[WIP] Wolves of the Kaiser:1914-1918 Mod - Page 184

iambecomelife · 08-13-23, 07:39 PM

Mini update Wolves of the Kaiser: 1914 - 1918, 08/13/2023:

Another major step forward - anti-submarine sensor and weapons values are nearly done! It took MUCH less time than I thought it would, so this is great news.

A few notes:

-For gameplay purposes I needed to keep in sonar, even though it was not used on WWI destroyers. Equipping DD's with just hydrophones (which the best WWI escorts DID have) results in non-aggressive escorts. I will remove the "ping" sound effects to make it seem like there is no sonar sensor.

-The best escorts WILL hunt you for a long time; I have read stories of WWI hunts that lasted for days. Early escorts (1914-1915) will be more tentative, and will not have true depth charges. Only light "depth bombs" that are weak and inaccurate.

-I adjusted damage values and explosion radius for stock DC's. After multiple runs I think I have a great balance between playability and realism. There will not be pinpoint accurate DC drops; depth sensors on DCs will often be faulty (as they were in WWI). However, careless players (who run at high speeds underwater) will be destroyed quickly in 1917-1918.

-Shallow charges can be very deadly, in situations where you are taken by surprise.

-Underwater sensors can detect you at a much narrower aspect than in stock SH4. This helps make sure escorts are more persistent, and deliver longer/more challenging depth charge attacks.

-Subs will be destroyed fairly often but you have a fighting chance....I increased hitpoints while making minor damage more likely. I also modified files to make crew injuries much more likely. If you have time to hide, DC drops over time will usually damage your sub gradually. Damage is often manageable, but you will want some capable damage control staff. This is more historically accurate - depth charges usually sank subs with cumulative damage over several hours - not with "golden BB" accurate shots. It's very suspenseful moving your men around the compartments, dealing with injuries, and pumping out water.

-Usually, 2-3 destroyers will hunt you at a time. I ran many missions with about 6-8 M Class, K Class, and L Class destroyers hunting together, and they used pretty good tactics. One listening while two made coordinated runs, and the other 3-5 did not do any hunting and kept escorting their battleships.

-One thing in your favor is depth charge loadouts - in WWI even the best destroyers only had about 20-30 DC's by 1918. In 1916 some ships only had two. So if you run silent and deep, you can sometimes cause them to run out of charges.

I will be on vacation for a while, but will be posting again very soon.

Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt · 08-19-23, 11:59 AM

That's incredible, but i have some questions:

- more than depth charges, the real enemy of central power submarines were mine fields. what will you do for them?

btw, here is a scheme with submarines losses (by cause) during the war:
Mines 58
Depth charges 30
Submarine torpedoes 20
Gunfire 20
Ramming 19
Unknown 19
Accidents 10
Sweeps 33
Other (including bombs) 2

- you told about destroyers, but there were many other submarines hunters like the armed drifters, harbour defence launches and small crafts like the british CMB motor torpedo boats or the american subchasers SC-1 class. What kind of "hear" will have them (if there will be them in WotK)? Some kind of nerfed sonar or just the stock sh4 hydrophone? or will they hunt in tandem with bigger units (the destroyer listen and they drop the charges)

- bonus question, cause for now, we will have just the British navy as our opponent

you described the british destroyers as very powerful and infact they were. After them, the best sub hunters were the Americans and, surprisely the japanese (even if they had no confirmed victory and lost one unit, their destroyers in the Med were one of the most persistent during their hunts and thanks to this most of the attacks against the covoys protected by them, failed comletly). After them both Portugues and Brazilian destroyers had at last one confirmed vicotry (Romanians too, but their units hadn't depth charges and used a torpedo to sink a german sub), but Russians, Italians, French and Greeks were not that smart on hunting subs. Their tactics were often weak and their hunts usually persisted for very short time, in contrast with the British units. So: in the future, will there be this contrast between allied navies or every destroyer will be like the british ones ?

Anyway have a nice vacation Sir.

astvitaliy1982 · 08-19-23, 02:35 PM

Hi guys) The topic of the first world war is very interesting. There are in this topic and certain subtleties of that time, about which I want to ask.Will be implemented navigation, speed, time and distance to the target in the tools and tables that relate to that time period?

Jeff-Groves · 08-19-23, 02:46 PM

On AI for different Countries? It's an easy job to create custom AI Sensors.
One can create those for diffent sized and equipped Units.
That has been done many times in the past.

iambecomelife · 08-23-23, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

On AI for different Countries? It's an easy job to create custom AI Sensors.
One can create those for diffent sized and equipped Units.
That has been done many times in the past.

Yes; quite right. The stock game already gives Japan different sonar from what the Allies have, and it is easy to mod in sensors for different nationalities. I agree this is important, Oliver.

Some nationalities will not even have hydrophones very often, while others like the Royal Navy will tend to have them quite early. There will be different ASW craft like drifters, trawlers, motor boats, and steam/motor launches.

"What kind of "hear" will have them (if there will be them in WotK)? Some kind of nerfed sonar or just the stock sh4 hydrophone? "

I have included a weakened sonar plus hydrophones as the most state of the art sensors. No sonar caused very nonagressive AI; this solution has worked well and I am happy with it. I successfully deleted the "ping" noise (which also had the nice effect of stopping certain CTD's). So basically, my weakened sonar represents good hydrophones, plus the intuition of the enemy crew. So far results have been very nice....You get hammered if you run at high speed, but no pinpoint drops, especially if you go to silent running at about 1-2 knots.

"the real enemy of central power submarines were mine fields. what will you do for them?"

There will be lots and lots of mines at varying depths. Early on, many will be duds - by 1917-1918 they will be much more reliable, and you may just run into one. Mines will usually mean instant death....DC's and shells will kill you slower but will still cause severe damage.

Many units will be the drifters/patrol boats/trawlers you mentioned, Oliver. There will be no "tank submarine", so even a 37mm or 57mm shell (like what small escort boats had) will damage the pressure hull badly. And kill you due to progressive flooding -> inability to surface -> sinking to crush depth before repairs can be completed. 3 inch/4 inch shells and larger will be VERY deadly....your sub will only survive 1-2 such hits.

I am using the U-31 Class as a testbed for all damage models; basically the DM has very high hit points so no sudden explosions, instant death except with mine hits, instead, if you take a shell or close DC you will die most of the time from gradual flooding (like in real life). Also increased crew injury probability which is fun....often times near DC's will drop the sailors' health to 80% or even 33%. Makes it much more challenging. Morale also deteriorates more during depth charge attacks.

In totally unrelated news, the naming system has been updated to make characters more interesting! Just part of the high detail level we are striving for:

-First and last names are based on common German names of the time period

-Each crewmember now has a hometown or home region of Germany, in addition to his name (Berlin, Wilhelmshaven, Hamburg, etc.)

-Occasional probability of Austro-Hungarian hometowns

-Resolved problem with SH4 .upc files repeating the same names over and over, and not using the entire crew name file. All that was needed was to create new entries in CrewMembersNames

-Many thousands of possible name combos

-Statistical weighting to make certain names much more common (Muller, Schmidt, etc.)

-Greater likelihood of "aristocratic" names for officers (Graf, Von [whatever])

SwissSubCommander · 08-27-23, 02:27 PM

Would it be possible to add the Austro Hungarian navy as a "Flotilla"?
Some german U-Boats were transferred to the Adriatic and served under the Austrian Flag.

iambecomelife · 08-27-23, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SwissSubCommander

Would it be possible to add the Austro Hungarian navy as a "Flotilla"?
Some german U-Boats were transferred to the Adriatic and served under the Austrian Flag.

Yes. There are plans to have an Austro-Hungarian career submod; in my opinion the Empire had very beautiful medals and a pretty flag! Although the initial German release comes first, adding this ally as an option is high priority. I would say more likely than an Allied WWI submod.

iambecomelife · 09-15-23, 08:04 AM

Mini update Wolves of the Kaiser: 1914 - 1918, 08/15/2023:

-Returned from vacation and resumed fulltime modding.

-Many new Armoured Cruisers added. Drake Class, Duke of Edinburgh Class, Warrior Class, and Minotaur Class successfully implemented...Monmouth Class and Cressy class are coming very soon.

-Updated .zon files to make capsizing of ships easier after torpedo damage.

-Perfected behavior of AI torpedoes (see other thread). Many ships, such as battleships, pre-dreadnoughts, and armored cruisers will have them, and they will be deadly...be careful out there.

-Tweaked ASW sensors yet again to make destroyers deadlier.

-Added changes to the interface, enabling larger icons for special abilities/character traits/crew icons.

-Began to implement new sailor personality/character trait system. All sailors and officers will have a hometown & personality traits. Some characters will have ancillaries/objects that may be beneficial to you. For instance, an associate of Rudolf Diesel will enable slightly better engine performance. An associate of Admiral Scheer will increase crew training/performance. Knowing a journalist will increase fame/renown, making it easier to win medals. And so on. For people not interested in this type of thing, the mod will offer the option for stock character traits via a sub-mod.

1Patriotofmany · 09-17-23, 04:45 PM

I'm still ready and able to serve as a beta tester SIR!

iambecomelife · 09-28-23, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1Patriotofmany

I'm still ready and able to serve as a beta tester SIR!

Thank you!

Mini update Wolves of the Kaiser: 1914 - 1918 09/28/2023:

Still smooth sailing, several nice additions to the "testbed" installation:

1) -The U-139 Class U-Cruiser has been created at long last; in the previous screenshots it was a "dummy" object attached to another sub. Now it exists as a fully-functional and cloned playable unit.

Type IX was used because it is also German and has the correct number of torpedo tubes: four forward and two aft, plus it is a big boat with a large crew size (although not as big as U-139).

It will be an amazing contrast - sailing on tiny UB-I boats early in the war, less than 100 feet long and less than 20 men - and in 1918 getting to command this monster submarine, with 24 torpedoes! The U-139, in fact, was longer than a lot of good-sized oceangoing freighters of the time.

2) -Added Monmouth Class and Devonshire Class cruisers to the game.

3) -Added Acheron Class destroyers to the game.

4) -Prepared the last Royal Navy battlecruisers for final release: HMS Tiger, HMS Queen Mary, and Lion Class.

5) -Additional work on Ancillaries/Special Items for your officers, which may improve performance.

6) -Conducted research for 3d medals like Pour le Merite, Iron Cross, Hanseatic Cross, Max Joseph Order, and more.

I am quite happy with progress made, especially since I used no vacation time and have been working 7 day 56 hour weeks! Very soon I will be taking a good chunk of time off that will speed up progress so hang in there people! I am really liking the position we are in.

As a bonus, most of the mod is backed up off my PC on a storage account. There will never again be a hacker attack that destroys years' worth of work. I can guarantee that.

1Patriotofmany · 10-04-23, 05:52 PM

I'm hanging! I'll be downloading the minute i see it's ready, looks fantastic and thank you for all the work!

fitzcarraldo · 10-05-23, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1Patriotofmany

I'm hanging! I'll be downloading the minute i see it's ready, looks fantastic and thank you for all the work!

+1 here! I want to play this!

Fitzcarraldo

Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt · 10-10-23, 04:27 AM

Any news out there ?

)

pitti · 10-10-23, 09:35 AM

I would also like to help as a beta tester.....

1Patriotofmany · 10-12-23, 07:23 PM

[In little kids voice] Are we there yet, are we there yet?

08-13-23, 07:39 PM	#2746
iambecomelife Silent Hunter Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 4,584 Downloads: 297 Uploads: 0	Mini update Wolves of the Kaiser: 1914 - 1918, 08/13/2023: Another major step forward - anti-submarine sensor and weapons values are nearly done! It took MUCH less time than I thought it would, so this is great news. A few notes: -For gameplay purposes I needed to keep in sonar, even though it was not used on WWI destroyers. Equipping DD's with just hydrophones (which the best WWI escorts DID have) results in non-aggressive escorts. I will remove the "ping" sound effects to make it seem like there is no sonar sensor. -The best escorts WILL hunt you for a long time; I have read stories of WWI hunts that lasted for days. Early escorts (1914-1915) will be more tentative, and will not have true depth charges. Only light "depth bombs" that are weak and inaccurate. -I adjusted damage values and explosion radius for stock DC's. After multiple runs I think I have a great balance between playability and realism. There will not be pinpoint accurate DC drops; depth sensors on DCs will often be faulty (as they were in WWI). However, careless players (who run at high speeds underwater) will be destroyed quickly in 1917-1918. -Shallow charges can be very deadly, in situations where you are taken by surprise. -Underwater sensors can detect you at a much narrower aspect than in stock SH4. This helps make sure escorts are more persistent, and deliver longer/more challenging depth charge attacks. -Subs will be destroyed fairly often but you have a fighting chance....I increased hitpoints while making minor damage more likely. I also modified files to make crew injuries much more likely. If you have time to hide, DC drops over time will usually damage your sub gradually. Damage is often manageable, but you will want some capable damage control staff. This is more historically accurate - depth charges usually sank subs with cumulative damage over several hours - not with "golden BB" accurate shots. It's very suspenseful moving your men around the compartments, dealing with injuries, and pumping out water. -Usually, 2-3 destroyers will hunt you at a time. I ran many missions with about 6-8 M Class, K Class, and L Class destroyers hunting together, and they used pretty good tactics. One listening while two made coordinated runs, and the other 3-5 did not do any hunting and kept escorting their battleships. -One thing in your favor is depth charge loadouts - in WWI even the best destroyers only had about 20-30 DC's by 1918. In 1916 some ships only had two. So if you run silent and deep, you can sometimes cause them to run out of charges. I will be on vacation for a while, but will be posting again very soon. __________________ https://www.facebook.com/WolvesoftheKaiser/

08-19-23, 11:59 AM	#2747
Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt 中国水兵 Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Trieste/Siena Italy Posts: 285 Downloads: 164 Uploads: 0	That's incredible, but i have some questions: - more than depth charges, the real enemy of central power submarines were mine fields. what will you do for them? btw, here is a scheme with submarines losses (by cause) during the war: Mines 58 Depth charges 30 Submarine torpedoes 20 Gunfire 20 Ramming 19 Unknown 19 Accidents 10 Sweeps 33 Other (including bombs) 2 - you told about destroyers, but there were many other submarines hunters like the armed drifters, harbour defence launches and small crafts like the british CMB motor torpedo boats or the american subchasers SC-1 class. What kind of "hear" will have them (if there will be them in WotK)? Some kind of nerfed sonar or just the stock sh4 hydrophone? or will they hunt in tandem with bigger units (the destroyer listen and they drop the charges) - bonus question, cause for now, we will have just the British navy as our opponent you described the british destroyers as very powerful and infact they were. After them, the best sub hunters were the Americans and, surprisely the japanese (even if they had no confirmed victory and lost one unit, their destroyers in the Med were one of the most persistent during their hunts and thanks to this most of the attacks against the covoys protected by them, failed comletly). After them both Portugues and Brazilian destroyers had at last one confirmed vicotry (Romanians too, but their units hadn't depth charges and used a torpedo to sink a german sub), but Russians, Italians, French and Greeks were not that smart on hunting subs. Their tactics were often weak and their hunts usually persisted for very short time, in contrast with the British units. So: in the future, will there be this contrast between allied navies or every destroyer will be like the british ones ? Anyway have a nice vacation Sir. __________________ ALFA TAU!!! Rapidi Ed Invisibili-the campaign (an italian mod for SH4) Last edited by Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt; 08-23-23 at 03:26 AM.

08-19-23, 02:35 PM	#2748
astvitaliy1982 Lieutenant Join Date: Jun 2019 Posts: 256 Downloads: 534 Uploads: 0	astvitaliy1982 Hi guys) The topic of the first world war is very interesting. There are in this topic and certain subtleties of that time, about which I want to ask.Will be implemented navigation, speed, time and distance to the target in the tools and tables that relate to that time period?

08-19-23, 02:46 PM	#2749
Jeff-Groves Village Idiot Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 5,319 Downloads: 130 Uploads: 0	On AI for different Countries? It's an easy job to create custom AI Sensors. One can create those for diffent sized and equipped Units. That has been done many times in the past. __________________ I don't do Stupid. So don't ask.

08-27-23, 02:27 PM	#2751
SwissSubCommander Asso dei Siluratori Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: Roma, Italia Posts: 82 Downloads: 330 Uploads: 2	Would it be possible to add the Austro Hungarian navy as a "Flotilla"? Some german U-Boats were transferred to the Adriatic and served under the Austrian Flag. __________________ "Da mesi e mesi non faccio che pensare ai miei marinai che sono onorevolmente in fondo al mare. Penso che il mio posto è con loro." -Carlo Fecia di Cossato

09-15-23, 08:04 AM	#2753
iambecomelife Silent Hunter Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 4,584 Downloads: 297 Uploads: 0	Mini update Wolves of the Kaiser: 1914 - 1918, 08/15/2023: -Returned from vacation and resumed fulltime modding. -Many new Armoured Cruisers added. Drake Class, Duke of Edinburgh Class, Warrior Class, and Minotaur Class successfully implemented...Monmouth Class and Cressy class are coming very soon. -Updated .zon files to make capsizing of ships easier after torpedo damage. -Perfected behavior of AI torpedoes (see other thread). Many ships, such as battleships, pre-dreadnoughts, and armored cruisers will have them, and they will be deadly...be careful out there. -Tweaked ASW sensors yet again to make destroyers deadlier. -Added changes to the interface, enabling larger icons for special abilities/character traits/crew icons. -Began to implement new sailor personality/character trait system. All sailors and officers will have a hometown & personality traits. Some characters will have ancillaries/objects that may be beneficial to you. For instance, an associate of Rudolf Diesel will enable slightly better engine performance. An associate of Admiral Scheer will increase crew training/performance. Knowing a journalist will increase fame/renown, making it easier to win medals. And so on. For people not interested in this type of thing, the mod will offer the option for stock character traits via a sub-mod. __________________ https://www.facebook.com/WolvesoftheKaiser/

09-17-23, 04:45 PM	#2754
1Patriotofmany Commander Join Date: Jul 2017 Posts: 447 Downloads: 95 Uploads: 0	I'm still ready and able to serve as a beta tester SIR!

10-04-23, 05:52 PM	#2756
1Patriotofmany Commander Join Date: Jul 2017 Posts: 447 Downloads: 95 Uploads: 0	I'm hanging! I'll be downloading the minute i see it's ready, looks fantastic and thank you for all the work!

10-10-23, 04:27 AM	#2758
Kapitain Oliver Leinkraunt 中国水兵 Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Trieste/Siena Italy Posts: 285 Downloads: 164 Uploads: 0	Any news out there ? ) __________________ ALFA TAU!!! Rapidi Ed Invisibili-the campaign (an italian mod for SH4)

10-10-23, 09:35 AM	#2759
pitti Seaman Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Posts: 35 Downloads: 782 Uploads: 0	I would also like to help as a beta tester.....

10-12-23, 07:23 PM	#2760
1Patriotofmany Commander Join Date: Jul 2017 Posts: 447 Downloads: 95 Uploads: 0	[In little kids voice] Are we there yet, are we there yet?