Me too :sunny:

There are many things that should be in future subsims, but one i want most: ability to create your own character. Imagine your own face in game:)
http://www.facegen.com/ - have you heard about this software?

What would I like to see?

Less certainty and more randomisation. That is, settings that change automatically as the war progresses to reflect, relatively, the circumstances as they were at that particular time.

The current "one size fits all" data structure of SH3 (and to a slightly lesser degree SH4) doesn't lend itself to a campaign that lasts near 7 years - things change.

I'd also like to see more "personality" added to the Commander. Currently, you type your name in a box and then you're in a sub on your way ("Hey! I'm a Leutnant!"). You finish a patrol, get some renown or whatever, then you're on your way again.

When you're in the water, there's a great sense of immersion, but when you're in base, there's pretty much none. No accountability, no responsibility, no interaction, just a 2D screen. There's no reflection of one's performance.

AOD had the Nightclub. A simple yet very effective way of keeping you "involved" while you were in base. A similar concept brought up-to-date would make a big difference to any subsim.

Wolfpacks are a must, The Italians were active in the atlantic, so some of their subs would be nice. It would be great to give the SH4 simmers the willies by turning up in a type IXD2:arrgh!:

I think it would be nice when player's achievements could influence the war or even better, change the outcome of it. I know this could be considered a step back when it comes to realism, but I just think a war game/sim is even more challenging when you don't know the outcome of the war you're fighting in. :yep:

EDIT: On the other hand when it comes to realism, the real Kaleuns in WW2 also didn't know the outcome of the war, so it also could be considered as a step forward.

This one would probably be my favourite: The Italian 600-Serie Adua-class submarine :up:

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/407/adua3lg5yf0.jpg

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/4374/adua6vr2dl2.jpg

Being able to walk around inside your submarine with all buttons and dials etc useable and being able to see through the Periscope in the 3D interior view rather than in a seperate screen, so there's never any need to leave the 3D interior.

And British Subs would be nice. :arrgh!:

Have you tried the...oh. Never mind.:rotfl:

I agree about the accountability part. Red Baron had you put on trial if you accidentally hit a friendly aircraft. It would be nice to have to stay on your toes all the time.

These are good suggestions.

All I could imagine is a Real-Time PAUSE (let the real world stand still for the moment), so that you could sub-sim. more often! :p

agree with most things said, but wolf packs or at least the illusion that there are other u boats in that ocean with you. i know we recieve constant updates from other u boats but this is sometimes not enough, also radio updates of important events through out the war without using a mod (grammophone) to do this would be ace

I would love something like that. Here is my list :

- A fully dynamic campaign. Not like SH3 which is on chronological rails.

- A fully dynamic campaign for multiplayer gaming in which you could occupy posts from both sides (Ex: Some of your friends in u-boats while others in the escorts and others in the bombers overhead).

- There was ONLY 1 HMS Hood...please make sure that we can't sink 3 or them in the same campaign.

- Actually take part in a WolfPack attack.

- A management side of the game. Be Donitz and decide where in general your U-boats patrol, how long does the training of U-boats take (less time would mean less efficient at sinking tonnage), budget technology production management (after 43 when they lost the battle...do you keep sending men to die or put all your eggs in 1 basket by lauching the XXI earlier), inter service rivalry (cut a deal with Goering for more fighter protection over the bay of Biscay late in the war), if sufficient technology is available then design your OWN u-boat type (that you could try out in a patrol afterwards), etc.

- Side Quests : Mine laying, spy/saboteur insertions, intelligence gathering missions (map out the enemy ports for ground defenses, minefields, subnets, etc), capture enemy pilots/sailors for interrogation at Gestapo headquarter when you get back to port (then on your next mission you would get a fixed position on a sweet enemy ship/convoy to sink), raid enemy shipyards that are producing ships (reducing the amount of escorts in an area for a time), etc.

- More landMarks (I live in Montreal Canada so when I go up the St-Lawrence river and get to MTL I would find it funny to see the Molson brewery then shooting their cargo ships causing morale damage to all Canadian troops for 6 months). I would also be curious to go up the Thames and have a look at London before the war starts :D





Here are some examples of what a dynamic campaign would contain :

- During the Norvegian campaign lets say that you find an enemy convoy going in to take the port from the Norvegians with troopships. Then sinking them would make that port fall faster to the Germans.
- During Dunkerque lets says that you get lucky and sink all the enemy ships at port. Then the Allies being unable to rescue all their soldiers in time may bargain with Germany.
- Lets say that you attack a convoy which its destination is an island base and that you sink all their tankers. Than that base wouldn't launch aircrafts or maritime patrols until the next one arrived (Plus or minus the time it would take to get the fuel from the port to the plane/ship themselves...You get idea ;)).

A lot of things have already been mentioned so I'll just point out the obvious ones. I'm sure that graphics etc. will be better in the next one, and it being a sub - game I hope that the sea would be even more realistic with little details and nicer waves/storms/weather/etc. Also as has been mentioned it would be nice to have dynamic campaigns with events that would change and make the games always different. And why not MMO - type things.

Might be easier to say what I would not want to see, that is the lowering of the standard that SH3 & 4 and their mods have set in terms of realism etc.

Oh and VR-helmets, I've tried one and didn't find it that great. Otherwise ok but the field of vision felt like watching a screen up close, not 'natural field of vision'. There may be better helmets out there.

Alright, this is a little crazy, so bare with me. (btw, I haven't read the entire thread so something like this might have been mentioned already)

Okay, imagine years from now when PCs will have the power to run a game like this:

Start out with an extremely realistic physics model where the U-boats', ships' and planes' behavior will be determined by the actual 3D models of them and not by config files. I don't know if that makes sense to you all, but this already exists to some extent in a flight sim called X-Plane. Whereas most flight sims will refer to a config file to figure how a plane should act at a given altitude, airspeed, etc X-Plane uses an advanced simulation engine that figures all these things out in real time according to the given weather conditions and stuff. X-Plane comes with an aircraft builder in which you create a 3D model of an aircraft and input a little bit of info (IE: engine power, weight, etc) and the simulator will compute how this aircraft will behave.

Okay, are you with me so far? (I don't think I did a good job of explaining that first part.:-?)

Okay, now. Let's have the most realistic 3D models of our U-boats. You will be able to navigate the entire boat and every little thing will be functional. You will be able to, say, spin some wheels in the control room to pump 500 liters of water forward and the boat will react realistically (remember our physics simulator?). Now, of course the AI crew would take care of these sort of things for you usually, but you would be able to manipulate the various instruments and controls on board yourself if you pleased.

This kind of sim will probably be possible a few years from now. Basically what I'm talking about is software that simulates real-life things very realistically.

Now, as far as sensors go... we will incorporate the same technology to create a true simulation of the way sound travels underwater and the way our AI crew will be able to spot objects in the 3D environment.

Okay, now for a really cool and realistic crew... because it would be too creepy to play a game where this awesomely detailed U-boat (with fully functioning systems) lacked a crew. Most importantly, over the course of a patrol they will grow facial hair and look increasingly disheveled and dirty.:p You would be able to go into the bow compartment and see crewmen sleeping, eating, playing games, etc.. You will see them on duty. You will even get to see them look genuinely scared when being pursued by enemy ASW forces. Maybe, every once in a while, we can have a crew member loose his nerves and come stuttering over into the control room blabbering about defeat, begging that we surface the boat, etc..

Man, I'm having fun with this one... :lol: Are you guys still with me?

Okay, also really cool would be this. It would have a large RPG type element to it. Where you design your own Kaleun (like in The Sims or whatever). And you can pick his name, and choose from various personality traits and skill sets that will have an effect on how the AI crew will respond to you. (IE: good torpedo shot, charismatic, intuitive, mechanically inclined, etc..) Maybe over time the stress of combat will take it's toll on your character, detracting from some of his skills or whatever.

Between patrols you could go to the bar and celebrate, and get into drunken fights with others, and pour beers on people, etc.

Holy crap... I'm getting a little carried away aren't I? :doh:

Ahem, how about a WWI subsim instead?

Not read the other messages yet.
Just my personnal thoughts.

I agree !!
And also having mechanical problems(if possible, problems that must be repaired by ourself because it is very usual on a ship, I can tell you !).

For the rest, I would like to see my boat remains wet and soggy as true(google translation...).
I mean that when a wave recovered the ship she stays "brilliant" for a moment due the water.
She don't stay dry all the time.

I would also like to be able to close the door of the kiosk manually when we plunge.

It should also be able to see the water in the boat and see this water rise more and more when we are in a critical situation.
More smoke(on the water yeah :rock:).

Flammes too.

It should also depth periscope be adjusted to its true value because it was 18m and not 13m.

Possibility to drop anchor.

Manual key to send messages in morse(forced us to learn morse).

Ability to manually command depth rudders("rear-5, front + 10").

Have a specialization "cook" because it is the key to good mental condition of the crew.
This is a detail, but fun anyway.

That's all I thought for now.

:up:

PS: also be able to manage fuel as says some of you before. Also to be able to move masses of liquid front / rear when we must balance the boat quickly.

Last but not least: allieds playable !!

Very nice wish lists so far. To reiterate what others have said: YES to Wolfpacks (i.e. AI subs when you're playing single-mode). For extra coolness: if you spot the convoy first, you make the call, & they respond. Party on!

In addition:

-- AI subs that have a clue: They know when to dive, how to attack & how to evade. In other words, comparable to the best flight-sim AI.

-- Physics everywhere, instead of "artificial gravity" that glues everyone to the deck. When the boat pitches & rolls, the men react to keep their balance. When it's really rough, they grab onto things. And once in a while, MAN OVERBOARD! :D

-- More accurate geography & city skylines. It's a tall order, but the way things are progressing, why not? Imagine going to Venice and seeing the architecture as you sail the Grand Canal. Gondolas capsize in your wake! :arrgh!:

-- Losing your boat in various ways: You get to see it all...
You could abandon ship: some guys make it out, some don't. Some get shot dead anyway.
Or noone gets out 'cause you're at crush depth & up to your eyeballs in water, buh-bye...
Or you're stuck, can't go home, don't want the enemy to get your boat, so you scuttle her.
Or you get sunk at your home base, most of your men survive, and the boat is raised and rebuilt. You could either get a new boat, or your old boat, months later.

Ah, it's good to dream...