>>my biggest complaints were the special forces rafts and agent rafts would flip over
Still happends on occason.
>>the downed airmen were too hard to find
Marked with red smoke now.
>>the numerous crash bugs
I havent had SH4 crash on me in quite awhile, and ive been modding it, as oppose to just using it. Acutally i take that back, SH4 crashed on me yesterday, when i tried to load a saved game at sea from TM 1.5 under TM 1.6. I knew it would crash (not in port), but i had to try anyway.
>>the inability to interact with stations and crew on any effective level
You have all important functionality. The only thing you don't have is the "shoulder tap" type of interaction.
>>the nagging of sounds that would repeat over and over and over and over again.
Rudder... rudder?
That was ubisoft trying to recreate what im assuming is US Navy protocol. WHen an officer gives an order, the enlisted man repeats to order as sort of a confirmation. So if the OOD says, Rudder 10 degrees to port. The helmsman is supposed to repeat the order as he heard it. The problem with this in its curent implentation is twofold:
1.) they dont repeat the ENTIRE order, so all you get is "rudder.. rudder"
2.) soemtimes the helmsman has the same voice type as the OOD, which as you can imagine can be rather lame.
So to answer the question, yup, still there. Knowing what its supposed to be helps it not be so bothersome.
All said, try TM1.6 before unistalling SH4, you might be pleasantly surpised. The modpack represents a collective community effort and the games come a long ways. Id say at 6 months of age, SH4 is about where SH3 was at 1 year of age, maybe even a little farther along then that.