Does anyone care about the missing KM Grid?

[Galanti]

Title says it all. I guess we're all confident it'll get modded in, but I don't see a lot of outrage that it was missing in the first place?

To be honest, it doesn't really do a damn thing as far as gameplay goes, except for that really tiny thing called historical authenticity.

Does anyone really miss it?

Unfortunately for some, me included alas, that tiny thing called historical authenticity is an essential ingredient. Without it we'll be roaming the seas in turbo powered stealth fighters attacking green zombies with a rail gun.

[Dowly]

Aye, I miss it. Don't know why they left it out, maybe they didn't have the time to re-add it after SH4 or something. Anywho, blows it's not included.

[Sailor Steve]

I think the better question is, is there anyone who doesn't care about it? I'll bet every single person here findes this annoying.

[Coldcall]

the nav map just doesnt look the same without it.

[kylania]

Meh. Nothing in game references grid squares, so them not being there hasn't bothered me at all to be honest.

Having played SH4 first than gone back to sh3, i think the KM grid map is HIDEOUS! Why do you want to look at ugly green squares that never meant anything in the first place. The mission objectives were always "Stay 200KM from this point for 96 hours'', not "Patrol grid WD420"

[EAF274 Johan]

I don't normally post my outrage... but now you mention the KM grids, yes, I am angry I suppose the fact that few people have brought this up is because there are so many other annoyances spoiling the game.

With the current map it's impossible to plot a position even remotely accurately, as it only shows increments in degrees So at least put a scale in minutes and seconds in. KM grid of course would be so much better, simply because that is what they used after all.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by kylania

Meh. Nothing in game references grid squares..

Yeah, well, that's another thing that just blows. Why everything is in lon/lat coordinates? Stooopid.

Originally Posted by MattDizzle

Having played SH4 first than gone back to sh3, i think the KM grid map is HIDEOUS! Why do you want to look at ugly green squares that never meant anything in the first place. The mission objectives were always "Stay 200KM from this point for 96 hours'', not "Patrol grid WD420"

Umm... because Uboats used the KM grid? Ow and the mission orders WERE "Patrol grid XXXX".

[Kumando]

I do, hope someone mod it.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Dowly

Don't know why they left it out, maybe they didn't have the time to re-add it after SH4 or something.

I think i know why. This is just a theory mind you.

The logical theory:
The mission system introduced in SH4 is somewhat different. Its not just go here, patrol for X hours. With the new system you can drop a mission almost anywhere that has access to water. A grid system may have been too restrictive.

The tin hat theory:
When making SH4, the Dev's couldn't find any research material in relation to the US sub services grid maps. Since they didn't know what it looked like, they left it out! Lurker found it on his own, dan saw it, and i belive his words where along the lines of, "Where did you find that?!" Makes me think that he was looking, but couldnt find it.

Originally Posted by Arclight

Came across some code refering to the KM grid. Not sure how they were planning on implementing it, but seems it's one of many features they just couldn't finish before release.

If I'm interpreting it correctly, that is. Have a look in "data\Menu\KGrid", just some text files and a graphics file.

And yes, I kinda miss it. At least the map on the table in the control room is correct.

That is legacy code from SH4 UBM. It wasn't even a true grid system used by the game. It was total eye candy. An overlay on top of the mission map. Better then nothing i suppose. Regardless, the mission system was still SH4's version..

To illustrate:
- the SH3 version was, you directly assigned a grid. The game acknowledged this grid in code. You were there, or you were not. It didn't use lat/long coords at all.

- SH4 /5 version is, you place a map zone. Size the map zone however large you want it, and tie it into your mission objective. To give the ILLUSION of a grid, you had to load it seperately, find the grid your mission happened to be in, and type it into the mission description.

[Arclight]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

That is legacy code from SH4 UBM. It wasn't even a true grid system used by the game. It was total eye candy. An overlay on top of the mission map. Better then nothing i suppose. Regardless, the mission system was still SH4's version..

To illustrate:
- the SH3 version was, you directly assigned a grid. The game acknowledged this grid in code. You were there, or you were not. It didn't use lat/long coords at all.

- SH4 /5 version is, you place a map zone. Size the map zone however large you want it, and tie it into your mission objective. To give the ILLUSION of a grid, you had to load it seperately, find the grid your mission happened to be in, and type it into the mission description.

Yeah, was afraid of that, bigboywooly indicated as much as well.

Shame it doesn't use the hardcoded method, though I guess it leaves the door open for adding a playable Allied side. Would appreciate to see the 'faked' grid first though.

[bert8for3]

Yup, miss the grid. It's an essential to my mind (liking authenticity), and leaving it out leaves me scratching my head. As for precision, the KM grid was hyper-accurate, on the 4-digit system narrowing down to a 6x6-mile area IIRC. It beat the heck out of lat/long, which although accurate was longer to transmit.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Arclight

Yeah, was afraid of that, bigboywooly indicated as much as well.

Shame it doesn't use the hardcoded method, though I guess it leaves the door open for adding a playable Allied side. Would appreciate to see the 'faked' grid first though.

The illusionary method works reasonbily well if done right, but its a PITA to do on the part of the campagin/mission scripter. Really tedious.

In SH3 the KM Grid was hard coded into the SH3.exe
In SH4, part of that code was removed to disable it.
In SH5, even more was removed.
However, part of the code does still remain.