1914: Shells of Fury

[Cdr84]

Anyone have any idea how to get a non distorted wide screen view?

Doom

[CB..]

no idea sorry mate... other than wondering wether
any of the available screen resoloutions work better than others?

[Scaz65]

Originally Posted by Doomer

Anyone have any idea how to get a non distorted wide screen view?
Doom

This game is broken and from what I'm hearing from the tech support, it's not going to be fixed. I've given up on it.

[CB..]

the games option settings screen certainly don't work for me very well at all...
even tho i managed to get the game run well enough FPS wise by editing the parameters.txt file then setting it to read only to lock them..i cannot get the realism options to do what i want them to do at all....in fact it just seems to choose the realism options randomly every time i start the game...some times i use fuel..somtimes i don't ..same wth the CO2 levels compressed air etc etc...it's dang perculiar in that respect..

[CB..]

managed to create the code for a surprise attack from a british/enemy sub..or similar..depending on how you set it up


very VERY simplistic at the second as it depends on a stright up and down timer...
(mind you finding the timer code was good in itself and can be used for other things)
but i'm just messing about for something to do right now..


anyway here's the code for an enemy sub springing a surprise attack on your vessel..

you need these entrys to set it up (at the top under id mysim)

id u2
float gt
int processed


then under
everyframe

if
Alive [mysim]
then
GameTime [gt]
ifall
sameint [processed],$0
greater [gt],20
then
CreateServerSimulationObject [u2],"E34"
SimSetName [u2],"E-class"
SimSetPosition [u2],-200,200,200
SimSetStartSpeed [u2],15
AddStateEngine [u2]
AddStateItem [u2],"s:2"
AddStateItem [u2],"a:1,Course:10,20"
AddStateItem [u2],"a:1,Ramm:"
AddStateItem [u2],"a:1,FireAtWill:"
AddStateItem [u2],"c:0,1,EnemyVisible:5000"
AddStateItem [u2],"c:1,0,-EnemyVisible:8000"
setint [processed],$1
endif
endif


///////////


after the alloted time period has elapsed (set here greater [gt],20) 20 minutes here i think...

the sub appears off your beam and once it wakes up (and it confirms you as enemy and so on..usualy take 5 or 6 seconds..it attacks launching torps

very VERY hard to get the heck out of it's way at this close range..and it often kills you before you can evade and launch your own attack...

this nicely simulates an enemy sub spotting you and sneaking into a firing position as was often the case during Ww1...there was a lot of effort put into sub killer submarines and quite a few large scale sub versus sub battles...as far as i have been able to find out any way...

for realism fanatics remember it IS 2000% easier to evade than it would have been in real life...as the enemy sub would not show itself prior to firing...it would launch it's torps from a submerged and unseen position..this way you have at least a short period of grace to react (panic lol) and get out of it's sights

i do not think you could use this method for surface ships ie destroyers etc as they would not have the ability to get this close without you spotting them...but maybe with some adaption depending on weather etc it could also be used for some occasional lapses in concentration from the watch crews..or even whilst submerged and lining up your torpedo attacks on another vessel...a DD may well be able to catch you un-awares under those circumstances..


more code needed here....really to randomise the surprise attack...and make it a dynamic element in the campaign...it's a great pity i don't really have the background for the code work other wise i could extremely easily in fact write almost literaly ANY event into the campaign and make it dynamic aswell..

as it is i'm struggling ...i don't have the experience

this same snippet of code could also be used to iron the porblems i was having with the MORSELAMP message ..as i can use a friendly sub just as easily...it will appear nearby and send the morselamp message ..tho there ARE some strange time excell issues with friendly vessels....they do and can occasional cause the time excell to become limited to X16 even when they are out side visual range...the answer to this is to delete the vessel once it's purpose has been served..which the code allows for...again i can set up a timer to do this ...so that should in theory take care of that slightly idiotic glitch

a point to note is that there are no enemy subs as stock in the game BUT there is an AI only sub written into the game...and it is a simple matter to change it's nationailty to English....and then use that sub...it does seem to exhibit some specialy abilities not seen elsewhere i believe but am not sure that it does on occasion surface and dive by it's own set of rules..

as it is i've been using my own E34 brit sub model file which i adpated from the german u35 model file...but it does have the occasional texture glitch..so if i do incorporate the surprise attack into the campain i will use the stock AI sub with a simple edit to make it british..(believe me it's far simplier than all the work needed to add a brand new vessel to the game)

[CB..]

just for reference a method to dynamicaly change the weather during a mission

here from sunny to either foggy or rain then to clear

irandom [attack],$1,$2
if
sameint [attack],$1
then
GameTime [gt]
ifall
sameint [processed],$0
greater [gt],20
then
Weather "mgrain"
setint [processed],$1
endif
endif
if
sameint [attack],$2
then
GameTime [gt]
ifall
sameint [processed],$0
greater [gt],20
then
Weather "mgfog"
setint [processed],$1
endif
endif
irandom [attack2],$1,$2
if
sameint [attack2],$1
then
GameTime [gt]
ifall
sameint [processed2],$0
greater [gt],200
then
Weather "mgsun"
setint [processed],$1
endif
endif
if
sameint [attack2],$2
then
GameTime [gt]
ifall
sameint [processed2],$0
greater [gt],200
then
Weather "mgsun"
setint [processed2],$1
endif
endif

can be done either the half arsed SH3 way ie weather changes after a set period of time no matter where you are on the map..OR

it can be done properly with weather changes occuring at set locations
so a fog bank can be programmed to appear at a certain location and return to clear or similar once you leave the area...

shed loads of work yet but the code and concept works..

[CB..]

ok i've added randomised changing weather to the other randomisations i've allready done for the early war SOF campaign....the weather changes randomly as you play thru the mission..here's the link for those interested

http://www.ebort2.co.uk/SOF/SOF_random_campaign1W.zip

makes a world of difference both to the immersion and to the difficulty..as getting bounced by a destroyer in a fog bank is pretty lethal..the weather is a weapon...can be used by both sides..my kind of realism..it's not just eye candy changing weather has more impact on the gameplay and realism than a hundred adjustments to torpedo speeds , gun reload times and all those other more conventional touch ups..any-one with any sense can see that! or if it's foggy they probably can't..lol

[horsa]

Kudos to you CB

This game is a little gem and you're making it count here with your improvements .

[Hitman]

Dargn

You're making me end up in a hurry my current project to be able to go back to SOF

[Deamon]

That is neat CB.., that is neat!

As noticed earlier there were some serious ambitions behind this game that didn't worked out as expected. There seem to be some unexploited potential in it :hmm:

Looking forward to more of your discoveries.

[Deamon]

Originally Posted by Doomer

Anyone have any idea how to get a non distorted wide screen view?

Doom

I fear you will have simple to adjust your display settings.

[bsalyers]

I downloaded this today and started playing. The AI is WAYYY too eagle-eyed. They spot that periscope under the most ridiculous circumstances at the most impossible ranges. Also, there HAS to be a way to save a game. It's unacceptable to only play when you have time to see an entire mission through. I sometimes play some SH3 or 4 when I have as little as twenty minutes; the same should be possible with this. Then, there's the lack of a bearing indicator for the scope; most strange.

On the whole, though, I think it's promising. Very different. I miss the satisfying explosion when my torp hits a ship, but I guess if you don't have hydrophones...

[CB..]

Originally Posted by Deamon

That is neat CB.., that is neat!

As noticed earlier there were some serious ambitions behind this game that didn't worked out as expected. There seem to be some unexploited potential in it :hmm:

Looking forward to more of your discoveries.

cheers all
the unique aspect of the game is the fashion in which it creates it's missions..
the fact that you can type VISUAL BASIC code (or as i say something very much like it) STRIAGHT into the mission file itself...opens the game up so wide you can do literaly anything you want with it....as long as you have the know how to write the code ..
it's hard to think of any comparison any where else...but the best i can come up with is that each individual mission file allows you to redisign the entire game virtualy from scratch ...

it's really rather incredible..

Deamon your involved in writing game code for your project...so you must have a head for code work..( to say the least i should imagnine?)
what SOF allows you to do is write game creation code stright into the mission scripts.....

because of this i can't actualy see any limitations to what the game can do ...
it's only limitations are down to how familiar you are with writting the code..

the game has it's draw backs...and things which really get my goat...mainly due to the interface...the way it frequently requires two or three clicks on the compass to get it to recognise your course change...same again for the keyboard shortcuts...the way the map self centers is awfull ..leaving you straned while you try to plot a course for the sub to follow beacuse just as your about to click on the map to set a waypoint it self ceners so your way point is now in the middle of norway instead of where you intended lol...can't see the sense in that at all..most irritating..so the interface makes you feel a lack of confindence in the game..i don't know if this was deliberate or not..but it doesn't make you feel comfortable..

the lack of any genuine danger for the player is another thing...dive every time you see a destroyer and that's it threat over..it really needs late war hydrohones..

but that's where the code comes in...i may not be able to write the code for hydrophones at the moment...but it's seems perfectly obviuos that it is possible to script DD's equiped with hydrophones into the missions...using the same logic that other sims use to simulate hyrdophones and other sensors..

once you grasp that possibility you begin to see that what we have here is in fact SUBMARINE SIMULATOR GAME CREATION SOFTWARE..

and soft ware that could given time and practice (as with any game creation software) do anything required of it anything at all..
which is not bad going for a much derided and deliberately ignored (IMO) new sub sim on the market

take a look at it see if you can help me out with some of the code..(i am NO expert far from it)

an example would be here that if some -one was to attempt to convert the game to a WW2 subsim..they could with enough experience code the proper AI DD
tactics for convoy escorts,,by that i mean all the correct maneuvers such as "pineapple" and so on...you can very accurately control what each individual vessel does and why it does it....and you can co-ordinate the vessels to act in unison or individualy and again when why and for how long..with endlessly complex dynamic response to the changing circumstances they encounter....
this is just something that is utterly and completely beyond the capacity for modification in SH3/4 etc.....
this would involve a lot of complex code BUT once written i believe it can be stored in a "Template" and called from the mission file when the behaviuor is required..ie triggered by time ..detection of the player...location ...anything really...
once again you grasp the fact that you can do this sort of thing you can see that with expert code work you can build a library of AI behaviuor and other effects and call them in a similar fashion to those behaviuors now currently stored in the "StateEnginetemplates.txt"
there is a function also for calling an external script which is triggered by the player reaching an objective....indeed there is a slightly obscure function that has an external script actual AS the objective...tho i'm at a loss as to what that actualy means right now..
so once you start thinking of the mission scripts as giving you genuine access to the games core code and the ability to modify it adapt it and add to it on the fly you can see that this is no ordinary run of the mill game engine...FAR FAR FROM IT
it without even trying makes the SH3/4 game engine look pretty bl**dy silly by comparison..which is why it's so ironic that so few have gotten their heads out of their arses long enough to see beyond their own ego trips! it is almost as if the game devs have given the subsim community absolutely everything they could have ever dreamed of....but no one was interested because it involved too much "work"

quite WHY the DEVS didn't take a couple of hours one afternoon to write some decent complex code into the campaign to show what the game was capable of is a mystery to me...if they HAD.. no one would have any doubts about just how good this game can be:hmm: too busy worrying about the box art no doubt...strange prioritys...bizaare


hey Bsalyers!!!

remember that there is NO definitive "periscope depth" in the game...go deeper...and you will find you can get within ramming range if your carefull..remember that you have maybe 5 or 6 seconds grace before the ship spots the scope so you can pop it up to get your bearings then quickly lower the scope again and creep closer....get down to about 9 metres depth and be prepared to constantly adjust the height of the scope to compensate for the waves and watch the detection metre to gauge your visability..as i say the contact stays active even after you lower the scope for a considerable time..so even using the stock weather/water animation set up you can get right up along side the ships..it's probably one of most complex and best simulated scope depth scope visability factors seen so far in a subsim..AFAIK

[CB..]

Originally Posted by Deamon

That is neat CB.., that is neat!

As noticed earlier there were some serious ambitions behind this game that didn't worked out as expected. There seem to be some unexploited potential in it :hmm:

Looking forward to more of your discoveries.

sorry to quote again but i forgot to ask and it would get lost in the other post..


what i need is some method using code to store the player subs location (in a float?) then recall that information using it to spawn an enemy sub within torpedo range..(using my surprise attack stuff)...

the code can do this i'm positive..but i am a little out of my depth..


as it is the code i have worked out works well but only at the start of the mission as an ambush just out side of port (which was often attempted so i hear)
but i haven't found a way to update the players location and store it (so the sub can be spawned where ever and at what ever point in the mission randomly ..the key being the sub has to spawn within normal torpedo range...as stock you can only spawn vessels at the extreme range allowed by the visability...this gives the player far too much time as he always sees the enemy first...

except in fog..when it's first come first served ...as i have just found out lol....got nailed by a Berberis...whislt trying to decide wether to dive or wait a second it made my mind up for me and blew me out of the water...(another plus for changing weather danger and realism)

your writting your own game engine so thought you ought to be the guy to quiz?
SOF game code is fairly stock VB code so the usual methods should still be at least ball park for the game?

[NiclDoe]

Dang this game looks like it worth the $20. graphics is not a big deal this is one on my buy list.