Are there any mods in development to make this more like SH3?
 

Hello everyone! I have recently got into Uboat, and I am loving it. Been playing it for at least 3-4 hours a day. Unreal! With the TDC mod and the Uboat expanded mod, this game is somethign special. It has so much potential, and it's already a great game.

This game made me get into sh3 (gwx, Sh3Cmdr, other mods) and I've been loving SH3 too.

It's been kinda weird for me, jumping from SH3 to Uboat. I wanted to lay down some things that I prefer with SH3 over Uboat, and was curious if anyone knows if there is going to be a mods or be implemented by the devs? Love both games, but I feel that Uboat could suck up most of sh3's features and be the best subsim game to date.

So, things I prefer about Sh3 to Uboat. Keep in mind, when I talk about SH3 I am talking about the GWX version.

---Visually, I really like the 1080p GWX map style. I like the map to look like a real MAP, not a 3d style map. Like you're a real skipper, looking down on your paper map. Not on a computerized looking map. Seems weird to me.

I think it would be super cool to have the map be the map style from SH3, but if you zoom in close enough THEN you go 3d. It's kind of like this with Uboat, but the far zoom map still looks. . . off. Sh3 did the map style, way, way better.

--------Gameplay

-- In Sh3 (GWX)I really like the HUGE variety in ships, from cargo to escort, to destroyers, etc. There a so many varieties, and it's cool and immersive.
I also really like how the merchant ships ACTUALLY ARE ARMED. Like, I like how even if you find a single ship, it at least has a gun big enough to do some damage to you if you don't take it out fast enough. I also like the ships that will appear unarmed, but then whip out a deck gun to start blasting you. SUPRISE. not sure if that's in base SH3, gwx, or what, but I love it.

--There are too many unarmed ships in Uboat, especially later in the war. Like, why will I come across like 3 freighters and a tanker, no destoryer, no air, and not one of them has a single gun. In Sh3, this almost never happens. Makes for great game play. In uboat, I run across unarmed fleets ALL THE TIME. It's a bit weird, and kinda throws me off. I can just surface and deck gun 4 ships to the deeps.


--Uboat hydrophone sucks. The SH3 hydrophone is so much better. It's more intense to use, and it seems like it gives you more information. There is an obvious noise difference when you can hear a warship, than when you are hearing a cargo ship. The noise does not really translate in Uboat. you just hear "brrrrr." I don't think it makes a distinction because it shows you on the map what type a ship is, and where it's at, which leads me to. . .

--The map in UBOAT TELLS ME TOO MUCH! I hate, hate hate hate hate having my map automatically tell me the ship type if I don't have anyone on the hydrophone. If I run into a convoy and I don't have anyone on the hydrophone, then I should have to personally identify the ships with my periscope or binocs. I hate how it gives the ship outline, so you can easily identify if it's a destroyer, cruiser, or a cargo ship, etc. It also tells you if it's friend or foe, making checking the flag useless as you already know.

I could keep going on, but anyone who has played GWX and Uboat knows what I mean, I hope. The map just seems to make Uboat way easier than I'd like it to be.

--The TDC in Uboat sucks. There is a wonderful TDC mod out, and I LOVE it. It's wonderful. Hopefully the Uboat devs implement it because it is worthy of being implemented. I can't imagine not using it.


I can't really think of much more, but I really would just love a more hardcore realistic experience like Sh3, and this game has all the groundwork to do it. It's a beautiful game, it's already a blast to play, I just wish that it was a little more realistic. The good thing is, I don't think that there is a huge amount of work that needs to be put in to do it, because I feel like it's already so close to being where I want it.

Hopefully it get some of the improvements I'm looking through, either through mods or the developers. Overall, love the game, just would like a more realistic hardcore experience. Thanks for reading, let me know what you guys think! I'd love to hear some input on what I've said. I've been looking into how to mod unity, so I may try to work on some of this myself if I can figure it out, given enough time.

Believe it or not, I'm already experimenting with merchant mods.:haha: I discovered a couple things so far relating to your points:

-You can easily extract the ship 3d models and look at them using wings3d or some other tool with .obj file capabilities! It's very intuitive. I also want to add lots of new merchant ship types, and tweak a few existing models. Most of the ship models are excellent; others could be altered a bit (I have blueprints of some of the actual merchants in the game).

-You can also extract the images for different contacts on the 2d map. So it should be possible to create a more difficult map that displays less information about ship type and nationality. And is not an all-seeing omnipotent "radar"

-I still don't know exactly how ships are armed, but I expect to figure it out soon. Probably one of the excel databases. You are right about ship armament. As early as 1940, thousands of British cargo ships were armed. By 1941, nearly all British ships would have been armed. By 1943 ALL British and American ships on oceangoing convoy routes were armed, according to my historical sources. Usually at least one 4-5" gun, and at least four antiaircraft guns of .50cal - 20mm. The only ships that would not have been armed would be small craft that never left the safety of harbor.

-You can adjust spawn probability for the small groups of merchants easily. All part of the excel files. That way, no countless batches of unarmed 3-4 ship groups.

When they finish development and make the SDK available, I imagine modding will really heat up around here. :salute:

Thanks for the small history lesson on the boats during the early 1940's! I knew that there was no way they were't arming (almost) every ship that was carrying freight. You'd have to be mad not to! That's something that bothers me when it's 1944 and there are still convoys of 3 ships that have no escort. . . like come on, this is too easy.

And yeah, hopefully the map can be made less of an "all seeing eye," because that and the uselessness of the hydrophone, and the lack of more ships is really all that is bothering me about this game. It's wonderful other than those things, which I feel can be modded in pretty easily, or even done by the devs.

I wish the devs would release the SDK files already, the subsim community seems small but everyone here seems super dedicated lol. I'm sure we'd see a lot of great mods once that happens. Hopefully the release date stays on track for qtr 4 of this year.

Yes, there are some mods in development for making uboat more realistic :)

"Yes, there are some mods in development for making uboat more realistic"


Have they been in development for 5 years like this game?

Has this game seriously been in devleopment for FIVE years? Don't get me wrong I like this game a lot (not as much as Sh3 tho), but five years?

Are they a small dev team? that would make it more understandable.

Even better, it appears some were preemptively armed before the war, like in this example:

https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/5.html

Steamer "Manaar" returned fire when she was attacked on 6th September 1939, three days after Britain declared war.