Why oh why......

[Karl-Heinz Jaeger]

.......are there so many bugs,inconsistencies and general errors in this great game despite the obvious work gone into it?? The sound, which for me defines a subsim is woefully poor, the graphics aren't bad but could be miles better especially the skins and textures, the 3d interface is a great idea, allowing you to 'interact' with your 3d crew but it's only 1/4 done and badly at that. It feels like a half finished game, compared to what you and I would have included/added to it.

In the opinion of this Kapitane, the devs need to release a modding developers pack/kit that includes all the bits n bobs for editing everyting and let the modders do this game the justice it so rightly deserves. Imagine what Beery and Co. could turn this game into if given the proper tools. If there are ever plans for an SH4 game, I vote the modders that we all know and love from these boards be given the top designer positions at Ubisoft!!

JM2C

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Amen to that.... HOWEVER, at least SH3 IS "moddable." We'd be stuck in the mud with an overly broken game otherwise.

[TDK1044]

You make valid points, Karl, but the real answer to your question is marketing. The fact of the matter is that 95 percent of the people who purchase this game, will never look for a forum such as this and will never patch or mod the game at all. That's a fact. Most of the people who are regulars at this and similar forums, are smart , demanding customers and are much needed in order to keep prodding companies like UBI to keep their standards up. But I have a friend who runs windows 98 and SH2. Yes SH2!!! He never modded SH2 at all, but he continues to really enjoy playing it and will only consider SH3 when it costs about $10 in the bargain bin. He won't mod it either. To me, he's insane, but he represents the norm not me. He's the guy that UBI are pitching at, only they hope he'll buy it at the $40 value. Forums like this represent a small focus group to companies like UBI, where some of our ideas are considered, if they can be achieved quickly and cheaply, but anything that requires any level of investment of time or money simply won't happen. That's why the modders are so important to us, the five percent who want the game to be the best that it can be. SH4 is now under way, and it will be here in the Spring of 2006. It will in my opinion be marginally better than SH3 patched to 1.4 at the time of release.

[gary1701]

I'm new on the forum and have been playing this for about two months now and agree with what I've just read. Once you get it working properly it's a great game and very enjoyable, yet what seems like a lot of hard work has been spoilt to a degree by what seems to be the norm for modern games - sloppy finishing.

Having only just upgraded to a new PC from a seven year old machine, graphically I was blown away - yet unless I downloaded the 1.4 patch it wouldn't run for more than 30 seconds in the campaign mode without crashing. For simulation and strategy fans it has the depth and gameplay required, yet the manual is shocking and I can see many people, perhaps not familiar with the subject matter would give up fairly quickly. This, surely is counter productive in the long run. Gameplay and historical accuracy I can understand to a degree is very much up to each players own tastes, and the mods cover that quite well, but there really is no excuse for the many silly bugs that crop up throughout the game. As the original poster says, it's not finished and there can't many industries were it seems acceptable practise to sell a product and then complete it afterwards. That said and with the mods and little touchs added (and many thanks to the people who do this and share their work - from somebody who wouldn't have a clue!), it's probably one of the best £30s I've ever spent.

It's a great game, but with just a little more care it could have superb straight out of the box.

[kiwi_2005]

The sound, which for me defines a subsim is woefully poor, the graphics aren't bad but could be miles better especially the skins and textures, the 3d interface is a great idea, allowing you to 'interact' with your 3d crew but it's only 1/4 done and badly at that. It feels like a half finished game, compared to what you and I would have included/added to it.

Well are you sure you have a good computer with all the bells and whistles. The graphics are bad? The graphics are fantastic! And i know this game got sold to non sub gamers because of the graphics, a friend of mine brought SH3 and hes not a sub sim player! Yet he was taken to it by the graphics. Also the sound is very good as long as you have 5n1 or 7n1 surround sound then your be blown away by the intense sound input the dev team put into it especially when submerged and your under attack from depth charges. Theres also some very good sound mods out. The sound is awesome! To get the best out of this game you need a pretty good computer, then turn every option up high even the resolution you can edit it in gamesettings config file.. You wanna know what bad graphics is then go install SHII at the time it was ok but after playing SH3, its bad.

As for SH4 coming out, i can't see what is the hurry, SH3 is good enough as it is, i probably wont even buy SH4 cos i'll still be playing SH3 for at least another 3-4 yrs from now, then i might tire of it and buy SH4 which will be like 10 bucks by then

I agree with the guy that mentions that 95% would never install mods for this game. My friend still plays with the original patch he can't see why it needs patching or mods cos it plays perfect for him. I got a funny feeling when SH4 comes out, there be players not happy with it, the graphics should of been better, or do we get the SDK etc., I too have moan at SH3 mainly with the CTD, but once you work out the problems, rig your game to how you want it to be whether mods or no mods and have good hardware, then your realise SH3 is the best subsim to come out ever and theres no need for a SH4 so soon, unless only if the next SH4 will be playing as a different side eg play as the US subs and the SDK comes with it, then i will buy it straight away!

[gdogghenrikson]

Originally Posted by Karl-Heinz Jaeger

.......are there so many bugs,inconsistencies and general errors in this great game despite the obvious work gone into it?? The sound, which for me defines a subsim is woefully poor, the graphics aren't bad but could be miles better especially the skins and textures, the 3d interface is a great idea, allowing you to 'interact' with your 3d crew but it's only 1/4 done and badly at that. It feels like a half finished game, compared to what you and I would have included/added to it.

In the opinion of this Kapitane, the devs need to release a modding developers pack/kit that includes all the bits n bobs for editing everyting and let the modders do this game the justice it so rightly deserves. Imagine what Beery and Co. could turn this game into if given the proper tools. If there are ever plans for an SH4 game, I vote the modders that we all know and love from these boards be given the top designer positions at Ubisoft!!

JM2C

thats why we need 1.5 patch

[Karl-Heinz Jaeger]

Thanks for your thoughts guys, good points made by all. Despite its flaws, bugs and inconsistencies SH3 is THE definitive subsim for WWII, a totally excellent piece of software, however I don't think I'll be uninstalling my modded SH2 any time soon......