Questions For The Carrier Guys

[+Geezer]

I'm devoting some time to some Japanese ground objects, and that has led me into an area I know little about - carrier operations. Because the IJN conducted extensive carrier ops in the early phases of the Sino-Japanese war, it looks like an early IJN carrier - such as the Kaga - is needed. I made a quick and dirty Kaga, and then sprinkled some aircraft across the flight deck. The newer TW releases (FE, WOI) allow aircraft to take off line abreast so the layout shown below is feasible? Are there any restrictions or problems that would prevent such a concept from working? Any comments would be much appreciated before I put much time into a carrier.

 

 

 

 

[Jug]

I'm devoting some time to some Japanese ground objects, and that has led me into an area I know little about - carrier operations. Because the IJN conducted extensive carrier ops in the early phases of the Sino-Japanese war, it looks like an early IJN carrier - such as the Kaga - is needed. I made a quick and dirty Kaga, and then sprinkled some aircraft across the flight deck. The newer TW releases (FE, WOI) allow aircraft to take off line abreast so the layout shown below is feasible? Are there any restrictions or problems that would prevent such a concept from working? Any comments would be much appreciated before I put much time into a carrier.

 

 

 

 

Geezer, I am not a modder, but this is a fantastic start and I just want to encourage you to complete it. A true hole in the ship mods available. Press on.

[scouserlad13]

I agree, i think this looks absolutly amazing, keep up the good work!

[+Gocad]

Great shots, but landing on the carrier might be a bit tricky with all those planes parked there...

 

It might be a good idea to create two versions, one as a mere ground object (read: target) with planes on the deck and one acting as aircraft carrier, with a clear deck.

[+Wrench]

Agreed!

 

With gepard's 'invisible airfield', that makes carrier operations pretty usable in single, in-game generated missions (there are some flaws with that, but nothing terrible -meaning that land planes use them as well). CVs with parked planes would make SUPERB terrain objects for strike missions (anti-ship only works on ships that move)

Campaigns could be built around the 'clear deck' versions, as you can assign squadrons to the various carriers.

 

Great work!!! Keep going man!!

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[+christian59]

hello

 

for detail of KAGA look at

 

http://www.h3.dion.ne.jp/~mokei/e-gallery-kaga.htm

 

but it's a ww2 carrier

 

20-30' are 3 deck carrier

 

like this

 

 

christian

[jtin]

Geezer, what exactly do you mean by taking off abreast? AI taking off on carriers are dictated by the catapult locations; 1 takes off first, then 2, then so on. They only rejoin formation after they're airborne.

 

Another thing to consider is what Crusader posted in another thread; having the static objects on the deck tied to the catapult animation (which isn't needed on a flat top) and after launch the carrier could revert to recovery mode (end of animation).

 

With gepard's 'invisible airfield', that makes carrier operations pretty usable in single, in-game generated missions (there are some flaws with that, but nothing terrible -meaning that land planes use them as well).

 

Well specifically with a PTO install would be to make sure to set the carrier airfield size to small, all land airfields to medium and large, and only set carrier based aircraft to small. It would work in other eras, except maybe where highway airfields are used... I've always thought that the stock airfields were all far from small.

[+Geezer]

Geezer, what exactly do you mean by taking off abreast? AI taking off on carriers are dictated by the catapult locations; 1 takes off first, then 2, then so on. They only rejoin formation after they're airborne.

 

Another thing to consider is what Crusader posted in another thread; having the static objects on the deck tied to the catapult animation (which isn't needed on a flat top) and after launch the carrier could revert to recovery mode (end of animation).

 

Thanks - that's the kind of input I was hoping to get as I did not know how the TW carriers worked. By line abreast I meant that there were two launchable planes side-by-side, not necessarily that they launched simultaneously. Found some info that indicates the Kaga was pretty close to it's WW2 configuration by 1937: Kaga

 

So...how many aircraft can a TW carrier launch? That would detremine how many remaining aircraft would be tied to the animation, which go away when launching is complete.

 

Can several launchable aircraft line up behind the catapult location for launch, or is it one catapult = one launchable plane?

[jtin]

An aircraft carrier can launch any number of aircraft, it's just that they magically appear on the empty cats... there's no taxiing like on runways.

 

For example, if you have 2 cats, lead would take off, then number 2 on its cat, and 3 would appear on lead's cat and take off, 4 on 2's cat, etc.

 

You could always set up cats behind the main cats to make it appear that the aircraft are lining up behind each other; the lack of a need for blast deflectors removes the problems with that.

 

(you've probably gathered this, but line abreast is possible as long as the first two cats are lined up)

 

Regarding the animations of different phases, it wouldn't really be applicable, since the animation would play over again with each launch. Another solution would be the launch deck and clear/land deck as different ground objects so that single missions could be set up to swtich between the two.

[+Geezer]

An aircraft carrier can launch any number of aircraft, it's just that they magically appear on the empty cats... there's no taxiing like on runways.

 

For example, if you have 2 cats, lead would take off, then number 2 on its cat, and 3 would appear on lead's cat and take off, 4 on 2's cat, etc.

 

You could always set up cats behind the main cats to make it appear that the aircraft are lining up behind each other; the lack of a need for blast deflectors removes the problems with that.

 

(you've probably gathered this, but line abreast is possible as long as the first two cats are lined up)

 

Regarding the animations of different phases, it wouldn't really be applicable, since the animation would play over again with each launch. Another solution would be the launch deck and clear/land deck as different ground objects so that single missions could be set up to swtich between the two.

 

Interesting. How many cats could be lined up behind each other? I'm simply curious about how closely the sim could approximate WW2 carrier take-offs.

 

In any event, it sounds like this would be feasible. I'm skilled enough to make and skin the models, but not the rest - would someone be willing to then carry the ball if I hand it off to them? As carrier mods are being developed for WOI, this could complement those efforts. Also, I only have FE and WOI.

[jtin]

The lining up of catapults is really only limited by the space that you have on your carrier.

 

You could theoretically fill up the whole deck, although I'm not sure if there's a limit. The most I've seen is around 12 or so, from when JSF_Aggie was testing with dummy cats to put static aircraft on the CVN-75.

 

I'm throwing ideas at you, but do you think it would be feasable for animations to be tied to crewmen on the deck? I'm not sure what types of animation 3DSMax supports or those the TW engine can handle, but it would be cool if we could have guys twirling arms and running around in place of the jet blast deflectors :)

 

I'd be willing to help with .ini dancing if you need it.

[+Geezer]

The lining up of catapults is really only limited by the space that you have on your carrier.

 

You could theoretically fill up the whole deck, although I'm not sure if there's a limit. The most I've seen is around 12 or so, from when JSF_Aggie was testing with dummy cats to put static aircraft on the CVN-75.

 

I'm throwing ideas at you, but do you think it would be feasible for animations to be tied to crewmen on the deck? I'm not sure what types of animation 3DSMax supports or those the TW engine can handle, but it would be cool if we could have guys twirling arms and running around in place of the jet blast deflectors :)

 

I'd be willing to help with .ini dancing if you need it.

 

I have 3dsMax9, which can make the TCB animations that TW sims use. I'm experimenting with a few figures, such as a fuel guy and AA gunners. I've run through a few tutorials and the results were OK - for a first time. With practise, I'll get better so lets put that on our list of stuff to do. First, I'll get the carrier built - the info I have is for the WW2 version, but any differences are minor if the ref I linked to above is accurate.

[+Geezer]

I'm posting progress shots on the "Just A Thought" thread, as it is discussing WW2 ship construction. Had some fun in Max with the Kaga WIP: