WIP/New Unit Screenshots (56K Warning)

[iambecomelife]

I'm going to try and post all screenshots of new ships here, instead of adding entirely new topics for each one. Here's the vessel I'm currently working on - a very large passenger/cargo ship. It's based on a ship built around the turn of the century; a few similar ships would have still been around circa WWII.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/Passcarg2.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/Passcarg1.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/Passcarg3.jpg


I'll use it to replace some of the cruder large ships I built earlier on, since I don't want to have too many big ships for the upcoming mod. Still, the larger vessels are definitely fun to make.

[Ducimus]

Why am i reminded of this:
http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/806.html

:D

Not exactly the same i know, but still....

[iambecomelife]

You know, I really want to do a 'Terje Viken"- like model. I've been searching for a better photo of her for a while. :hmm: You're right though; it looks a little like a factory ship because of the split bridge/deckhouse. Here's a pic of the unit I worked off of for this ship:

http://www.steelnavy.com/images/2002MayGallery/PresidentGrant1908CM100A.jpg

[HanSolo78]

Looks really awesome! :)
So many new vessels are just wip... i´m very excited to have them in the game.

[Syxx_Killer]

That is a cool ship! I am definately looking forward to this one. I love the really old ships. Will you be doing more old ones from that era? :yep:

[Sailor Steve]

Looks real good so far.

Boy, do I feel stupid though. I was having a discussion with JScones about the ship lists in SH3 Commander. I was offended at sinking a ship called 'President Jefferson' in 1939, because I knew it to be a real C-type freighter and the Americans of course didn't enter the war until the end of 1941. I commented that no British merchant was going to be named after an American president...and now here's a reference to a real 1908 British merchant called 'President Grant'.

I quote myself: "Boy, do I feel stupid".

Can't wait to see that big combination ship in the water. :cool:

[AG124]

Iambecomelife, I must say that is your best ship yet. :yep: :up:

I too am tempted to work on bigger (and sometimes older) ships, as they do tend to be more interesting and fun to work on. I also try to do smaller ones of course.

Are you still working on your whale factory? That is one ship I would like to see in the game, although I like the Kosmos II better than the Terje Viken. Now that I have revised the USS Pyro, I am thinking of making the old model (which I kept) into that converted factory ship you posted earlier. I don't want to see too many factory ships in the game, so I'll just release this one early as a stand-alone release in case someone wants something extra to sink. The resemblance is too strong to pass up, especially since the hardest work (lowering the superstrcture) has already been done.

[iambecomelife]

Looks real good so far.

Boy, do I feel stupid though. I was having a discussion with JScones about the ship lists in SH3 Commander. I was offended at sinking a ship called 'President Jefferson' in 1939, because I knew it to be a real C-type freighter and the Americans of course didn't enter the war until the end of 1941. I commented that no British merchant was going to be named after an American president...and now here's a reference to a real 1908 British merchant called 'President Grant'.

I quote myself: "Boy, do I feel stupid".

Can't wait to see that big combination ship in the water. :cool:

I did some poking around about this ship's history, and she was actually a GERMAN ship, originally. She was impounded by the Brits during WWI and seems to have maintained her name. I was surprised myself that the Germans named a ship after an American president. IIRC a lot of Germans fought for the Union during the Civil War, so maybe that's why...

This thing needs a little more tweaking to correct various errors, mainly with the rigging and nodes. A little warning: its damage model is a compromise between realism and detail level. In order to place many of the ventilators, etc I needed to include them as fixed, non-destructible objects. Also, masts #3 and 4 are linked together and will collapse at the same time. The boats, funnel, some ventilators, and the crane/masts are all destructible, though. I'm not including the bridge as a separate object, since it's a little weird for one 88mm shell to cause the entire bridge to collapse.

@AG124 - I only had time to work on 1 ship last weekend, and decided to do either a President Grant-esque cargo liner or a factory ship; I guess you can tell which one won out. :rotfl: Since you want to do one of the old factory ships I may make mine a late model 1930's-40's style ship. I wish we could have whalers as a distinct unit class of their own so that we could make absolutely sure they wouldn't be too common.

[GT182]

IBC, no matter what you do it still looks great. :up: Can't wait for it's release.

[iambecomelife]

A new medium-sized cargo ship.
There are more pics on the new ships request thread.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/Lyner4.jpg

[Detritus]

Good lord!! Must have, real soon, OK?

[Jmack]

when its donne ... can i try and skin it ?

[iambecomelife]

Feel free to. :up: Just don't sell the skins as payware.

[Average Joe]

I like the pictures of this ship, including the quantity of cargo too. More cargo usually adds to the look of ships being hit and sinking.

[GlobalExplorer]

Your ships are getting better all the time. Actually I am holding off from playing Sh3 until the Merchant fleet Mod will be available, and I guess I am not the only one. Keep going! Merchants are the most important area of improvement in Sh3 imo, especially the 1000t - 5000t range.

[Mast]

That medium cargo ship with the American flags looks great!
:up:

Mast

[iambecomelife]

I like the pictures of this ship, including the quantity of cargo too. More cargo usually adds to the look of ships being hit and sinking.

I agree. Trucks are a good cargo since unlike the tanks they can get thrown around by explosions. In fact when I was fooling around with the tweaking tool I had a truck near a torpedo impact point get blown about 800-1000 scale feet in the air. :o Here's some damage model testing: a passenger/cargo blows up real good.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/flippy.jpg

[AG124]

I love explosions. :D And trucks enhance the effects. :yep:

When I tested an early version of the Rose Castle (without the crate sunk into the hull) a truck got stuck thrown onto the edge of the broken stern half and hung there with the front dangling in the water. It fell off before I got a shot though. :damn: :(

[Soviet_Warlord]

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/flippy.jpg

Is it just me or are those explosions..... red???

[Marhkimov]

It looks like his personal touch. :hmm:

[iambecomelife]

It looks like his personal touch. :hmm:

I have a customized set of explosion graphics for my own install. They were to be released as a mod, but I don't like the overall quality - plus, they're as unrealistically transparent as the default explosions. I have tried altering them with the new tweak program but it didn't do much. I miss those nearly opaque fireballs from the explosion mod for SHII :( .


BTW, I wanted to have screenshots of a new tanker available but it went horribly wrong. The test-run model I threw together and deleted a couple nights ago was actually better than what I made when I had the time to sit down and concentrate. :damn:

[Crop-Duster]

You gonna make ships transporting planes too?

They seemed to have disappeered with patch 1.4b :(

[iambecomelife]

You gonna make ships transporting planes too?

They seemed to have disappeered with patch 1.4b :(

I might post screens of ships carrying them, if that's what you mean. :hmm: Every ship designated as a merchant (class 102) can carry the 8 default deck cargoes (ammo/cargo crates, ammo/cargo boxes, fuel drums, tanks, trucks, and planes) as long as it has a "K" node - a 3d attachment point of sorts. The NKGN and its descendants are the only dry cargo vessels without them, and it may be possible to mod them in by removing weapon or searchlight nodes. If you want you can just edit the ships in your campaign layer file to carry planes. Still, I feel as though the game makes military deck cargoes artificially common, especially early in the war.

[booger2005]

I started to look at this(NKGN) in wings 3d. Right now on the bow is the vestage of the base of the catpault for the Arardo. This is actualy modeled right onto what I'll call the hatch for the forward hold. So all that needs to be done isto remove the catapault base in this model. Then, there is the 3d node for all the other catapault stuff right above, resting on this base. So all that needs to be done is to remane it K and drop it down to deck level with a hex editor, right? Does this make any sense? :hmm:

[iambecomelife]

There isn't a node for the catapult; it's just a 3d object. A node currently designated for weapons or searchlights would need to be renamed and placed on there (in theory). I have no idea whether or not it would work for sure. A hex editor wouldn't be needed. Pack3d itself is a much easier tool to use for object movement than, say, Hex Workshop.