I think so too. I am amazed to see just how much effort the senior members of this community take to guide any occasional player through the game and explain even the most complicated techniques to any newbie on his first - and often only - post. Even the dumbest question is being answered by scholars, who have studied not only the game but also submarine history for many, many years.

I prefer SH4 over SH3 for many reasons. The graphics is a great leap forward, and the gameplay with it's many different mssions is much better than SH3, where you had one task only nomatter what: Patrol a quadrant for 48 hours. And so what? Nothing, just patrol it for 48 hours and return to base when low on fuel. 5 years of war seem endless and boring, if you have to go through them with only one order. Upgrading your boat and enlisting crewmembers with no personal stats other than rank was the only escape from boredom. And how many times did that happen in hundreds of hours of gameplay?

Enough from me...

Unfortunately the war for u-boats was even worse. You didn't get ordered to a grid and told to patrol it for 24 hours, or 48. You were told to go to that grid and stay there until further orders came along. Most of the u-boats never saw an enemy ship. Empty patrols were a fairly common thing.

Stock SH4's missions are silly. Any of the supermods is far better. Five years of war was endless and boring. War has been described as "Hours of boredom punctuated my moments of terror."

On the other hand I do prefer SH4. SH3's only asset is all the mods that have been created for it.

Not true Donna. You're a Sub simmer just like anybody else. Sex has nothing to do with it. :hmmm:Hmmmmm, that didn't sound right.:oops: I mean, gender has nothing to do with it.:yep: Yeah, that's better. In other threads, you've made, or brought up, valid points which I hadn't previously considered. I don't believe anyone here relegates you to anything less than a member of the subsim community.:up:

Washishu, I cannot add much of use to what the others have posted, but would like to say that, like you, I have played SH3 (mostly with GWX) considerably longer than SH4, even though I bought SH4 years ago. I tried SH4 when I first got it and did not like it in comparison to SH3 (apart from the graphics) and was not willing to adapt to its different interface, so it got put on the shelf, and only when I got a new games machine did I bother to install and give it another go. Even then I went back to SH3 after a couple of dips - but just recently I tried again, and this time I found I was familiar enough with it to allow the game to draw me in. Of course there are minor niggles - with every game that must be so, but if you can go with what you have got now, without comparing and adding up the short-comings, then it soon enough gets more comfortable and enjoyable to play - and for me TMO helped, even though I had to buy the Gold version of SH4 to use it. Beloved as SH3 is, it is showing its age graphically, and I think I have now properly moved on to what is a worthy- if slightly different successor:D:sunny: