SH3 and SH4

[xptical]

Hi all,

This may be the wrong place to ask, but I bought both SH3 and SH4 (and the expansion) from Steam. I've mostly been playing SH3, but I'm thinking of giving SH4 a shot.

What are the differences between the two sims? What does SH4 improve on? In what ways is SH3 better? Or are they really the same sim in different settings?

[Fincuan]

You probably couldn't find a better place to ask, but you're a bit out of luck with the answer. That question has been debated several times here, a search will no doubt turn out lots of these threads, and as one can guess without ever reaching a conclusion. Ask it on the SH3-board and not surprisingly most people will say SH3, ask it on SH4-board and the answer will be SH4. Some like the mom while others prefer the daughter.

In this case you have the opportunity of trying them both out, somewhat of a rare situation in real life, so I suggest you use it and see for yourself :D

[xptical]

I'm on my laptop right now. SH3 seems to run better. It loads fast and, even with the HiRes mod, I get better framerates.

Although, I have heard that GWX will absolutely kill load times...


I don't think it's really that rare to have the option to try both. As a pack, it's currently $30 on Steam. I had both games in the boxed version as well. But I re-bought them on Steam because I prefer not having to deal with CDROM installs...

[pickinthebanjo]

Well I personally can't stand SH4, but don't let that steer you away (I'm just odd like that) it's still alright. I liked the fact that it's a whole new campaign, I didn't like playing as an american sub (I think you can use U-boat in expansion)
also I hated the stock GUI and the menu's.

I remember that my first "patrol" was to head into tokyo(?) harbor and drop someone off, then my second was to photograph a harbor. I ended up finding a convoy and firing 6 torpedoes into 6 different ships. They were solid hits but they all kept going and I didn't even get pinged.

In short, I prefer the campaigns in SH3 GWX3 once the right mods are applied.

I actually wouldn't mind trying SH5, but if everyone else said it has problems I would imagine I wouldn't be any different.

[Phantom II]

SH3 = Older, therefore has much more polished mods, most of the problems are fixed by said mods/updates. Being old is also its disadvantage though. Max resolution is 1280x1024, which was fairly small even when the game came out. Graphically its still nice.

Oh, and it has U-Boats in the Atlantic, which is always a guaranteed winning formula. Game is very difficult and challenging since the Germans were historically the underdogs.

This makes the game a lot more fun to play, and it can get very tense sometimes.



SH4 = Newer, fewer mods, more bugs. I guess the developers tried to streamline the game a bit to make it more accessible, but I personally prefer SH3's interface. Some nice graphical features (like post-processing, etc) has high res and wide screen support.

As far as the setting goes, its set in the Pacific Theatre of Operations, which means you get to play with American Fleet Boats. A lot of people don't like this, I personally do (I have since SH1).

Also due to it being newer, it has higher system requirements, but most decent systems today should be able to run all settings on full without any problems.

Unfortunately it seems as if Ubi basically started working on SH5, and hence stopped developing patches for SH4 far too early, since as I said before, it has a lot of bugs which will probably never get fixed.


Verdict: I would love to give SH4 a try with some of the mods (RFB, TMO) but I'm having trouble getting it all to work flawlessly, but I am really spoiled with SH3 and the excellent job the guys have done with GWX3.0, if only it had high resolution, I'd be totally set with SH3.

[xptical]

I used this with SH3: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=1092

I have it running at 1440*900 and it looks great.


SH3 does feel really polished. I love SH3 Commander and I'm sure I'll love GWX once I install it. I'll probably wipe my install tonight and patch a new install with GWX tomorrow...

[Phantom II]

I used this with SH3: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=1092

I have it running at 1440*900 and it looks great.


SH3 does feel really polished. I love SH3 Commander and I'm sure I'll love GWX once I install it. I'll probably wipe my install tonight and patch a new install with GWX tomorrow...

Um that just stretches it.

[Snestorm]

SH3 goes from easy, to nearly impossible, as the war progresses.

SH4 goes from easy, to easier, as the war progresses.

If you prefer a challenge SH3 is the way to go.
If you prefer things to get less challenging as you go, play SH4.

[Weiss Pinguin]

I started off playing SH4, but since I haven't been able to play more than a little bit since my computer is old, for me SH4 still has that kind of 'mysterious' appeal, I guess. Other reasons are that, well, I'm American, and my grandfather served in the USN as a submariner. (Not that I like SH3 anyless because of all that, but SH4 holds more appeal for those reasons)

Gameplay wise, one thing I definitely think is improved since SH3 is
AUTOMATIC CREW MANAGEMENT

but aside from that I can't really say much else about it, aside from the fact that it looks gorgeous.

SH3 definitely has some well-polished mods, and as everyone else has said, the challenge goes up as the war goes on.

[Fincuan]

I see lot's of people haven't updated their views on SH4 very recently, so here's an extremely quick refresher on what has happened during the last two years. I'm naturally talking about a modded game here.

U-boats are now featured, with most of the models playable and a world-wide campaign. An "AOB Finder" similar to that of OLC is also featured. U-boat expansion from Ubi brought us the framework and modders did the rest. Those who wan't their asses majorly kicked can do so again :arrgh!:
Plenty of playable surface ships have appeared, something which I haven't touched much so I can't comment more on it. Nuke subs go to the same category.
The game has been patched to a somewhat working status, and then abandonded. Bug-wise I'd say it's in a slightly better shape than SH3.
The "supermods", and mods in general, have matured a lot.
It's definitely not easy anymore.

[KL-alfman]

thx for the update! :up:

I really look forward to install SH4 when I'll get my new game-rig. the graphics seem to be of high-quality and I'm happy that the super-mods increased difficulty and game-play.

[Phantom II]

I used this with SH3: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=1092

I have it running at 1440*900 and it looks great.


SH3 does feel really polished. I love SH3 Commander and I'm sure I'll love GWX once I install it. I'll probably wipe my install tonight and patch a new install with GWX tomorrow...

Pro-tip to any prospective SH4 owners: Don't get the Steam version, its absolute ****house. As soon as you install mods, Steam will try to update it back to its vanilla state, even when you turn automatic updates off, causing massive corruption, etc.

[pickinthebanjo]

I see lot's of people haven't updated their views on SH4 very recently, so here's an extremely quick refresher on what has happened during the last two years. I'm naturally talking about a modded game here.

U-boats are now featured, with most of the models playable and a world-wide campaign. An "AOB Finder" similar to that of OLC is also featured. U-boat expansion from Ubi brought us the framework and modders did the rest. Those who wan't their asses majorly kicked can do so again :arrgh!:
Plenty of playable surface ships have appeared, something which I haven't touched much so I can't comment more on it. Nuke subs go to the same category.
The game has been patched to a somewhat working status, and then abandonded. Bug-wise I'd say it's in a slightly better shape than SH3.
The "supermods", and mods in general, have matured a lot.
It's definitely not easy anymore.


I'm actually re-installing it and giving it another try

[Sailor Steve]

What does SH4 improve on?
Graphics are better. Crew manage themselves for the most part. If you play 1.5 with the U-Boat add-on you get latitude and longitude and Kriegsmarine grids, right down to the 4-digit sub-grid. Battle Stations puts more men in the compartments.

In what ways is SH3 better?
SH3 has five years of modding behind it. The only place where SH4 is still lacking is in the graphics mods. The harbors are not as fleshed out (at least on the U-boat side - the Pacific has had more work done to it) and some of the SH3 supermods add things that haven't yet been put into SH4.

[Phantom II]

That and the fact that there are some pretty persistent bugs still in SH4 that have been around since release. (Submerging bridge crew, damage control crews not working until you save and reload, the CO2 bug, just to name a few)

[Flopper]

Pro-tip to any prospective SH4 owners: Don't get the Steam version, its absolute ****house. As soon as you install mods, Steam will try to update it back to its vanilla state, even when you turn automatic updates off, causing massive corruption, etc.

I've not had this happen to me.

[Flopper]

An "AOB Finder" similar to that of OLC is also featured.
Where, please?

[Fincuan]

Where, please?

Here
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=152590

Although what you'll want to get is
Operation Monsun
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=134922

and the environmental and graphics update for that, which includes the new interface:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=158764