Which mod(s) should I try?

[AS]

Hi guys,

after a Long time I want to give SH5 another try. Now there are two big mods and I don´t know which one to use.

First of all there is The Wolves of Steel, which must be a HUGE modification considering the sheer size of this Thing. Strangeley, it hasn´t got too many Downloads and seems to have some map related bugs...

The other mod is Open Horizon, which sounds very promising.

Can someone help me decide which one is better for me? Here´s a quick overview what I like:

- admittedly, I love eye-candy, so whatever improves graphics, adds Details to landscape and Harbour, adds new ships etc. is really welcome

- SH5 is all about Immersion for me, which means I want to have as much U-Boat Feeling as possible (sounds, graphics, Crew interacting, technical accuracy)

- what I don´t need is 120% realism, i.e. I don´t want to consult Einstein himself to fire a torpedoe.


Thanks for advice,

AS

[THEBERBSTER]

Hi AS

Use one of the mega mods.
These are tried and tested.

I highly recommend.
Treat Yourself To The Wolves Of Steel Mega Mod <> SH5 The Dawn Of A New Beginning
Post #24 Shaefer’s Season 2 Let's Play Silent Hunter 5 YouTube Videos

Shaefer usues TWOS in his videos.

Check out my downloads section for other mega mods.

Peter

[WilliamTheConqueror]

Wolves of Steel is a ultra realistic megamod. that means actual map navigation, which I don't get, and all sorts of gauges for torpedo firing, which is all good. Open horizons is more of a content adder (ships, upgrades, missions, campaigns, etc.) plus, it fixes most of the issues of the stock game. WoS has OH2 in it already, so go for either depending on your preferences.

[maillemaker]

You don't have to enable Real Navigation with WoS. I don't use it.

Steve

[goodpoints]

Originally Posted by AS

Hi guys,

after a Long time I want to give SH5 another try. Now there are two big mods and I don´t know which one to use.

First of all there is The Wolves of Steel, which must be a HUGE modification considering the sheer size of this Thing. Strangeley, it hasn´t got too many Downloads and seems to have some map related bugs...

The other mod is Open Horizon, which sounds very promising.

Can someone help me decide which one is better for me? Here´s a quick overview what I like:

- admittedly, I love eye-candy, so whatever improves graphics, adds Details to landscape and Harbour, adds new ships etc. is really welcome

- SH5 is all about Immersion for me, which means I want to have as much U-Boat Feeling as possible (sounds, graphics, Crew interacting, technical accuracy)

- what I don´t need is 120% realism, i.e. I don´t want to consult Einstein himself to fire a torpedoe.


Thanks for advice,

AS

Open Horizons II expands and improves the campaign (similar to Run Silent, Run Deep for SH4) and I believe is already included with all the major megamod. From my brief experience with the stock campaign, my impression is that it's essential.

TWOS has almost 14,000 downloads according to the subsim downloads section though, not that it should be a deciding factor. Also though you can run TWOS without RealNav, it's probably not as difficult as you think. If you were to use the most historically accurate method, and let the navigator handle most of the technical details, all you have to do is: draw some course lines, calculate ETA if you like, set heading/speed, and start the auto nav fix scripts and the navigator will plot your position every 2 hours. (or whenever you ask him for one) No celestial navigation or sextant use required on your part (unless you want to); and while the navigator's fixes are set by the mod to have a range of inaccuracy, I think fog of war from the lack of GPS precision is essential to the immersive tension of hunting. (you can tweak the range of inaccuracy, as I did since the I doubt the old man would've stayed a navigator for that long if his celestial fixes were as off as they were set to)

As far as graphics, environment, crew interaction mods, new/non-fictional ship classes and the like it seems like many of the same ones are shared between the megamods.

When I was starting out I was somewhat surprised by the lack of mod summaries. I have not yet tried out all the major ones, but for those who have, I think creating a sticky thread with a clear/concise summary and comparison of the features of all the major megamods would be extremely helpful to newcomers.

Maybe you could clarify more the level on which you prefer to use torpedoes. To me 120% realism would be using the most complex historical option available even though the actual crew usually used simpler methods. i.e. calculating FULL manual solutions the WWI way (slide-rules and attack disks galore) without using the TDC/TRW at all.

[maillemaker]

Real Nav goes off the rails for me because I don't want to dictate course changes unless we are in combat. I want to give orders and the sub arrives where I tell it to without me having to watch the clock and set new courses manually at every waypoint we compute ourselves to be at.