How does one change the ship graphic to flatop?

[swl295]

How does one change the graphic to a flattop when making CV or CVL conversions?


Mine never seem to change and that kills immersion.

[generalmacnut]

In case of conversion you have to remove all line and redrawn it yourself.

[aeson]

Jun 1, 2019 7:23:43 GMT -6 swl295 said:

How does one change the graphic to a flattop when making CV or CVL conversions

You have to manually draw in a new superstructure.

[euchrejack]

I think people use the build superstructure command to make it. I've never had much luck personally.

[swl295]

Jun 1, 2019 7:59:10 GMT -6 generalmacnut said:

In case of conversion you have to remove all line and redrawn it yourself.

Not really sure how one does that.

Is there information on how one does that?

Think that there should be some stock flattop graphics for CVL and CV conversions that one can sort of easily implement.

Guess I am one who wants to play the game more than dork around with pictures.

[garychildress]

Just click on the buttons St1 - St6 one at a time. Each time you click on one, move your cursor over to the little window that shows your ship and the old superstructures will disappear. Then click the St1 button and click somewhere close to the bow, to the left of it. Bring the line close to the stern, to the left of it to form a rectangle and voila! You have a carrier deck.

[garychildress]

What I'd like to know, though, is what does the EA (export Aircraft Shape) button do and how do you use it?

[aeson]

Jun 1, 2019 8:55:03 GMT -6 garychildress said:

What I'd like to know, though, is what does the EA (export Aircraft Shape) button do and how do you use it?

Draw yourself something in the area for the ship graphic and hit EA. You should be able to save what you drew as a *.acs file, which is presumably an 'aircraft shape' file.

As to how to get the game to use the aircraft shape you drew, your guess is as good as mine.

[garrisonchisholm]

I actually saw a conversation about that, let me dig-

[garrisonchisholm]

Ok, we had this internally and it will (very very likely) be added to an update of the manual.

To draw your own aircraft;

1. Use the ship designer. Open any ship.

2. Do an aircraft using the first four polygons for the ship superstructure.

3. Click the button labelled "EA".

4. Save the file in the data directory with the name for the aircraft type you want + the .acs extension, for example "Medium bomber.acs". If you name an aircraft shape Aircraftrole3.acs, it will be used from 1935. So you can have one Fighter.acs that will be used until 1934, and one Fighter3.acs that will be used from 1935.

5. Close the ship designer without saving changes to the ship.

The game will now use your shape for aircrafts drawn on the map.

The game will use the Default version of each shape unless the player has created and placed a new shape file into the data directory. If you create a "Torpedo bomber3.acs" and put it into the Data directory the game will use that file in place of the Default post 1935 TB shape. If you subsequently remove that *.acs file the game will revert to using the default shape.

The names used for the *.acs files should match exactly the names for each aircraft role as they are shown on the "Aircraft types" screen. For instance a valid name would be "Floatplane scout.acs"

-
We hope folks will enjoy this extra bit of detail, though of course it isn't all the time that you zoom in on your aircraft tight enough to appreciate their shape.

[jwsmith26]

BTW, you can also create a new shape for your airships. Use "Airship.acs".


Warning. You should not overwrite the existing .acs files. These files are not the default aircraft shape files. Before saving an aircraft shape you should back up the current .acs files.

[jwsmith26]

Warning. You should not overwrite the existing .acs files. These files are not the default aircraft shape files. Before saving an aircraft shape you should back up the current .acs files.  

[swl295]

Jun 1, 2019 8:53:06 GMT -6 garychildress said:

Just click on the buttons St1 - St6 one at a time. Each time you click on one, move your cursor over to the little window that shows your ship and the old superstructures will disappear. Then click the St1 button and click somewhere close to the bow, to the left of it. Bring the line close to the stern, to the right of it to form a rectangle and voila! You have a carrier deck.

This is what I was looking for!  Many thanks!