The "Silent Hunter IV charts" thread

[Safe-Keeper]

This thread's to discuss how you want the maps in Silent Hunter IV to look. I didn't really like the ones in Silent Hunter III, they just looked a bit too bland and simplistic.

I think it'd be nice to have some information as part of the maps in addition to your position, contacts, and cities. The Shells of Fury chart (below) appears to have mine fields, etc. labelled on it. I'd like time-accurate labels on patrol zones, convoy routes, mine-fields, areas of high maritime activity, aircraft coverage, and other relevant information.


It'd also be nice if, when closed-up, the charts looked like real-life charts, such as this one (or did Silent Service charts differ somehow? I'm used to sailing charts like this one).


Your thoughts?

[Drebbel]

Originally Posted by Safe-Keeper

This thread's to discuss how you want the maps in Silent Hunter IV to look.

Good idea for a thread. Interesting subject. I think SHIV chart should look a lot more like real WWII charts

I think it'd be nice to have some information as part of the maps in addition to your position, contacts,

Yes, but only contacts that you crew has in eye or radar sight. The rest should be an optional setting in the realism menu.

and cities.

I agree ! All real sea charts list the coastal cities.

The Shells of Fury chart (below) appears to have mine fields,

I also expect SHIV to have minefields, and yes, they should be charted. Or atleast the ones we are aware off.

Othe areas could just be marked "suspected japanese mines""

I'd like time-accurate labels on patrol zones,

As far as I know patrol zones where no standard labelled on charts

convoy routes,

Seems unrealistic to me. But have this as an option in the realism menu would be ok with me. But why not go for a nice map like was included with SHIII ?

areas of high maritime activity, aircraft coverage, and other relevant information.

I think those should not be on the map. But maybe a solution would be to have some kind of information booklet (in-game) and have the posibility to tick a few boxes to get this kind of info on the map. Would be like asking your navigator to draw this info on the charts.

I also would really love to have a decent coastal pilot book. I know US subs used them a lot and it would be great to include these in the game. When sailing/patrolling along the coast I know skippers checked the coast pilot books all the time. Maybe the dev-team can look into it, maybe the ones from WWII are not copyright protected anymore. But I also think UBI is not going to take that risk (even if they think it is allowed), some one might always start suiing them.

To get an idea what a coast pilot is check out this link of a 2006 coast pilot:
http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/nsd/coastpilot1.htm

If something like this can not be included maybe the dev-team could write its own and include dangerous coast,reefs,uncharted, land marks, ports, port equipment, towns, mountains, rivers, etcetera etcetera

It'd also be nice if, when closed-up, the charts looked like real-life charts, such as this one (or did Silent Service charts differ somehow? I'm used to sailing charts like this one).

Yes, they should definately look more like sea charts. I really hope the dev-team looks at some WWII sea charts. I have seen a couple and they are more detailed than SHIII, but not at all as detailed as the sailing chart you posted. And ofcourse there where no colors on the charts.

I also think there should be uncharted areas on the map. I am currently reading the book "Submarine Diary" and already 2 times the author mentioned uncharted waters, a bay and an area in the middle of the sea, with many reefs. it was indicated on the chart that this area was uncharted. I think that would make a nice addition to SHIV.

[DAB]

I concur with the sentiments, the carts in almost all sub games to date have seemed a bit odd.

I suppose a realistic ww2 map as a basic layer on the 100% realism setting, with layers added for playability.

One other addition - can the map be inaccurate in some / many places.

The charts in SHI were nice. They had most of the major ports and relevant depths (some had more depth soundings than others). They could have had more of both, but they were still pretty nice.

SHII gave the exact depth anywhere you put the cursor.

[Safe-Keeper]

It'd also be nice if the game displayed the exact longtitude and latitude under the cursor. Especially if Silent Hunter IV won't be using a grid system.

[JU_88]

Hmm I would hope for a more detailed map than SH3 gave us, but nothing like the shipping chart (2nd pic) posted above, its too crowded and messy, how could you clearly see contacts and what have you on that??
It might be nice for fanatics, but it would make most peoples eyes bleed.

[Safe-Keeper]

This is the type of charts I thought about. The one I posted came close, but wasn't quite the kind we used on the old family sail-boat.

[Rosencrantz]

A good thread!

Drebbel wrote about convoy routes on the chart:

Seems unrealistic to me. But have this as an option in the realism menu would be ok with me. But why not go for a nice map like was included with SHIII ?

But how about peace time shipping routes showed on th chart and then, convoys travelling at least sometimes just only 10 or 20 nms off those routes? At least basic routes showed on the map would give some ideas for the player where to look for the enemy action, right? I think that would be actually very realistic.

And about intelligence info on the map:

I think those should not be on the map. But maybe a solution would be to have some kind of information booklet (in-game)

Yep. I agree. Something like AOD and SHGen Standing orders with information about enemy situation is both important and often overlooked detail. One gamey order like "Patrol Grid AN81 at least 24 hours" is just childish, looking like it's made in the childrens room... I haven't never understood why Dev's use to ignore properly writen orders. Even in the situation like novadays when it's not a problem to get a copy fm original orders given to a real boat. Military has it own ways to give an order and the military style is far away fm these "orders" in different war games.


Enough depth marks should be included. Especially areas like 12th (Yellow sea) and other shallow water areas those markings are essential. Somehow I didn't liked SHII map with constant depth marks, charts on those days weren't THAT good. And yes, please, give us the cursor with long and lat.

-RC-

[Safe-Keeper]

A good thread!

Thankses.

Actually, I think having different things visible on the map (such as shipping lanes) wouldn't be such a bad realism option at all. "Show detailed map info", on/off. When switched on, it displays current mine fields, areas of high merchant traffic, etc. (you can customize what exactly it shows by clicking on certain "View" icons).

[Cpt.Thorne]

Originally Posted by Safe-Keeper

This thread's to discuss how you want the maps in Silent Hunter IV to look. I didn't really like the ones in Silent Hunter III, they just looked a bit too bland and simplistic.

I think it'd be nice to have some information as part of the maps in addition to your position, contacts, and cities. The Shells of Fury chart (below) appears to have mine fields, etc. labelled on it. I'd like time-accurate labels on patrol zones, convoy routes, mine-fields, areas of high maritime activity, aircraft coverage, and other relevant information.


It'd also be nice if, when closed-up, the charts looked like real-life charts, such as this one (or did Silent Service charts differ somehow? I'm used to sailing charts like this one).


Your thoughts?

Looks great
If someone could only mod the maps in SHIII to look like these...

[Drebbel]

If someone could only mod the maps in SHIII to look like these...

The second one is a modern chart. WWII maps did not look like anything like that. They even had many uncharted areas.

[don1reed]

Here's what was wrong with the charts in SH1.

As you can see, I've layered Northern Japan chart from SH1 and placed it next to a world atlas page. I've marked in RED where the Longitudes were incorrect in SH1, which always threw off your navigation.

In SHIII the Grids are distorted due to the xy ratio and that makes it difficult to come up with a 4 digit grid easily.

Hopefully, SHIV will get it right.

[Cpt.Thorne]

Well I have quite many WWII maps (real ones) but they are ofcourse landmaps and are quite detailed too but well.. I know its 1000 times easier to make land maps. But have seen some pretty detailed nautical maps from WWII era but those are only about harbour areas and so on. Anyway the top map looks so much better compared to the SHIII stock map...but well I guess it is unmoddable except all the stuff that can be added on top of it like speed relations to travel charts etc.

I love those charts, Don1Reed. I like all the cities on the real chart, and I like the way the depths are shown without specifics, i.e. deep, medium and shallow.

If it's too much work for the devs to put in all those cities, maybe they can make it easy for us to do so. That would work just as well in the long run, as everybody would want to pull out their real maps and start adding things in.

[don1reed]

I'm with you, Steve, the SH1 charts were super except for the longitudinal errors. If SHIV were at least that good...and then, as you say, give the Modders some wiggle-room, the community would benefit.