[REL] Small Motor Coaster

[vdr1981]

Originally Posted by gap

Good news!

On a partly related note, in the last months (but I should better say in the last few years), I have been elaborating my own ideas on German - especially Ubootwaffe - engagement rules. If you check uboat.net's list of ships attacked/sunk by German U-boats during WWII, you will notice that many neutral or even Axis vessels were attacked not only by mistake, but because they had broken some of these rules. The list comprises ships of the following nations: Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Vichy France, Sweden, Brazil and USA (before Pearl Harbor), but those are just the first nations that come to my mind; the list could be longer.

As a consequence of my research, I think that SH5's nations and national rosters should be revised. For many of the neutral and for few of the German-friendly nations featured in game, we should have 'allied clones'. This is something I did in part when I first setup OH's defsides.cfg, but then I don't think that those cloned nations (in the said file I used the 'Free' prefix to distinguish them) were used the way I had thought them, and some of them weren't even given any ship in their roster.

To help the player distinguishing 'true' neutral/friendly vessels from the one belonging to the corresponding 'Free' nations (that will fly the same flag), the latter should be given one or more of the following features:

• not bringing any national identification mark (merchant ensign and/or neutrality markings);
• being armed;
• sailing at night without lights;
• sailing within an Allied convoy and/or being escorted by Allied escorts;
• being obviously bound for a British port or for British waters.

In case of doubt, the player could surface his boat, approach the suspect vessel, and judge her stance from her reaction (just like real U-boat captains did, especially at the beginning of the conflict). Zigzagging, repentine changes of speed/course, attempts to ram the surface boat or SOS messages would give away her hostile nature. Another help to the player might come from a set of campaign messages, warning him on any switch of sides by one of the featured nations, and giving him instructions and clues on the possible presence of "fake friends" and blockade runners within a certain area and/or from a certain date.

Most of the points I have listed above will require some changes in the traffic layers. If you are willing to bring them, I am ready to expand further my idea and to provide you with all the information and support you will need. I realize that the changes I am proposing involve a laborious work, but together with the increasing target variety, I think they have the potential of bringing the realism of SH5 to the next level

Yes , I perfectly understand what you mean and I had similar toughs my self as well, but when I think of it and how much work these changes would actually require, I must I admit I tend to get scared a bit.


I have plans to ease up a bit neutral traffic in "legitimate" hostile waters for first two campaign chapters (problem of neutral ships in hostile waters isn't so pronounced in later war years) and I'll certainly reach out to you when I start to work on these stuff...


On a bright side, my introduction of illuminated vessels in TWoS took away large part of players confusion regarding targets selection. We now even have an add-on which will make certain nation to use only illuminated vessels until it joins to one of the confronted coalitions...

[kapuhy]

Originally Posted by gap

@kapuhy
Sorry for kidnapping your thread

No problem, it was an interesting read anyway Although for the sake of clarity, if you would like to discuss these ideas further (and I encourage you to do so, I'd love some realistic confusion for players as to who's neutral and who's not) opening a dedicated thread for them seems like a good idea.

As for the coaster, I made some improvements to zones and to the model itself. I want to add some alternative color schemes as well, though it's a bit complicated due to LOD bug - basically I have to come up with alternative textures that would not be different enough for the difference to show up in LOD model. When I'm done with this, I'll post an update for the ship.

In the meantime, I'm finishing this little fella:



EDIT: Btw, is there a way to make crew member disappear after specific part of the ship is destroyed? I wanted to have destructible wheelhouse on this one, but so far the effect is that wheelhouse explodes and slides into ocean leaving captain standing in the open like Wile E. Coyote...

[gap]

Originally Posted by kapuhy

No problem, it was an interesting read anyway Although for the sake of clarity, if you would like to discuss these ideas further (and I encourage you to do so, I'd love some realistic confusion for players as to who's neutral and who's not) opening a dedicated thread for them seems like a good idea.

Thank you for your understanding. Starting a dedicated thread might be a good idea, but for the moment I moved my post of yesterday in the TWoS thread were it belongs better than here.

Originally Posted by kapuhy

As for the coaster, I made some improvements to zones and to the model itself. I want to add some alternative color schemes as well, though it's a bit complicated due to LOD bug - basically I have to come up with alternative textures that would not be different enough for the difference to show up in LOD model. When I'm done with this, I'll post an update for the ship.

I am glad to hear that you are still improving your unit. As for the LOD texture issue I am pretty sure I got it sorted out in the past. It has been quite a while since then. I will investigate again and I will let you know in case I find anything interesting

Originally Posted by kapuhy

In the meantime, I'm finishing this little fella:

Originally Posted by kapuhy

EDIT: Btw, is there a way to make crew member disappear after specific part of the ship is destroyed? I wanted to have destructible wheelhouse on this one, but so far the effect is that wheelhouse explodes and slides into ocean leaving captain standing in the open like Wile E. Coyote...

Sure. You must set the bone that the crew member is linked to as a child of the wheelhouse bone. When the wheelhouse will be destroyed, the crew member will be as well. This "trick" applies not only to crew, equipment and any external object attached to the ship, but also to model parts stored in the same GR2 file as the main unit

[kapuhy]

Originally Posted by gap

As for the LOD texture issue I am pretty sure I got it sorted out in the past. It has been quite a while since then. I will investigate again and I will let you know in case I find anything interesting

That would be great, if I get past LOD issue I can easily add some variety:

https://imgur.com/a/8P1lPoI

Originally Posted by gap

Sure. You must set the bone that the crew member is linked to as a child of the wheelhouse bone. When the wheelhouse will be destroyed, the crew member will be as well. This "trick" applies not only to crew, equipment and any external object attached to the ship, but also to model parts stored in the same GR2 file as the main unit

Thanks Now not only the poor captain disappears when his wheelhouse is blown up, but other crewmen - standing next to a lifeboat - also hide if player is ruthless enough to shell lifeboat they were preparing to launch.

[gap]

Originally Posted by kapuhy

That would be great, if I get past LOD issue I can easily add some variety:

Roger that, I need to run some tests in game. Looking into it right now

Originally Posted by kapuhy

https://imgur.com/a/8P1lPoI

Wow, these colorful skins will make a nice contrast with the dull grey ships that we are used to in stock game, though I think they will be more appropriate for early war and neutral countries.

On an unrelated note: may I ask whether the flags I see in your screenshots are from TWoS or your own work?

Originally Posted by kapuhy

Thanks Now not only the poor captain disappears when his wheelhouse is blown up, but other crewmen - standing next to a lifeboat - also hide if player is ruthless enough to shell lifeboat they were preparing to launch.

I suppose this is the kind of ruthlessness they call "being more aggressive" lol

[kapuhy]

Originally Posted by gap

On an unrelated note: may I ask whether the flags I see in your screenshots are from TWoS or your own work?

These are TWoS 2.2.17 flags, I didn't modify them in any way.

[gap]

Originally Posted by kapuhy

These are TWoS 2.2.17 flags, I didn't modify them in any way.

Okay, thanks kapuhy

I have ran a couple of tests, and indeed I see the problem. I am a bit sceptic that this can be fixed without having access to game's code, but there are a couple of workarounds that I want to try before giving up.

I will let you know. Probably tomorrow

[kapuhy]

Originally Posted by gap

Sure. You must set the bone that the crew member is linked to as a child of the wheelhouse bone. When the wheelhouse will be destroyed, the crew member will be as well. This "trick" applies not only to crew, equipment and any external object attached to the ship, but also to model parts stored in the same GR2 file as the main unit

Would you also happen to know a way to make character disappear without any bones being destroyed, but in response to damage zone being triggered? Ships I'm working on have parts player should be able to set on fire (like wooden superstructure), and in some cases I wanted to place a sailor on such parts. What happens though, is when fire starts, sailors are still standing in the middle of raging flames like protesting buddhist monks.

[gap]

Originally Posted by kapuhy

Would you also happen to know a way to make character disappear without any bones being destroyed, but in response to damage zone being triggered? Ships I'm working on have parts player should be able to set on fire (like wooden superstructure), and in some cases I wanted to place a sailor on such parts. What happens though, is when fire starts, sailors are still standing in the middle of raging flames like protesting buddhist monks.

Well, I supposed you can assign a damage box to the character and make it destroyable

If you make the box big and its HP low enough, chances are that the sailor will disappear before the compartment he is placed in will be set on fire.

[kapuhy]

Updated the file. Following fixes added:

- Fixed errors in AO map that caused black spots to appear on portholes, railings and other parts
- Crew near lifeboat will now disappear if lifeboat explodes
- Applied smooth shading to rounded surfaces (hull, vents, lifebuoy), they don't look so blocky anymore
- Added 3 alternative textures:
T02 - black bottom, rusted deck, white wheelhouse, black/red funnel
T03 - blue hull, green deck, white wheelhouse, blue/white funnel
T04 - blue hull, grey deck, brown wheelhouse, black/red funnel
- Reduced maximum speed to 8.5 knots (which is max speed of real ship this was modeled after)
- Adjusted gravity center
- Damage model reworked: ship will now sink after 5-6 deck gun shots to the waterline (or many more if you just aim at hull). It can still be sunk by flak, but you need careful aiming and a lot of rounds.

[vdr1981]

Originally Posted by kapuhy

Updated the file. Following fixes added:

- Fixed errors in AO map that caused black spots to appear on portholes, railings and other parts
- Crew near lifeboat will now disappear if lifeboat explodes
- Applied smooth shading to rounded surfaces (hull, vents, lifebuoy), they don't look so blocky anymore
- Added 3 alternative textures:
T02 - black bottom, rusted deck, white wheelhouse, black/red funnel
T03 - blue hull, green deck, white wheelhouse, blue/white funnel
T04 - blue hull, grey deck, brown wheelhouse, black/red funnel
- Reduced maximum speed to 8.5 knots (which is max speed of real ship this was modeled after)
- Adjusted gravity center
- Damage model reworked: ship will now sink after 5-6 deck gun shots to the waterline (or many more if you just aim at hull). It can still be sunk by flak, but you need careful aiming and a lot of rounds.

Great work Kapuhy, thank you!

I had to release the update for TWoS since I won't have time for modding for at least next 2-3 weeks but I'll implement your tweaks as soon as I get back...
Keep up the good work mate!

[Jeff-Groves]

Originally Posted by gap

Well, I supposed you can assign a damage box to the character and make it destroyable

If you make the box big and its HP low enough, chances are that the sailor will disappear before the compartment he is placed in will be set on fire.

You could create a new zone in the zones.cfg to assign to characters.
Then create a setting in particles.dat for an action.
Say you want him to fly away from the explosion.

[gap]

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

You could create a new zone in the zones.cfg to assign to characters.
Then create a setting in particles.dat for an action.
Say you want him to fly away from the explosion.

[vdr1981]

Originally Posted by kapuhy

In the meantime, I'm finishing this little fella:



.

Amassing kapuhy!