What he said ^
With visible mines and sub nets if doable but without the 48h hunt tho... need to work and sleep some.

I doubt this is possible. The sampans actually have a invisible prop in the middle of the hull that provides propulsion. The sails and wind won't make them go. It's kind of funny.

suggestions, Idea's
 

1)_ Had a mission the other day where I had to drop 19T of goods at location X now the mission itself was okay and fun but 19T is a bit much not to mention the way I had to deliver it... by way of rubber boat.... :o REALLY 19T, rubber dinghy?????
I like the idea of covert missions, photo recon and such, it gives more to the game but if you think about it this was plain weird. It would take some 45 round trips and close to a week to get it all to shore.

So as a suggestion it would be great to have a more realistic approach to those missions. (menu.txt editing)?
I know you can simply leave as soon as the dinghy as scratched the sub with that awful sound, its player dependent if he sticks around or not sure, but sticking around makes for some good challenges on its own.

2) The ability to set speed, heading and depth yourself by way of typed input instead of moving the dials.
Or better yet... a small window in which you see the numbers when you turn the dial. (gets you one step closer to real Navigation).

3)_ Some sort of ships physics like ISP for all the vessels?

Good ideas.

The first idea about having 19 tons of gear is an easy one to fix. Find the mission description and change it to 2000 lbs. Like a lot of things in game, miss spellings, or just not thinking about what's being written is through out the game.

Your second suggestion reminds me of the original Silent Hunter game when it was designed by Strategic Simulations. You could input a range figure by mouse clicking 5 separate rotating dials (each showing but one digit) until you got the range you wanted. Wanted to set 2500 yards...... you moved the second dial to the #2 digit, the third dial was set to #5, the remainder were kept at their default setting of zero.

Unfortunately, the periscope screen is not made up like the Sonar or Radar screens. Those are actual 3D modeled game features. The periscope screen is not a 3D model, but rather it's made within the 1024_768_menu.ini file. A completely different animal. Putting 3D rotating dials into the periscope screen just won't happen. Believe me, I would have done it if I could.

Neither will using a typewriter type of input. The game just won't allow it.

I've even tried to incorporate some kind of digital readout like what the German side of play has.....no luck!! The game was much better thought out and designed for the German's than it ever was for the American side of play.

Darn!

How about using the scroll wheel of the mouse to make finer adjustments? Could something like that work?

The Developers left us few options. Circular dials we can configure; I believe linear sliders can be used too (OTC's Omnimeter is an example) within the limitations of what the sliders are linked to. Like the Omnimeter, it's linked to the Message Text module because there were sliders used for expanding the size of the Text box, left and right.

Without the game engine already mapping out how a particular feature will work, we just can't make something out of our heads do what we want.

For instance, I've been working on the planes, particularly how do you change their attack flight patterns. Well.......you don't.

The game has the particular attack flight patterns hard coded. A level bomber (UnitType=301) travels at a predestined height, drops its bombs (provided the plane "detected" an enemy), then moves on out of sight. A Torpedo Bomber (UnitType=303) upon detection of an enemy target, will drop to just above the water. If it's not turned away by enemy fire, it will proceed in closer, drop the torpedo, then pull up abruptly in an attempt to gain altitude. If it was turned away on the first try, it will attempt to circle (if the hit points will allow) and attempt to make another run. As long as the weapon hasn't been dropped, the game instructions will force the plane to try again. It's only after the plane drops its "loadout" equipment, or reaches its maximum damage rating, will it move out of sight or crash. A Dive Bomber has a different pattern too.

My point being, there isn't anything we can change about these features.....except for the detection capabilities. The planes flight pattern is hard coded. Tucked away within files we can't open or change. So too are the interface inputs for the game.

One of the goofs in-game of these types of hard coded instrucions is the German Radar digital readout. The German Radar station offers a digital readout of a found target.....giving you an exact range figure when centered on a radar target (the German Radar looks like an A-Scope version). Great, that's just what we need for the American side!

Can a digital readout be added to the American Radar station? Sure can, here's one I did for an older Trigger Maru version.


http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w132/crawlee/519.jpg

But, here's the kicker. The darn thing only reads in metric units!

No matter which Unit of Measurement is chosen within the Options Menu.....it will only read in meters. Not much good for us trying to play an American game, using authentic unit of measurements!

By the way, for those that play the German U-Boat side of play......you're also screwed if you play using the Imperial Unit of Measurements and think the Radar digital readout is giving you Yards? It's not. The Dev's hard coded the thing to only read in meters.....no matter which option you chose. :/\\!!

Hey, I have another idea, can u add in different colors to the bases, like blue for America, green for Australia and New Zealand, darker blue (or whatever color u want) for great britan, and a different color for the Dutch (I don't have an idea for the Dutch) and red for Japan?

You mean for the icons displayed on the map?

I'll have to see.

The Dutch should use Orange if I'm not mistaken.

===================

Thought I'd post some pictures of what I've been working on. I found a free 3D model of the Yokosuka MXY-7 Kamikaze plane, and have been getting it into the game using Blender. Here's what I've got:


http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...pscxzpae6n.jpg


The above image is from the Museum.

Below, their making a run on a Clemson CL:


http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...psxefjzk1i.jpg


http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...psp3egm1ly.jpg


http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...psjafcmnrs.jpg


http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...psauie1qvn.jpg


Better arm that 20 mister!!


http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w...psqijamvcn.jpg


Still got a few things to do. Seems the lighting on the model is out of wack, and a couple of other things I'd like to tweak. If I was any good at modeling I'd try to see if I could animate the model to nose down into the target from a Level Flight bomb run of the Betty. Right now, the Dive Bomber approach seems to work/look the best.

well, what I meant is the dot and name of the city and port, so change the color of the name of the port. the labels, u could do what the creator (sorry I for got his name) of NMMO did, put the flags of the port owner in the label. Also, will it still be possible to add in some plane battles, with the limitations you mentioned?

Orange for the Dutch is perfect. We use a Orange banner on to of the flag.
Red, White and Blue.

Amazing!

hi, so how is the mod coming scurvy? I also have another idea, can u add in American seaplane tenders, like the USS Langley?

Slow, very slow. 3D modeling is not something I'm very familiar with, I'm learning as I go. That's why I really didn't want to post much about my work, I'm not going to set a time limit on completion.

Adding the Langley?.....well someone had better make the model for me 'cause I won't have the skill or time to do it myself. :D

hi scurvy, im not a 3d modeler, but if you need help how about you start a thread for this mod so you can find more help.

Anyone have a 3 view of it or some good images? I have been meaning to dust off 3DS Max for awhile but SH has been eating up all my free time.

http://forum.valka.cz/attachments/50...y_09020336.jpg

here's a side view of the USS Langley as a seaplane tender which is what it was during WW2.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...hoals_1937.jpg

heres a bow view.

http://steelnavy.com/images/4Stack/C...der%201939.jpg

Here's an image of a destroyer-seaplane tender, which is another type of ship I think would be neat to see in SH4.

After some extensive searching there are relatively few images of AV-3 Langley. That said I am sure I could make it without a great deal of effort. This begs another question though...

Is it needed/wanted? A ship of negligible value lost in 42 would have little import/impact in this sim. While it would not be difficult to make this it would still take me 10-15hrs to make it & textures. Is it worth spending my time on?
A single ship such as this would by necessity need to be part of a larger package containing more vessels as I doubt it would get downloaded much more than twice. Once when I verify the download works & a 2nd time when you get it.

This I will make for my own enjoyment if nothing else. I have a special fondness for the flush deck destroyers.