Dead bodies/debris
 

Hi everyone. :Kaleun_Salute:

Sorry for the morbid question but can anyone confirm (or point me to a mod) if the newest version of FOTRS has dead soldiers in the debris field after sinking a ship? I don't think the older version I played did (I could be wrong) and I enjoyed that little touch of realism when playing TMO.

Thank you. :Kaleun_Cheers:

FAQ's Editorial RULE 1: No graphic images of people murdered, blown up, dismembered, or similarly ripped up. If you must, you can use a link to the image and include the warning "Graphic image warning".

Quote:

No graphic images of people murdered, blown up, dismembered, or similarly ripped up. If you must, you can use a link to the image and include the warning "Graphic image warning".

....would tend to preclude dead or dismembered sailors in the water(think 1945 USS Indianapolis sinking/sharks here) IMHO; afterall, we have minor kids in this forum whose parents might object. And then there's always the infamous Peleus Incident of WWII https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz-...20by%20U%2D852.

Just FYI I will release a much-improved mod for Silent Hunter 3/4 with many different types of boats and survivors (and non survivors).

I have done playtesting, and destructible crew/bodies/rafts/boats can easily be modded in.

You can even mod in realistic corpse decay and progressive burn injuries.

In accordance with subsim policy, no graphic images will be posted when I release it. Also note that this is not a high priority bc of all the other work needed on my WWI mod, Wolves of the Kaiser. But just letting you know it will be an option for those interested! :up:

I apologise if I offended or broke any rules. That wasn't my intention. I just figured since TMO features that already in a non-gory way, that it would be fine to see if that was included in the newest version of FOTRS.

BTW, I knew a USS Indianapolis survivor when I was a child. He was a neighbor and very nice. He told my dad some stories about it incident.

I'm looking forward to trying it out! :Kaleun_Applaud:
Do you have a rough idea of when you might release it?

I am aiming for Christmas/Late December 2025. Creating more detailed ship survivors was very easy to do, I'm kind of surprised that in about 15 years of Silent 3ditor being available, not much has been done. :hmmm:

The way I see it, survivors and victims was a fact of life, and should be included for realism purposes. Furthermore, you can already kill sailors in unmodded Silent Hunter 4 with deck gun fire. So my mod won't really be adding death to the Silent Hunter series for the first time.

Nevertheless, I totally understand the opinions of people who do not want to see such things, because all death is tragic. I will not judge anyone who does not want to use my mod.

Historically, floating people (alive and otherwise) were common during WWI and WWII. Although the oceans are vast, strategically important traffic routes are not - thus, lots of chance for encounters.

In a bad convoy battle, 20 or more ships could be sunk .... giving each ship a typical small freighter crew of just 30 men, that's still 600 men going into the water. Furthermore, by 1945 freighter crews could be up to 80 men. Not to mention, say, a troopship with thousands. Survivors could be at sea for hundreds of days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poon_Lim

Likewise, bodies could last for days - even if not supported by a life vest, they could naturally float under the right conditions.

Many days after the HX-229 convoy battle, a U-Boat reported finding one of the dead convoy sailors in a field of flotsam.

http://www.warsailors.com/convoys/hx229.html

It's interesting you mentioned the USS Indianapolis. :yep: When she went down, her men drifted for an extremely long time - long after the ~ 6 days it took to find the last survivor. Ships found hundreds of bodies for days in a field of debris, according to Raymond Lech in the book "All the Drowned Sailors". And this was the Pacific .... had it been the cold Atlantic, the deceased would have lasted for much longer.

When the retrieval ship SS Mackay Bennett recovered "Titanic" victims, the crew was surprised by how long they remained lifelike above the water.... up to about their waists they were almost perfectly preserved for a considerable time period. Although legs/feet had water damage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CS_Mackay-Bennett

So, basically, all this is to say that encountering such things was almost unavoidable if you spent enough time in shipping lanes. :salute:

To stop sadistic players who think war crimes are funny, I can easily give a renown penalty for attacking survivors in SH4. Unfortunately I don't think it is possible for SH3, due to differences in how the game generates certain things.:hmmm:

Interesting stuff.

Personally for me the floating bodies just added realism. I usually always leave the survivors on the life boats alone. I figure their chances of survival are slim as it is depending on where I sunk their ship. I don't know if I would add a renown penalty or not, but I will leave that up to you.

Anyways, thanks for the info. I'm looking forward to the release of your mod! :Kaleun_Thumbs_Up:

Thanks for the words of support! A prelude, from when I made the mod - this was thrown together from just a few hours of work, so there are lots of possibilities.

CAUTION: GRAPHIC IMAGES AT LINKS

https://postimg.cc/4KZXdhVt
https://postimg.cc/R3R4nVLY
https://postimg.cc/FdHmb5PH

yes....fairly graphic.

Looks good. I would probably do like you said though and make the violence/bodies optional. For me it adds to realism but some people might not want to see it.

Looking forward to giving it a playthrough. :Kaleun_Applaud:

I'm all for realism Iambecomelife, After all the game is about what actually happened. Uboats sinking merchant shipping for the majority of their war aims to strangle Britain and Russia. We did exactly the same to Japan. Nobody can possibly believe this doesn't involve killing or leaving victims of innocent people just doing their jobs or moving around the seas in other pursuits as well as enemy combatants. (Don't get me started on whether we should have aided Russia. Frankly Stalin was a worse psychopath.)


Anyway I'm thinking you should give up 100% of your family life and pare down your worklife by at least 50% and you can move up the expected release date by at least 10 months.


Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, I appreciate what you are doing immensely and frankly I wish we could reward you monetarily for your selfless time on this project.