How is SH5?
 

Hi fellow Captains

I don't want to start a big debate here but I must ask the question.
I bought SH5 when it first came out and there were problems and
the posts I had read were bad mouthing the game so I decided to stay
with my favorite SH3. Now that I am back reading the forums after a long absence it looks like SH5 maybe worth booting up again. Should I start
with the basic game or immediately slap on a mod or two? Thanks!

A Warm Welcome Back To The Subsim Community > Slammer597
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If you are new to SH5 look > > HERE << STEAM is not compatible with the essential application TDW’s Generic File Patcher
Steam Conversion Installation Instructions for SH5 Updated Version
Highly Recommended SH5 > The Wolves Of Steel Mega Mod > Includes Optional KSDCommander And Working Enigma M4 Machine:salute:
Do not play the stock game as it is broken and you will just end up frustrated with it.
TWOS is 99.99% stable and can be played with or without manual targeting and real navigation.

TWoS 1.6 in SH5 is like GWX 3.0 is in SH3. It can be somewhat tricky to install as there are several steps that must be followed exactly but, once installed, it is a dream to play.

My experience with WoS right now is of pure joy.
Its really not that hard to install.

Only problem I came across was I tried to install the game in a different folder and that caused me some trouble. But I reinstalled in C:\Ubisoft\... etc.. and its been working great!

i concur, i only have a 120gb SSD as my main OS drive but enough space for the odd game, my gaming HDD is 1tb where i install most of my games and it is where i installed sh5 with wolves of steel. had problems with this, even though i know i did it right. reinstalled onto my SSD as the game automatically suggests and the install of the mod is very easy providing you read the instructions to the letter! just as good as the grey wolves mod if not better!:Kaleun_Cheers:

Wolves of Steel 1.06 04h is very easy to install and very stable and gives you about everything you could want out of the SH5 experience, except more submarines. :)

Steve

No exaggeration? Would you say SH5 with WoS is better than SH3 with GWX?

I ask because I had also given up on SH5 a long time ago and I'm right now in the process of downloading the GWX mod, but if it's as good as you say I might just skip it and go straight back to SH5.

Thanks for all the info. I will be trying SH5 for sure.

I played SH3+GWX for years, until I finally survived the war playing Dead is Dead.

The thing about SH5 is it just has highly superior graphics compared to SH3. SH3 is good, but SH5 is great. The flames are photo-realistic. The smoke is nearly so. Something in WoS has added smoking portholes, windows, and ventilators. The ship damage animations are also spectacular. And the damage is 3-dimensional rather than wallpaper as in SH3. The ability to move around the entire boat in SH5 also makes for a more immersive experience. Especially if you play 100% realism with no map contacts - then your game experience is the uboat, rather than playing mostly from the map.

SH5 does not match the extensive variety of ships that you will find in SH3+GWX. And of course SH5 is limited to the Type VII variants, which, to me, is the biggest disappointment.

The biggest shock to SH5+WoS is you have a glass uboat. It will take damage if someone drops a wrench inside. In SH3 the mantra was "stay out of shallow water". In SH5 the mantra is "stay IN shallow water" because if you take a hit in SH5 you are going to the bottom. At least if it's shallow you can sit on the bottom and maybe patch things up and surface again later. In deep water you will never fix things before you hit crush depth. In SH5+WoS, past 1942 you had better never be detected or you are done for. Best bet is to lob torpedoes at convoys from 5000 meters from the outer pickets using steam FATs and hope for a hit either directly or from the ladder program.

Acoustic torpedoes in SH5 are not as effective as in SH3 where they are basically magic missiles. In SH3 you need only fire them in the general direction of the enemy and they will lock on and do their job. In SH5 they need a much closer track to target and the target has to be moving at high speed to attract the fish. It's entertaining to fire one at an escort as part of a salvo at a convoy, so that when they escorts hit the gas to come looking for you it attracts the homer. But really it's a waste because by the time you get acoustic torpedoes convoys have so many escorts that you have achieved nothing. Better to through 4 FATs at the convoy and leave undetected.

Steve

This sounds kinda disappointing. One of the best moments of SH3 was going as deep as possible and avoiding escorts with depth charges blowing up everywhere around you. The game forcing you to stay in shallow waters seems very gamey and not very realistic to me.

The game does not force you to stay in shallow water at all.
What the previous post was referring to was that IF you take damage, you sure wish you were in shallow water otherwise you are pretty much done for.

If your sub is undamaged (as it should!) you are able to dive to your subs limits and avoid those pesky depth charges.

Well sure, but you should be able to take at least some damage without automatically sinking to crush depth which is what he made it sound like. I loved those close escapes in SH3 which forced me to limp back home for repairs.

Also new to SH5, I just installed the Wolves of Steel mod after playing (and getting extremely frustrated with...) vanilla for a couple days. Does the mod cause fires and flooding to actually damage ships? I can't seem to find the answer anywhere.

The final straw for me in vanilla was engaging a convoy with my deck gun after running out of torps. I put 20-30 AP shells into a Liberty ship before running out of ammo, she was burning from stem to stern and had 13 holes all along the length of the ship that were partially or completely below the waterline. I sat next to her for a long time on 32x hoping she would finally sink, but she never did.

Welcome aboard!
 

I am also looking to get back to SH5, after a long abcense. However, the unpredicted crashes, ctd's, refrain me from diving(!) in to it. Any suggestions on this ?