New to DWmodding + my first ideas.

[AntonKantov]

Well, after many lonely years in this sub sim thing, I thought I'd like to get into the community. I like mission design and modding more than actual playing, so... I suppose this is the place to be.

To start with, I'm trying to create a new set of fleets with pre-existing vessels of the game. Many countries in the world use ships already in the game but surprisingly this wasn't used by DW creators to multiply the number of fleets (and possible scenarios)!

I was also thinking on how to make a playable export Improved Kilo to be Indian instead of Chinese. Since the Pakistani fleet exists in the game, this would open a nice set of new scenarios.

Oh, and anyone into SOSUS and SOSUS-alike systems as well as simulation of the SOFAR channel will be specially invited to beers when coming to the Mediterranean.

Greetings from Spain,

[Kapitan]

good idea and good luck

[Pigfish]

Wait a few days and if no one else is game I will post a simple tutorial as to how to add a Polish OHP in game. The technique can be used for any units you like. Its really not that hard but graphically you are limited to existing in game units.

Heck you can make a Nimitz a working 212A but would look silly in 3D.

[Amizaur]

Playable Polish OHP ? It's harder but possible :-) only armament have to be exactly same like in US version then :-/.
I think that any additional units and even making other navies fleets is very welcomed in our Luft&Ami mod, if anyone want to take a part we would send him files, tools and help

[Pigfish]

Originally Posted by Amizaur

Playable Polish OHP ? It's harder but possible :-) only armament have to be exactly same like in US version then :-/.
I think that any additional units and even making other navies fleets is very welcomed in our Luft&Ami mod, if anyone want to take a part we would send him files, tools and help

Whooaa hold on. I never said playable. I tried breifly with DWedit to make her playable but no luck. I suspect it would require more then DWedit. For me DWedit is great for adding new AI units, countrys etc but limited to what you can do with playables. Still capable of some potent changes for some aspects of playables though.

I ment strictly a AI ship, or target . Im thinking the Polish OHP cuz then I can show how to add a helo as the Polish are using Seasprites. Thus making the Polish OHP unique. Also if the user wants to give the OHP a unique sonar profile, passive or active etc. This way I can give some basics of what DWedit can do and leave it up to the user.

And before anyone says it there is no Seasprite in DW, I know. However the Lynx, kinda, a bit, looks like a Seasprite so I was gonna use it to show how you can make it a Seasprite for the Polish OHP. If you can live with the wrong look.

And the last part of your post Amizaur-Iwould love to help, additional AI units and countrys, proper active sonars etc.

Also before anyone says it too, the Polish OHP most likely has the same passive and active sig as an American.

[Amizaur]

In fact it is ex-US ship (rather old one...), so no need to change anything with exeption of helo and great MU-90s that are planned as ASW torpedos :-) Next units to add (and I have somwhere a database with them added) would be Kobben class subs (very similar to Type-206 but with very modernized electronics), Polish Kilo class ORP "Orzel", I managed to make it playable once with jsteed's help, but had to sacrifice one of other playable Kilos, one of Chinese... but no problem with adding non-playable :-) The great potential is in other Baltic countres - Sweden, Norwey ect., some great SSKs there. German 212 type boats....

[Pigfish]

Romania, Chile, Peru, heck even Ecuador can be added with existing units in DW.

Now a 212 hmmm. What 3D object would you use? Boy would I like an accurate playble 212 or 214. (drooling)

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Pigfish

Whooaa hold on. I never said playable. I tried breifly with DWedit to make her playable but no luck. I suspect it would require more then DWedit.

This worked for SC so it should work with DW:

ADDING PLAYABLE SUBS


Instructions on how to add playable subs to Sub Command by Speaker for the Dead.


1. Download Ludger’s excellent editor from COMSA.CO.UK utilities page

2. Back up you entire database folder in the Sub Command main directory! Be sure to do this because if you mess something up, this backup will be the only way to restore the game to original without reinstalling.

3. Run the editor, it will want you to look for a file. What you need to find is the object.eob file in your database folder in the SC directory, click it to open. At the top of the editor, you’ll see some icons. What you’re looking for is the Entity Dialogue. Just click buttons until a window opens saying “Entity Dialogue�.

4. Now, look in the filter section of the Entity Dialogue window. De-select everything except subs, then click the filter button, what you’re left with is every sub in the game.

5. Find your particular favourite boat either by scrolling through the list or using the search button (just type in the name of your boat), and double click in the filter list. As an example, we’ll use the Collins. To the right is a list of attributes for the Collins. Don’t ask me what they are, I’m still trying to figure that out myself.

6. What we want to change is the “ShipClassIndex� number. For the Collins, the original number is 112. We want to change this number to one of the following in order for the boat to be recognised as a playable sub:

a) “4� will associate the Collins with the Seawolf
b) “2� will associate it with the 688I
c) “226� will associate it with the Akula II
d) “227� will associate it with the other Akula II (There are two different Akula IIs listed in the controller file, don’t ask me, I’m only guessing that one of them is for the Improved Akula.

7. Now, let’s use number 2 as this seems closest to the Collins (I think, not really up on my sub-speak) Erase what ever number is in the ShipClassIndex and replace it with “2� (minus the quotation marks). Click apply, but not close the editor yet, your changes have only been saved temporarily. Go to the upper left corner of the editor, where you would usually see “file�. You’re looking for the word “Datei�. I believe this is German for “file�, again, only a guess. Click it and look for the word “Speichern�. This is save (German again?). Click it. Now your entry has been saved.

What this change has done is associatye all characteristics of the 688I to the Collins model. This includes perfomance (I think), mast and sensor locations and sensor performance, all ship’s screens, i.e., periscope view, weapons view, sonar, radar, etc.

The last thing to do is run the mission editor. Again, using the Collins above, place an improved 688I on the map. Click the name selection bar (?). And you should see the Collins listed with the rest of the 688Is. Click it, set your parameters in the mission editor, click “controllable sub� (very important) and save the mission. Start up SC, select your mission, load and your new Collins should be on the screen in all its glory.

Stewy’s Side Notes
1. Speaker’s post was written on the 11th of January, 2002, and a little more information has come to light since then. Ludger’s editor has been updated a couple of times since his basic first version, but the process remains essentially the same.

2. Now, with the new version of the editor, it’s possible rename the name of the ShipClassIndex, so even though you’re working with number “4� ShipClassIndex (Seawolf) you can rename it to Collins for example, which will make that name appear in the top left info box while you’re playing SC.

3. Also, with the new editor, you can add additional subs of that same class. So that with the Collins, you can add the Collins, Dechanieux, Rankin, etc..

4. The new playable’s sonar won’t work unless you copy the original sub’s sonar vaules, written as two columns of numbers in the sonar editing section of the editor, I’ll include the Seawolf values so that you can get an idea of what I mean.

Sensors
1 - 4
2 - 8
3 - 36
4 - 11
5 - 23
6 - 57
7 - 3
8 - 35
9 - 37
10 - 12
11 - 38
12 - 39

5. Another issue, and this is the doozy, is that the sub will have the mast values of the original sub, and hence, when you go to outside view, and pop the periscope or masts, they’ll appear out of thin air. Basically what you need to do is individually tweak the mast values in the editor until is looks right, my advice is to go in increments of ten or twenty until you can get a feel for the distances the masts move every time you change the values. Picture the centre of the sub as“0�, and the X value is the width away from zero, Y is the length from “0� and Z is the height away from zero. Sounds confusing, so here’s the painstaking mast values that I worked out for the Collins, the numbers are in the order of X, Y, Z

6. Radar, 0.22, 14, 6.86
7. ESM, .22, 12.75, 6.67
8. Radio, -0.22, 13.27, 6.86
9. Scope, -0.22, 15.42, 7.67
10. Port TA, -4.21, 33.95, -8.11
11. Starboard TA, 4.34, -33.94, -7.72
12. Float Wire, 0, 8.53, 5.74

13. Hopefully one day, there’ll be a website that collects these values for different subs so that the process is less annoying and time consuming, but I’ve seen no other mast values for different subs so far. (If you send them in to SCX, we will add them) And so it was done.... see Editing Mast Values under the database menu. (Mad)

14. The main thing is to experiment and have a go at tweaking things. Importantly, share the wealth and help those who may not have the same level of knowledge!

15. I must give FULL credit to Speaker, because without him, I’d still be playing the Seawolf!


Stewy

[Stewy]

Yeah TLAM, I've never tried that for DW - so I'm not advoacating doing that for DW...I know the climate is a little different for DW and they're clamping down on extra playables...

I'm still hoping and praying that SCS will release their official Western Diesels pack...although when/if that'll come - who knows...

[Beer]

I am not a Sea Lawyer but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Select...

I recall the phrase "new playables". Being the the FFG is playable out of the box, I would interpet that as fair game for just a playable "nation mod".

"New playables" I would say would be the AB DDG's and CG's (as well as the Virginia) everyone want that are only AI capable or do not exist in game yet.

Perhaps Jamie can chime in to clarify the "new playable" intent?

[AntonKantov]

That's exactly what I intend to do.

There're many fleets in the world composed by vessels already in the game -or slight variations- that can make for lots of scenarios. Since the big exporters are in the game, the importers can be also.

Curiously I can't make my country's navy, Spain, since we make our own boats. Usually based on other countries' technologies (USA, France, Germany) but own design, own shipbuilding. For those of you who haven't been introduced to it, the Spanish Navy is quite interesting. But I'd have to create everything from scratch, and that takes a lot of time that I don't own now.

Best regards from the warm waters of the Mediterranean,

[Amizaur]

I asked this question once, and got a reply - adding a new nation's playable Perry or Kilo is not understood as adding a "new" platform :-) they are already in the game. But the tragedy is, that first armaments of playable units are said to be hard-coded in interfaces, so you can't change playable platform weapons... second you can't ADD a playable Kilo without first removing one from the game, you have to switch one existing version into another - and will get it's weapons. Adding playable Perry I didn't experienced the same problem - after some trying I added playable Adelaide FFG without problems :-) only it had to have same weapons as U.S. Perry :-( and sensors too IIRC...

[Pigfish]

Good info TLAM/Stewy. This may help some a little...

[XabbaRus]

To answer Beer,

If someone wanted to replace the US OHP with the Polish OHP it can be done with a database hack and fiddling around.

That is how the Collins was first made playable with Sub Command.

SCS and Jamie won't object to this as you are altering the dbase, just like Amizaur and Luft are doing. Although your OHP will be selectable under Poland it is still the original US OHP in game.

What SCS will object to is the making of true playables with their own loadout and without sacrificing another playable to achieve that aim.. ie to do this you have to hack the dll files and the exe a la SCU sub changer for Sub Command. They let it fly last time but this time they don't want us to do that.

But back to the original..want to make a Polish OHP using a database hack..sure just you will lose the US one.

[Amizaur]

I could swear then when I made playable Polish OHP, i didn't sacrifice U.S. one. I'm sure in 99%. Just an add and worked, of course with controllers.ini edit. But this didn't work for Kilo for me, to get playable Kilo one of existing Kilo entries in controllers.ini had to be sacrificed.