Slitherine

A famous soldier once said "something so beautiful yet it's apart of something so ugly". This is what he was talking about

Fantastic work Alex!

I've just PM'ed you our last two 3d models (I hope )

You've now got...
- a USN Avenger (torpedo bomber)
- a Japanese fishing boat (for scouting/transporting scouts around the multitude of little Pacific islands)

The TBD is in MAX format, so let me know if you can't access and I'll get it converted into 3ds

Have fun!

Early screenshots from Pacific for Battle Academy: The Island...

Link here for the full set of pics... and for the alpha-tester sign up page -> viewtopic.php?f=87&t=43682#p413435

Hey Amaris!

I'm copying the transport code from Dieppe to enable the USN freighter/transport and the IJN freighter/transport to carry 3 units each.
Is it possible to show the icons of the 3 units carried when I select the freighter/transport that is carrying them?

Hi Amaris,

I've added a shot of the current evolution of your brilliantly re-engineered Pacific fleets... arranged smallest to largest, from left to right...

US Navy... Minesweeper (AM), Destroyer (DD), Light Cruiser (CL), Freighter/Transport (AP), Heavy Cruiser (CA), Battleship (BB), Carrier (CV)
Imperial Jap Navy... Patrol Boat (PB), Destroyer (DD), Light Cruiser (CL), Cargo/Transport (AK), Heavy Cruiser (CA), Battleship (BB), Carrier (CV)

Am VERY curious about the collision detect method you're experimenting with? If we can keep the big ships big, that would mean that we wouldn't have to shrink the smaller ships, like the minesweeper/patrol boat, too much, so we don't have to lose too much lovely detail...

I'm guessing that the USN freighter/transport should probably be bigger than the light cruiser, but smaller than the heavy. Do you think it's possible to process the USN freighter/transport's jpeg 'skin' through eg. Photoshop, to lighten the colours up? It seems too dark next to the USN capital ships...

NB. Jap fishing boat (scout), USN Gato class submarine (scout), Val dive bomber, Zero fighter-bomber, Avenger torpedo bomber, Corsair fighter bomber partially implemented and not shown here (yet... but coming to a small screen near you soon! )

Does anyone know how to add the Akagi wooden flight deck to our Jap carrier model?

jpeg of the Akagi flight deck attached here, just in case...

GottaLove88s wrote:

LandMarine47 wrote:BTW I'd been meaning to bring this up but can the remove wreck option be removed? Is there a way for units to float over carcasses of dead ships without having to remove them? I think it's highly unrealistic that a ship can just clear another one when if in real life it would probably destroy its own Hull.

That's easy... Just make the cost to remove a wreck in ocean so expensive that it's not actually possible.

I've also tried to explore 'water' tiles of 3 different colours/depths...

1. Deep ocean (accessible to all ships),
2. Shallow seas & rivers (accessible to smaller ships; too shallow for subs to be able to dive),
3. Beach shallows (accessible to landing craft, amphibious, troops and vehicles only; ie. your troops won't die any more if your LCA is killed right next to the beach)

At the moment, it's not possible to do that, because Slith's animations always revert to land animations (dirt explosions, etc, rather than splashes in the water). Pip has kindly said he'll try to look into it, hopefully for BA2... It will be great to have now we're going down the full 3d naval fleets route...

There's a thread up on this here -> viewtopic.php?f=105&t=41426&hilit=ocean

Once (if?) we can get the 3 different types of water tile... if a ships sinks in deep ocean, it's gone. No wreck. If a ship sinks in rivers/shallow seas or beach shallows it's there until the end of the game...

But for now, we'll just have to keep it so that shipwrecks stay in place (call 'em artificial reefs, that other ships can't sail over ).

This is a great idea. But I imagine that when and infantry soldier lands in that water he can only move 1 tile can't fire and is heavily exposed. Also can we do a "Tokyo Express" thing and have commandos aboard destroyers! I'm so excited for the alpha it will be phenomenal! That island looks like it will be a brutal fight. I going to have snipers in the tress above you historically the Japanese would constantly use their own Frag Grenades as mines! Is it possible that Japanese Engineers/Scouts/Commandos can place make shit minefield that have a 50/50 chance of killing an American? (Engineers get regular minefield though) so having your own units will be vital. But in exchange for the minefield you lose 1 or 2 Charges that could be useful against American Flamer Sherman's.

Thanks LM, We'll do our best.

Meanwhile, pls tell Pip that you'd like to see the 3 depths/colours of water added... The more of us that ask, the less he'll consider it 'power user only', the better our chances of having it implemented... He had been considering it for the update after Husky, but I'm pretty sure it's not in Rommel... I know Pip's thinking of improving the water animations for Mac and iOS players, in BA2, so this would be a great time to add the extra depths... They'd be perfect for the Pacific...

Thanks for your support mate!

Thread on multiple depths of water here -> viewtopic.php?f=105&t=41426

GottaLove88s wrote:Thanks LM, We'll do our best. Meanwhile, pls tell Pip that you'd like to see the 3 depths/colours of water added... The more of us that ask, the less he'll consider it 'power user only', the better our chances of having it implemented... I know he's thinking of improving the water animations for Mac and iOS players, in BA2, so this would be a great time to add the extra depths... Thanks for your support mate!

Great to help out. Well then I guess I will start a thread after Rommel Comes out. Asking for Depths like "ocean" "shallow" and shore/coast line. It will be interesting to see that! And if my LVT gets sink can another one rescue the marines that would be cool.

Salut Amaris!

I've just PM'ed you the latest draft of 'The Island' map... in case you'd like to test out those gorgeous warships in a scaled environment...

Have fun Monsieur!

GottaLove88s wrote:Hey Amaris!

I'm copying the transport code from Dieppe to enable the USN freighter/transport and the IJN freighter/transport to carry 3 units each.
Is it possible to show the icons of the 3 units carried when I select the freighter/transport that is carrying them?

Can you send me this code? I have it somewhere on one disk. But which one?

As there are no way to know all units onboard I guess the answer is not. The loading system works like a pile: you can only access on the first element of the pile.
By cons I can put the number of onboard units in addition to the icon.

GottaLove88s wrote:Hi Amaris,

I've added a shot of the current evolution of your brilliantly re-engineered Pacific fleets... arranged smallest to largest, from left to right...

US Navy... Minesweeper (AM), Destroyer (DD), Light Cruiser (CL), Freighter/Transport (AP), Heavy Cruiser (CA), Battleship (BB), Carrier (CV)
Imperial Jap Navy... Patrol Boat (PB), Destroyer (DD), Light Cruiser (CL), Cargo/Transport (AK), Heavy Cruiser (CA), Battleship (BB), Carrier (CV)

I need to rework on each model. I'll resize them.

GottaLove88s wrote: Am VERY curious about the collision detect method you're experimenting with? If we can keep the big ships big, that would mean that we wouldn't have to shrink the smaller ships, like the minesweeper/patrol boat, too much, so we don't have to lose too much lovely detail...

Wait and see.
But you're right: we need to keep largest ships.

GottaLove88s wrote: I'm guessing that the USN freighter/transport should probably be bigger than the light cruiser, but smaller than the heavy. Do you think it's possible to process the USN freighter/transport's jpeg 'skin' through eg. Photoshop, to lighten the colours up? It seems too dark next to the USN capital ships...

NB. Jap fishing boat (scout), USN Gato class submarine (scout), Val dive bomber, Zero fighter-bomber, Avenger torpedo bomber, Corsair fighter bomber partially implemented and not shown here (yet... but coming to a small screen near you soon! )

I'll work on texture AFTER the 3D models.
I have trouble with multiples textures files. For the BB with reco plane for example. I have a texture file for the ship and one more for the plane but it doesn't work. I may be something wrong....
But I guess to be able to customize the IJN carrier with a wood deck and a big Japanese flag.
Changing texture is not complicated.

GottaLove88s wrote:Does anyone know how to add the Akagi wooden flight deck to our Jap carrier model?

jpeg of the Akagi flight deck attached here, just in case...

On my (infinite) ToDoList!
Wait & see but I'll improve first the model of IJN carrier and change the texture.

Amaris wrote:

GottaLove88s wrote:Hey Amaris!

I'm copying the transport code from Dieppe to enable the USN freighter/transport and the IJN freighter/transport to carry 3 units each.
Is it possible to show the icons of the 3 units carried when I select the freighter/transport that is carrying them?

Can you send me this code? I have it somewhere on one disk. But which one?

As there are no way to know all units onboard I guess the answer is not. The loading system works like a pile: you can only access on the first element of the pile.
By cons I can put the number of onboard units in addition to the icon.

Salut Amaris! I've just PM'ed you our LOAD.BSF... so we can load multiple units into our larger transports... I updated it slightly with a fix, so that it counts up & down to 3, hehe... But remember, I also created a new category of transport... So transports can now be 'heavy' (an LCT for example, able to carry anything moveable, including vehicles) or 'light' (a DUKW for example, able to carry infantry and light guns only)... This gets coded into the squads.csv (see Dieppe v1.1 for full working example)

Is there away to get infantry into an LVT then load to a transport? I tried this with Dieppe and my troops did not die. With this we can save lots of unit space with 3 infantry squads all of them landing in 3 individual LVT's which will come from 1 Transport ship. Also I was thinking that if we are using the Naval Academy rules when a transport takes damage troops inside suffer damage. Exp a Transport suffers "ship on fire" you lose an or most of an infantry squad. If it begins to sink there is a 50/50 chance you will lose an LVT. But if we are using Dieppe style rules be sure to make sure that beach is Squeaky Clean! Or you will suffer the penalty

Amaris wrote:

GottaLove88s wrote:Hi Amaris,

I've added a shot of the current evolution of your brilliantly re-engineered Pacific fleets... arranged smallest to largest, from left to right...

US Navy... Minesweeper (AM), Destroyer (DD), Light Cruiser (CL), Freighter/Transport (AP), Heavy Cruiser (CA), Battleship (BB), Carrier (CV)
Imperial Jap Navy... Patrol Boat (PB), Destroyer (DD), Light Cruiser (CL), Cargo/Transport (AK), Heavy Cruiser (CA), Battleship (BB), Carrier (CV)

I need to rework on each model. I'll resize them.

GottaLove88s wrote: Am VERY curious about the collision detect method you're experimenting with? If we can keep the big ships big, that would mean that we wouldn't have to shrink the smaller ships, like the minesweeper/patrol boat, too much, so we don't have to lose too much lovely detail...

Wait and see.
But you're right: we need to keep largest ships.

AWESOME!! That's great news... But, yes, I'm still curious...

Rewinding to way back when (or a whole 11 days ago, lol... Man, this thing is moving fast!! )
When our warships are correctly scaled relative to each other, they sure do look AMAZING!!
[/quote]

Amaris wrote:

GottaLove88s wrote:Does anyone know how to add the Akagi wooden flight deck to our Jap carrier model?

jpeg of the Akagi flight deck attached here, just in case...

On my (infinite) ToDoList!
Wait & see but I'll improve first the model of IJN carrier and change the texture.

Merci A! I was hoping to tempt Richcat... But I suspect he's busy with Real Life... Summer has suddenly come to the UK, so most folks are trying to enjoy it while it lasts...

Amaris wrote:I'll work on texture AFTER the 3D models.
I have trouble with multiples textures files. For the BB with reco plane for example. I have a texture file for the ship and one more for the plane but it doesn't work. I may be something wrong....
But I guess to be able to customize the IJN carrier with a wood deck and a big Japanese flag.
Changing texture is not complicated.

I believe the ship and 'plane have to be textured from the same jpeg file... This may be something that MAX can do for you if you combine the two objects from within MAX before creating the s3f file?

Reviewing our gorgeous, correctly scaled minesweeper, destroyer and cruiser above... Are you absolutely sure that you want to create different warship units for the Americans and the Japanese?

I'd be happy to use your new 'Amaris class' super battleship, the original heavy cruiser (that you've modelled the USN capital ships from), the original light cruiser (that evolved into the 'Amaris' BB), the destroyer and the minesweeper... and just flag those as American or Japanese...

It's great that we'll have different carrier types (Jap flat tops with wooden flight decks, tiny bridges & side smoke, versus USN Yorktown class with metal flight decks, huge bridges & big smokestack)... different freighter/transports... and different naval scouts (USN Gato class subs versus Jap fishing boats)...

But I doubt many players will be able to recognise the difference between a USS Iowa class versus an IJN Kongo class battleship... and probably even fewer will care once the shells start flying... It seems a lot of work for you, to remodel, resize, set animation points, etc... Don't want to burn out your amazing creativity!!

Found a site that has info & pictures on a number of USN, IJN and RN warships...

http://www.militaryfactory.com/ships/ww ... rships.asp
http://www.militaryfactory.com/ships/ww ... rships.asp
http://www.militaryfactory.com/ships/ww ... rships.asp

GottaLove88s wrote:AWESOME!! That's great news... But, yes, I'm still curious...

Simply: I forbid travel on tiles adjacent another ship:



It is not perfect. The discovery of new enemy units or enemy fire can block the movement and cause collisions.
But it's works for 99% of cases.