[REQ] To which extent can Silent Hunter 5 be modded?

[GlobalExplorer]

After more than a year I decided to give SH5 a try. I have only played for a few days, but my impression was the same mixed bag as almost everyone else. Currently I still prefer SH4 with mods. But I am curious about the future of this ill conceived sim.

UBI has decided to release no more patches, that means any hard coded bugs are ironed into the executable. Moreover the writing is on the wall that there will be no more silent Hunter games in the future, at least not in the way it was (PC with focus on a realistic simulation). Currently UBIs policy is to abandon all their sim products, or ot turn their into mainstream console games.

So there will probably be no improvements either. That means it will be in the hands of the players to bring this game to where we want it, and I am interested in what is going to be feasible.

Perhaps this is a good time to ask the question what can be expected in the future. At the end of the day this is still the most advanced of the Silent Hunter series, the currently existing frame rate issues will dissapear with better hardware, and there is still hope that in a few years this will be platform for the most advanced Silent Hunter game. With all the problems it's easy to overlook that SH5 has many features that were missing in the previous games. I am not only talking about the graphics but also: new dynamic campaign features, improved radio traffic, improved navigation map, complete sub interior, animated men on ships, wolfpacks, etc.

The game is also very buggy, but all the same, what do you think, where can it go?

So far SH5 modding seems to be in an experimentation stage. Personally I think (in the long run) piecemeal mods won't do it and what could salvage this game is only a mega mod, which is not to be seen. This is a call for mod ideas, and a question to other players and perhaps some of the modders what will be possible, and how it can be achieved.

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Here is my (incomplete) list of directions that modding 'could' take, and the question what is going to be possible.

Hardcoded bugs and crashes - My SH5 crashes a lot but I found that most problems I have are on my side, an overheating graphics card, sound driver issues, mod conflicts. But all this aside is it possible to make SH5 absolutely stable and playable? I am particularly concerned about save game bugs and other hardcoded broken features. The combination of a game that crashes often and has save game issues is a worst case scenario. I am also concerned that the engine seems to have some inbuilt problems with its sound engine. How bad is the situation really?

exe hacks - this is black magic to most people but some wizkids might come up with their tricks, like it eventually happened with SH3.

User interface - I think most people can agree that the UI needs a complete overhaul, and the developments are promising. For example some UI mods have the much needed teleport features. I think the UI will get fixed in the future.

Graphics - mods have already achieved a lot. But Under the assumption that - for my taste - a lot of the advanced post processing filters still look horrid at times, will it be possible to disable the post processing filters, or to make them work as they should?

Sound - sound is mostly the same as in previous versions, that means it's quite good. But in my opinion the voiceovers suck and need a complete overhaul. Although all that is required is that some players with adequate voices (english and german) record new speech files, so far the experience is that modmakers are not able to come up with speech mods.

Units - it should be possible to create new units in the same way as in previous versions.

3D models - not clear, but my feeling is that it will be possible. There is hope that the tools needed are coming in the future, they might even be currently worked on.

Campaigns - it should be no problem to create better campaigns. Either from scratch or by converting the existing mods from the previous versions. But what about the new features? Do they work as intended and can they be used in more advanced ways?

Crew management - from what I see this is a no go.

Scripted conversations - will it be possible to re-script the crewmens dialogs and replace them with meaningful choices? Would it be possible to add scripts and play sound files, perhaps even trigger other functions?

Scripting in general - what is the outlook on the general scripting capabilites with the new .py script?

Removing console features and immersion killers - I am talking of the disabling of hollywood effects, objects highlights, speech bubbles, etc.

Realism - AI, sensors, boat physics, damage control, etc, what is the outlook on realism?