Please Help with correcting river class

[Mush Martin]

First thanks to serge and neon for their answers to my initial enquiries

I have noticed that sometime in the research porition of the process somebody
got a river class destroyer mixed in with the river class frigate data.

now recognizing the difference may not matter to most
but a river class frigate looks essentially like a black swan
but with the following differences

4" d/p in A turret replaced by hedgehog
4" d'p in C turret replaced by 3" single
aft radar stand moved between main mast and bridge
aft deckhouse reversed so bandstands are aft
remove 4 K guns
Reduce AA suite
now I am still learning to mod and havent yet changed a ship other than to put
a type VII Conning tower on a type IX and swap out some guns, but I would like to correct the rivers can anybody leave me a list of what I need to change when I swapped cfg files for Black Swan and River class the boat changed but the stats in museum etc were all Black swan also I need to know How to change out the guns or remove them assumably in the roster files. as for moving radar and reversing deckhouse I havent any idea where to begin. finally If I do fix it I would like to pack it up and make it available. As the river may be the most underated ship of the Atlantic Campaign.

any help or guidance would be appreciated
with thanks Mush.

[bigboywooly]

Hi Martin
Welcome to Subsim

What is it you are trying to do ?
Clone the Black Swan to create the River class Frigate
Or alter the River class DE to become the Frigate ?

[Mush Martin]

I think that given my limited experience and the high similarity between the real river class and the black swans it would be easier I think to clone the swan to river rather than remodel the game version of the river class DE the only thing missing would be the small cubed DF deck house between the B turret and the bridge with the above listed changes with thanks for taking and interest their BBW

M.M.

[bigboywooly]

No problem MM
Well you can make a copy of the Black Swan folder
Rename all the internal files to River - including in the cfg file
Then you can clone using Pack3d - http://files.filefront.com/P3dAllVer.../fileinfo.html

You can then make the arnament changes through the .eqp file
Altering the text ( museum ) docs to match

( Dont forget to make a copy of the cfg file in the British roster folder -renaming that as you did the others )

The new dat file then really needs hexediting to rename the .tga (skin )file inside to match the new naming convention
Then you can give it different skin to the Black Swan

Hope that helps a bit

[Mush Martin]

this posting thing works great thats exactly what I needed thanks I will take a crack at it a little later if you would be so kind to check back here for any difficulties over the next couple of day's Id appreciate it

thanks again M.M.:p

[bigboywooly]

Am always around
Thats the idea of a forum

Keep us informed how you get on

[Mush Martin]

OK so files are renamed as such and I am now looking at the Eqp file for the changes I need to make Now I Know to set the A Turret to null to remove it however that is the location I need for the Hhog. when I try to put the hedgehog In, should I Just try to use the A01 zone Or do I need to give it a W0? designation if so what number on evarts its W011 is there a zone in the bows for asw weaps? on original game river DE it is W07 and naturally there isnt an Hhog already on BS but one of Null Zones may be it??????? Would using the Game RiverDE eqp file work on the BS model??????

{Key -RiverDE=original game model Destroyer escort
- RiverFF=Project model Frigate
- BSFF=original game model Frigate}

also I have p3d downloaded however its not instinctive to me and I dont entirely understand what I need to do with it Is it to compress for file sharing after Im done?

Further, I know nothing of hexediting and must learn from scratch! will the model work just fine with the BS skin?

M.M.

(ps M.M. was born Burnley Lancashire 1963 , Living in Canada since childhood, Wifes Late Grandfather Captained two flower class and two River Class during WW2, MM is an avid student of pre atomic submersible warfare and asw, and subsims since 8bit nintendo was leading edge)

[Mush Martin]

I think I will leave the reskin as a seperate project for me, however I do want to learn how and I wonder if there is a way to put hull numbers on using a method like the side emblems on the sub? does this already exist or is it even possible?
M.M.

[bigboywooly]

Ok
The DE River eqp wont be any good as the zones will be in a different place
You can use the A01 zone to try the hedgehog

Pack3d
For cloning purposes best to use version 3 I think
Open pack3d - click on get dat
Point towards your new River frigate dat and open
Then click clone

The model should work with the BS skin for now


When you have cloned you can place into the game and check the ship out in the museum

No the hull numbers are different to subs and will have to be painted as part of the skin
Now the ship uses the skin reversed on one side of the ship so any number would have to be reversable
IE 1001 - 8008 - 1881 - 88 etc

[Mush Martin]

best I could do is maybe HMCS Hallowell but K would be backwards on one side
K-666 would show 999-k more or less then. nonetheless thanks for the help. be back soon. M.M. Hey I got promoted cool. some day Ill be a big English Kaleun just like you.

[Mush Martin]

when it comes to trying to relocate the radar I would assume I need to get into the zones file and the text editor isnt going to cut it do you know what I need to edit zonefiles. assuming we conquer that problem do you think it would be as simple as reversing the co-ordinates on the deck house bandstand reversal?? M.M.

[bigboywooly]

To relocate the eqp zones will require either some hexediting or if you use the latest version Pack3d you can move the coordinates of an individual item
Trial and error that way
You will have to keep reloading the museum to check out the changes

If you can send me a pic of what you want and your new dat I will take a look
My email is in profile

[Wulfmann]

MM, good idea. This was one of the first big, oops, that ain’t right from out of the box. And, using the Black Swan sloops as a model should be fine and Big is always a big help on these matters.
However, the present River, wrong as it is named, is still a very important ship as it is modeled. It is, in fact worn out DDs from A-H classes that were converted as convoy escorts. As much as what you are doing is great I would hope someone would make a clone, as it is now, and make a DE “A” class (Or “B” or what ever) without any modding required, model wise.
That would add another DE type which would make for more variation in convoy escorts that were the actual escorts. Fleet DDs, as nice as the may look, were not used in this role.
If I have a major disappointment in GWX it is while adding many nice new ships, they did not expand the DE types (making all three Hunt class DE clones would also have been nice, (I know Big, the are EDs:rotfl: ).
When generic classes are used in the RND.mis file it would have been a good idea to have a few to vary.
Still, you are spot on in correcting the River and giving it a proper model.

Wulfmann

[bigboywooly]

Yes it may have been nice to add some more DE
And - not to split hairs - The A - H class are DD anyway
Now we did manage to add some more Frigates :rotfl:
Who knows in time what may be added
Trouble is there are a lot of DD in the game already so a lot of ppl are modelling merchants and missing cruisers
Now with GWX at least you get 1 US cruiser
Gerome is also modelling the Norfolk heavy cruiser

I believe the US Rudderow DE is a beta release in the Ge forums
Its DD\DE\frigates\Corvettes etc from Poland\Netherlands\Russia etc which are in short supply

So lets see how MM gets on
We may have another new addition

[Mush Martin]

I was noticing in my references last night that a Hunt II is a good clone for an Italian Spica class with very little modification. You remember the Italians right. M.M.