Need help buying new naval game

[rotomike]

My father loves playing "Steel Tide" on his computer. he is 74 and is not that great with lots of buttons to push and things like that. he loves to shoot things and can get around a little but cant do an advanced game. he mastered steel tide and i want to get him something else. There are tons of games on the list but i need to know which one is easy to play and fun to play. not too much strategy or things like that. he loves submarines but any ship type game would be good. Any recommendations would be appreciated. thanks!

mike

p.s. he has new computer with 22 inch flat panel so good resolution would be nice too.

[fredbass]

I'm sure your father would enjoy Silent Hunter III. It's very easy and quite popular.

And you will find plenty of information and helpful people here at subsim to assist him with anything he needs.

Further more, there are a number of good mods that he could install that would greatly enhance the game if he chooses.

[nightdagger]

The only thing that made it less than perfect is that the max resolution of SH3 is 1024x768. It's fine, though.

[fredbass]

The only thing that made it less than perfect is that the max resolution of SH3 is 1024x768. It's fine, though.

You can change that too. The info is in the community manual.

[em2nought]

Try the Battleship Chess demo http://www.apezone.com or I believe there's a link here that supports SubSim. Not like Steel Tide at all, but he might enjoy it even more. Nice thrill of hitting the enemy, but without the aiming. Basically very much like Combat Mission, but at sea.

[kiwi_2005]

Yeah i would get him SH3 and put the realism right down as you say he likes to shoot things well autotarget on he wont have any problem just aim and shoot. Or if he wants to shoot things with guns make him start a career in 1944 there be heaps of planes he could practice on.

[PeriscopeDepth]

Distant Guns. No complicated gauges there. A bit pricy though.

http://www.stormeaglestudios.com/public/home.html

PD

[rotomike]

yeah i was looking at SH3 and it looks good. Now my question is should i wait for SH4 to come out? i read somewhere where the new sh4 is in the works. next question is if i get SH3 whats the first updates i should get for it. In other words which updates or fixes and patches should i get?

mike

[fredbass]

Well since you can get SHIII for $20 or less, I'd go ahead and play that and then you'll be ready to handle SH4 went it gets here next spring.

After you get SHIII, you'll need one patch, which is the last one. Just make sure to get the right version depending on how and where you got it.

I'd play the game in it's unmodded version for a while, then read up on information concerning various mods, especially the major supermods and decide for yourself what you'll like best, based on various threads and info around here.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. We were all noobs once. :)

[fredbass]

the monitor is a samsung 225bw 22inch 5ms response and 700/1 contrast and is a $479 monitor even though i got it for $300 but i havent opened box yet but i would imagine it has all the thrills. Im thinking about getting a regular 19inch instead. i read how stretching it distorts the images. When yours stretches does it stretch both directions to fill screen? It must be less quality then its original form on a regular 19in panel. I know that stretching tv to fill a 16/9 makes it look worse so i would imagine the computer is the same. comments?

I have 3 options for scaling. This is from the monitors documentation:

a. 1:1 (turns off scaling feature and displays an image size based on the input resolution)
b. Fill (image size up-scaled to fill the entire screen, image may be distorted or elongated due to non-proportional scaling of height and width)
c. Aspect (increases vertical image size to fit screen and adjusts horizontal size to maintain proportional image)

Mine is set to fill and looks fine to me.

I also keep my screen resolution on my computer set to 1680x1050 @ 60Hz, which is the recommended mode for my monitor.

[rotomike]

Ok i got the game and it was version 1 and it came with a program called game shadow which searched and said i was outdated and put on version 1.4. Is that the latest patch that i need? do i have to get some more patches? It was a automatic type downlaod and im not sure if thats all i need or not. version 1.4?

mike

[fredbass]

yes, 1.4b is the last and only patch you will need. If you got a downloaded version of SH3, then you'll need the downloaded version of 1.4b. If you have a DVD, then you need the DVD version, and Europe or U.S. accordingly as well.

[rotomike]

Ok I got an hour or so on SH3 and havent red directions or took the course but i figured out some stuff and cut a destroyer in half hehe my question is; I am on super easy mode and when i target through periscope and the little arrow on the ship can be yellow red orange and green. im guessing green means your going to take her down and yellow means maybe and red would be a miss or something but can you still lead the target some and make the arrow disappear and take a shot or do you have to get in position for a green arrow? I just need some details on the arrow. im trying to teach dad and he hasnt touched it yet until he sees me get better.

Oh yeah if you start out with 8 torps does that mean thats it? can you reload? i seem to run out and they dont replentish is that true or will they always replentish?

mike

[nightdagger]

The arrow is your angle on bow, basically the angle that the target would see you at if someone was standing in the middle.

Your torpedoes reload automatically as long as you aren't running silent. You have several fish on top that you have to manually drag to internal storage using the weapon screen when you're surfaced.

Hope that helps!

[rotomike]

so there is unlimited torps or just 8 or so. i tried dragging in torps but all bays were empty and it didnt work. The color of arrow is how good the angle is for the shot?

mike

[fredbass]

so there is unlimited torps or just 8 or so. i tried dragging in torps but all bays were empty and it didnt work. The color of arrow is how good the angle is for the shot?

mike

You don't have unlimited amount of torpedoes. Only what the boat can carry. You will need to return to port or a resupply boat to get more.
Press the "I" key to see what's left on your boat. Once you've used up some fish, you'll need to slide the reserves over to load more. You must be surfaced to load the external ones.
And you can't be running silent while doing any of this. (And the bigger boats carry more than the smaller ones)
The colors of the arrows basically indicate your chances of hitting the ship. Green for best, Red for worst.

[Takeda Shingen]

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