[WIP] Resuming work on Total Surface Warfare Mod

[polyfiller]

Well I guess COVID & lockdowns is having one positive side effect .... I've resumed some work on this alive/dead/alive/dead/alive mod. I'm still working office hours during these times (busier than ever) but outside work, lockdown has motivated me to start modding again.

I looked at the total surface warfare mod and found I did a few small things in 2017, much more work in 2015 and prior to that, the bulk of the work was years before that. This mod is having one of the longest births in history !

So as a reminder as to what this mod is about and will offer if it is ever finished;

1) lots of playable surface ships (battleships, cruisers, destroyers, armed merchant raiders)

2) Very heavily worked damage systems for the playable ships - so that damage causes systems to stop working and be repairable where appropriate.

3) AI German submarines which operate below the surface and which LAUNCH THEIR OWNS torpedoes.

4) Some AI cruisers / destroyers with AI launchable torpedoes.

5) Reworked many AI ships damage models to prevent sinking in rough seas and enhance sinking.

6) Playable destroyers which can launch depth charges

7) Much work done on balancing weapons / armour / engagement and sensor ranges.

8) A bunch of other stuff I can't even remember.

Most of the functional work I finished many years ago. I have mostly worked on British & German playable units. There are some US units but I haven't focused much on those. The hard work I have been struggling with (apart from testing everything) is developing meaningful missions / campaigns. I have written a few tests scenarios such as using a light cruiser to rescue troops at Dunkirk and a couple of other missions. I am currently working on a playable Graff Spee campaign in the South Atlantic. My Mod is based on the 1.5 UBoat missions version plus Ops Monsoon (which has a lot of Atlantic convoy and Naval traffic already mapped). Unfortunately Ops Monsoon doesn't have much in the way of South Atlantic traffic and NO Naval task force operations in the South Atlantic. I'm currently building out that. Am also making use of the Milk cow methods deployed in Ops Monsoon to make the Altmark available for resupply.

I also have a very embryonic campaign written for the reverse side of the Graff Spee campaign - a playable Royal Navy campaign using a choice of light or heavy cruisers. Again building out all the South Atlantic traffic is the most time consuming thing to do.

So, this is where I am. I have yet to consider how to build a campaign to be played as a destroyer (with working depth charges) ... but I have the working I subs (deadly) and the depth charges working. It really is quite tricky writing campaign files which provide anything other than an experience of "see stuff, sink stuff" ... with ne sense of jeopardy that playing as a submarine provides .... but I'm trying.

There seems to be some new (and thankfully some old established faces) active on here...... if there is anyone who is already mod capable and want sto assist. let me know.

Here's the link to the original post for this mod; https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=144946