SUBSIM Radio Room Forums



SUBSIM: The Web's #1 resource for all submarine & naval simulations since 1997

Go Back   SUBSIM Radio Room Forums > Sub/Naval + Other Games > Classic Subsims
Forget password? Reset here

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 12-27-21, 11:47 AM   #16
John Pancoast
Ocean Warrior
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Minnysoda
Posts: 3,162
Downloads: 488
Uploads: 4


Default

A great Christmas present, thank you !
__________________
"Realistic" is not always GAME-GOOD." - Wave Skipper
John Pancoast is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-27-21, 12:13 PM   #17
John Pancoast
Ocean Warrior
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Minnysoda
Posts: 3,162
Downloads: 488
Uploads: 4


Default

One "problem" with the control room screen...........the guy closest on the left is giving me the same "Do you have ANY clue on what you're doing !?!?" look that they give me in SH3 just before the boat is sunk...... !


Seriously, great work !
__________________
"Realistic" is not always GAME-GOOD." - Wave Skipper
John Pancoast is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-27-21, 01:57 PM   #18
Andreas86
Engineer
 
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 213
Downloads: 44
Uploads: 1


Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by John Pancoast View Post
One "problem" with the control room screen...........the guy closest on the left is giving me the same "Do you have ANY clue on what you're doing !?!?" look that they give me in SH3 just before the boat is sunk...... !


Seriously, great work !

Haha! I didn't see it that way until now..


Thanks a lot!
Andreas86 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-27-21, 02:04 PM   #19
John Pancoast
Ocean Warrior
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Minnysoda
Posts: 3,162
Downloads: 488
Uploads: 4


Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Andreas86 View Post
Haha! I didn't see it that way until now..


Thanks a lot!

That is because you haven't had "the look" as often as I have !
__________________
"Realistic" is not always GAME-GOOD." - Wave Skipper
John Pancoast is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-27-21, 07:47 PM   #20
SnipersHunter
Samurai Navy
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Germany
Posts: 596
Downloads: 201
Uploads: 0
Default

Amazing job on the mod I like it a lot.
SnipersHunter is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-28-21, 12:04 AM   #21
Silent Otto
Stowaway
 
Posts: n/a
Downloads:
Uploads:
Default

  Reply With Quote
Old 12-28-21, 01:16 AM   #22
Silent Otto
Stowaway
 
Posts: n/a
Downloads:
Uploads:
Default

@Silent Otto: It would be very nice if we can improve these areas of AOTD as well, thank you very much for the offer. My hope is that we can all work together on improving the game. As for the awards, I haven't really thought of this yet, but all bitmaps can be extracted and improved. I will try to look into changing the insignias, but I just need a little break as my head is now all numbers and pixels. As for adding more to the game than the existing number of awards, perhaps it is possible by editing .dat files, but I havent gotten into that yet. About political correctness, I fully agree with you. History is history and cannot be changed.


Here's just some food for thought for everyone to think about.

We "could" reshape the promotions and awards altogether, not just the accompanying pictures but the whole basis of award structure throughout the game and perhaps assign some type of point basis for each award? It would be similar to what we already see on the Top Score List, where depending on tonnage sunk, overall mission difficulty, etc. determines the final score; in this case, towards any award or promotion.

Not every U-boat commander received the Knight's Cross and many who received it prior to actually having the lower Iron Cross 2nd & 1st Classes had those awards automatically backdated and entered. (Award rules mandated the member must have both levels of Iron Cross prior to receiving the Knight's Cross.) Still, many received the German Cross in Gold (est. 9/41) for award acts that didn't rate the KC. Others only ended up with the Iron Cross 1st Class as the top and final award. There were other awards as well that were not in the Iron Cross series of awards and didn't affect the KC series whatsoever; such as the GCiG, War Merit Cross, etc.

We could add game criteria based on dates that awards were established and actual criteria (though there were always exceptions to any rule). Promotions were also something established (time in service/rank) but changed somewhat throughout the war and again, exceptions to the rule (Luth case in point!).

It might provide some additional game incentives for continuing on and trying to do better. Getting the Knight's Cross series completed through Diamonds before the June 1940 timeframe just doesn't give the player much to try for IMHO and is just too easy to get.
  Reply With Quote
Old 12-28-21, 07:50 AM   #23
John Pancoast
Ocean Warrior
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Minnysoda
Posts: 3,162
Downloads: 488
Uploads: 4


Default

I wonder if CAOD is easier than AOD with awards/promotions. In all my playing of AOD I've only got the diamonds once, mid-war, and I've had lots of tonnage, etc. many times.
__________________
"Realistic" is not always GAME-GOOD." - Wave Skipper
John Pancoast is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-28-21, 05:31 PM   #24
Jeff-Groves
Village Idiot
 
Jeff-Groves's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 5,299
Downloads: 130
Uploads: 0


Default

The file size of the Subsim.exe between versions seems different.
Now that may be because I was sent upgraded Game files?
__________________
I don't do Stupid. So don't ask.
Jeff-Groves is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-28-21, 06:28 PM   #25
John Pancoast
Ocean Warrior
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Minnysoda
Posts: 3,162
Downloads: 488
Uploads: 4


Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves View Post
The file size of the Subsim.exe between versions seems different.
Now that may be because I was sent upgraded Game files?

That'd be my guess, especially since the patches includes the expansion pack.
__________________
"Realistic" is not always GAME-GOOD." - Wave Skipper
John Pancoast is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-28-21, 06:40 PM   #26
Jeff-Groves
Village Idiot
 
Jeff-Groves's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 5,299
Downloads: 130
Uploads: 0


Default

I've got the original files from both now.
Nice thing is I can compare from the first release through all releases and patches.

Now given 010 can De-compile the files now? That throws things into Machine language!
Guess who just happens to have some knowledge of that!
__________________
I don't do Stupid. So don't ask.
Jeff-Groves is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-28-21, 07:13 PM   #27
Andreas86
Engineer
 
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 213
Downloads: 44
Uploads: 1


Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by John Pancoast View Post
That'd be my guess, especially since the patches includes the expansion pack.
Makes sense.

On a side note, it was the expansion pack that gave me a clue that AOTD could be modded graphically. The expansion pack works in the same way I have referenced in the tutorial, it just places the new files in the SIM folder outside of the .DYN archive. So when I was able to open and modify one of these files, namely the CONTROL3.SCR file (control room screen for the type XXI), I figured that the other ones must be in the same workable format -just packed away somewhere. From then it was just a question of finding information on the .DYN files and getting the graphics out of it.
Andreas86 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-28-21, 08:04 PM   #28
Jeff-Groves
Village Idiot
 
Jeff-Groves's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 5,299
Downloads: 130
Uploads: 0


Default

So what could be done in the long run?
We create a blank DYN file and just have all the files open for install in the proper folders.
Reduces file size of the install and actually reduces download size.
Why a decrease in download size?
There's a lot of information in the header area of the DYN files that does not relate to the files in the DYN. I suspect maybe a guide of sorts to files contained in the DYN but not confirmed.

I can find no reason to even bother with the DYN format once all files are extracted!

How do we test this theory?
Extract the DYN files and place in the folder where the DYN was.
Once that is done? Delete the DYN and see what happens. Then work BACKWARDS from there!
__________________
I don't do Stupid. So don't ask.
Jeff-Groves is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-28-21, 08:11 PM   #29
Jeff-Groves
Village Idiot
 
Jeff-Groves's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 5,299
Downloads: 130
Uploads: 0


Default

I have to go to one of my Job sites to solve problems for the next several days.
So I'll probably not be around for 2 or 3 days.
Life on the road and all that. But I will be thinking about things.
__________________
I don't do Stupid. So don't ask.
Jeff-Groves is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-28-21, 08:18 PM   #30
Andreas86
Engineer
 
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 213
Downloads: 44
Uploads: 1


Default

That would be very interesting indeed!

By the way, here is a quick test I did with new ocean color. In fact I just lowered the exposure for the wave cycling frames. Looks more like the rough atlantic than the original tropical azure blue, don't you think?

The most interesting thing here is that this sprite bitmap SEA.BMP has BIN/VGA with LZW compression originally. I saved them all as BIN/VGA with compression NONE, and the game accepts them! This is in line with what I have read about other Dynamix games.



Andreas86 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:25 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright © 1995- 2024 Subsim®
"Subsim" is a registered trademark, all rights reserved.