Much more like Das Boot this time....

[TDK1044]

Looking at the Trailer, I get the sense that they have gone for more of the 'Das Boot' feel with Silent Hunter 5. That bodes well for immersion within the game. One thing that was totally absent in SH3 and SH4 was any visual relationship or interaction between the Captain and the crew.

With Silent Hunter 5 allowing the player to play in the 'first person' mode, and if the Devs have learned valuable lessons from SH3 and SH4, then this incarnation could really work really well.

I will be fascinated to see the tech specs nearer the time of release, as I'm sure there is still much optimizing to do to the sim.

[AVGWarhawk]

Problem is, does the darn cook keep asking me to test his nasty soup all the time? "Hi Fritz." "Captain!" "Test my soup?" "Hell no, you done asked me that 8 times in the past 5 minutes."

[TDK1044]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

Problem is, does the darn cook keep asking me to test his nasty soup all the time? "Hi Fritz." "Captain!" "Test my soup?" "Hell no, you done asked me that 8 times in the past 5 minutes."

Exactly, AVG. But it's so obvious that I hope that kind of thing is one of the first things that the Devs addressed. Needless repetition would kill the immersion dead.

I do hope though that we occasionally hear a distant toilet flush followed by a voice saying:

"God what a terrible smell. Who let Stevens in there again...and who gave him sauerkraut?"

[Schroeder]

To be honest I don't see a way how the devs could create a crew that will not repeat time and again what it is doing. The are only a number of spoken sentences available and that is all the AI guys can say. It's impossible to have any longer conversations without repeating them time and again on a long patrol.
I guess it will be approached like it was in Elder's scrolls IV Oblivion with one AI guy adressing a topic and the other will pick randomly one answer out of a set of possible answers.

But maybe we will all get surprised with something really new.

[AVGWarhawk]

I certainly do not think we will see it in game like the trailer. However, crew in the bunks and a cook making some nasty muffins I can see. Not much in the form of canned answers will work. It is limited. Sound loops are only going so long before the loop and sounds repeat. These sounds are the ones that the player remembers. The ambient interior needs to be very long very long. I do not think the cook will be asking me about the darn soup every 5 minutes. If he does, he becomes part of the next pot of soup.

[Blood_splat]

Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain ello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain ello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain ello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain ello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain ello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain ello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain ello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain ello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain ello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain ello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain ello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain ello captain Hello captain Hello captain Hello captain... As you walk around

[tater]

Yeah, the interactive crew is actually dangerous ground from an immersion POV. In SH4 we see the same few merchant ships over and over, but at least the context of seeing them changes.

Few of us have worked in real subs (not me). NONE of us have FOUGHT in a sub (not the way ww2 subs were fought from a danger POV).

It's easier to suspend disbelief on the technical stuff than the personal. We all make jokes and interact with people. Players will instantly remember that the cook said X last patrol. Boom, it's a loop, and no longer immersive.

Best idea for pulling voice stuff for the crew, IMO?

Have the ability for the game to grab such stuff ONLINE.

Have a process whereby players/modders can submit appropriate voice files (associated with a specific crew member number) and they get placed online and DLed on the fly as you start a patrol. Unless the voice stuff is many gigs, it will certainly get repetitive fast.

Note that adding the tech to have an offline game go ONLINE for content adds interesting other possibilities—officially sanctioned new ships might be automatically added, for example, when you tart a patrol, auto checking for updates, etc.

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by TDK1044

Exactly, AVG. But it's so obvious that I hope that kind of thing is one of the first things that the Devs addressed. Needless repetition would kill the immersion dead.

I do hope though that we occasionally hear a distant toilet flush followed by a voice saying:

"God what a terrible smell. Who let Stevens in there again...and who gave him sauerkraut?"

In several games like "Silent Hill" & "Resident Evil", the programming allows for certain interactions between characters and the protagonist to be triggered only once. It would be simple to do this for SH5, so that the cook etc only speaks to you once every x minutes, or only when something relevant/important happens. In the meantime, the crewmember models could repeat relevant animations in a loop.