Is it ok to come out now?

[Ballast]

:DL
(Just referring the older threads and all the dispute regarding the development of DW)

Well, my interest in subsims was lately rekindled so I purchased SHIII after all these years and it got me looking into modern nuke subsims which I haven't played since being frustrated as a kid with the Maxell version of 688 attack sub.

Seeing there's nothing(?) better than DW, and apparently there won't be for years to come (except maybe ComSubsim) I thought about getting a hold of a copy before it disappears completely into oblivion, if only to see if I like the modern stuff.:hmmm:
Right I'm only interested in driving a sub and not in the other platforms and by the time I'll get into the game there'll probably won't be anyone to play MP with...

So, after almost 4 years, is DW stable and bug free or should I go with SC instead/try it first (I don't mind playing an older title if it's more complete)? Are there any interesting campaigns/missions for SP? Is there any new modern sim on the horizon? I understand that Sonalyst won't be making another...

thank you for your help. And Hello!

[oscar19681]

No modern subsims in the coming decade i think. Unless sh5 does it. Playing dw is a total shock in the learning curve department and after such a long time i still dont always understand it even now. It can be quite boring (since it can take very long time to go form a to be and the time comppression only goes 5x)and the grafics suck. But indeed its the only thing that comes close to a modern subsim.

[Pisces]

.... and the time comppression only goes 5x)and the grafics suck. But indeed its the only thing that comes close to a modern subsim.Ehm, that would be 2^5 (2 raised by power 5= 64). Not just 5 times faster. Each step doubles time accelleration.

DW patched to the latest version (1.04) is very stable. I've never had a crash. Bugs, or realism quirks I suppose enough. Since Sonalysts didn't want to, or couldn't, spend as much resources as it expected to. But the LWAMI mod did a terrific job of fixing/amending alot of issues. DW is not perfect, but as good as a niche product get's for it's money. SC is certainly not better than it.

[goldorak]

I respectfully disagree with your assessment Pisces.
DW is not stable by a long shot even with the 1.04 patch. And things get worse in multiplayer/multistation. The frigate is not stable, it can crash when launching missiles, it can crash we using active sonar (this crash by the way also happens when driving subs). See my reports in the official CTD thread. I used different drivers, different computers, different video cards (ATI and Nvidia) and the crashes were constant. There was no randomness.
So yes DW is the best we get for the moment (until ComSubSim comes along...) but stable it is not.

[Blacklight]

That's funny. I find Dangerous Waters after the 104 patch pretty damn stable. As a matter of fact, there's only been a couple of niggling little things that have popped up, such as the DSRV nonfunctionality, and the fact that ships in a formation tend to break formation at the first sign of danger and then all crash into each other while trying to re-form.
I havn't run into a lot of crashes and as a matter of fact, have had VERY VERY few.
The LWAMI mod eliminates a lot of little issues too.

[Ballast]

DW is not stable by a long shot even with the 1.04 patch.

I find Dangerous Waters after the 104 patch pretty damn stable.

:hmmm:

[OneShot]

For myself speaking, I havent experienced that many crashes with DW to begin with even before 1.04. So I would consider it rather stable myself.

The only thing that bugs me currently with DW is that under Vista 64x the annoying speech recognition pops up and takes me to the desktop without myself being able to do anything about it.

[goldorak]

DW is not stable by a long shot even with the 1.04 patch.

I find Dangerous Waters after the 104 patch pretty damn stable.

:hmmm:

I guess you must stress the simulation pretty much to see its shortcomings (including crashes). People generally say that DW is stable without even having played on all the units under all circumstances (single player, multiplayer, multiplayer multistation with 3 people on the same unit, massive use of missiles in missions, etc...).

[AchtAchtel]

I must say that DW is very stable for me. I play it on 3 different computers (desktop and two laptops - one v. old) and it causes no trouble. Sometimes when players use a lot of missiles there is a noticeable lag, but it never caused my game to crash.

I play on 1024x768 in windowed mode (all 3D disabled on old laptop) and in many cases I surf on the internet, watch some video stream and do many other things that could potentially crash the game, but nothing happens. I play many different platforms (mainly FFG) and I can freely switch to every station without problems.

There is also a solution which works quite nice if your game does crash - when your game gives you an error, just do nothing. I move the window with error over the border of the screen and forget about it. I host many games, once I got an error about 15 minutes after game start, I ignored the error - game continued for over 2,5hrs without any problems.

Regards,
AchtAchtel

[Pisces]

DW is not stable by a long shot even with the 1.04 patch.

I find Dangerous Waters after the 104 patch pretty damn stable.

:hmmm:

I guess you must stress the simulation pretty much to see its shortcomings (including crashes). People generally say that DW is stable without even having played on all the units under all circumstances (single player, multiplayer, multiplayer multistation with 3 people on the same unit, massive use of missiles in missions, etc...).Granted, as I've never played DW in multiplayer.

[Dr.Sid]

On my side, DW never crashed before 1.04, but crashed few times since 1.04. But nothing serious. And with new mods, the game is better then ever.

[Blacklight]

I've played all the units, but I havn't done a lot of multiplayer and the times I did, it was stable. I have set up scenarios with massive naval clashes with missiles flying everywhere without any problems other than lag when there were insane ammounts of units clashing (I would suppose that would be a hardware limitation and probably not a sim limitation).
I've never done a multistation multiplayer game yet.

[Theta Sigma]

For Vista (as I said in another thread), it's not just applying patches, it's installing them and the game in XP compatibility mode that may also limit CTDs.

[Ballast]

yeah, yeah... whom am I kidding.
Ordered it.

[Imamar]

No modern subsims in the coming decade i think. Unless sh5 does it. Playing dw is a total shock in the learning curve department and after such a long time i still dont always understand it even now. It can be quite boring (since it can take very long time to go form a to be and the time comppression only goes 5x)and the grafics suck. But indeed its the only thing that comes close to a modern subsim. Pretty harsh statement. If ya want eye candy go to Crysis kinda games. Simulators ain't about the graphics.
Who the hell even uses the time compression? Well, me in some training missions, but not in real games.

My top 5 list ain't about graphics, hell some of them are more than 10 years old..
1. Falcon 4.0: Allied Force, Open Falcon, Redviper
2. Dangerous waters and Black Shark ( not yet in my hd)
3. Enemy Engaged MODDED
4. Silent hunter 3 & 4
5. Steel Beasts Pro PE ( not yet in my hd)

Black Shark and Steel Beast Pro Pe might climb up the ladder, But Falcon 4.0 will always be number 1.

And yes i have a comp that can run Crysis everything maxed out with stable 50 fps.
Ofcourse i love games with amazing graphics, but those ain't sims. :damn:

[goldorak]

Please, I find it tragic that most players can only understand or accept Crysis-grade graphics or ****-like graphics. There is gray between black and white guys.
Look at ComSubSim, look at its models as say with a strait face that you wouldn't like to see them in Dangerous Waters. :shifty:
Videogames don't have to have bleeding edge graphics, but they don't have to have either a 15 year old graphics engine.
I like a simulation not only for its "educational value" but also because I expect to see nice graphics.
Orbiter is a freeware simulation, based on a DX-7 graphics engine, yes sir DX-7 not DX9 (like DW) and still blows DW out of the sky as far as models, 2d display goes.

[Imamar]

If graphics do their appointed task in simulator, that's all what is required. Surely most of you guys never went to army, or there might be somebody ofcourse. What you see for example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmvK-oIhjQI&feature=related
starting at 3:42 is our FAF (one of the oldest in the world), F-18 sim in action. Graphics only purpose in sim is to provide realistic enough surroundings, to create efficient training exercise. That's it.

Me myself and I, don't need eyecandy for training, I get it then, when I'm flying.
Hopefully that day will come. :sunny:

Just checked the latest ComSubSim, and to be honest, not impressed. DW is totally more graphically superior. Of course I could see it's only at the very first stage to be complete. If it is going to be released, let's say in 10 years, i would be happily suprised. Seen so many such, hyped out projects. Without good team working on it, good finance and solid platform to run. I badly believe, it will be once more, unfinished happy little project.
Don't get me wrong. I hope all the best to individuals working with it, but i'm just skeptical and at the same time realistic. In my opinion.

[Castout]

Okay it's safe now, with Bush at home and not at the white house and Obama at the white house and not at home. Lol I'm sorry didn't mean to be political but get DW for God sake forget SC or get both.