TABLE OF CONTENTS
Welcome to the New Playable Subs Mod
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This Github repository is the official development center for the New Playable Subs & More mod for Cold Waters.
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Click here to read the instructions for installing the latest build of the mod. Be aware that the mod is always a work in progress and is not always guaranteed to be completely bug free. If you do spot a bug, please follow the instructions below to report it to us. You can check the current status of all bug reports by clicking the Issues tab at the top of this page.
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If you have a bug report, the best place to let us know about it is to open a new Issue here on Github and we'll see it and respond. You can also let us know directly in the official CW Discord, in the pbs_mod channel. This Discord is also a fast way to ask for tech support for the mod as well.
Submitting Bug Reports and Suggestions
- Everyone is welcome to use the Github Issues system to submit issues, bug reports, and suggestions. We have a system set up to handle and respond to these issues from our end.
- We are also open to requests for new submarines using the same Issue system. If you have a submarine you'd like to see in the mod, open up a new Issue and ask us!
- We have created a label system to tag all issues. All issues will initially be assigned a Category label, which will have a white background (except for bug reports, which will have a red background). Once the mod developers review an issue, they'll assign a Status label to it. This label indicates the current status of the issue and if any further comments are needed.
- Keep an eye on issues you submit, so you can respond to developer requests if needed. Issues that require further input but do not receive it within 7 days will be closed.
Complete List of Playable Ships and Submarines
In Alphabetical Order By Nation - List Last Updated February 23, 2019
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Australia
- Collins Class SS
- Oberon Class SS
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China (PLAN)
- Han Class SSN
- Shang Class SSN
- Sui Class SSN
- Ming Class SS
- Kilo Class SS
- Romeo Class SS
- Song Class SS
- Xia Class SSBN
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France
- Rubis Class SSN
- Redoubtable Class SSBN
- Triomphant Class SSBN
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Germany
- Type 209 Class SS
- Type 212a Class SS
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Italy
- Sauro IV Class SS
- Toti Class SS
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Japan
- Yushio Class SS
- Oyashio Class SS
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North Korea
- Romeo Class SS
- Sinpo Class SSB
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Norway
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Netherlands
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Russia
- Akula I Class SSN
- Akula II Class SSN
- Alfa Class SSN
- Alfa II Class SSN
- Mike Class SSN
- November Class SSN
- November II Class SSN
- Sierra Class SSN
- Sierra II Class SSN
- Victor I Class SSN
- Victor II Class SSN
- Victor III Class SSN
- Foxtrot Class SS
- Kilo Class SS
- Kilo II Class SS
- Lada Class SS
- Romeo Class SS
- Tango Class SS
- Whiskey Class SS
- Borei Class SSBN
- Delta III Class SSBN
- Delta IV Class SSBN
- Golf Class SSB
- Hotel Class SSBN
- Typhoon Class SSBN
- Typhoon Class SSGN (Conversion)
- Experimental Typhoon Class SSBN "Red October" (Conventional Drive)
- Experimental Typhoon Class SSBN "Red October" (Silent Drive)
- Yankee Class SSBN
- Yankee Notch Class SSGN
- Charlie I Class SSGN
- Charlie II Class SSGN
- Echo II Class SSGN
- Juliet Class SSG
- Oscar II Class SSGN
- Papa Class SSGN
- Yasen Class SSGN
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Taiwan
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Spain
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United Kingdom
- Astute Class SSN
- Churchill Class SSN
- Trafalgar Class SSN
- Upholder Class SS
- Vanguard Class SSBN
- Oberon Class SS
- Resolution Class SSBN
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United States
- Los Angeles (Flight I) Class SSN
- Los Angeles (Flight II) Class SSN
- Los Angeles (Flight III 688i) Class SSN
- Narwhal Class SSN
- Narwhal II Class SSN
- Permit Class SSN (Early)
- Permit Class SSN
- Seawolf Class SSN
- Skipjack Class SSN (Early)
- Skipjack Class SSN
- Sturgeon Class SSN (Early)
- Sturgeon Class SSN
- Virginia Class SSN
- Improved Virginia Class SSN
- Stingray Class SS
- Ohio Class SSBN
- Ohio Class SSGN (Conversion)
- Ethan Allen Class SSBN
- Washington Class SSBN
- Nautilus Class SSN
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Vietnam
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Multi-Nation Submarines
- Scorpène Class SS (Chile, Malaysia, India, Brazil)
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Special Submarines
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Surface Ships
- Knox Class Frigate (United States)
- Jiangwei Class Frigate (China)
- Kirov Class Cruiser (Russia)
Other Important Changes
- The World Map Mission Editor has been permanently removed from the mod because anti-virus software thinks it has a virus when it does not, and we're tired of being reported for it. (Do you guys really think we're suddenly sending out a virus in a major mod? Really??).
- The Free Roam campaigns are set up so that the player is tasked with a SEAL insertion mission with an extremely long timeframe (2400-3600 hours) to allow the player to roam the map and sink enemies at their leisure. Once the player is ready, they can insert the SEAL team at the designated location and trigger the final SSBN hunting mission.
- Player home base in SCS campaign changed to Okinawa, since it is a much more likely location for a US sub base in this theater of operations, and hopefully will somewhat ease the issue of automatically failing your mission whenever you need to rearm. (Special Note: I am not changing the base back to Guam simply because there is no full base in Okinawa in the real world. The image used for the sub base in the SCS campaign is a simple submarine tender in an empty harbor, which means it could be anywhere.)
- Minimum aircraft distance to allow exiting a mission (NearbyAircraftMinDistance) changed from 10000 to 3500, so you're not stuck waiting forever for aircraft to disappear after you sink their mothership.
- In this version of the mod, there is only ONE version of each sub instead of separate vanilla and playable versions like before. (This means that the playable Yasen you love will also be the Yasen you face in the campaigns and single missions.)
Special Notes About Playable Surface Ships
Since the game is not designed for playable surface ships, we've had to make some special modifications to make them work properly and to make them fun to play. Below are some important special notes about them.
- The playable surface ships can only be used in the single missions and campaigns specifically designed for them. This is because we must set the starting depth for the ships to 0, otherwise they'd implode as soon as the encounter begins. This is why they are not available in the Quick Mission editor.
- As soon as you enter an encounter, all other surface ships in the area will instantly detect you. Submarines will generally take longer to pick you up, unless they raise their radar or periscope.
- The only weapons available for surface ships are the same as submarines: torpedoes and missiles. It is not possible to make their guns work because there is no coding in the game to allow a player to target a gun, and the game AI apparently won't work in any way on a player controlled ship.
- Although most of the playable ships do carry aircraft, there is no way that we can find to make these work for the player.
- We have not yet found any way to make the ship's anti-air defenses work at all, meaning you're going to take hits from enemy missiles almost 100% of the time (hence the massive tonnage mentioned below).
- All of the playable surface ships have been given a massive (obviously unrealistic) tonnage rating, in order to give them enough hitpoints to survive long enough to be enjoyable. This is especially important because torpedoes are much harder to evade than in a submarine, almost impossible really.
- They have also been given an unusually low self noise rating, to keep them from being instantly detected by every submarine in the area. If you keep your speed low enough, you might be able to evade detection by submarines for at least a little while.
- The playable ships have also been given special versions of their real life sonar suites that are MUCH more sensitive than anything else in the game. This will give the player a fighting chance of actually picking up the quieter enemy submarines, otherwise you'd be stuck in the encounter forever.
- All of the ships have also been given weapon loadouts that aren't actually used in real life. This is to allow them to fight properly, and give them proper loadouts when we release the playable surface ship campaigns. In addition, they do have wire guidance on their torpedoes to make things a little bit easier.
Mod Installation Instructions
IMPORTANT NOTE: Only follow this process when installing the mod for the FIRST TIME. If you already have the mod and want to update your copy, click here for instructions.
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STEP 1: Click the green "Clone or Download" button that you see at the top of this page.
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STEP 2: Click the "Download ZIP" option.
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STEP 3: Double click on the ZIP file to open it. Inside you'll see a single folder called CW-Playable-Subs with the release date and version number. Click on this folder to open it.
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STEP 4: Now you'll see three files in the window - Readme.md, a Default UI folder, and an override folder. You want to extract ONLY the override folder to wherever you can easily access it.
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STEP 5: Open this directory Steam\SteamApps\common\Cold Waters\ColdWaters_Data\StreamingAssets and drag the override folder you just extracted into it. You should now see two folders here - default and override.
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STEP 6: You're done. Run the game and enjoy all of the new stuff!
SPECIAL NOTE: If you'd like to have all subs use the default UI instead of the colored UIs, click here for instructions.
Updating The Mod
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STEP 1: Click the green "Clone or Download" button that you see at the top of this page.
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STEP 2: Click the "Download ZIP" option.
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STEP 3: Double click on the ZIP file to open it. Inside you'll see a single folder called CW-Playable-Subs with the release date and version number. Click on this folder to open it.
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STEP 4: Now you'll see three files in the window - Readme.md, a Default UI folder, and an override folder. You want to extract ONLY the override folder to wherever you can easily access it.
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STEP 5: Navigate to Steam\SteamApps\common\Cold Waters\ColdWaters_Data\StreamingAssets and DELETE the existing override folder. Once you have deleted the old folder, you can then drag in the updated copy. DO NOT DRAG THE NEW COPY AND TRY TO OVERWRITE THE OLD ONE - you will end up with major bugs this way!
SPECIAL NOTE: If you'd like to have all subs use the default UI instead of the colored UIs, click here for instructions.
Sonar Signature List Sorting
Sonar signatures have been reworked. You will see the entire vessel list when playing single missions, but the vanilla campaign signature libraries have been left as they were, since none of the new subs in this mod will appear in the campaigns. For single missions and modded campaigns, the signature list is sorted as follows:
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Scrolling Right:
- Biologics
- Civilians
- NATO Subs
- NATO Ships
- Russian/Red Ships
- Russian/Red Subs
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Scrolling Left:
- Russian/Red Subs
- Russian/Red Ships
- NATO Ships
- NATO Subs
- Civilians
- Biologics
Single Missions List Color Coding
Single missions in the mod are color coded as follows:
- Red - These are custom missions for the Red side (Russia, China, etc) (Note: All playable subs will be available for the player to choose from, but the enemies will be from the Blue side.)
- Blue - These are custom missions for the Blue side (USA, UK, etc) (Note: All playable subs will be available for the player to choose from, but the enemies will be from the Red side.)
- Yellow - These are custom missions made specifically for the playable surface ships only.
- White - Vanilla missions from Killerfish, modified to allow all playable subs to be used.
- Orange - New missions sent to us by mod users, already designed with the mod's playable subs.
- Green - These are custom missions that are unique in some way, usually featuring only certain playable subs and/or a unique objective.
Campaign List Color Coding
The campaigns in the mod are color coded as follows:
- Red - These are standard campaigns for the Red side (Russia, China, etc) (Note: All playable subs will be available for the player to choose from, but the enemies will be from the Blue side.)
- Blue - These are standard campaigns for the Blue side (USA, UK, etc) (Note: All playable subs will be available for the player to choose from, but the enemies will be from the Red side.)
- Green - These are free roam campaigns for both sides.
- Yellow - These are campaigns made specifically for the playable surface ships only.
How To Set All Subs To Use The Default UI
The mod features different interface colors for each of the major nations represented: the default UI is used for most NATO/Blue subs, a blue UI is used for UK subs, and a red UI is used for the Russian/Red subs. For those of you who would like to use the default UI color on all playable subs instead of the colored ones, follow the steps below:
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STEP 1: Install whichever version of the mod you prefer.
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STEP 2: Open this directory in a separate window:
- Steam\SteamApps\common\Cold Waters\ColdWaters_Data\StreamingAssets\override\vessels
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STEP 3: Open the ZIP file you downloaded from this page. Extract the Default UI folder to wherever you can easily access it.
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STEP 4: Open the Default UI folder you just extracted and you'll see a list of all of the sub files that were using one of the colored UIs. Click and drag this entire list of files into the override\vessels directory you opened in Step 2. Say yes to overwrite all of the files.
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STEP 5: You're done. All subs will now use the default UI instead of the colored ones.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This process must be done each time you update the mod with a new version.
How To Customize The UI Toolbars
The positions of the UI toolbars for helm, depth, and sensors can be customized via the HUD text files if you don't like how we have them by default. In order to change their positions, you want to open the "override" folder and then open the "hud" folder. In here, you want to open the 3 text files - default.txt, russian.txt, and uk.txt.
In the default.txt file, scroll down to Line 231 (or, alternatively, scroll down and look for [HUD LAYOUT] in the file, the code blocks are a bit below that). Starting at line 231, you'll see three blocks of code. Each block is a specific option for how the toolbars will be placed, each with a description above the block for what it does. Here is what the text blocks look like:
//Toolbar position 0,0, (1 to anchor to minimap or 0 for no anchor)
//Default toolbars overlap and enabled via tabs/keys
//ToolbarsPos=0,0,0
//ForceAllToolbarsOn=FALSE
//HelmToolbarOffset=0,0
//DiveToolbarOffset=0,0
//SensorToolbarOffset=0,0
//Force all toolbars on in bottom horizontal row
//ToolbarsPos=0,0,0
//ForceAllToolbarsOn=TRUE
//HelmToolbarOffset=361,-346
//DiveToolbarOffset=700,-346
//SensorToolbarOffset=1039,-346
//Force all toolbars on in vertical stack to the right of the mini-map
ToolbarsPos=0,0,0
ForceAllToolbarsOn=TRUE
HelmToolbarOffset=331,-200
DiveToolbarOffset=331,-270
SensorToolbarOffset=331,-340
By default, the bottom block is the one that is active and forces the toolbars to appear stacked just to the right of the minimap. If you'd like to change this option to one of the other available options, then simply remove the // in front of each of the 5 code lines of your choice (DO NOT remove the // from the description text). Then, add // in front of the 5 code lines on the middle block so that you're commenting it out. Do the same thing for the other two text files, and you're done. Be aware that you'll need to do this each time the mod is updated.
Donations
I've been asked several times if I have anything set up to receive donations for those who wish to say thank you for the mod. Due to the number of requests, I have set up a Patreon page.
NOTE: Donations are always appreciated but never required. Work on the mod will continue whether I receive donations or not.
Patreon Link: https://www.patreon.com/captainx3
Information For Mod Developers
Developer Announcements
Important & urgent information for the mod developers will appear in this section.
- IMPORTANT: When submitting a final pull request for your latest changes to be merged into the master branch, please list all of the changes you made in the comments, as this will become the official change log for each public release.
Developer Rules & Guidelines For New Content
- All new subs must be personally approved by CaptainX3. The new goal of the mod is not to provide as many units as possible, but instead to provide a smaller number of high quality units.
- New subs must be unique and not similar to existing subs. We're generally not looking for multiple revisions of the same sub class. (Example: We don't need an Oscar I, we have an Oscar II that works fine)
- New subs must fall within the standard time frame of the game, 1984 to present day. We will not be including old WWII subs and such.
- When creating a new sub, you may only add the latest weapons and sonar that was used on that class. We will not be adding dozens of obscure weapons and sonar models that are not needed.
- When creating weapons, sonar, radar, and other components for a sub, you must use the official name that the system is called in its origin country. (Example: The SS-N-19 Shipwreck missile is officially named the P-700 Granit in Russia, so it should be referred to as the P-700 Granit in the files and in the game.)
- When creating new units for the game, we use Wikipedia as our first choice for stats. If Wikipedia does not have stats available for your chosen unit, then you may seek alternative sources, however they must be at least credible enough to cite to the general public. If Wikipedia has stats on your chosen unit, you are expected to use those unless you have a disputing credible source that you believe to be more correct than Wikipedia. Do not create units with stats "pulled out of the air."
- Avoid placing excessive comments in the mod files. Comments with the author name is fine, and notations that are needed are fine, but we don't need files full of unnecessary comments.
- Respect each other's work. If you didn't create something in the mod but you'd like to change it, talk to the original creator first if possible. It's rude to change others' work without asking.
Want To Be A Developer?
- If you'd like to become a mod developer, please contact CaptainX3 on the pbs-mod Discord channel located here: https://discord.gg/mMvpzSV
- Being a developer requires you to be on the Discord server. This is our primary method of communication.
- We'd like to keep this mod at the highest quality, so we ask and expect that all developers contribute work that is close to or equal to the original vanilla quality of the game. Substandard work will be rejected, and repeated issues will result in you being removed as a mod developer.