Ubisoft announces Silent Hunter 5

[Red Devil]

Beery - agreed.

I wanted another Pacific scenario simply because I think the Theatre of Ops has been sadly lacking in detail in other sims. SH4 has so many bugs its condemned

Having read Silent Victory it is so easy to see just how much is actually missing.

[Growler]

Originally Posted by Beery

Why is it, every single time a new SH comes out, folks start whining about "Why a U-boat sim?" or "Why a Pacific sub sim?". I just don't get it. There are other things to be concerned about, and it's not as if Ubisoft has never done a US sub sim! SH4 is a perfectly good US sub sim - it has great graphics and plays really well with any of the major mods that have been made for it (including the one I published). In short, Ubisoft's US sub sim doesn't need an update right now. Their U-boat sim, on the other hand, has dated graphics and significant problems that DO need updating to today's standards. To ignore the U-boat war in favour of US subs would, at this stage, be both stupid and almost criminal.

Hear, hear! As much as I'd love to see the same treatment meted out to US boats (I work on Torsk from time-to-time, though AVGWarhawk might beg to differ ), I'm looking forward to this iteration of the SH franchise. Of course, I will, yet again, have to buy a new computer, but that's what student loans are for, yeah?

As to a "role-playing" aspect - well, isn't that sort of the point of "awarding" medals at the end of patrols? Sure, we promote our crew, which makes them better at their jobs, but the player gets medals, too - and what else is "renown" than "experience points"?

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm looking forward to what happens outside the sub as well as inside. Kudos to Ubi for that.

Now... all they need is to recruit real voice actors... the voice acting in the trailer was my ONLY beef with it... atrociously hilarious... or is it the other way 'round?

edit: Any when Ubi's ready to dole out some interior US boat love, I'm ready to take 'em through Torsk... if the TVA doesn't do it first.

[tater]

The role-playing aspect makes me less-likely to buy a u-boat sim, personally since feeling more immersed in that culture is not a place I want to be.

Let me skipper a Corvette or DE, and I'm all over it

[TDK1044]

U Boat sims sell well and Fleet Boat sims don't.

[Zoomer96]

U Boat sims sell well and Fleet Boat sims don't.



In Europe

[Task Force]

well... Im glad they went to the atlanic.... I myself cant get into the picific theatre...

I realy, realy hope this isnt a sh4 repeat... ex, you could use the sonar on the surface in sh4...

[ijozic]

Originally Posted by scrapser

I think a lot of people want another Pacific theater because only two have been made in the past 13 years.

So, two SHs in Pacific and two in the Atlantic with the last one now being 4 years old. So, what's the problem here?

Aside from that it really bothers me that the developers that worked on one generation are not involved with the next one. They make repeated mistakes and create new ones. If UBISoft is interested in putting out a decent sim without spending a lot of money you'd think they would work with the experience and knowledge base that had to have been developed during the course of the earlier versions.

I'm pretty sure they're not exchanging developers, at least not the most important ones. If they did, I'm pretty sure the SH4 would look much more different from SH3.
Since it's probably mostly same people expanding the work they have done on SH3, you get some of the same problems brought onwards to SH4 (because the core engine gets upgraded and not written from scratch). For instance, one downside to having the same team over and over might be the lack of new ideas and concepts (innovation) to the series.

But rarely does common sense prevail. I know SH5 is going to come out buggy as hell...especially with the new FPS perspective. It's just the way they do things.

Well, I'm not too happy about all these new features which are broadening the scale with some strategic elements while the basic product still has much room for improvement.

I'd much rather prefer if they worked on immersion elements like making a more involving campaign with more dynamically assigned tasks and much more communications with other subs (Wolfpacks) and the HQ.

For instance, I hope the new crew interaction feature (which I don't really care about) will also bring more depth in the crew management, like some crew histories and alike so you really get connected to them and feel their loss when they get transfered out or killed. SH4 crew management was a step back in immersion in that regard, I feel.

The important thing might also be to get the basic foundation and interfaces for the missing/undeveloped features which would allow the modders to further develop them. E.g. they don't have to spend too much valuable effort on detailing the interiors as long as they provide all the basic interfaces so the modders can add/update them. AI routines (e.g. wolfpack )could thus be kept in some script files which could get updated later on (maybe it already is like this?), crew histories could be updated, etc.

I know it may sound stupid to expect modders to bring the final game to higher standards, but I presume they don't have vast human resources and 5 years of development time to bring everything up to snuff. But, the modders can only improve those things which are already in the game without the source code so I hope the development team will appreciate this and create more modding possibilities.

[Polak]

Mein Gott!
Great news!

[Iron Budokan]

Wow. How typical. The game isn't even out and people are ripping it.

I, for one, am gonna be all over this. Count me in. The trailer? Does what a trailer is supposed to do. Gins up interest. Screenshots look good, too. Consider me hooked like a fish. Reel me in!

Am I also a bit gun shy? Of course, given the history of this franchise. But I have always supported sub sims no matter who publishes them and this will be no different. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all shakes out and I will pre-order a copy.

And, yeah, I am going to need a bigger computer.

[tater]

Originally Posted by Iron Budokan

Wow. How typical. The game isn't even out and people are ripping it.

Well, to be fair this is SS. The audience for an announcement HERE is going to focus on the aspect that they want to see, which by and large is simulation/realism. Since the announcement didn't contain useful details in that regard, there is going to be speculation.

The only way to correct this would be a more detailed readme.

[Beery]

Originally Posted by scrapser

I think a lot of people want another Pacific theater because only two have been made in the past 13 years.

If that argument were valid, it would mean that the next subsim should be an American Civil War submarine simulation. There have been none made - ever. Next in line would be a WW1 subsim - I think there has been one made, and it was freeware.

Look, there have been a few US sub sims, but the fact is, they don't sell as well as U-boat sims. As long as companies are in the business of making money, there will always be more U-boat sims than US sub sims being made per decade. Some have suggested that U-boat sims only really sell well in Europe, but that's not so. U-boat sims sell well worldwide. US sub sims only really sell well in the US. The US is not the world. If the US had the population of China, US sub sims would sell well worldwide because the US population would overwhelm sales everywhere else - but the US doesn't have that much clout in a market that is global.

Personally, I'd like to see a commercially made WW1 subsim. But it's probably not going to happen, so I try not to worry about it too much when other sims come along that don't serve my exact requirements. Those who want US subs already have a perfectly good simulation that serves their needs, so I find it kinda funny when they start complaining that the next sim in line is not going to serve their interests, especially when the game will be updating a game that definitely needs an update.

Now if SH3 had been a Pacific sim and if SH4 was set in the Atlantic, I could see the frustration of another U-boat sim coming out and following a perfectly good U-boat sim - especially when the last Pacific sim is so old that it needs an update. But that's not the case. Heck, just imagine the uproar if SH5 were to be a Pacific sub sim.

And to those who say that SH4 was buggy and unplayable, sorry but that's nonsense. With one of the nice large scale mods that are out there the game is perfectly playable and realistic, with up-to-date graphics. The same cannot be said for SH3, which had significant problems - it's playable, but it lacks in terms of realism and the graphics are second rate by modern standards.

In the final analysis, SH5 will be a U-boat sim. If you don't like it you don't have to buy it. But if you choose to boycott it, don't come crying to me when SH6 (which is likely to be a US sub sim) gets canned.

[martes86]

Everyone here complains about it not being a US or U-Boot sim (pointless discussion, as it's already been decided), but almost noone seems to remember that we're in a serious lack of a surface sim. Interoperable sims would definitely rock in multiplayer games, and it'd be easier (much much easier) to mantain internal tournaments, as people would not lose interest so fast, because the coop sub mode has gone old already. SH2 already did coop, SH3 did coop only, and SH4 had sort of a weird competitive mode that I've never actually tried myself, but was mostly a continuation of SH3's coop mode.
We haven't had a decent side vs side match in 4 years, since we massively stopped playing SH2/DC. The ability to bomb your buddies, to change roles in a second (the hunter becomes the hunted)... that's a gaming adrenaline shot that we lost the moment we didn't get a renewed competitive mode. You should start thinking about that instead of engaging in an absurd forum war for winning the "germans were over americans" argument and viceversa.


Sure, sims are always good to play solo, but in the age of global communications, of speedy connections and buddies all around the world, who wants to keep to him/herself when you can have the fun of 4 buddies bombing you and 3 other friends, who are always going to be more imaginative and real than the spiritless IA units?

And what about the promised land? The SDK we never saw? That's also something to discuss, and it ain't too late to request that particular feature, since it's usually separated from the original release, so you could start thinking about how to make Ubi give us that, and open the door to more modders that the current, what? 20 or 30 modders at most?

Think about it, because I think it's of more importance than the empty stuff you've been discussing for X pages now.

Be water my friends.

[Rip]

Originally Posted by Beery

Why is it, every single time a new SH comes out, folks start whining about "Why a U-boat sim?" or "Why a Pacific sub sim?". I just don't get it. There are other things to be concerned about, and it's not as if Ubisoft has never done a US sub sim! SH4 is a perfectly good US sub sim - it has great graphics and plays really well with any of the major mods that have been made for it (including the one I published). In short, Ubisoft's US sub sim doesn't need an update right now. Their U-boat sim, on the other hand, has dated graphics and significant problems that DO need updating to today's standards. To ignore the U-boat war in favour of US subs would, at this stage, be both stupid and almost criminal.

I knew there was a reason I have always deeply respected what you have to say! Beery for President!!!!!!!!!

[tater]

^^^ any good sub sim can also be a good surface sim (from an engine standpoint). It only lacks as such to the extent the sub sim isn't good in the first place.

[StandingCow]

Oh wow... I have a new game to drool over.