December News Update

Safe-Keeper here with the second monthly Norwegian Operations update!

Two things before we start. First of all, with school and the Visitation Service training occupying much of my spare time, and possible illness creeping up on me, I've found progress slowing down a bit. Ugh. Nevertheless, I've still gotten a good deal of things done, so I can assure that you shouldn't lose faith in ole Safe-Keeper just yet.

Second off, I want to say once again that it's been great to see so many show interest in my project. I know my fellow Norwegians well enough to know they'd be ecstatic about the idea, but I had no idea whether or not foreigners would show interest in the project. I was afraid I'd end up with an obsessed Norwegian community and the remaining 98% of the forum not caring less. You've proven me wrong! My only fear now is that with Silent Hunter 4 only slightly more than a quarter away, I might not be able to get this project done on time before the community defects to the sequel. Let's hope not.

So - news. OK.

I've been focusing heavily on the Bergen area this month, too. As you can see below, even more labels have been added to the navigation map, down to, as was promised, minor things such as districts and villages. Furthermore, every fort in the Bergen area will been labelled (and every one will surrender to Germany at about the right time, too). Just one more step in the direction of making Norway the most crowded country in the Silent Hunter III world!

Bergen Area as of December 2006... Er, I mean April 1940.

(Uploaded this one using ImageShack so that there'd be one pic' you could easily access without going to my blog)

If you think this is bad, wait until I tell you that I'm still not finished adding villages and towns, and that there are still plenty of forts to add at various locations. As there are so many entries (from hereon labels) now, I'm giving those that have a function in-game special suffixes to denote the ones that mark something important:

-V-: Airfield. This symbol, made to be remniscent of the airborne infantry Army symbol, marks an airfield. Air support will take off from here. I intended to use "~V~", but the symbolphobic game wouldn't let me.

(F): Fortification. This suffix marks the location of a historical fort or fortress. Artillery and air defence guns will be concentrated around these positions. Note that there also will be guns throughout the map not labelled by this symbol. Be on your toes!

(P): Industrial Port. The "(P)" over neutral Norwegian ports denounces that once secured by Germany, this city's ports will have the capacity to re-fit submarines docked here. If you find yourself in need of repair, re-fuelling, or re-supply, you can seek to one of these towns. As in the stock game, they will turn blue when it's OK for you to dock at them, at which point the "(P)" suffix will become obsolote and disappear.

While talking about the Bergen area, allow me to proudly introduce two new-comers: First off is the town of Haugesund, situated between Bergen and Stavanger. The 31 738-people town turned 150 years old in 2004 and was, despite its small size, an important centre of fishing until the catch in the area died out. Today, it's an important centre of Norwegian ship construction and maintenance.

In-game the Haugesund consists of labels on the navigation map (no, really?!), 3D buildings, civilian and military traffic, and its share of defenses, the Atlantic Wall being what it was. When Norway surrenders, you'll be able to dock in the town if you find yourself damaged or low on fuel and unable to limp to Bergen or Stavanger. Watch the other ships, though, it's a narrow approach!

Haugesund of 1855:


Today's Haugesund:

And finally... Norwegian Operations' version!

No briges in-game, unfortunately. They had not yet been built in the fourties.

Second off is Stavanger city herself.

Beautiful Stavanger (from Old Norse Stafangr, meaning Staff-fjord) lies in Rogaland county and is called home by 115 157 people (2006 estimate). The beautiful community has been the centre of the Norwegian petroleum industry its beginning in the sixties (which is also when the town started to expand into the 110 000+ people strong city it is today). The city also once had a tradition of producing canned goods - in the year 1950 there were fifty canned food factories in the city. Today, while the last of them has been shut down, the city remains the headquarters of the Norwegian petroleum production machine, hosting the main offices of Statoil, the Oil Directorate, Petroleumstilsynet (the State's organ for controlling oil industry safety and work environment), and several other petroleum-related companies, Norwegian and foreign both.

In-game, Stavanger becomes available for docking shortly after the invasion is started. In addition, the city's air field, working in conjunction with other bases such as Herdla Airfield near Bergen, should give you all the air support you need while operating in Norwegian and North Sea waters. The city sports the mandatory labels on the navigation map marking districts, Sola Airfield, neighboring towns, and so on, civilian and military air traffic, historical defences, and, unlike Haugesund, a 3D harbour!

Stavanger, present day.
Interesting how the harbour looks so much like its Bergen counterpart.

I haven't done enough work on Stavanger yet to release screen-shots (no, the caption contest one in the Silent Hunter III forum does not count), but rest assured that they will be with you eventually, and that the goregous city will look good!

Stavanger and Haugesund are just two of several planned additions for Norwegian Operations range of 3D-rendered settlements. The island town of Tromsø and the village of Måløy are two other candidates awaiting inclusion.

Next off, I'd like to thank danlisa at the SubSim community for announcing the intent to make winter camo skins for the remaining u-boats of Silent Hunter III that don't yet have them. Good show, danlisa.

Last off on the skinning front is _Seth_'s splendid re-textured cutter deserves a mention. _Seth_, who's already contributed winter camouflage skins for u-boats, is working on a re-texturing of DivingDuck's excellent cutter and has agreed to release it exclusively to Norwegian Operations. Here she is (no screen-shots in thread due to image limit)!

And finally, I hereby announce a change in the way air attacks on Norwegian ports are handled in-game. Where in earlier versions you always had bombers attack the port at these and those times from this date to that date, bomber attacks on Norwegian ports are now randomized. No longer will you start a career in Bergen in January 1945 and know with 100% certainity that a flight of B-24 bombers is underway with an ETA of only a few minutes. Now there's a certain chance they'll not appear over the city at all. The system I'm using is neither the Random Area Radius nor the Random Generated Group system, but in my opinion far better for this purpose than both of them. Either way, the effect is that you either get attacked at the beginning of your patrol, or you don't. The following rates apply at the moment to the chance your port will be attacked by bombers at mission start:

Bergen:25%.
Haugesund: 10%.
Other cities and towns: T.B.A.

That'd be all for this month, folks. See you around the forums!

Other NorOps resources:
Poor ole Blücher... - Battle of Drobak Sound; Project Preview
"Look to Noh'vay - ve haff doggiez!" - Project Announcement
November News Update - Bergen area expanding, SH3 Commander news enhanced, new Type II and VII skins.

All screen-shots depict a work-in-progress and are thus subject to change.

As a PS: I'm still looking for modellers and 2D artists ; ).

November News Update

Time for a news update from the one-man NorOps team (I assume that there's at least no need to specify which of us is doing the writing!).

First of all, some bad news. Some time ago, I managed to somehow mess up my installation of Silent Hunter III (I believe a failure to rollback SH3 Commander was involved) and, when uninstalling, managed to accidentally delete everything I had added around Oslo, from the new cities and ports to the Battle of Drobak Sound. This provided me with quite a bit of frustration, a lesson to always back-up my work, and the decision to, quite frankly, screw the capital city for the the time being in favor of my hometown of Bergen (c'mon, where else?).

So currently, the area around my beloved and beautiful hometown now features six forts (with more to be added) and several new village names on the map. It will also soon be the site of a scripted German invasion, complete with accurate fighting and the sinking of the K-Class ship Königsberg. What a lucky little town!

Before NorOps (Grey Wolves 1,1a):

With NorOps (work-in-progress, more elements awaiting addition):

Second off, SH3 Commander users will be glad to hear I'm experimenting with adding Norway-related content to the program's immersion-building files, namely the nightclub and loading screen news bulletins! This means that when NorOps is released, a separate install will be available to 'Commander users operating out of Norway. The result - well, see below (the loading screen, although I like it, is probably is not there to stay):

The very last bit of news for now is that two great people at the SubSim site, Seth and danlisa, have been kind enough to sit down and make me some terrific-looking winter skins for use during those freezing Arctic patrols. The in-game result, illuminated in all her beauty, can be seen below. Thanks a lot to the both of you for making future winter patrols a tad bit easier!


That'd be all for this time. See you around the blog and SubSim forums!

All screen-shots depict a work-in-progress and are thus subject to change.