Sorry Hitman! Sorry Neal!

Look, I cannot say I agree with OP's statement, either. I cannot even see how anyone can say SH3 is a "boring" simulation, simply because it does not go even deeper into the mechanics of achieving negative buoyancy or celestial navigation. Would those features be nice? Sure. Would many people use them? Maybe about 1/2 the people in this forum who say they would use them, actually would use them. Twice, maybe. How many people use the stock realistic map contacts option? I haven't met one yet.

No Subsim before SH3 had these nice features, does that mean they all fell short of a good sim?
Before SH3, all subsims were ghost ships, voices ringing out from an empty control room.
Before SH2, you couldn't even look up or down on the bridge :)

Anyway, thanks for reeling this in, guys, and carry on with the debate, but remember, you probably cannot change anyone's opinion, just be sure to represent your opinion with tact and logic, and let it go at that. :salute:

Lol, oldest rule in the forum: :D Just like we do not want people here throwing out generalized insults to each other, we gotta respect the game enough to say, "This game comes up short by..." instead of SH3 sucks. Christ, I can imagine half the threads here could be titled Something sucks!* :timeout:




*including me :cry:

/waves hand.

Meeee.
I started off with contacts on, but switched them off a long time ago once I had figured out how to work from observations.

Ok, the title was intended as provocation but it was tongue in cheek :)
I've been playing and modding SH3 for two years now, what kind of idiot spends that much time on a worthless game?

SH3 IS a good game. But even if that hurts some fanboy's feelings, it has some pretty major flaws, that would be fatal is the rest of the game wasn't that good.

I'm not saying make the game impossible to play without an engineering degree, I'm just saying, give the player something to do during the whole game time, not just half an hour out of 3 hours. And I gave some examples of "things to do" and they aren't hyper complicated.

Immersion is a hot topic, my question is, how do you "get into" a game that lets you watch TV, surf on the internets and read books?

Btw, I play with no map contacts at all, it's a blast :)

Wasn't being bored while, patrolling, not part of the crew's daily life on sea?

Btw, thanks for changing the title.

First of all, we are not all from GB or USA, Australia, etc... For many of us, english is second (for me third) language which I was learn in the school...



Also your user name Kapitanleutnant is not english, so what... Nobody say nothing to you... *:know:

I was just pointing out that I was stating things using language, not getting as upset as Mikhayl seemed to imply.
Somebody got the wrong end something.

"Map contacts ? What are these ? Can I eat them ?" :arrgh!:

* Actually, I think that realism is bigger if you wish to play like that... I mean in this situation you always can play, like you are actually there!!!
* In this situations,(or destroyer attack...) I always spent some 30-45 min (aircraf attack) of real time, waitting to HEAR what is going on, and than, TC 128, 256 etc....


* When I am deep charged, I spent a lot of real time like I am really there...


* So, in SH3 you have a lot of situations where you can, if you wish, to play very realistic.... Like when attacking convoy, like u are under attack etc...


* About navigator or other positions in sub... Well, you are captain, you have crew, and your navigator calculating your position...He is that one who calculate speed x time = distance!!! I agree, it will be nice, that we can do that manualy, but, hej, I am captain! I am the boss, other work for me!!!*:DL

Aye, aye to that drugar!

The monotony of staring at the map screen while periodically clicking the TC buttons certainly gets old pretty quick. The gramophone helps a bit, though not a whole lot.

I've always questioned why games choose to leave out the trivial activities. The hero can slay dragons and journey to distant lands, but he can't rest, eat, or even sharpen his sword once in a while. The commercial jet pilot can spend 18 hours in the air, but he can't get up from his seat to get some coffee or use the restroom. The tourist mogul can oversee the financial transactions of all his hotels and casinos around the world, but he can't go home and feed his cat.

In a sandbox simulation like SH3, there must be 'downtime' -- some way to unwind and break the routine. There has to be a way to occupy your mind when few or no external stimuli are present.

Why do we daydream? Why do we hum songs, whistle, and talk to ourselves? Why do prisoners exercise?

Trivial activities keep a human being from losing his mind.

Of course, you can do all these things while playing SH3. I sure do. I set my u-boat's course/TC and go make tea, read, do my laundry, or check the Subsim forums. There's only one problem with this approach: it kills immersion.

See, no matter what the u-boat crew did to keep themselves occupied while bouncing around in that sardine can, one thing was clear to them: they were in the middle of the Atlantic and their Fatherland counted on them. No amount of letter-writing or jerking-off was going to change that.

There's no downtime in SH3. There's no crew socializing, no battle drills, no engine-oiling, no torpedo-lubing, no log-writing, no leak-sealing, no bolt-tightening, no bulb-replacing, no potato-peeling, no dish-washing, no toilet-unclogging, and no getting drunk in french bars. The only thing it offers is TC and your imagination. I agree with the OP.

SH5, through all its anticipated faults, offers the first glimpse at the modding potential of 'first-person' gameplay. Given some time and creativity, it won't be long before you find yourself getting up from your captain's bunk, walking to the tiny on-board kitchen to get that warm [virtual] cup of tea, and sitting down to read the latest BdU comms. You will feel satisfied, immersed, and by no means bored. And at that point, you will realize that you are in the middle of the Atlantic and the Fatherland is counting on you.