Additional Warships and Naval AI mod

[Stonehouse]

This mod introduces 5 new DD class ships and revamps all naval AI concerned with gunnery, AAA and torpedoes. 

 

The new ships are not completely historically accurate in looks or operation but are to the best of the ability of the people who worked on and assisted with testing a close operational approximation. Doing better would require new models and animations.

 

The stock game recycles vehicle AI definitions for ships such as the main guns using the tank gunner AI. This means that in most situations the stock ship AI is quite unresponsive to enemy ships and land and air targets as well as being quite limited in engagement range. Quite often it is only 1000m for the main guns. I have gone through and created new ship specific AI definitions and attached these to all weapons aboard the new and stock ships. You now get believable naval battles where engagement of enemy ships begins at 8-10000m with battles usually lasting around 10 mins based on testing. Torpedoes are also now used more aggressively by ships and engagement ranges for torpedoes differ based on nation. Naval AAA AI has also been reworked and has its own configuration rather than using the vehicle AAA AI. Generally, this makes destroyers at harder target than stock but still able to be destroyed if you attack smart or level bomb from height. Dive bombers do quite well. Late 1942-43 DDs particularly had refits to increase their AAA armaments a great deal. The German Type 1936A DD (mobility) with post Project Barbara refits is a good example of this. 

 

So the new ships are:

• Royal Navy D class DD
• Royal Navy Z class DD
• Kriegsmarine Type 39 Fleetboat
• Kriegsmarine Type 1936A (mobility) post Proj Barbara DD
• Regia Marina Navigatori Class DD post 1942 refits and German FuMo21 radar (See ships Pancaldo and Da Recco)

 

All these ships have distinctive paint schemes and custom lua and are new units not existing stock units reworked.

 

Since there is an overlap with the AAA mod (which includes ship AAA) this new mod should be loaded after the AAA mod and you can ignore the folder and file level warnings you get from JSGME. 

 

I would very much like to thank @kraut1 for the original idea and brainstorming sessions to get this mod off the ground and extensive help with play testing the various draft iterations, I would also like to thank @Off_Winters for a lot of recent help creating the ship paint schemes and further testing help and his kind agreement to integrate this mod into his Tunisia/North Africa Kuban mod. Lastly, I would like to thank @MajorMagee for help in reskinning the naval flakvierling and naval flak43 so they don't change camo with season.

 

If we consider the original concept discussions then, collectively work to arrive at today's release commenced last year. So, it has been quite a long, much interrupted journey. Hopefully people will enjoy this mod.

 

References list:

• Too many naval websites to mention although Navweaps.com and martime.org should be mentioned as they were particularly useful in getting things started.
• British and Commonwealth Warship camouflage of WWII - Malcom Wright
• British Destroyers and Frigates, The second world war and after - Norman Friedman
• German Destroyers 1939-45 - Osprey Publishing/Gordon Williamson
• Italian Destroyers of WWII - Mark Stille
• Naval Weapons of World War Two - John Campbell
• Various US dept of Army technical manuals dealing with WW2 ordnance

 

 

Note that due to the amount of art works and cloned models involved the download is too big for the forum so we had to use a third party host. This mod is setup for use with JSGME.

 

27 Sept 2025 - Created configuration to add the new ships to PWCG. This changes the standard PWCG config for the Type 7 Destroyer to be solely a Russian vessel rather than a stand in for multiple nations. NOTE This is set up for JSGME and assumes you have installed PWCG to your main IL2 folder and the name of the PWCG folder is PWCGBoS. If this is not the case, you will have to manually install the mod or manipulate the mod contents to suit your install.

 

13 Oct 2025 - Created configuration to add the new ships to EMG for the Western Front (Normandy and Rhineland). Note This is setup for JSGME and assumes you have EMG installed in your main IL2 folder and the name of the EMG folder is EasyMissionGenerator. Also note that as suggested by the mod name it combines the EMG AAA attack range mod with the inclusion of the Additional Warships. You would not need to use both the EMG AAA attack range mod and this new one. 

 

13 Oct 2025 - Created configuration to add the new ships to EMG for the Eastern Front (all maps other than Normandy and Rhineland). Same notes as for Western Front version regarding JSGME etc. Obviously, you would have the correct version enabled to suit the map you are creating the mission on using EMG. 

 

Additional Warships and Naval AI

https://www.mediafire.com/file/e1twfd8pjk4tiwu/Additional_Warships.zip/file

(6.003 compatible)

 

Additional Warships PWCG

 Additional Warships PWCG.zip

(game version independent, PWCGBos 17.1.1 compatible)

 

EMG Western Front Additional Warships and AAA attack range.zip

(6.003 and EMG v90 compatible)

 

EMG Eastern Front Additional Warships and AAA attack range.zip

(6.003 and EMG v90 compatible)

 

Changelog:

2 Oct 2025 - Fixed some texture issues (Off_Winters), fixed spurious editor list entries, added in game chat messages for units/weapon destruction, added editor preview pics (thanks Jollyjack)

26 Sept 2025 - Fix typo in dskhturret 

 

 

Edited 14 hours ago by Stonehouse

[kraut1]

 

[jollyjack]

FANTASTIC JOB  guys !! Can you post a mission where all those items are set up in the ME?

The new files present in the ships selector seem to be a little confusing for me as dumbo LoL.

 

Edited September 25 by jollyjack

[Stonehouse]

1 hour ago, jollyjack said:

FANTASTIC JOB  guys !! Can you post a mission where all those items are set up in the ME?

The new files present in the ships selector seem to be a little confusing for me as dumbo LoL.

 

 

Hmmm ok that's a glitch to fix sorry. The new ships are gb-cd-class-dd, gb-wz-class-dd, ge-type1936a-dd, ge-type39-fleetboat and it-navigatori-dd. Anything weapon sounding like awsflakvierling38 or gun5inchdirecter shouldn't be in the list, as they are turrets.

 

We built a suite of test missions early on and reused them throughout the testing cycle for the ships and new AI and because of that we didn't see this bug as we missed the test of creating a new mission right at the end of development prior to release. 

 

 

So, until it gets fixed, please use only the objects that are not struck out with a red line below when the Additional warships mod is enabled. If disabled the ones marked in red won't be in the list anyway.

Attached is also a sample mission.

 

Warship-Mod-test-ger-T1936A-ship_vs_ship_LOW normandy.zip 

 

 

Edited September 25 by Stonehouse

[kraut1]

1 hour ago, jollyjack said:

FANTASTIC JOB  guys !! Can you post a mission where all those items are set up in the ME?

The new files present in the ships selector seem to be a little confusing for me as dumbo LoL.

 

 

A mission (only ships) with the new ones and at least all bigger existing ships:

ships.zip

 

[jollyjack]

Glitch, aha, but i am really impressed with what you guys done sofar ! Fingers crossed: some day we maybe can destroy the Bismarck too?

 

after modding i get this CFGPool.log error, but it might be that it's from the also installed latest CountZero Torpedo mod.

 

luascripts/worldobjects/ships/turrets/torpboatg5s11b-dshkturret.txt: (38) Not a number or boolean value '!' of variable 'aiaimdelaymodifier'

 

Edited September 25 by jollyjack

[kraut1]

46 minutes ago, jollyjack said:

Glitch, aha, but i am really impressed with what you guys done sofar ! Fingers crossed: some day we maybe can destroy the Bismarck too?

 

after modding i get this CFGPool.log error, but it might be that it's from the also installed latest CountZero Torpedo mod.

 

luascripts/worldobjects/ships/turrets/torpboatg5s11b-dshkturret.txt: (38) Not a number or boolean value '!' of variable 'aiaimdelaymodifier'

 

I have never seen this error. Yes maybe because of other mods.

[Billsponge1972]

I had the same error message. I just opened up that turret file and scroll down till I found the "!" And changed it to "1.0". Fixed!

 

Also, if you're going to try this, make sure you uninstall the mod before you alter the file.

Edited September 25 by Billsponge1972
Added content

[RedeyeStorm]

Hey @Stonehouse I suppose that these ships do not show up in career right? Very nicely done though kudos!

[Stonehouse]

2 hours ago, RedeyeStorm said:

Hey @Stonehouse I suppose that these ships do not show up in career right? Very nicely done though kudos!

 

No not in career nor AQMB - might be possible to add them not sure right now. 

[Stonehouse]

7 hours ago, Billsponge1972 said:

I had the same error message. I just opened up that turret file and scroll down till I found the "!" And changed it to "1.0". Fixed!

 

Also, if you're going to try this, make sure you uninstall the mod before you alter the file.

 

Thanks! Typo from my last pass through the turrets sorry. Updated zip in first post. Other issue re additional objects in editor list is WIP but going to take a little head scratching. 

Edited September 25 by Stonehouse

[Sudkan]

9 hours ago, Billsponge1972 said:

I had the same error message. I just opened up that turret file and scroll down till I found the "!" And changed it to "1.0". Fixed!

 

Also, if you're going to try this, make sure you uninstall the mod before you alter the file.

Thanks for the info Bill!

 

@Stonehouse I noticed that the same error is present in the latest AAA Mod, if you want to check, altough the fix is really easy.

 

Thanks for your Mods, they are great man.

[Stonehouse]

2 hours ago, Sudkan said:

Thanks for the info Bill!

 

@Stonehouse I noticed that the same error is present in the latest AAA Mod, if you want to check, altough the fix is really easy.

 

Thanks for your Mods, they are great man.

Thank you. Same thing.......typo when I was synching the two mods. Now fixed in first post of the AAA mod.

[jollyjack]

Going down quite well, sorry, couldn't resist destroying your works: 

 

 

Edited September 26 by jollyjack

[Stonehouse]

The best one is when you think your ship of interest has won the battle but you didn't realise the enemy ship launched a spread of torps 2 mins ago.................

[jollyjack]

Unzip and copy these previews in to your data/ GUI/preview folder, and Stonehouse's ships show up in the Mission Editor selector, plus 3 others mostly missing.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/lz85lwcbhof1wxb/-_Missing_ship_previews_1_sep_2025.zip/file

Edited September 27 by jollyjack

[Stonehouse]

12 hours ago, jollyjack said:

Unzip and copy these previews in to your data/ GUI/preview folder, and Sandmarken's ships show up in the Mission Editor selector, plus 3 others mostly missing.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/lz85lwcbhof1wxb/-_Missing_ship_previews_1_sep_2025.zip/file

 

Thank you for the previews of the mod ships and teaching me something new (didn't know where the previews lived). I will include those of the Additional warship ships in the Additional warships mod if you don't mind (and credit you for them).

 

One thing though the zip includes the large tankers and the Bayfield and these are present already in the preview folder. Are the ones in the zip improving the stock ones or an accidental inclusion?

 

Possible solution for the spurious editor list entries is being tested fyi. Hopefully can release it early next week.

Edited September 27 by Stonehouse

[Stonehouse]

On 9/26/2025 at 6:29 AM, RedeyeStorm said:

Hey @Stonehouse I suppose that these ships do not show up in career right? Very nicely done though kudos!

 

See first post for alternative. Example mission attached.

 

channel 1941-06-21.zip

 

 

[jollyjack]

7 hours ago, Stonehouse said:

One thing though the zip includes the large tankers and the Bayfield and these are present already in the preview folder. Are the ones in the zip improving the stock ones or an accidental inclusion?

 

Possible solution for the spurious editor list entries is being tested fyi. Hopefully can release it early next week.

 

yep, the 3 were there, only now in color LoL 

I'll try the fix by then lol. 

Have not tried those extra entries yet, wonder if they'd fire when you f.i. place gun5inch_tower somewhere separately or on a Battry Todt bunker ... 

re-positioned to the firing Point selector? You get this error now with game start and nothing shows:

 

Edited September 27 by jollyjack

[Stonehouse]

1 hour ago, jollyjack said:

You get this error now with game start and nothing shows:

 

Yeah, no surprise. These are not properly defined units. They are basically appearing because we didn't do something quite right/fully understand something. The fix will remove all the invalid entries.

[jollyjack]

Funny these units show up in the ME ..

 

9 hours ago, Stonehouse said:

 Example mission attached .. 

 

WOW, now ain't she green .. Patrick's knitting machine keep amazing me as in that this actually works!

 

 

Played the mission, and i am sure i hit at least one destroiyer, but it does not seem to show in the bucket list,

though the ships artillery does it seems.:

 

 
=================

Here's your PWG mission with a nearby air-start for a quicky: channel 1941-06-21 DIVE_BOMB-v2-jjj.zip

Edited September 27 by jollyjack

[Stonehouse]

On 9/28/2025 at 1:42 AM, jollyjack said:

but it does not seem to show in the bucket list,

though the ships artillery does it seems.:

 

You would need the ship/object destroyed message to get the credit I think and you don't seem to be sure you got it but your comment did lead to me searching for and finding the in game chat message set up and I have added entries to this so hopefully any issue with this aspect will be resolved next version.

Edited September 29 by Stonehouse

[jollyjack]

👍I blew up a few, so i tried to find the ships to check "object destroyed" in the above channel mission, no ships there by default, but they are probably only activated by spawners in PWG?

Edited September 29 by jollyjack

[Stonehouse]

30 minutes ago, jollyjack said:

activated by spawners in PWG

Yeah I think so. If you look at the mission I gave earlier there is a trigger to activate the ship convoy when the attacker/player gets within the required range. A little weird actually as my modded stock and new ships are visible from much longer range than the PWCG trigger radius so the ships sort of appear out of nowhere if you are looking in the right direction. Particularly you notice in external view of your aircraft looking "over your shoulder"

[jollyjack]

The magic of the ME keeps amazing me, and then there's Patrick's wizzardry ... 

I'll create a similar mission one of these days and see if your ships then are counted as 'normal' kills.  

 

ADDED test mission, Me 410 bombing. I could not automate it, some waypointing error.

Bayfield ship and Gleaves show up in the destroyed list, alas yours not .. ?

https://www.mediafire.com/file/7xku5mtbgubks3w/Add_Ships_test._v1_jj.rar/file

Edited September 29 by jollyjack

[Stonehouse]

Update in first post. Done some testing but it was only me this week and I've had real life things going on like Kraut1 and Off_Winters so while I think I caught any obvious things some may have slipped through. Not sure if it fixed the mission end score issue. Thanks to @Off_Winters for squeezing in texture updates and testing last weekend and @jollyjack for new editor previews.

[jollyjack]

Hi Stonehouse, i am getting errors downloading from mediafire, they got some new scam LoL, and i am a legit user registered for ages there.

 

 

ADDED, i used palemoon browser now, and it seems a little better, 50 minutes download time for the 338 MB file

Edited October 2 by jollyjack

[Stonehouse]

7 hours ago, jollyjack said:

Hi Stonehouse, i am getting errors downloading from mediafire, they got some new scam LoL, and i am a legit user registered for ages there.

 

 

ADDED, i used palemoon browser now, and it seems a little better, 50 minutes download time for the 338 MB file

 

I use edge or chrome and when downloading from mediafire I click on the link, see a mediafire webpage open, almost immediately I get a pop up which I close straight away. I find that regardless I now have a download either happening or waiting for me to nominate where I want to save it (based on browser settings). The mediafire webpage however also displays a similar thing to what you say. I just ignore it. If it really starts to act up badly, I'll look for another host, I only have two mods uploaded to mediafire. Flak generators and Additional warships.

 

 

[jollyjack]

When you find a host le'me' know? I got  it with palemoon, took 50 minutes.

Thanks, just  about taking a morning gym 6003 test ride. The Me410 has a Big Barrel Bomb but i now used 2x 250 ones, easier hitting chances.

Your warships fire back quite effectively it seems. 

 

ADDED, the bucket list on exit still shows only AAA guns destroyed for you ships, and just the IL2 ships downed show up. but you probably know that. 

 

Mission i made up using Icky Atlas' ship convoy group setup: 5 additional warships and 2 IL2 ones.  Add Ships test. v2_jj.rar

 

 

Edited October 4 by jollyjack

[Stonehouse]

On 10/3/2025 at 3:56 PM, jollyjack said:

When you find a host le'me' know? I got  it with palemoon, took 50 minutes.

Thanks, just  about taking a morning gym 6003 test ride. The Me410 has a Big Barrel Bomb but i now used 2x 250 ones, easier hitting chances.

Your warships fire back quite effectively it seems. 

 

ADDED, the bucket list on exit still shows only AAA guns destroyed for you ships, and just the IL2 ships downed show up. but you probably know that. 

 

Mission i made up using Icky Atlas' ship convoy group setup: 5 additional warships and 2 IL2 ones.  Add Ships test. v2_jj.rar

 

 

 

Ok. I will have to go looking for whatever it is that drives the results. I thought it would be the chat messages for objects getting destroyed but obviously not so.

[Stonehouse]

On 10/3/2025 at 3:56 PM, jollyjack said:

ADDED, the bucket list on exit still shows only AAA guns destroyed for you ships, and just the IL2 ships downed show up. but you probably know that. 

Looked at this on and off when I have a spare moment but can't see anything so far and it may be buried too deep for us to touch as the devs possibly have deliberately cut us off from fiddling with mission results in any way. The ships do definitely show up in mission log files themselves as destroyed so PWCG and anything server side looking at logs for stats should find them.

 

I think it is probably better I add this to the list of things to fix over time if possible and instead attempt to get the ships turning up in QMB etc. EMG should be fairly straight forward so if I get time, I will probably look at that first. I know we plan a Tunisia EMG mod which will include a lot more naval and anti-shipping things.

Edited Wednesday at 01:41 AM by Stonehouse

[jollyjack]

💪  

added: mediafire seems fixed since a few days ..

Edited yesterday at 06:26 PM by jollyjack

[Stonehouse]

Added EMG configuration mod for the Western front maps to first post. Will add an Eastern Front one when I get some time.