[REL] Colored Hull Integrity Indicator

[piri_reis]

I had the Hull Integrity disabled for obvious reasons, this mod with it's average values will be nice to have. Either flags or percentages will work for me, though I'm leaning towards percentages.
And I must say pretty creative modding tecnique here h.sie

[tonschk]

Hello there , everybody have a different point of view and taste about the Silent Hunter game , the developers need to add a option in the realism interface to switch ON/OFF the % Hull integrity , in this way everybody will be happy

[Rubini]

Originally Posted by h.sie

Thanks, for your replies, guys, I'll answer tomorrow. Currently I'm testing very interesting things. It's getting better and better. Playing with the .off files of the Fonts, I'm now able to display self-made little color flags instead of numbers or characters.

Only the middle digit of the three hull integrity percentage digits is relevant for us.

If 0 (100%) or 9 (90%) -> a green flag is shown.

If 5 (50%) or 6 (60%) -> a yellow flag is shown. and so on.

So hull integrity can be shown in 5 color steps, the same as the stealth-meter works: green, lightgreen, yellow, orange, red.

In my opinion it's better than the numbers.
Or what do you think?

Excellent! A huge improvement IMO. I think that this flag color approach is the best one, knowing that SSteve suggestion (words) is not possible. Looking foward for this mod mate.

[h.sie]

Thanks, Rubini. I also like the 5-color approch more than the numbers.

To answer your former question regarding compatibility: This mod will unfortunately affect the menu.ini (because some images have to be placed in order to hide unwanted numbers), so that it will conflict with every GUI mod. Instead of making compatibility patches for all these countless GUI-combinations, I will release a do-it-yourself manual so that GUI modders will easily be able to implement these changes if they want. in case of problems I'll help them of course.


@makman: sorry, but the WO range cannot be modded this way.

@LGN: I think the crush depth randomization can be used additionally. My intention was to remove this arcade-like percentage numbers. But the other option (fully remove the hull integrity information) was too hard in my optinion.

[sabretwo]

Personally, I have never been a fan of the percentage thing...seems too unrealistic to me. However, I think a better idea (now that some modders seem to have found new magic in manipulating states and animations) might be to have certain animated damage effects remain constant after reaching a certain damage level. For example, if your uboat hull suffers 60% damage, you have constant drips that wont stop. If you reach 40% level, the spray from busted seals remains constant and can't be stopped through repair.

I don't know if we have achieved that level of capability yet, but it seems like that would be a more realistic indicator that your uboat is in grave danger of critical hull failure than using the percentage on the damage control screen.

Just a thought...

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by tonschk

Hello there , everybody have a different point of view and taste about the Silent Hunter game , the developers need to add a option in the realism interface to switch ON/OFF the % Hull integrity , in this way everybody will be happy

SH3 Commander lets you do just that.

I think the flag idea is the best, also.

[h.sie]

The mod is getting better and better. Now I need to discuss about fine-tuning. Because in the damage-screen there is a 4-color-coding of the damage amount like:

grey or no color = undamaged
yellow = damaged
orange = heavily damaged
red = critical or destroyed

I think it is a good idea to also use the same 4-color-coding for the hull integrity in order to have uniformity.

Now I need to assign the colors to the integrity percentage. My thoughts:

100-90%: grey (or green?) = no or light damage
70-89%: yellow = damage
40-69%: orange = heavy damage
0-39%: red = critical.

The most important one is the red color, because here you very much have to take the hull integrity into consideration when making tactical decisions, e.g. to dive or not to dive, to attack or not. So I chose a wide area from 0 to 39% in order to hopefully simulate the same amount of uncertainty about the exact condition of your hull as I think it might have been in real life.

maybe 0-29% is better?

what are your opinions?

h.sie

[Rubini]

Originally Posted by h.sie

The mod is getting better and better. Now I need to discuss about fine-tuning. Because in the damage-screen there is a 4-color-coding of the damage amount like:

grey or no color = undamaged
yellow = damaged
orange = heavily damaged
red = critical or destroyed

I think it is a good idea to also use the same 4-color-coding for the hull integrity in order to have uniformity.

Now I need to assign the colors to the integrity percentage. My thoughts:

100-90%: grey (or green?) = no or light damage
70-89%: yellow = damage
40-69%: orange = heavy damage
0-39%: red = critical.

The most important one is the red color, because here you very much have to take the hull integrity into consideration when making tactical decisions, e.g. to dive or not to dive, to attack or not. So I chose a wide area from 0 to 39% in order to hopefully simulate the same amount of uncertainty about the exact condition of your hull as I think it might have been in real life.

maybe 0-29% is better?

what are your opinions?

h.sie

Good news mate! It's going better and better. I will like any decison at the end, because all them will be must better than default. But here my suggestion, i guess that this way even at heavy damage you already have to pay attention to your sub

100-90 no or light damaged
89-60 damaged
59-30 heavy damaged
29-0 critical

[h.sie]

Ok, thanks, Rubini,

I think, I'll continue with your values.

h.sie

[Sailor Steve]

I disagree. I like your original values better. My thinking is that when you have 40% left it's time to head for home. Leaving it to 20% is an unnecessary risk to my mind.

[h.sie]

Hi SS,

it's not 20, it's 29, almost 30%

h.sie

[piri_reis]

Originally Posted by Rubini

100-90 no or light damaged
89-60 damaged
59-30 heavy damaged
29-0 critical

These are pretty good numbers I think. If heavily damaged, head home, and even after that if you are still taking damage you'll realize you are on the brink when the light goes red.

[h.sie]

Hello SS, the numbers can easily and individually be changed in the .off files of the used font.

First beta version ready (Yeah, yeah, yeah!!). Will upload it this weekend.

Since it conflicts with menu.ini and the menu.txt files, I have to combine it with a commonly used GUI. This will be GWX-Integrated Orders.

But a DIY-Manual will follow to easily integrate it in all possible GUIs.

h.sie

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by tonschk

Hello there , everybody have a different point of view and taste about the Silent Hunter game , the developers need to add a option in the realism interface to switch ON/OFF the % Hull integrity , in this way everybody will be happy

The developers haven't touched the game in more than four years, and never will again.

SH3 Commander lets you turn it on and off at will.

Originally Posted by h.sie

Hi SS,

it's not 20, it's 29, almost 30%

You're right, I misread it.

[h.sie]

Done. Screenie see below. The transparency appears in the image only, not in game.

Screenie shows Hull Integrity: Orange (= Heavily damaged, 30-59%)

The black mask is necessary to hide the other two digits of the percentage.