Supplement to SH Survey: What should Ubi do to make SH5 the best?

[Onkel Neal]

Please note any comments, ideas, suggestions, and observations you would like to make about SH5; what would make it great, what mistakes from SH3/SH4 not to repeat, etc.

NOTE: Post your thoughts and opinions, do not comment on other member's posts in this thread. Flaming not allowed.

Thanks
Neal

[AVGWarhawk]

1. Complete TDC functionality
2. Radar/Sonar completely functional and separate.
3. Crew is not attached to substructure meaning getting DC'd they are hurt as a result because the are in the cannon crew slots.
4. Better AI reaction and smarter! (includes aircraft)
5. Refer to number 1
6. Fuel consumption moddable
7. More variety of ships.
8. Playable surface ships(escorts) with fully control of your other escort vessels and weapons. Obviously smart AI subs to hunt me!
9. Fleet boats have 4 independent engines.
10. Each prop is independantly controlled.
11. Control planes controllable other that full up or down.
12. Some type of trim interface when submerging.
13. Radar picks up land masses and weather.


Obviously these areas of concern are from SH4.

[onelifecrisis]

Cool. Here's my 2p:

1. A DYNAMIC CAMPAIGN (like in SH3) is essential for me. There's no way I'd buy a modern subsim if it only consisted of a bunch of scripted missions.
1. No I didn't screw up my numbering! This is jointly in first place for me: NO BUGS. Or at least very few bugs and no critical ones. Big bugs ruin even the best of games.
3. Personally I think German subs in the ATO make for a good game because the war got more and more difficult for them, and a good video game should do likewise, so in the ATO you don't have to sacrifice that aspect of realism for gameplay.
4. Speaking of realism, I'm all for it!
5. AI. Nuff said.

[Sailor Steve]

Make SH5 better than its predecessors?

1) Add all the functionality of SH3 Commander - ship names, billions of possible crew names so you don't get repeats, easy ability to adjust game parameters.

2) Ease of modding. SH3 was a huge step in the right direction. SH4 is even better. Both theaters do not have to be complete; just make it easy for follow-ons to be added. Harbor pieces easy to move and change, terrain editing, things like that.

[Egan]

Here goes.

1: I'm with Steve on this one: SH3Commander functionality, including start dates, crew names, realistic crew transfers, the Officers Club and realistic career lengths. I would even like to see the little round up of our characters life like SH3C had. I really liked that.

2: Crew mangement. Expanded over sh4 which was a marked improvement over sh3. I would like realistic crew tranfers (as stated above,) experience gains that seem to actually matter, reaction times imrpoved through training etc. I want to feel like a u-boat skipper and that meens looking after and getting the best out of my crew. I'd also like a weapons officer who is less accurate. Perhaps have the accuracy increase the longer he is observing a target?

3: Realism in every field, from the spotting ability of aircraft to DD attack patterns to ships running zig zag. I would also like to see a realism increase to systems management so we can do things like run the electric engines on the surface, control how many engines we are running, trim up or down and allow us to run decks awash (with the possible drop in how easy we are to spot etc,) Also, improvements to Sonar, Radar would be good.

4: Damage and repair. Please, realisitic repair times and damage. No more repairing a bulkhead in 10 seconds, or instant death when diving too deep. Also, I would like random system breakdowns to things like engines, just to add to the flavour.

5: Dynamic campaign. Cannot have a Silent Hunter game without it. The two most important additions to me are Wolf Packs and other subs - both allied and axis.

Cheers.

[Carotio]

As I answered in the survey: mod-ability as most important feature.

Anyway, I would like to see both theaters again, and this time with all boats involved.
This means real narwhals for us campaign
This means all German uboats and not only one (plus fantasy).
And why not also British, Japanese, Russian and Italian subs?

I'll surely come up with more later and edit...

[mr chris]

In no order.

- More ship classes big and small merchant and warship.
- Historicity accurate harbours and bases.
- SH3 Commander built in.
- Large dynamic campaign taking in all theatres of the uboat war.
- Wolf packs and Milk cows

[ref]

First of all, (even I'm certain that they weren't made by lack of knowledge but for the pressure of releasing the product), please don't make the same mistakes present in sh4, for example:

• KM grid, there are remnants of the sh3 grid in sh4, which interferes with the new grid system.
• 3d Objects can't be clicked on the exterior views (uzo, crew) even when they should.
• state machine controller not working as expected (i.e.: in port they should be making random animations as stated in the commands set in the dat files, but instead they're scanning with the binoculars).
• These are a few of the programming problems I found.

Now for new features:

• Better AI (terrain/objects avoid routines, etc.).
• Wolfpacks, not so hard, the basic idea is included in sh4 with the reinforcements/scout routines.
• AI Torpedoes , a must both for wolfpacks and AI ships.
• More than two compartments recognized for the interiors, so we can optimize the work of Tomi and DD.
• Last, but the most important in my point of view is the release of documentation of the format of the files, even when most of it has been deciphered by the community, some parts remain unknown.

Ref

[coronas]

1: Interact with High Command, with other subs, with planes, with neutral and enemy ships, radio traffic, ...

2: Better weather management.

3: All said before in this thread.

[onelifecrisis]

Oh and I almost forgot!
It'd be nice if the world was round in SH5.
I mean a real sphere, both in terms of navigation and in terms of graphics (SH3 - and I presume SH4 - have a flat square world and the ocean is rendered in such a way that it curves upwards which I think is meant to simulate the earths curvature but it really doesn't work).

We have complied a Wish List on our Website,
for SH5
The Silent Hunter Survey
is a great step,
on players views on the
Silent Hunter series

[Synthfg]

Renown awarded for damaging ships
Ability to bombard shore targets

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by ref

First of all, (even I'm certain that they weren't made by lack of knowledge but for the pressure of releasing the product), please don't make the same mistakes present in sh4, for example:

• KM grid, there are remnants of the sh3 grid in sh4, which interferes with the new grid system.
• 3d Objects can't be clicked on the exterior views (uzo, crew) even when they should.
• state machine controller not working as expected (i.e.: in port they should be making random animations as stated in the commands set in the dat files, but instead they're scanning with the binoculars).
• These are a few of the programming problems I found.

Now for new features:

• Better AI (terrain/objects avoid routines, etc.).
• Wolfpacks, not so hard, the basic idea is included in sh4 with the reinforcements/scout routines.
• AI Torpedoes , a must both for wolfpacks and AI ships.
• More than two compartments recognized for the interiors, so we can optimize the work of Tomi and DD.
• Last, but the most important in my point of view is the release of documentation of the format of the files, even when most of it has been deciphered by the community, some parts remain unknown.

Ref

As per Ref....plus the ability to take a British player sub (and more nations if possible).

[Wilcke]

Continued and ongoing support for the sim past the release date. Support to be provided beyond the bug fixes that crop up as with all releases but to include additional content to be determined by the devs. So how to pay for this; simple charge us more! Yep, that is right I paid $125.00 for Steel Beast PE, I never felt it was to much to pay, and I love the support, patches, additional content and betas at no extra cost.

So either charge an above and beyond the normal price for a sim of this category to begin with and/or charge for additional value added content.

Front load the money so that you can keep devs at work fixing problem and bringing forth additional content, that was perhaps not added due to time constraints, with an additional cost attached. This is about making a profit and that we want for you and your publisher.

The amount of time I spend on SH4 in comparision to the initial cost of the software is just ridiculously cheap for the amount entertainment value I get out of the sim.

Well done gentleman and thank you for hearing our opinions and recomendations.

[irish1958]

1)A SH5 Commander function
2)Many or most files open to modeling. This is what keeps the game alive for most of us.
3)Destroyer Command option, player chooses side against AI
4)Destroyer Command and wolf pack options for multiplayer
5)Wolf packs, milk cows: let the modelers have at it.
6)mine laying function; even better just make it possible and let the modelers go at it.

The developers will have time, money, deadline decisions; if they have to leave something out, leave the option open for our modelers to complete the work.
I don't care how many bugs there are provided they are fixable by the developers or modelers, and we can get some cooperation from the developers