SH4 any good yet?
 

I purchased SH4 on release date, played it until the first patch came out, shelved it out of complete and utter disgust and went back to SH3... yup im one of those guys who was bitterly dissapointed in the initial quality of SH4... or should i say initial LACK of quality in Silent Hunter 4?

at any rate, im posting this out of curiosity as to whether or not the game has been improved in the least bit by the patches that have been released, or is it still a steaming pile which UBI has washed its hands of? :rotfl:

more specifically...

1. Are the rescue missions still virtually impossible?
2. Did the patch really fix anything of merit to game playability?
3. Does the game still get stuck repeating the same mission over and over again?
4. Are you still engulfed in a furious storm of Pacific ocean-wide contact reports?

well im sure you all know the complaints the game had ages ago, just a gamer curious as to whether or not it is worth it to remove this game from the shelf and give it another chance at occupying valuable space on my hard drive at all???

thanks in advance

~GR

1. Patch 1.3.
2. Yes.
3. Trigger Maru 1.6 by Ducimus.
4. Trigger Maru 1.6 by Ducimus.

Than answer your question yet? :p

Overall I can say that with patch 1.3 and Trigger Maru mod, SH4 is actually quite a gaming exprience. It still has *some* bugs but it's very stable and extremely enjoyable right now.

edit:

my biggest complaints were the special forces rafts and agent rafts would flip over:nope:

the downed airmen were too hard to find

the numerous crash bugs

the inability to interact with stations and crew on any effective level

the nagging of sounds that would repeat over and over and over and over again.

any of those issues been addressed?

also are there any decent mods? for example: i heard some talk of scrapping the pacific campaign, importing german u-boats and making an SH3-4 did that awesome idea go anywhere.

be patient with me... i dont mean to come across as "mean"... but you have to realize that the last time i came to the SH4 room we consumers were beta testing this game, and it really didnt have much to offer besides looks. ;)

>>my biggest complaints were the special forces rafts and agent rafts would flip over

Still happends on occason.

>>the downed airmen were too hard to find
Marked with red smoke now.

>>the numerous crash bugs
I havent had SH4 crash on me in quite awhile, and ive been modding it, as oppose to just using it. Acutally i take that back, SH4 crashed on me yesterday, when i tried to load a saved game at sea from TM 1.5 under TM 1.6. I knew it would crash (not in port), but i had to try anyway. :88)


>>the inability to interact with stations and crew on any effective level
You have all important functionality. The only thing you don't have is the "shoulder tap" type of interaction.

>>the nagging of sounds that would repeat over and over and over and over again.
Rudder... rudder?

That was ubisoft trying to recreate what im assuming is US Navy protocol. WHen an officer gives an order, the enlisted man repeats to order as sort of a confirmation. So if the OOD says, Rudder 10 degrees to port. The helmsman is supposed to repeat the order as he heard it. The problem with this in its curent implentation is twofold:

1.) they dont repeat the ENTIRE order, so all you get is "rudder.. rudder"
2.) soemtimes the helmsman has the same voice type as the OOD, which as you can imagine can be rather lame.

So to answer the question, yup, still there. Knowing what its supposed to be helps it not be so bothersome.


All said, try TM1.6 before unistalling SH4, you might be pleasantly surpised. The modpack represents a collective community effort and the games come a long ways. Id say at 6 months of age, SH4 is about where SH3 was at 1 year of age, maybe even a little farther along then that.

good to hear, i think ill wait it out a little longer, i have already uninstalled SH4 ages ago.

i still feel like the modders in the subsim community have more talent in the grime under their fingernails than everyone at ubisoft combined.

:hmm: maybe its not fair to say that... perhaps its just that they were working with an unrealistic time table under a manager or group of managers that really didnt care at all about the product.

"Get it done and get it out of here so i can worry with something I like." said the SH4 project manager.

***AND NOW THE SAME POST AS ABOVE... ONLY IN STOCK SH4 SPEAK***

good to hear, hear, hear, hear i think ill wait it out a little longer, i have already uninstalled SH4 ages ages ages ago.

i still feel like the modders modders modders modders modders in the subsim community have more talent in the grime under their fingernails than everyone at ubisoft combined.

:huh: (eyes popping out) maybe its not fair to say that... perhaps its just that they were working with an unrealistic time table table table tablle under a manager or group of managers that really didnt care at all about the product.

"Get it done and get it out of here so i can worry with something I like." said the SH4 project manager.

CRASH TO DESKTOP

Rafts ... for one they don't bug you as contacts anymore. They still make stupid screeching sounds but that's about all they do. As for the airmen, patch 1.3 fixed that up REALLY nice. Most aviators pop red flares that are visible to you from 7-8km. The crew still is blind as a bat when it comes to spotting them but you can easily manuver the sub to the flare.

Crashes are a thing of the past. Most were fixed in either 1.3 or Jace11's tiny mod (which was included in countless other major mods).

The stations themselves aren't as interactive as in SH3. The radar and sonar stations are much more useful in 1.3 than they were in 1.0 however.

And the sound... what sound? :lol:

EDIT: Damn, Duci beat me to it. Fast skipper :lol:

Anyway... there's still a little naggin issue with crew's eyes and the bow planes but they're minor and usually go away on their own.

I say give it a shot with TM 1.6. I also shelved SH4 shortly after release but it's so much better now, alot of hard work from the folks around here has gone into it.

Patched to 1.3 (no DVD necessary to drive the game) and modded to taste, for me this means Trigger Maru and the brighter torpedo wakes mod, SH4 is very playable and enjoyable. Give it a try. :D

SH4 is a great sim and will only get better :yep:


RDP

Critique
 

SH4 is now the greatest subsim ever encountered on planet Earth.

Other than that it sucks.:down: There is no head for crew or officers, Cookie can't bake me my victory cakes because there is no oven, I can't flood negative (always wanted to say "flood negative to the mark" and still can't do it), the sonar lacks attenuation filters and my radar screens are always getting scratched. The all-female crew I ordered is on back order and my cell phone doesn't work except on the bridge.

Ducimus, for Trigger Maru 2.0 can we get that all-female crew?

Well then with that as a starting point it is going to be very difficult to convince you otherwise.

It is still basically the same game with some improvements / corrections.

So yea its a good game.

:yep:

If that were true, there would be no SH4, SH3 or SH2 to complain about. The developers are an immensely talented bunch. Think how 'good' GWX would be if Lehman had someone over him saying "It has to be out by May 2006. After that, maybe you can do one more fix, but it has to be out by August 2006. After that, you're done."

If you really wanted to know the current state of SH4, all you had to do was read the multiple threads talking about the great improvements as well as the problems people are still reporting.

thanks for your replies gentlemen.

I like SH4, love its graphics, and really appreciate the concepts... but i thought it had too many unexcusable bugs to begin with and game play was ruined as a result. I WILL BE GIVING SH4 ANOTHER CHANCE. :D sounds like it has come a long way in a short time.

about the quality of every GWX version out there; and the business practices of Ubi...

Kpt. Lehmann IS the guy standing over eveyones shoulder that tells when it has to be released, the thing is... in his true leadership ability which is NOT numbers driven he leads his dev team to produce a highly reliable quality product and deliver it "when it's ready" NOT when we hit the big X on the calendar regardless of quality.

i know as a group of freeware modders, him and his dev team enjoy the luxury of not having to really work with a deadline, or worry about profit margin or "other titles" that require work too etc. UBI doesnt have that luxury, but i also think that Ubisoft and other game developers should be a bit more responsible regarding the quality of their releases.

for example, I just played Bioshock (PC). One of the most detail oriented first person shooters to date. Now... given that FPS games are probably easier to code than simulations (i dont know either way). there was not ONE game stopping bug in bioshock, not ONE sound glitch, not ONE single issue or crash to desktop in approximately 16 continuous hours of game play, saves, loads etc. its a brand new unpatched release, what gives? why isnt it constantly screwing up and crashing?

Microsoft Flight simulator X is another example, some folks complained about how it runs on their computers, but since i meet the recommended reuirments i had no issues with the sim. I dont believe i have ever had a single crash to desktop, i dont have any game stopping issues, and the game doesnt CTD every time i level off and try to hold altitude. the air traffic controller voice doesnt repeat over and over "You are cleared to land, land, land, land, land, land" It was a brand new title in a genre that had history... The Microsoft Flight simulator line of sims has been around for a similar length of time as the Silent service/ silent hunter series... why doesnt the initial unpatched version of FSX constantly crash and screw up? why doesnt it have issues that more or less stop or at least seriously affect game play?

my final question is simply this... what makes SH4... or any other SH series for that matter any different from FSX or Bioshock or Call of Duty or IL2?

and i dont want to hear about "lower fan base" or "FPS and Flight sims are more popular than sub sims."...

...those things are not the issue, my dad told me when i was very young that "anything worth doing is worth doing right... if you're sole job in life is only to build chain link fence posts, then by all means, build the strogest, straightest and most reliable fence posts you can." its the ethics of the gaming companies thats the issue with me.

again thanks for your replies, and thank you for renewing my interest in SH4... once i clear my desk of other projects i will give it another shot.

@ GoldenRivet
 

You sound like my kinda guy. I didn't uninstall SHIV but it deliberately sat idle for a few months while I enjoyed SHIII (NYGM 2.0) via Wolves At War. I completely agree about your comments ref the inexcusable bugs/errors in such a graphically beautiful game (see my post about the rubber raft collision sound, eeuw, got the shivers just typing that, LOL). As you point out LOTS of games have been released with no or very minor bugs and are quickly patched. Why the SHIV debacle occured is a mystery although I suspect the almighty $ is involved in some way, LOL. Personally I do not blame the actual developers I blame the distributor..UBISOFT for being greedy SOBs and obviously rushing out this product.

Having said all that, Patch 1.3 and the impressive work of the modding community out there, for me, have resurrected this game. If an equivalent mod to NYGM is created for SHIV then I'm sure I'll be almost as happy as I am now with SHIII.