New subsim, OpenSSN, in its early stages

[redtyphoon]

Hi everyone. I'm currently working on a new subsim. It's called OpenSSN and can be found over at http://openssn.sf.net. My work isn't entirely new, it's actually a continuation of the work done by the LinuxSSN team several years ago. It appears they abandoned the project after getting some basics working. Since it's open source I've been able to take what they started and run with it.

At the moment OpenSSN is in the early stages. Players can move about a map, detect AI-controlled ships and subs and use radar and sonar. So far there's no combat and no missions, but I hope to get those features added soon. I'm using the commercial game "Seawolf" as inspiration for the look and feel of the game.

Right now I'm targeting the Linux and FreeBSD platforms, but if anyone wants to take the code and put together a package for Windows, I'm more than happy to work with you to make that happen. The code is pretty portable.

Right now there isn't much to see (sea), but I will be posting updates here as the project improves and I hope you'll chime in with suggestions or send me some patches (if you're a coder).

Cheers!

[FERdeBOER]

Great news!!
I'd love to see a modern subsim linux-native...

Please, please, don't give up

My programming skills are close to zero, but I can offer myself for a Spanish translation. I know Italian also, but I'm Spanish; if no Italian offers I'll do.

Let me know if you need help and, if so, what could I do.

[redtyphoon]

Originally Posted by FERdeBOER

Great news!!
I'd love to see a modern subsim linux-native...

Please, please, don't give up

My programming skills are close to zero, but I can offer myself for a Spanish translation. I know Italian also, but I'm Spanish; if no Italian offers I'll do.

Let me know if you need help and, if so, what could I do.

Thank you, I'll try to stick with it. It's something I do "after hours", but I'm hoping to get missions included soon.

Your language skills could indeed be handy. I've written a first-draft of a manual in English. If you could translate it to Spanish, that would help me reach a wider audience. I'd also love to have the website translated into Spanish too, if you have time. Any translated documents can be e-mailed to me at jessefrgsmith@yahoo.ca

Thanks!

[Chad]

Best of luck redtyphoon.

If those screens from your webpage are in-game shots and fully functional, it's coming along really nicely

[redtyphoon]

Originally Posted by Chad

Best of luck redtyphoon.

If those screens from your webpage are in-game shots and fully functional, it's coming along really nicely

Thank you! Those screen shots are from in-game. I'd say they are "functional" though perhaps not yet "fully functional". There is still a lot of work to do to get combat and AI in place.

[Julhelm]

Would you like a hand with the graphical side of things? Making some nice GUI screens and stuff.

[redtyphoon]

Originally Posted by Julhelm

Would you like a hand with the graphical side of things? Making some nice GUI screens and stuff.

Right now, with the game in early development, I'm trying to keep the graphics simple. Once things are more stable I'll be open to improving them...

What I would appreciate a hand with is making the website look nicer. What I've got there is pretty much just some simple text. If someone wants to take a stab at making a nicer website, that would be great.

Also, for the Linux & BSD users out there, please file a request with your distribution and ask them to package OpenSSN. That would help me get more exposure and fix distro-specific bugs.

[FERdeBOER]

Originally Posted by redtyphoon

Your language skills could indeed be handy. I've written a first-draft of a manual in English. If you could translate it to Spanish, that would help me reach a wider audience. I'd also love to have the website translated into Spanish too, if you have time. Any translated documents can be e-mailed to me at jessefrgsmith@yahoo.ca

Thanks!

Work in progress. I'm also doing it "after hours", but I think I'll have the manual ready soon.

[Deamon]

Will this remain a pure Linux thingy ?

[redtyphoon]

Originally Posted by Deamon

Will this remain a pure Linux thingy ?

Well, I'm doing all of my development on Linux, so I suppose it is primarily a "Linux thingy". However, I am trying to keep the code cross-platform-friendly and I plan to get it ported to FreeBSD once some more features are in place.

OpenSSN is built using C++ and the SDL graphics library which runs on Windows and OS X, so I suspect it should be easy to get running on other systems.

Bottom line: I personally won't be making builds for other operating systems, but if someone else is willing to step forward and make packages for Windows, OS X, etc then I will host those packages on the OpenSSN website and work with the packagers to make the process as easy as possible.

[Deamon]

Tell me, have you ever played Red Storm Rising ?

[redtyphoon]

Originally Posted by Deamon

Tell me, have you ever played Red Storm Rising ?

I haven't played Red Storm Rising, but I've read the Tom Clancy book by that name three times.

[Julhelm]

You should try playing it. It would probably give you some good ideas as to setting up gameplay.

[Deamon]

Originally Posted by redtyphoon

I haven't played Red Storm Rising, but I've read the Tom Clancy book by that name three times.

You, missed the best subsim ever! This is the best damn cold war subsim ever created! I find it even better than the whole sonalysts serie, particularly because of its campaign system and the amount of choices.

If you are going to creat your own sim then you definetely have to take Red Storm Rising as an example( and NOT Hunter Killer or Sub Command) particularly the campaign system that provides ENDLESS replayability.

I am still playing it on my Amiga emulator once in a while. It makes you addicted every time you play it immediately and it is one of the most immersive games ever! This is a stone age game that appeared the first time on the C64 but in my view overall it still beats all the other sims including sonalysts! The game is nearly perfect. There are maybe only a couple of things that needs to be improved.

I would suggest you give it a shot. Give us Red Storm Rising in 3D!

[redtyphoon]

Originally Posted by Deamon

You, missed the best subsim ever! This is the best damn cold war subsim ever created! I find it even better than the whole sonalysts serie, particularly because of its campaign system and the amount of choices.

If you are going to creat your own sim then you definetely have to take Red Storm Rising as an example( and NOT Hunter Killer or Sub Command) particularly the campaign system that provides ENDLESS replayability.

I am still playing it on my Amiga emulator once in a while. It makes you addicted every time you play it immediately and it is one of the most immersive games ever! This is a stone age game that appeared the first time on the C64 but in my view overall it still beats all the other sims including sonalysts! The game is nearly perfect. There are maybe only a couple of things that needs to be improved.

I would suggest you give it a shot. Give us Red Storm Rising in 3D!

I took a look at some video captures of the game and while it has elements I like, that's not really what I'm aiming for. I'm trying to get something closer to Seawolf SSN-21 (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikiped...SSN-21_Seawolf)