My wish list for the next U-boat sim

GoldenRivet · 04-26-07, 01:24 AM

Im sure there have been a lot of these posts, but this is my wish list for the next sub sim based on WW2 era U-boats. Some of the items are a bit demanding, others are quite simple, all of them are detail oriented... the details make or break games like SH3 and SH4 and what they are meant to be.

post your thoughts here, tell me what you think is lame, impossible, awesome, kick arse cool or never going to happen in our life time and even add your own ideas to the mix.

so... here goes. (no particular importance to the order)

1. The ability to have the crew man harbour stations upon entering and exiting the port. this would be an all non-essential hands on deck (after a mine strike incident crews were required to do this) it would be very very nice to see a crowded top deck and conning tower with my sailors waving their hands and hats at the lovely ladies on the dock.

2. Manning of stations in shifts similar to SH4 instead of micro managing like SH3.

3. 3D model of every interior compartment of the U-boat from the stern tube to the bow tubes... even the head! Each compartment should contain animated crew in the process of eating, sleeping, maintining equipment, going about their duties, repairing battle damage or - going out on a limb here - having any one of hundreds of possible conversations with their bunk mates (nothing big - something like they had when you pass a couple of people sitting next to each other like in half life 2 no life stories... just a little scuttlebutt)

4. When the crew is loading external stores show the men on deck going through the paces of actually doing the work, rigging up the equipment, etc. the process could be done faster if the sub is stopped in daylight with calm seas and good weather.

5. Use of enigma machines for decoding of some messages.

6. Survivors manning and lowering life boats... not just appearing (and the crew should know better than to say "Ship spotted!!!" everytime a lifeboat hits the water) not only that but like in SH4 men walking on the decks, getting killed and even jumping overboard wile lit on fire! You just sunk a ship its something thats pretty nasty to do to your fellow man... the player should get a feeling that makes him grasp what was historically envolved on a moral level.

7. special missions - not like inserting agents or rescuing downed pilots... more like realistic to U-boats like laying mines in and around an enemy port.

8. AI U-boats out on patrol in the sea with you... might be 10 miles away... might be 500 miles away, but they are there and you might stumble across one some day. (note: they have to be able to fire torpedoes and submerge etc)

9. more game play while in port. Perhaps instead of a 2-d interface there could be a 3D 1st person environment. walk around in the sub pens... see port personnel repairing your boat, fitting it with new equipment, go to the bar and have small talk with other captains or interpersonal discussions with your crew and officers or chasing the affections of that young french girl :hmm: (again half life 2 like or heavily scripted like GUN or gran theft auto - nothing too deep just some bit of immersion) Time in port should be more than just slapping new stuff on your submarine and heading out on the next patrol... the player should feel as if they are really leaving an aspect of the game behind when they leave port.

10. There is a lot of time to pass when out on patrol. I find myself sometimes spending a couple of hours of gameplay watching a little dot move across the map. many of the above implements would address this but - add a pull down menu in the captains quarters. in the menu you can cycle through any one of hundreds of cross word puzzles, word searches, or period news paper articles to read. Books on the captains book shelf would be accessible REAL titles like "Moby dick" which you could read cover to cover in the game... players could acutally use a simple CFG file to add their own books to the collection OR THE BOOKS OF OTHER PLAYERS FROM THE FORUM! anything to kill time on the patrol!

11. Radio with stations much like in SH4 - only difference being that you can direction find these stations to assist in the manual navigation options to triangulate your position.

12. this one kinda goes with the interior modeling of the compartments. why not add crew sliding down the ladders during an alarm dive? or ad crew moving from compartment to compartment during the shift changes? the player has 30 to 50 men on the boat... he should be made to feel like it... not the 7 ot 8 we are used to seeing.

04-26-07, 01:24 AM	#1
GoldenRivet Subsim Aviator Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 8,726 Downloads: 146 Uploads: 0	My wish list for the next U-boat sim Im sure there have been a lot of these posts, but this is my wish list for the next sub sim based on WW2 era U-boats. Some of the items are a bit demanding, others are quite simple, all of them are detail oriented... the details make or break games like SH3 and SH4 and what they are meant to be. post your thoughts here, tell me what you think is lame, impossible, awesome, kick arse cool or never going to happen in our life time and even add your own ideas to the mix. so... here goes. (no particular importance to the order) 1. The ability to have the crew man harbour stations upon entering and exiting the port. this would be an all non-essential hands on deck (after a mine strike incident crews were required to do this) it would be very very nice to see a crowded top deck and conning tower with my sailors waving their hands and hats at the lovely ladies on the dock. 2. Manning of stations in shifts similar to SH4 instead of micro managing like SH3. 3. 3D model of every interior compartment of the U-boat from the stern tube to the bow tubes... even the head! Each compartment should contain animated crew in the process of eating, sleeping, maintining equipment, going about their duties, repairing battle damage or - going out on a limb here - having any one of hundreds of possible conversations with their bunk mates (nothing big - something like they had when you pass a couple of people sitting next to each other like in half life 2 no life stories... just a little scuttlebutt) 4. When the crew is loading external stores show the men on deck going through the paces of actually doing the work, rigging up the equipment, etc. the process could be done faster if the sub is stopped in daylight with calm seas and good weather. 5. Use of enigma machines for decoding of some messages. 6. Survivors manning and lowering life boats... not just appearing (and the crew should know better than to say "Ship spotted!!!" everytime a lifeboat hits the water) not only that but like in SH4 men walking on the decks, getting killed and even jumping overboard wile lit on fire! You just sunk a ship its something thats pretty nasty to do to your fellow man... the player should get a feeling that makes him grasp what was historically envolved on a moral level. 7. special missions - not like inserting agents or rescuing downed pilots... more like realistic to U-boats like laying mines in and around an enemy port. 8. AI U-boats out on patrol in the sea with you... might be 10 miles away... might be 500 miles away, but they are there and you might stumble across one some day. (note: they have to be able to fire torpedoes and submerge etc) 9. more game play while in port. Perhaps instead of a 2-d interface there could be a 3D 1st person environment. walk around in the sub pens... see port personnel repairing your boat, fitting it with new equipment, go to the bar and have small talk with other captains or interpersonal discussions with your crew and officers or chasing the affections of that young french girl :hmm: (again half life 2 like or heavily scripted like GUN or gran theft auto - nothing too deep just some bit of immersion) Time in port should be more than just slapping new stuff on your submarine and heading out on the next patrol... the player should feel as if they are really leaving an aspect of the game behind when they leave port. 10. There is a lot of time to pass when out on patrol. I find myself sometimes spending a couple of hours of gameplay watching a little dot move across the map. many of the above implements would address this but - add a pull down menu in the captains quarters. in the menu you can cycle through any one of hundreds of cross word puzzles, word searches, or period news paper articles to read. Books on the captains book shelf would be accessible REAL titles like "Moby dick" which you could read cover to cover in the game... players could acutally use a simple CFG file to add their own books to the collection OR THE BOOKS OF OTHER PLAYERS FROM THE FORUM! anything to kill time on the patrol! 11. Radio with stations much like in SH4 - only difference being that you can direction find these stations to assist in the manual navigation options to triangulate your position. 12. this one kinda goes with the interior modeling of the compartments. why not add crew sliding down the ladders during an alarm dive? or ad crew moving from compartment to compartment during the shift changes? the player has 30 to 50 men on the boat... he should be made to feel like it... not the 7 ot 8 we are used to seeing.