[XenonSurf]

I think it's time for me as a pure player - and not as a producer or developer - to give you my opinion here. I've played almost all subsims which deserve that name and frankly: I don't think that any new submarine simulation although it can surely be done would be a golden egg as for financial success. The genre is simply saturated. If I want to play a submarine game, it's enough for me to buy or play what is already exsistant, no new game can IMO surpass what has been done by Ubisoft, or other great titles mentioned above like Cold Waters, Dangerous Waters, SH series, and even sub games of the 90s which some players prefer because of their simple gameplay and not for their stunning grafics. Even the niche of simplistic sub sims is filled (Crash Dive excels in this area.)
Then, an important factor for you to investigate is: These mentioned titles surely had (have) great success by submarine lovers, but were (are) they financial successes overall? Not in all cases I think.

Only thing I would buy at this point probably is a sub sim like Cold Waters but with multistations and *optional* complexity in the instruments of a submarine and crew management (go look at the original stand of U-Boat for that matter), but the dynamic campaign and re-playability would be crucial for me, also a convincing war environment in the form of an intelligent plot that comes with the campaign. Some days I find the simple UI of Cold Waters good enough to just 'dive' in the game, complexity is not a must for me. But problem for you is: there ARE such games already, maybe not with stunning grafics or included storylines or unexpected events now and then, but these may not be a buy criteria for a sub game. I simply have a very hard time to imagine how you could make it that much better to ensure you big revenues, but then: Some seconds to watch a good play-through video of yours could change everything for me to make it an instant buyer, that's what I hope!

Then another thing you may not find spoken-out too openly in these forums: For younger people, 'submarines' are a thing of the past, not a delightment of the present, more a thing for History books. Another analogy of the past: Why are there no tank simulators published so often today? Because even a 12-year old kid knows: Tanks are there to be shot down, it's their inevitable quick fate, no chance, no real fun in any sort of realism-oriented game. It's hard for young people to forget about super rockets and playing a WW1 or WW2 game; even modern submarines start to have this image of remote times. For you this means it can make a big difference (say lack) in the selling numbers for your title.



I hope this feedback is of some help to you, I wish you good luck with your project should it materialize.



Best greetings,
XS