Hello, Kings Bay Wasteland! This is your host-

Okay, getting a little carried away there.

I think the mentioned issues here give a good overview. Maybe it's a mixture between the romantic section of WWII (and there are more WWII naval movies than cold war ones) and the lack of emotion in DW.

Perhaps only a community sim could replace DW since it seems that commerical vendors have no interest.

IMO a good approach would be to have a modular appraoch: A naval simulation engine, a 3D/physics engine and so on and then various subprojects might provide plattforms etc.

But probably there are not enough people willing to do it since the communiy is rather small...

I don't agree with this at all. There is nothing half-baked about DW, or SC for that matter. Both are comprehensive, complex simulations of modern naval warfare. There are no competitors - before or since - on the home computer platform. Fast attack was great fun, but pretty limited in scope. I'm grateful SCS produced 688/SC/DW because they are still delivering value today. It is a niche.

As for ease of use, I think DW is markedly harder than the SH series. SH1-4 can be picked up in a matter of minutes; in DW simply reaching correct weapons employment parameters takes a fair investment of time. Many are not willing to learn hat. Ironically, DW's plotting tools are very good, the WW2 sims could learn something from the map & sensor plotting screens on SCS products. Likewise, once you get over the bump in the learning curve the fundamentals (especially in subs) are the same for most platforms. Once you learn TMA, you don't forget it.

I'd love the silent hunter series to have the same variety of physical conditions that DW has (the acoustic model in SH feels pretty simplistic) The replayability of scenarios in DW is hugely interesting; for instance playing the same scenario as different platforms is an education in itself - and it is good fun.

DW's problem is one of image. It is seen as sterile and clinical; yet it delivers tension in spades once you get into it. People just don't seem interested in putting the time in.

By the way, is still somebody in contact with Sonalysts?
Do they still have an employee who is in charge of keeping contact with the community? Just being curious.

Good question.
Silent Hunter is currently dominating the world of subsims.
DW and Jane's 688i seem great but the graphics are very out of date.

Because of war.

I got DW and the problem is the context where you play the game is not war.

WW2 subsims are based on WW2 events. Events and history we did learn at school and we can play a part of it while playing games.

What does DW offer as context ? Cold-war like and pre-War stuff.

A DW with a war going on, where you take your sub to do combat missions of all kinds while a war is going around you might add spice to it.

They did, now they don't. They dropped the support completely.

Well, not completely. I just assumed you all were getting tired of me saying "I don't have any new information for you" over and over.

BTW, I don't have any new information for you... (grin)

Email to "computergames(at sign)sonalysts.com" to get tech support if you need it. (not a link for spam reduction)

I'm a subsim community member (I play DW and SH4) so I'm in and out on an irregular basis. I worked on a VERY intensive non-DW project all fall and winter, and didn't have any time either at work or home to do much gaming. That's the main reason I've been scarce for a long time.

Wow .. just .. wow .. :arrgh!:

2 years - whether not too long term for absence?

You rave - there is no support :rotfl2:

Nice to hear from you again. Is the non-DW project a commercial or govt/mil project?

Commercial. We're still working on making money in the non-simulation market. (sigh)

Non-Commercial DW continues to do very well; we haven't been able to parlay that into any news on the commercial front, unfortunately.

If you have informed a source of a code - we could reanimate this sim.
Or SCS will carry away it with itself in a tomb.?


By the way - how much man is real in SCS?

2 or 3 man now ? :-)

I am realized I share Sonalysts from SCS.

I would like to see DW in a SH3 or 4 (not5) format .

I might and probably useing the wrong word.

But if it was like them I'd buy it in a minute.

btw I have DW:DL and try to play it occasionally. :yep:

Nice to here from you again, Roger :).

Did you already evaluate if you could try a similar approach like Harpoon 3 or Steel Beasts?

So, you would have a basic codeline for both versions and the non-commerical one gets all the secret stuff ;), consoles + integration tools on top?

And just distributing the commerical one via download to minimize costs?

I don't know for sure but I have the impression that the combined number of sold copies of Harpoon 3 / Steel Beasts are not higher than DW...rather lower since they haven't been actively advertised...