RIP silent hunter series

[tonyj]

i'm sorry chaps, i'm upset.

this game is really, really, and i mean really, bad. play sh3 and its a pleasure, makes sense and just works.

sh5 is shockingly bad. I honestly think they released this halfway through the dev cycle.

i thought i was disappointed with sh4 but this reaches a new low.

i'm sorry to complain people but i had to get this off my chest.

[Laffertytig]

you just cant beat a good, constructive post such as the one above:hmmm:

[tonyj]

i think the bit about playing sh3 and then sh5 was supposed to be constructive. ie the difference.

[The General]

Tonyj, how did you get hold of your copy?

[tonyj]

General, i got mine from ShopTo before they ran out of stock a couple of days ago. Got it yesterday. apparently they have some more now.

[Hitman]

SH4 was terrible when released, but patches turned it into a decent game, and mods made it excel.

From what I have seen so far, SH5 is as half backed as SH4 or even more -given that content has been reduced so much- but I think final judgement should be reserved for the end-version, with all patches applied.

It will depend on each player if the current bugs -and there are a lot- are a deal breaker or not, of course...

[Letum]

Tonyj, how did you get hold of your copy?

^this.

/raises a suspicious eyebrow.

SH4 was terrible when released, but patches turned it into a decent game, and mods made it excel.

Is that the way it is supposed to work tho?

[tonyj]

@Hitman, i hear what you're saying and your right eventually it will, fingers crossed be a good game.

I guess i was expecting them to learn they're lesson after sh4, about releasing a half baked game, but sadly this is in an even worse state, even after patch 1.1.

I just got my hopes up that it would be a good release and sadly its not.

[tonschk]

i'm sorry chaps, i'm upset.

this game is really, really, and i mean really, bad. play sh3 and its a pleasure, makes sense and just works.

sh5 is shockingly bad. I honestly think they released this halfway through the dev cycle.

i thought i was disappointed with sh4 but this reaches a new low.

i'm sorry to complain people but i had to get this off my chest.



Please show you with your Silent hunter 5 DVD disk , or you with your PC and the game running otherwise your opinions are not Valid and very suspicious


/

[tonyj]

i guess i should add that by RIP i mean that with each release since sh3 we are losing functionality and quality. To top it off its bascially the same engine as previous versions as modders are actually putting that missing funtionality back in!! how bonkers is that? just look at the number of threads where the kind souls are trying to explain to everyone else how this game works. madness.

like i said i'm upset.

[CCIP]

I still don't quite understand what you think it's missing. I would agree that some things are not working as advertised at the moment, and that there are several odd design decisions (mostly in the interface), but the more I look into the game the more I'm seeing what it's got that previous titles didn't, not the other way. A lot of it is still potential rather than fact, but hopefully some fixing-up will set it straight.

[tonyj]

CCIP, i refer to the fact that this game just doesn't work out of the box, that its in an even worse state than sh4 on release. Granted that you, yourself have been able to fix alot of problems, but you shouldn't have to be doing this should you? how many features of the previous versions have you put back in?

[PL_Andrev]

The true potential of SH5 is higher modability. But without support fans/modders will do nothing. Wait for patches and mods. If game will be patched in higher degree than SH3 or SH4 (I hope) that is chance to create the best game of whole SH series.
:rock:

[CCIP]

CCIP, i refer to the fact that this game just doesn't work out of the box, that its in an even worse state than sh4 on release. Granted that you, yourself have been able to fix alot of problems, but you shouldn't have to be doing this should you? how many features of the previous versions have you put back in?

I don't think it doesn't work. I've played it for quite a while and it certainly works. Not very well in some areas, I'll grant it that, but I've been able to play and even enjoy it for now.There's been several issues which are annoying me and would kill the long-run gameplay for me if they are not patched VERY, VERY soon - but at the same time I cannot call anything here a game-breaker. I can go out to sea, sink ships, and come back. I haven't really had to do a lot of fixing to do that as yet.

[mr chris]

Give it time mate,
I mean SH3 never really started to realise it potential until nearly 2 years after release.

Give it a year or so and im sure some sort of mega mod will be out or on the horizon. From what i have read from the members of this forum that own the game so far that it has lots of potential and should be easier to mod than previous releases in the series. That sounds good to me if you see what has been achieved with the older titles i would say the sky my be the limit with this one. You just need to give it time that's all.

[tonyj]

ok list of bugs then:

1) hydrophone operator only has 2 options - nothing about following targets or sweeping. CCIP you added that via keyboard.
2) surface next to a destroyer 3 times, didn't notice me.
3) rammed by destroyer - no damage
4) men, keep rotating when talking to them
5) sub doesn't sit on the bottom, floats abt 5m above it - atleast shadow does
6) no auto target - manual leading??!? even on auto
7) can't tell chaps to leave deck gun
8) can't find amount of ammo i have left in deck gun
9) have 2 types of map - tactical and main map - bit confusing
10) going up and down ladders not easy
11) conversations don't work properly - same conversation
12) moral set to zero when reloading
13) can't find out about weather
14) sub on rails to some extent
15) shadows clipping badly
16) slow explosions
17) bad explosions animations - sometimes very very slow (have 285 gtx)
18) depth charge leaves no effect on surface
19) gunfire very slow, doesn't animate properly
20) not enough guys in sub
21) clipping issues with men
22) no way to find out heading
23) no morale after save means at high TC you die as it never drops out and destroyers kill you
24) some guys have no options when talking to them other than leaving dialog (map guy)

worst of all, the morale bug is crippling - equivalent of the 'A' CTD in sh4 as TC doesn't drop out and men refuse to do anything.

[Laffertytig]

i think the bit about playing sh3 and then sh5 was supposed to be constructive. ie the difference.

i think it was mainly the headline to your post which i found a bit ridiculous. SH3 and SH4 were both VERY rough around the edges but they both turned out to be decent subsims after time. i didnt even buy SH4 until 6 months or so after release due to its problems.

you may well be right, the SH series may be go down the toilet, but to be sayin that after a few days since its release is just daft.

[tonyj]

maybe it was a bit over the top but you have to wonder where its all going. point taken.

[Easy Tiger]

ok list of bugs then:

1) hydrophone operator only has 2 options - nothing about following targets or sweeping. CCIP you added that via keyboard.
2) surface next to a destroyer 3 times, didn't notice me.
3) rammed by destroyer - no damage
4) men, keep rotating when talking to them
5) sub doesn't sit on the bottom, floats abt 5m above it - atleast shadow does
6) no auto target - manual leading??!? even on auto
7) can't tell chaps to leave deck gun
8) can't find amount of ammo i have left in deck gun
9) have 2 types of map - tactical and main map - bit confusing
10) going up and down ladders not easy
11) conversations don't work properly - same conversation
12) moral set to zero when reloading
13) can't find out about weather
14) sub on rails to some extent
15) shadows clipping badly
16) slow explosions
17) bad explosions animations - sometimes very very slow (have 285 gtx)
18) depth charge leaves no effect on surface
19) gunfire very slow, doesn't animate properly
20) not enough guys in sub
21) clipping issues with men
22) no way to find out heading
23) no morale after save means at high TC you die as it never drops out and destroyers kill you
24) some guys have no options when talking to them other than leaving dialog (map guy)

worst of all, the morale bug is crippling - equivalent of the 'A' CTD in sh4 as TC doesn't drop out and men refuse to do anything.
That's unfortunate... not sure if I'm going to get this now.

Of course, they may be fixed with later patches... but I'll always remember how the community literally had to beg for patches for SH4 :down:

[CCIP]

Fair enough. From my perspective, none of these are yet game-killers, but as I said in another thread the clock is ticking. I was a little taken aback that at least most of these were not fixed in the first patch. I don't think it's fair to proclaim it to be the end of the series, that's all; I'm willing to give the devs a benefit of the doubt for now - if they can quickly address these, what we have on our hands is a game that, as of release, was no worse (and probably better) than SHIII, which was far from the end of the series and got fixed relatively quickly. It's more playable than out-of-the-box SHIII was, I would say.

[kylania]

ok list of bugs then:

9) have 2 types of map - tactical and main map - bit confusing

That's not a bug, that's how the game is played vanilla now.

12) moral set to zero when reloading

Total game breaker :(

20) not enough guys in sub

Most of the guys that are there now do nothing! :)


Subs!

[Galanti]

.There's been several issues which are annoying me and would kill the long-run gameplay for me if they are not patched VERY, VERY soon - but at the same time I cannot call anything here a game-breaker. .

I would call the reload-morale no more bug that you yourself discovered a game-breaker, personally. How are you currently working around it?

But none of the other bugs currently identified seem to be gamebreakers.

[urfisch]

Fair enough. From my perspective, none of these are yet game-killers

what do you need more, to kill your immersion / sh5 game? i didnt play it yet...but what i read in the bug thread is below my exspectations. there are so many building sites...this is not the way it was meant to be.

:nope:

[tonyj]

i would say not being able to load your campaign back in, as all your guys morale is zero, which means that you don't drop out of TC, and a destroyer wipes you out is a game breaker. I was literally cruising along at highest TC, north of Ireland, and then i'm dead on my first patrol, as i had reloaded it.

[Schunken]

gentlemen!

to ask somebody who in a good matter and without any sign of upset emotions post his opinion about SH5 (only a game, by the way)....

...ask to proofe with a photo of the gamebox or otherwise that he have the game is going a little far I think. Even its not a new member than a member with 94 posts....

If I say my name is Andreas I must send a picture of my dick to proove I me a male???? :oops:

Is ther no trust in the loyalty of Forum Members? sad....

...and do not ask for that photo, I think I be undersized.... :)

Andreas

[AVGWarhawk]

ok list of bugs then:

1) hydrophone operator only has 2 options - nothing about following targets or sweeping. CCIP you added that via keyboard.
2) surface next to a destroyer 3 times, didn't notice me.
3) rammed by destroyer - no damage
4) men, keep rotating when talking to them
5) sub doesn't sit on the bottom, floats abt 5m above it - atleast shadow does
6) no auto target - manual leading??!? even on auto
7) can't tell chaps to leave deck gun
8) can't find amount of ammo i have left in deck gun
9) have 2 types of map - tactical and main map - bit confusing
10) going up and down ladders not easy
11) conversations don't work properly - same conversation
12) moral set to zero when reloading
13) can't find out about weather
14) sub on rails to some extent
15) shadows clipping badly
16) slow explosions
17) bad explosions animations - sometimes very very slow (have 285 gtx)
18) depth charge leaves no effect on surface
19) gunfire very slow, doesn't animate properly
20) not enough guys in sub
21) clipping issues with men
22) no way to find out heading
23) no morale after save means at high TC you die as it never drops out and destroyers kill you
24) some guys have no options when talking to them other than leaving dialog (map guy)

worst of all, the morale bug is crippling - equivalent of the 'A' CTD in sh4 as TC doesn't drop out and men refuse to do anything.

Give the man is due...that is quite a list. But hey, what would the SH series be without patch after patch? We would be lost if we had no patch :oops:

[Galanti]

If I say my name is Andreas I must send a picture of my dick to proove I me a male???? :oops:


Andreas

Let me assure you that's completely unnecessary.

[Nisgeis]

I noticed number 4 on the latest video and I think it will annoy me when I get it.

[Schunken]

its also unessecary to argue before vote a critic ask for a prove he has the game. Its inderectly emplies that he cheat on us, isnt?

Nobody here would ask his wife for a proof that he his really the father of this child....

I mean...are critic poeple our enemys here? I think not....

Andreas

[Sailor Steve]

...ask to proofe with a photo of the gamebox or otherwise that he have the game is going a little far I think. Even its not a new member than a member with 94 posts....
The problem is that someone posting a totally negative review a day or two before the game is officially released does make one wonder.

I would never ask that question myself, but I can see why some will. Already we've had a poll asking for reviews, and several of the bad ones came from people who swore they wouldn't buy it. So, suspicions are aroused, and asking for proof of purchase before the release date does have some validity.

[Schunken]

Steve, we all know that several shops and online distributors send it before release day, isnt ;)

And the question of proove is every time only ask when poeple have a critical view....when somebody yell "Hurra" its accepted without a comment....

Most of us all pull on one side of the rope.... ;)

So lets also be fair to poeple who have a critical view....Thats my point... :salute:


Andreas

[CCIP]

I don't want to come off completely against critical people for sure. I'd just like them to be constructive - I have a vested interest in the survival of sub sims and the survival of Silent Hunter in particular, that's why threads like this always touch off a nerve with me.

[Schunken]

I take also your point for sure....

But this place is not a Ubi Forum or a kindergarten. I trust the poeple here....and is common that somebody is not prooved guilty he can not judged. And he also must not proove that is is not guilty... ;)

Lets be fair, 99% of the poeple here are loyal and serios.


Andreas

[tonyj]

Chaps, would a guy seriously b bothered to fake a list of bugs just to get attention like this? Come on. CCIP agreed with my list. Shopto delivered to a number of chaps on here early. I was lucky enough to order before 5:30 and got it next day.

[CCIP]

Oh no, don't get me wrong, I completely agree that people shouldn't be mobbing you or demanding "proof". That's just ridiculous. I originally wondered about your list of complaints, of course, just for constructivity's sake, and it's perfectly valid.

[AVGWarhawk]

Chaps, would a guy seriously b bothered to fake a list of bugs just to get attention like this? Come on. CCIP agreed with my list. Shopto delivered to a number of chaps on here early. I was lucky enough to order before 5:30 and got it next day.

Don't worry about it tonyj. It really is not worth discussing. Your list looks legit to me. Don't give up on the game!

[The General]

Tonyj, you're obviously telling the truth. I kinda wish you weren't though. I haven't got my copy yet (still waiting for the download link, 'preorder' pah! :shifty:)and I am exasperated by the list of bugs you just reeled off. A couple are even game-killers by the sound of it :cry: You obviously have been patched to 1.1, it's automated.

SH4 got 3 patches and an add-on right? :hmmm: In the first month, if I recall correctly? The Devs are bound to fix the couple of 'game-killers' if they release another two patches right? Then the deck is cleared for the all-mighty Modders to sink their teeth into it, thus making SH5 the greatest Subsim of all time!! :yeah:

[AVGWarhawk]

The first patch is already out. There will be more. SH4 had an add on. To be honest, SH5 is less buggy from the looks of it than SH4 was. SH4 survived to sail even up today or last night for me:D

[The General]

The first patch is already out. There will be more. SH4 had an add on. To be honest, SH5 is less buggy from the looks of it than SH4 was. SH4 survived to sail even up today or last night for me:DYou just mirrored my sentiments exactly :salute:

[FIREWALL]

I already proved that holding gamecase in hand photo is bogus.

If one wants to prove it ... discribe contents inside of gamecase.

I did last Saturday.

So imo it's BS to ask someone to prove it.

Soooo... Grade school.

[tonyj]

fingers crossed that these issues are fixed. thx to you chaps who do believe me. i guess to those that don't, when you get your copy, have a go and i think you'll see what i mean. some of those items may not bug you but the fact that no reviews are out yet, the PR has been shocking, that Neal, god bless him, has been quite quiet about this game must indicate that things aren't what they should be. There's certainly been no raving about how good it is. Crikey i wish i was wrong.

[tonyj]

inside of manual, page 3...says

Table of contents

Getting started...04
Introduction...06
Games Modes...07
Multilplayer...10
Controls and Interface...11
Online log...31
tech support...34
warranty...35

[Crimguy]

So few games are without bugs at release. I'm not an apologist for Ubi (I think i mentioned elsewhere that I'll pass on this one due to the DRM), but just about every title I've been excited about has been released half-baked over the past 3-5 years.

I think I'm having a bigger problem in what the OP posited was the "direction" that this title is going. It appears to be going away from any sort of fidelity. The problems I had with SH3 - the big ones - were thus:
Idiotic sonarman
DD's that could pinpoint you even though they were steaming along at 20kts and you were all-stop
Dumbed-down oceanographic/atmospheric model

In essence - while titles like 688 were striving to improve the simulation aspect, Ubisoft ignored what I considered to be of upmost importance.

Now, we have a title that looks very heavy on the eye-candy (which I admit I'm a sucker for) but has done little to propel the realism forward. I really do not care to invest in a conversation with a virtual bosun's mate. I want the above plus mechanical breakdowns, milk cows, true wolf packs, realistic command and control from OKM, fully modeled crew handling. From being on these forums for years I can confidently say that these are the wishes of many fans of the series. Can an owner of SH V tell me they have delivered?

OK, so Ubisoft decides us lunatic subsim fanatics are such a niche crowd that they are better off tailoring to the masses who want to blow stuff up while underwater. The game apparently is very modable, but the basics I mentioned (the top three for me) should IMHO be delivered with the original package.

If the AI is identical, why not just play SH3?

[endlesswick]

I was at first disappointed as well. The frame rate was atrocious, that what was really bothering me, besides the many bugs. But I got the latest drivers for my video card, and frame rate improved dramatically. Then I got the patch, and it is as smooth as honey with graphics maxed, and many of the bugs I noticed were corrected. I am no longer disappointed, and now I am falling in love. Sure, there are still bugs, but no show stoppers so far, and I am sure these will be fixed in the coming months. I having been playing sub sims since Silent Service 1, and for the first time this represents everything I have always wanted in a submarine simulator. It really feels like you are there. It is going to be hard to get any work done for a while. Good job!!!

[Jimbuna]

fingers crossed that these issues are fixed. thx to you chaps who do believe me. i guess to those that don't, when you get your copy, have a go and i think you'll see what i mean. some of those items may not bug you but the fact that no reviews are out yet, the PR has been shocking, that Neal, god bless him, has been quite quiet about this game must indicate that things aren't what they should be. There's certainly been no raving about how good it is. Crikey i wish i was wrong.

My concern is just how accurate you probably/possibly are :hmmm:

[Crimguy]

Jesus don't fall in for this - tell the "suspicious ones" to go take a s**t. Your previous posts I think have done enough to prove yourself.

Although I think at least one of them was speaking a bit tongue in cheek.

inside of manual, page 3...says

Table of contents

Getting started...04
Introduction...06
Games Modes...07
Multilplayer...10
Controls and Interface...11
Online log...31
tech support...34
warranty...35

[Greyghost]

SH4 was terrible when released, but patches turned it into a decent game, and mods made it excel.

From what I have seen so far, SH5 is as half backed as SH4 or even more -given that content has been reduced so much- but I think final judgement should be reserved for the end-version, with all patches applied.

It will depend on each player if the current bugs -and there are a lot- are a deal breaker or not, of course...

It is absolutely ashame that the players are basically required to finish the game for the devs. You shell out 50-60 bucks for the game and it's only half finished because they know you will buy it and the community will finish it with mods. SHIV I played for about 2 days and shelved it, it left such a bad taste in my mouth that even when I installed the mods I only played it for maybe another week and just said screw it.

I was looking forward to this game and told myself I was not going to buy it once I learned about DRM. I ultimately said the hell with it and I would try it. So far I am utterly disappointed. The auto TDC, one of the easiest things in this series, has been made completely useless. It completely sucks the life out of the sim when you line it up only to have a bout a 10% chance of actually getting a torp to hit. NO matter how close you are to the target.

Ubisoft really sucker punched all subsimmers with this release. I don't see how they released the game as is, to me it needed much much more time in development. I'm sad to say I think they are killing the Silent Hunter series.

[Onkel Neal]

i'm sorry chaps, i'm upset.

this game is really, really, and i mean really, bad. play sh3 and its a pleasure, makes sense and just works.

sh5 is shockingly bad. I honestly think they released this halfway through the dev cycle.

i thought i was disappointed with sh4 but this reaches a new low.

i'm sorry to complain people but i had to get this off my chest.

Thanks for doing it in an orderly fashion. :salute:

[Armistead]

SH4 sure is fun....:D

It is hard to believe they sale a game that unfinished. That's why I just can't buy new released games, but this sounds really unfinished. It's like having cake, but not being able to eat it. Just a few of those bugs would ruin the game for me, but I'm into realistic play, not arcadish and seems this one is arcade play. They have to know they released crap.

Hopefully I can pick it up in a bargain bin for $5 after it's patched and some mods are up in about a year.

[The General]

Uh-oh, now Neal is basically saying he feels virtually the same way :o A damning indictment indeed! I haven't even got my copy yet!! Talk about 'lowering my expectations'!

[tonyj]

cheers Neal and to all you positive guys out there. I also know that some of you don't want to believe me, i don't want to either, trust me, but its not what we hoped. It does have real potential for sure but out of the box, and the trend of the SH series in general on release is going down hill. there's someone important in UBI who doesn't care about this series anymore, thats the truth.

the complaints about missing manuals, no maps, as well, and i even saw the super fast moving clouds of sh4 at one stage, well its a crying shame.

i'm off now to cry into my cup of tea. i've already had several ciders, possibly the cause of my original post, so appologies, but the facts are indeed in my bug list.

so long cruel world.... i'm off to try and work out how to hit the side of a battleship because the manuals no help.

atleast they got the seagulls right. :arrgh!:

[The General]

It's alright saying 'it's all Ubisoft's fault', but is it? They're just guys in suits these days, stumping up the cash. Surely it's up to the Devs to provide their bosses with a realistic work schedule and budget before embarking on such a project? :hmmm: If the game goes to release unfinished, surely they share atleast some of the blame? I mean, shouldn't lessons have been learnt on the previous releases?

[Noren]

Even in the best of worlds I would think its quite difficult to plan the makings of a complete simulator and the devs have deadlines to hold on too, I dont think we will ever now what really went on put Im quite sure the schedule was a stressed one and fixed.

[Bilge_Rat]

some of these are not as black and white, for example:

ok list of bugs then:

1) hydrophone operator only has 2 options - nothing about following targets or sweeping. CCIP you added that via keyboard.
agreed, but can be easily remapped

2) surface next to a destroyer 3 times, didn't notice me.
appears to depend on skill level. In Narvik single mission enemy DD very aggressive


3) rammed by destroyer - no damage
4) men, keep rotating when talking to them
I have not had this problem

5) sub doesn't sit on the bottom, floats abt 5m above it - atleast shadow does
Lets be fair, this can't be classified as a bug

6) no auto target - manual leading??!? even on auto
manual TDC works perfectly well however

7) can't tell chaps to leave deck gun
works for me, from what I can see the order to the deck officier works as a toggle

8) can't find amount of ammo i have left in deck gun
9) have 2 types of map - tactical and main map - bit confusing
I like the way this is implemented. Lets be fair, this can't be classified as a bug

10) going up and down ladders not easy
exercise?:arrgh!: Lets be fair, this can't be classified as a bug

11) conversations don't work properly - same conversation
Lets be fair, this can't be classified as a bug

12) moral set to zero when reloading
agreed

13) can't find out about weather
agreed, but can be easily remapped

14) sub on rails to some extent
agreed

15) shadows clipping badly
16) slow explosions
17) bad explosions animations - sometimes very very slow (have 285 gtx)
agreed, although this appears to be NVIDIA driver issue. My ATI 4890 does not these issues

18) depth charge leaves no effect on surface
19) gunfire very slow, doesn't animate properly
have not seen this, works for me

20) not enough guys in sub
Lets be fair, this can't be classified as a bug

21) clipping issues with men
have not seen this

22) no way to find out heading
agreed, but can be easily remapped

23) no morale after save means at high TC you die as it never drops out and destroyers kill you
yes

24) some guys have no options when talking to them other than leaving dialog (map guy)
is'nt that a repeat of 11?, same answer

worst of all, the morale bug is crippling - equivalent of the 'A' CTD in sh4 as TC doesn't drop out and men refuse to do anything.

I see 4 actual confirmed bugs: #2, #3, #12 and #23.

15, 16, 17, 19, and 21 appear to be graphic card issues which are not game related.

1, 6 and 14 are game design issues.

[tonyj]

all those are bugs & bad design/graphic issues, that ultimately subtract from the enjoyment, for me.

my point was that out of the box, without having to remap the keys these are issues.

having the same conversation and no options for a conversation are not the same either.

my setup is xp, E8400, 4GB, 285 GTX (lastest driver), SSD.

[tonyj]

the destroyer was aprox 500m away running from parallel with me, i actually went to periscope depth 3 times and surfaced again, before finally attacking him with a deck gun to get him to engage me. i then, at periscope depth, cruised about a bit trying to get sunk in 40m of water, and he still wandered off and depth charge miles away from me.

[Bilge_Rat]

all those are bugs & bad design/graphic issues, that ultimately subtract from the enjoyment, for me.

my point was that out of the box, without having to remap the keys these are issues.

having the same conversation and no options for a conversation are not the same either.

my setup is xp, E8400, 4GB, 285 GTX (lastest driver), SSD.

win xp, vista or 7 ?

strange, I have a E8500, but your 285 GTX is more powerful than my 4890. Just trying to troubleshoot the graphic issues.

Do you have the same issues, i.e. 16, 17, 19 when you turn off shadows and turn off AA?

what is your FPS? (hit ctrl+f8 in game)

re: the clipping, i.e. issue 21, does it occur at 1x tc? I am wondering if it is linked to using TC and/or low FPS.

[Méo]

there's someone important in UBI who doesn't care about this series anymore, thats the truth.

I'm always amazed to see how easily people claim to hold the truth... (or know what is the truth).

[Onkel Neal]

Uh-oh, now Neal is basically saying he feels virtually the same way :o A damning indictment indeed! I haven't even got my copy yet!! Talk about 'lowering my expectations'!

No, I'm not saying anything other than thanking the OP for making his points with hysteria and hyperbole.

I do agree about the manual, it's very bad when you get it on PDF and some of the illustrations cannot be read, and it dedicated 5 pages to cheesy crewmen stories, but only 1/3 page to a very inept bit about actually sinking ships with torpedoes.

[tonyj]

Ok, fair point, I was over the top there. I am actually very disappointed that this game wasn't what I hoped. I'll be more careful with my wording in future.

[Méo]

Ok, fair point, I was over the top there. I am actually very disappointed that this game wasn't what I hoped. I'll be more careful with my wording in future.

No problem mate, anyone does mistakes. :up:

[tonyj]

I'm running xp, haven't tried without shadows so will give that a go tomoro. Will get fps too. Thx for the suggestions.

[Drifter]

you just cant beat a good, constructive post such as the one above:hmmm:

Oh please. What kind of response is that?

I'm afraid I have to agree with tonyj. SH5 is absolutely horrible in my opinion. Poor performance, one of the worst UI I have ever seen, very arcadish, not even a half-finished game. Totally, totally disappointed. I feel ripped-off.

[sav112]

As I said in a few posts I’ll buy this a year down the line, as this is just the usual stuff you get these days . The post with the destroyer wandering off when your surfaced was frightening to read.


For those who bought the game I hope the fix it soon and thanks for playing the game and bringing these many bugs to the attention of the forum.

[Laffertytig]

Oh please. What kind of response is that?

I'm afraid I have to agree with tonyj. SH5 is absolutely horrible in my opinion. Poor performance, one of the worst UI I have ever seen, very arcadish, not even a half-finished game. Totally, totally disappointed. I feel ripped-off.

oh i dunno, its the kinda response from a guy who remembers very well seing these exact kinda posts from people after SH2, SH3 and 4 were released:up:

and here we are at SH5. but then you probably wouldnt know these things judging by your newness round here.

anyways,

didnt i read some of your posts regarding how excited you were with the modding possibilities of SH5? maybe this game genre aint for you after all.

[jwilliams]

I've been buying computer games for over 25 years now. Got my first computer at age 10 (commodore vic 20).

I have never bought a game as unfinished as ubisofts silent hunter series (maybe I've just been lucky). but i have probitly bought over 300 games in my life time and the only unfinished ones i've seen are silent hunter games. Sure i've bought games with bugs, but nothing major. I cannot beleive that any company would release a game in such an unfinished state. If the game is not finished, then you delay it, sure you'll upset a few, but release unfinished you upset many.

Everyone keeps saying but its got potenial, patches and modders will finish it. THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE TO !!!

Thats like buying a book, but only the odd numbers have the print on them and telling you that maybe you might find the even pages online and download them youself, then add them to your book.

I'm sure that if any one bought a book like that you soon be returning it!!!

SH3 - I bought - A few problems, not too bad after patches... and is now really good after modders (thanks guys).

SH4 i never bought. Unfinished state put me off.

SH5 i want to buy... but OMG... dont know if i will now.

Ubisoft Dev's and Publisher really need some Quality Control systems put in place.

[grilldor]

i'm sorry chaps, i'm upset.

this game is really, really, and i mean really, bad. play sh3 and its a pleasure, makes sense and just works.

sh5 is shockingly bad. I honestly think they released this halfway through the dev cycle.

i thought i was disappointed with sh4 but this reaches a new low.

i'm sorry to complain people but i had to get this off my chest.

Im sorry but this guy has it right... I have the game and its totally unplayable and half-assed...

I really, really want my money back...

[CCIP]

SH4 i never bought. Unfinished state put me off.

SH5 i want to buy... but OMG... dont know if i will now.


Well, from the sounds of it...

If you want an updated uboat sim, do yourself a favour and get SHIV, download OM (or TMO or RFB if you want the US side), and enjoy that. It will give you loads of new features for months of good play that you're almost certainly missing out on. And months that you can afford to wait for SHV to get patched up...

Seriously, I'm not negative about SHV, but when you have a whole high-quality sim on this subject to still explore, it's your ticket to avoid temptation to SHV and enjoy some very good gameplay while SHV is in the dock.

[capthelm]

i'm sorry chaps, i'm upset.

this game is really, really, and i mean really, bad. play sh3 and its a pleasure, makes sense and just works.

sh5 is shockingly bad. I honestly think they released this halfway through the dev cycle.

i thought i was disappointed with sh4 but this reaches a new low.

i'm sorry to complain people but i had to get this off my chest.


bye then

[capthelm]

Im sorry but this guy has it right... I have the game and its totally unplayable and half-assed...

I really, really want my money back...


lmao

[janh]

I don't quite understand why people buy it so early on and complain now. With Ubi's history, couldn't you have foreseen how it would be?

SHIII was published with some significant game-play issues/bugs, but was reasonably playable out of the box without patching. At that time many people complained about an impression of an "unfinished product release" (and I am neither contradicting nor supporting this judgment here). It received several patches over time, and received much complaints that could have been avoided if it was published a few months later.

Now, my expectation was that Ubi would learn and that SHIV would have been published without such a public debacle repeating itself. But we all know what did happen. And how much Ubi cared in the end about customer opinion and complaints -- relative to the importance it puts on early generation of sales volume. Again, after a while and number of patches, it became quite playable as judged from the posts and modding activity here at subsim. I never bought it though -- the whole desaster at the beginning cost a lot of my interest in it, and eventually the posts at the forum here convinced me that it didn't add any really novel feature, so I stuck with SHIII-GWX. That might have been different if the release had been better previewed and reviewed, and not overshadowed by the "unfinished state impression".

Now, why don't people learn from that "history"? Who would have seriously bet on a much more complete, almost bug-free SHV release? Why would most of you not simply wait for a couple of month/year until the patching by Ubi is complete, and buy it when it is a finished product? What is the gain of getting it so early, what difference do a couple of month make for you?

[jwilliams]

Well, from the sounds of it...

If you want an updated uboat sim, do yourself a favour and get SHIV, download OM (or TMO or RFB if you want the US side), and enjoy that. It will give you loads of new features for months of good play that you're almost certainly missing out on. And months that you can afford to wait for SHV to get patched up...

Seriously, I'm not negative about SHV, but when you have a whole high-quality sim on this subject to still explore, it's your ticket to avoid temptation to SHV and enjoy some very good gameplay while SHV is in the dock.

No thanks, I'll stick with SH3 with mods. And If SH5 does show the potensial that everyone is saying it may have, then Sh5 will be mine.

Im itching to buy it now, just unsure atm.

So your surposed to say "buy it now all will be fine" lol :O:

But as no one knows for sure. ima wait for Neals review, keep reading this forum and then re-assess.

[CCIP]

Oh by all means, DON'T buy it now if you have legitimate concerns. I do this with almost any game - wait for reviews, if reviews cause questions, wait for patches. There are only 2 or 3 game series that I would buy instantly and without hesitation like this, SH certainly being one of them, but that's just my personal genre preference.

[Steeltrap]

Please show you with your Silent hunter 5 DVD disk , or you with your PC and the game running otherwise your opinions are not Valid and very suspicious
/

And who appointed you arbiter of whose views are 'valid' (whatever the hell that means)? Why don't you just call the poster a liar and be done with it, as that is what you've more or less accused them of.

I don't see the people writing cheery, "I love SH5" being accused of not having it.

So they think the game sucks. Tough **** to you. Get over it.

[Drifter]

I don't quite understand why people buy it so early on and complain now. With Ubi's history, couldn't you have foreseen how it would be?

SHIII was published with some significant game-play issues/bugs, but was reasonably playable out of the box without patching. At that time many people complained about an impression of an "unfinished product release" (and I am neither contradicting nor supporting this judgment here). It received several patches over time, and received much complaints that could have been avoided if it was published a few months later.

Now, my expectation was that Ubi would learn and that SHIV would have been published without such a public debacle repeating itself. But we all know what did happen. And how much Ubi cared in the end about customer opinion and complaints -- relative to the importance it puts on early generation of sales volume. Again, after a while and number of patches, it became quite playable as judged from the posts and modding activity here at subsim. I never bought it though -- the whole desaster at the beginning cost a lot of my interest in it, and eventually the posts at the forum here convinced me that it didn't add any really novel feature, so I stuck with SHIII-GWX. That might have been different if the release had been better previewed and reviewed, and not overshadowed by the "unfinished state impression".

Now, why don't people learn from that "history"? Who would have seriously bet on a much more complete, almost bug-free SHV release? Why would most of you not simply wait for a couple of month/year until the patching by Ubi is complete, and buy it when it is a finished product? What is the gain of getting it so early, what difference do a couple of month make for you?

You were smart to wait and not buy it. That is all I have to say.

[HundertzehnGustav]

all i hear is "let the modders finish it" "give it a year"

if UBI dont let the Devs finish it, what then? is it up to the customer to first FIX the obvious problems to level out the game value, and then , after a year of fiddling with the files, start the actual improving of the content?

?

bonkers?

Churchill: nuts?

[Steeltrap]

You were smart to wait and not buy it. That is all I have to say.

I have a principled disagreement with DRM. I have said more than once I won't buy it with DRM.

My not buying it doesn't have anything to do with quality. As an aside, I learned the 'quality' lesson with SH2, forgot it after waiting for SH3 and bought SH4 at release, so never again will I buy at release.

Cheers

[Steeltrap]

all i hear is "let the modders finish it" "give it a year"

if UBI dont let the Devs finish it, what then? is it up to the customer to first FIX the obvious problems to level out the game value, and then , after a year of fiddling with the files, start the actual improving of the content?

Welcome to the development approach of Creative Assembly and Total War series. They've been doing this for years and getting away with it as there are more than enough people happy to by any dross if it looks pretty.

[Nick Holden]

ok list of bugs then:

2) surface next to a destroyer 3 times, didn't notice me.


Do they notice you if you open fire on them? :yep:

[HundertzehnGustav]

Welcome to the development approach of Creative Assembly and Total War series. They've been doing this for years and getting away with it as there are more than enough people happy to by any dross if it looks pretty.


I mean, neal gave SHIII a thumbs up back in the day... but did it take a year to get it without major bugs?

At the risk of sounding like an asshool, but WHY do the modders do this kind of thing the producer is supposed to provide?

the community fixing things, and the mouth to mouth propaganda will generate more sales.

do the "file fiddlers" or "modders" see a penny of that? do they get a DRM free copy? do they get a gold copy of SH6?

damn!

[SimHq Tom Cofield]

Several reasons.

1. The company doesn't give the game developers enough time to do everything they want to do so the developer makes as much as they can and then tries to create a structure that others can build on.

2. People don't want to wait another six months to year to get some of the features in a game that they want. It is fine and dandy tallking about the spit and polish of a final game but you can't eat software. That and part one are big reasons games get released buggy. It isn't right, it isn't fair but it happens.

3. There is a big trend in games today of releasing a game at a certain date and then patching it later. With today's high speed connects it is a lot easier patching a game. IN the past you had to deal with the limitations that a 56k connect would pose but almost everyone today has a high speed connect.

4. A lot of what people want doesn't apply to what the developer had in mind. Lets face it, what I think would be cool may not be what the developer was thinking. Sometimes different people can look at the same box and come up with different ways of using it. A lot of these mods were never considered by the developers. The good thing is that the people that made this game actually encourage this kind of stuff.

[Onkel Neal]

I mean, neal gave SHIII a thumbs up back in the day... but did it take a year to get it without major bugs?

At the risk of sounding like an asshool, but WHY do the modders do this kind of thing the producer is supposed to provide?

the community fixing things, and the mouth to mouth propaganda will generate more sales.

do the "file fiddlers" or "modders" see a penny of that? do they get a DRM free copy? do they get a gold copy of SH6?

damn!


SH6 will be just an empty box, we can mod from there.

[CCIP]

this is only reflecting my own opinion , but personaly i think the bigest part of the blame should go to ubi-romania , nothing personaly agaisnt romania but i think they was bad codder and programer whit bad administration and all if you compare to the game made by ubi-montreal it day and night.

nothing against montreal, but when did ubi montreal make subsims? :88)

[Drifter]

I mean, neal gave SHIII a thumbs up back in the day... but did it take a year to get it without major bugs?

At the risk of sounding like an asshool, but WHY do the modders do this kind of thing the producer is supposed to provide?

the community fixing things, and the mouth to mouth propaganda will generate more sales.

do the "file fiddlers" or "modders" see a penny of that? do they get a DRM free copy? do they get a gold copy of SH6?

damn!

It's simple. They know the modders will pick up the slack of a rushed, broken and unfinished game. More profits for the publisher.

[Charlie901]

Some of the Devs are already posting that the Community Mods will address the things we are all yelling about...

In that case I sincerely hope the Modders also get some of the Devs profits!

[karamazovnew]

Some of the Devs are already posting that the Community Mods will address the things we are all yelling about...

In that case I sincerely hope the Modders also get some of the Devs profits!

Wowow, hold on there, they said things on the line of "we didn't put this and that because it wasn't part of our big picture". That's what modding is all about. BUT bugs are bugs and can not be fixed by the community. At the moment the game doesn't work right and it will be fixed by them. Once done it will be a better vanilla than SH3.

Sure we can say "why didn't they wait a few more months for it to be PERFECT?". Well, here's the game, wait for a few more months and it will be PERFECT. :haha:

[Vipper]

Wait a 3-5 years then, after patched and modded, play it...

[janh]

Yeah, too bad that Ubi keeps pushing the developers like this to publish games in what was years ago considered to be a beta state. They are basically pushing their own franchise series over the edge.

Modders shouldn't be needed to fix anything, and I think as before it is pretty safe to assume that at least bugs will be patched over time. Game design related things, like the more casual customer oriented arcade style will stay unless modders take care of that.

I guess that is where your decision as a customer comes into play once the game is in a finished state (after the last patch) -- is it something that looks enticing and suits your wishes, or not?

The interesting thought that is forced on me here is: If it requires modders to get this game both into a reasonable state (as compared to say a previous final release like SHIII, or IV) that a customer can expect, who should get what share of the sales price???? It can't but see the logic that everyone should get what he deserves for the efforts invested, and I always am impressed by the efforts put up by serious modders!

[frenema]

Why are people letting this kind of 'release it half-done then patch it later' practice of companies by buying their games unquestioningly? Why does this have to be something that is 'normal'? Does this mean people are also willing to wait for Toyota to mail them new brakes after 6 months of purchase?

[Turbografx]

Why are people letting this kind of 'release it half-done then patch it later' practice of companies by buying their games unquestioningly? Why does this have to be something that is 'normal'? Does this mean people are also willing to wait for Toyota to mail them new brakes after 6 months of purchase?


:know: Exactly.

You don't buy a couch and have them send you the cushions 3 months later.
You wouldn't buy a big mac, period. But if you did, you wouldn't expect to get the cheese 3 months later.


Why do we keep buying games that clearly aren't finished? So clearly, in fact, that they have a day one patch?

[Schunken]

Im only begging UBI for one thing:

Please, and even hell freeze.... do NOT buy Boeing or Airbus.......:damn:

(I fly every year 30.000 miles and only be 38 years old....)

Andreas

[Iron Budokan]

Why are people letting this kind of 'release it half-done then patch it later' practice of companies by buying their games unquestioningly?

"There's a sucker born every minute." --P.T. Barnum, showman extraordinaire.

[Immacolata]

i'm sorry chaps, i'm upset.

this game is really, really, and i mean really, bad. play sh3 and its a pleasure, makes sense and just works.

sh5 is shockingly bad. I honestly think they released this halfway through the dev cycle.

i thought i was disappointed with sh4 but this reaches a new low.

i'm sorry to complain people but i had to get this off my chest.

Why thank you. The personal pains you carry around are just what the rest of us needs. In fact, I think my day is improved 85% by you having to just get this off your chest. Don't hesitate to let it out another time, please.

[Nordmann]

Why are people letting this kind of 'release it half-done then patch it later' practice of companies by buying their games unquestioningly? Why does this have to be something that is 'normal'? Does this mean people are also willing to wait for Toyota to mail them new brakes after 6 months of purchase?

People are naive, they have expectations, which they assume will be accurate. When those expectations are not met, rather than admit disappointment, they try to kid themselves into believing that there is nothing wrong with the game, and that this is in fact exactly what they wanted in the first place.

There's no point trying to convince them otherwise, they'll just make snappy, sarcastic posts about negativity and lack of constructive critism, and go right on trying to convince themselves that it was the best 50 bucks they've ever spent.

[Turbografx]

Im only begging UBI for one thing:

Please, and even hell freeze.... do NOT buy Boeing or Airbus.......:damn:

(I fly every year 30.000 miles and only be 38 years old....)

Andreas


Lol:

"Here are your new A380 aircraft Air France.
Whats that? Where is the navigation system? Oh, we'll add that later. And the air filtration? That wasn't a priority at this time.
Yeah, I should take this time to mention that engines sometime cut out, but don't worry, we're working on it. Have fun!
Also, be aware that we'll be releasing an expansion kit in the near future that adds seat-belts and oxygen masks!"


There's no point trying to convince them otherwise, they'll just make snappy, sarcastic posts about negativity and lack of constructive critism, and go right on trying to convince themselves that it was the best 50 bucks they've ever spent.

BUT IT WAS THE BEST $60 I EVER SPENT!!!one!1

[Nisgeis]

People are naive, they have expectations, which they assume will be accurate. When those expectations are not met, rather than admit disappointment, they try to kid themselves into believing that there is nothing wrong with the game, and that this is in fact exactly what they wanted in the first place.

Just to clarify your position here, are you saying that all people are naive and are kidding themselves, or are you saying that only the people who say they are enjoying the game are naive and are kidding themselves? Because... there's a whole world of difference there. One point of view is baseless and the other point of view is equally as baseless. Oh, not so much of a difference after all! :DL. If only I were naive, I'd believe everything you said. Oh my God! I must not be a person! OH NO! But I guess this must be what I wanted in the first place... so I should be happy?

[DragonRR1]

There should be a disclaimer here.. perhaps:

“The users of these forums do not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of the users of these forums!”

There is so much bickering going on! Quite astonishing. Anyway..

Having finally got my hands on SH5 I am really surprised that it ran at all given the huge amount of negativity it has received here. Quite honestly I wouldn’t have bought it had I have checked these forums before today.

SH-IV was one of the buggiest games I’ve ever laid my hands on. Out of the box it ran in low resolution, it had crash bugs and around 100+ other major issues.

SH -V. Well, I should point out that all I’ve done is set off and sunk one British ship after the somewhat poor training “mission” and therefore accept that it would be unfair for me to give a reasonable opinion on the game as a whole. However based on my, so far, rather brief encounter with the game I have yet to see it crash, the graphics are excellent, considerably better than SH-IV, the game IS playable. The UI is actually quite good in places but seems unfinished on the main view screen it also feels, as others have said, a bit unauthentic but then I don’t think they had UIs in WW2 J The one enemy ship, a freighter, I came across (whilst I was running at full on the surface) behaved as you would expect, jinking and running away as fast as possible. I wasn’t plagued by constant air patrols as I was in SH-IV.. The only “bug” I saw was when I requested the deck gun to be manned. The order was accepted but no-one manned the gun. However the issue was that the order should have been refused since the sea was too rough. The game overall has many issues but I only know this because I’ve read these forums, not because I’ve “bugged out of the game” as a programmer friend of mine tends to put it. (Well not bugged out yet anyway!)

In essence. Anyone who thinks SH-V is more buggy than SH-IV is wearing the wrong coloured spectacles. The game has many flaws, hopefully with a couple of patches from the devs and modding from the community they will be fixed.

I think it cannot be overstated that the Silent Hunter is pitched at a niche market. The budget UBI allow is obviously too tight but I suppose it is based on expected sales. Whilst boycotting this product might achieve a bug free SH-VI I think it far more likely it will end the series altogether. Decent PC games are hard to come by these days nearly everything is a “dumbed down” console conversion, don’t even get me started on Supreme Commander 2! SH-V, imo, is better than SH-IV in its initial release and has the potential to be far greater.

Oh, the DRM situation is absolutely fing ridiculous, I’ve never seen copy protection this intrusive and designed, it would seem, to only infuriate paying customers! FIX IT UBI!

[Bilge_Rat]

ok list of bugs then:

1) hydrophone operator only has 2 options - nothing about following targets or sweeping. CCIP you added that via keyboard.
2) surface next to a destroyer 3 times, didn't notice me.
3) rammed by destroyer - no damage
4) men, keep rotating when talking to them
5) sub doesn't sit on the bottom, floats abt 5m above it - atleast shadow does
6) no auto target - manual leading??!? even on auto
7) can't tell chaps to leave deck gun
8) can't find amount of ammo i have left in deck gun
9) have 2 types of map - tactical and main map - bit confusing
10) going up and down ladders not easy
11) conversations don't work properly - same conversation
12) moral set to zero when reloading
13) can't find out about weather
14) sub on rails to some extent
15) shadows clipping badly
16) slow explosions
17) bad explosions animations - sometimes very very slow (have 285 gtx)
18) depth charge leaves no effect on surface
19) gunfire very slow, doesn't animate properly
20) not enough guys in sub
21) clipping issues with men
22) no way to find out heading
23) no morale after save means at high TC you die as it never drops out and destroyers kill you
24) some guys have no options when talking to them other than leaving dialog (map guy)

worst of all, the morale bug is crippling - equivalent of the 'A' CTD in sh4 as TC doesn't drop out and men refuse to do anything.

Dont know if that has been posted before, but saw this post at the Ubi forum from the Dev team which seems to directly address some of the points above:



05.03.2010


Surface next to a destroyer 3 times, didn't notice me.

The actual detection system is tuned on various parameters – light, fog, object size, etc. Based on the day / night conditions your crew cannot spot instantly the enemy ships all the time. We decided to make the scene illumination more friendly for player – there is no pitch black, the fog is not 100%, etc – unlike the crew AI who has all the penalties (realistic simulation). Also the current reporting officer is updating you every 1 minute (in the initial version there was 4 minutes, so this may let you believe they don’t do anything at all). The reason we decided to make crew report every minute, not every 5 seconds for example is because it can become annoying to listen to that guy reporting the same thing over and over.


No auto target .

Periscope has now two types of firing system. One manual where you need to determine the target speed, range, AOB, etc in order to find the solution and one where you need to estimate the torpedo trajectory by analyzing the map. Compare with the previous SH, where in auto-target mode you simply select-and-fire, now you actually need to estimate target course, based on the map information, watch target through periscope to see its speed and finally use your combat experience to predetermine torpedo trajectory.


Can't tell chaps to leave deck gun.

You can secure the deck gun by talking with the Watch Officer. You can find him either in the Crew Quarter or on the Bridge when the submarine is at surface.


Have 2 types of map - tactical and main map - bit confusing

Basically there is only 1 map with different functionality – tactical map is used when at battle stations and have specific information displayed on it, while the strategic map has different role and information displayed. While a bit confusing, it was necessarily to have this kind of separation, otherwise the map would have become clustered.


Not enough guys in sub

We have place in the sub only the guys at the current stations or doing maintenance activities on board of the submarine, which are around 20-25 guys. The other guys up to 40, are resting in the Crew Quarters. Having 40 guys in submarine would have made player movement and character interaction quite difficult.



Some guys have no options when talking to them other than leaving dialog (map guy).

You can discuss only with some guys on the submarine, specifically petty officers or officers. Also these guys have different dialogues only in some campaigns, and this is specific for each of them both in the numbers of options and campaign.



http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1121062387/m/8591082387/p/1

[Spartan]

On par or maybe worse than four; that is Ubi for you. :nope:
Always a money grab and always at the expense of the customers - not consumers. If you had any doubt about this concept the new DRM should be proof positive that you are not a consumer. :know:

I hope, really, really hope the new DRM scheme make Ubi tank as a company or at the very least cause a lot of executives lose their jobs. :yep:

I so wish the venerable and classic SH franchise was given to a far better company that respects PC gamers and puts out fairly well polished titles.

[MaciejK]

Hm....

So Kaleun cannot tell teh folks at the deck gun to leave it? he has to go and find the watch officer?

it is nuts.

[Commie]

Hi, new here and have to say that SH5 will be the last of these sims published and made by one of the big publishers. Ubisoft was always my favourite among the big ones because only they had persevered to publish and sometimes develop simulators when everyone else had abandoned them.

With Silent Hunter of course it was always on that borderline between staying alive and being cancelled. Let's face it, if Ubisoft didn't have a cheap resource to make it in Romania and instead had to rely on a western studio they would have given up after SH3. The continual decrepit state of the SH series when released also points to Ubisoft being loathe to get a new more costly developer to make the series, as they figure, rightly, that we (sub) simmers will be grateful with any half finished bug riddled product, that the talented among us will then use their time and energy into turning it into the game it should be. Ubisoft figured that since they have a virtual monopoly on sub sims these days, then they have no reason to increase the quality of its games.

Now with the DRM debacle, it seems to be doing what a stream of half finished games didn't: angering the sub sim community. This will probably end up killing off Silent Hunter, as from a small base, a few percentage points less sales will be enough for Ubisoft to pull the plug on this.

Maybe it will live on as some kind of action-sub game such as the H.A.W.X. thing, incidentally also from Romania.

Maybe they can call it S.U.B.Z.?

[guynoir]

Surface next to a destroyer 3 times, didn't notice me.

<.....> Also the current reporting officer is updating you every 1 minute (in the initial version there was 4 minutes, so this may let you believe they don’t do anything at all). The reason we decided to make crew report every minute, not every 5 seconds for example is because it can become annoying to listen to that guy reporting the same thing over and over.

I wonder why they'd hard-code time intervals like this? Why not have the reporting guy announce negatives every minute (or four) but report positives immediately...

It doesn't make sense to surface next to a destroyer 2 seconds after the last report and have to wait 58 more seconds for the next report to roll around. :hmmm:

[SteamWake]

Hm....

So Kaleun cannot tell teh folks at the deck gun to leave it? he has to go and find the watch officer?

it is nuts.

I just dive with them out there... thatll teach them !

[Omnissiah]

Maybe it will live on as some kind of action-sub game such as the H.A.W.X. thing, incidentally also from Romania.

Maybe they can call it S.U.B.Z.?



This would be funnier if it didn't have such a ring of truth to it...

[popcorn2721]

I've been buying computer games for over 25 years now. Got my first computer at age 10 (commodore vic 20).

I have never bought a game as unfinished as ubisofts silent hunter series (maybe I've just been lucky). but i have probitly bought over 300 games in my life time and the only unfinished ones i've seen are silent hunter games. Sure i've bought games with bugs, but nothing major. I cannot beleive that any company would release a game in such an unfinished state. If the game is not finished, then you delay it, sure you'll upset a few, but release unfinished you upset many.

Everyone keeps saying but its got potenial, patches and modders will finish it. THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE TO !!!

Thats like buying a book, but only the odd numbers have the print on them and telling you that maybe you might find the even pages online and download them youself, then add them to your book.

I'm sure that if any one bought a book like that you soon be returning it!!!

SH3 - I bought - A few problems, not too bad after patches... and is now really good after modders (thanks guys).

SH4 i never bought. Unfinished state put me off.

SH5 i want to buy... but OMG... dont know if i will now.

Ubisoft Dev's and Publisher really need some Quality Control systems put in place.
Thats Funny, my first puter was a VIC 20 too, then a TRS80 from radio shack (guess our age is showing a bit eh, mate?).
Being an avid gamer myself I have to say that I was disappointed to the point of shelving my copy of SH4 when I purchased it. If these companies cannot produce a quality product that is able to be played without "fixing" or "further development by people who are not going to get paid" they should turn over the keys to the engine so the hard core modders could at the very least create something that might make some of the time invested give them a bit of a return. Myself, Im just sick of playing broken half finished games (not just UBI although they are now one of the major offenders).
No, I wont be buying this anytime soon... and unless they get around the DRM, I probably wont ever have this on my hard drive.

On another note, I found out that many of the people who were involved with Mercincos Rouge Warrior game were promptly sacked after its release. I wonder if UBI is holding its DEV team likewise accountable?

[NightCrawler53]

Let me tell everyone here I have been a Silent Hunter fan for many, many years since the original. The only game I do not have is SHIII, and I currently play SH4 on a regular basis, and I thoroughly enjoy the gameplay in it. I have recently download the expansion pack "U-Boat Missions", but have yet to install or play it. Am very much looking forward to the new expansion pack.

But for Silent Hunter 5, I was going to purchase it last Friday through D2D, but got sidetracked with other responsibilities. All I can say right now is Thank Goodness that I did not. I knew about Ubisoft's new DRM, but did not think that SH5 was going to have it, but since it does and the problems that the authentication servers have had this past weekend, that killed that purchase order real quick. They have just lost a loyal customer, and I hear more players thinks the same as I do. I have known some have already took the game back and have actually recieved refunds for their game.

All I can say, Ubisoft RIP for killing the Silent Hunter Series for me anyway.:down:

[Immacolata]

Wait a 3-5 years then, after patched and modded, play it...

But that is not perfect. Remember, modding is all about evolution. I think it is not kind to view the SH5 product as inherently flawed. SH5 represents a vision. Bugs be bugs, yes. But some aspects are left out or simplified for some reasons or other.

Modders flavour the vision, sometimes changes it. And they also develop additions. So they perfect it to THEIR kind of vision - and perhaps the one that many other people share and enjoy. But do not assume by default that the stock game is wrong, that is quite harsh.