[WIP] Wolves of the Kaiser:1914-1918 Mod

[propbeanie]

... and to think, they carried those sub nets practically everywhere with them, and "communicated" with each other by flags strung on the bridge cabling... it would be nice if the AI could do "Follow me" and other sets of flags... - but these are beautiful ships, iambecomelife!

[Jimbuna]

Truly dedicated and amazing work

[Jeff-Groves]

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

I'd be happy to give you the figures I've been working on if you would like to take a look!

I'd be happy to assist.


Been a few years since I did animation work but I still have all my bipeds scaled to SH sizes and other neat tools.

[iambecomelife]

Thank you Jeff! I will be in touch.

Good news, I tested the game with a whopping 125 lifeboats from one ship and I got killer framerates. Because I have now applied UnifiedRenderController to the lifeboats and sailors. No stuttering, except for about one minute when the game spawned the lifeboats. In real life there's no need for more than about 20-30 boats from the biggest liners, so this is encouraging! My only reservation is that my computer is very modern/less than a year old, but I can mod in lower detail options for ppl who need it.

I suspect having 20-30 separate survivors or more and a lot more debris/crates/life rings/vests/flotsam floating separately whenever a merchant is sunk will be easy. Plus maybe even realistic liner/troopship sinkings.

Also getting great frame rates while testing long lines of battleships.

Invincible class skinning went great. Screenshots soon.

Plus, I found an old Pre-Dreadnought model on my hard drive that was not destroyed in the ransomware attack that wiped out almost all my progress a few years ago. Thus, I may be able to whip up a few old British BB's for the mod, like "Formidable", "King Edward VII", and "Britannia". Instead of just having modern Dreadnoughts & BC's as targets.

[Bubblehead1980]

I am sure this has been asked but do not recall. Will Jutland be scripted into the sim ?

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

I am sure this has been asked but do not recall. Will Jutland be scripted into the sim ?

Yes, there will be a battle of Jutland. Many minor ship classes will be missing because it's impractical to model every type and recreate all the movements. But most of the noteworthy ships like Lutzow, Iron Duke, etc will be present.

Gun accuracy will be VASTLY lower than SH4 stock. I noticed in standard surface engagements ships destroy each other far too fast. Even the great German gunnery systems of WWI only managed a hit percentage that was, say, 4-5%. Possibly even lower.

I may even introduce a big-gun gunfire effect that does no damage (mixed randomly with real shells) so that engagements are more drawn-out.

Short-range guns will be accurate and lethal, to discourage the player from attacking warships on the surface .

[Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt]

IABL sorry for bothering yo again, but I found in my grandfather's library a copy of "Lloyd's Book of House Flag and Funnels" of 1912 with approximately 1870 house flags, funnels' colors and home ports of major and minor companies of all nations at the time. Since you are creating a realistic merchant fleet with names and homeports: do you want a scan of it ?

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt

IABL sorry for bothering yo again, but I found in my grandfather's library a copy of "Lloyd's Book of House Flag and Funnels" of 1912 with approximately 1870 house flags, funnels' colors and home ports of major and minor companies of all nations at the time. Since you are creating a realistic merchant fleet with names and homeports: do you want a scan of it ?

No bother at all! Yes, I would like that a lot - it would be a big help with the paint schemes for different ships.

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

Yes, there will be a battle of Jutland. Many minor ship classes will be missing because it's impractical to model every type and recreate all the movements. But most of the noteworthy ships like Lutzow, Iron Duke, etc will be present.

Gun accuracy will be VASTLY lower than SH4 stock. I noticed in standard surface engagements ships destroy each other far too fast. Even the great German gunnery systems of WWI only managed a hit percentage that was, say, 4-5%. Possibly even lower.

I may even introduce a big-gun gunfire effect that does no damage (mixed randomly with real shells) so that engagements are more drawn-out.

Short-range guns will be accurate and lethal, to discourage the player from attacking warships on the surface .

Very nice. Will you use other ships to fill the roles of the minor classes not featured ?

I lowered the gun accuracy of AI units as well in my upgrade for TMO, to avoid what you are talking about. I scripted a fictional battle in San Bernadino Strait where BB/CA/DD force detached from TF 38 arrive in time to catch Kurita's center force in the evening of 25 October as it is retreating into the strait, they cross the T and engage in a brief battle. I have it set so it is 50 percent chance whether the US force force spawns so it may or may not happen, keeps things interesting. When it did occur, was a pretty intense surface engagement, fun to watch. Even ran in on surface like a pt boat, made torpedo attacks , hits on Yamato. Had to dive when a DD spotted me. Watching Yamato and Iowa slug it is loud and interesting.

That is a great idea about the big guns having a mix, look forward to seeing how that works.

[Hitman]

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

Yes, there will be a battle of Jutland. Many minor ship classes will be missing because it's impractical to model every type and recreate all the movements. But most of the noteworthy ships like Lutzow, Iron Duke, etc will be present.

Gun accuracy will be VASTLY lower than SH4 stock. I noticed in standard surface engagements ships destroy each other far too fast. Even the great German gunnery systems of WWI only managed a hit percentage that was, say, 4-5%. Possibly even lower.

I may even introduce a big-gun gunfire effect that does no damage (mixed randomly with real shells) so that engagements are more drawn-out.

Short-range guns will be accurate and lethal, to discourage the player from attacking warships on the surface .

Part of that is because in SH4 we are limited due to the 20 km atmosphere to engagements ranges below what many times happened in real life.

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Hitman

Part of that is because in SH4 we are limited due to the 20 km atmosphere to engagements ranges below what many times happened in real life.

Yes; in that respect "Jutland" by SES is much better - when I play that sim, even the best ships have a low hit rate. Also, "Jutland" is much better than the "Silent Hunter" series when it comes to logical surface ship behavior. In Silent Hunter the AI warships charge in & fight to the death regardless of how outnumbered they are. In "Jutland", lone destroyers or light cruisers will size up your fleet strength wisely. If you sortie with a battleship fleet, AI DD's and cruisers on patrol will retreat to just outside of gun range and shadow you, radioing for the Grand Fleet battleships. Or if they attack, they will use heavy fog as cover.

If and when work-in-progress sims like Wolfpack & Crush Depth mature, hopefully they fix some of these long-standing issues.

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

Very nice. Will you use other ships to fill the roles of the minor classes not featured ?

I lowered the gun accuracy of AI units as well in my upgrade for TMO, to avoid what you are talking about. I scripted a fictional battle in San Bernadino Strait where BB/CA/DD force detached from TF 38 arrive in time to catch Kurita's center force in the evening of 25 October as it is retreating into the strait, they cross the T and engage in a brief battle. I have it set so it is 50 percent chance whether the US force force spawns so it may or may not happen, keeps things interesting. When it did occur, was a pretty intense surface engagement, fun to watch. Even ran in on surface like a pt boat, made torpedo attacks , hits on Yamato. Had to dive when a DD spotted me. Watching Yamato and Iowa slug it is loud and interesting.

That is a great idea about the big guns having a mix, look forward to seeing how that works.

Sounds like fun! Not long after I got SH4 I reenacted several surface battles like the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal and the Battle of Tassafaronga. They were made even more fun by the AI torpedoes mod - can't remember who implemented it but it was a great idea.

Had a productive weekend! HMS "Queen Mary" is now about 90% done, including skin - she was another big obstacle to overcome. Now just a few changes to funnel & superstructure shape and we will have "Lion" & "Princess Royal", because they were near-identical triplets

It has been fun but rather somber to work on "Queen Mary" ... and to think about the 1,266 men who still rest in her today. Much respect to those on both sides who never returned and, in the words of German submariners, "Stayed at Sea".

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

Sounds like fun! Not long after I got SH4 I reenacted several surface battles like the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal and the Battle of Tassafaronga. They were made even more fun by the AI torpedoes mod - can't remember who implemented it but it was a great idea.

Had a productive weekend! HMS "Queen Mary" is now about 90% done, including skin - she was another big obstacle to overcome. Now just a few changes to funnel & superstructure shape and we will have "Lion" & "Princess Royal", because they were near-identical triplets

It has been fun but rather somber to work on "Queen Mary" ... and to think about the 1,266 men who still rest in her today. Much respect to those on both sides who never returned and, in the words of German submariners, "Stayed at Sea".

Glad to hear of the progress. Yes, I often reflect upon those who "stayed at sea". Thanks for sharing the photos.

[DominikusRex]

Hello everyone. As a player who is new to submarine sims and who has only played sh3 and a bit of cold waters, i have to say that I realy like the idea of a ww1 submarine sim so this mod is making me quite hyped. In general, i like the ww1 period more than the ww2 so i guess i have a bit of a bias as well. Anyway, there is one question that i would like to ask: will this mod have an alt. history path? It would be interesting if i sunk enough british dreadnoughts to the point where Tirpitz goes: " now is our time! Mobilise all our dreadnoughts so that we can brake the british blockade!" and so that there is like a special event where the british blockade of Germany is broken. From there there could be other alt. history radio reports where the war on land goes better for the central powers because of the broken blokade. I'd just like to know if there are plans for that or would it be too hard to code in?
Have a nice day

[Jeff-Groves]

To remove any ship once sunk, so that it never appears in Game again?
That would require a separate program.
Problem with that is it would need to re-write so many Campaign files and such.
I can see it as possible to do. But I highly doubt anyone will do it.