Mod-Idea for ingame loading screens

[mic1184]

By mic1184 at 2007-09-06
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By mic1184 at 2007-09-14
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hey all,

as becoming a somewhat advanced gwx player i realized there is still a lot to learn about the kaleun's job when you think you knew everything now.

second thing i realized is that the more (fantastic) mods you use, the ingame loading times increase dramatically (yes gwx is worth an hour of waiting, but still).

now i really cant wait for the game to become ready so im sitting in front of the loading screens for minutes. i thought it might be a good idea to create many different loading screens with gameplay hints and tipps, and use SH3 Commander to randomize them. i remember a "random gwx start screen mod" or something for SH3 Cmdr, so i think it wouldnt be such a big problem.

We would just need someone with some photoshop or whatever skills and a lot of cool tipps and stuff. i can think of hundreds if i had to, you could also make different player skill loading screens, like a "rookie tips loading screens mod" with stuff like 'it's generally not a good idea to try and attack enemy destroyers, as they can change their course very quickly and you're unlikely to hit them with a single torpedo. etc", an "advanced player's loading screens" with stuff like "to passage hot zones like the channel or around skapa flow, it might just be the better idea to wait for a black and stormish night and go surfaced with high speed along the coast quickly. Being submerged, the destroyers are much more likely to spot you, as they listen better than they see" or something like this. the "pro player tips" i cant think of an example as im not a pro player ;-) anyways.

i think this idea could make the game even a little more precious to many players (esp. those who play the "hard" gwx, in which good knowledge is the #1 surviving factor)

greez mic

[lutzow]

Very good idea, mate. Tips must be made by someone very experienced in SH3. Maybe any Grey Wolf from GWX team could help. They are now overworked but maybe after...? About making screens...hm - i have in my roster only one maestro : JCWolf. He's busy now in making new big mod [he's always busy with making mods].Venatore is also posts fine pictures with releasing his mods. I don't know who else.
Anyway - good idea.

[mic1184]

okay this thing doesn't go out of my mind. another idea are some prominent quotes, stories, facts or technical specifications of the subs, of torpedoes etc. There really is unlimited interesting material to fill up these loading sessions.

im going to organize this. of course it will take a while to collect some stuff, but shouldnt be too hard with this great community.

if anyone wants to participate and see your name on one of the loading screens, send me your "tips", "facts", "short stories" etc via PM please.

also, it would be great if you made available your great personal loading screen pictures (game start splash and mission loading screens). the more you people participate, the faster we get a REAL lot of screens.

[TheDarkWraith]

use SH3 commander's random feature to provide random loading screens.

[Hitman]

SH3 Commander will also provide you period-news in the mission briefing, which you can read while loading. Anyway, if GWX has a drawback, I agree that is the huge loading times Nothing the GWX team can do about it, sadly, it's a SH3 limitation when adding lots of stuff to the campaigns

[mic1184]

Yes SH3 Cmdr is a must for this mod, but i believe it is a must anyways ;-) after an hour of research i found that there is really TOO much... the only hard thing is to distinguish good gameplay help from bad help, as i am not really the pro player. but this should be going well.

i added a poll for you so i can find out what to emphasize more. Also i will be needing a lot of *good* loading screen motives. i hope im gonna find time for all of this...

[U49]

I wonder if it would be possible to connect the real date with historic events. For example like uboat.net -> events on this day?

[Dau-U-42]

Originally Posted by U49

I wonder if it would be possible to connect the real date with historic events. For example like uboat.net -> events on this day?

Do you mean the real date as the date in real life or the date of your game career?

It is possible, I think. We consider this an option but at least I don't think it would be very interesting. The reports get very boring when you keep reading them one after another. It just tells you who sank what, when and where. Plus, we are trying to give information with a wider perspective: the causes and effects of the U-boat warfare, it 's technologies, personalities etc. to give the player a deeper understanding of the game and the history it represents.

[U49]

Originally Posted by Dau-U-42

Do you mean the real date as the date in real life or the date of your game career?

I thought about the real life date.
It could be additional to the other information you wrote about?

[Dau-U-42]

Originally Posted by U49

I thought about the real life date.
It could be additional to the other information you wrote about?

The real time date would be trickier, because SH3 Commander supports only in-game dates. Showing info on real time dates could be achieved by a program that checks your computer clock, though. We will think about your idea.

[mic1184]

hey U49,

the idea is technically a little tricky, we would have to find a script/tool/program that can merge an additional layer on top of a tga. or code something in c ourselves. possible but tricky.

but it would also mean that we had to find 365 additional different (and, as DAU-U-42 already stated, interesting?) occurrences. also, it wouldnt be so easy to find another good position on the screens. i've working a lot on the current layout to make it look good and not overloaded.

at all, i dont find the idea worth enough the additional trouble. i believe its now better to continue concentrating on making the loading screens as beautiful and interesting as possible.

@ KrvKpt. Falke:
i liked the loading screen diary in COD and MOH, too. but in these games, they werent just to fill to the loading screens, they also had the role of intensifying the athmosphere and underline the sense of the upcoming mission.
in SH3, we cannot make "mission-conditional" loading screens, as the missions are always just patrolling XY area. probably it could be done to find respective events and reports regarding to patrol grids, but that would really be hard.
just to take random fragments of a real u-boat commander's diary would also be possible. yet again, the editorial effort to make such screens interesting would be enormous when wanting to stick with historical correctness.

summing it up, i believe the way we're going right now is very much satisfactory: pick a variety of the most exciting, interesting and important facts, stories and quotes together. it already gives us enough for hundreds of screens.