[REL] Real Fleet Boat

[tombargo]

What I meant with "added value" is that the Deck Gun usually comes into play when the actual tense and interesting gameplay is over, i.e. after crippling the prey. I don't use it for arcade style gun battles anyway, so the slower reload times just mean I have to do the sinking in compression mode. Hence no added value (for me, of course).

[E.Hartmann]

As long as enemy gun reload times are lessend as well its all good. Those crippled merchants are tough!

[clayton]

Just downloaded it and looking forward to firing it up! Thank you

[MikeJW]

Only thing I dislike is that it removes the option of setting starting renown so at career start you have 0 renown and sorry, I aint going into the S. China Sea with no air radar with the way planes are in this game.

[CaptainKobuk]

What's great is the female models from Victoria's Secret in bikinis that go with this MOD. If you can't get laid with this MOD it's just too bad.

[XanderF]

Oh, heck, I'll ask while in the thread.

This looks like a GREAT start so far, I'm all for "all in one" mods, as getting the game finished-by-the-user-community seems basically required any more.

Anyway, other mods I'm running are:
- 'GreenLamps' (the selected action icons on your taskbar turn green instead of dark yellow)
- Various radio mods (Honolulu, CBS News mod, etc)
- "realistic battery life"
- "ultimate sound pack"
- Dark tga for the recognition manual (so you don't lose your night vision bringing it up at night)

...are any of these likely to be included in future releases? (I seem to recall the issue around the sound mods was - "would be nice, too big")

[Beery]

Originally Posted by tombargo

Great Mod altogether... but this one really sucks, IMHO. I only use Deck gun to kill off crippled ships left behind by convoy or single merchants. Now this takes forever, with no added value.

Congrats on voicing the first of many (I'm sure) complaints about the deck gun. I'm not being sarcastic - I'm happy to see the first criticism. If I don't get some criticism it means I'm being too soft - caving in to public opinion (or worse - worrying too much about it). The mods I make are meant to push the envelope of realism - getting things real even if that means making things a bit more difficult.

Deck guns should be annoying. They weren't much good on anything but small targets and they were dangerous to use because they made the boat vulnerable to air attack. RFB's deck gun might not be fun but it is realistic. RFB's deck guns load at twice the speed of RUb's deck guns - the reason being that US deck guns had more crew supplying them and the guns were closer to the supply hatches than were those on German U-boats. However, US boats still had some of the same drawbacks that German boats had: lack of plentiful ready-use ammo; reloading by hand on a slippery, pitching and rolling deck; the need to unpack and prepare a non-ready-use round for use before loading it into the gun. In firing tests these guns could achieve a rate of fire of ten rounds a minute, but that's using ready-use ammo on a dry and steady gun platform and without aiming or range-finding. Actual combat gunnery would be much slower. RFB simulates that.

As simulation enthusiasts we get our fun from doing things as they were done in real life. Deck guns were used sparingly, even in the Pacific, because they were annoying, dangerous and slow.

[Beery]

Originally Posted by XanderF

- 'GreenLamps' (the selected action icons on your taskbar turn green instead of dark yellow)
- Various radio mods (Honolulu, CBS News mod, etc)
- "realistic battery life"
- "ultimate sound pack"
- Dark tga for the recognition manual (so you don't lose your night vision bringing it up at night)

...are any of these likely to be included in future releases? (I seem to recall the issue around the sound mods was - "would be nice, too big")

Green lamps - already in RFB.

Radio mods would be nice. I use a lot of them myself. But too big.

Realistic Battery Life - already in RFB.

Ultimate Sound pack - nice, but they're media files - again too big.

Dark recognition manual - was in RUb, will be in RFB, but I want to make my own. Nothing against the one that's out there, but I like to keep my hand in on the graphics stuff and I have my own preferences regarding exactly what's dark enough but not too dark. Actually before I start, maybe I shouldn't paint myself into a corner - maybe I should give the existing mod a look - it might suit me perfectly.

[Beery]

Originally Posted by MikeJW

Only thing I dislike is that it removes the option of setting starting renown so at career start you have 0 renown and sorry, I aint going into the S. China Sea with no air radar with the way planes are in this game.

The mod reduces both aircraft attack frequency and their tendency to fly after dark. With the mod's realistic batteries you should also be able to last throughout the daylight hours under the water (if you conserve battery power by going slow enough). Travel submerged in daylight (as real subs did) and you should have no problems.

[Beery]

Originally Posted by tombargo

What I meant with "added value" is that the Deck Gun usually comes into play when the actual tense and interesting gameplay is over...

Which is precisely why (from a gameplay standpoint) it's needed. It adds tension because that ship you're pumping rounds into is calling for help (yes - the ships call for airstrikes). If you're attacking that ship with a deck gun that fires a round every six seconds there's no chance an aircraft that's responding to the ship's distress call will get to you before you're long gone. But with a realistic reload time you're in very real danger of air attack, so you have to make sure you're really one or two gun shots away from sinking that ship, otherwise the tense and interesting gameplay that you thought was all over will be right along to drop a couple of bombs on you.

Every change I make is made with both realism and gameplay in mind. There should be no decision you make that doesn't have potential consequences. Reducing the deck gun reload rate was both necessary in terms of realism and necessary in terms of gameplay - to retain that tension and inject consequences for half-hearted or disinterested play. Without slower reloads there are no adverse consequences to using the deck gun - which is precisely why you found it (in your words) non-tense and non-interesting. Making the guns reload slower brings the element of tension that we feel is missing from the deck gun back into the game. You'll have one eye on that ship you're trying to sink, but if it takes more than a couple of shots to sink it you'll start to look nervously into the sky, because two things are certain - the enemy knows you're there and (unless it's dark) he has aircraft everywhere.

[Beery]

Originally Posted by CaptainKobuk

What's great is the female models from Victoria's Secret in bikinis that go with this MOD. If you can't get laid with this MOD it's just too bad.

Oops! Did I leave those in? Dammit, those were meant to be placeholders until I could get hold of some real 1940s porn to paste up in the crew's quarters.

[hawk2495]

ive tried to start two campaigns on dec 1 1941 and itll go fine until i get to about the 7th and i stop to listen to the radio broadcasts. i have the CBS radio mod installed and i think one of yours overlaps with it and for some reason they dont get along.. what do you think?
by the way i do love this mod and its a shame i have CTDs.

[Camaero]

I would certainly love a dark recognition manual. Right now if its dark out, I am completely blinded by that damn book when I open it.

Just finished my first patrol with 1.13. Really good work Beery!

[Beery]

Originally Posted by hawk2495

ive tried to start two campaigns on dec 1 1941 and itll go fine until i get to about the 7th and i stop to listen to the radio broadcasts. i have the CBS radio mod installed and i think one of yours overlaps with it and for some reason they dont get along.. what do you think?
by the way i do love this mod and its a shame i have CTDs.

RFB doesn't contain any radio stuff so it can't possibly interfere with any radio mods or cause CTDs due to radio/sound stuff.

[hawk2495]

thnx for the reply i just looked into it and i think its something with the CBS mod itself it. ive run it without the radio and things are running good so that must be it.. sorry for the misunderstanding.. and by the way, great mod.