Modders Requests to Make Modding SH5 Easier

[THE_MASK]

As i said in the wishes thread , the ability to customise the crew faces and modders ability to add crew and maybe new animations will greatly add to the games ambiance .

[THE_MASK]

The ability to make our own subs/ships/boats like in the way people make trains for the auran trains simulator games would be awesome . Freeware and 3rd party addons of ships and subs would dramatically increase the games appeal . Here is a trainz 3rd party website http://www.trainzone.co.nz/download.htm

[Hitman]

Attention! I am now collecting all suggestions in the firts post, which I'm editing on the fly.

[haegemon]

I missed one... about the main guns in a battleship, with the backfire there is the blast wave on the water in front the guns. Also like the splash when a projectile impacts the water there was no effect in previous version when it hits the ground.



About the arrayed targetting system in it's AI version, would be great to have the way to array objects to others. I mean, we now can decide which sensors uses every object, but every object sees by itself, I would like a far weapon could pick a target using the sensors from another object closer to the target. The purpouse would be to improve coastal defenses adding realism simulating radio transmitions between an observation bunker and the batteries.


So...

1. manually, multiple weapon-objects against the target player picks with the cursor.
2. AI, objects adquire targets from another object sensors.

[haegemon]

Someone told in another thread, that of editing narrow channels and rivers was imposible cos the smallest pixel was still to big. Another fix.

- Something to edit narrow channels and rivers.

[karamazovnew]

Great idea Hitman . Here's my contribution:
- Collision Boxes for cameras as we might add objects to the interior.
- Ability to overlap cameras (I miss the Uzo view in SH2).
- Full control over the sound volume and effects (at least the ability to make them act as "dials" with an exponential factor linked to speed or whatever).
- Rotation Parenting between dials, or, better, allow us to make new dials and scripts for them (such as a dial for Course-2xAOB+Range, or whatever).
- Periscope rotation dials , not the one on the TDC
- no more hardcoded limitation for which cameras/dials/commands work in certain pages (might be fixed already).
- a show/hide controller, dragable/fixed controllers for interface objects (again, might be fixed already).
- Settable mouse sensitivity on all cameras for all axes (in case we mess with zoom levels, the sensitivity is either too high or too low).
-cameras should have controllers with weights (proportions) and customisable pivots (world, certain object etc.). These weights should be dynamic, compatible with triggers.
-Allow setting the rotation axis for 3d objects. I'm tired of exporting objects into Gmax to change their pivot.
-Dials (or more precisely, knobs and needles) should accept "animations" files such as arrays of images.
-Conditions for item loading (if sub is Type2, load something, if clock between 16:00, 05:00, unload something)

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by haegemon

I missed one... about the main guns in a battleship, with the backfire there is the blast wave on the water in front the guns.

And not just battleships. When my destroyer would fire her 5" guns I noticed the same effect; much less of course, but still there. At the time I called it "scudding".

[Anvart]

Originally Posted by Hitman

8.-...
(Racerboy): The lighthouse's rotating 'light' needs to be fixed so that it doesn't shine through it's own lighthouse (SH3 not sure about SH4)

Yes, but ...
I would tell... To make other generators of "light" particles or to change properties of objects material ...

9.- (Racerboy): When an object is created that depends on some player guidance (TDC for example for the torpedo), instead of it always spawning north when it doesn't have the information it needs, let it spawn in the direction the controlling object is facing. For instance: I create a torpedo rack on a ship (which is really a gun with the shell's explosion effect spawning a torpedo or the gun's firing effect spawning a torpedo) and when the torpedo rack locks onto a target and it 'fires' the torpedo will spawn in the direction the weapon is facing instead of north (000). This is what has been holding back AI torps from using real torpedoes when I have tried.

Yes, but ...
I would tell... to make (WaterInteraction controller as example) ... at generation of new object, if WorldLink = true its direction (in World) coincided with a direction written down in parametres of new object, if WorldLink = false the direction of new object coincide with a direction of the replaced object...

12.- (Racerboy):
Let each crewmember be able to be customizable. If I want one to have a jacket and another not I should be able to do this (easily). Don't tie their jacket to the base 3D model of the crewmember or to it's animations. The jacket should be a seperate object that is able to be 'worn' by the crewmember. Granted this poses some addition animations just for the jacket (or other objects). Let this apply to anything that can be added to a crewmember's person.

Yes, and ...
I would tell... to have possibility easy to create new (full-function) Crew slots (additional members of crew) with existing StateMachine Classes and with new StateMachine Classes...
...
I would like to have the universal (none conflicted) controller for movement and rotation of any object (using events, commands and uboat/damage states)...
...
I would like to have rotation of sensors object (Revolving in SensorData controller) only when sensor is active ...
...
I would like to have possibility to do any 3D-objects disappeared/appeared (not correct visible/invisible) depending on the submarine states (surfaced/submerged and others) ... in SH4 we have IsVisible = 0/1 for crew death in StateMachine system ...
as example disappeared/appeared some instruments on Watch Deck depending on the submerged/surfaced submarine (as watch crew)...
...
To improve controllers WaterReflection and VisibleUnderWater (artefacts) ...
...
To increase UBoat states (surfaced/submerged) and damage states in StateMachine system ...
...
and so on ...
In other words to expand possibilities of game modding ... my english does not allow me to describe all ...

[haegemon]

(Racerboy):
Let each crewmember be able to be customizable. If I want one to have a jacket and another not I should be able to do this (easily). Don't tie their jacket to the base 3D model of the crewmember or to it's animations. The jacket should be a seperate object that is able to be 'worn' by the crewmember. Granted this poses some addition animations just for the jacket (or other objects). Let this apply to anything that can be added to a crewmember's person.

(Anvart): I would like to have possibility to do objects visible/invisible depending on the submarine states (surfaced/submerged) ...

The same applied to every object type. If they give us a standar object controller with all the parameters to make it act as we want, then we'll have "the means" to do everything.

[skwasjer]

You can already hide objects depending on sub state...

I just wish for true scriptable behaviors, like what they seem to have done for the 2D UI. But this will not happen I think

Q3 had QVM's which worked a charm... it allowed you to take full control over the device context, game state and more, and you could really go beyond what most games allow us to do and that was 7 years ago. I still wonder why not many developrs have not picked that concept up.

[kapitan_zur_see]

To have a generic 3D invisible trigger_event box and the ability to tie it to any event/animation/sounds/FX we'd like to design. For example to design additional waves splash + additional splash sounds. etc.

Less restrictions in terms of tweaking the 3d engine especially underwater. I don't know what the preview screenshots we saw are supposed to reflect so much final game engine, but there's lots we can do! Not just fog in the distance and some not-so-blended blue gradient. And also ability to integrate "easily" some more shaders because it's what could make a real difference.
Depth of field effect also, it's quite standard these days

In other words, have the possibility to tweak and add atmospheric effects underwater like the photoshoped screenshots of SH4 once were:

This is what would be awesome and really atmospheric:


This is far too simplistic:



Also, no more "shared" textured on 3d model. It's a bit painfull to modify the hull and to suprisingly discover the UZO modified also in the process! or some mirroring everywhere of parts of the texture. It makes designing very high-res textures for those whose PC can handle them virtually impossible.

In the same fashion, no UV count restriction on 3D model. be able to add as much UV maps as we want to have lots of different textures on 3D model. And no texture size restriction also

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by kapitan_zur_see

In the same fashion, no UV count restriction on 3D model. be able to add as much UV maps as we want to have lots of different textures on 3D model.

That's already possible. If you know the file structure then you know that you can add more quite easily. Most people think they are limited to the number of maps that are in the associated file...not so. Now I don't know how many the game will support but you can definitely add more.

[maerean_m]

Originally Posted by kapitan_zur_see

Also, no more "shared" textured on 3d model. It's a bit painfull to modify the hull and to suprisingly discover the UZO modified also in the process! or some mirroring everywhere of parts of the texture. It makes designing very high-res textures for those whose PC can handle them virtually impossible.

That would be very nice.
But then a lot of players will say they don't have the money to buy that video card that can support all those things.
And the [whole] game must fit inside those 256 mb video cards.

[Hitman]

1. Already did that. It was getting too big and very difficult for many people to work on the menus at the same time.

Now how about that for a dedicated and passionate Dev Team? They are even able to read our minds before we ask

2. They are not hard-coded and never were. The reticulum is a menu item like any other and the texture is a DDS file.

Hummmm in SH3 I have done about anything I could think of and yet it was impossible for me to find the image where the reticle was held

In SH4 US fleet boats the reticle certainly was in the dds file, but in the german subs I couldn't find it anywhere

[irish1958]

As a physician, I am interested in injuries, illnesses and disabilities. In SH3 the medic was introduced, but ineffective. I don't have access to German medical studies re the U-boats, but there is an extensive body of work concerning the American boats. On each patrol there were illnesses, injuries and even deaths from accidents and enemy action, which restricted the effectiveness of the boat.
I am working on a mod for SH3 which incorporates (known) scenarios from the medical literature and gives the medic a real importance and a vital function.
I would like to see this type of realism incorporated in SH5.