Observations of a Rookie

[miteymitey]

I played the original Silent Hunter and Silent Hunter Commander's Edition for several years and dearly enjoyed them. I blew a lot of hours prowling the Pacific Ocean in my vitual sub hunting and, with some luck, sinking the vitual enemy. It was lots of fun and, at times, exciting. I tried Silent Hunter II but wasn't nearly as impressed with it. It seemed to have a lot of quirks and I just couldn't get nearly as excited about sinking Allied ships. Yes, I know it's only a game, but somehow that seemed to be less enjoyable than sinking Jap ships. What can I say? I never even knew there was a an SH3. Imagine that.

Anyway, I recently purchased Silent Hunter IV and have been playing it for a couple of weeks now, after upgrading to 1.3 of course. I liked the Sub School. It was educational. I've done several war patrols and used them mostly for practice, sometimes neglecting the stated objective of the patrol. Haven't done a career yet, but will try that soon. For the most part I find the game entertaining and while the graphics are truly amazing compared to the original Silent Hunter, the new SH4 has some quirks of its own. When attacking a convoy, the escorts are not nearly as agressive as they were in SH. They just seem to mill around, sometimes being content to stay as far away from the action as possible. At first I would fire my torpedo's at a target(s) and then hussle down to 100 feet or so in anticipation of an attack that never came. Of course, if they see you (your periscope or if you're on the surface) they'll come a running, guns blazing. I was amazed during one attack to watch a destroyer put itself in reverse then stop, letting a freighter pass by. It would have been a sitting duck if I had been in a position to fire. And I have hit targets with 6 or more torpedos with no effect. Yes, they were set to what should have been an effective depth and they impacted. The ship just keeps sailing along. But overall it's a pretty good game. As time goes by I'm sure I'll learn more about how to do what I want to do. And it isn't without some realistic challenges. Since I got it for nearly half the retail price, I'm sure I'll get my money's worth out of it.

One humorous item it noticed about the graphics. The crew members on the merchant ships seem to be a bit unusually dressed. Do you suppose most merchant crew men on WWII Jap ships actually wore slacks with sport coats and ties? I'm just pretending they are dressed for their funeral.

I want to thank all of you guys who fought for the 1.3 fixes. I didn't find this site until a few months ago, but I've watched it closely to see how the SH4 program was coming. I agree with some of the folks who would like to see a 1.4 come around. If it does, that's great. If not, I guess we'll work with what we've got.