Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Deamon
That is neat CB.., that is neat!
As noticed earlier there were some serious ambitions behind this game that didn't worked out as expected. There seem to be some unexploited potential in it :hmm:
Looking forward to more of your discoveries.
|
cheers all
the unique aspect of the game is the fashion in which it creates it's missions..
the fact that you can type VISUAL BASIC code (or as i say something very much like it) STRIAGHT into the mission file itself...opens the game up so wide you can do literaly anything you want with it....as long as you have the know how to write the code ..
it's hard to think of any comparison any where else...but the best i can come up with is that each individual mission file allows you to redisign the entire game virtualy from scratch ...
it's really rather incredible..
Deamon your involved in writing game code for your project...so you must have a head for code work..( to say the least i should imagnine?)
what SOF allows you to do is write game creation code stright into the mission scripts.....
because of this i can't actualy see any limitations to what the game can do ...
it's only limitations are down to how familiar you are with writting the code..
the game has it's draw backs...and things which really get my goat...mainly due to the interface...the way it frequently requires two or three clicks on the compass to get it to recognise your course change...same again for the keyboard shortcuts...the way the map self centers is awfull ..leaving you straned while you try to plot a course for the sub to follow beacuse just as your about to click on the map to set a waypoint it self ceners so your way point is now in the middle of norway instead of where you intended lol...can't see the sense in that at all..most irritating..so the interface makes you feel a lack of confindence in the game..i don't know if this was deliberate or not..but it doesn't make you feel comfortable..
the lack of any genuine danger for the player is another thing...dive every time you see a destroyer and that's it threat over..it really needs late war hydrohones..
but that's where the code comes in...i may not be able to write the code for hydrophones at the moment...but it's seems perfectly obviuos that it is possible to script DD's equiped with hydrophones into the missions...using the same logic that other sims use to simulate hyrdophones and other sensors..
once you grasp that possibility you begin to see that what we have here is in fact SUBMARINE SIMULATOR GAME CREATION SOFTWARE..
and soft ware that could given time and practice (as with any game creation software) do anything required of it anything at all..
which is not bad going for a much derided and deliberately ignored (IMO) new sub sim on the market
take a look at it see if you can help me out with some of the code..(i am NO expert far from it)
an example would be here that if some -one was to attempt to convert the game to a WW2 subsim..they could with enough experience code the proper AI DD
tactics for convoy escorts,,by that i mean all the correct maneuvers such as "pineapple" and so on...you can very accurately control what each individual vessel does and why it does it....and you can co-ordinate the vessels to act in unison or individualy and again when why and for how long..with endlessly complex dynamic response to the changing circumstances they encounter....
this is just something that is utterly and completely beyond the capacity for modification in SH3/4 etc.....
this would involve a lot of complex code BUT once written i believe it can be stored in a "Template" and called from the mission file when the behaviuor is required..ie triggered by time ..detection of the player...location ...anything really...
once again you grasp the fact that you can do this sort of thing you can see that with expert code work you can build a library of AI behaviuor and other effects and call them in a similar fashion to those behaviuors now currently stored in the "StateEnginetemplates.txt"
there is a function also for calling an external script which is triggered by the player reaching an objective....indeed there is a slightly obscure function that has an external script actual AS the objective...tho i'm at a loss as to what that actualy means right now..
so once you start thinking of the mission scripts as giving you genuine access to the games core code and the ability to modify it adapt it and add to it on the fly you can see that this is no ordinary run of the mill game engine...FAR FAR FROM IT
it without even trying makes the SH3/4 game engine look pretty bl**dy silly by comparison..which is why it's so ironic that so few have gotten their heads out of their arses long enough to see beyond their own ego trips! it is almost as if the game devs have given the subsim community absolutely everything they could have ever dreamed of....but no one was interested because it involved too much "work"
quite WHY the DEVS didn't take a couple of hours one afternoon to write some decent complex code into the campaign to show what the game was capable of is a mystery to me...if they HAD.. no one would have any doubts about just how good this game can be:hmm: too busy worrying about the box art no doubt...strange prioritys...bizaare
hey Bsalyers!!!
remember that there is NO definitive "periscope depth" in the game...go deeper...and you will find you can get within ramming range if your carefull..remember that you have maybe 5 or 6 seconds grace before the ship spots the scope so you can pop it up to get your bearings then quickly lower the scope again and creep closer....get down to about 9 metres depth and be prepared to constantly adjust the height of the scope to compensate for the waves and watch the detection metre to gauge your visability..as i say the contact stays active even after you lower the scope for a considerable time..so even using the stock weather/water animation set up you can get right up along side the ships..it's probably one of most complex and best simulated scope depth scope visability factors seen so far in a subsim..AFAIK