. Lots of crew casualties, lots of system damage, lots of hull damage. But constant shelling from enemy ships? Nothing.

Just confusing, is all.

Destroyers does´t do any damage. Neither do light cruisers. Heavy cruisers should do damage. It all depends on range and where they hit.

[Wisq]

Yeah, I guess there's also the problem that stuff like hull damage is considered permanent in SH4, so there's no way to represent "yeah, that hit did a tiny bit of damage but we can easily repair it" for all those DD shots that seemed to do nothing.

Any chance of getting at least one of the visual sensors (Uzo, periscopes) placed somewhere outside the ship where it can be used without staring at an interior wall? I know the ship didn't have any of those, but I can't bring up the recognition manual or get very good magnification outside those views, so IDing ships can be a bit tricky. (Don't really need the stadimeter with radar, but it's a nice bonus too.)

Also, is there anything I need to tweak to get the anti-air reloading correctly at bases? I tried at Darwin, no luck. Maybe they didn't have any ammo in stock for the type of AA gun it uses?

Edit: Never mind the AA thing, I think I just needed to choose the ammo type on the right hand side. :oops: Chalk it up to always diving to avoid planes instead of ever actually firing back at them. ;)

[Karle94]

Yeah, I guess there's also the problem that stuff like hull damage is considered permanent in SH4, so there's no way to represent "yeah, that hit did a tiny bit of damage but we can easily repair it" for all those DD shots that seemed to do nothing.

Any chance of getting at least one of the visual sensors (Uzo, periscopes) placed somewhere outside the ship where it can be used without staring at an interior wall? I know the ship didn't have any of those, but I can't bring up the recognition manual or get very good magnification outside those views, so IDing ships can be a bit tricky. (Don't really need the stadimeter with radar, but it's a nice bonus too.)

Also, is there anything I need to tweak to get the anti-air reloading correctly at bases? I tried at Darwin, no luck. Maybe they didn't have any ammo in stock for the type of AA gun it uses?

Edit: Never mind the AA thing, I think I just needed to choose the ammo type on the right hand side. :oops: Chalk it up to always diving to avoid planes instead of ever actually firing back at them. ;)

You won`t need the rec manual to ID ships. Just sink them.

[Wisq]

You won`t need the rec manual to ID ships. Just sink them.

Well you know, there's also the question of "is it a hostile ship?". I nearly sank an Aussie freighter that way before I thought to check. :D

[JOHNDQ]

No and yes.

Looks great mate any idea when Hood will be ready :salute: