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tater · 09-09-10, 06:59 PM

Because the fundamental paradigm of the SH3+ series is wrong.

If they had properly focused on the player as captain, "difficulty levels" vs player activities of CHOICE would have been easy to split. Instead, SH5 adds eye candy that requires the player to walk around I guess, simply to justify stuff you'd not otherwise see that has no real gameplay use.

In Sh4, for example, the player should take bearings and ranges. He should have to specifically assign (mentally) a serial number (target 1, target 2, etc) to each ship (the game should not remmeber for you). On subsequent observations, he should select "'target 1" then take another bearing and range. if he selects the wrong target... he screws up the solution. His plotter (a junior officer) should PLOT.

As player if you take a bearing, the plotter should draw a radial line on that bearing. If you take 2 bearing/ranges on the same target, the plotter should draw a line, and have the course, AOB, and range on the chart (and a quick way to tell them to enter that in the TDC.

Ditto for all other types of contact. A crew that does realistic work for you—where the errors of the player are propagated by the crew.

Instead, the choice is to do the job of the skipper, XO, plotter, radarman, sonarman, etc. (some jobs don't get done at any decent level unless you do it yourself)—or set the game to magical modes where instead of plotting based on observations, it's plotted based on real-time GPS data conveniently supplied to the sub by the willing victims. That or magical targeting where all you do is wish them dead and hit "fire."

"full realism" is the only option that leaves any fog of war, but it requires the player to do things he should not have to do. I'm fine with the ability to do all the jobs as an OPTION, but I'd prefer a sim where I'm the skipper, myself.

09-09-10, 06:59 PM	#14
tater Navy Seal Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: New Mexico, USA Posts: 9,023 Downloads: 8 Uploads: 2	Because the fundamental paradigm of the SH3+ series is wrong. If they had properly focused on the player as captain, "difficulty levels" vs player activities of CHOICE would have been easy to split. Instead, SH5 adds eye candy that requires the player to walk around I guess, simply to justify stuff you'd not otherwise see that has no real gameplay use. In Sh4, for example, the player should take bearings and ranges. He should have to specifically assign (mentally) a serial number (target 1, target 2, etc) to each ship (the game should not remmeber for you). On subsequent observations, he should select "'target 1" then take another bearing and range. if he selects the wrong target... he screws up the solution. His plotter (a junior officer) should PLOT. As player if you take a bearing, the plotter should draw a radial line on that bearing. If you take 2 bearing/ranges on the same target, the plotter should draw a line, and have the course, AOB, and range on the chart (and a quick way to tell them to enter that in the TDC. Ditto for all other types of contact. A crew that does realistic work for you—where the errors of the player are propagated by the crew. Instead, the choice is to do the job of the skipper, XO, plotter, radarman, sonarman, etc. (some jobs don't get done at any decent level unless you do it yourself)—or set the game to magical modes where instead of plotting based on observations, it's plotted based on real-time GPS data conveniently supplied to the sub by the willing victims. That or magical targeting where all you do is wish them dead and hit "fire." "full realism" is the only option that leaves any fog of war, but it requires the player to do things he should not have to do. I'm fine with the ability to do all the jobs as an OPTION, but I'd prefer a sim where I'm the skipper, myself. Last edited by tater; 09-09-10 at 11:59 PM.