[Ducimus]

The following is a repost of a post i made over a year ago with some minor changes. I think its time to post this again to start a new dicussion on this:

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Making a wild guess here, I'm guessing most people have the external camera on. I mean, lets face it, we all love eye candy. External camera gives the game a cinematic feel. Seeing your own sub with that slick looking Foobar skin is very appealing and gratifying. What's more seeing the damage you've wrought onto your target with debris (or bodies) flying with massive explosions is REALLY gratifying.

However....
with all that goodness comes some negative's, at least in my opinion. But to summarize the negative, the external camera takes away an element of uncertainty, suspense, and believeability.

For example, you have one or more sound contacts. You have no idea what they are. One quick push of the , or . keys and you instantly know. Or you could cycle views on every ship in an entire convoy and see what you have in there. The reality is, you'd never know what these sound contacts are until you pop the scope. (same goes for radar contacts too). The short of it is, the external camera gives you ..far ....far... FAR more info then a real submarine captain would have had. A sub really has two primary sensors really. The good ole fashioned Mark I eyeball fixed on a periscope or pair of binoculars or sound.... your hydrophones. In a situation where your submerged, the hydrophones become your eyes, as you have absolutely no other way to obtain information.

Another example is all the building and landscape. Its beleiveable when viewed from the bridge, but looking at it up close, things tend to look a bit on the lame side.

Other examples would be seeing exactly how your torpedo's hit, or the status of a target that was hit when your submerged beyond periscope depth; something you'd never be able to do in real life.

But the biggest example is that element of suspense and claustphobia. Not present to any degree when your boat is 400 feet deep, and yet your looking at your pursuer on the surface as if bobbing around in a life boat. Imagine yourself under a depth charge attack, without the ability to hit F12 or any other camera hot keys. Sound plays a much bigger role, and like a real captain, you'll have to wonder what's going on up there. What are they doing? Laying in wait? Going away?

With your view confined to essentually the control room or conning tower. All you have to rely on is your brains, wits, your sonar, and your gut instincts. Personally i find myself a lot more attentive - closing my eyes, trying to visualize whats going on up there. Other times i even find myself on the edge of my seat because the anticipation of what might about to happen is just killing me! The desire to hit F12 to relieve that is immense, but when you don't do it, and succeed, its pretty satisfying.


Point of all this is..... Try turning off that external camera for at least one patrol and see how your experience changes - particuarly if your being depth charged. Having the external camera off, things change from being a game, to being a sim. I know the eye candy is hard to give up, but personally i think its worth it.