[Capt. D]

Giving players the "option" does not make it something lesser.
I want to have a choice. Sometimes Im in the mood to sail out of port at 1x speed. Sometimes I would like to get down to buisness. It takes forever to get to any patrol zones near the US even at 1024x. If you do go across the Atlantic at 1024x your just staring at a laggy (for me)map screen, not much of an ocean simulator.

Can you actually prove that the majority wants it, or is it just a faulty assumption á la "the vast majority of players wants all compartments to be 3D"?

You need compression of some sorts, and the suggestion of an actual jump-to mechanism instead of a flakey time compression mechanism isn't such a bad call.

But there is more than this forum, isn't there?

There are 300,000 players of SH3. How many of them do you think enjoy spending 1 hour to "get to the action" everytime they start a game?

...and lastly:

If you don't wanna wait use the Time Compression. But, as Immacolata already said, it would do not do any harm to put such a feature in. "We" could still use our Prefered slow method, while Non-Addicted with a life could have it the faster way.

A wide range of opinions - and that's what's good about this type of forum. If I may put my take to all this;

There are those who wish to be able to experiance the total experiance with which US subs crews had during their patrols - that being from the first order "cast away forward lines" to "all stop" while the band plays "Anchors Away" and officers of COMSUBPAC walk across the gang plank to welcome the boat back and congratulate it on a job well done. Great! and if one has the time to spend 60 some days to experiance this all the better! This is a sim and should give one the feeling of being there. (Some times I wish we could just go to the holo deck and tell the computer to initialize patrol 1 - for you Star Trek fans)

There is much to be said about the sim giving one the most realistic experiance one can have from a computer generated "game". However there is also much to be said about the opportunity to "skip" to the "meat of the problem" (patrol). I think the words "Non-Addicted" are rather strong. I am definitly an addicted "fan" of the US Submarine actions in WWII. I have read many many books on the subject both fact and fiction and have viewed movies of the same. I have visited many US WWII boats and plan on a third visit to the US Silversides later this month. My point is I enjoy and look forward to playing the current sub sims in the Silent Hunter series and have waited for a new Pacific version anxiously for some time. Having said all this I do not have the opportunity at this juncture to be able to sit down and use some of the valuable "real time" that I have to cover the many miles of ocean I need to travel to get to the "meat of the problem" my patrol area. Hence time compression.

If I am not mistaken SHI - when using time compression - would automaticaly either reduce the time you were in or automaticaly bring it to 0 if you were in contact with enemy shipping. Is this the ultimate process. No. But could some tweaking make it possiable for those who can not make "real time" for the process of getting to the patrol area, be able to go there with TC however be made aware of and forced to deal with contacts from way point to way point. The "jump to" feature some discuss I believe was somewhat avaliable in SHI when after leaving your base the next screen did place you in your patrol area. Something of that feature could be made avaliable as a choice to the player when setting up your realism factors!

When it comes down to the bottom line ( and we can not forget that that is and must be in the discussion - bottom line) the quote above indicating 300,000 SHIII players - UBISoft I am sure is also looking at sales. Having been in retail for over 37 years, marketing is a major factor for new items being placed for sale. Both sides have excellent issues, and both sides must be able to be drawn to the game for UBISoft to be profitable. I would gather that they will attempt to cover both sides of this issue with the hope to please the addicted gamer whether they have the "real time" to play the game in real time or need to quicken the pace so they can be at their childs rehersal or sport game etc. I really believe this can be accomplished and maybe be placed in an area where the gamer is setting up their realism factors!

Just my thoughts for what they are worth.

Happy Hunting