[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Pigfish

Whooaa hold on. I never said playable. I tried breifly with DWedit to make her playable but no luck. I suspect it would require more then DWedit.

This worked for SC so it should work with DW:

ADDING PLAYABLE SUBS


Instructions on how to add playable subs to Sub Command by Speaker for the Dead.


1. Download Ludger’s excellent editor from COMSA.CO.UK utilities page

2. Back up you entire database folder in the Sub Command main directory! Be sure to do this because if you mess something up, this backup will be the only way to restore the game to original without reinstalling.

3. Run the editor, it will want you to look for a file. What you need to find is the object.eob file in your database folder in the SC directory, click it to open. At the top of the editor, you’ll see some icons. What you’re looking for is the Entity Dialogue. Just click buttons until a window opens saying “Entity Dialogue”.

4. Now, look in the filter section of the Entity Dialogue window. De-select everything except subs, then click the filter button, what you’re left with is every sub in the game.

5. Find your particular favourite boat either by scrolling through the list or using the search button (just type in the name of your boat), and double click in the filter list. As an example, we’ll use the Collins. To the right is a list of attributes for the Collins. Don’t ask me what they are, I’m still trying to figure that out myself.

6. What we want to change is the “ShipClassIndex” number. For the Collins, the original number is 112. We want to change this number to one of the following in order for the boat to be recognised as a playable sub:

a) “4” will associate the Collins with the Seawolf
b) “2” will associate it with the 688I
c) “226” will associate it with the Akula II
d) “227” will associate it with the other Akula II (There are two different Akula IIs listed in the controller file, don’t ask me, I’m only guessing that one of them is for the Improved Akula.

7. Now, let’s use number 2 as this seems closest to the Collins (I think, not really up on my sub-speak) Erase what ever number is in the ShipClassIndex and replace it with “2” (minus the quotation marks). Click apply, but not close the editor yet, your changes have only been saved temporarily. Go to the upper left corner of the editor, where you would usually see “file”. You’re looking for the word “Datei”. I believe this is German for “file”, again, only a guess. Click it and look for the word “Speichern”. This is save (German again?). Click it. Now your entry has been saved.

What this change has done is associatye all characteristics of the 688I to the Collins model. This includes perfomance (I think), mast and sensor locations and sensor performance, all ship’s screens, i.e., periscope view, weapons view, sonar, radar, etc.

The last thing to do is run the mission editor. Again, using the Collins above, place an improved 688I on the map. Click the name selection bar (?). And you should see the Collins listed with the rest of the 688Is. Click it, set your parameters in the mission editor, click “controllable sub” (very important) and save the mission. Start up SC, select your mission, load and your new Collins should be on the screen in all its glory.

Stewy’s Side Notes
1. Speaker’s post was written on the 11th of January, 2002, and a little more information has come to light since then. Ludger’s editor has been updated a couple of times since his basic first version, but the process remains essentially the same.

2. Now, with the new version of the editor, it’s possible rename the name of the ShipClassIndex, so even though you’re working with number “4” ShipClassIndex (Seawolf) you can rename it to Collins for example, which will make that name appear in the top left info box while you’re playing SC.

3. Also, with the new editor, you can add additional subs of that same class. So that with the Collins, you can add the Collins, Dechanieux, Rankin, etc..

4. The new playable’s sonar won’t work unless you copy the original sub’s sonar vaules, written as two columns of numbers in the sonar editing section of the editor, I’ll include the Seawolf values so that you can get an idea of what I mean.

Sensors
1 - 4
2 - 8
3 - 36
4 - 11
5 - 23
6 - 57
7 - 3
8 - 35
9 - 37
10 - 12
11 - 38
12 - 39

5. Another issue, and this is the doozy, is that the sub will have the mast values of the original sub, and hence, when you go to outside view, and pop the periscope or masts, they’ll appear out of thin air. Basically what you need to do is individually tweak the mast values in the editor until is looks right, my advice is to go in increments of ten or twenty until you can get a feel for the distances the masts move every time you change the values. Picture the centre of the sub as“0”, and the X value is the width away from zero, Y is the length from “0” and Z is the height away from zero. Sounds confusing, so here’s the painstaking mast values that I worked out for the Collins, the numbers are in the order of X, Y, Z

6. Radar, 0.22, 14, 6.86
7. ESM, .22, 12.75, 6.67
8. Radio, -0.22, 13.27, 6.86
9. Scope, -0.22, 15.42, 7.67
10. Port TA, -4.21, 33.95, -8.11
11. Starboard TA, 4.34, -33.94, -7.72
12. Float Wire, 0, 8.53, 5.74

13. Hopefully one day, there’ll be a website that collects these values for different subs so that the process is less annoying and time consuming, but I’ve seen no other mast values for different subs so far. (If you send them in to SCX, we will add them) And so it was done.... see Editing Mast Values under the database menu. (Mad)

14. The main thing is to experiment and have a go at tweaking things. Importantly, share the wealth and help those who may not have the same level of knowledge!

15. I must give FULL credit to Speaker, because without him, I’d still be playing the Seawolf!


Stewy