Customizing crew clothing

[frau kaleun]

In real life there was little or no enforcement of uniform code on u-boats, most guys would not have been wearing their full naval uniform (or any part of their "good" uniform at all) except for when they were standing in formation on deck or bridge whilst leaving and returning to base.

When the uniform isn't being worn, there really is nothing appropriate on which to hang or pin any bling. You don't put your Ritterkreuz around your neck when you're wearing a flannel shirt that hasn't been washed in a week and the sweater your grammy knitted for you last Christmas.

So all in all, I would say that having medals on the crew while on patrol is not realistic if you are using a mod that puts them in anything other than full uniform for the duration.

[Paul Riley]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

In real life there was little or no enforcement of uniform code on u-boats, most guys would not have been wearing their full naval uniform (or any part of their "good" uniform at all) except for when they were standing in formation on deck or bridge whilst leaving and returning to base.

When the uniform isn't being worn, there really is nothing appropriate on which to hang or pin any bling. You don't put your Ritterkreuz around your neck when you're wearing a flannel shirt that hasn't been washed in a week and the sweater your grammy knitted for you last Christmas.

So all in all, I would say that having medals on the crew while on patrol is not realistic if you are using a mod that puts them in anything other than full uniform for the duration.

How about the Iron Eagle badge over the right breast as implemented in the standard GWX uniforms? some of the uniform mods even remove that.I actually like that badge to be honest.

Thanks

[frau kaleun]

I don't know, I haven't used the stock vanilla or GWX uniforms in so long I can't remember what they looked like.

In the mod I use, the leathers worn by the watch officers and crew have the eagle emblem on them. They are naval issue items and therefore the insignia seems appropriate. However it would not be realistic to have medals pinned to those leather jackets, so I use the "no medals" option.

The rest of the crew is in non-uniform work clothes therefore they wear neither medals nor insignia. On anything that is not government issue clothing, the emblems/insignia would not be realistic IMO.

[Paul Riley]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

I don't know, I haven't used the stock vanilla or GWX uniforms in so long I can't remember what they looked like.

In the mod I use, the leathers worn by the watch officers and crew have the eagle emblem on them. They are naval issue items and therefore the insignia seems appropriate. However it would not be realistic to have medals pinned to those leather jackets, so I use the "no medals" option.

The rest of the crew is in non-uniform work clothes therefore they wear neither medals nor insignia. On anything that is not government issue clothing, the emblems/insignia would not be realistic IMO.

Thanks for your opinions on this.

I am torn between keeping it realistic ie,going with the no emblems & casual look,and tailoring the crew to my own personal style ie,I wouldnt mind German greatcoats with a German helmet? LOL) for the watch,blue overalls for the seamen below deck,and not entirely sure for the other officers,maybe Das Boot influenced,or greatcoats and German helmet! LOL

[frau kaleun]

By all means the game should look how you want it to look, given the limitations involved. I'm pretty sure there have been requests before for the greatcoats you have pictured or something similar but so far I haven't seen any mods that use them. That may be because nobody who knows how has felt the urge to do it yet, or it may be because it's not possible to create a .tga that will create that look in-game, I just don't know. Given the way the items that are rendered as clothing and accessories are laid out on the existing .tga files, it might involve far more than just changing the .tga files themselves - it might require changes to the 3D modeling of the figures as well. Again I don't really know.

Personally I can't see anyone working on a u-boat wearing a coat that long inside the boat as it seems like it would just get in the way or constantly be catching on stuff in the cramped environment. On watch I'm not sure, but I don't know how practical they would've been when getting down the ladder as quickly as possible (which often meant sliding down rather than climbing) was often a matter of life and death. Of course the s'westers were probably pretty cumbersome in that regard so...

Edit: the helmets IMO would not be realistic at all inside the boat, there's no reason for them. AFAIK the only time they would be worn above decks is when the guns are manned in a combat situation (i.e. engaging a target). Not sure about vanilla or unmodded GWX but I'm pretty sure in my game the guys on the guns do get helmets when they are doing their thing.

[Paul Riley]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

By all means the game should look how you want it to look, given the limitations involved. I'm pretty sure there have been requests before for the greatcoats you have pictured or something similar but so far I haven't seen any mods that use them. That may be because nobody who knows how has felt the urge to do it yet, or it may be because it's not possible to create a .tga that will create that look in-game, I just don't know. Given the way the items that are rendered as clothing and accessories are laid out on the existing .tga files, it might involve far more than just changing the .tga files themselves - it might require changes to the 3D modeling of the figures as well. Again I don't really know.

Personally I can't see anyone working on a u-boat wearing a coat that long inside the boat as it seems like it would just get in the way or constantly be catching on stuff in the cramped environment. On watch I'm not sure, but I don't know how practical they would've been when getting down the ladder as quickly as possible (which often meant sliding down rather than climbing) was often a matter of life and death. Of course the s'westers were probably pretty cumbersome in that regard so...

Edit: the helmets IMO would not be realistic at all inside the boat, there's no reason for them. AFAIK the only time they would be worn above decks is when the guns are manned in a combat situation (i.e. engaging a target). Not sure about vanilla or unmodded GWX but I'm pretty sure in my game the guys on the guns do get helmets when they are doing their thing.

I was joking about the helmets inside the UBoat,you dont honestly think...I...you...you did?!
The German helmets DID look bloody good though,much better than the soup bowl the allies wore,in fact practically everything (not all) the Germans did/wore was better than the allies.

[Paul Riley]

I really hate having to ask this,but I really must get my crew clothing sorted before my next patrol,ideally sometime today.Could someone do me a BIG favour?.As I already own some clothing mods,such as evans clothing,raptors clothing,even the elite black uniform (which I have yet to see for myself) would it be possible someone could draw me a quick list up of all the clothing mods that you know?,then I could draw my own conclusions up and pick accordingly.There is just so many mods out there!
Even some of the really old stuff could be to my liking,it doesnt neccessarily have to be recently created.

Also could someone kindly explain to me the exact positions for each of the officers and seamen? example:

OFFICERS (not sure if this is how it works)

watch officer - OFF 1
chief - OFF 2
nav officer - OFF 3
weps - OFF 4

SEAMEN

watch crew - POS 1-4? (again,not sure if this is how it works)
sonar man - POS 5
radio man - POS 6
control room - POS 7-9

,then I could assign individual clothing to individual crew members,IF this can be done?.This is the one thing that has been troubling me for a few days actually,i'm kind of a perfectionist and wont be settled until i'm happy with my own configuration

Lastly,as some of the clothing mods remove medals is it possible to retain the original medal files and re-apply them over the mod that removed them? would this cause a conflict at all?

This would be MASSIVELY appreciated my friends!

[Paul Riley]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

In the mod I use, the leathers worn by the watch officers and crew have the eagle emblem on them.

So,its possible to give the same leather jackets from say raptor's leather mod to the officers?,I think I would prefer that actually,and say simple engineering style overalls for the guys below.

I once managed (as an experiment) to give identical clothing to some guys simply by copying the piece of clothing I was interested in,pasting it the number of times I wanted it and renaming it to whatever the recipient's file name was and overwriting,and it worked ok.

Many thanks

[Paul Riley]

I happened to stumble (I actually found it after doing a Google search for 'SH3 clothing mods') upon this earlier,looks quite an old mod but one or two items have caught my eye already.I quite like the navy blue jumper in image 1.The mod is called:

Carotio_SH3_ClothesHatsFacesSkilledCrew

Do any of you use it?,and do you have any comments about this particular mod?

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Paul Riley

I once managed (as an experiment) to give identical clothing to some guys simply by copying the piece of clothing I was interested in,pasting it the number of times I wanted it and renaming it to whatever the recipient's file name was and overwriting,and it worked ok.

I would assume that would always be the case, if you find a .tga file that you like for crew clothing you could just copy and rename it and use it for whichever crewmen you wanted. I have played around with the .tga files like that to switch some off the officers' clothes around.

[Paul Riley]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

I would assume that would always be the case, if you find a .tga file that you like for crew clothing you could just copy and rename it and use it for whichever crewmen you wanted. I have played around with the .tga files like that to switch some off the officers' clothes around.

And it shouldnt really matter whether the file was designated OFF or POS,so long as the file name is renamed exactly how it was in the original OFF or POS folders?
This should hopefully close my thread on this subject,thanks for the help

By the way,you recieved much bacon lately?

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Paul Riley

And it shouldnt really matter whether the file was designated OFF or POS,so long as the file name is renamed exactly how it was in the original OFF or POS folders?

That I don't know, but I would suspect that it does not matter in terms of whether the file will work... I'm guessing the clothes would "fit" okay however those .tga files contain not only the clothes but also some accessories which might only be appropriate for an officer but not an enlisted man or vice versa. But you could probably judge that just by looking at the .tga file itself. I don't know what different clothing mods have done with those files in terms of completely outfitting the intended crewman.

[Paul Riley]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

That I don't know, but I would suspect that it does not matter in terms of whether the file will work... I'm guessing the clothes would "fit" okay however those .tga files contain not only the clothes but also some accessories which might only be appropriate for an officer but not an enlisted man or vice versa. But you could probably judge that just by looking at the .tga file itself. I don't know what different clothing mods have done with those files in terms of completely outfitting the intended crewman.

Ok,thanks

[Paul Riley]

I managed to get a nice mix going here with my crew clothing.I am using a mix of:

Evan82's Uniforms II
I made multiple copies of 03_OFF_Body01_D and renamed them to overwrite the files in the POS folder. This allows all the seamen to be dressed in blue one piece overalls,which is the 'look' I was after.

Raptor's all grey leathers
Instead of having the watch wear the grey leathers I made multiple copies of the relevant file and dropped them into the OFF folder instead,and they work great!

Now,I would also like to recover the eagle emblem usually found over the right breast for the seamen,is this possible? ,if so,does anyone have the emblem file and where should it be placed?

[Sailor Steve]

Looks like I came late to this discussion, but I'll add my two cents anyway.

First, no one ever, ever, EVER wears any kind of medal in a potential combat situation, and no sailor or officer wears his combat ribbons on the working uniform while at sea.

Originally Posted by Paul Riley

Also could someone kindly explain to me the exact positions for each of the officers and seamen? example:

OFFICERS (not sure if this is how it works)

watch officer - OFF 1
chief - OFF 2
nav officer - OFF 3
weps - OFF 4

The whole "Watch Officer, Chief, Nav Officer, Weapons Officer" thing is one of the weirdest mistakes the developers made in the game. While there was an LI, or Chief Engineer, the other titles are game titles and have nothing to do with real life. In the game they are positions, not titles, and any officer can be placed in any slot, so OFF 1 is just a reference to one face, not the job he does. They could have created a specific 1WO, 2WO etc, and that's exactly what they did for SH5.

I personally move my guys around in a regular rotation, and I do consider each man to be a specific person. But then I also use the Das Boot Faces mod, so each of my Officers looks like one of the actors from the movie. And yes, I do use specific outfits for each one. My LI wears the black pants and black vest, my Obersteuermann wears Werner's sweater, and my 1WO wears a standard uniform. That said, I don't remember which one is OFF1 etc, and it doesn't really matter. I apply the uniforms first and then decide who is who and award skill accordingly.

As for the eagle, that was sewn onto uniform shirts when they were made, and should only appear on a regulation shirt, never on personal clothes.