ParaB
03-22-07, 03:20 PM
I finally got my copy of SH4 today!
Went home, downloaded the patch, installed SH4, installed the patch.
The first thing I noticed when I started the nav tutorial was that I got VERY low FPS on my (admittedly old) system (AMD 2600+, 1 Gig RAM, NVidian 7600GS). I played around with the grafics settings until I found out that disabling the environmental effects greatly increased my FPS, from 15-16 to 25+ in outside view. Not great, but it's ok for playing, although I miss the clear water a bit...
The first annoyance I encounter is that several of the key commands on the german reference card are wrong, which kinda detracts from the usefulness of such a card...
My next stumbling block is...plotting a course. I see all those neat tools on the map view but can't find the one for actually plotting the course. The manual doesn't help much either, because it talks about the plotting tool but doesn't tell me where to find it. In SH3 ALL those tools were together in one menu. After 10 minutes I finally find out that the plotting tool is NOT one of the tools on the map, but it's actually one of the functions in the orders menu at the bottom of the screen....
...which leads me to my next complaint: the whole orders menu seems IMHO more complicated than what I've been used to in SH3. Maybe it's just that I'm unfamiliar with it, but at the moment, after a whole afternoon of playing, I'm still confused sometimes.
And the next complaint: Why in the name of the gods of continuity did they have to change the most basic key commands? Now F3 is the map, F5 the bridge, F4 the attack periscope etc... Hell, I'm so used to the SH3 commands that even after hours of playing I still switch to the wrong stations by mistake. Ok, this is something that can be fixed rather easily, but why did they change it in the 1st place?
Ok, enough of the negative waves... ;)
I start a career out of Pearl Harbour, with a Tambor-class sub, heading for Hokkaido. I really like the intro map screen where you get some information about the war situation and the whole presentation of your orders. A big improvement compared to SH3. But instead of the total silence while reading the news I would have preferred to actually listen to the speech. All difficulty options enabled except free camera and stabilizing view.
We leave Pearl in the morning hours of Dec 10th, 1041.
The grafics ARE pretty indeed. :yep:
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/9576/sh41zi8.jpg
Soon I encounter another problem. While in port I installed an SD aircraft radar (for 500 renown). But I just can't seem to activate the thing. I try the switch in the 3d view, the command in the orders menu, nada. Funnily though, my radar operator starts reporting contacts anyway. And not only aircraft contacts, no, ships too. Keep in mind that I DIDN'T actually have a surface radar installed...
Anyway, on my way to Midway to refuel I do some crash-diving maneuvers. I like the klaxon on the US subs. :ping:
Did I meantion the sim was pretty?
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/2199/sh42wn3.jpg
As I approach Midway my radar operator starts picking up lots of contacts. Since time compression resets everytime he picks up something I want to shut down the radar until I'm docked in Midway (you don't have to actually sail into the harbour to refuel). But I can't. I simply might be missing something, but after playing subsims since Silent Service and not shying away from complex sims like Dangerous Waters I still finally had to capitulate. The radar kept sweeping...
Ok, on to Japan!
While happily sailing a couple of thousand miles I realize that my entire crew is...a bit shy. They don't talk much, and when they do, they speak so gentle that you really have to be careful to hear them.
As I make my way towards my patrol area I realize I miss something. Something important. The ability to let your navigational officer calculate your sub's range based on the current speed is...gone. And the weather report. I have no idea why this has been left out. Of course, I might be simply missing something again, since I'm still a bit confused by the interface that's a certain possibility.
Another thing that's bothering me (I'm sorry for all the negativity, really): whenever you increase time compression above a certain number, a big watch is displayed on the screen. That's nice. But I would REALLY appreciate if the watch disappears automatically when I drop out of TC again.
Ok, after 14 days we arrive in our patrol area, off the coast of Hokkaido, on christmas eve 1941. We celebrate the occasion by sinking two japanese fishing boats in the morning.
A propos fishing boats: I don't know WHAT these guys are fishing, but it must be some pretty dangerous fishes. Asian dynamite coalfish, probably...
http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/7743/sh43nt4.jpg
:hmm:
Unfortunately, after arriving at our destination the weather gets worse, storm for 10 days... no chance for attacking enemy ships.
In fact the weather is SO bad that our sub seems to be ABOVE the waves more so then under them. Behold the flying Tambor!
http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/7171/sh45ea0.jpg
While we're battling through the storm I notice that the radio messages are MUCH more abundant than in SH3. You'll get messages concerning the course of the war and lots of contact reports. So, I recieve a message for my boat: a large enemy convoy has been spotted! Great! Now, where is he....just a moment...wait...uhm... that's 1700 miles from here! Hello?!! The staff in Pearl must be partying quite hard again...
As I'm still muttering about SubCommand my radar picks up a contact. Glad I never turned it off.
Carefully I maneuver the sub in attack position and approach the target at periscope depth.
I'm used to manual targetting in SH3, so this shouldn't be too difficult...
http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/1159/sh44wx3.jpg
I identify the target with the identification book (why can't the book "remember" the last page?), then use the stadimeter to calculate the range. I like the way this is done on US subs. I guess the angle on bow and start calculating the speed....but nothing happens. This feature simply doesn't seem to work. And I tried. I really did. And yes, I read the manual.
As I set speed and detonator for the torpedoes I encounter another problem. The settings don't "stick". I switch all foward torpedoes to fast speed and impact detonator. Then I work on the map, the sonar, back to the periscope, I call up the torpedo page again and all my tops are back to "slow" and "magnetic detonator". Oh well...
I guesstimate the target's speed and fire three torpedoes. Two of them I never hear of again, the third fish detonates. BEHIND my sub. It seemed to have circled and almost hit me. Ouch...
I surface and shoot the bastiche to bits with my deckgun.
Then I suddenly get attacked by aircraft. I decide to test the lethality of aircraft attacks and...do nothing. Result: no damage. I wait and after half an hour two more aircraft appear, both bombing me TWICE, then attacking with MGs. Result: no damage. I now decide to sail down the japanese coast. I get attacked about a dozen times and recieve absolutely ZERO damage. Now this isn't some minor problem anymore, this is ridiculous. No defensive fire, no evasive maneuvers. Those japanese aviators couldn't hit a barn if they were standing on one.
Also quite funny is hwo in broad daylight after spotting an enemy aircraft my men WHISPER to me "Shhhh...enemy aircraft sighted...", as if we were silent running. (No, we weren't I tripple-checked ;) )
:nope:
There I decided to call it a day and make dinner.
So, does that mean that SH4 absolutely sucks and that I already regret buying it?
No.
I actually had a lot of fun playing SH4 today. I didn't suffer CTDs and performance was acceptable. The atmosphere has significantly improved compared to SH3 and I really like the US subs.
The negative points I've mentioned are indeed everything I noticed that I didn't like. That also means there's a ton of stuff I like about SH IV: the detailed, much more "living" harbours, the fantastic ship models including the much improved damage, fire and smoke effects, the beautiful grafics, the US subs with their different gear, the much more immersive briefing part etc...
But there are quite a few "rough" edges that obviously need attention. The fact that the 1st patch was ready on the official release day shows only too well that the game was released in not exactly a perfect state...
Well, enough of this, I'll now start my 2nd patrol.
Cheers,
:arrgh!:
Went home, downloaded the patch, installed SH4, installed the patch.
The first thing I noticed when I started the nav tutorial was that I got VERY low FPS on my (admittedly old) system (AMD 2600+, 1 Gig RAM, NVidian 7600GS). I played around with the grafics settings until I found out that disabling the environmental effects greatly increased my FPS, from 15-16 to 25+ in outside view. Not great, but it's ok for playing, although I miss the clear water a bit...
The first annoyance I encounter is that several of the key commands on the german reference card are wrong, which kinda detracts from the usefulness of such a card...
My next stumbling block is...plotting a course. I see all those neat tools on the map view but can't find the one for actually plotting the course. The manual doesn't help much either, because it talks about the plotting tool but doesn't tell me where to find it. In SH3 ALL those tools were together in one menu. After 10 minutes I finally find out that the plotting tool is NOT one of the tools on the map, but it's actually one of the functions in the orders menu at the bottom of the screen....
...which leads me to my next complaint: the whole orders menu seems IMHO more complicated than what I've been used to in SH3. Maybe it's just that I'm unfamiliar with it, but at the moment, after a whole afternoon of playing, I'm still confused sometimes.
And the next complaint: Why in the name of the gods of continuity did they have to change the most basic key commands? Now F3 is the map, F5 the bridge, F4 the attack periscope etc... Hell, I'm so used to the SH3 commands that even after hours of playing I still switch to the wrong stations by mistake. Ok, this is something that can be fixed rather easily, but why did they change it in the 1st place?
Ok, enough of the negative waves... ;)
I start a career out of Pearl Harbour, with a Tambor-class sub, heading for Hokkaido. I really like the intro map screen where you get some information about the war situation and the whole presentation of your orders. A big improvement compared to SH3. But instead of the total silence while reading the news I would have preferred to actually listen to the speech. All difficulty options enabled except free camera and stabilizing view.
We leave Pearl in the morning hours of Dec 10th, 1041.
The grafics ARE pretty indeed. :yep:
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/9576/sh41zi8.jpg
Soon I encounter another problem. While in port I installed an SD aircraft radar (for 500 renown). But I just can't seem to activate the thing. I try the switch in the 3d view, the command in the orders menu, nada. Funnily though, my radar operator starts reporting contacts anyway. And not only aircraft contacts, no, ships too. Keep in mind that I DIDN'T actually have a surface radar installed...
Anyway, on my way to Midway to refuel I do some crash-diving maneuvers. I like the klaxon on the US subs. :ping:
Did I meantion the sim was pretty?
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/2199/sh42wn3.jpg
As I approach Midway my radar operator starts picking up lots of contacts. Since time compression resets everytime he picks up something I want to shut down the radar until I'm docked in Midway (you don't have to actually sail into the harbour to refuel). But I can't. I simply might be missing something, but after playing subsims since Silent Service and not shying away from complex sims like Dangerous Waters I still finally had to capitulate. The radar kept sweeping...
Ok, on to Japan!
While happily sailing a couple of thousand miles I realize that my entire crew is...a bit shy. They don't talk much, and when they do, they speak so gentle that you really have to be careful to hear them.
As I make my way towards my patrol area I realize I miss something. Something important. The ability to let your navigational officer calculate your sub's range based on the current speed is...gone. And the weather report. I have no idea why this has been left out. Of course, I might be simply missing something again, since I'm still a bit confused by the interface that's a certain possibility.
Another thing that's bothering me (I'm sorry for all the negativity, really): whenever you increase time compression above a certain number, a big watch is displayed on the screen. That's nice. But I would REALLY appreciate if the watch disappears automatically when I drop out of TC again.
Ok, after 14 days we arrive in our patrol area, off the coast of Hokkaido, on christmas eve 1941. We celebrate the occasion by sinking two japanese fishing boats in the morning.
A propos fishing boats: I don't know WHAT these guys are fishing, but it must be some pretty dangerous fishes. Asian dynamite coalfish, probably...
http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/7743/sh43nt4.jpg
:hmm:
Unfortunately, after arriving at our destination the weather gets worse, storm for 10 days... no chance for attacking enemy ships.
In fact the weather is SO bad that our sub seems to be ABOVE the waves more so then under them. Behold the flying Tambor!
http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/7171/sh45ea0.jpg
While we're battling through the storm I notice that the radio messages are MUCH more abundant than in SH3. You'll get messages concerning the course of the war and lots of contact reports. So, I recieve a message for my boat: a large enemy convoy has been spotted! Great! Now, where is he....just a moment...wait...uhm... that's 1700 miles from here! Hello?!! The staff in Pearl must be partying quite hard again...
As I'm still muttering about SubCommand my radar picks up a contact. Glad I never turned it off.
Carefully I maneuver the sub in attack position and approach the target at periscope depth.
I'm used to manual targetting in SH3, so this shouldn't be too difficult...
http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/1159/sh44wx3.jpg
I identify the target with the identification book (why can't the book "remember" the last page?), then use the stadimeter to calculate the range. I like the way this is done on US subs. I guess the angle on bow and start calculating the speed....but nothing happens. This feature simply doesn't seem to work. And I tried. I really did. And yes, I read the manual.
As I set speed and detonator for the torpedoes I encounter another problem. The settings don't "stick". I switch all foward torpedoes to fast speed and impact detonator. Then I work on the map, the sonar, back to the periscope, I call up the torpedo page again and all my tops are back to "slow" and "magnetic detonator". Oh well...
I guesstimate the target's speed and fire three torpedoes. Two of them I never hear of again, the third fish detonates. BEHIND my sub. It seemed to have circled and almost hit me. Ouch...
I surface and shoot the bastiche to bits with my deckgun.
Then I suddenly get attacked by aircraft. I decide to test the lethality of aircraft attacks and...do nothing. Result: no damage. I wait and after half an hour two more aircraft appear, both bombing me TWICE, then attacking with MGs. Result: no damage. I now decide to sail down the japanese coast. I get attacked about a dozen times and recieve absolutely ZERO damage. Now this isn't some minor problem anymore, this is ridiculous. No defensive fire, no evasive maneuvers. Those japanese aviators couldn't hit a barn if they were standing on one.
Also quite funny is hwo in broad daylight after spotting an enemy aircraft my men WHISPER to me "Shhhh...enemy aircraft sighted...", as if we were silent running. (No, we weren't I tripple-checked ;) )
:nope:
There I decided to call it a day and make dinner.
So, does that mean that SH4 absolutely sucks and that I already regret buying it?
No.
I actually had a lot of fun playing SH4 today. I didn't suffer CTDs and performance was acceptable. The atmosphere has significantly improved compared to SH3 and I really like the US subs.
The negative points I've mentioned are indeed everything I noticed that I didn't like. That also means there's a ton of stuff I like about SH IV: the detailed, much more "living" harbours, the fantastic ship models including the much improved damage, fire and smoke effects, the beautiful grafics, the US subs with their different gear, the much more immersive briefing part etc...
But there are quite a few "rough" edges that obviously need attention. The fact that the 1st patch was ready on the official release day shows only too well that the game was released in not exactly a perfect state...
Well, enough of this, I'll now start my 2nd patrol.
Cheers,
:arrgh!: