players avatar

[Sledgehammer427]

I was thinking of getting this off my chest for a while.

I was wondering what kind of control we would have over our avatar in game.
not running, but things like experience or what have you.

like I had my ideas geared on a RPG-type system, wouldn't it be cool if you can distribute points on your Kaleun? like ceratin attributes like

Leadership
Vision (this would be in the form of sight, having a high vision score would allow you to identify ships easier, or even spot them before your watch crew if you are on the bridge at the right time)
but things like that?
maybe even add in the systems attributes from SHIV?
like
gunnery,
machinery,
electronics
etc.
you can upgrade these points. but make the SHIV attributes like a primary-secondary thing
like
having gunnery as my primary attribute, and electronics as my secondary, showing your Kaleun had a knack for guns at an early stage in his naval career and he was kind of a radio guy.
this would make every players experience dynamic in just being a certain type of captain. personally, I would have a few campaigns running, testing how well one type of kaleun world work in contrast with one with a different set of points.
I was wondering if the devs could shed some light on this. I think this would be wonderful.

silent hunters popularity is in that its a game AND a simulator so to change silent hinter into a pure fps game would be a mistake IMO but if your intention is to say yes, screw the sim side of the game and make sh5 a real fps then what you propose is a good idea.

[Sledgehammer427]

well, my proposal was to add a more dynamic approach to how our kaleun would impact the world around him. in no way do I intend to make an FPS out of the game, but make it so that we can all balance what we would like to see in our captain and see how well it plays out

[Arclight]

Well, people don't "level up" IRL. How far you can see depends on atmospheric conditions and the binoculars you're using, not how much time you spend looking out over the sea.

Imho it's annoying to point the DG at a target, but see the shell flying the wrong way because you're skill is too low. Or hearing a ship on the hydrophones but not being able to report it because your skill doesn't allow you to pick up targets at that distance.

Imho leave the skill-points/leveling for the NPCs to reflect their gain in experience, and just let the players skills reflect the kaleuns capabilities.

Originally Posted by Arclight

How far you can see depends on atmospheric conditions and the binoculars you're using, not how much time you spend looking out over the sea.

well i agree with your point but that example is wrong, i know for a fact that things like deck watch or spotting things with your eyes in general is a skill that is learned over time and some people miss things that are right in front of them if there eyes havent been trained to spot things in a sea full of movement and change.

[Hitman]

I'd like to add that the german submarine force had (at least before the war and in the first years) a very strong selection and training program, and wannabe U-Boat commanders had to pass specific tests of physical and menthal abilities to allow them to get through. The nature of those tests tended to create a more or less similar profile of abilities in the selected candidates (F.e. menthal calculations, 3D awareness, ability to estimate distances and speed of movement of objects by naked eye or through a lense, etc.)

It's like fighter pilots nowadays, you can find very different characters among them when fighting/flying, but when it comes to physical/menthal skills they are incredibly close together -which is no wonder, seeing they passed the same hard tests-

P.S. Most probably, almost none of us would have passed such tests in real life (I at least sure wouldn't), so we have to live with the fact that we play a role for which we probably are not adecuate. But such is gaming

[Sledgehammer427]

that's the point I was trying to get at kinda,

if you set too many skill points else where, it would make it so that you haven't spent the time learning how to spot things like WEBSTER said.

as you go up on deck and spot out enemy ships your skill will continue to improve in that area.

EDIT: @ Hitman, I see your point. but I still have a sneaky feeling I could figure out a way to work that in

[THE_MASK]

The problem i have with that is , the only thing that should affect the AI sight is environmental things like smoke , fog , rain , salt spray etc . My eyes dont deteriorate when i am playing sh4 so neither should the AI . Well they detriorate if i am not sober of course . The sonarmans hearing should never change , unless someone let off a fire cracker on board .

Originally Posted by sober

The problem i have with that is , the only thing that should affect the AI sight is environmental things like smoke , fog , rain , salt spray etc . My eyes dont deteriorate when i am playing sh4 so neither should the AI . Well they detriorate if i am not sober of course . The sonarmans hearing should never change , unless someone let off a fire cracker on board .

well the watch crew should have less ability when tired because your eyes are straining to see over the horizon and tired eyes have a "big" effect on how fast and how much you can detect on the water.

i am a lifelong fisherman and your "distance" vision does goes up or down a lot according to how tired you are. the waves will lull you into a trance and hypnotise you to the point you look right at something and not notice it and it gets even worse when you are tired.


sitting at your computer is not the same but you will feel eye strain there too if you are trying to pick out fine details on the horizon

[THE_MASK]

Originally Posted by WEBSTER

well the watch crew should have less ability when tired because your eyes are straining to see over the horizon and tired eyes have a "big" effect on how fast and how much you can detect on the water.

i am a lifelong fisherman and your "distance" vision does goes up or down a lot according to how tired you are. the waves will lull you into a trance and hypnotise you to the point you look right at something and not notice it and it gets even worse when you are tired.


sitting at your computer is not the same but you will feel eye strain there too if you are trying to pick out fine details on the horizon

I work on the docks and yeah i can imagine having tired eyes after an 8 hour night shift because i know what its like . The problem i had with sh4 was crew not spotting ships . Maybe sh5 should drop out of TC before ships are spotted , i dunno .