Three new ships and some nice HUD changes

Well we finally released our three newest warships today. They had been completed a while ago but many changes were being made to ICS2 in the process which complicated things quite a bit. You can find the new MSS Menkar, MSS Cuthbert and MSS Cerberus for sale at our shop in Caledon Cape Wrath as well as Xstreet. We also patched up the other MSS ships and some of them look a bit nicer as a result.

We changed the HUD and added three very nice features. The best being the new camera system. This time actually allowing you to rotate the camera in 4 different directions! No more fiddling with the camera to see that ship behind you, just press the back camera button. Need to set your ship up to fire a broadside? Just press the left or right camera buttons. We also added a second function to the red off button. If instead of just clicking it you hold it down for 3 seconds, it will properly eject you from your seat! No more clipping inside your ship when you stand up. The third feature is the ability to scuttle the ship. Well not really, it's more like a suicide button right now. Just hold down that orange button for 3 seconds and your ship is destroyed. Good for when someone wants to exit the battle dramatically, or if you want to reset your ships core. In the future I will see about having it eject you first and then setting a timer so you have a chance to get away from the blast. Oh and we also have everything on Mono now so the controls should be a bit more responsive.

The subs however still need to wait. The way ICS2 calculates explosives is off and because of that the torpedoes are very unreliable, especially against oddly shaped ships. This is due to the fact that ICS2 uses a very complicated formula that uses a bounding box around the ship in order to pinpoint explosive damage, and this still needs tweaking so it can work 100% of the time instead of the 10% we are getting now. However while we wait for those issues to be resolved I will be working on the MSS Cazadora, a sub hunter type warship that will be equipped with a twin machine gun tower and depth charges. This should compliment the subs quite well when they are to be released and prevent those sneaky little bastards from taking over the seas.

Oh and speaking of submarines, It seems fitting for O'Toole to post something about the Hunley.
While me and MrBunwah were looking at the records we discovered the Hunley is our best seller so far!

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72 hunleys
36 essexes
29 monitors
28 nashville
23 roanokes
21 virginias
18 manassas
16 davids
13 kotetsus
11 onandagas
10 columbias
7 passaic
6 lavancos
5 richmonds
3 tyranns

298 total sold as of 1/19/2009

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I had been debating about whether I should phase out the older ships but with these figures I have decided to do a makeover on all the older models as well. I had been thinking about this for quite some time but it seems clear to me that people really love the historical models. Some of the ships will be harder than others to remake due to the odd shapes I need to deal with. The CSS Virginia will be a tough one, as it has a very odd looking stern and pilot house. The USS Essex will also be a bit of a challenge, what with all those cannons it has mounted on it. The ships that will likely benefit the most are the monitor type ships as we have much better turret technology at our disposal, as you can see on our newer models.

Whew ok so a quick summary as to what lays ahead:

1.MSS Cazadora sub hunter followed by the submarines MSS Sturbridge, MSS Fiskdale, and MSS Holland.

2. Remake as many historical models as possible, including the Hunley and Davids.

3.Work on some land based artillery, such as mortars and rifled cannons. These will most likely not need a HUD and can be operated by pressing buttons on a control panel attached to the cannon's base.

4.Work on some specialized Wrath Fleet warships. These ships would only be available to members of the Wrathful Exiles. They would follow a distinct theme, like the ships I designed for the Steeltopia Imperial Navy. Still brainstorming on this.

5.Get started on some prototype airships...

The Sinking and Raising of the CSS HUNLEY

change can happen suddenly

whats that new orange button?

Breakthrough in turret development!

In the bowels of the shop, a special ship is being developed -- the MSS Cerberus, of British and Australian fame. Thanks to Mr.Scaggs for the inspiration to make such a vessel.

This ship has two turrets and each turret has two cannons which do a neat retract and rotate animation while also allowing individual fire control (one barrel? both barrels? you decide!). This is a major improvement and was a giant hurdle for us for quite some time...You only need to look at our older monitor class ships to see that it was quite difficult at the time to get something that complex set up. It is also the reason why we have not developed any REAL double cannon turrets until now, so expect us to make use of this technology in future builds.

On further note, with the 2.1 release of the Ironclad Combat System, expect updates to all ships sooner or later. For future reference, the seas are not always exploding on the surface...

Bring out the cake!

Woot Woot! Murakami Steamworks is one year old now!
(technically older still, but I'm referencing around our Caledon residency from now on.)

And so we blew it all up...

Burning Life 2008

Until Next Year!