[WIP] SH4 Japanese Seaplane Tender Akitsushima

Currently working on this:




The Akitsushima was a seaplane tender specialised in servicing and repairing the big four-engine flying boats of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the H6K and the H8K. She spent most of her service sailing among the IJN bases in the Solomons, Truk, the Palaus and finally in the Philippines, where she was finally sunk in September 1944.

I happens to be a very popular ship for modelers (and divers ), with many versions located through Google when I was looking for info for the ship. Strangely, no SH4 version that I know of. Hopefully this will solve that issue .

Most of the basic stuff is done. I'm using some parts from stock ships for minor stuff on deck, but the hull+bridge+superstructure is made from scratch.

Textures for camouflage is temporary, taken from a profile found on Internet. Hopefully it will be slightly improved it in the release version.

[Treetop64]

Looking forward to this.

Your work in SHIV has been of consistent quality and has become one of the few that I now download without hesitation.

Thank you.

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by JapLance

Currently working on this:
...

... I'm using some parts from stock ships for minor stuff on deck, but the hull+bridge+superstructure is made from scratch...

Very nice! Is the hull the same as used on some other ships? Was the Akitsushima built on an older flush-deck DD or CL hull? Thanks.

[cdrsubron7]

Nice work, JapLance. Look forward to seeing in my scope after you release the final version.

[Zunaka]

So excited!, Will it work with FOTRS?

[propbeanie]

It would be close to compatible, depending upon the library files he uses. We'll see if we can get it in there, but we might be pushing the limit for the number of ships, planes and land units (I want a train also, so we might have to borrow HanSolo78's from WAC) - besides the fact that we're trying to overwork s7rikeback! lol - but it sure would be nice to have another "rare" ship in there.

Originally Posted by Treetop64

Looking forward to this.

Your work in SHIV has been of consistent quality and has become one of the few that I now download without hesitation.

Thank you.

Thanks for the kind words. Hopefully the final ship will meet the expectations .

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Very nice! Is the hull the same as used on some other ships? Was the Akitsushima built on an older flush-deck DD or CL hull? Thanks.

No as fas as I know. It was a newly designed and built ship, though when I was doing the hull it reminded me a bit of the Katori training cruisers.

Originally Posted by cdrsubron7

Nice work, JapLance. Look forward to seeing in my scope after you release the final version.

Thank you. Still some time until it's released.

Originally Posted by propbeanie

It would be close to compatible, depending upon the library files he uses. We'll see if we can get it in there, but we might be pushing the limit for the number of ships, planes and land units (I want a train also, so we might have to borrow HanSolo78's from WAC) - besides the fact that we're trying to overwork s7rikeback! lol - but it sure would be nice to have another "rare" ship in there.

I try to keep my Japanese ships playable with stock game. This one has very common armament (2x2 AA 127mm and the typical 25mm mounts, plus a Y-Gun) so I don't think it would be hard to adapt to any mega-mod.

[s7rikeback]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

It would be close to compatible, depending upon the library files he uses. We'll see if we can get it in there, but we might be pushing the limit for the number of ships, planes and land units (I want a train also, so we might have to borrow HanSolo78's from WAC) - besides the fact that we're trying to overwork s7rikeback! lol - but it sure would be nice to have another "rare" ship in there.

hmmm Better start the pay negotiations sooner, rather than later then..

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by JapLance

...
No as fas as I know. It was a newly designed and built ship, though when I was doing the hull it reminded me a bit of the Katori training cruisers.

That is what my mind was seeing, comparing it to the Katori that ZUIKAKU1944 did a while ago...

Originally Posted by s7rikeback

hmmm Better start the pay negotiations sooner, rather than later then..

As s7rikeback mentions, I suppose we should be proper, and ask you JapLance, if we can use the Akitsushima in FotRSU, with proper credit given, once you have completed it? How much other material do you have in your shipyard? Do you do airplanes, like maybe a B-29 super-fortress?... hint hint

Originally Posted by propbeanie

That is what my mind was seeing, comparing it to the Katori that ZUIKAKU1944 did a while ago...



As s7rikeback mentions, I suppose we should be proper, and ask you JapLance, if we can use the Akitsushima in FotRSU, with proper credit given, once you have completed it? How much other material do you have in your shipyard? Do you do airplanes, like maybe a B-29 super-fortress?... hint hint

No need to ask. The best that can happen to any of my ships is ending in a mega-mod.

Not much new stuff in the shipyard. Most of the time I'm doing minor changes to stock ships. Some of them need a number of changes to look right (Fubuki for example).

Planes... Never did any. Not sure If I could get it right. Probably it would be easier to find a model from a flight simulator and ask the creator if it could be used. CFS2 has a ton of available planes and they usually have a reasonable number of polygons, being an old simulator.

What is puzzling me is what could you do with a B-29 in a submarine game. For rescue missions maybe?

[propbeanie]

Yes indeedy... after Saipan and Tinian, the player could see a few fly overhead as they're in the area, or if on Lifeguard Duty and in certain missions, might see one or two "ditch". Of course, the planes would "fireball" after gliding in for their ditching in the game, since airplanes aren't supposed to touch water or land - and the player would definitely have to keep their eyes open, and not become a fireball themselves. But definitely for Lifeguard duty, with a PBY, and B-24 as "dumbo" planes, and a few F6F as SCAP (which the game won't let 'dogfight'...), and you've got it for the last year of the war in the Pacific...

I will probably create a new class of ships in names.cfg for this unusual ship. Something like

Type22=Seaplane Tender

Unlike Nisshin, which in the game acts as an Escort carrier, this seaplane tender doesn't spawn planes as it was more of a servicing and repairing asset, so I think a different class makes sense.

If it is a new class, it won't appear in any campaign without editing a few files, so I thought about doing a set of missions that only needed to be added to campaign.cfg. I think it's the easiest way. I spent today doing a set of missions in ME to include the ship in a campaign. They're based on the Akitsushima TROM in combinedfleet.com:



I've never done anything like that, so I still have to test it and be sure that it works.

[propbeanie]

I think a Type=100 Replenishment would work fine, and wouldn't necessitate any campaign files. It would be a "Merchant", technically, but fly the Rising Sun flag (I think - maybe)... It would be like the sub tenders or fleet oilers - but, it is your mod, so what you decide to do is what should be done, not what anyone else says. Anyone who wants to use your mod can change things, if need be, to make it work with their other mod(s). But if you want to supply "historical" routings, then what you have in that picture would be a way to go with it also. I don't think though, that you can arbitrarily add another Type= category. We tried that ourselves before with FotRSU, and I cannot recall off the top of my head, the mayhem it caused, but maybe s7rikeback can remember... ?? just be careful of that idea is all I'm saying.

Originally Posted by propbeanie

I don't think though, that you can arbitrarily add another Type= category.

I tried it yesterday and didn't find any problems. Played a couple of patrols, no crashes and in one of them even found her when I was on my way to my patrol zone in the Marshalls from Brisbane. She escaped unharmed because US torpedoes in early 1943...

So apparently it works. I will still play more patrols to be sure.

Anyway, I think I will release the ship as an escort carrier just like the other seaplane tenders, with an Extras folder that will include the explanation on how to convert it into an independent class with the proper files and the campaign layers.

[Zunaka]

I think I may actually do a modded SH4 but only with extra ships.