[WIP] Wolves of the Kaiser:1914-1918 Mod

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by brickvapie

Thanks, just one more thing

Saying that something like this happens, such as a Depth Charge almost ripping apart and destroying your boat, is there some type of surrender feature where you can raise up to depth, and will there be some type of scuttle system too?

No plans for that unfortunately. I would love that idea but I don't know how to implement it.

I have some excellent news however...I have solved the "jello water" bug! I've been trying to do this for years and it took hundreds of hours. This means I will not need to have only calm weather for the entire mod...for the first time I was able to go severa in game days and have normal looking storm waves! This is also useful for other modders ... the "jello water" issue has been a problem ever since SH4 was first released. The problem was that, in SH4, the game changes sea states too slowly - if you use time compression, eventually the wave patterns look weird, with jagged waves or big, fake "jello" waves. After increasing sea state change speed I finally get weather like it should be - realistic storms, off and on, and properly-shaped waves. I can't tell you guys what a big releif this is.

Other work this past week: preparing AI light cruiser models, and adding radio messages/news events. I thought it would take forever to add war news messages but it's coming along well! Now I have all of 1914-1915 done, and I'm in August 1916! You will get radio news of the war nearly every day (20-25 days per month). The Archduke Assassination, Battle of the Marne, Tannenberg, Verdun, The Somme, Passchendaele - it's all there, including some pretty exciting stories!

Also working on a video that showcases new ship damage/particle/crew figure/lifeboat effects, so stay tuned.

[SlySkydiver]

Every day this mod looks more and more promising. Congrats on solving the jello water issue!

[scorch092]

Made an account just to say how much I'm looking forwards to trying this mod! I'm interested to see how Canada will be represented. Keep up the good work!

Also, if you plan on adding them I know a good resource for the WWI-era British skiff dinghies that tended to the Empire's fleet. Not sure if that's useful but could be used as flavour in harbours or something.

Anyways, cheers from Canada!

[Aktungbby]

scorch092!

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by scorch092

Made an account just to say how much I'm looking forwards to trying this mod! I'm interested to see how Canada will be represented. Keep up the good work!

Also, if you plan on adding them I know a good resource for the WWI-era British skiff dinghies that tended to the Empire's fleet. Not sure if that's useful but could be used as flavour in harbours or something.

Anyways, cheers from Canada!

Thanks for the support, and the information! Maybe I can use it when it's time to model small craft; feel free to link to whatever resource you like.

Re: updates, last night I did more work on light cruisers (Weymouth Class); the model is coming along well. The most well known ship of the class is HMS Falmouth, sunk by a U-Boat in 1916.... I also did more war news messages. I will be continuing the model tonight.

Forgot to mention last week I did a little more work on the playable U-9 (which sank Aboukir/Cressy/Hogue) - obviously, the "Live Bait" sinkings will be one of the single player missions.

Also, the past several days abandon ship+panic state AI ship crew animations were worked on ... not to knock SH5 or Playway's U-Boat but it annoys me how crew in those games stay calm when their ships are sinking. In WOTK, as indicated in some of my past messages, men on sinking ships will run and put on life jackets when a ship is sinking. On top of that you will get real lifeboat launching! Not just the "magic boats" from earlier games. Lifeboats may or may not be launched successfully....before release there will be some flipping over/breaking scenarios added to random boat loadouts.

I believe I have resolved a bug where crew arms/legs would flail around after using time compression.... it was kinda funny but annoying.

Another mini-project will be rust/cosmetic damage to player units. I have noticed that in service KM U-Boats often had issues like bent handrails, chipped hull plates, and of course rust .... wear and tear that looked bad but was not enough to keep a submarine out of service. This will be enabled using a similar S3d Editor enabled animation procedure to lifeboat launching; thus, once you have been out on patrol for a couple weeks your boat will have more and more rust streaks along with twisted grab irons, damaged ladders, and other minor stuff.


More updates to this thread, the facebook page, etc will appear soon.

[Niume]

Could we have some sneak peaks at the environment? How dark are the nights? How does storm look like?

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Niume

Could we have some sneak peaks at the environment? How dark are the nights? How does storm look like?

Unfortunately I don't have screens of the complete environment yet. Plan is to use W_Clear's work with permission; his stuff is quite beautiful. Enhanced with volumetric clouds....I believe they did not exist when he first released his environmental mod.

Various modifications will be added such as the necessary changes to eliminate "jello water"...also reduced overhead opacity. When I lived near the Atlantic Ocean I had the chance to observe its opacity...SH4 environments far overestimate how easy it is to see underwater from overhead. For instance, when looking at freighters docked in harbor I could never see very far underneath the hull at the waterline...high plankton content, pollution, and impurities make Atlantic water very hard to see through.

Nights will be extremely dark; I have read of subs going undetected in real life at about 500 meters. Ships will be hard to see at night for the player but that's just something you will need to deal with. I will offer a lighter night mod for aesthetic reasons.

I will also add a more "washed out" set of colors for those who don't like environments too vivid, as well as a standard version with brighter colors. My idea for the washed out version will look kind of like "Saving Private Ryan" - I loved how Spielberg conveyed a dreary wartime ambience by using a restricted color palette, with heavy browns, beiges, and greys...it also conveyed an Early 20th Century atmosphere, before bright synthetic pigments for paint, clothing, etc existed.

[iambecomelife]

Minor update: This week was spent primarily on AI ships and one player submarine.

-Researched crush depths for all player submarines

-Researched crew ranks in preparation for possible changes

-Arethusa Class and Weymouth Class CL's (which had been delayed by me making destroyers) are nearly ready for "launch"

-Improved ship damage modeling was done

-Models will now have about 20 large 3d shell/torpedo holes that can be blasted into the hull, if hit by a torpedo or battleship/armored cruiser caliber shell

-Destroyers will sink faster after one torpedo hit, due to changes in zones.cfg

-New animated smoke with improved flame... some of the old smoke looked too thin

-Preparations for implementing U-9 model (of Aboukir/Cressy/Hogue fame). This primitive submarine will be available for the "Live Bait Squadron" single mission, as well as campaign/careers in 1914-1915 before it is replaced by later models.

-Collaborated with a new assistant team member on revised special abilities

-In what I think is another first, AI ships now have a firefighting system! Animated firefighters automatically deploy on ships & spray water when fire breaks out. The U-Boat HAHD team discussed doing this, but to my knowledge they never finished it.

-Firefighters will only deploy on large or well-crewed ships; small ships like dinghies, sailboats, etc will burn to a crisp.... Also, there will be a certain chance that a ship will blow up with no chance for firefighting, or burn out of control. Especially if a magazine or ship is tanker carrying full cargo.

-Fine tuned lowerable lifeboats.

[Tigerzhunters]

i have question are you already release the mod or still working on it?

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Tigerzhunters

i have question are you already release the mod or still working on it?

Not yet released - still being worked on!

As an aside one of the reasons this has taken years is work issues (needed to study for a professional exam) and a family member's health issues - these responsibilities are no longer a problem; my current job is great in terms of vacation days (also no more 14-16 hour workdays, which were common 2012-2013). Hence much more progress in recent months. Always stay tuned here and on FB for the latest updates!

[iambecomelife]

Had a very successful 48 hours; the light cruisers are coming! Was afraid HMS Chatham & Birmingham would take long but a few well-placed changes to "Falmouth" and viola!



This is great news because they have been a thorn in my side for a long time, WOTK has long suffered from a poor light cruiser roster. On the German side "Weisbaden" is looking good after being delayed by the destroyers I posted pics of earlier. These pieces falling into place really put me a lot closer to all surface warships at 100% complete in undamaged state.

More images coming soon, plus the second WOTK video (first was that old Lusitania video still on youtube - how long it's been!)

More good news, I am in discussions with a couple people who may serve as new team members; I will need to see what their skills are and how they can help but this is yet another step forward for WOTK.

[Texas Red]

What do you use for your research?

At times, I'm not able to find any information on ship sizes (tonnage, weight etc.) and other misc. items.

I applaud the amount of effort you put into this mod. It truly is shaping up to be something truly incredible.

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Texas Red

What do you use for your research?

At times, I'm not able to find any information on ship sizes (tonnage, weight etc.) and other misc. items.

I applaud the amount of effort you put into this mod. It truly is shaping up to be something truly incredible.

TY! Conway's Fighting Ships is the most important source; it is used to make sure each model's hull length/breadth is the correct number of scale feet and it also has data on tonnage, armament, & armor. TonnageKing, you have a PM!

[iambecomelife]

The good news keeps coming; we are now in negotiations to take on a couple more development team members - including one with advanced coding knowledge! We will let you know more soon but if it all works out it will save me a tremendous amount of time and be a huge boon to the mod.

In terms of updates, current focus is deciding which ship(s) new team members will work on. The following were begun Friday and will continue this weekend and beyond:

-A few finishing touches to AI ship firefighting by NPC's
-Implementing Submarine U-9 Class
-Raisable funnel and smoke particle effect for U-9
-New AI ship damage feature: disintegration (magazine hit causing warship or merchant to shatter completely - or break up in about 4-5 big parts)
-Tweaking smoke effects
-Work on player/crew injuries - research, modeling and texture phases
-Correcting errors to Iron Duke Class battleship model battleship/getting it into release state
-Minor corrections to SMS Westfalen Class German battleship model
-Damage effects for Iron Duke Class (torpedo and shell impacts)
-British/German light cruiser research completion (already well underway)

[J0313]

That is awesome IABL! Finally someone will get into the code and do some great things with SH4. I have always wondered why somebody with the right skill set hasn't done it when SH3 has been tinkered with for years.