Temper. People have been spanked for less.
Now to your questions. The reason I say it could have been worded better is because each one reads like you already new the answers, and knew that in some respects SH3 is still better. So you can see where the "trolling" accusations come from.
But, in the interest of honest relations I'll do my best to answer them. No, I haven't played the game, but there is more information here than there is on most events from ancient history and I quote those all the time, so I'll take the chance.
Only the Type VII, but you get the VIIA, VIIB, VIIC and, I think VIIC41. The reason is that they pushed the boundaries and gave the player the ability to walk through the entire boat. I didn't want this feature, but then I was against SH3's 3D crew, and I've reached the point where I can't live without them, so I'll probably grow to like this when the time comes.
But no, there is no Type II, Type IX or Type XXI, the first of which I consider a huge negative.
September 1939 yes, August no. The stock game ends in 1943, but several talented people, including Zedi, are working their tails off to make 1945 a reality. Because of the way I play I wish we could start in 1944 or '45, but that's probably not far off either.
Answered by Trevally. I would like to add that you can't really go into the Pacific in SH3, though you can in SH4.
Even SH3 is limited in that regard. There are only so many flotillas available, and adding a new one means dropping an old one.
Not really a fair question, since SH3 Commander is a special program constructed by a very talented programmer. SH4 and SH5 could both have the same functions if some equally talented programmer chose to do the same for them. That no one has is not a reflection on either game.
Now for my opinion, which, though possibly biased is probably not far off from what it would be had I been playing the game from the start.
SH5 is still a work in progress, as is SH4. SH3 is still being developed, but all the new work is trying to catch up to where SH5 is already.
The Good: SH5 is graphically the most intense and most beautiful of all the SH series, and in that respect the most immersive.
The Bad: As has been pointed out many times elsewhere, great graphics don't really make up for mediocre gameplay. Stock SH5 suffers from problems, but so did SH4 and SH3. Further, if the people who say that really truly believed it they'd be going out of their way to find copies of Aces Of The Deep, because for sheer variety in every respect that one still hasn't been topped. That said, I played AOTD a few times last month, and while it is incredibly immersive in the way it feels, I have to admit that the way it looks is a big part of the feel to me, and it just doesn't cut it anymore.
The Good: SH5 has better crew interaction and walking through the whole boat.
The Bad: The interaction is extremely limited and the boat is not drawn in detail, and there are very few crewmembers aboard. Of course every detail and every crewman you add increase the load on the computer. Also, they have done away with all the crewmembers having names in favor of more detail for the few they do have. And while you can talk to a few of them, the conversation is very limited. Bear in mind that these things are being worked on.
Things I Look Forward To: SH5 is almost certainly the future. Problems are being solved and defects corrected almost daily. It has the most potential of any of them, and if playing a subsim and sinking ships is your goal then it is the best.
Things I'm Still Unhappy About
: I can't play in my lovely little Type II. I like the way SH4 handles crew management. Neither SH3 nor SH5 meets that standard. On the other hand SH4 has a couple of its own little quirks which can be quite annoying.
My Biggest Peeve: The u-boat pens. SH3 had the harbors all screwed up, though mods have corrected much of that (of course I don't have the computer to run some of them). SH4 has the exact same flaws, and no one yet adapted the SH3 modded harbors for SH4. SH5 seems to have much more accurate harbors from the start, and there is a mod which adds so much more it's beautiful and scary at the same time. But SH5, in an effort to make it more 'immersive' has you start from the sub pen. This is a problem for me because Kiel didn't get pens until very late in the war (after the stock game ends, in fact) and Wilhelmshaven never had sub pens at all. This annoys me more than anything, and in spite of all the endorsements for the game from those who play it regularly makes me grind my teeth every time I see someone post pictures of those harbors.
But a great many love it and their opinion is as valid for them as anyone else's is for them. I'll probably end up playing all three, just because they all have things I love and they all have things I hate. And yes, I'll still play AOTD and SH1 from time to time. For me there seems to be no winning.