Are there any MAJOR mods out there?

[Incubus]

One thing I wondered about the modding in this game is this:

All the mods in SH3/SH4 seem to be based on making the game more realistic. That is a practical endeavor, given the nature of a simulation game. However, what I am somewhat disappointed in is that modders don't seem to stray much for the source material. What do I mean?

Taking the existing game, and adapting it into an entirely new game. Basically using the stock engine to make a game. FPSes are common with this; probably the grandaddy of all mod fodder, Half-Life, is a perfect example. (I find it really funny that more people know about Counter-Strike, a mod made for Half-Life, than the stock game itself :rotfl: ).

Seeing this game, I had all sorts of ideas of mods:

Ship mods, being able to do patrols with surface ships like a Fletcher-class destroyer. Basically take Deck Gun functions and build them into the main battery, ditto for AA guns. UZO/periscope becomes fire control director's scope. The ship is basically a reskinned sub that doesn't dive (obviously). All the exterior models are already there, Id think its just a matter of rearranging things around.

Playing as other nations, like IJN or RN, just reskin existing subs and script in missions. Most of the stuff is already in the game, people would only have to model interior skins/voices since existing weapons could be tweaked to historical stats for other navies.

Really radical departures, taking a sub sim engine and doing interesting things with it. I always wondered how cool it would be to take this engine and make a zepplin sim with it- Basically a German Zepplin commander in 1914 bombing targets in Britan (progression would be similar to SH3 with the tech war) where at first you'd have easy targets then as AA/fighters got better your job got harder. Altitude is just a mirror image of depth, and airships worked on similar principles of buyoancy that submarines did. That and the death animation could mimic that cheesy scene in Flyboys where the zep gunner is running away from the explosions on top of the airship )

My guess is that there are two things holding these types of mods back:

1.) An engine that is too 'rigid' to allow for much variety outside of the stock game (I know the challenges of getting functional AI subs that dive and shoot torpedoes is a good example of this)

2.) The sub sim community as a whole simply isn't big enough to have the numbers, dedication, and talent to do this. I'm not saying this as a jab against modders here; I think folks like Tater and Ducimus have done an awesome job taking an okay game and turning into a great one. But I seriously wonder how big the sub sim fanbase really compares to the FPS fanbases that had games like Half-Life and Battlefield 1942 spawn into a million mods.

And btw...my favorite wacky game mods?

Half Life: Dragon Ball Z mod. Nuking half the map with spirit bombs. Rofflecopter.

BF1942: Some pirate mod, players were pirates and warships were pirate ship. Complete with pirate-sounding voices "Arr, dem skurvy doggs have captured our flag"

[NefariousKoel]

If even adding new playables were possible, it would've been done in SH3 by now since it's been out longer. Not to mention completely changing it into something else.

[Excalibur Bane]

Well, I'll tell you, if I wasn't so sick, I'd explain why there aren't any TC's (Not major mods, Total Conversions) for SH3 or SH4. But I'm afraid I'm not touching this one with a ten foot pole. :p

[DeepIron]

The sub sim community as a whole simply isn't big enough to have the numbers, dedication, and talent to do this.

You left out one important requirement: DESIRE.

[Digital_Trucker]

Originally Posted by DeepIron

You left out one important requirement: DESIRE.

There is a reason FPSes are suited for this type of total conversion. It's because they are FPSes. Sims are meant to be sims (whether they are played in full realism mode or not). They are meant to be an approximation of some reality, not a "run around and blow sheet up" game. The nature of sims is that they are limited to simulating what they are designed to simulate. In order to simulate their own little piece of reality with any success, certain compromises in flexibility muse be made.

There is certainly no DESIRE on my part to turn this game into anything other than a sub sim.

[skwasjer]

It's no secret sims are less popular than fps games. As a result, the community is smaller as well. Additionally, most FPS games today are supported out of the box by developer or 3rd party tools. The only tool available to SH from the developer is the mission editor. All other modifications have to be done using community tools, without documentation, the hard way.

I remember when I was part of the Quake 3 community (for 6 years), pretty much from day 1, the developer released a 3D editor with it, had plain text file formats, game files were packed as zip, came with map compiler and documentation on shaders etc. etc. This is also mostly true for other fps games like HL or Unreal. By the end of Q3's life, they even released the full game source!

Not hard to figure out why it's harder to mod for a game like SH from a technical point. That, plus I agree what the others say

[edit] And as far as talent, I can assure you there's some very talented people around SH3/4 boards.

[Navarre]

FPS are primary designed for such an approach i.e. it is planned from beginning to release a SDK to the community which makes full conversions possible.
The tools for such a SDK are provided particularly only for a that FPS game.

With SHIII/IV, Ubisoft used in-house tools not designed only for the SH series. The DAT file maker is also used in the development of other Ubi titles like ChessmasterX and maybe others. Releasing this tools in form of a SDK opens also the entrance to other Ubi games and that is not in the sense of the management