How to draw ship superstructures

[anthropoid]

Just to clarify something here: if I take the time to draw those superstructure plan views in the RTW2 ship editor, the app will AUTOMATCALLY translate those into that nifty photographish profile view (which I assume is also used in the combat map somehow)?

[jwsmith26]

Jan 3, 2020 11:51:11 GMT -6 anthropoid said:

Just to clarify something here: if I take the time to draw those superstructure plan views in the RTW2 ship editor, the app will AUTOMATCALLY translate those into that nifty photographish profile view (which I assume is also used in the combat map somehow)?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. There is a different process you must use to draw profile views. The profile view is not used in combat, just the top view.

[garrisonchisholm]

Jan 3, 2020 11:51:11 GMT -6 anthropoid said:

Just to clarify something here: if I take the time to draw those superstructure plan views in the RTW2 ship editor, the app will AUTOMATCALLY translate those into that nifty photographish profile view (which I assume is also used in the combat map somehow)?

And welcome to the forums.  :]

[anthropoid]

ADDIT: Oh wait, I think I just figured it out! The fact you have to draw on the left was really messing me up and the idea of using the S to draw on the right still doesn't make sense but I may figure that out too.

I am really struggling with this. Cannot figure out how to draw at all. Anyone know of a good Youtube that walks through how to draw superstructures step by step?

[anthropoid]

This question is really more about drawing the profiles than the superstructures. I seem to have got reasonably facile with both. However, one thing about the profile drawing is a bit unsatisfactory: the naming schemes for the images and the fact I cannot get a preview of ALL of them at once. I have used Gimp a bit and have it installed, but for checking out this stuff I've mostly just used Windows and Paint. I think I might have some of my folder or themes in Windows set so that thumbnails don't populate properly in OS panels. When clicking on them in through the game directory browser, I do get a profile of the image, but it sure would be neat if I could reorganize or use an alternative app to be able to open them while in game.

Seems like the simplest solution would be to: copy all the existing directories which are default for each of the sprite types (Masts, superstructures, decks, accessories) and then rename everything with names I find more descriptive, thus making it easier to quickly pick the correct sprite for the purpose at hand (instead of clicking through several of them because I cannot remember where all those different sprites in the superstructure or accessory folder are located alphabetically).

Has anyone reconfigured their stuff along these lines? Any suggestions? It also looks like you can redirect the default directory the game will read from for each sprite type? There must be a config file somewhere that controls that?

ADDIT: Ah! There we go. One problem solved: How to view image previews in Win 7. Long time ago I reset my Win 7 desktop to be as much like Win 98 as I could manage, and I think it must have turned off image previews by default. I rarely work with graphics so it just never bothered me enough to 'fix' it until now! 

[talbot797]

Fantastic post, I only got RTW2 a couple of days ago so I'm still on my first game, in the early 1900s. Can I ask someone with more experience, how do you place funnels in a ship design? This only covers the superstructure elements, I don't even know the basics of how to size and place funnels as I never played RTW1. Thanks in advance...

[jwsmith26]

Jan 16, 2021 6:50:30 GMT -6 talbot797 said:

Fantastic post, I only got RTW2 a couple of days ago so I'm still on my first game, in the early 1900s. Can I ask someone with more experience, how do you place funnels in a ship design? This only covers the superstructure elements, I don't even know the basics of how to size and place funnels as I never played RTW1. Thanks in advance...

Just to the right of the superstructure layer buttons are the buttons used to place funnels. You are allowed to place up to 4 funnels. You can't adjust the size of the funnel, but the game will automatically adjust the funnel size based on the ship's displacement. However, you can overlap two or more funnels to visually create larger funnels.

- The first text panel will display the vertical location of the funnel once one is placed or will be blank if there is no funnel.

- Immediately to the right of this small text panel is a checkbox. If checked, the funnel will be drawn with an oval shape; if unchecked the funnel will be round.

- The next button (with 3 small dots) will actually cause the funnel to be drawn. Click this button and then click where you want the funnel to be drawn onto the ship. The funnel will always be drawn on the axial center line of the ship if the "Asymmetric funnels" check box is unchecked (This checkbox is at the bottom of the funnels controls.). If this checkbox is checked then the funnel will be drawn exactly where you click, allowing you to draw funnels offset from the axial centerline, which is required for most carrier designs.

- The last button, with the X, will delete the funnel from the drawing.

[talbot797]

Jan 16, 2021 10:32:23 GMT -6 jwsmith26 said:

Jan 16, 2021 6:50:30 GMT -6 talbot797 said:

Fantastic post, I only got RTW2 a couple of days ago so I'm still on my first game, in the early 1900s. Can I ask someone with more experience, how do you place funnels in a ship design? This only covers the superstructure elements, I don't even know the basics of how to size and place funnels as I never played RTW1. Thanks in advance...

Just to the right of the superstructure layer buttons are the buttons used to place funnels. You are allowed to place up to 4 funnels. You can't adjust the size of the funnel, but the game will automatically adjust the funnel size based on the ship's displacement. However, you can overlap two or more funnels to visually create larger funnels.

- The first text panel will display the vertical location of the funnel once one is placed or will be blank if there is no funnel.

- Immediately to the right of this small text panel is a checkbox. If checked, the funnel will be drawn with an oval shape; if unchecked the funnel will be round.

- The next button (with 3 small dots) will actually cause the funnel to be drawn. Click this button and then click where you want the funnel to be drawn onto the ship. The funnel will always be drawn on the axial center line of the ship if the "Asymmetric funnels" check box is unchecked (This checkbox is at the bottom of the funnels controls.). If this checkbox is checked then the funnel will be drawn exactly where you click, allowing you to draw funnels offset from the axial centerline, which is required for most carrier designs.

- The last button, with the X, will delete the funnel from the drawing.

Great, many thanks!

[talbot797]

Hi All,

Can anyone confirm the Y coordinate of the centrepoint? I can see X:107 is the vertical centreline, I'm trying to get the horizontal centerline to experiment with how to create ship designs. I think it's Y:263 but would appreciate confirmation. Thanks!

[davidlondon]

A question about drawing ships.

How do I unselect a drawing layer once it is showing in red? Reclicking the button (St1, St2 etc) does not turn it off, it remains selected and liable to deletion.

The only way I can find is to unselect a layer is to select another layer. Which is ok if that layer was not in use. However if the second layer is in use I have the same problem, that layer is then selected and liable to deletion, and I can't unselect it without selecting a third layer. And so on ...

Have I missed something obvious?

[dorn]

Jul 21, 2021 15:29:25 GMT -6 davidlondon said:

A question about drawing ships.

How do I unselect a drawing layer once it is showing in red? Reclicking the button (St1, St2 etc) does not turn it off, it remains selected and liable to deletion.

The only way I can find is to unselect a layer is to select another layer. Which is ok if that layer was not in use. However if the second layer is in use I have the same problem, that layer is then selected and liable to deletion, and I can't unselect it without selecting a third layer. And so on ...

Have I missed something obvious?

You can click somewhere else than the drawing box.

[jwsmith26]

Jul 21, 2021 16:43:34 GMT -6 dorn said:

Jul 21, 2021 15:29:25 GMT -6 davidlondon said:

A question about drawing ships.

How do I unselect a drawing layer once it is showing in red? Reclicking the button (St1, St2 etc) does not turn it off, it remains selected and liable to deletion.

The only way I can find is to unselect a layer is to select another layer. Which is ok if that layer was not in use. However if the second layer is in use I have the same problem, that layer is then selected and liable to deletion, and I can't unselect it without selecting a third layer. And so on ...

Have I missed something obvious?

You can click somewhere else than the drawing box.

dorn , unfortunately that does not work, clicking outside the drawing box does not deselect a layer. The only way to deselect a layer is to select a different layer, which, of course, simply leaves you with a different layer selected. This issue is especially irritating when you have drawn a ship using all six of the drawing layers. At that point at least one of the drawing layers will always remain active, which makes that layer very vulnerable to being erased because if your mouse pointer happens to pass through the drawing box at any moment it will instantly erase the active layer. It is very difficult to avoid this because the box is right in the center of the ship build screen. For this reason, I generally do not draw the last superstructure layer until I have almost completed all the other elements of the design. 

There is a rather ugly workaround. After drawing the superstructure. you can click on the save design button. When you are asked if you want to spend the money to create the design, answer "no". The design will still be saved as a file, but it will not go through the official design process. You can immediately reload the design and your superstructure, as well as any other design changes you have made, will be preserved and reloaded. All six superstructure layers will be present and none will be selected. You can then make any changes you want before saving the design.

As davidlondon suggests, an excellent solution to this irritating issue would be to allow a second click on the layer button to deactivate the layer.

[silamon]

Is it possible to draw a superstructure onto a ship after the design has been finalized or would I need to refit the ship to do that? If it takes a refit it would be easier for me to just scrap the ships I started now. I can't believe I forgot.

Edit: I went ahead and scrapped the hulls, would still like to know if this is possible for future reference though.

[jwsmith26]

Aug 3, 2021 14:12:53 GMT -6 silamon said:

Is it possible to draw a superstructure onto a ship after the design has been finalized or would I need to refit the ship to do that? If it takes a refit it would be easier for me to just scrap the ships I started now. I can't believe I forgot.

Edit: I went ahead and scrapped the hulls, would still like to know if this is possible for future reference though.

There is a way to do what you want but not within the confines of the game. You have to muck around with opening ship files in Windows and copying and pasting lines of text. It is a bit cumbersome but can be accomplished in less than a minute once you know what the process is like.

1. Open a ship design and draw a superstructure that you want to use. You'll want to set the ship type and displacement to match the ship that will eventually receive the new superstructure.
2. Give the ship design a name you will remember and click the "Save design". You don't have to actually build the design - when the game asks you if want to start developing the design for construction, select "No". The dialog will close, but the design will still be saved as a ship file that you can open.
3. Open the "RTW2\Save" directory.
4. Open the directory where your game is saved (e.g. RTW2\Save\Game1)
5. Find the ship file that you just saved. It will have a name something like this: myShipDrawing.##d
6. Open the ship file in Notepad or any text editor (don't use a word processor, which may write unwanted invisible characters)
7. The ship file is a simple text file. Find the line that starts with: [Funnels]. Copy this line and all lines below this line to the end of the file (there will be a lot of lines).
8. Find the ship file for the ship that will receive the new superstructure and open the file in a different Notepad window.
9. Find The line that starts with [Funnels] In the file and select that line and all other lines to the end of the text file.
10. Paste the copied lines from the first ship file into the second ship file that will be getting the new superstructure. Make sure that you have replaced all of the original text lines that describe the superstructure and funnels.
11. Save the ship file.
12. You can now open the ship in any detail view in the game and it will have the new superstructure.

Note that you do not need to close the game to complete any part of this process. You can use this process to save superstructures for future use or to grab them from old games that have superstructures that you would like to reuse.

[oldpop2000]

I am not good at drawing. I've forgotten how to get the carrier deck designed. I have the drawing instructions but I can only get the outline. How to I get it to turn white like a deck.