Originally Posted by TorpedoMo
Hey Sharkley!
Maybe I have some tips for you because two friends of mine and me developed a campaign system like that a year ago, we are currently running the second patrol and it's by far the best way we played sh3.
Some facts:
Campaignsystem:
We play realtime careers and patrols, so one reallife day conforms one game day. Most of the gametime takes part in singleplayer, the convoy attacks are played in MP. The idea: Every player gets the same mission to play in SP. All players get patrol grid or other commands and start their patrol. If one player find a convoy, the BdU tries to form a wolvepack wiht other boats inbound. When all captains have found the convoy in their SP game(all have the same mission) and have postitioned, the convoy attack starts in a MP session. The MP-convoy corresponds in detail the one in SP.
After the attack, the captains go follow again their orders in SP. All players have exactly the same mission data, so this works excellent.
In order to mainain time synchronisation between players, there are fix dates to be keep. For example, the player has to run 3 day ingames from Monday realtime to Thursday morning 0800. If you play these 3 days day by day or by once is similar, but you have to make a savegame every day at 0800. Then the second week part is played from Thursday till monday morning, again 0800.
This is important to keep. Example: The next synchro is on 12. Decembre 1939. Currently you are on 9th. You play 3 day in a row, take a save ervery morning. Then you receive message that another boat has found a convoy, but at December the 11th. There comes the savegame.
If a convoy is found, the game is paused at the time of date the convoy is spotted. Now all ohter players have to get to this date. When all are synchro and all Players found the convoy, MP starts. The sysem maintains that you can't get apart in time more than 4 days.
Communication:
The communication works via email. For every sea day you have to send a special standarted email to the BdU, which contains infos like date, hour, Gridposition (AM1234), Fuellevel, Foodlevel, Weatherreport, Damages, Ammunition, Comment and others.
So the Bdu knows for everyday where all the boats are in detail.
Also, the BdU send its commands via email to the captains. There you have to check the time of date the email comes in. You are only allowed to open if you have reached the time ingame. Example: You are at 8th, before playing you ckeck email, see a Bdu Message for you or any other message by uboat dated 10th. Now you first have to play until 10th, pause game, open email an go on. That maintains that you can't react to happenings too early.
The fine thing is all players can follow the whole radio traffic between boats an BdU on the "open frequency", which gives a lot of atmosphere.
We have also implemented the coded radio messages. Before starting a patrol you get a password protected winzip archiv which contains top secret orders. Maybe then you get a "Kommandantespruch" which is coded. You have to decode the message using the enigma simulator. The decoded message is the password for the winzip archiv. For example it is possible you start your patrol while not knowing the orders and after reaching a specfic seazone you get the Top secret message by the BdU.
For every Emailmessage send the player has to send a status message ingame, to represent the historic problem of the Uboat radio trafic and counterdetection by enemy.
BdU:
We have a player who takes the part of the BdU. He creates the missions, the search groups, wolvepacks, recon missions, harbour infilltration, mining, measurin water dephts for special purposes and many more. The part of the BdU give a hole new shot to the game because commands now are effective, can change during patrol and the captain can communicate with the BdU.
We have strictly rules the captains have to follow the orders of the BdU, also the BdU notes the Captain's duty IN DETAIL, what makes him "know" his captains. These notes are gathered so the BdU can evaluate the achievments of every captain made through his patrol.
Considered facts in evaluating a players patrol are:
Number of days at sea
Number of sunk ships
Tonnage of all sunk ships
Hulldamage
Crewlosses
Fuel -and Torpedomanagement
FoodManagement
Behaviour in Battle, especially on convoys.
All these points form the valuation for the captain. The BdU decides who gets medals, crew advancements (we have a special crew management) and technical courses for crew members to get special abilities like mechanic.
The captains decide which crew member get medals/advancements/technical course.
The first two patrol took about 30-45 days at sea. After entering home port, you have to send a Patrolreport and a Kriegstagebuch, which ervery captain has to write, to the BdU. The amount of damage your boat suffered during patrol will be important for the time your boat is in dock. When the boat is repaired, the captain can start his next patrol with the crew achivements made in harbour. This time last about 2 Weeks.
The boats are always fittet with the newest equipment, but the amount of boats is limited. For example if many boats get lost in patrol, the players maybe have to take part in TypeII for one patrol. Or when the Type IX is acutal, you have to take a Type VII.
The Type IX Boat also gets a knew meaning, because you can take advantage of the long patrol ability.
Another thing to mention is the implemention of the Prisenordung in the game. We created many many "Ship's Documents" .A document contains a Ship name, one of more than hundred different cargo types and a destination harbour. When spotting a neutral merchantmen ingame, you switch to desktop, open a class-specific ship's document and check the infos. If you have a ship heading for a enemy harbour and having Konterbande loaded, you are allowed to sink the neutral merchant. It works excellent and also give new atmosphere. Small quest, little stories and other stuff are bound with the ship's documents.
The historic facts concerning the Prisenordung have been implemented in full extend and exist only at the first time of war.
So maybe I could give you some insiration for your project. I could write still alot more about ours, so many things we managed to merge with the game. The best part of all is the top atmspehre in the game (even in SP) because you feel not beeing alone at sea, be able to communicate with players and BdU, the possibilities of new operating commands and many things more.
I you have question let me know!
Greets,
TorpedoMo
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