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

[Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt]

IABL, I know during the Great War germans, but especially KuK submarines to gain more prestige, they captured small merchant ships or fishing boats or small sail ships and then they towed them to home port. (naturally if they captured a ship before the end of the mission, they had to return to home port).
I don't know if it possible to add a "similar optional" in the mod, but if it possible, it would be great.

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt

IABL, I know during the Great War germans, but especially KuK submarines to gain more prestige, they captured small merchant ships or fishing boats or small sail ships and then they towed them to home port. (naturally if they captured a ship before the end of the mission, they had to return to home port).
I don't know if it possible to add a "similar optional" in the mod, but if it possible, it would be great.

I don't have any plans to add capturing merchant ships to Wolves of the Kaiser. It would take changes to the game structure that I cannot perform.

A little project from last night...perhaps some of you remember the controversy from when SH3 was released? Well, here you have it....Unfortunately, this sort of thing was done during the war (I'm sure most of you know of the "Llandovery Castle" incident).

Tested the figure and it stays afloat & bobs properly, even in the worst weather. Still need particle/injury effects and maybe sound...there will be a good variety of passenger, sailor, soldier, and noncombatant models.


Of course, most U_Boat commanders never did this sort of thing.

There will be enemy soldiers on the shore, from troopships, etc. Enemy soldiers are acceptable targets and may be attacked for a small amount of positive renown. If you kill civilians you will take a HUGE renown hit when you return to base. Your career will probably be over. I have no plans to make killing survivors funny, or free of consequences....this is not GTA.












Re: the U-81; yes - I think it will be included.

As always, the submarine and menu/interface details are a WIP and do not represent the final version.

[Xall]

Those U-Boats ladies are looking mighty fine ; )
I hope I can walk around them and explore the beauty of them : D

One feature I really hope that will be in here is the ability to walk around like in SH5, I know you can do the Shift+F2, but it feels like I'm floating, takes away from the immersion.
Will there be also the ability to interact with the crew? Even if they have no audio, maybe some text displayed, could give even more immersion. Get to know the crew a bit. And "renaming" the crew would also be interesting, to be able to add in names of your friends etc. Could be really fun and funny, maybe giving nick names and such.

This is for certain, not only going to be one of the best Silent Hunter 4 Mods, but also probably going to be the best WW1 Submarine Simulator Game out there, Period.

Keep up the magnificent work guys. You can already be proud now, the amount of work, dedication, passion and effort going into this, is clearly visible and reflects very well.

I read that the Grey Wolves developers originally intended to make The "Grey Wolves X" for SH4, but the project was cancelled. But they did mention that it could be ported over to SH5 if I read correctly.

Is this possible with this mod as well, that there could be a Silent Hunter 5 version of it? Probably unrealistic question, but I thought I would ask anyways since you guys have better insight in these matters.

I have to admit, it is difficult waiting for the release. But I know, it is going to be well worth it.

Another question is, will there be "full interiors"? I saw that the Grey Wolves team was doing the Type II U-Boat full interior, really a shame that they had to disband.

Essentially, if this could have full interiors + walking around with active dials, for me, it would be a dream come true.

Btw, Merry Christmas and a happy new year in advance : )

[Xall]

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

I don't have any plans to add capturing merchant ships to Wolves of the Kaiser. It would take changes to the game structure that I cannot perform.

I have no plans to make killing survivors funny, or free of consequences....this is not GTA.

Would it be possible to capture the ships, by means of making them follow you? Adding in Way-Points, to say, 200 meters behind your U-Boat?
The ship captured would then create maybe, a new "course point" every 1 to 5 minutes at a fixed speed. And any Ports, belonging to Germany and its Allies would be the areas when the ship that follows you, when entered, stops there, and you get renown that way, maybe worth 5 sunken ships of the same kind in renown points.

I also really like that fact that you give the options to killing survivors or anything and having consequences. Maybe after causing to much friendly casualties a cut scene/image of the U-Boat Commander being Court martialed and then listing the crimes he committed and then game over or massive point losses : D

[jimmyjam25]

Wow! This looks amazing! Keep up the good work Herr Kaleun.

[Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt]

hey IABL, you had an interesting idea with the survivors, now we can be real pirates
But I have two question: are you going to add the net cutter on the submarines? there were some classes like U-51/U-93/UB-3 etc. that had the net cutter.
I know that from middle 1917 some submarines adopted a skin like the dazzle paint (are you going to duplicate this paint scheme?)
Sorry if I seem presumptuous and insolent
And thanks Xall for your idea about captured ships (if this idea will add to the mod, the campaign will be more interesting than ever).

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Xall

Those U-Boats ladies are looking mighty fine ; )
I hope I can walk around them and explore the beauty of them : D

One feature I really hope that will be in here is the ability to walk around like in SH5, I know you can do the Shift+F2, but it feels like I'm floating, takes away from the immersion.
Will there be also the ability to interact with the crew? Even if they have no audio, maybe some text displayed, could give even more immersion. Get to know the crew a bit. And "renaming" the crew would also be interesting, to be able to add in names of your friends etc. Could be really fun and funny, maybe giving nick names and such.

This is for certain, not only going to be one of the best Silent Hunter 4 Mods, but also probably going to be the best WW1 Submarine Simulator Game out there, Period.

Keep up the magnificent work guys. You can already be proud now, the amount of work, dedication, passion and effort going into this, is clearly visible and reflects very well.

I read that the Grey Wolves developers originally intended to make The "Grey Wolves X" for SH4, but the project was cancelled. But they did mention that it could be ported over to SH5 if I read correctly.

Is this possible with this mod as well, that there could be a Silent Hunter 5 version of it? Probably unrealistic question, but I thought I would ask anyways since you guys have better insight in these matters.

I have to admit, it is difficult waiting for the release. But I know, it is going to be well worth it.

Another question is, will there be "full interiors"? I saw that the Grey Wolves team was doing the Type II U-Boat full interior, really a shame that they had to disband.

Essentially, if this could have full interiors + walking around with active dials, for me, it would be a dream come true.

Btw, Merry Christmas and a happy new year in advance : )

Thanks for your kind words. This is definitely intended to be a transformative mod. Now, your questions:

Unfortunately, I do not think I can allow for movement through the sub without the current "floating like a ghost" mode. What I can do is add more collision spheres to interior objects, so you don't ghost through the periscope, walls, etc. I am trying to figure out how to add footstep noises to the game.

I can easily add a 3d avatar for the captain/player if wanted, but I don't know how popular that would be. And unfortunately I don't have the expertise to make the avatar walk through the submarine; it would exhibit existing animations or simple movements, at best.

There will be more working dials, with German labels.

You can already rename the crew by editing text files for your career; I don't know how to add this feature within the SH4 engine.

The crew will not be fully interactive but they will have a few new characteristics. There will be a greater variety of skin tones (within Northern European ethnic parameters), hair colors, birth marks, scars, tattoos, ages, and facial features. This is extremely easy to mod, and I'm surprised that almost no other modders have done it.

Late in the war, your crewmembers will tend to be younger, less experienced, and with poorer morale...by Summer 1918, the fatality rate was extremely high, and many of the pre-WWI expert sailors were dead.

Crew will probably display minor injuries when your submarine is damaged (I think I can achieve this with S3ditor triggering).

Unless Silent Hunter 5 is adapted to enable easy modding of new player units, there are no plans for a SH5 version. If I'm not mistaken, you cannot have even a functional Type IX in SH5. However, I do plan to resume modding the WWII era (Atlantic Theatre) for the Silent Hunter series after Wolves of the Kaiser is complete.

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Xall

Would it be possible to capture the ships, by means of making them follow you? Adding in Way-Points, to say, 200 meters behind your U-Boat?
The ship captured would then create maybe, a new "course point" every 1 to 5 minutes at a fixed speed. And any Ports, belonging to Germany and its Allies would be the areas when the ship that follows you, when entered, stops there, and you get renown that way, maybe worth 5 sunken ships of the same kind in renown points.

I also really like that fact that you give the options to killing survivors or anything and having consequences. Maybe after causing to much friendly casualties a cut scene/image of the U-Boat Commander being Court martialed and then listing the crimes he committed and then game over or massive point losses : D

Thanks for that idea; I just had a brainstorm about how I can possibly implement capturing ships thanks to your post. It's a little complicated to explain. I will look into it. I'm not promising this feature and it's not high priority, but I will give it a try.

Yes; I want there to be consequences for behavior. I think we're all mature here, and we know what type of Kaleuns we want to be. There will be plenty of civilians in this world on ships and ashore...this is meant to be a recreation of Europe, as it was, between 1914 and 1918. There was still a sense of military officers as gentlemen. A belief in chivalry and the idea of a clean war - to an extent. Otto Weddigen, for example, would apologize to captains for sinking their ships, and once gave a British sailor some of his own clothes after he fell out of a lifeboat. Lothar von Arnauld de la Periere would give notice before sinking ships, and provide the course to land. Part of this game will be about acting in character. Sure...We can act like a WWI-era Blackbeard, sinking hospital ships, shelling churches, and firing at women/children in lifeboats. The question is, do we really want to?

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt

hey IABL, you had an interesting idea with the survivors, now we can be real pirates
But I have two question: are you going to add the net cutter on the submarines? there were some classes like U-51/U-93/UB-3 etc. that had the net cutter.
I know that from middle 1917 some submarines adopted a skin like the dazzle paint (are you going to duplicate this paint scheme?)
Sorry if I seem presumptuous and insolent
And thanks Xall for your idea about captured ships (if this idea will add to the mod, the campaign will be more interesting than ever).

Not at all...feel free to ask questions. I will add net cutters to the boats. I will try to find out when the different classes got them.

There will definitely be camoflage patterns. I have a nice picture of one submarine, I think U-21, in a "Mediterranean" camoflage that made it look like a leopard with hundreds of spots; very beautiful. I will recreate it, and other historical styles.

[Xall]

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

Thanks for your kind words. This is definitely intended to be a transformative mod. Now, your questions:

Unfortunately, I do not think I can allow for movement through the sub without the current "floating like a ghost" mode. What I can do is add more collision spheres to interior objects, so you don't ghost through the periscope, walls, etc. I am trying to figure out how to add footstep noises to the game.

I can easily add a 3d avatar for the captain/player if wanted, but I don't know how popular that would be. And unfortunately I don't have the expertise to make the avatar walk through the submarine; it would exhibit existing animations or simple movements, at best.

Crew will probably display minor injuries when your submarine is damaged (I think I can achieve this with S3ditor triggering).

Unless Silent Hunter 5 is adapted to enable easy modding of new player units, there are no plans for a SH5 version. If I'm not mistaken, you cannot have even a functional Type IX in SH5. However, I do plan to resume modding the WWII era (Atlantic Theatre) for the Silent Hunter series after Wolves of the Kaiser is complete.

You are most welcome, you guys really deserve it and I really admire you and your teams dedication. WW1 is really an exciting and underrated part of history, overshadowed by WW2.

As for walking around, I did not think you meant to go that much in detail!
I was thinking of how you walk in Silent Hunter 5.
More along the lines like, not going through walls and that the camera stays at a head height. And when going through a hatch, the camera would lower itself to give the "illusion" of crouching to get through that hatch, and then it would come up to head height again. Foot steep sounds would be welcome but I do not really mind not having any.

But the way you imagine it, with seeing the lower body and having a Captain figure when viewing from the exterior camera would of course be much better.
If you are critical of the reception, maybe make it optional with JSGME, like The Grey Wolves team did with their additional functions and features.

Glad that I was able to be of somewhat help with the capturing a ship idea, would be very interesting indeed.

And that about Blackbeard made me laugh. Well I for one certainly do not wanna be black beard. I read allot into WW1 history and many soldiers of that era, in all branches, had respect towards the enemy. Especially in the early stages of the war, I think of the fighter pilots particularly. And the Uboat Commanders offering to tow the crews in the lifeboats of the sunken ships to the nearest land. Even an injured Adolf Hitler was spared by the mercy of a British soldier.
One of my friends that had only recently played Silent Hunter, managed to sink a ship and a life boat was dropped. He then asked me, if he could kill the survives. The mere question actually shocked me, because with all honesty, the thought never crossed my mind. The mere option and knowledge that you can do gruesome acts, adds the impact to the game. It will probably add the biggest impact when you by mistake kill any survivors or innocent people.

And about continuing making more SH mods, just puts a big smile on my face. Makes me wonder what other great mods you guys have in store for us.

[Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt]

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

I will add net cutters to the boats. I will try to find out when the different classes got them

These are all informations you need
The net cutter was adopted by the Imperial German Navy from the end of 1916 and these are the classes that had the net cutter:
UB-3/UB-2 (only UB-41/43/45)/UC-1 (1917 version)/UC-2 (only version 2 (from UC-49 to UC-66)/U-51/U-63, but very small/UE-1 (only U-75)/UE-2/U-93. (Some other classes had the net cutter, but they never entered in service).
However in the drawings that I uploaded at Mediafire (view page 100 post 1490), there are all types with the net cutter.

[Abraham2000]

Happy new year!

I don't follow your work for few months, but I'm very happy to see you have work hard on the mod!

Keep up the goog work, herr(s) Kaleint(s)!

[iambecomelife]

Unfortunately, the "Britannic" is being delayed until I can buy several books with reference material. After that, work will be resumed.

I have been hard at work on particle effects for the bodies; more on that soon. Expect to see images of the U-31 ingame soon, with more work to come on other player units.

With the new year beginning, I will be drawing up a more formal timetable for the different elements of the mod, to try and schedule progress a bit more.

[TheGreatElector]

Will this mod be realease? looks very nice and detailed.

[iambecomelife]

I do not have a projected release date at this time...all I can say is progress is going faster than before. And I have several vacation days, which I may use for modding soon.

The survivor model in S3ditor. Using the Zones.cfg file, different degrees of injury can be displayed.


New particle effects for the survivor are still being tweaked. Survivors (especially women and children)
will have a huge negative renown value. Want to act like a psychopath?
Good luck explaining it to the CO when you get back to base.
The blood will be an optional feature of the mod, enabled/disabled if you'd rather not have it.















A simple "visible underwater" trigger in S3ditor prevents the blood spatter from showing underwater.



Large lifeboat by Maddox58, which I want to modify with reduced polys - it's much better than the standard SH4 boat. The WWII figures will, of course, be replaced.





Work on U-31 class continues; more updates later.