Just a thought...

[Wrench 9,800]

Colmak: that's EXACTLY what I have in mind, excpeting that I'd need somebody to build the item in MAX. A rectangular oval, skined to look like poured concrete.

 

this is approximatley the size and shape needed for Ford Island:

 

 

Size can be guesstimated by the comparisoion of the BROOKLYN CA parked in the middle, and lower center. Then, hangars, cranes, barracks, other items can be placed atop it. Won't have the correct control tower, but we can make due with Tower1.

 

and if I'm as clever as I think I am, NAS Ford Island can be made opeartional via the use of Gepard's invivible airfield.

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[WDH 0]

Right on!Good to hear that Idea.

[jtin 0]

What I DON'T have is Ford Island itself... there is NO possible way to place a terrain tile inside the Harbor. I still need a rectangular oval flat concrete colored "parking lot" appox 2 km long by 1.5 in width, with rounded ends, that I can drop in place of the 'ground_platte' I'm using now.

 

Why isn't this possible? If the harbor has at least one space for a tile in the middle (which I assume is true, looking at your coastline) can't you just create a custom tile with its on HM for Ford Island?

[Wrench 9,800]

No, that's actually 4 or 6 different tiles; Grass-to-sea, pointing inwards to form the bay.

 

The tiles are just too big....and my most recent attempt at creating 10 new tiles (bmp & tga) was not a real success. Mind you, it DID work, but I got the colors 'off' somehow, so the transitions looked funny (these were repaints of the Sea-to-jungle, so I could try to replicate a de-nuded Kahoolawe Island, which was used as a bombing and gunnery range for the last 80 odd years)

 

You HAVE, however, given me some food for thought....looks like i'm back into photoshop again...

 

---

Here's Hinch's new Ise-class BBs in game; I created a seperate target area (albeit NOT historical) just for them and cruisers and destroyers, and 1 carrier...

 

One of TONE's E13A's patrols over the Battle Line...

 

 

There are also 2 attached to Nagumo' fleet, and added the other 2 carrriers.

 

The Jake is a semi-finished mod of the DAT Ar-196, with the edits to remove the rockerarm humps on the cowling, and obviously reskinned and redecaled for IJN usage. Slight off is shape and size, but DAMN close!!

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[+Hinchinbrooke 36]

Wrench,

 

If I rearrange the funnel and the central guns (along with a shortening of the hull), I can give you a faux Fuso/Yamashiro. Give me a few days, as I'm working on a real ship. Nagato possible also, but Yamato is off limits.

 

Hinch

[Wrench 9,800]

cool!!

 

They'd sure come in handy for a campaign builder, if someone ]cough[ Baltika ]cough[ wanted to do the San Bernadino Strait and Samar battles....

 

ok, note to self...PI needs an update, too (as if I an't got enough to do!!)

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[commander 0]

would it also be possible to put an american side, ie having to scramble the planes to defend your base w/ minimal air and ground support, talk about a tough fight.

[Wrench 9,800]

I don't understand the question....???

 

What do you think Pearl Harbor is all about????

 

Unfortunately, since I can't build scripted missions, the best way to re-enact it WOULD be a series of scripted mission, for the US side; scrambles under fire....IJN would be Zeke escort, strike, via level bombing Kates --anti ship is problematic with non-moviing ships -- A-S is NOT a valid mission statement in this case; dive bombing attacks with Vals. Hell, even dawn recon with the faux Jake...but you'd NOT have any opposition...and it's VERY hard (read: impossible) to have the ground based defenses NOT shoot at you. The only way to do that, is have them simply not there; which goes back to user built mission only. But you'll still take fire from the docked ships, as they're Ground Objects and NOT Terrain objects -- the way to fix that is place ALL the needed ships INTO the terrain folder, turning them into big fat dumb sitting ducks -- oh, wait!!! that's what they were!!

 

In-game generated missions for the US side would be limited to CAP...and most of them are 'Scramble' types (or so it seems during testing). Strike missions??? With what?? We don't have a usable B-17C/D (one exists as a very beta and needs LOTS of work). A-20A Havoc? ok, that one alrady exists (as I built it!), but the weapons loads are funky, as the 250 & 500 lb bombs have a start date of 1942 -ok, that one, too, IS easliy fixed with a simple edit of the weaponsdata ini. B-18? none exist.

 

On the Navy side, sure we have The Big E, but again, missing the TBDs -so, again, there goes the anti-ship torpedo missions. Wildcat and Dauntless, covered. Simple redecaling of some exisitng skins and they're done.

PBY? sorry, ain't got none

If you really want to push it historically, we're missing The LEX, too....

 

But I'll leave that mission stuff to the experts. I'm just the targets guy...

 

Wrench

kevinstein

[WDH 0]

And a darn good target guy at that!

 

Leave the "ship guns" on.Harder the better while the target fights back!Can see nothing but shear terror to make a low level torpedo run!Like a game of chance that distracts us from real life,an escape if you will.And trust me when I say "Need to get away". Isn't that why we play these games?Real life will there waiting on you when your done.

 

I'll take anything you can throw at us,in the way of targets.And be glad you did place them there,too.

 

PBY's only good for armed recon to search for the Japanese Fleet and SAR missions.Wouldn't think there's a good reason for them in this situation anyhow.Since the game engine will send interceptors after you.We don't have them anyways so,who cares right?

 

Realizing that this a monster Idea but,with Midway,DBS and WIP Pearl Harbor terrains.Wandering if I could fool the game engine into building a campaign that "switches" terrains.Sorta following the your squadron around the world thoroughly on their years of service,like when you change airbases in campaign except,change to a different terrain.

A "what if" campaign and terrains I would like to see for DBS,Pearl Harbor,Midway,ETO and PTO joined not as one map or terrain but,that would be cool too.Here it is as follows;

1)Japanese Occupied Hawaii-Midway-Wake-Marshal Islands and Battle over DBS 1941-1955

1941-Japan captures these key points and puts a big dent in U.S.Navy Pacific Fleet and all remaining of the fleet return to the mainland.With Britain up to their eyeballs with Nazis,there be no help until Europe is stable again.Britain still requiring volunteers from the states to help them out.U.S. starts maintaining/repairing/building ships along with other military projects while defending it's own borders of interest.With the Atlantic Fleet split and patrolling all bodies of water of surrounding states (Atlantic,Gulf of Mexico,Bering Sea and Pacific).

2)U.S. fights back in spring of 1942 with an invasion on a key point,Midway

March 1942-U.S. sought out the help of Russia to gain an advantage of shipping lanes from Bering Straits to Midway in a deal to share these lanes with them and to "lend" technology.Secretly building ships out of Alaska and Washington state,the new found allies aircraft carriers and the Yak aircraft company,all train day or night to accomplish a common goal.To retard the Japanese's war machine in reaching the Bering Seas.All the same time,U.S. and Russia enter the European War to repulse the never ending Third Reich wave of attacks.In return,non-occupied France and England offer to repay and help in PTO when they can.

3)Allies capture Midway and maintain security while launching hit and run attacks on Japanese Occupied Wake and Marshal Islands.While building a large airfield on Midway to be able to strike long range surrounding occupied areas.

Oct 1942-Allies keep the pressure on all fronts!Capturing axis cargo ships and gaining valuable resources to build new military advances.Keeping the ever growing allied fleet close to Midway.Running day and night sorties to soften Japan's battery's and recon on Wake and Marshal.Britain and France learns of several new technological advances made by Germany and shares with their allies.

4)Japan enters the Bering Sea...U.S. and Russia are not surprised.Lessons learned.How to start here?Still thinking it out and could use some better ideas than my own...Such as what aircraft,ships,ground targets etc.Would like to work up to Jet Age and then on to Korea.An all in one campaign for non-stock terrains would be the ultimate compliment to all moderators here at combatace.

 

Brady

[+Geezer 3,569]

Colmak: that's EXACTLY what I have in mind, excpeting that I'd need somebody to build the item in MAX. A rectangular oval, skined to look like poured concrete.

 

this is approximatley the size and shape needed for Ford Island:

 

Did you ever get a response from a 3D model guy on this? If not, send me a PM and we can talk about what is needed.

 

Geezer

[+Baltika 84]

cool!!

 

They'd sure come in handy for a campaign builder, if someone ]cough[ Baltika ]cough[ wanted to do the San Bernadino Strait and Samar battles....

 

ok, note to self...PI needs an update, too (as if I an't got enough to do!!)

 

Wrench

kevin stein

 

 

Great work going on here, looking forward to this terrain

 

Thanks also to the ship builders round here, nice one

 

 

 

OT: Wrench, I have a full-scale Philippines rebuilt terrain in the shop which includes the Japanese airbases on Formosa - very handy for the next update of my Philippines campaign. It is created from scratch in TE, and is not based on any previously released or unreleased PI terrain. If you are contemplating a re-targetting of PI terrain, perhaps I could send that build over to you before you put a lot of work into Edward's old PI terrain which is available here at CA? That would save duplication of effort, and give us a shiny, new, full-size PI to play with.

 

Sorry for the hijack, normal service will be resumed

[Wrench 9,800]

Geezer: nope, no one's offered anything -until now!!! expect a PM!!!

 

ok, here's some of last night work. now, I know BB row is definatley 'off' in it's postioing ... should be a little more east, closer to the stand-in 10-10 dock (ish) unit thingy I'm using. That's a easy fix, however

 

 

note the white ship in the background? repaint of the Liberty (will need to get permission from Capun for its use) as hospital ship SOLACE. BROOKLYN cruisiers standing in the battleships, until when/if some appear. If not, I'll have to repaint them

 

view from SOLACE toward battle ship row and ARIZONA

 

 

another view. Hinch's IRON DUKE is standing in for UTAH - in fact, if you look close enough it's flying the Republic of Texas flag, as I borrowed it from my AmericanSouthWest map, where it's representing USS TEXAS at Huston/Galveston

 

Please also note the repainted grass and sea-to-grass tiles, that now have the fields removed

 

You wil also note one of the (several) major flaws in my terrain building --- the humped up water at Honolulu. This tusnami effect is ALL over the island, and is especially prevelant around Kaneohe and Bellow to the south. I'm most afraid to 'smooth height field', as it seems to scerew up other thing, and I"m must not good enough with the TE to understand how it works.

 

on a side note, does anyone know if the 'removing components via data ini edits' work for ships??? I"d like to remove the boom cranes from SOLACE...

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[+Hinchinbrooke 36]

on a side note, does anyone know if the 'removing components via data ini edits' work for ships??? I"d like to remove the boom cranes from SOLACE...

 

Wrench

kevin stein

 

I don't suppose the cranes are mentioned in the data.ini (as they don't 'do' anything), so I'd be surprised if you could delete them that way. If it's CP's ship, perhaps ask him to remove them for you?

Edited December 11, 2008 by Hinchinbrooke

[Wrench 9,800]

Admrial Nagumo says: " I Hiryu" (ok, I know...bad pun)

 

but here's 2 of her flock (new skins and decal sets, originally designed for Midway, but decals is decals is decals...and changing the color of a fueselage stripe in a skin template aint' nothing!)

 

 

 

---

the booms are not defined in the data ini, but definately in the OUT:

 

Boom_Aft (290 polys, 870 verts) '8 - Default'

Boom_Fwd (312 polys, 936 verts) '8 - Default'

Boom_Mid (246 polys, 738 verts) '8 - Default'

 

I haven't experimented with is, as I'm not using SOLACE as a GO, but a terrain object. Easy enough to uncomment the necessary lines in the Hawaii_Types ini, though....

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[+Geezer 3,569]

Geezer: nope, no one's offered anything -until now!!! expect a PM!!!

 

Found some good maps and shots of Ford Island, and the tower. One map has a scale bar that provides some approximate dimensions. I know you have been having scale and size problems, so my question is: should the model be "correct" size, or a bit undersize? Also, it looks like the field was asphalt, not concrete.

 

[Wrench 9,800]

We know the given lenght of the ships I'm using (Brooklyns are 'standing in' for our Colorado/Arizona/Nevada, etc battleships). 608 ft (185m) for Brooklyns, 624ft (190m??) for the Californias -- that's not that big a difference!! Means spacing will be easy to figure out..

 

Also, given the terrain tiles, we don't have all the little coves and inlets and such like...

 

Scale wise, I'd start with 'real life', it can always be scaled down in max, right?? (my knowledge on building a 3d object is soo woefully inadequate...)

That screenie somewhere above, I show the basic size and shape, if that's any help.

 

OTH, since everything's scale seems to want to fit the 63% rule, maybe starting off a 63% Real Life ™ size, and going from there.

 

Heck, I'll send you the whole terrain, if want to fiddle sizes with. It'll be about 45-50 megs, as it includes the tiles.

 

I, and I'm sure the other WW2 players (and even those in the closest ... ) REALLLY appriciate the assist!

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[+Geezer 3,569]

OTH, since everything's scale seems to want to fit the 63% rule, maybe starting off a 63% Real Life ™ size, and going from there.

 

I, and I'm sure the other WW2 players (and even those in the closet ... ) REALLLY appriciate the assist!

 

OK, I'll start on a Ford Island "platform". It doesn't have to have any height correct? Just width and length? Also, progress shots of Kaga and Northrop 2E below.

 

 

[+Geezer 3,569]

Using the map's scale bar, I made a grid and overlayed it on Ford Island - each square is 1/8 mile. Because of the many problems you are struggling with, the island could be more accurate than the harbor. That leads me to ask - if I made one big model of the entire harbor, would the editor allow you to insert it into the game map?

 

Edited December 11, 2008 by Geezer

[+Geezer 3,569]

Quick and dirty Ford Island shown below - a trifle undersize (around 90% of actual size). I can probably get a test version off to you tonight. If you are in no hurry, I could make some ground objects (hangars, tower, oil tanks, docks, etc) in a couple of weeks.

 

[WDH 0]

Where can I get a WWII nation.ini?

 

And is there any interest of this idea;Is there away fool the game engine into building a campaign that "switches" terrains?Sorta following squadrons around the world thoroughly on their years of service,like when you change airbases in campaign but,to also change to a different terrain.Also,to follow from carrier to carrier as needed.As the years pass,so does the aircraft,weapons,airfields,groundobjects,ships,nations,treaties,etc.I think one of the biggest problem would be how the game engine reads the nation.ini.

 

Brady

Edited December 11, 2008 by WDH

[+allenjb42 4,232]

Where can I get a WWII nation.ini?

 

WW2 nations are included in the New Nations pack by Mike1:

 

http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=1630

[WDH 0]

WW2 nations are included in the New Nations pack by Mike1:

 

http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=1630

 

Thank you allenjb42

 

Brady

[+malibu43 142]

Where can I get a WWII nation.ini?

 

And is there any interest of this idea;Is there away fool the game engine into building a campaign that "switches" terrains?Sorta following squadrons around the world thoroughly on their years of service,like when you change airbases in campaign but,to also change to a different terrain.Also,to follow from carrier to carrier as needed.As the years pass,so does the aircraft,weapons,airfields,groundobjects,ships,nations,treaties,etc.I think one of the biggest problem would be how the game engine reads the nation.ini.

 

Brady

 

I think you would be better off just creating mulitple campaigns. And at the end of one campaign, the end screen says "such and such pilot transferred to such and such squadron at such and such airbase/carrier. To continue the story, select such and such campaign."

[WDH 0]

Not bad,Like that idea too.But,the life of pilot and life squadron is gonna be a lot different.So,like you said,build separate campaigns to follow the pilots career but,instead of pilot career,change to squadron life.What do you think?

 

Brady

[Guest Stiglr]

Wrench wrote:

 

OTOH, since everything's scale seems to want to fit the 63% rule, maybe starting off a 63% Real Life ™ size, and going from there.

 

Arrrrrrrgh!!!! How can you TOLERATE this? You're actually considering making the new ships 37% too small to accommodate fitting them into a 63% scale terrain that's been created at 63% scale..... why, exactly????

 

Is there some "sim lite" rule I'm unaware of that says you must propagate this AWFUL amateurish scale inaccuracy into everything you do in this system???

 

This simply makes no sense, especially for a very limited (area-wise) mod that has no good reason NOT to be 100% scale.

 

I think you're missing a golden opportunity to step away from "sim lite" here and do things RIGHT for a change.

 

(And yes, I'd consider rescaling any work done recently up to 100%; should be an easy thing to do at this stage)