Is SH4 Moddable enough to include the IJN?

[Incubus]

I know that 'feasable' and 'practical' are two different things, but one thing I've wondered since getting this game- is it possible to mod it to essentially play as the Imperial Japanese Navy? You know, by re-skinning boats exterior/interior, changing the audio files, home ports, etc?

There is a lot of friendly traffic out there- I probably get as many friendly task force contact reports as I get enemy task forces, for example. I would think by playing the 'other side' there'd be plenty of quarry.

And if it were doable, imagine the challenges of trying to play through 1945! I would think that some of the more hardcore players would love it- Japan faced many of the same disadvantages Germany did late in the war, compounded with the fact that their boats couldn't dive as deep as the Germans, were harder to maneuver, etc. You could be pitted in dangerous, nigh-impossible missions, like "Find and destroy American Task force" "Reinforce island garrison about to be overrun by Marines" "Transport Nazi gold/UFO parts/Hitler's brain back to Tokyo"

If not, oh well, I guess we can hope for all this in the expansion . I know some people already mentioned there isn't much market for a Japanese sub sim, but their fleet/situation has all the makings of a very challenging game- some of their boats had SCOUT PLANES, Kaiten, and a model with a faster underwater speed than even the German type XXI. Not to mention the Long Lance torpedo- combined with a scout plane you could torpedo a convoy from miles away! and later on it would get quite challenging- I'd think some of the purists would welcome that learning curve.

[Sailor Steve]

It might be possible, but to be done right the following would have to be changed: sub exteriors, interiors, proper Japanese scripting for the guages, Japanese voice actors to give the proper immersion, reassigned bases and mission parameters and equipment.

Some would be easy, some hard, and some (the voices) possibly quite expensive.

[tater]

I think the planes would be pretty impossible to mod in, certainly with any realism. Straight subs might well be possible. There are guys working on u-boats.

[peterloo]

depending on realism, this can be done. But as what others said, this requires a huge man-cost and quite a lot of time.

We've modded the Silent Hunter 2 campaign and boats from German U-boats to a American one successful. The mod is avaliable on a Super-CD which can be purchased (more accurately, gained after a kind donation). Unfortunately, I don't have such a CD as being to young, (I'm under 18, that's all I can tell you) and my mum would be in anger if she knew I try to spend $$ on games. So, I'm afraid that I can't ask her to pay for me. Furthermore, SH4 has already served the majority of functions accessable by a Super-CD

Back to the topic: This can be done, but requiring lots of trial and error. There won't be much volunteers if there are some , due to its time consuming nature.