So I'm back to this ...
 

Hopefully I won't hurt anyone's feelings. I really appreciate the efforts of developers when it comes to new sub sim games. I've purchased and played Wolfpack. Great game indeed. I have watched enough videos of UBOAT.. Also a great looking game...however.

I find myself coming back to Silent Hunter 3.

Weird.. Wolfpack is cool, great fun on a winter Saturday afternoon to play with a group of friends..

.. but after a few missions, when you've run through the procedures for diving, leveling off, hydrophones, chase.. find.. kill.. etc..
.. at some point you long for more... some type of career.. or .. I don't know.. to go out, find the convoy, kill it.. rinse, repeat.. after a while .. I grew tired of it..
Not to mention the idiots who log in and start screwing up your sub.. I guess I'm saying... the lack of depth is what may kill this game.

I went online and found only two lobbies. One was locked... it appears that the mad rush to play has sort of died down..

For me, I find myself wanting to re-install SH3, so I can go out on a mission with some purpose.. the war is going on, I may go to the north sea, I may go west, I may find convoys, I may not, I may return, maybe not.. but there will be a real purpose to every mission.

I'm wondering if anyone here feels the same; that, this recent surge of new sub games seems to have targeted the X-Box user, great graphics, really cool scenarios, but not very deep.

I'm not saying these games are bad. No, they are fun, but after playing Wolpack and seeing many videos of UBOAT, I really appreciate how good of a game Silent Hunter 3 really is.

:Kaleun_Cheers:

I'm thinking of coming back too...at least until UBoat gets right, but I don't know where to begin anymore. I enjoyed SH5, but that whole '1 knot underwater or the escorts will find you', kills it for me. I really like the idea of Wolfpacks in SH3, but I'm lost with everything out there for the game.

Last time I played SH series was 8 years ago and I’ve been watching UBOAT for more than a year, bought it on release but only had 4-5 hrs in it. The game looks so unfinished at this point but judging by the attitude of the developer it will have a bright future given 1-2 years of time and sufficient funding.

And yes, I installed SH3 back and went through all the troubles during past couple days and finally get a working and (hopefully) stable game.

Right now I've been so tied up with multiple projects (The '100 Years' thread, working with friends on revising rules for our tabletop wargames) that my computer gaming time is severely limited, and I've been using that to play Wings Over Flanders' Fields. That said, my thoughts are always returning to sub sims, and when they do I remember that after fourteen years I never did complete a career in SH3. And I want to get back to it.

Yes, SH3 looks old and clunky compared to more modern sims. I would rather play SH4, as I think it's the better platform. The problem is that it never got the attention from modders that SH3 did. In stock SH3 there isn't even the Kiel Canal. Not only was it modded in but now you can sail through the locks and even have to wait for the gates to open. The variety of bridges, including the rotating bridge. It's silly, but no other sub sim has anything like that.

SH5 has some interesting new stuff, but it also feels to me like it's lacking something. You can try hard to make a better sim, but if you lose what made the ones you love great, then you haven't really gained anything.

I'm interested in the newer sims, but I'm still drawn back to SH3, and probably will be until I've finally completed that career.

Ive seen your posts over at WOFF. Have you tried WOTR yet? It's pretty good, but nowhere near Flanders Fields

No, but only because at this point I don't have time to help test new games. I love the Battle of Britain era, but I'm just not up to playing a Hurricane against a Bf-109 with no other options. I'll wait until they've had some time.

SH3 GWX gold
 

:Kaleun_Cheers:I agree... in toto!!! SH3 is the best sub game for me!! Wonderfull !!!:Kaleun_Cheers:

I came back mainly because UBOAT let me down a little bit at it's current state.
I mean, there's plenty to do with crew management, but I can't say the same for the rest of the war, especially for missions and ship variety.

GWX, here I come!
:Kaleun_Salute:

Ahh SH3, what a special game it is to me. I originally got it from a friend who was throwing it out and I asked if I could have it. I remember the dinosaur of a PC I had at the time was at it's limits so it wasn't a great experience to start with. Then I built my first PC and loaded it back up and started playing again, but by then I'd discovered the world of modding and that led me here to Subsim, exactly 10 years and 10 days ago. I never had any interest in submarines or naval warfare at all before this point but as I sat until the early hours of the morning perusing the mod threads I came across GWX and promptly downloaded it. It was a while before I played as I was so engrossed in the documentation that came with it, a true work of excellence by all involved. At this point the modding bug bit and I found myself languishing in 'Mod Soup', not always successfully of course which led me to delve in and start editing and merging files to get an install that would load, not an easy task. It's why my location over on the left there is what it is.

I actually spent more time tweaking and editing than playing and I too, like Sailor Steve have never finished a career. I could never quite leave it alone, with new mods appearing every visit to Subsim I was doomed to restart over and over. The game just grabbed me and I wanted to make it as good as I could but it wouldn't have been possible without the talented people here who are so willing to help or spend hours perfecting mods that made my game what it was. Once I discovered SH3Commander it was on a whole new level and I was checking uboat.net to see the history of the boats I was playing with and making sure I used the correct emblems, I became quite the perfectionist, and now have quite an extensive knowledge of the War of the Atlantic.


As the game aged I looked to SH4 and Uboat Missions but it wasn't the same for some reason, like a lot of people say, it just didn't get the love SH3 did. Then SH5 was nearing release and I was stoked, giddy even about SH3 with next gen graphics. Oh what a travesty..... But, eventually it became an enjoyable sim again thanks to the people here and I played that on and off for the next few years. Again though, it lacked, I think mainly in atmosphere and the feeling you get from being down in the depths getting pinged and DC'd by stubborn Brits. I played it far less than SH3 and I think the last time I booted it up I sat and looked at the screen before shutting it straight off again, the draw was gone.


Now up to date I looked into Uboat and while it's got potential, it isn't a 'sim' as such, not like SH3 modded, so I started digging through my stuff until I found the CD that I'd copied my entire SH3 install onto many years ago because I knew I'd tweaked it so hard that I'd never be able to replicate it again, and here I am, after a LOT of trial and error and adding/removing new/old mods with a working SH3 with all the bells and whistles I love. Graphics will always come second to gameplay, SH3 taught me that. I'll include my modlist below and I know there's some old stuff in it but I can't face anymore tinkering and there are probably many manual edits that I've long forgotten about. It works, and I'm going to finish a career!



Thanks to all that made this little nostalgia trip possible.


:Kaleun_Salute:

If as you state graphics are second, you should check out the cd version of Aces of the Deep. (Not the "Command" version).
It's enemy/escort AI is something to be feared and respected vs. any SH3 of the same. Other things done better too; i.e., larger convoys, atmosphere, etc., but the AI is the largest difference.

I have both versions of Aces Of The Deep, and I agree - for the very best organization and AI there is still nothing like it. Unfortunately I'm a sucker - not for the graphics so much as the visceral appeal. I love sailing out of the harbor, seeing all the sights, following the escort vessel and finally reaching the open ocean. Even so, AOTD does have a lovely 2D graphic with the correct boat and insignia, and it has its own special appeal. Also with AOTD there is no external view. Sometimes when I play it I miss looking at the convoys and escorts in action, but there is also something terrifying about not being able to see what's going on.

Yes, I still play AOTD and SH3. I only hope that U-Boat has the correct harbors with locks and working gates where appropriate.

I agree Steve. The two games compliment each other well.

Welcome back!
 

Great thread all.



It is amazing the hold SHIII has on me.

I think of getting involved in other games and then think, well, that will take away time from SHIII.

Have always had an install of GWX and NYGM handy.

Now have a 34" monitor and with normal viewing distance, the stock game resolution is good enough.

(off topic: at Sailor Steve.... grew up on board wargames :up: )

:Kaleun_Cheers: to everyone.

I also think that the current generation no longer cares about details of World War 2, (things that take planning/time, such as board games, or simulators). I feel like to them, it is like the civil war.

I think my generation (ish), where our fathers/mothers/uncles were ALL affected by World War 2, as youth we read every thing we could on that war. My father was on a destroyer, my uncle was in the air force, another uncle was a cook on a ship during D-Day.. so as a 10 year old I had stacks of books written about World War 2.

I remember being obsessed with World War 2 as a pre-teen, purchasing many of the Avalon Hill board games (too many to list lol!!).

For me as I grew older, when the 1980s and especially the 1990s came around, and you could SIMULATE some battle or even a campaign. My first experience was with a game called "Knights of the Desert" by SSI. It was a turn based strategy game of Rommel in the desert. I was blown away!!

Then shortly later, in the mid-1990s, I came across "Air Warrior" where you could play against people from around the world, with multiple people in a bomber, and I was in pure heaven!

The games that came out in the 1990s for a World War 2 "historian", .. well to me that was the golden era...

Now, everything is focused on graphics and getting into action quickly. There is one online game that I still play "World War 2 Online", which, in my opinion, is still the best overall WW2 game out there. This game started in 2000, but now, new players complain about the graphics and having to sit around if they are pulling guard duty on some building. The game is losing customers to all of the "quick action" type games.

This is just the way it is. The World War 2 generation has almost completely died off, and I just don't see anyone interested in it anymore (other than a reason to make a bloody shooting game).

Same goes for the sub sim community I'm afraid. Why would anyone float around in a sub for hours when they could be running around with blazing guns?

Sorry for the rant, but I enjoy reading these threads to see how others feel about the same things.

Jeff