[edjcox]

You were a U boot commander in SH3 with a crew and many helpers focusing the warshps fighting abilities upon the enemy. Your XO probably flipped the pages to the right ship based on your verbal observations and report. Perhaps he may have even had the observation scope up an identified the ship as you did.

In SH4 the developers have chosen to busy you with a multitude of trivial taskings requiring clickin and poking about on the screens. There seems to be only one warrior aboard ship and that is you. No one seemingly takes actions, has any sense, or can act as a delegated member of the ships command structure.

In my mind that is what is missing between the two games and their functionality. You really need to have a crew that learns as you fight and begins to function automatically unless you order otherwise. If damage is taken a repair team ought to form automatically and begin work unless you counter their efforts by order or silen running inhibits noisy work...

If an aircraft attackes the boat your AA crew ought to man the guns and a "Request permission to fire!" should ring out and allow you to answer. If you order "Battle stations surface..." your crew should surface the boat, man the respective guns and your next concern as a commander should be only to decide which ship to engage... As you XO uses the TDC to identify and range a target the gun crew ought to get that range and engage it and refine their shooting. This concept of your aving to jump to the guns scope and fiddle up and down until the range is right is not the way things were and fails to give you that commanders sense. A crew is present and should be ranging and providing inputs to you for decisions.

The failing of the SH4 game to allow you to know that tube one two or three is reloading and will be ready to fire in XXX seconds is a dismal oversight at best. Again, this information was essential to a commander and the torpedo crews provided it to the Tacticial officer as routine. It again gives you a sense of being in command and allowing you to decide whch way to skipper the boat and what targets you might select based on when the next fish or eel as some call them will be available.

Fundamentally SH4 should and actually does have some improvements but I feel this lack of command feel is an underlieing flaw and reason for some dissatisfaction. Reducing the stations shown was at best a decision forced by a lack of time and resources versus what's right for the game. A sonar area and operator, a radar area and operator, an engineering officer, an XO and position, the forward deck during a rescue, etc are all things that would have enhanced the command feel. Even a commander bunk, shipboard office, shipboard log, medical area, etc...

I just expected more and UBI fell short. Needless I think they would have been well served useing technical specialists and even some sub sim community folks as consultants to work out some community expectations. I was astounded that they were unable to.

I've played a lot of Sub simulators over the past decade and a half. It's safe to say this one has some of the best imagery ever. It lacks much of the aboard ship feel and skipper of the boat feel.

So there, another rant or rave, or whatever. I took the time to write it in hopes that someone might read it and work on the issue...

Don't bother with the rocks, in a steel hulled sub the just clang and fall off and sink to the mire on the bottom....:rotfl: