Martes

I know. A spinoff of Naval Action. It's positioned as a remake of AOS2, but inherits the worst parts as well - and adds very limited editability. Horrible controls, no scenario editor, same problem with damage and maneuvering as with everybody else. Calculates wind better, has land combat, but otherwise... Ships can't even tow a boat.

Anyway, with all my woes with modern naval games, I am quite content with this old engine and what I did with it, and when it won't be enough, I know which way to approach this subject in Unity. This thread here is to show off the ships

I looked at the gameplay trailer, and that "rig sails for speed" command knocked me out, literally. And sinking ships, again. Hell, wooden ships sank in combat so rarely, nobody really remembers when and if it happened. They could burn, they rarely exploded, usually they were captured, but to sink one was while not impossible, but extremely difficult.

And the square rig is so fascinating system, it's just a pity modern games use it as a graphical representation of a screw engine, not even understanding it was a thrust-vector. And I can go on and on about this. All the concepts of age of sail combat are different from what we know from later.

37 minutes ago, Malazan said:

These look really good, you should check out the upcoming Skull and Bones from Ubisoft

That's as far from historical reconstruction as one can only imagine.

Finally finished the rebuild of the Cambridge.

You know my love for Hohlenberg's designs

Model with and without wireframe

Colossus, Cambridge and Albion - almost a century of evolution

Some random views on frigates.

The camera in the game is extremely tricky, but it's possible to get good angles, especially when not juggling controls

A little sense of operational perspective:

My current testing scenario, depicting a harbor blockade. The three little ships around the center are bomb vessels moving to position (top image) and bombarding the fort (bottom), with other ships positioned around.

Shifted the stripes on both skins slightly higher forward (turned out they were out of sync with the plans for some reason):

One of the advantages of not having to cut the gunports is the ability to rearrange them relatively easily.

So the I made a slightly different texture to the Albion:

To make them look like the Princess Royal or razeed Queens. Underneath it is, for now, the same model, but it would be impossible to tell unless looking at the underwater section

Hopefully, it will do for now. The hull shapes became so complex the pauses between finishing the ships are now much longer.

@allanyed, I would be very glad to be of assistance, if and when it comes to 3d and visualization of ships and events. It's painful to see how much errors are usually made when filming period pieces with so few exceptions.

L'Egyptienne under sail:

Finished rebuilding the L'Egyptienne.

Well, not exactly It was a long attempt to make a British frigate if they did build on her lines (on the occasion they didn't, as it was considered too expensive, but the project was considered for some time). I used the NMM plans with a British style stern (as it was actually fitted to her) and slightly straightened the gundeck forward, enclosing the forecastle and adding bridle ports with a late-war head.

More or less the changes are similar to the process that most French frigates were subjected to under Large Repair or if a copy was ordered to be built.

With very special thanks to @G. Delacroix

Vernon, with Albion in the background

View on Pique around Vernon's stern

Both ships are slightly updated, and I liked the view angles enough to post them.

Thanks for posting her lines! Do you know, if they show the shapes of the frames, or include the plank thickness?

Anyway, here is a schematic of her movie configuration I found some time ago - a plan for smaller-scale model used in the movie, actually, but it may be of help recreating the altered Napoleonic style appearance:

And ships of the line. The Cambridge and the Christian VII are in the middle of a rebuild, hence the black deck and missing forecastle ports.

The frigate range as it is now. It's all the ships I already posted, but I've been gradually polishing them to a single standard.

Seeing the direction of your previous work on Sails of Glory, I would almost think that you, @Aidedecamp and myself could discuss some cooperation.

Spring cable, a technique used to rotate the ship around in place:

Towing test!

Experimenting with it, yes.
I thought to try to implement things absent in the old game - and those I would really want added - like anchors, towing, boats, tricky sail maneuvering, if I ever get to it. The general idea is to recreate the old functionality with various additions, but that's too broad to consider it seriously at the moment.

And shifting the rig from normal state:

To storm-riding:

Topgallant masts lashed to the port side of the masts proper, topmasts lowered, main yards on deck, topsail yards on tops, flying jibboom stricken.

I will, in all probability, add staysails and maybe even studding sails at some point.

Experiments with lowering anchor:

Boat can be launched and separated, and move a little (but transfer from the deck to the launch position still needs to be done).
Anchors have two positions (stowed and catted), and the next stage will be to actually drop it with the cable.

Experimenting with rigging where I can fully control it.

Sorted out the buoyancy settings, extracted the masts from the original and made first attempt at camera control - I can move it up and down now, exactly as it was in the old game.