Thank you for visiting and downloading from HC Tankworks! ( www.hc-tankworks.com ) HC tankwork's is proud to present the fourth (or fifth if the captured MKIV is counted) driveable tank for FS-WWI! Another French unit, the St Chamond (or 'The Saint' and "Chammie' as we affectionately call it) has been finished as best as HC Tankworks knows how and apart from the tank build, we know you will also enjoy the campaign missions Chaps has once again immaculately finished specially for this tank! Here's some more information on this vehicle: Although the French Schneider was the first tank to be designed and built in France, its design did not pass through the official Service Technique Automobile (STA) whose job it was to oversee any tank production for the Army. As a result of this embarrassment, the STA quickly began work on their own 'tin box', in competition with Estienne's Schnieder. The result of this hurried job was the Saint Chamond, the first prototype being completed in early 1916. The chassis was based on the US Holt Tractor suspension, as many early tanks were, and as you can see the boxy superstructure extended out some distance from the tracks. This made the St. Chamond a very difficult vehicle to drive over rough terrain and even harder to sit in, especially if you were stationed at the front or back and were easily made sea sick. Since the requirements for the vehicle were to outgun the Schneider, provide an armored enclosure for a long 75mm gun, and cross trenches of the front lines, the vehicle design was only marginally effective, and even that was in doubt on many occasions. The hull was of riveted construction of plates 0.67in (17mm) thick, and with the 75mm gun and four 8mm machine guns the AFV weighed over 23 tons. Early vehicles, like the one in this Imperial War Museum photo (sometimes called the Mk.I), were topped with 'trash can' cupolas for both the driver and commander at the front of the AFV, and the roof was flat. This turned out to be a perfect resting place for enemy thrown hand grenades, and later vehicles will be built with sloping roofs so grenades would roll off before exploding. The rest of the crew consisted of six or so other gunners and mechanics, each trained in the skills of gunnery and the intricacies of vehicle maintenance. ------------------------------------ REQUIRED ADD-ONS: ------------------------------------ Never a fun section, but essential nevertheless. Below are the add-ons REQUIRED TO BE INSTALLED in your SDOE install in order for the campaign missions supplied with the vehicle to work: - Nations v2 - Essential if you want to see the vehicle and missions appear in the Training and Hangar sections of SDOE. See www.simfiles.com - WWI Pack 2 - WWI Pack 2 Patch - Aladar's German Hannover aircraft - Somme Terrain - Somme Terrain Update 2 - WWI Mission Builders Pack version 1.0 (available from HC Tankworks: www.hc-tankworks.com) Once you have these installed, you have everything needed to enjoy the experience! Please note that while the vehicle will be driveable without the above add-ons, you will not be able to run the scenarios that take place in Somme or any of the campaign missions that come with this vehicle at all. Though, as mentioned, the tank will function without these add-ons, and you can run the Training and Hangar missions as is, but you'll need to make your own missions for it if you wish to do some real ground battles. If you need help with all this stuff said here, email me! (address below) For more information on where to get these add-ons, visit: http://ftp2.progeng.com/opwwi/start.asp Be sure to visit the WWI Forum at www.fightersquadron.com and also the SDOE Forum at www.simhq.com for more updates and happenings in the wonderful world of OP-WWI! www.simfiles.com is also a large depository of SDOE add-ons and you may find what you want there too. And of course, don't forget to visit the home of driveable WWI Tanks and HC static objects, HC Tankworks! ( www.hc-tankworks.com ) Also, I recommend you have the latest 1.5.2.10 patch installed when using this add-on because it uses 512 x 512 hi-res textures which may look blurred when running SDOE 1.5. If your video card doesn't support 512 x 512 textures anyway, then resize the "StChamond1.tif" and "StChamond2.tif" textures files found in the textures folder in /media/aircraft/StChamond/ to 256 x 256 pixels. Any good image editor should allow you to do this. ------------------------------------ ADD-ON CONTENTS: ------------------------------------ Here's what you get in this download: * Driveable St Chamond battle tank. Finished completely throughout, both interior and exterior. The exterior 3D model was done by Wakeup Tailgunner, originally used on the St Chamond static unit for SDOE. The interior was by me modelled off real images of it taken from the internet and includes such goodies as an animated Panhard 90hp engine, ammo boxes and spare main gun shells visible inside the tank. All gun and view positions (including a "mechanic" position) are mannable and controllable by you, and the tank is completely fitted out with authentic sound effects. As with all HC Tankworks drivable tanks, this tank comes with a realistic damage model and crew damage is modelled too, wheels can be blown off, the engine can be knocked out, driver can be killed, etc, etc. The tanks' ground handling is also realistic. The tank also comes with 3 training missions, a Hangar mission, GUI images and Hangar information just to name a few things! * 16 PREMIUM campaign scenarios. Finished to perfection by Chaps, you'll find these missions installed in the 'Missions' section of SDOE after installation of this add-on. It's recommended that you first complete the training missions first before tackling these, just to get you up to speed with the operation of this giant moving tin box. It is what you will be trusting your virtual life to after all. ;-) You will also find a multiplayer scenario installed into the muliplayer missions folder called "Multiplayer 2". * Big Bertha artillery unit - A masterpiece from WTG, this static unit is mostly just for show, it does not fire. But it is useful to add in missions that contain the "Artillery Barrage" unit from the WWI Mission Builders pack to make it look like the barrages are coming from somewhere! Plus you can add it to missions and have the crew of 'The Saint' capture it! * St Chamond static unit - Built by WTG and skinned by FlyXwire. This is basically what the driveable St Chamond is based off. This unit is useful for missions where you'd like AI fire support from St Chamonds tanks as the AI cannot effectively use driveable units yet. * Ambients Sounds (only 1 and 4 from the WWI Mission Builders pack v1) - these were added in so you can at least play the Training and Hangar missions if you don't have the WWI Mission Builders Pack v1 installed. These are Ambient sounds that give missions a nice 'atmospheric' effect. * Train Waiting static unit - This is an unarmed stationary passenger steam train unit made by Rendsburger. Used in the campaign missions done by Chaps. * German Gun Train - A 14 carriage armed steam train made by myself. It has a few flatbed cars, some box cars, an AA/AT gun and an armoured gun carriage. Used in the campaign missions. * Very helpful chart in .jpg format detailing the keys needed to quickly jump to specific crew positions in the tank. Believe me, in the heat of combat, you'll need this! Print it out, keep it next to you! (installed to the root directory of SDOE) ------------------------------------ INSTALLATION: ------------------------------------ 1 - Simply unzip it to the root directory of SDOE. Or, copy the media folder and other files unzipped with this download and paste them into the main directory of your SDOE installation. 2 - In order for the ambient sounds to actually make sounds, add the lines just below to your "sounds.ppf" file inside the media folder of your SDOE installation (note: if you already have installed WWI Mission builders pack v1, don't add these lines if you've already added them): sndAmbientSound1 ( parmFilename "AmbientSound1" parmdB 400 parmPriority 150 ) sndAmbientSound4 ( parmFilename "AmbientSound4" parmdB 400 parmPriority 150 ) Now simply run SDOE. We recommend you try the Training section, then tackle the *excellent* campaign scenarios Chaps has done. They are installed in 'The Saint' folder inside the 'Missions' section of SDOE! It's your call though. Have Fun!! (Be sure you have the above mentioned add-ons installed before attempting to run the campaign missions that come with this tank) Problems? Confused? Email me! (address below) ------------------------------------ CREDITS/LEGAL: ------------------------------------ - Chaps: THE mission master! He helped by making 16 campaign scenarios for 'The Saint', plus one Multiplayer scenario and also was a great contributor and playtester during development of this add-on. - Wakeup Tailgunner (aka WTG and PR): He was responsible for originally building the static version of the St Chamond tank and the exterior 3d model you see of it in this add-on is his. He also made an excellent static unit installed with this add-on. The Big Bertha artillery gun. Top stuff WTG! - FlyXwire: He was the one who originally made the skin for the static version of the St Chamond. Of course, the skin was so well done, I have retained it in the release of the driveable version! :-) - Rendsburger: For letting me include his "TrainWaiting" static unit in this download. - AGAS-5, Wakeup Tailgunner and Blacksheep: They all agreed to watch the development process take place and were an audience to the many, many emails that Chaps and I exchanged during the duration of this project. As a gift for their attention, they each scored an advance copy of this tank. Thanks for watching guys! - Harman_5: In a nutshell: I was responsible for taking the static St Chamond static unit done by WTG, and making it fully driveable. Chaps and I researched this vehicle a lot and this enabled me to fully deck out the interior with historically accurate items and objects. I also built the German gun train static unit that is included with this add-on. Plus everything else you see on the driveable vehicle (apart from the exterior 3d model by WTG) is somehow related to me. :-) Unfortunately this will be the last HC Tankworks tank release for a while yet. We hope you've enjoyed the add-ons so far. We hope to continue developing add-ons again at a later date too! Comments and criticism (constructive or destructive) are encouraged, and help is available by emailing me: Harman_5@dingoblue.net.au Chaps can be reached at: alanwilmot@cox.net OP-WWI Driveable St Chamond Version 1.0 - 2nd March 2002 THIS ADD-ON IS NOT SUPPORTED BY ACTIVISION OR PARSOFT. PLEASE DO NOT ASK THE SAID COMPANIES FOR SUPPORT OR INFORMATION REGARDING THIS ADD-ON. IF YOU NEED HELP OR INFORMATION REGARDING THIS ADD-ON, PLEASE EMAIL ME. PLEASE NOTE THAT WHILE I CAN OFFER HELP, I CANNOT ASSUME ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE EFFECTS THIS ADD-ON CAUSES TO YOU OR YOUR COMPUTER AND/OR ITS SOFTWARE.