Silent Hunter 4 'Add On' Info
 

Some of you may be aware of this thread over at the Ubi Forum.

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/t...5/m/2551012895

Ubisoft has been planning to announce an add-on to Silent Hunter 4 that includes a new campaign, U-boats in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, and patch 1.4. The news was leaked prematurely on the Ubisoft forums.

Agreed. The patch 1.3 leak, and now this. :nope:

Hmmm think I can smell humble pie baking. :nope:

Hope its not for me, if it is make mine a small piece!! ;)

If his public post had been as vague as the PM he sent me (basically a "you might not want to work too hard on the campaign until the patch due to what they told me" that I refered to in that quote as the "heads up"), he'd have not spilled any beans.

Odd that in a private note he'd be very circumspect, yet so explicit in that thread.

tater

Thus far I have read complaints about the Uboat in the PTO. The uboat is to be in the Indian Ocean. If I'm not mistaken, this was a place of operation for the uboat. I'm really getting the feeling that some think they will be sailing a German uboat from Pearl!!!!!

good news, plus this may finally entice the SH3 modders to switch to SH4.

Yeah, while I'm not in favor of any "wasted" effort WRT add ons for Wolves of the PACIFIC, I have been trying to correct the notion at ubi that it is fantasy. Course the idea that 5-6 U-boats had more impact on the Pacific War then the entire IJN submarine force is patently absurd.

What some there fail to realize is the "bang for the buck" factor. I posted at the zoo about it after a fashion. Adding SH3 stuff had to be fairly easy for them, unlike adding japanese externals, internals and crew. The stuff is all there, and could be ported over in a straightforward way with just upgraded textures (1024, plus the added O and N stuff) and possibly upgraded DMs.

You can't fault them for doing that if it was easy to do. If they spent a lot of time creating german supply ships (most were sunk en route anyway) I'd be a little annoyed if they didn't make some badly needed small escorts for the IJN. Same reason, bang for the buck. Chose 3d units to build based on them, one, being targets/adversaries, two, being built in large numbers. To me that means coastal jap shipping, and/or matsu and a kaibokan.

tater

In a pm he would not have got the attention that he craves. Hence the leak.

And they wonder why the developers shun that forum...

JCC

As long as they iron out some more code bugs with 1.4 which modders can't address (except with workarounds like starting out of Pearl at the other side of Midway for the dateline bug), then I don't care if they add Volkswagons and Lugers into SH4. As long as I can be an American sub commander starting out from Pearl in 1941, then I'll be happy because that's what I bought it for. But that's just me . . . I respect everyone's right to voice their preferences.:)

U 862 was the only U-boat which operated in the Pacific, all the other "Monsun" Boats had as area of operation the Indic Ocean and the South China Sea.

Thats the spirit Letterboy1:up: But, we can now think globally for both PTO and ETO within the same game.:yep:

Does seem a bit silly to me to expand on a WWII Pacific Theater submarine game by modelling German U-Boats so we can play out obscure Kriegsmarine operations that had little to no impact on the Pacific or European wars.

Especially since there are American submarines that have not been modelled, Japanese escorts that would be great to see in an official patch, etc, etc, etc.

That said, I am happy support for the game is continuing. I just have to question why they're pursuing objectives that are, as one might say, not related to the overall mission. It'd have been much, much more immersive/logical to add the capability to play Japanese submarines (despite their low impact on the war) or perhaps Allied boats, such as those of the Dutch or British.

I have mixed feelings about this. Some of the people at the Ubi forum are understandably upset that U-Boats are going to be modeled i/s of Japanese subs and/or several important American classes.

The implication that Japanese subs did not really have an impact on the war is strange, and slightly offensive IMO. The Japanese fought bravely under a faulty tactical doctrine, and I am sure the survivors of the "Juneau", "Wasp", and "Indianapolis" would have some pretty strong opinions of their own about the Japanese's effectiveness. :roll:

I do appreciate that they are still willing to provide support for the game at this late date, especially since many people consider simulations to be a money losing proposition.

My main hope is that by concentrating on the most important aspects of porting over U-Boats and a Kriegsmarine career, the developers will enable modders from "Atlantic Sharks" and maybe some people from the GWX team to create a fully functional U-Boat campaign using SH4. The main concerns would be adding more Atlantic shipping lanes (easy), porting AI vessels & aircraft (fairly easy), adding any U-Boats and weaponry not included in this upcoming add-on (hard) and making appropriate career/interface screens (fairly hard).

Perhaps the added u-boat functionality will allow an easy way to have multiple nationality campaigns. Select country, then select fleet and year.

Might make it a little easier to mod in dutch and brit boats...

tater

Not knowing for sure what will be added with this patch(addon?), all I can say is THANK YOU developers and Ubi for taking the time and money to add to my enjoyment of SHIII and SHIV. :up: