SHV Situation Awereness vs Stealth meter

[Adriatico]

We all remember good old "stealth meter" from SH3:
It was a nice tool, with a just right measure for soft-simulation players: that would give us rough warning on detectability, but still force the player to take a good look around and estimate the situation...:yep:

Such a mid-solution: "situation awereness" for a gameply, was the favorite one among majority of players...:smug:

The more I see new series of screens, the more I get feeling that we will have a poor choice: take an arcade (100% satelite-analytical) situation view OR be blind as dead fish!
:o or :dead:

It would be a really nice gameply-booster: to have something like stealth meter or simillar tool... for a soft-simulation players (majority of users) with a mid solution like the mentioned one.

Your opinion / predictions ?

[SteamWake]

As long as you can turn it off if you wish to do so its all good. :salute:

[Adriatico]

But that's the point: NOT just to turn off the satelite or keep it on... but to have a smart, well balanced tool to give you same basic ( but important) signal...

If you turn of "satelite view" - what do you have as "detectability signal" ?
:ping:

[Platapus]

Did WWII submarienes have such a device?

If not, then I agree with Steamwake, it should be implemented but allowed to be turned off.

[Frederf]

It requires more work but building the meter into clues from the environment is the best way to give information to the player. The crew looking more nervous, more strained tones of voice, and even some ambient music can let the player know what "state" he's in. 2D UI meters and gauges are ugly shortcuts that should be avoided whenever possible.

[Platapus]

Music would not work as I always turn it off.

Am I the only one who plays sans music?

Pretty much every video game I have I turn the music off. I find it distracting.

[Frederf]

Nah, I always turn off the music in SH3 and SH4 too. The music has always been some too-modern short generic track on loop. The downside of really building in the "stealth-o-meter" into the game so deeply is that problems exist with trying to mod it out or those that run without music. To an extent SH3 and SH4 already did this with the crew voices.

Overall I would rather the effort spent on these sort of "helper" tools go rather to a more in-depth manual and a full-on training cruise to teach the player how to behave as a real captain instead of attach gold-plated training wheels to the sub. I was just saying that if you wanted to have a stealth-o-meter that's how it's best done.

Trying to attract "casual" players into a game that is only really enjoyable in its full complexity has always struck me as rather dumb. So much effort goes into convincing the elephant to go through the front door and the result is nobody's happier.