I downloaded a majority of the mods listed above, many of them are interface and graphic improvements and are wonderful mods. I have to give the modders credit, they are doing their best to turn a Ford Pinto into a world class super car - they have little to work with.
After playing through a couple of patrols into the night and early this morning I'm afraid Silent Hunter 5 is just too far gone a lame horse to continue to be dealt with as far as i am concerned.
I have tried time and time again to give this game a fair shake but the interface, even when modded is clunky and awkward - mostly due to the key commands and the lack of a dial type system that silent hunter players have been accustomed to for decades.
the voice acting is an atrocity... somewhere in the series with silent hunter 4 this started to become an issue, and im not sure why but SH3 doesnt have this problem - but SH4 and SH5 have the issue which is still ongoing where the crew takes 3 - 4 second pauses between words... I cant explain it "Escort sighted!!........... bearing......... three....... one........ zero"
atop of that the crew AI seems highly excitable at times that it would seem inappropriate to be shouting
the "story" feels very poorly conceived, unbelievable and lacking in historical accuracy and needs to be completely modded out of the game entirely.
Where they thought it might be a good idea to talk to the watch officer about his goofy children is beyond me, it adds nothing to the experience. This was not something that was missing from previous versions of the series and it is a completely unnecessary feature.
this interpersonal interaction nonsense could have been much more credible if it were handled like the interactions with characters like in half life two... go up, click on them and they will say something mostly inconsequential "Morning sir" "afternoon captain" or any number of non-essential salutations and phrases that didnt require a deep story line which would impede re playability.
additionally, i find moving around the sub to be an awkward experience as well. while neat, and a great feature, i think it would have been improved to have a small layout of the boat on the bottom of the screen (similar to the damage control screen in SH3) by single clicking on a compartment, your captain would automatically walk there without any other input from you. double click and he runs there. - but you still have the option to move there yourself if you want... i think this would have made moving around the sub much easier.
i think i am going to hang it up again at least untill the story line can be erased and the key commands can mirror SH3 or be similar to SH3.
the modders within the community have taken an atrocious horrible game and made it playable. my hat is off to them.
but i think they could have done more if the game was good to start with
