SH5 Interview conclusions

[martes86]

Hi everyone,

seeing as it is a global concern the new direction of SH, I'll voice my concerns in a separate thread, this one. So:

- While I don't use myself all types in SH3 or SH4UBM, it's definitely a big loss not to have at least Types II & IX in the sim. That much detail went to the VII interior (a single class, which I guess will always display the same interior no matter the variant used) that the rest of Types couldn't be modelled? At most, I used VII & IX, and that gave some variety to MP missions... now all subs will be the same in MP. And always being restricted to Type VII boats, always the same sight, I don't know. I know for a fact that many people won't like this.
- I hope SH5's crew management (morale and tireness specifically) doesn't work as in SH3, that is, micromanagement at the level of a Bootsmann's or a Leutnant's on-board organization duties.
- Animations have been mentioned. Seeing crew move down the hatch as a "at the moment, no", but maybe later yes? Seeing how much detail is being put into the interiors just for one Type, it would be improper to have a lame teleporting crew.
- Shortcuts. I love the FPS approach, since the captain couldn't actually teleport to stations at will, he had to walk and sort obstacles. But I think my opinion is a minoritary one, and that shortcuts are a matter of gameplay, and that loss can also represent a significative step back, specially when trying to appeal to newbies.
- The approach to the tutorials seems nice. Starting as a lower officer, I guess that we'll see the Kaleun (AI) in action... what kind of stuff will we be able to do as an XO in the tutorial? Or is that just a weird workaround of sorts, and the XO actually acts as the Kaleun but with lower rank? Anyway, if it's real and not a workaround or illusion, it opens some cool ideas for modding.
- The campaign ending in 1943... well, I've never gotten that far in SH3, though it was fun to start a campaign in the late years, and glance at the technologies, the units, the difficulties... having the last 2 years removed is another important loss of what was considered a whole war simulator, not just a sub-period simulator. Again, another thing that never really affected me, but that represents an important detail for others. It also cuts tournament managers (like the WPL) some useful possibilities regarding online campaign management.
- The wolfpacks, well, it would have been desired a more intense communication (specially with BDU, not just do-it-yourself driven actions), judging from what we're being described, but it seems like at least there will be AI subs that act on their own.
- Graphics capabilities, well, seems to be the most evolved part. Antialias, multiple resolutions... that looks like it's going on the right track. We should see how it manages upon release.
- Having had "sort of" an adversarial mode in SH4, cutting this off SH5 seems like another big step back. Coop-mode has been done to death. Fairly straight gaming mode, it doesn't offer much to the players, other than what the respective mission creator had in mind. To this matter, MP gaming, which I see as a strong contributor for life within gaming communities (like the 24th), a revolution on that aspect would do much to keep us alive. With PT-Boats being officially a rather bad (and unable to support our structures) title, SH5 is what's left to us to try to keep MP gaming alive, and tournament/campaign gaming for that matter. It would be a VERY IMPORTANT step to implement multistation gaming. That'd pretty much revive MP gaming. In fact, it is our opinion in the 24th that, if SH5 doesn't meet up to our expectations, we might have to officially support other thematic simulators, like IL2, or ArmA2, so that the community doesn't die out of tournament boredom. There's like 2 months or less ahead to try and implement such a feature, and as a professional programer, having already set-up ordinary MP modes, I think it wouldn't be too hard to implement such a feature.
- Modding. First of all, a solid (and developer friendly) mission editor should come with SH5, that's a must. Second, right, the files are more open and all that... but with no SDK of sorts, and a whole new way of making stuff, figuring out completely how to properly get new stuff into the sim (namely, ships and interiors - 3D models, after all) could perfectly take from 6 months to +1 year, depending on the presence of available and dedicated programmers who can code out some tools, like S3D. Either you must at least implement the old stuff for having a II and IX controllable subs (no full interiors, just the old ones... sort of "legacy" capabilities), or you must make it damn easy to implement such things ourselves. Or else, I see a short lifespan for this title, despite all the good premises.
- Addons and DLCs, well, there's a lot of skepticism regarding those. People are already angry that such stuff is being released just to patch or add stuff that should have been right at the time of release, and doubt if buying addons is really worth it. As for DLCs, if they're free, I'm fine with it, as long as is useful stuff. Pay-DLCs on the other hand, are not the best commercial model for people that are already skeptic about buying full addon packs.
- Copy protection. Totally useless in this world of world-wide piracy, a waste of time for devs, a waste of money for distributor, a headache source for users, and a lot of fun for crackers (and anyone that wants a cracked exe for their pirated game). Since it's probably being done anyways, I hope it's a friendly system, not the nightmare Starforce was.

All that said, I also find it worth of noting the fact that the Devs have taken the time to do the interview, and also take time to answer some questions down in the field, which should clearly show people the attitude of the team towards the fans, despite the results of their development efforts being negative some times.
I also want to say that this is no rant, just some objective thoughts on the interview. Some constructive feedback to help as much as possible. I still have some hope for this title to be worth of our time (and money), I really want it to be a success, because it has stuff I'd very much like to use and have fun with, and because its success will also be our own success.

Cheers.

PS.: Neal, little Q... how did you conduct the interview? In person or via chat/mail?
PS2.: I tried to post this once, the site stopped working, so I think I haven't dup-posted, sorry if I have.