Adding new ship types?

[kirk23]

Hi guys sorry if this has been asked before but,this really bugs me. I'm trying to added new ship types into the game,but when I run the game they are not showing up?

I would like to add Battleships & Battlecruisers to the ship types. I hate the term Capital ship that the game uses,as a ship type.



Battleship / Battlecruiser

The definition of "capital ship" was formalized in the limitation treaties of the 1920s and 30s in the Washington Naval Treaty, London Naval Treaty, and Second London Naval Treaty. This applied mainly to ships resulting from the dreadnought revolution; dreadnought battleships (also known first as dreadnoughts and later as battleships) and battlecruisers.

In the 20th century, especially in World Wars I and II, typical capital ships would be battleships and battlecruisers. All of the above ships were close to 20,000 tons displacement or heavier, with large caliber guns and heavy armor protection.

Heavy cruisers, despite being important ships, were not considered capital ships.

[feygan]

I haven't looked at how it is done in full, but thinking about how the game works I am guessing you are going to need a few things defined.

1. Your new ship type name.
2. The required graphics for the new ship type in the correct folders, also named properly.
3. To have the new ship type correctly looking for the new graphic file names.
4. To have the research tree set to include this new ship type and also ensure it is looking for the correctly named ship type when you reach the tech.

I imagine you may have missed something somewhere so the game cannot find one of the things it needs for your new ship type, instead of having a hissy fit and throwing errors at you it is just not showing the ship type instead.

[ehsumrell1]

Hello kirk23;
Sorry to say, but the ship types (Escort, Frigate, Carrier, Capital Ship, etc.) are hardcoded in
the games' executable file. Just FYI.

[kirk23]

I have wanted to change the ship types in the game since it was first released, 5 years I have waited and I still can't add a Battleship because of hard coding typical, looks like the games getting shelved again. The term " Escort " is not even a ship type, it is a mission, a ship is ordered to do, Frigate,Destroyer,Cruiser,Carrier are ship types. Plus as I stated in my initial post, a Capital ship, is also not an official ship type, after 5 years, you would think that the game would have corrected these terminology mistakes.[&:]

[ehsumrell1]

ORIGINAL: kirk23

I have wanted to change the ship types in the game since it was first released, 5 years I have waited and I still can't add a Battleship because of hard coding typical, looks like the games getting shelved again. The term " Escort " is not even a ship type, it is a mission, a ship is ordered to do, Frigate,Destroyer,Cruiser,Carrier are ship types. Plus as I stated in my initial post, a Capital ship, is also not an official ship type, after 5 years, you would think that the game would have corrected these terminology mistakes.[&:]

Respecting that all opinions are valid kirk23, I'm sorry to see you feel that Elliot, the game creator,
doesn't see spaceship type naming in the same light you do (as in Earth Naval vessel naming).
In addition, respectfully speaking, I'm even more sorry that you feel the inability to change the game
into what you would like it to be is making you decide to not play it. The game dynamics and style
of play (in my opinion) should be what makes the game happen, not ship types. At least not in my
opinion, which hopefully you will see as valid also, and not an attack on what you've stated. As one
person who has produced mods for this game, I'm delighted at the things Elliot has allowed us modders
to do, and I respect with out harsh criticism the things he hasn't.

I hope you decide to continue to play what I believe is a very good game to many!
[:)]

[kirk23]

Don't get me wrong for the most part, Distant worlds is a superb game, even better since the release of Universe, with all the new modding capabilities, it's such a disappointment, that after 5 years you still can't create more ship types? My main area of interest is naval history, from 1790 - Present day. Since the game uses naval terms, for all the Space ships in game, you would have thought that, correcting the ESCORT & CAPITAL SHIP names, would have been changed before now?

The term " Escort " should be renamed = Corvette for example, and the " Capital Ship " should be renamed Battleship![;)]

[ehsumrell1]

ORIGINAL: kirk23

Don't get me wrong for the most part, Distant worlds is a superb game, even better since the release of Universe, with all the new modding capabilities, it's such a disappointment, that after 5 years you still can't create more ship types? My main area of interest is naval history, from 1790 - Present day. Since the game uses naval terms, for all the Space ships in game, you would have thought that, correcting the ESCORT & CAPITAL SHIP names, would have been changed before now?

The term " Escort " should be renamed = Corvette for example, and the " Capital Ship " should be renamed Battleship![;)]

Again, although I understand your perspective, look at the fact that Elliot obviously used ship
'roles' as his viewpoint in naming ship types, not necessarily just naval terms
(i.e. Resupply Ship not Tanker, Passenger Ship not Liner). There are no Destroyer Escorts or Carrier Escorts, as in
naval terms, just Escorts, which is what they mostly do in the game, escort.

Nevertheless, I PM'd you with a conversation that should assist you in this matter so we no longer
will need to banter this back an forth.

[kirk23]

If it appears to anyone,from my comments in this thread, that I have been disrespectful to Elliot, that was never my intention, and I'm sorry for that. It is just that I care deeply about all things naval. ehsumrell1 has given me some really interesting information regarding ship types, many thanks cheers.[&o][&o]

[kirk23]

Thanks too ehsumrell1 for giving me some vital information, within 10 mins off doing what I was instructed to do, my 5 year wait is at an end, I have renamed in game Escorts and Capital Ships. In my games from now on they will be known as Corvettes and Battleships YA BEAUTY!!!

If there are any other gamers, who would also like to see these ship types renamed in game, just let me know I will make available the file that needed only some minor alteration's.
NB: Photo is for demonstration purposes only as a test.[;)]

[Luckspeare]

Hi there! New poster here, but this struck an area I happen to have taken an interest in as well, and looked up a while ago.

I think you may be looking at this a bit too dogmatically, from both a terminological and a conceptual perspective.

If you look up the history of naval ships and naming conventions going back way before just 1970, you'll notice that ship naming is a very quirky thing, tied to accidents of history and terminological fashions of this or that age. More importantly, you'll note that all ship names are, when it comes down to it, almost all named after missions.

For example, if you look up where the term "destroyer" comes from, you'll note that it comes from its role as an interceptor of smaller low-endurance, torpedo-armed fast assault craft (FACs) that were devised to be able to attack larger ship groups. It is a FAC-destroyer. Eventually, its defensive role was expanded into an offensive one as it was found to be useful for the same purpose FACs were -- and the advent of guided missiles brought that further. Even though its mission and loadout changed to something broader, the name stuck.

If you stop and think about it, compared to many ship names, "destroyer" seems a bit silly and uncharacteristically macho. Couldn't we have come up with anything better? Sure, but then we'd be complaining about that instead.

"Cruiser" is nothing if not a task-oriented term. "Cruising" was a specific type of mission order, akin to lone or small-ship-group patrols. Like "destroyer", we've inherited the term as meaning a certain size range of main combat vessel, and now just associate the term with what it is.

Time makes quirky terms traditional and proper.

Truly, for example, if you really want to be persnickety, we should get annoyed with terms like "cruiser" and "battleship" and go back to "ship of the line" -- a term that comes from the fact that they were main combat ships intended for the line-of-battle.

So, truly, if there was a space-navy, I'm sure, bound as we are to past culture, we might translate older terms into new contexts where the meaning of the original term is no longer relevant, but it would be totally appropriate to invent entirely new terms.

As a curious quirk, too, something I thought was funny -- until a certain year (I forgot), the U.S. navy inverted the meaning of "frigate" and "destroyer" such that frigates were a size class above "destroyer". Given the origin of the term "destroyer", you can understand why that happened. Destroyers grew past their original mission statement.

In the end, the patrolboat/corvette/frigate/destroyer/cruiser/battlecruiser/battleship (the last of which might still be called dreadnought just as well) is just a convenient hangover of current military culture + wargamers being comfortable with those terms. But varying them, switching them up -- certainly the devs here have done that a lot less than navies themselves have.

It's really flexible, generally, and very interesting, as I'm sure you agree.

This all comes from someone who uses proper naval ship designations in game -- once I've developed fusion, my CVN's (carrier nuclear, which acronym itself originates from "cruiser volere" -- cruiser with planes) become CVF's (carrier fusion).

All good fun, but even "proper" naval terminology is quite open and flexible.

Anyway, hi!

-Luckspeare


EDIT: But I have to confess I call my escorts PB's -- patrolboats.