I'm not impressed so far. The merchant ships often seem to disintegrate in huge fireballs once they lose all their hitpoints. Realistically, only vessels carrying flammable substances should react that way. At the other extreme, there have been some reports of vessels taking too long to sink or proceeding at near top speed with heavy damage.
In the next few days I will be working on both ship and torpedo hitpoint values so that there is a bit more uncertainty when you hit a ship. I would like to have randomized flooding rates for individual ship compartments, but I am not yet sure if this is possible. If I'm satisfied with the results I will release my changes as a mod.
On the plus side, the particle effects themselves are the best yet for an unmodded Silent Hunter series game. Fire graphics are amazing. Smoke is adequate, but needs more detail. Explosions are also beautiful, but a bit arcade-ish, and end too quickly. In all likelihood we will be able to mod the particles with existing tools or (hopefully) an updated version of S3d Editor.
I can't speak as to the U-Boat damage model - haven't taken any damage yet. Other users report that the boat can't withstand surface fire very long, which is good IMO. No more unrealistic deck gun battles with destroyers.
Lifeboats are supposed to be in but I haven't seen any yet. Debris seems to be crates only - no bodies.
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