Online Campaign

[abclkhan]

Hello

I would like to start an online campaign. Its a very simple idea, and im posting this to detect any interested people. So please, take a look at the parameters following these words and post in this topic only if you are interested in join me.

1) Its a realistic setting. The players will start at a german harbour and drive their boats to their patrol zone. During this time, contacts will be established, targets will be found just like the in the single mode. but there wil be no time compression. The u-boats may sail alone or toghether, changing information and orming wolfpacks as convoys are detected.

2) the game will last for many hours, since the patrol zones are not in the vicinities of the harbour.

3) Upgrades, rewards, punishments and renown will be granted as they are in the single.

4) Each patrol may last for several days of gaming, and for this they should be broken in chapters, i mean, 5 hours saturday, and more 5 hours next weekend etc . The players could build an agreement f how many hours they want to play in a day of gaming.

thats all

[abclkhan]

bump

[JU_88]

The patrols will only take several hours? without Time compression i think It could take days, you cant pause an MP game either so players will have to hope they dont cross paths with a plane or escort while on 'auto pilot'

Well.... not for me - but good luck and let us know how it goes.

[Blacklight]

It sounds like a lot of fun, but unless you set the missions close to the harbors, it will take days. Better off setting it as a MP mission that starts in a certain area and has events in that area occur. Then take the results of that tour and make a new MP mission for another zone and just toss all the participating subs there. You can still split up the sub groups by sending different MP missions to each group saying that they're patrolling different areas and then maybe bring them all together again for other missions depending on events that occured.

I'd be interested, but there's no way I could do a drive all the way from port to the mission areas in 1x, do my searches in 1x, and then return home 1x. My wife would kill me if I left the computer on and had to wake up and jump out of bed when I hear my computer speakers shout "ALAAAAAAAAAAARM !!!!" several times a night.

[Ping Panther]

Is this to be a GWX2 event?

[abclkhan]

Originally Posted by Blacklight

It sounds like a lot of fun, but unless you set the missions close to the harbors, it will take days. Better off setting it as a MP mission that starts in a certain area and has events in that area occur. Then take the results of that tour and make a new MP mission for another zone and just toss all the participating subs there. You can still split up the sub groups by sending different MP missions to each group saying that they're patrolling different areas and then maybe bring them all together again for other missions depending on events that occured.

I'd be interested, but there's no way I could do a drive all the way from port to the mission areas in 1x, do my searches in 1x, and then return home 1x. My wife would kill me if I left the computer on and had to wake up and jump out of bed when I hear my computer speakers shout "ALAAAAAAAAAAARM !!!!" several times a night.

Exactly. My idea was not to play 24h a day, but cover a limited range each sesion of gaming. Example: We choose to play in a saturday morning. We start ar Brest and go to the english channel with the intention to block it. That would give aprox 240Km, with a VIIB we can cover in 7 hour unless u want to play with a IIA.... :hmm:
Another approach is: I start from brest, you from cherbourg, the other guy from Calais and we set ameeting point as a wolfpack . Someone discovers a convoy, gives its position and we converge to it.

Thats the spirit. we play until we are up to, then u give me positions, number of fishes, crew status, etc, and the most important, we start at the same time later... no need to play while doing our wives... Contacts will be there again since we are playing the same campaign...

MIssions could be set to meditterraneum, where distsnces are short.

The most interesting point of this kind of gaming is not the sinking of ships itself, but the way to it -- plot interception courses, track their course by hydrophone things like that, and the wolfpack stuff.

Yes if people agree, that would be a GWX event. It would be nice to have installed: GWX 1.03 + carotios map mod (has more cities) and OLC GUI mod (wich I love ) If we have crashes for 3 times, all should have a stock installations ready to start playing. Since our achievements should rely on ou abilities as uboatman, no cameras are allowed ... only 100% realism.

[BulSoldier]

I dont see what is the point of staying say 3 hours just watching your sub traveling, and then saving and next week again traveling 2 hour and finally contact.It would be better just to plan the contacts diferent boots will encounter and playing only this part, there is no point "playing" hours of traveling.

I think its just step too far from gaming.

[Medibob]

Originally Posted by abclkhan

Exactly. My idea was not to play 24h a day, but cover a limited range each sesion of gaming. Example: We choose to play in a saturday morning. We start ar Brest and go to the english channel with the intention to block it. That would give aprox 240Km, with a VIIB we can cover in 7 hour unless u want to play with a IIA.... :hmm:
Another approach is: I start from brest, you from cherbourg, the other guy from Calais and we set ameeting point as a wolfpack . Someone discovers a convoy, gives its position and we converge to it.

Thats the spirit. we play until we are up to, then u give me positions, number of fishes, crew status, etc, and the most important, we start at the same time later... no need to play while doing our wives... Contacts will be there again since we are playing the same campaign...

MIssions could be set to meditterraneum, where distsnces are short.

The most interesting point of this kind of gaming is not the sinking of ships itself, but the way to it -- plot interception courses, track their course by hydrophone things like that, and the wolfpack stuff.

Yes if people agree, that would be a GWX event. It would be nice to have installed: GWX 1.03 + carotios map mod (has more cities) and OLC GUI mod (wich I love ) If we have crashes for 3 times, all should have a stock installations ready to start playing. Since our achievements should rely on ou abilities as uboatman, no cameras are allowed ... only 100% realism.

your best bet would to mod it so the starting harbour (although late in the war) will be in the english channel, then its easy enough to find ships ect becuase there only a stone throw away and its only about 2 hours max at about 18knots to get the english port warning sirians going if they spot you

[Capt. Shark Bait]

Originally Posted by Blacklight

...My wife would kill me if I....wake up and jump out of bed when I hear my computer speakers shout "ALAAAAAAAAAAARM !!!!" several times a night.

but then, where would the immersion factor be?

this would really be doable, but as BL said, real time could be a prob when it takes 200+hrs to reach a GRID if leaving from a base in RT. i think it would be better to start near whatever GRID. good thing i have weekend nights off work, atleast for the forseeable future

[Badger Finn]

Originally Posted by Capt. Shark Bait

but then, where would the immersion factor be?

this would really be doable, but as BL said, real time could be a prob when it takes 200+hrs to reach a GRID if leaving from a base in RT. i think it would be better to start near whatever GRID. good thing i have weekend nights off work, atleast for the forseeable future

Radio msg recieved-Convoy sighted AK47 inbound

"SHIP SIGHTED"



Just getting 4-5 hours uninterupted to play is tricky enough and I havnt seen a multiplay that you can save

:hmm:

[GoldenRivet]

i would really love to see an online campaign take place on a dedicated server that would run 24/7. hell i might even participate in a limited role (dive to go to work or something as long as unlimited air was on!)

problems with this are

1. Disconnections: what happens if a player is stalking a convoy and broadcasting its position for a wolf pack to join up, and he spends the better part of 18 hours intercepting and assuming a firing position and suddenly a winter storm shuts down the power to his home? or his internet connection is reset?

2. Real Life: what protections exist for players who wish to "pause" their envolvment or disengage enemy contact so they can go out on that hot date, or go to work, or defecate etc?

3. Crashes: what happens if a player spends three days running full throttle for a contact report only to finally arrive and his computer crashes either due to an SH3 fault, or a fault caused by another program on his computer / random reason?

the list of problems with this type of multiplayer arrangment could go on.

I have given it much thought.

Ideally, i wish that there were some sort of 24/7 real time server that would run 1939 - 1945 SH3 (2007 - 2013) and it would be great if there were a virtual BdU that could issue orders to various flotillas, and flotillas that would issue orders to various boats within that flotilla etc - recreate the u-boat war so to speak. but, with a game that relies so heavily on time compression to make the game even remotely playable this type of multiplayer environment is far too vast in the level of dedication and time required for the average player... sure, if i was 13 or 14 years old again and had an entire summer to kill and had absolutely no other plans than to sit in my room from mid June to the end of September i would gladly join the ranks of a virtual Kriegsmarine. but unfortunately i think that for most guys with a 9 to 5 job and a family... and for myself with a job that requires me to leave home for 4 days at a time... its just not an attractive concept in terms of what is demanded of the individual player.

one other point comes to mind... if you choose to play for 5 or 6 hours and then resume on another day, what if all of the players that were there on day one couldnt all be there on day two? how are you going to reset the player starting positions so that they start out where they left off? and if you are stalking a convoy... they are surely spawned in the random layer, who is to say the same convoy you spent 6 hours tracking on monday will still be there when you start a new game on wednesday?

im not trying to shoot down your goal, dont get me wrong, in fact i hope you prove me wrong , but - despite the concept being really cool - i think there are too many constraints associated with a real time simulation like SH3 to make it interesting to any more than only a hand full of players.

[abclkhan]

Originally Posted by Capt. Shark Bait

but then, where would the immersion factor be?

this would really be doable, but as BL said, real time could be a prob when it takes 200+hrs to reach a GRID if leaving from a base in RT. i think it would be better to start near whatever GRID. good thing i have weekend nights off work, atleast for the forseeable future

Please read my posts again partner...