[WIP] The Offical Post of The Surface Warfare Super-Mod - Page 65

FightingSteel1 · 09-30-12, 09:51 PM

The idea that anything from this could be released is very exciting to me. I really will take whatever you can get out, as I have been hoping for/looking for this kind of game for awhile.

I wish a good WWII surface ship game would be made, but I would love to see what this mod can do.

polyfiller · 10-03-12, 05:10 PM

Well right now I'm trying to work out how to make all the OM campaign traffic available if you start an American career. If I can work out how to do this then I reckon I can get a very rough Beta out quite quickly. Much of the original ship definitions, plus torpedo firing AI subs, depth charges for the player to launch, and plenty of big boats to drive ........ are already in place ... there's just not much to do if you start an Allied career in Europe ... in fact, it's a total pleasure cruise in baron seas.

ivank · 10-08-12, 10:52 AM

Hey Polyfiller!
Last I spoke with Tom he also expressed interest in restarting this mod.
I have busy will my classes, but on the weekends I am willing to participate again.
Contact Tom and I and we can plan this out.

polyfiller · 10-08-12, 11:12 AM

Ivan - good to hear from you. .... OK ... I'll send Tom a PM.

Sledge had a good idea about rolling in a previously created American atlantic campaign created by Lurker ..... I really need help witht eh capmaign building now .... I cerated some test start bases in UK (Rosyth, Scappa, Portmouth, Plymouth) .... these work.... but we really need to create all the convoy & axis traffic, by using Sledge's suggesiton or getting the OM German Campaign files to work with a US career. So far I've done one test which was unsuccesful.

I took the EU_Coastal.mis from OM CapmaignGe and put it into the US Campaignb folder. I then added the Campaign file definition to the bottom of the US Campaign.cfg .... and nothing shows up in terms fo the traffic defined in the EU_Coastal.mis if I start a career from Portsmouth. Probably me not knowing how to add campaign components or how to save the file from mission editor (RND layer, scriped or whatever.... I dont' know which to use or how the merge function works). I need help and probably psychiatric care :-)

tomhugill · 10-09-12, 05:48 AM

Could we roll out a German campaign now with what we have currently?

polyfiller · 10-09-12, 04:19 PM

Would prefer to get osme form of allied campaign in place ... otherwise half the ships will be pretty much useless.

Also not sure of what the level of allied Naval activity is in OM ... what I mean, is there enough to make an Axis surface campaign challenging.... are the enough BB's & cruisers on patrol, escorting convoys etc.

ivank · 10-09-12, 04:53 PM

Since we do not any axis ships either imported from SHV or modeled, I rather release the US Version of the mod 1st. Then we can work on the UK/GE/JP versions.

IIRC we are just 'installing' SWM over OM V720. Was there any issues with this?

Sledgehammer427 · 10-09-12, 08:35 PM

Ivan, IIRC there was a lot of issues I had with german ships from SH5 (textured in oversize windows, slight polygon issues like gun barbettes for Bimarck's secondary battery being hexagonal)
So on.
as something you would torpedo it was fine but as something that you are in command of it begs better detail. The Battleship Bismarck didn't have bay windows on the Admiral's bridge

Stark · 10-10-12, 11:34 PM

^Thats a new post!

Whats the general status on the mod/mods? Finally got SH4 and this looks to be quite promising, you guys have put enough time into it!

polyfiller · 10-13-12, 02:09 PM

OK, quick update & good news .....I managed to convert all the Ops Monsoon German campaign files into the allied campaign.... so now there is traffic etc in Atlantic & around the European shores.

I now need to do some work with dates in the files, and configure in my German AI subs to provide some interest to would be destroyer captains.

Also need to take a look at air traffic ... not seen anything show up yet but am crusing around in Sep 1939.

As for releasing just US ships, or German campaign, or wait until we can input better looking models of Bismark etc .... sorry, no ... not going to do that, you see the work to make the current list of ships playable, and then re-model damage, add player launchable depth charges, accurate radar capabilities etc .... it took so long that I'd rather release functionality over good looks. If we can find someone who can re-work textures or import Sh5 models, then fine, these cna be imported and then my damage models re-used. There are some ships in the current pack which look awful (decks of HMS Hood are awful) ... but the ship works. I'd also love to see a facelift Warspite (my favourite BB of all time)..... so I am up for making things better ... jsut don't want to cut out any of the already complete functionality.

For now the work with OM campaign is significant progress.... although making it fit / feel right when driving a surface ship could be tricky.

What I'm after now is a few basic ideas on how to structure some careers / mission objectives. I figure a destroyer career woudl be easy neough ... escort convoy, objective to sink as many U boats as possible etc ... but driver the bigger ships ... setting objectives which are meaningful is a bit more tricky. Any ideas ?

Yamato_NF · 10-13-12, 04:50 PM

I would do a objective like intercepting German commerce raiders / intercepting German shipping and escorting convoys (early war).

and i would make a bunch of German commerce raiders in the campaign layers.

Yamato_NF

FightingSteel1 · 10-14-12, 03:24 AM

I'll just throw out my opinion, and you do with it what you will.

My belief is that something like this is really more suited for singular missions, not a campaign. Most surface warship encounters where strategic meets of fleets, task forces, etc. and that really doesn't apply to just tooling around an ocean in a battleship looking for something to blow out of the water. I.E. it's not like submarines, so I wouldn't structure it that way.

I can see a destroyer convoy escort concept, I can see a German surface raider idea, and I can see an Allied surface warship convoy defense repelling a German surface attack. I don't know if this mod will also be in the Pacific, but that would be a whole different deal.

What is the actual scope of this mod right now? Are there modeled warship stations or is it still just submarine control rooms, etc.? Can you control multiple units and assign targets for your controlled group of ships (direct one TF against another), or is it just controlling one singular vessel? Not to be annoying with the questions, but do destroyers treat your ships like ships or still try to ram you like a sub?

All things being said, I would love to have the mod allow you to play recreated historical engagements, like Bismarck/Prinz Eugen vs. Hood/POW, or attack a BB escorted convoy with Scharnhorst/Gneiseneau, OR be able to play simulated engagements between various German and American/British forces. If you all want the career mode, that's great and I'll take whatever, but I hope I can at least make my own missions like I've stated above for this mod.

polyfiller · 10-15-12, 05:38 AM

Fightingsteel - you have similar views to me.... a few answers for you;

Sadly destroyers still treat you as a sub .... no way around that I'm affraid. As far as I Know changin this requires modification of the .ACT files and I'm not aware anyone has technically managed that, ever.

For convoy escort career ... I believe it is possible to give commands to ships, but have not investigated how to configure this yet... but it is deffinatley a feature I planned to use ... makes an escort career so much more meaningful.

As for the capital ship engagments, I agree, but was thinking that a little more German raider traffic could be configured than historically accurate (more trips out to sea by Scharnhorst, hipper, Scheer etc.) and then a career of raider interdiction. Career could be structured to pick up on many of the "potential" aval actions ... including stuff like Norway invastion, Russian convoy covering, Channel Dash, search for Bismark etc.

What I was thinking is we know certain events happenned and there were certain allied reponses and the resulting battles or non events where the fleets missed each other .... but I figured if the player was controlling a ship and it resulted in something else happening ... then so what ?

After all, when playing as a U Boat captain, it is possible to change history ... In SH3 GWX I lost count of how many times I sunk ships from Force H as they rushed to find the Bismark.

So I figure it should be possible to configure several careers commanding different classes of ships, with some comlpetely non historical missions thrown in for a bit of fun.

And have not given any thought to Pacific career right now ... will come later I suspect...... after all..... Japan & US were late into the war

ivank · 10-15-12, 10:54 PM

Polyfiller email we need to talk about this

FightingSteel1 · 10-16-12, 12:49 AM

I see what you're saying, but what exactly does this mod do that the current playable ships do on their own? Do opposing ships exhibit some different tactics or actually hit something with their guns (they can't in the stock game

)?

Really, the ability to command a force of more than one ship, or at least be able to direct another vessel(s) to "follow" you and fire at your specified targets makes or breaks this being anything more than a Kriegsmarine surface raider mod.

In regards to the destroyer thing, I guess the only thing to do would be to forget about putting a destroyer screen for the larger ships in any missions.

Well, I'll be following this, and would like to see where it's at when you release it. I get the fans of submarine games, but you would think a surface warfare game with Battleships, Cruisers, maybe even Carriers would be even more successful than just a sub game. UbiSoft had everything they needed here to make a surface game (like Destroyer Command) as well. I wish...

View Poll Results: Which version of TSWSM are you looking forward to?
Version 1	156	20.77%
Version 2	79	10.52%
Version 3	29	3.86%
Version 4	77	10.25%
All of them	488	64.98%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 751. You may not vote on this poll

10-08-12, 10:52 AM	#963
ivank The Old Man Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Huntington, Long Island, New York Posts: 1,426 Downloads: 284 Uploads: 0	Hey Polyfiller! Last I spoke with Tom he also expressed interest in restarting this mod. I have busy will my classes, but on the weekends I am willing to participate again. Contact Tom and I and we can plan this out. __________________ Head of The Surface Warfare Super-Mod Team Leutnant z. S. David U. Ziegler U-105 IXB On Patrol 1

10-09-12, 04:53 PM	#967
ivank The Old Man Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Huntington, Long Island, New York Posts: 1,426 Downloads: 284 Uploads: 0	Since we do not any axis ships either imported from SHV or modeled, I rather release the US Version of the mod 1st. Then we can work on the UK/GE/JP versions. IIRC we are just 'installing' SWM over OM V720. Was there any issues with this? __________________ Head of The Surface Warfare Super-Mod Team Leutnant z. S. David U. Ziegler U-105 IXB On Patrol 1

10-09-12, 08:35 PM	#968
Sledgehammer427 PacWagon Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Drinking coffee and staring at trees in Massachusetts Posts: 2,901 Downloads: 280 Uploads: 0	Ivan, IIRC there was a lot of issues I had with german ships from SH5 (textured in oversize windows, slight polygon issues like gun barbettes for Bimarck's secondary battery being hexagonal) So on. as something you would torpedo it was fine but as something that you are in command of it begs better detail. The Battleship Bismarck didn't have bay windows on the Admiral's bridge __________________ Cold Waters Voice Crew - Fire Control Officer Cmdr O. Myers - C/O USS Nautilus (SS-168) 114,000 tons sunk - 4 Spec Ops completed V-boat Nutcase - Need supplies? Japanese garrison on a small island in the way? Just give us a call! D4C!

10-13-12, 04:50 PM	#971
Yamato_NF King of the Ocean Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Michigan, United States Posts: 337 Downloads: 621 Uploads: 0	I would do a objective like intercepting German commerce raiders / intercepting German shipping and escorting convoys (early war). and i would make a bunch of German commerce raiders in the campaign layers. Yamato_NF __________________ Proud owner of SH3/4/5 Proud owner of the DCS series "He who controls the seas controls the world."

09-30-12, 09:51 PM	#961
FightingSteel1 Bosun Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 63 Downloads: 60 Uploads: 0	The idea that anything from this could be released is very exciting to me. I really will take whatever you can get out, as I have been hoping for/looking for this kind of game for awhile. I wish a good WWII surface ship game would be made, but I would love to see what this mod can do.

10-03-12, 05:10 PM	#962
polyfiller Weps Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 356 Downloads: 40 Uploads: 0	Well right now I'm trying to work out how to make all the OM campaign traffic available if you start an American career. If I can work out how to do this then I reckon I can get a very rough Beta out quite quickly. Much of the original ship definitions, plus torpedo firing AI subs, depth charges for the player to launch, and plenty of big boats to drive ........ are already in place ... there's just not much to do if you start an Allied career in Europe ... in fact, it's a total pleasure cruise in baron seas.

10-08-12, 11:12 AM	#964
polyfiller Weps Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 356 Downloads: 40 Uploads: 0	Ivan - good to hear from you. .... OK ... I'll send Tom a PM. Sledge had a good idea about rolling in a previously created American atlantic campaign created by Lurker ..... I really need help witht eh capmaign building now .... I cerated some test start bases in UK (Rosyth, Scappa, Portmouth, Plymouth) .... these work.... but we really need to create all the convoy & axis traffic, by using Sledge's suggesiton or getting the OM German Campaign files to work with a US career. So far I've done one test which was unsuccesful. I took the EU_Coastal.mis from OM CapmaignGe and put it into the US Campaignb folder. I then added the Campaign file definition to the bottom of the US Campaign.cfg .... and nothing shows up in terms fo the traffic defined in the EU_Coastal.mis if I start a career from Portsmouth. Probably me not knowing how to add campaign components or how to save the file from mission editor (RND layer, scriped or whatever.... I dont' know which to use or how the merge function works). I need help and probably psychiatric care :-)

10-09-12, 05:48 AM	#965
tomhugill Planesman Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 184 Downloads: 23 Uploads: 0	Could we roll out a German campaign now with what we have currently?

10-09-12, 04:19 PM	#966
polyfiller Weps Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 356 Downloads: 40 Uploads: 0	Would prefer to get osme form of allied campaign in place ... otherwise half the ships will be pretty much useless. Also not sure of what the level of allied Naval activity is in OM ... what I mean, is there enough to make an Axis surface campaign challenging.... are the enough BB's & cruisers on patrol, escorting convoys etc.

10-10-12, 11:34 PM	#969
Stark Watch Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Washington State, USA Posts: 16 Downloads: 9 Uploads: 0	^Thats a new post! Whats the general status on the mod/mods? Finally got SH4 and this looks to be quite promising, you guys have put enough time into it!

10-13-12, 02:09 PM	#970
polyfiller Weps Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 356 Downloads: 40 Uploads: 0	OK, quick update & good news .....I managed to convert all the Ops Monsoon German campaign files into the allied campaign.... so now there is traffic etc in Atlantic & around the European shores. I now need to do some work with dates in the files, and configure in my German AI subs to provide some interest to would be destroyer captains. Also need to take a look at air traffic ... not seen anything show up yet but am crusing around in Sep 1939. As for releasing just US ships, or German campaign, or wait until we can input better looking models of Bismark etc .... sorry, no ... not going to do that, you see the work to make the current list of ships playable, and then re-model damage, add player launchable depth charges, accurate radar capabilities etc .... it took so long that I'd rather release functionality over good looks. If we can find someone who can re-work textures or import Sh5 models, then fine, these cna be imported and then my damage models re-used. There are some ships in the current pack which look awful (decks of HMS Hood are awful) ... but the ship works. I'd also love to see a facelift Warspite (my favourite BB of all time)..... so I am up for making things better ... jsut don't want to cut out any of the already complete functionality. For now the work with OM campaign is significant progress.... although making it fit / feel right when driving a surface ship could be tricky. What I'm after now is a few basic ideas on how to structure some careers / mission objectives. I figure a destroyer career woudl be easy neough ... escort convoy, objective to sink as many U boats as possible etc ... but driver the bigger ships ... setting objectives which are meaningful is a bit more tricky. Any ideas ?

10-14-12, 03:24 AM	#972
FightingSteel1 Bosun Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 63 Downloads: 60 Uploads: 0	I'll just throw out my opinion, and you do with it what you will. My belief is that something like this is really more suited for singular missions, not a campaign. Most surface warship encounters where strategic meets of fleets, task forces, etc. and that really doesn't apply to just tooling around an ocean in a battleship looking for something to blow out of the water. I.E. it's not like submarines, so I wouldn't structure it that way. I can see a destroyer convoy escort concept, I can see a German surface raider idea, and I can see an Allied surface warship convoy defense repelling a German surface attack. I don't know if this mod will also be in the Pacific, but that would be a whole different deal. What is the actual scope of this mod right now? Are there modeled warship stations or is it still just submarine control rooms, etc.? Can you control multiple units and assign targets for your controlled group of ships (direct one TF against another), or is it just controlling one singular vessel? Not to be annoying with the questions, but do destroyers treat your ships like ships or still try to ram you like a sub? All things being said, I would love to have the mod allow you to play recreated historical engagements, like Bismarck/Prinz Eugen vs. Hood/POW, or attack a BB escorted convoy with Scharnhorst/Gneiseneau, OR be able to play simulated engagements between various German and American/British forces. If you all want the career mode, that's great and I'll take whatever, but I hope I can at least make my own missions like I've stated above for this mod.

10-15-12, 05:38 AM	#973
polyfiller Weps Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 356 Downloads: 40 Uploads: 0	Fightingsteel - you have similar views to me.... a few answers for you; Sadly destroyers still treat you as a sub .... no way around that I'm affraid. As far as I Know changin this requires modification of the .ACT files and I'm not aware anyone has technically managed that, ever. For convoy escort career ... I believe it is possible to give commands to ships, but have not investigated how to configure this yet... but it is deffinatley a feature I planned to use ... makes an escort career so much more meaningful. As for the capital ship engagments, I agree, but was thinking that a little more German raider traffic could be configured than historically accurate (more trips out to sea by Scharnhorst, hipper, Scheer etc.) and then a career of raider interdiction. Career could be structured to pick up on many of the "potential" aval actions ... including stuff like Norway invastion, Russian convoy covering, Channel Dash, search for Bismark etc. What I was thinking is we know certain events happenned and there were certain allied reponses and the resulting battles or non events where the fleets missed each other .... but I figured if the player was controlling a ship and it resulted in something else happening ... then so what ? After all, when playing as a U Boat captain, it is possible to change history ... In SH3 GWX I lost count of how many times I sunk ships from Force H as they rushed to find the Bismark. So I figure it should be possible to configure several careers commanding different classes of ships, with some comlpetely non historical missions thrown in for a bit of fun. And have not given any thought to Pacific career right now ... will come later I suspect...... after all..... Japan & US were late into the war

10-15-12, 10:54 PM	#974
ivank The Old Man Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Huntington, Long Island, New York Posts: 1,426 Downloads: 284 Uploads: 0	Polyfiller email we need to talk about this __________________ Head of The Surface Warfare Super-Mod Team Leutnant z. S. David U. Ziegler U-105 IXB On Patrol 1

10-16-12, 12:49 AM	#975
FightingSteel1 Bosun Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 63 Downloads: 60 Uploads: 0	I see what you're saying, but what exactly does this mod do that the current playable ships do on their own? Do opposing ships exhibit some different tactics or actually hit something with their guns (they can't in the stock game )? Really, the ability to command a force of more than one ship, or at least be able to direct another vessel(s) to "follow" you and fire at your specified targets makes or breaks this being anything more than a Kriegsmarine surface raider mod. In regards to the destroyer thing, I guess the only thing to do would be to forget about putting a destroyer screen for the larger ships in any missions. Well, I'll be following this, and would like to see where it's at when you release it. I get the fans of submarine games, but you would think a surface warfare game with Battleships, Cruisers, maybe even Carriers would be even more successful than just a sub game. UbiSoft had everything they needed here to make a surface game (like Destroyer Command) as well. I wish...