SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - *** Official SH4 patch 1.3 Update straight from the horse's mouth ***

Minsc's Bug Summary with Ratings

I'm going to start with the dev's bug list, then everyone else's suggestion, and put my opinion of the Rating on a scale of 1 to 10 with an explanation and throw it out there for everyone to consider. I've only gotten through the first three pages of posts so far, and haven't re-sorted the list according to the ratings yet (so it's still in thread-order.)

Please do not be offended if I give your bug a low rating. I believe we only have the opportunity to fix a small handful of bugs so the purpose is to find those key bugs that will enable us to play, not to disrespect anyone.

First I'll get these two out of the way:

* Chronometer overhaul
Rating: 10/10 - Seems like everyone wants this with few exceptions.

* 1280x720 support
Rating: 3/10 - Just to show my rating system is fair, since this is my pet bug that I really, really want fixed. Really. But that doesn't change the fact that it's still a 3.

Now the Dev's buglist:

* Eliminate the instances where the player gets assigned the same mission multiple times, even though the game is meant to give you variety and different missions, of course depending on historical context
Rating: 8/10 - Repeating things are frustrating and can cause people to stop playing forever.

* Solve a small conversion error with the stadimeter when using “imperial system” for in-game data display.
Rating: 5/10 - Historical accuracy issue - the workaround is "don't use imperial" which only affects historical accuracy, therefore this is low priority. I'm sure that will be a controversial statement. Metric works fine, game is playable without this fix, there are bigger targets that need work. Unless there is a full commitment to have consistent Imperial measurements throughout the entire game interface, don't bother. However if this is a tiny fix, then it can probably make it in anyway without distracting from anything, but I'm just trying to make a point about priorities here.

* Add an “assisted method” to determine the target’s speed when playing with the manual targeting option set to “ON”, to simulate the firing party putting together subsequent range checks from the captain.
Rating: 10/10 - Obviously a lot of chatter about speed measurement. I assume this is the same as just fixing the Chronometer so that you can click it, wait, click again, and it will get sent to the TDC.

* Recheck all ship dimensions in the game config files to solve errors in target range calculations
Rating 9/10 - Anything that causes you to miss when you spend half an hour setting up a shot is high priority in my opinion.

* The submarine radars (SD, SJ) should work consistently and detect targets in all appropriate circumstances
Rating 8/10 - Quite important, any core function of the sub should work as expected. Should be combined with the necessary fixes to make the game GUI radar screens actually show the targets rather than just verbal reports (I assume this is part of what they're talking about fixing.)

* The players career is ended sometimes by high command, for inaccurate reasons such as perfectly good and new submarines being retired from frontline duty. This will be sorted out to work as intended.
Rating 10/10 - Career ending bugs are bad.

* Multiple AI improvements

* The Group AI should always choose a new commander when the current one gets killed, instead of waiting for the currently assigned one and having all ships circle around
Rating: 9/10 - The moment enemies stop moving and fighting back, there is no game.

* Destroyers should take into account the estimated depth of their targets and sinking time of depth charges when deciding the dropping point, while remaining human-like and prone to error
Rating: 9/10 - I don't know if this is because they're too accurate or not accurate enough. Still a high priority since the enemy AI is generally pretty dumb most of the time, so anything to make it more realistic (while not necessarily a lot tougher) is good.

* AI and submarine sensors will be tuned for more realistic performance
Rating: ?/10 - I really don't know what this means.

* AI units will now take notice of nearby ships being destroyed even when there is not a trace of the attacker
Rating: 8/10 - Dumb AI is bad.

* Several ships classes (for example Japanese Sub-chaser and the Akizuki class) will have improved firing arc definitions that make them a more realistic and deadly opponent in gun duels
Rating: 7/10 - Dumb AI is bad, but this is only two ship classes out of many. Still a 7 though.

* Improve the “Realistic sound speed simulation” to eliminate sound effects cutting when the player is moving around with the external camera
Rating: 4/10 - Seems like there are bigger issues, and this is not even a feature most games even come close to doing. Hard to say how much immersiveness this adds - I've tried both ways and just don't notice anything signficantly different, sorry, I think there's bigger stuff to chase.

* Improvements will be made to the Sonar and Radar stations to make them more user friendly
Rating: 8/10 - Core sub functions should work generally as expected.

* The Submarine upgrade screen will be improved to present the relative merits of various torpedoes and systems that are available to the player.
Rating: 2/10 - Put it on a webpage, no need to waste dev time on this.

* Sampans and other such vessels will no longer be detected by Hydrophone
Rating: 6/10 - Minor violations of the laws of physics that don't have a seriously detrimental impact aren't too high of a priority, but are >5 since they can be jarring and the annoyance factor is quite high.

* Players crossing the International Date Line should not lose their map torpedoes silhouettes
Rating: 7/10 - Sounds like a fairly nasty, game stopping issue. Is there a workround of just save & reload? If so then it's maybe a 6/10

* The Torpedo Bearing Transmitter screen and all interfaces should display correctly on all resolutions
Rating: 8/10 - Consistency across resolutions is important

* Colorado class battleships will be added to the game
Rating: 1/10 - Not critical, seems to only be done to appease upset players. The best way to appease them is to fix high priority bugs.

So, out of the gate overall we have a pretty good bug set with most having high priority with only a few exceptions. Now let's move on to the player reponses from the thread:

* the lack of a watchman to help us track targets
Rating: 4/10 - If you're not sure if it's intentional or not, it can't be all bad

* behavior of the sub in heavy seas (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...&postcount=483)
Rating: 3/10 - Minor violations in graphics or the laws of physics that don't severely affect gameplay cannot have priority over other game stopping issues

* The switch that sets the torpedo to Directional Contact or Contact seems to be reversed and it flips back to its default position all the time. Rather annoying feature.
Rating: 8/10 - Can seriously screw up a torp shot you've spent a lot of time setting up. Generally anything that messes up shots is high priority in my book.

* if the pressure hull is damaged the player has no way of knowing until the submarine sinks!
Rating: 8/10 - Damage management still seems pretty bad overall so this needs attention

* collision damage between a sub and a DD or other ship (DD usually blows up), especially since destroyers will intentionally try to ram subs
Rating: 6/10 - Relatively seldom occurence compared to the rest of the game. Exploitation is not an issue except in multiplayer which is very low priority overall IMHO.

* Overly fast sub sinking, from even light to moderate flooding. A leak should not be an automatic ticket to the bottom. Wait for the flooding to get out of control -before- making depth control a lost cause. IMO this is a LARGE part of the frustration with damage control.
Rating: 8/10 - If you're right and this really is the root cause of much of the frustration of damage control, then you might be on to something, and since damage control overall seems to suck, any attention it gets is good.

* On the Bow-plane note. They do sometimes get jammed/collide with the hydraulic arms...graphic bug!
Rating: 5/10 - Graphical anomalies only which do not affect gameplay are low priority, sorry. This is a little higher than some other since it's been seconded by other and seems to have a pretty high annoyance factor

* That calculation error in the Possion Keeper is repeted in Sonar range reports as well
Rating: 8/10 - Not too familiar with this but, as I've repeated, core functions and tools of the ship should work as expected.

* flashes when topside, as if all the graphics blank out for a second. And only while on the bridge.
Rating: 2/10 - Any bug that fixes itself after 1 second, is graphical only, and does not affect gameplay is low priority, sorry

* the camera in the conning tower tilts the opposite of the motion of the boat
Rating: 2/10 - Factoring in LukeFF's comment and then HeartC's comment, if it really isn't hurting the functionality of the equipment and thus not truly affecting the gameplay, then it is categorized as a graphical anomaly and thus low rating.

* CTDs
Rating: 10/10 - CTDs are bad, mmkay. Any time spent increasing stability, hunting down known crash bugs is time well spent.

* Convoys no longer coming to a stop (or about 1 kts speed) once a ship has been torpedoed
Rating: 7/10 - Might be a good reason for this, I don't know. I almost rated this as ?/10. But I'd generally agree that things are pretty easy after that first hit and it could use some work.

* CAN WE PLEASE HAVE OUR HYDROPHONE BACK?
Rating: 8/10 - Last I checked, home/end worked from the hydro station and you could listen to the sounds just fine. However, I have noticed in 1.2 that there can be moving ships just feet away that the hydro doesn't pick up, even with the sub at 0 speed. Core functions of the sub should work as expected.

* any chance of adding some 'biologics' to the sound files
Rating: 1/10 - Pet feature request

* Interaction with the crew (via mouseclick like SH3)
Rating: 3/10 - A non-gameplay feature request but something many people have expressed a desire to have. The lack has been mentioned in some reviews. Still, lower priority than gameplay killing bugs.

* aircraft AI (they collide in air, crash into sea...), also B.) the flightpaths I've seen aircraft take on a few occasions... bouncing a hundred feet or so vertically
Rating: 6/10 - They seem to shoot back OK and generally stay in the air. I've spent a lot of time against planes and they do swoop and climb a bit much, and while not realistic, not game killing

* hidden damage to sub (not shown in repair screen)
Rating: 8/10 - Damage control generally sucks, needs work, high annoyance factor

* torpedoes sometimes do net get reloaded using refit
Rating: 9/10 - Game halting bug (unless there's any workaround, which is pretty acceptable given that a refit is usually a peaceful moment, so save/reload or something isn't that bad)

* Reassigned homeport not reported
Rating: 6/10 - Kind of annoying but keeps you on your toes :)

* Torpedo settings reset after some time
Rating: 7/10 - Anything that screws up a shot is bad.

* Realism settings not applied to career mode (on startup career screen)
Rating: 1/10 - Simple workaround already that everybody knows - use the in-career realism adjustment.

* Ship spotted" shout by crew when spotting lifeboats
Rating: 3/10 - Dumb bug but not game killing

* Tie deck gun to the same pitch and roll as the TBT when set that way in difficulty levels.
Rating: 6/10 - I get it now. This is related to maintaining realism but the deck gun is still usable (albeit easier than you would like) so I give it a 6.

* Add AI true zig-zag support instead of only "constant helms" once an attack has happened
Rating: 4/10 - I get it now, but it still seems like you're primarily asking for this in the mission editor. Which means it doesn't affect the general playerbase who will never play custom missions and just want to play the game. Now, you also indicate that real ships zig-zagged in RL attack scenarios but my impression is that this is not significantly different than constant helming when the computer AI is handling all of that and you're watching it all from a fuzzy periscope a thousand feet away. Once the crap hits the fan things usually get crazy anyway so whether they zig first or zag first and by what degrees or whatever, I still have to aim at ships that are now moving erratically while being shot at by destroyers. Nitpicking over the historical accuracy of the erratic movement seems like just nitpicking, sorry. I have to be extremely conservative with my high ratings since I'm trying to draw attention to the game killing bugs, of which only some will probably get patched and that will be the end of SH4 development.

* Can we get the ability to make notes on the map, as stated in the manual
Rating: 6/10 - Not delivering something the manual says you can do is unprofessional, and this would be pretty useful.

* It has been reported that when your sub is sunk, you are somehow rescued and either courtmarshalled or go on to live a happy life Stateside
Rating: 5/10 - Agree this shouldn't happen, but not a serious issue. After all, the game is about the experience you have while actually playing, not the experience you have when you're not playing.

* range markings on the deck gun should be given in yards, not meters
Rating: 5/10 - Equal with the stadimeter imperial conversion bug. If you're going to fix any, fix them all, otherwise there's no point.

* remove the ranks of Senior Chief Petty Officer and Master Chief Petty Officer. They didn't exist until 1958
Rating: 5/10 - Historical inaccuracies are unimportant for gameplay, but should be extremely easy to do so I bump the rating up. Still, I prefer to focus attention on game crippling bugs.

* lifeboats and liferafts should not be detectable by hydrophone
Rating: 6/10 - Same as Sampan bug above, already covered

* inflatable boats scraping the hull of your sub make the screeching metal collision sounds
Rating: 4/10 - Really weird and annoying (some might say humerous!), ultimately not too serious.

* command to track the nearest sound contact works properly - currently it can be turned on, but it can't be turned off
Rating: 7/10 - Core sub functions, tools, crew abilities should work as expected

* command to track nearest warship contact
Rating: 5/10 - Since it was present before, should be here, but it's really a feature addition

* Spatial issues. Imperial measurements and ship dimensions need to be fixed. If the recognition manual says that a ship has a 15 foot draft, then the ship I'm shooting at better have a 15 foot draft, and the torpedo settings wheel better be in Imperial! I was raised with metric, but this game should really be playable in Imperial.
Rating: 6/10 - You don't generally measure a ship size by its draft, do you? If so, then the Imperial issues are hurting ability to set up shots, and maybe they do need a higher priority. I also agree that if they're going to work on any Imperial bugs, they need to fix them all, and there are a hell of a lot.

* sound issue bug. When using high TC then after a while this sound isasue starts. If I save the game and then start from that save, this sound issue dissapear for a while, but the comes back after using high TC
Rating: 2/10 - Sounds computer-specific and it doesn't really say what the "sound issue" is exactly. Repeating? Too loud? French?

* Another bug is if your conningtower gets damaged and then repaired, the crew still gets hurt when assigned to the bridge
Rating: 9/10 - Crew getting hurt after assigned to repaired stations is ludicrous, along with a lot of the damage control issues. Should be fixed

* The submarine needs to be flipped by 180deg with respect to the 3d sound engine. Also, This visual effect is backwards as well as the sound from the engines.
Rating: 7/10 - Can be disorienting/confusing, high annoyance factor for many people, hurts the game terribly when something is 180 degrees from where your senses tell you it is.

* a better indication of pressure hull integrity.
Rating: 6/10 - Only as high as 6 since it's DC related which is a mess overall, but one of the lower priority DC issues probably.

* When taking damage some of the men turn black
Rating: 2/10 - Admittedly low priority by submitter. Not game killing. In fact, it actually resolves the bug someone else reported that there are no African-American sailors :)

* The horizon sometimes has what looks like tracer bullets running along it back and forth in calm seas
Rating: 2/10 - Admittedly low priority by submitter

* LCD 1280x1024 and 1024x768 with AA, hydraphone dials are severely blurry
Rating: 7/10 - Worth attention, lots of LCDs out there. But should be abandoned quickly if it can't be easily reproduced by dev team.

* Restoring save games does not resume speed and other settings
Rating: 8/10 - I just remembered this one and decided to throw it in. A bit annoying and can sometimes get you killed by slowing down a dive.

* There's been a few times too when loading a save it seems like I'm taking damage, and then there're time when i'm taking damage when nothing is going on
Rating: 6/10 - Hard to reproduce, DC related though so it's kind of high

* I was playing recently and watching my torpedoes hit the enemy ships in the external cam. As soon as I saw and heard the explosions (viewpoint close to the impact) the crewmember immediately announced "torpedo impact" while the sub was a good distance away
Rating: 1/10 - Seems low priority

* When manning AA guns in first person, the conning tower tub blocks shooters view when aiming in the 90 & 270 degree ranges. There seems to be video clipping where you end up outside the tub and it blocks your view of the incomming target. Also, the AAA clipping bug when you're manning the gun and turn the surrounding structure blocks your view
Rating: 7/10 - Seemingly minor since it's graphical but hurts ability to fight in critical situations, and has the bonus of violating physics and generally looking bad

* option in settings to turn this "retiring" completly OFF
Rating: 6/10 - Somewhat of a game-killing feature, not everyone can invest their whole life. All of my work and accomplishment should not be so easily undone and forced to start from scratch except for the most severe of reasons.

* Action camera doesn't appear in Career
Rating: ?/10 - I think this is just the realism settings not being applied from the main menu, you have to turn them on after starting the career from the bookshelf

* Fix track nearest contact and add track nearest warship for for radar, along with the ability to input radar range and bearing to the TDC. Oh, and simple bearing information for the radar would be kinda useful, as well. Oh, and radar should be capable of reporting more exactly than "long, medium, short" range. It is radar after all.
Rating: 4/10 - A lot of small requests

* Jap marchants AI behaviour and movement during attack need to be improved
Rating: ?/10 - Already lots of AI improvements are planned.

* Jap destroyers need 2 use all guns
Rating: 2/10 - Minor issue

* TDC data reset should be present
Rating: 7/10 - Is this a real bug? If so, sounds like it should be pretty high.

* not being able to use the hydrophones submerged at periscope depth
Rating: 7/10 - Overall the hydrophones seem very broken so I think this should get attention

* Sub taking collision damage and eventually being destroyed when resting stationary on sea floor
Rating: 8/10 - A seldom used and dubious tactic, since deliberately crashing into the sea floor I doubt will make the enemy AI think you've sunk when they hear it. Of course, if the AI really does listen for that, then this should be fixed. But also, if forced to settle due to damage, you should be able to, and we know I hate DC related bugs. Having put some more thought into this and considering comments, I realize that this is actually a very cinematically dramatic activity for subs and to treat the sea floor as "hot lava" that cannot be even slightly touched really takes something important out of the game.

* resize the TBT graphic so it fits the screen at resolutions other then 1024*768
Rating: 6/10 - Not too insignificant - games shouldn't break when resolutions are changed, more attention needs to be on this in general.

* Ability to transport back to port,after completing missions.As opposed to 2hrs.real time wasted getting sub icon across map screen
Rating: 5/10 - Would be nice

* The damagehandling is not clear. The sub has two types of damage: The dynamic damage, which is displayed and can be repaired - and the static damage, which is not displayed and can not be repaired while on sea. But this type of damage can sink you sub.
Rating: 9/10 - Fully agree that DC is screwy

* if you get some hits by a DD Gun, you can repair all damages and your boat looks ok. But if you dive after this, your sub will sink
Rating: 10/10 - Extremely severe issue.

* in rough seas the submarines have a tendency to leap out of the water - call it the "flying sub" syndrome
Rating: 5/10 - Minor graphical anomaly

* The AA Gun When set to auto fire on enemy planes does not opperate as it should,"Under attack".The guy is on the gun but will not fire,just stands there..
Rating: 9/10 - Extremely annoying, lethal, gameplay affecting bug. It is unacceptable to miss a pass of a plane with a fully manned station. Core functions of the ship should work as expected.

* The warning needles on the Depth Gauge for P.D. and C.D should be in red not black.
Rating: 0/10 - Historical inaccuracy requests like this are polluting the forum.

* Searchlights are not working on a mid career loaded game
Rating: 7/10 - As a key element of late night ambience during a battle, this has pretty high priority for a graphical glitch. Also it could be affecting gameplay if the spotlights are on and they're vision is assisted by it, but we can't see it.

* A.I. for firing Star Shells at night is poor.
Rating: 5/10 - Could use more elaboration

* radar screens remains blank
Rating: 8/10 - Probably already covered, core functions of the sub should work as expected

* Aircraft are too frequent and too easily destroyed
Rating: 6/10 - I would generally agree here, some missions/patrols are nearly unwinnable due to the crazy amount of aircraft. Easily solved with modding so I've lowered the priority. But I also believe in a strong "in the box" experience that does not require community interjection to be playable and usable by the general public.

* After some damage we run out of fuel and can't end the game in a graceful manner. Would be nice to know the fuelstores have been holed, and it's time to get out of dodge (this bug was on page 2 and I missed it somehow)
Rating: 8/10 - I think a fuel leak would be a critical situation and fuel status/loss would be monitored by crew constantly, and for it to go unreported is kind of dumb. Some might argue that you see the fuel guage directly and it's your job to figure that out, but You are supposed to be the Captain so it's a little silly that he would be taking fuel readings directly, though he could certainly look at the gauge anytime he wanted to.

ulyanov:

* Call for help/teleport to avoid lots of time lost time compressing back to harbor
Rating: 8/10 - Considering ulyanov's comments I've bumped this up. Considering how much it could affect new players, and I recall in SH3 I very frequently just used the ol' "return to base" option even though I was generally striving for max realism, since I just don't want to waste time. I also agree that the max TC lowers over time which further makes this tough to deal with, so it should get some attention.

* Solve lag/choppiness while sailing under high time compression
Rating: 7/10 - Now, I realize that the engine has to process a lot going on at those high time compression levels, but I'd be willing to sacrifice some realism for smoothness while sailing under time compression. It seems like the game engine is busy calculating the exact movement of everything under compression - for example, each individual ship in a convoy rather than simply abstracting the entire convoy as a single convoy game entity moving in a certain manner, which would be much lighter on the CPU.

5 more pages to parse. Bookmark this post if you want to follow the changes. Would love to hear input on overall Ratings - tell me if I'm nuts for putting A above B or B above A and make a case for it.