Looking into getting “cold waters”. Have a few questions
 

Hey all, I’ve been looking into possibly buying cold waters, but I’m not sure if it can do some of the things I’m looking for. Currently I have been using SH4 and UBOAT as more of a sub simulation. I’m impressed by some of the graphics within cold waters but It’s looking like more of a game rather than a sub sim. I’m after a Ohio class, original Los Angeles class, or seawolf class modern sub sim, questions are:

I understand what the game is as far as battle missions etc, but is it anything like silent hunter IV to where I can leave a port (“dock and undock”) and just go explore around if I want to? Maybe under the polar ice caps etc? Am I limited to where I can sail to any more than silent hunter ? I’d love to be able to patrol through the Atlantic all the way down and around out to the pacific. Or are there set objectives with time limits that end the game by itself? What if I don’t want to battle, I just want to go sail around and explore the “world”, can I do this in cold waters?

Another thing I noticed is that apparently there are no views internally such as a control room etc. as far as the external cam, am I able to (via camera mod or not) move the camera to put me in the perspective of being on the conning tower when surfaced or does it lock me to just around the sub? I’d like more of a first person external view to be able to “walk” around the outside of the sub on the deck etc. any way to do this at all?

Can I go in and out of ports around the world like in silent hunter iv? Every video I see on YouTube shows you just starting out randomly in the ocean. Can I go and “dock” at a port?

Basically I’m wanting to use it and mod it to be used as more of a sub simulator. I’d love to be able to just cruise around the ocean freely for screenshot purposes etc.

Can I do everything in real time or is it all forced time compression? How does the world map work? Is it just the same as silent hunter?

Can any of this be accomplished via mods etc with cold waters or is this just more of an arcade game? I’m drawn to the higher res graphics and scenery more than silent hunter IV but like the way I can just roam about freely in sh4. Any help is appreciated guys! Just want the whole scoop before I drop $40 on something that turns out to just be an arcade game.

First of all, sounds like you may be more interested in Dangerous Waters, but let's go through the points here.

I hate to use the "g" word but all these games we play are in fact games haha some of them just let you click more things than others. So by "sim", you mean a game where you can work various tools and instruments on the submarine instead of just being the captain?

In Cold Waters, you can work the sonar to classify contacts, directly control the boat, and adjust torpedoes.

In Dangerous Waters, you can work all aspects of the sonar, fire control, target motion analysis, periscope, radar, etc.


I believe there are mods that allow some kind of 3D free roam, but in the stock game, your default mode is on the map where you determine which enemy contacts you wish to engage. Once you intercept a contact, you're then placed into the 3D world to battle. Once the battle is over, you go back to the map. Lather, rinse, repeat. In the stock game, you are limited to sailing to where the map the shows. You also cannot just sail around and explore. In the stock game, you don't see the 3D world unless you're in a battle.

In Dangerous Waters, you can roam anywhere in the 600x600 mile 3D world of a specific mission but you're limited to that world in any one mission. And you can make custom maps anywhere in the world, ice caps, equator, etc. with or without enemies.


I don't think this is a thing in mods, definitely not a thing in the stock game. You can go on the sail bridge in Dangerous Waters but a nuclear boat is rarely on the surface.


Just your home base port as far as I can remember.


Everything on the 2D overworld map is time compressed, the 3D mission is in real time with the option of time compression.


We don't have to get too deep into semantics here, but just because you click a lot of buttons doesn't make something a sim, but it does make it a procedural sim. There's more to simulate than just pushing buttons to get realism in a game. The AI in Cold Waters is good (much better than Dangerous Waters imo) and enemy ships and weapon systems are modeled after real life. I had fun playing Cold Waters and it's a good game.

It sounds like you've seen a lot of videos of Cold Waters. If so, you know the game. It is a straight forward game. Someone else can better chime in about the mods, as I've never used any of the huge overhaul mods. If Dangerous Waters sounds interesting to you, please feel free to check out my videos of the game. You can find links to them in my signature below. Good hunting!

Thank you very much for the in depth response! Super helpful and it seems to be that cold waters isn’t what I’m after at all, thanks again though for taking the time to lay it all out there for me, very much appreciated!

If I may add my own observations?
I have played SH4/5 , Dangerous Waters and Cold Waters all of which are `modded up `. I agree with all that FPSchazly has said earlier here except for one very minor detail in Dangerous Waters and that is that some missions give you a deadline to complete it so you cannot really just go off "sightseeing" as it were. As I found out to my own cost.
Atmospherically I think SH5 WoS takes some beating, especially cruising along with the in-game radio going and a beer on the go! Cold Waters isn`t as `in depth` maybe as the other sims/games but it is still good, esp with the Epic mod. May be best to wait until it goes on sale on steam? (If it ever will).
If you have not bought DW yet, be aware that you will need to download some software to make it run on modern pc`s. And it`s very old graphically, but what it lacks there it more than makes up for in gameplay. (It`s a shame that some modern games still don`t compare to some older ones when it comes to that.H&D2 being another example of old better than new ).
I was fortunate enough to get DW for about £1.50 in sale on Steam some time back! Bargain!
Good luck and good hunting!