*** Official SH4 patch 1.3 Update straight from the horse's mouth ***

[elanaiba]

The Silent Hunter doesn’t let the prey escape easily. While part of the team has been assigned to other projects – as it is normal in any busy development studio – key members are still on track and working to improve Wolves of the Pacific or correct existing bugs.

So yes, we are working on 1.3 To cut a long story short, here is a partial list of improvements that we intend to bring with this patch:

• Eliminate the instances where the player gets assigned the same mission multiple times, even though the game is meant to give you variety and different missions, of course depending on historical context

• Solve a small conversion error with the stadimeter when using “imperial system” for in-game data display.

• Add an “assisted method” to determine the target’s speed when playing with the manual targeting option set to “ON”, to simulate the firing party putting together subsequent range checks from the captain.

• Recheck all ship dimensions in the game config files to solve errors in target range calculations

• The submarine radars (SD, SJ) should work consistently and detect targets in all appropriate circumstances

• The players career is ended sometimes by high command, for inaccurate reasons such as perfectly good and new submarines being retired from frontline duty. This will be sorted out to work as intended.

• Multiple AI improvements

• The Group AI should always choose a new commander when the current one gets killed, instead of waiting for the currently assigned one and having all ships circle around

• Destroyers should take into account the estimated depth of their targets and sinking time of depth charges when deciding the dropping point, while remaining human-like and prone to error

• AI and submarine sensors will be tuned for more realistic performance

• AI units will now take notice of nearby ships being destroyed even when there is not a trace of the attacker

• Several ships classes (for example Japanese Sub-chaser and the Akizuki class) will have improved firing arc definitions that make them a more realistic and deadly opponent in gun duels

• Improve the “Realistic sound speed simulation” to eliminate sound effects cutting when the player is moving around with the external camera

• Improvements will be made to the Sonar and Radar stations to make them more user friendly

• The Submarine upgrade screen will be improved to present the relative merits of various torpedoes and systems that are available to the player.

• Sampans and other such vessels will no longer be detected by Hydrophone

• Players crossing the International Date Line should not lose their map torpedoes silhouettes

• The Torpedo Bearing Transmitter screen and all interfaces should display correctly on all resolutions

• Colorado class battleships will be added to the game

Keep in mind this list is WIP, and although we’re doing our best, in the end we might just be unable to fix some of them for 1.3. Or some other items will make it on the list.

And if there’s something glaring wrong with the game that’s not on the list, post it here. Maybe we were not aware of it ... yet.

When will the patch be out? There is no release date set yet, we’re taking our time in order to have the maximum of fixes with a stable code. The future of this game and this series depends on US and YOU.

Your Silent Hunter Dev Team, present here on Subsim and on other boards too.



Guys, do not post in this thread, unless you want to bring a critical bug to our attention Keep it as clean as possible.

[PepsiCan]

I'm off my rocker now :-) Very kewl to see this all get fixed!

Only two items I still have are:
- the behaviour of the sub and other ships in heavy seas.

See this post: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...&postcount=483

- the switch that sets the torpedo to Directional Contact or Contact seems to be reversed and it flips back to its default position all the time. Rather annoying feature.

Not having any opinion on whether it should be included as a fix or not, merely having it out there for Elanaiba to see.

EDIT:

Added Prof's comment a few posts down. There is indeed no way of knowing when your max. dive depth has been affected. The damage screen shows no damage, but there have been a number of posts about subs getting lost without obvious damage

Originally Posted by PepsiCan

Added Prof's comment a few posts down. There is indeed no way of knowing when your max. dive depth has been affected. The damage screen shows no damage, but there have been a number of posts about subs getting lost without obvious damage

Ubi look here - if you need any information or source, please contact me
http://dhg864.dyndns.org/sh4

This one deals with the "not displayed" damage.

[SilentOtto]

Another cap here who hasn't sailed for the last 3 or 4 months. I am still trying to decide whether I feel proud or stupid from buying the luxury package of an unfinished product. I dont even feel like playing sh3 now. Hope Atlantic Sharks carry on with their project, it feels more real than an Ubi$oft patch.

[Prof]

First of all, thanks for the good news!

One bug which you didn't list is the submarine damage model...if the pressure hull is damaged the player has no way of knowing until the submarine sinks!

At the moment you get a message saying 'pressure hull repaired' but it seems to break again next time you dive!

[tater]

One critical bug (is it a bug?) IMO, is the collision damage between a sub and a DD or other ship.

The sub usually wins with no damage whatsovever while the DD (or whatever) blows up.

Oddly, in the Ducimus "Bungo Pete" mod, changing the DD to a "DE" made him not take damage (visibly, anyway), but the sub DID.

A simple fix IMO would be to ALWAYS have the sub lose in a collision (for any ship bigger than some size or class—don't want a liferaft to sink a sub).

[Silence]

One item I notice that is a constant problem is the bow planes. They seem to remain in the surfaced position when submerged. Small thing, but can be distracting from the realism of the game.

[CaptainCox]

On the Bow-plane note. They do sometimes get jammed/collide with the hydraulic arms...graphic bug!

[Lt. Cobra]

One thing that was not mentioned in the list that may be a minor point for some but for true blue simmer of this game it is not.

the camera in the conning tower tilts the opposite of the motion of the boat. When diving, the camera tilts down aftward, when surfacing the camera tilts up Aftward. If you stand facing the ladder to the bridge – you are facing starboard. When diving the conning tower SHOULD appear to tilt downward on your left (which is the bow of the boat) instead the effect is reversed. Noted on the porpoise and salmon classes.

But WHATEVER you choose to do, Ubi, please fix the CTDs!

[akdavis]

Originally Posted by Lt. Cobra

That is good for you and I am glad! Many of us have been seeing this since the game came out however. There are a lot of inconsistencies where this game is concerned. Some are experiencing one thing and others are experiencing other things. These things need to be looked into.

I was having constant, reoccuring CTDs while playing the campaign, but only during campaign. I could leave the game running in the training missions for hours without a problem, but I could hardly make through 10 minutes of the campaign. Having exhausted all other options, I decided to try drastically cooling my tower unit. I removed both side panels and blasted as much dust off of the interior and fans as I could. I made the intake for the front fan more open and left both panels off. Since then, I have not had a single CTD.

Now, I never had this problem with another game, even some that push the limits of my mid-to-upper range system. I still think there is something wrong with the SH4 campaign (or perhaps more specifically with the game in TC) that is putting enormous load on the CPU (GPU temp was fine even before the cooling workover), but this did prove a solution to a problem that was keeping me from even playing the game. Might be worth a try.

[Captain Crane]

Thanks for the declared good intentions Ubi but, in addition to fixing the CTDs whenever you unintentionally hit a wrong key, CAN WE PLEASE HAVE OUR HYDROPHONE BACK? Half the fun of SH2 and 3 was searching for faint sound traces against the ocean background, especially when I'm consistently better at it than the AI crewman assigned. On the same subject, could we have the ability to rotate the hydrophone using the cursor keys back (as in SH2 but removed from SH3) as this was so useful.

Also on the sound front, is there any chance of adding some 'biologics' to the sound files, (lets not get carried away and ask for visible ocean life) or is this one for the modding community?

With regard to the otherwise glorious graphics, I second the comment about the jammed bow planes, but what I absolutely hate the most is seeing huge visible holes in the pressure hull of a nominally functioning sub that. to look at it, shouldn't even stay afloat let alone be able to dive, whilst direct torpedo (and shell) hits on some targets still manage to leave them looking untouched.

This is so very nearly a great sim on the whole, (even if SH3 was more immersive by several orders of magnitude simply for being able to interact with the crew) please don't spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar..

[theluckyone17]

I'm not a huge fan of the flightpaths I've seen aircraft take on a few occasions... bouncing a hundred feet or so vertically, especially on an attack run. I've seen a couple instances of aircraft tumbling in one spot in the air, then dropping straight down into the ocean (I was shooting at him, but I wasn't expecting twitching death throes like that).

Is this major? Probably not... I should be diving most of the time. In this case, my batteries were out of juice, and I had to catch up to that task force... so I decided to fight it out on the surface. *shrug*

Other than that, the list looks fairly comprehensive (for the major issues, if not irritations).

And kudos to both Ubi and the dev's for allowing work on 1.3 to continue!

[tater]

There are two simple feature expansions I'd like to see as well (added because they are already "in game" just not applied in some cases. Not major though, just added in case they are easy since they are similar to existing features.

1. Tie deck gun to the same pitch and roll as the TBT when set that way in difficulty levels.

2. AI "constant helms" once an attack has happened. Is there any possibility of adding a group property for "zig-zag?" Ideally the Group Properties in the mission editor would have:

zigzag:
time: (minutes between zig and zags) ex: 30
degrees: (degrees off base heading) ex: 25

Can always be gutted out in the mission layers, but if the AI did it the way they did constant helming, it might prevent some AI issues with station keeping when done with waypoints.

[Strangelove]

The most major bugs:

1. Chronometer.

2. Radar needs to work properly at all bearings.

3. Various career bugs (retirement, new bases, repeat patrols).

4. Spatial issues. Imperial measurements and ship dimensions need to be fixed. If the recognition manual says that a ship has a 15 foot draft, then the ship I'm shooting at better have a 15 foot draft, and the torpedo settings wheel better be in Imperial! I was raised with metric, but this game should really be playable in Imperial.

[Torpex752]

The only thing I would request is a better indication of pressure hull integrity. Give the DC model a look over.

Thank YOU!

Frank