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

[Admiral Halsey]

I never knew the early U-Boats had as many masts as a Tall Ship.

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Admiral Halsey

I never knew the early U-Boats had as many masts as a Tall Ship.

The masts were erected when they needed to communicate by wireless. It must have been an awkward, hazardous process for the crew. In fact, on the very early U-Boats the crew needed to put in place masts, ventilators, and canvas screens by hand - and take them back down again when it was time to dive. This was extremely dangerous, of course, if a destroyer was bearing down on your submarine. Diving times were insanely long. Eventually, later classes built shortly before WWI had acceptable diving times of only 1.5 - 2 minutes.

By World War II, radio sets were more powerful, and you no longer needed giant masts on board your submarine. That's why you don't see masts on WWII Type VII and Type IX submarines.

[Admiral Halsey]

A two minute dive time! And I thought the IXD2s had long dive times

[Jimbuna]

Looks like this eagerly awaited mod is progressing really nicely...time to sticky the thread.

[Admiral Halsey]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Looks like this eagerly awaited mod is progressing really nicely...time to sticky the thread.

The mod's progressed enough to be stickied? Don't know how big of a thing that is but either way congrats IABL.

[in_vino_vomitus]

Those screenshots look amazing - Excellent work

[Admiral Von Gerlach]

wonderful indeed. very good progress

re bottom paint, High Seas Fleet and later the Kreigsmarine used a dark red for captial and surface ships, i do not know about the submarines but am trying to find out here is info on WWI fleet colours

There exists however both anecdotal evidence from prewar submariners and an actual Kriegsmarine paint code for green anti-fouling paint on the underbodies (Schiffsbodenfarbe I Grün [DKM 24a and 24b]) of early, prewar boats.

German High Seas Fleet, WWI

by John @ WEM Wed Mar 31, 2010
Battleships, Armoured and Small Cruisers (North Sea and Baltic Sea):
Superstructures, Light Grey, RAL 7035—use Colourcoats RN 03;
Hull, Agate Grey, RAL 7038—use Colourcoats KM 13 (exact match);
Boot-topping, Slate Grey, RAL 7015—use Colourcoats KM 06;
Underwater Hull, Brownish-Red, RAL 3011— use Colourcoats US 14.
Ship's Boats:
Exterior, Pure White, RAL 9010—use Colourcoats C 03;
Interior, Bright Wood—use Colourcoats US 15;
Captain's Gig, Dark Blue to Black—use Colourcoats KM 07 for Dark Blue, or C 02 for Black;
Motor Boats, Light Grey, RAL 7035— use Colourcoats RN 03;
Steam Boats, Mahogany—use Colourcoats US 15;
Deck/Linoleum, Red-Brown, RAL 8012—use Colourcoats ACSM 11;
Deck/Wood, Birch or Maple Veneer—use Colourcoats IJN 09 or C 01.

here is an interesing account of a man who made a model of a UB1 and did a LOT of research for it..it notes red bottom paint.

http://www.dreadnoughtproject.org/mo...S_UB_2/tkoehl/

this parent site has detailed renders and I believe some plans of WWI ships..

http://www.dreadnoughtproject.org/models/

[iambecomelife]

Some images of updates to the crew uniforms - now there are more patches to represent helmsmen, artillery specialists, signalmen, and more. The caps have been tweaked some more - they still need a new UV map.

The interior has been modified slightly, with the S-Boat command room as the basis. Still need to get rid of all the American labels and WWII equipment. I added a weathered steel skin and modified the post-process filters - I'm trying to go for a much more eerie, claustrophobic, and grim atmosphere ... Stock SH4 has a bright "Pacific" ambience that doesn't quite go with an Atlantic sim.

[iambecomelife]

Some work on merchant shipping from Thursday - I tried a larger vessel of 12,000 GRT. Interestingly, she was unfortunate enough to be torpedoed during both WWI and WWII - on the second occasion, with catastrophic loss of life.


I worked from several photographs and a copy of Talbot-Booth's Merchant Ships, which had a line drawing. Changes were made to the superstructure and deck arrangements, among other things. Not an exact copy, but enough like most WWI ships...I really do not like the idea of having modern tankers, Liberty Ships, etc in WOTK; all post WWI merchant units will be deleted and replaced by old-fashioned variants from 1880-1918.

[Jimbuna]

Coming along nicely.

[Admiral Von Gerlach]

Very nice work on that hull shape, you have the clipper stern just right and the overall structure is very good. I am very glad you are taking the time to give us accurate shipping, it was an essential part of the naval war of that war, merchant shipping indeed it was the life line of all of the major modern nations of that time, and it was REAL shipping not these contemporary box carriers we suffer with now. Each ship was made with great skill by trained shipyards, manned by highly skilled real seamen who navigated by the stars, crewed their ships with brawn, and courage and skill, stoked and sweated and swore and sailed the seas as sailormen had for centuries, and you honour them by giving them life in this mod.

The crew uniforms are superb! You also honour them, i was thinking as i looked at those pictures few of that war from either side saw such men or such crews, their duty was not in the headlines, with a few exceptions but we get a glimplse of the entire naval service by seeing the details of the various ratings, and your willingness to do the research is astounding and i greatly appreciate it. My family were in that service and wore those uniforms and you have achieved a lot of accuracy tho our family albulms are black and white from that war at least.

I agree about the Pacific ambience esp of teh lighiting see if you can mute the brilliance and the shading. May take some tweaking but I am confident you can do it. I will lend a hand with that if helpful.

I have sent you links for some very good refernces for shipping adn will find more. Merchant that is.

here are some plans, one i sent you already of typical three islander merchants of the era...the US navy used a vast fleet of transports and merchant ships and the links i sent you will give good photos.

here is the file of plans

https://www.mediafire.com/?pp74q29gcqbbn37

some photos of US Merchant ships of 1918

https://www.mediafire.com/?yoitd69frsh42r3

One thing that amazzes me is some of the ships of that era had open bridges, doing the Atlantic time after time on an open bridge amazes me. some of the smaller British and German naval vessels had that too notabley the Torpedo Boats and the Torpedo Boat destroyers a custom that survived into WWII, actually in the Med it was an asset for detecting and avoiding air attacks but sadly if there WAS a successful attack on the bridge of such ships the mortality was high.

[Xall]

Hello dear developers.

I would like to begin with that the amount of work, dedication and attention to detail you guys put into this project is really fascinating and inspiring.
I hope the project is getting along well and you have my best of wishes.

There is one thing however that I hope you guys will add to this already amazing mod and that is:

The ability to walk around in the control room and on deck, climbing up the ladders and interacting with the periscopes and other equipment such as radio or hydrophones.

I really enjoyed this features in Silent Hunter 5, it gives me the feeling of freedom and makes me feel more of a captain.
Now I understand that you can kinda "fly around", but that just ruins the immersion and one cannot interact with anything without using the menu.

Have a nice day and good luck!

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Xall

Hello dear developers.

I would like to begin with that the amount of work, dedication and attention to detail you guys put into this project is really fascinating and inspiring.
I hope the project is getting along well and you have my best of wishes.

There is one thing however that I hope you guys will add to this already amazing mod and that is:

The ability to walk around in the control room and on deck, climbing up the ladders and interacting with the periscopes and other equipment such as radio or hydrophones.

I really enjoyed this features in Silent Hunter 5, it gives me the feeling of freedom and makes me feel more of a captain.
Now I understand that you can kinda "fly around", but that just ruins the immersion and one cannot interact with anything without using the menu.

Have a nice day and good luck!

You can actually pretend to walk around on deck thanks to the camera modifications in TMO 2.5 (which I sometimes test this mod with). You can also click on certain pieces of equipment to interact with them - not a perfect solution I know, but it's something. I would like to create a mod to add footstep noises when you move the camera but I am not sure how to make it work.

[Admiral Von Gerlach]

Was just admiring the photos of the crew at stations and marveling at how well you have done with that. one question, i see what appears to be an officer and it looks like he has a neck tie and shirt, which is accurate..however..is it possible to raise up the collar a bit more? they wore stiff collars on their shirts back then, they were actually detachable and buttoned to the shirt front as a spearate piece and reached up to almost the ears...it just came to me to mention it...here is a sample of that ..



the central officer has a U boat badge...

http://www.thirdreichmedals.com/hsf.html

this is not a major issue but just wanted to mention it. thanks so much for ongoing work on a superb project.

[keltos01]

This is becoming a seriously awesome mod ! I really can't wait to see more, congratulations on your achievements so far and most of all, to your unfaltering dedication !

Chapeau bas !

Keltos