AOTD Revisit

[KriegsMarine]

Kaleuns, Guten Morgen !

I've got a copy of the good old AOTD which contains a multimedia CD these days. This pearl runs darn smooth when using the Dosbox and gives me great pleasure of the Happy Times of the Battle of the Atlantic. The multimedia CD contains some precious U-boat aces interview clips (including the Silent Otto and the skipper of Red Devil) and some great submarine history and tactics readings which deeply enhance the immersion. So IMHO, I think the old gem still rocks and in some way some aspects of the simulation of the U-boat warfare are better than that of the vanilla SH3. In spite of the obsolete graphics, AOTD really grasps the soul and spirits of the U-boat warfare. And definitely we could say that the SH3 actually is the spiritual successor of the AOTD and by far the best U-boat simulator. By comparison I've found some great Mega Mods did put some marvellous traits of the AOTD into the SH3 (say GWX, WAC, NYGM, etc ... ), which really improved the atmosphere and gaves us more immersion. Thanx! dev teams. And hopefully the active modding of SH3 will not halt :Kaleun_Salute:

[Sailor Steve]

I have a copy of both Aces Of The Deep and Command: Aces Of The Deep. There is a little difference between the two, but not enough to really matter. Both are still a real blast to play, though I'm a sucker for SHIII's graphics and feel. I would love to see an AOTD 2 with updated graphics and the original's gameplay.

[KriegsMarine]

I would love to see an AOTD 2 with updated graphics and the original's gameplay.

Sir, I totally agree with you. But as far as the recent submarine simulation dev situations are concerned, I don't feel very optimistic about the development of
any new WWII submarine simulations these days cuz the audience is pretty small hence there won't be a big market for the companies. And since the failure of SH5 of Ubisoft, there has been no new WWII sub sim on the market. So I guess the AOTD 2 with modern fancy graphics won't appear on the market in the near future, which is a sad thing for us sub fans. And due to some code limitations, some great sub sims such like SH3 or SH4 still couldn't be well modified as immersive in respect of gameplay as the old AOTD, though we got some pretty decent Mega Mods. Now all we could do is just go back now and then with the good old AOTD or CAOTD to enjoy the wolfpack tactics and hilarious night surface attacks on the chilly gloomy north Atlantic regardless of the obsolete graphics,

[John Pancoast]

Agreed. I still play it regularly. In many ways, I consider it far superior to SH3 in any form.

That's not to say I also don't enjoy SH3 nor obviously the work done in modding SH3 isn't appreciated.

[KriegsMarine]

In many ways, I consider it far superior to SH3 in any form.

Yeah, especially the u-boat coordinated attack and the sophisticated radio communication system which give you tremendous immersion so that you really feel like you are one of the German Ubootewaffe. BTW I'm not a big fan of manual topedo targeting, and most of the time I put the job to my trustworthy First Watch Officer. So no manual targeting is not a big problem to me, instead the obsolete graphics is (which is the only complaint of that gem). But this gem is really old enough so we shouldn't ask too much.

When I play the SH3 w/wo the mods, I always like to employ the standard tactics which I used in AOTD, some worked well ,but some didn't work at all. I 'm a big fan of the night surface attack inside the big fat convoy early in the war (just like the silent Otto of U-99 did), but you could not employ the same tactics in the SH3 even at a very early stage of the war. You will always get caught in the convoy even it's dark like the pea soup, which in my opinion is not very historically acurrate.

[John Pancoast]

In many ways, I consider it far superior to SH3 in any form.Yeah, especially the u-boat coordinated attack and the sophisticated radio communication system which give you tremendous immersion so that you really feel like you are one of the German Ubootewaffe. BTW I'm not a big fan of manual topedo targeting, and most of the time I put the job to my trustworthy First Watch Officer. So no manual targeting is not a big problem to me, instead the obsolete graphics is (which is the only complaint of that gem). But this gem is really old enough so we shouldn't ask too much.

When I play the SH3 w/wo the mods, I always like to employ the standard tactics which I used in AOTD, some worked well ,but some didn't work at all. I 'm a big fan of the night surface attack inside the big fat convoy early in the war (just like the silent Otto of U-99 did), but you could not employ the same tactics in the SH3 even at a very early stage of the war. You will always get caught in the convoy even it's dark like the pea soup, which in my opinion is not very historically acurrate.




There's a lot of SH3 AI behavoir that doesn't try to mimic reality, some not even close, i.e. the escorts.

I have no idea is if this is the truth or not, but to me AOD seems to have been developed by people who had a genuine interest and/or some knowledge of the subject, whereas vanilla SH3 doesn't seem that way.

[Pisces]

I would love to see an AOTD 2 with updated graphics and the original's gameplay.

Sir, I totally agree with you. But as far as the recent submarine simulation dev situations are concerned, I don't feel very optimistic about the development of
any new WWII submarine simulations these days cuz the audience is pretty small hence there won't be a big market for the companies. And since the failure of SH5 of Ubisoft, there has been no new WWII sub sim on the market. ...While it may not be a direct comparison to AOTD I gather that you have not seen the Wolfpack thread at the very top of the Forum. It's development is supported by our very own Onkel Neal. It's MP oriented but certainly playable alone. Still early access so 'mission content'-wise not abundant. No campaign mode thus far. But that may be in the future somehow.

[KriegsMarine]

While it may not be a direct comparison to AOTD I gather that you have not seen the Wolfpack thread at the very top of the Forum. It's development is supported by our very own Onkel Neal. It's MP oriented but certainly playable alone. Still early access so 'mission content'-wise not abundant. No campaign mode thus far. But that may be in the future somehow.

Yup, I've noticed the game Wolfpack and I truely believe that this pearl will shine brightly in the future. But as far as the feeling and atmosphere are concerned so far I still prefer Silent Hunter III as the direct spiritual successor of the AOTD. And with some decent gameplay mods SH3 is still the king of u-boot simulator in my heart.