Silent Hunter 5 Announced?

[denis_469]

Originally Posted by Seeadler

Silent Hunter V - Heroes of the Baltic Sea:rotfl:

Why not?

I hope, that SH V would be full german and american companies plus soviet submarines.

[Kruger]

So basically some folks here fancy the idea of SH5 being a WW2 MMORPG. This kind of game is a mature one, and it could work of course. The question is whether UBI would be willing to invest huge amounts of money into it (the financial risk is somewhat big) or they could just outsource the online multiplayer part. This could also work.



Now, about it being a modern day subsim, the game could be....the Falkland war ? You could skipper both classic and modern submarines (Balaos for the Argentinian navy ?). Start at the basic real idea, and just develop on it. No need for the real history accuracy (after the WW2 it is out of the question anyay).


Sink the General Belgrano with a vintage torpedo fired form a nuclear sub ? I think most of the argentinian navy was composed of former US boats

[The General]

There is a lot of potential for Ubi to spruce up it's multiplayer game for a quick Q1 2009 release. Make it another add-on like 'U-boats'. Due to various difficulties (different versions are incompatible etc), I have never been able to try the destroyer vs sub in the existing sh4 multiplayer and that's a shame. If they just concentrate on making the destroyer vs sub aspect as good as can be, then that'd be fine with me. I think the online experience should be limited to two players for realism sake and to allow for quick link-ups on the servers/LAN.

They could use the existing engine but jazz it up a bit with DX10 effects. I think it'd be a cheap and cheerful money earner for Ubi and make way for a proper sequel a bit later on.

[Dowly]

Already?

[Mustang]

I'm not certain if this contributes to this discussion but this was discussed long ago HERE
I personally would like to see SH evolve into a modern era sim and maybe go a bit further eg, SeaQuest like. It may be sacrilege but it would be interesting...

[Dowly]

Dont know how Ubi would fare with a modern sub game. Graphically it would most likely win, but as for gameplay and all the technical stuff, I cant imagine them doing better job than SonaLyst. I mean, doesnt SL do sonar etc. stuff for real life subs aswell?

[Sonarman]

Originally Posted by DS

Hey, I love these guys in Romania and the great product they put out ( ), but honestly, a brand new SHV 3 months from now?

Here's my guess....I did notice in a post a while back Dan stated that he had not been involved in the development of "U-Boat missions" which suggests to me he was working on something else. He was still spending quite a bit of time here and still seemed well informed on UBM which suggests that he was probably not working on HAWX. Perhaps SH5's development has infact been running in parallel to the development of U-Boat missions, giving a more realistic 2yr dev time?

Judging by the way U-Boat missions and SH4 multiplayer were heading my guess would be that we are looking at the addition of possibly the strategic & simulator level control of surface vessels or wolfpacks for the next game and I'd guess still in WW2.

[tonibamestre]

What would be really interesting for a next release,is a more accurate and detailed topographical enviroment and some more stations and corridors inside the subs to move around on,this concerning the graphics.

[GerritJ9]

Seeadler's "Heroes of the Baltic Sea" sounds realistic. HMS "E-9" based at Kronshtadt, hunting the Kaiser's Baltic battleships, cruisers etc........ or one of the Tsar's subs ("Akula" or "Krokodil"?). Better yet, an add-on called "Heroes of the Black Sea"........ sail in "Krab" from Sebastopol to the Bosporus and lay mines there, hopefully sinking "Goeben".......... new war, new theatres of operations........ a good WW1 sub sim would get my vote!

[Syxx_Killer]

I would have to say I hope SH5 is a nuke sub sim. If the campaign is well thought it, a "what if" scenario would work. Sonalysts were able to pull it off. I've had my fill of WWII stuff. Quite frankly another "U-Boat in the Atlantic" sim nauseates me. It's the same old thing. If they want to do U-Boats again, at least do something different like WWI. I'd love to see all those ships from that era.

[Diopos]

1. Remain in WW2 era.
2. Make all basic stations operable by player.
3. Expand scope as to include more WW2 combatants.
4. Global map based on a sherical world plus plotting tools to allow you plotting long trips on said map.
5. Reafirm and/or improve boat <-> sea interaction.
6. Proper reporting/feedback by crew
and finally
7. Hire subsim modders to do the job!

[The General]

To the Subsim Community,

The next Silent Hunter should involve modern submarine warfare simply because it will allow the possiblity of proper sub vs sub combat for the first time. Anybody who ever played Red Storm Rising will know how intense and atmospheric this can be and that was with just a handful off two-dimensional screens . No true subsim fan could not wanna see this done with with modern 3D graphics! Anybody who says that no sub ever engaged another in real life is a bit naive. Even if they didn't in the past, what's to say it won't happen in the near future? Just imagine; stalking your prey in real life topographical terrain, taking water temperature and salinity into consideration, hunting for enemy subs under the ice-pack, or breaking through said ice to launch a missile strike! Fantastic stuff!

This forum, and others like it, do have an influence on the software houses and developers. Afterall, we're their customers, it would be bad business not to pay attention. If, for example, a petition was submitted with hundreds of names on it, asking for SH5 or 6 to be a modern warfare subsim, they would pay attention.

Go watch The Hunt for Red October, Crimson Tide, Ice Station Zebra and K-19: The Widowmaker and then tell me this isn't the best idea since bread came sliced!

Look at this: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=120266&highlight=coldwar

I'm sorry, but the people have spoken

[Seeadler]

Originally Posted by GerritJ9

Seeadler's "Heroes of the Baltic Sea" sounds realistic.

It was not intend kidding when I wrote this

[Hitman]

Anybody who ever played Red Storm Rising will know how intense and atmospheric this can be and that was with just a handful off two-dimensional screens

Yes I concur to the fact that a cold war submarine simulator in the scenario of an hypotetical war in the 80s as described in Tom Clancy's novel would be enjoyable to play.

BUT:

- It would of course be a fantasy or "what if" campaign, something not everyone likes.

- It would never be a long campaign, as essentially that kind of war would not span over many months.

- The only really interesting side to depict would be the soviet, as those would do the attacks on convoys (American subs would just escort or be hunter-killers).

- The amount of submarines on each side would never be as high as the one in WW2, therefore if russian subs get eliminated fast, the war is over.

That said, I would gladly buy it and enjoy playing , yet I believe a WW2 themed simulation, again as german side, would be the most succesful proposal nowadays (Remember that Sonalysts left the game business due to the low interest i.e. low returns in modern naval warfare sims )

[IronPerch]

Originally Posted by difool2

Believe me, I've tried thinking within the box, outside the box, & putting the box on my head and dancing the can-can, all in an attempt to figure out how to make a MMO subsim viable. I eventually gave up in frustration (right before I completely lost my mind for good in the effort). The problem is the tension between the solo player style and the online playing style. Either (to make a long story short) you have a huge (reasonably sized realistic map) playing area where there is hardly any action and you are spending hours of real time (at 1x time compression) sailing around trying to locate a fight, or you are all tossed into a small arena where there's certainly no lack of a fight, but the entire historical U-boat/subhunter dynamic is completely thrown out the window. And there's Navyfield if the latter kind of thing is your bag (me, I must have a strategic context or it is simply a bunch of sound and fury signifying nothing).

Alternatives to the above (limited time compression, AI placeholder units and/or AI commanders who take over for you when you are AFK, spawned instances/battles based on a strategic map) all have problems, introduce clunkiness, and/or provide for possible exploits. I would dearly love to see a MMO sub sim, but frankly I don't know how to do it without bowdlerizing the entire solo experience in the translation. It would basically be like taking a solo golf game, and making it a MMO cricket game; the kind of gameplay we have enjoyed with SH3/4 would simply not be recognizable. And for many here, that won't sell.

Now, if someone can come up with a scheme which can convince me otherwise, I am all ears-do your worst. Please.

Well, you're right. Making a MMO sub sim that is similar to current SH gameplay is not going to work. What i was about to say is that the next step for UBI with SH development could be the multiplayer sub game, not adding the improved multiplayer option to the current release and making it naval WoW. The current SH4 multiplayer system doesn't work, so why not to improve it to something worth of money with a little extra work ("All new coding...") and add a new release label to it so it sells better than a add-on...

Personally I tend to forget what kind of simulation the vanilla SH4 is after i have played it with bunch of mods installed. So i quess it's not a problem for UBI to make "Naval BF2" or more like "Naval Total War 2" (the single player campaing and a addictive multiplayer mode -> Select the ships on your fleet...) and maybe try to focus in a different customer group. I guess there aren't so many of us that the releasing of SH5 is going to make UBI's stock to sing Hallelujah!! (if the SH5 is similar to previous versions UBI's logic is: the cow exist, why not to milk it...).

Anyway... After reading your post i started to wonder that it could be possible to create a multiplayer sub sim that has the benefits of the solo game: The game that works in single player mode when sailing toward your patrol area and watching the sunrise, listening the grammophone, having ice-cream or doing what ever you want... while the network connection runs (smoothly) in backgound... But when you arrive close to historical shipping lane (you probably know where they are) the game starts to filter server connections and when populated one that matches your configuration is found the game connects to it and "Ship Spotted!!!!....".
Blaa... Blaa...Blaa... Another thing is that is there enough players for this kind of game to be worh of investmens...

...so stop staring at that box...