Real Fleet Boat ideas and help request

[swdw]

This thread is to let people know RFB is alive. I'm also looking for help and for people to throw some ideas out.

This thread is separate from the original thread because this is also a "fishing expedition"

If you've looked in the RFB thread, you'll know that Beery was hoping the subsim/SH4 community would continue development on RFB.

Through an e-mail with him, I decided to give this a run. But as Beery mentioned, I also hope this will continue to be more of a team effort than a one man show. So those who are interested in helping with development, please give a yell.

Several people have agreed to help with the testing as things are released and we may be looking for more testers later.

Thankfully, even with the MB controller crash on my SH4 'puter, the first update is now assembled. It will be uploaded for the testers tomorrow when my new domain name goes into effect

So first i"ll throw out the POTENTIAL ideas I have.

To start with, because of the new patch, and the uncertainty of what it will entail, the first update will be a minor update with several fixes rolled in (IJN radar fix is one). It also includes a couple small graphics mods, some other small changes like making speed performance more realistic at each bell (based on a mod by Leo).

It may include tater's idea of putting the campaign mods included in a separate folder so it will be more compatible with RSRD and Tater's campaign layers. How soon this happens depends on the 1.4 patch release date. This idea will definitely be incorporated in the future as it solves many potential problems.

Past the initial update here are some thoughts. Real Fleet Boat will be split into 2 versions. The idea is to have a RFB basic version that focuses on reality and leaves it up to the user which mods they want to install. Ship mods that are more historic will be rolled in as will small graphics mods that fix errors (capt cox's uniform and cap mod is an example). It will include Beery's campaign mods but they will be in a separate folder wen the file is unzipped. HOPEFULLY, that means you can use the stock campaign, the RFB campaign mod, Tater's campaign layers, or RSRD.

The other version will be what I call the RFB Plus version. The idea is to work out any potential conflicts ahead of time with other major mods, like Ducimis did with his latest release of TM to make it cohabitate with ROW better. RFB Plus will be a mod that includes a number of other mods all in one archive file (7z, rar)- not one folder, but one archive. Let me explain, and credit for this idea goes to JSCones.

For example, graphics mods like ROW , and major campaign mods would be included in the archive (Already talked to Leo about this for ROW v2, when Leo says it's ready, and lurker for RSRD). When you extract the files to the MODS folder and open JSGME you will see the mod folders come prenumbered so you know what order to install them in. So you'd see something like this:
01-Real Fleet Boat
02- ROW Textures
03- RSRD
etc.

This way, as other mods are updated between RFB plus updates, you can uninstall the mods you're using and reinstall them with the new update.

Lots of small things to be played with also and see how they work. That was the reason for the wave effect question on visual range. Hopefully something can be done with that to make sightings in higher state seas more difficult.

Hopefully these ideas appeal to the current users of RFB and will attract some new users.

Last, still fishing for people willing to help . To those wanting to help here's the other side. I have an existing hosting service I've added a new domain to (effective tomorrow). Those helping with RFB will have access to a site for exchanging files, a private developers/testers forum, and other tools that may be recommended to increase ease of communication and work exchange (plus revision tracking). This is something I've done before when working on a game mod and it helped everyone involved. It will take a couple of weeks to get the tools in place (real life, plus I teach classes Mon and Thurs evenings)

Hope this sounds good to the community.

I know that the proof is in the pudding, so some will take a wait and see attitude. I understand that, but please be patient as some of this will take some time.