Quote:
Originally Posted by F1motion@yahoo.com
Hello fellow captains, I have been wanting to try SH-5 but was told it was too buggy and to stick to SH-4 ...But it seems it may be playable now?
|
Yes, SH5 was so bad as to be almost unplayable. That was six years ago. A host of dedicated modders have worked on it until today which version you play is really a matter of choice, as each of them has something the others lack. Though you didn't mention it, I still play SH3, and for that very reason.
Quote:
|
Can someone outline the differences in these two versions and maybe give me a reason to buy this game?
|
SH3
The Good: Despite being 11 years old, many players still prefer SH3. The reason is that there are so many mods for it that you can have almost any type of game you want. Serious supermods like NYGM, which boasts the most realistic AI when being stalked by the enemy. Dedicated immersion mods like LSH3, which offers an amazing amount of things to look at when travelling through the SH3 world, including real working locks at the canals and harbors that had them. GWX, which strives to strike a balance between the two, and a host of players think it does an excellent job.
And then there's SH3 Commander, not a mod but an external tool which not only lets you adjust in-game parameters with the click of a button, and greatly expands the options for how your career runs but also fleshes out the ships you attack with cargo loads and crew numbers and actual ships' names in your patrol report.
The Bad: SH3 was the first subsim to have a full crew, with names, ranks and stations. Unfortunately the way the fatigue worked you had to switch them out yourself on a regular basis, which is not only unrealistic but tedious. That problem has never been resolved, and the only complete solution is still to just turn the fatigue off and don't worry about it.
SH4
The Good: Since you obviously want to drive a U-boat stock SH4 had nothing to offer. The 1.5 upgrade added U-boats in the Pacific in 1943 and fixed some of the problems in the stock game, but it took some real supermods like IX-D2 and Operation Monsun to give it some quality. The stock improvements over SH3 included a crew which automatically rotates the shift watches in and out, and the "Battle Stations" function that puts everyone on duty and the best man in command of each station is cool. Op Monsun gives a full Atlantic campaign and that's just about all you need.
The Bad: Mostly lies in what hasn't been modded and at this point likely never will be. No locks (or even lock stations) at the canals. The Kiel Canal looks like a giant river. Nothing like SH3 Commander to give ship names and advanced crew functions. This is why I still play SH3. That said, those are fairly little things and many players of SH4 believe they are easily outweighed by the good.
SH5
The Good: Of course the first thing anyone notices is the way it looks. Even in screenshots it really is beautiful, and when people post videos here or in SubSim's FaceBook page I always watch them. A huge amount of modding work has been done to SH5, expanding the campaign to 1945, getting rid of the "auras" around the crew members and making everything function the way it should. People who use the Wolves Of Steel supermod say it makes everything just about perfect.
The Bad: You can still only run a Type VII U-boat, though you can choose between the four major variants of that boat. There are still a very limited number of merchant types to shoot at. On the other hand, there is something afoot that may change all that fairly soon.
SH5, like SH4, doesn't have animated harbor and canal lock gates, though the locks themselves are there.
SH5 has done away with crew management, and the crew, altogether. Yes, there are animated crewmen, and yes, you can "talk" to a few of them. What is gone is the crew list, names, ranks and functions. You no longer know who your crew are, except for the officers and cook.
For some that's a minor thing, or not a thing at all. For me it's a major setback. As I said, I don't go with either of your options, but still play SH3. I wish SH5 had been SH3 with its problems fixed and the new graphics. That is a personal preference, however, and everybody has their reasons for liking what they do. I hope this gives you some insight into the differences so you can make an educated choice.
Of course they're so cheap these days that you could try all three and make that choice yourself.
