NorOps news update 1/2007
 

Welcome to the third monthly NorOps news update - the first for the year of 2007.

This has been the slowest month yet for NorOps. I've had the visitation service course, school exams and catch-up work due to excessive absence (I have an excuse:p!) to worry about, and at least one particularly nasty LND entry that causes CTDs (and when you have an LND layer file with 286 cities, finding the one or two causing the CTD is a grudging process of erasing first big chunks to figure out roughly where the culprit resides, for then to gradually erase chunks of the chunks... It's a monotonous task akin to ransacking a haystack for an elusive needle). I have however, gotten something done.

Said "something" is my hometown of Bergen, known by some as the u-boat city. Norway's second largest city, she's been mentioned in an earlier update, but up to now I've only focused on labelling cities, towns, etc. near her and re-creating the many forts surrounding her (a task which is still far from complete - I am only one person, after all). Now, however, I decided to give the harbour area itself a go.

Bergen, a 244 000-people city (2005 est.), was founded in 1070 and has since been named one of Europe's "14 secret capitals", had its Bryggen harbour named an UNESCO world heritage site, and been one of nine cities on the continent honoured by the title of European City of Culture in 2000. Its harbour area is by far Norway's largest, handling 50% of Norway's cargo annually. It is also the "gateway to the fjords of Norway", the site of the heliport that handles all traffic to and from the off-shore oil rigs, and the site of the Royal Norwegian Navy's key naval base (Haakonsvern).

Selected sources of income are the harbour, fishing industry, university, hotel industry, and oil industry.



When Operation Weserubung began, the city was among the first to be captured. Early in the morning of April 9th, a German task force fought its way past the shore battery of Kvarven fort and took the city with little resistance. The K Class cruiser Königsberg and the Artillery Training Ship Bremse were damaged in the battle and forced to stay in Bergen harbour, where British dive-bombers sunk her the next day.

From Bergen's capture to 1945, the Germans would expand the shore defenses greatly as part of their Atlantic Wall effort, and they would also, as early as April the same year, construct a submarine bunker at Laksevåg, south of downtown Bergen. This submarine bunker, named Bruno, was used from 1943 by German submarines of the 11th flotilla, and protected in part by two rings of anti-air guns surrounding the city. The defences were gradually increased in strenght, and by '45, Bergen was a fortress of artillery and anti-aircraft weaponry, most of which saw little action. Even the Königsberg was raised - fully uprighted, she served as a u-boat pier from 1934 to 1944, when she again sunk to the bottom (after the war, she was dismantled by the Norwegians).

Many of the bunkers and artillery placements remain to this day throughout the countryside, and even three of the pens of submarine bunker "Bruno" are not only intact, but still in use by the Royal Norwegian Navy.

In-game, the invasion of the city, as well as her extensive defences, will both be modelled, as will the harbour and the sub base at Laksevåg. Upon joining the 11th Flotilla, you'll launch from Laksevåg harbour south of the city, with the submarine bunker offering you extra protection if included.

The Bergen harbour model itself has been replaced by Wilhelmshaven's, as the latter is far more true to the real harbour. True to form, I'm filling it to the brink with ships, including the beautiful sailing vessels of Grey Wolves Expansion. I'm also adding some new city blocks to Bergen and the surrounding area.

In-game, this is Bergen city (I decided to be nice this time and post ImageShack pictures instead of the ones from the blog entry):

I'll see if I can't edit the terrain to fit the harbour a little better. It'd be nice if I could unblock the passage into Store Lungegårdsvannet, too (the lake just east of the city).

Additionally, I'm giving some buildings and/or docked boats to the other relatively densely populated areas near the city, such as Nesttun and Arna. I'm hoping to be able to use DivingDuck's marina for that purpose.

That's about it for this month, with hopes that the upcoming month will be more productive than December was. Wish me luck!


Other NorOps resources:
Poor ole Blücher... - Battle of Drobak Sound; Project Preview
"Look to Noh'vay - ve haff doggiez!" - Project Announcement
November News Update - Bergen area expanding, SH3 Commander news enhanced, new Type II and VII skins.
December News Update - Hagesund and Stavanger introduced.

All screen-shots depict a work-in-progress and are thus subject to change

Dette kan du! Glimrende!!!
If you wish, i could make the repaint of DD's cutter without the numbers on. This way i dont have to worry about that mirroring issue.
Im really lookin' forward to this, mate!! Happy new year, btw!:up:

All I can say right now is OMFG, my lower jaw is on the floor SK. I absolutely cannot wait for this.

for all that matters the Norwegian navy had on its service
six Flower Corvettes received from the royal navy
and also a Castle class Corvette ... wich acording to wikipedia
where an improoved version of the flower , with radar and asdic
wich appeared in 1943

among the flowers was the Monbretia that was sunk by U-262 in 18 november of 1942
the one from castle class was lost when it hit a mine in 12 november of 1944

if you want a detailed list this one seems acurate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ian_Navy_ships

ALSO ...

this one is a very good site about the norwegian merchant fleet or ... home fleet
and has the list of all ships in axis service in alied service from norway i really advice this one

http://www.warsailors.com/freefleet/index.html

Looks nice S-K
I have to say though that many ships in Bergen may well cause a massive FPS hit
Also with the unfortunate drift issue of SH3 and docked ships if you sail back into port you may well find a lot of them on top of each other

Sometiimes less is more my friend

Looking good though I must say :up:

Similar btu the Castles were 50ft longer than the Flowers
No doubt someone could knock one out using the Flower as a start point

http://uboat.net/allies/warships/cla...?ID=4&navy=HMS - Castle
http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.u..._corvettes.htm

http://uboat.net/allies/warships/cla...?ID=4&navy=HMS - Flower
http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/flower_class.htm

Question: Is it possible to extract the 3D model of a harbour using Pack3D, retrieve the sub pens, and then make them a separate model to be placed in-game, as an environmental folder Land unit or locations.cfg entry? I want to make a "harbour" for the u-boats out of Laksevåg consisting of only the sub pens.

Feel free.

Thanks a lot, but it's already been presented to me:up:.
It does, so I'm planning to release a "Light" version or two. Either two versions - one with far fewer ships and one with no ships, or simply one version, with no ships, the way GWX did it.

I didn't know about that. I'll have to do some testing and see what happens. Hmmm... maybe I could have a massive minefield outside the harbour. That'd discourage the player from returning there after a finished patrol:p.

It had better, with all my effort:p.

Looking good safe-keeper:D . Good that there will be a light version but I personally like the massive shipping in the ports-It's the only place in game I stay in tc1x to see all of the new ships even if it takes me awhile to get out of harbor. (Another side effect w/the incresed shipping----harbor air attacks become a spectacle that really never cause any danger to you due to the increase of all of the ship AA guns surrounding you---good or bad depending on how you look at it):cool:

A possible idea for the docked sailboats. In my install, I placed some of the the sailboat beauties in all my ports but removed the sails to show them docked and unattented. Tried a "furled sail" version but as shown below-my UV mapping skills are still not there yet--maybe someone with some better 3d skills can accomplish it.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/<a h...mg45vj2.th.jpg[/IMG]http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/<a h...img9bu1.th.jpg[/IMG] http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/<a h...mg46zg1.th.jpg[/IMG]

The sail-less boats, and docked versions of boats in general, are a great idea.

Best thing would be to have sails be EQP "loadouts" so that you could easily set their "sail mode" via the mission editor. Maybe something for a future GWX update?

Set out from Bergen and went to AF44, and yes, it did look slightly disorganized when I got back:oops::
http://img483.imageshack.us/img483/6...ropyck4.th.jpg

Dang. Is it caused by the damned ships being too close together?

The problem is the ships start to get rendered around 30\50km for the player
Then the port and the land gets rendered
Inbetween those times the ships drift ( and while being rendered )
So they can end up IN the port or each other

So yes they need space between them
Tis a pain believe me

Same problem DivingDuck has with his marina, then. Annoying.

Nice work Safe-Keeper! Don't know anything about modding this sim, but was thinking that maybe, you could have a portion of the ships in the harbor (those tied up to the docks) as part of the scenery? And have a smaller number for the traffic moving about?

Does that make any sense, all of a sudden, I don't think so!:oops:

Yeah it is mate
As I said less is more
Give them a bigger spacing and maybe a touch away from the dock side too
I think DD needs to make the marina as 1 piece using a port dat
That way no drift issue

It could be a locations.cfg entry, like the lighthouses, or maybe that's what you mean (modding .dat files isn't my field:oops:).

By the way, found the most prettyful picture of Bergen so far:
http://draugen.net/Image/CS16.jpg
Source.

Skrivebakken, apparently east of the harbour. Amazing that there aren't more photos of this gorgeous neighborhood.