Should I buy it guys?

Mowgli · 06-22-21, 03:26 AM

Guys I love SH 5 WOS and had a blast but like the idea of crew management and more that is in UBoat but am put off by the fact that it looks a bit arcadie if you know what I mean.

So i would appreciate opinions. Thanks in advance.

GoldenRivet · 06-24-21, 01:11 PM

In my opinion it isnt "arcadie" at all

If you download off steam and go to the workshop you can download the TDC mod which works with the current 129.9 beta (assuming you opt in for that)

The TDC works essentially just like our old familiar friend from SH3, so there is very little learning curve there.

you still plot your course out to your patrol grid a la SHIII

you still have to identify the ship, measure its mast height for range, gather its speed data, input it into the TDC and fire. You still get duds, you still get driven down to 210 meters and hunted for several hours in game by escorts eager to send you to the bottom.

damage control is INSANELY cool - i mean when you are down at 210 meters creeping along in silent running under the blue lights, trying to keep quiet - youve shut down the gyrocompass, youve switched from electrial steering to manual, the batteries are low so you have shut down power to non essential compartments. you could hear a pin drop then BAM, Forward torpedo hatch taking water!!! under the extreme pressure of the deep water is spraying in, your chief engineer stands on crates to repair the leak, the frightened faces of your men glisten in the beam of your flashlight as you supervise. fortunately its a quick fix and the water in the torpedo room is only ankle deep making you a bit bow heavy. your planesmen struggle to keep the boat trimmed but its manageable. forming a bucket bregade of 4 or 5 sailors to move the water to the control room bilge will help level things out. The pump isnt very efficient at such depth, also its noisy so we will have to ride it out until we can come shallow. Finally the escorts give up their hunt and run back to the fading convoy across the horizon, its safe to surface and pump out the water.

In the meantime there are half a dozen lifeboats all around you bobbing in the sea... do you disperse food and water? go boat to boat looking for officers to capture? do you ignore them and sail on? all are options you have in version 129.9

several days later you spot a lone merchant flying the Argentine flag. You come along side and order the ship to stop, it complies and you form a boarding party, arm your men and go aboard. The merchant ships captain speaks perfect english, fortunately so does a member of your delegation. He informs you that the ship is carrying tobacco from argentina to a neutral port in spain. his papers appear in order... search the cargo hold?

let them resume the voyage? are they carrying tobacco to Vigo? or are they actually carrying rubber to Liverpool? Is this a british merchant carrying a false flag? or a legitimate neutral? do we use a torpedo on them? or do we plant explosives in the engine room? you have to decide and work it out - but make the wrong choice and you face severe repercussions at HQ!

I have more play time on this title than any of the 176 other games in my steam inventory and i have found it to be VERY engaging and entertaining.

are there things that need tweaking? improvement? more work? of course there are, and there will continue to be things needing attention for some time... people forget this is a work in progress.

but there have been 9 patches in the past 23 days an average of one major bug fix patch every 2 and a half days - the dev team takes the product seriously and listes to feedback on steam which is their primary platform. so if you have suggestions or grievences it does more good to air them out there rather than here.

In a nut shell, the game play (once the GUI is figured out) is - IMHO - a lot like SHIII, only Uboat does a lot of the things i always wished we could do in SH3 (run out of food, board neutrals, board supply subs, help lifeboaters, see damage being repaired) you dont have to pretend all that stuff is happening anymore while some arbitrary timer on a 2D damage control screen counts down. You have to make smart decisions and prioritize repairs for example - i had bottomed out at like 180 meters and the boat was a wreck, air was going to run out fast, so i made restoring power to the engine room and repairing the air chemical purification system a priority or else repairing everything else would be pointless because they would all suffoctate soon. in prior games, you just clicked a compartment and a timer counted down. now you have to actually assign an officer to one task, and another officer to another task and so on. (though they will generally prioritize on their own)

currently, the game is like $29 on steam - i've spent way more than that on stuff i regretted way more than a game

so if you get it, and go through the tutorials and learn the GUI and the ins and outs of things and give it a chance and a honest fair handshake for a couple of days with the understanding that it is a WIP and constantly being tweaked and updated, im certain you'll enjoy it too

GoldenRivet · 06-24-21, 01:39 PM

this video of gameplay is about a month old - you'll notice that targeting ships is different in the current build especially with the TDC mod.

crew panic attacks etc are a lot less frequent in the current build

but this video gives you a pretty decent idea of the gameplay

one thing to keep in mind is that the game can certainly be played most of the time in first person view... however the third person cut away view as seen frequently in screenshots like the one below...

... is simply the easiest and quickest way to manage damage and move crew where needed.

it is just to be thought of as a very detailed advanced more interactive version of this...

AVGWarhawk · 06-24-21, 05:18 PM

Absolutely. It is a very good game. Not arcade at all. You'll enjoy it.

Mowgli · 06-25-21, 01:35 AM

Thank you gentlemen for your replies. I am sure the detailed reports will be most useful to many others besides myself. I shall download today.
This forum rocks.

Kal_Maximus_U669 · 07-01-21, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mowgli

Thank you gentlemen for your replies. I am sure the detailed reports will be most useful to many others besides myself. I shall download today.
This forum rocks.

Personally I look forward to hearing your feedback

.. since you seem familiar with the genre and said to play sh5.

Besides, the game is on sale .. take advantage of it!

06-22-21, 03:26 AM	#1
Mowgli Sparks Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: South Wales Posts: 248 Downloads: 158 Uploads: 0	Should I buy it guys? Guys I love SH 5 WOS and had a blast but like the idea of crew management and more that is in UBoat but am put off by the fact that it looks a bit arcadie if you know what I mean. So i would appreciate opinions. Thanks in advance. __________________ Now this is the Law of the Jungle -- as old and as true as the sky; And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back -- For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.

06-24-21, 01:11 PM	#2
GoldenRivet Subsim Aviator Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 8,726 Downloads: 146 Uploads: 0	In my opinion it isnt "arcadie" at all If you download off steam and go to the workshop you can download the TDC mod which works with the current 129.9 beta (assuming you opt in for that) The TDC works essentially just like our old familiar friend from SH3, so there is very little learning curve there. you still plot your course out to your patrol grid a la SHIII you still have to identify the ship, measure its mast height for range, gather its speed data, input it into the TDC and fire. You still get duds, you still get driven down to 210 meters and hunted for several hours in game by escorts eager to send you to the bottom. damage control is INSANELY cool - i mean when you are down at 210 meters creeping along in silent running under the blue lights, trying to keep quiet - youve shut down the gyrocompass, youve switched from electrial steering to manual, the batteries are low so you have shut down power to non essential compartments. you could hear a pin drop then BAM, Forward torpedo hatch taking water!!! under the extreme pressure of the deep water is spraying in, your chief engineer stands on crates to repair the leak, the frightened faces of your men glisten in the beam of your flashlight as you supervise. fortunately its a quick fix and the water in the torpedo room is only ankle deep making you a bit bow heavy. your planesmen struggle to keep the boat trimmed but its manageable. forming a bucket bregade of 4 or 5 sailors to move the water to the control room bilge will help level things out. The pump isnt very efficient at such depth, also its noisy so we will have to ride it out until we can come shallow. Finally the escorts give up their hunt and run back to the fading convoy across the horizon, its safe to surface and pump out the water. In the meantime there are half a dozen lifeboats all around you bobbing in the sea... do you disperse food and water? go boat to boat looking for officers to capture? do you ignore them and sail on? all are options you have in version 129.9 several days later you spot a lone merchant flying the Argentine flag. You come along side and order the ship to stop, it complies and you form a boarding party, arm your men and go aboard. The merchant ships captain speaks perfect english, fortunately so does a member of your delegation. He informs you that the ship is carrying tobacco from argentina to a neutral port in spain. his papers appear in order... search the cargo hold? let them resume the voyage? are they carrying tobacco to Vigo? or are they actually carrying rubber to Liverpool? Is this a british merchant carrying a false flag? or a legitimate neutral? do we use a torpedo on them? or do we plant explosives in the engine room? you have to decide and work it out - but make the wrong choice and you face severe repercussions at HQ! I have more play time on this title than any of the 176 other games in my steam inventory and i have found it to be VERY engaging and entertaining. are there things that need tweaking? improvement? more work? of course there are, and there will continue to be things needing attention for some time... people forget this is a work in progress. but there have been 9 patches in the past 23 days an average of one major bug fix patch every 2 and a half days - the dev team takes the product seriously and listes to feedback on steam which is their primary platform. so if you have suggestions or grievences it does more good to air them out there rather than here. In a nut shell, the game play (once the GUI is figured out) is - IMHO - a lot like SHIII, only Uboat does a lot of the things i always wished we could do in SH3 (run out of food, board neutrals, board supply subs, help lifeboaters, see damage being repaired) you dont have to pretend all that stuff is happening anymore while some arbitrary timer on a 2D damage control screen counts down. You have to make smart decisions and prioritize repairs for example - i had bottomed out at like 180 meters and the boat was a wreck, air was going to run out fast, so i made restoring power to the engine room and repairing the air chemical purification system a priority or else repairing everything else would be pointless because they would all suffoctate soon. in prior games, you just clicked a compartment and a timer counted down. now you have to actually assign an officer to one task, and another officer to another task and so on. (though they will generally prioritize on their own) currently, the game is like $29 on steam - i've spent way more than that on stuff i regretted way more than a game so if you get it, and go through the tutorials and learn the GUI and the ins and outs of things and give it a chance and a honest fair handshake for a couple of days with the understanding that it is a WIP and constantly being tweaked and updated, im certain you'll enjoy it too __________________ Last edited by GoldenRivet; 06-24-21 at 01:52 PM.

06-24-21, 01:39 PM	#3
GoldenRivet Subsim Aviator Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 8,726 Downloads: 146 Uploads: 0	this video of gameplay is about a month old - you'll notice that targeting ships is different in the current build especially with the TDC mod. crew panic attacks etc are a lot less frequent in the current build but this video gives you a pretty decent idea of the gameplay one thing to keep in mind is that the game can certainly be played most of the time in first person view... however the third person cut away view as seen frequently in screenshots like the one below... ... is simply the easiest and quickest way to manage damage and move crew where needed. it is just to be thought of as a very detailed advanced more interactive version of this... __________________

06-24-21, 05:18 PM	#4
AVGWarhawk Lucky Jack Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: In a 1954 Buick. Posts: 28,253 Downloads: 90 Uploads: 0	Absolutely. It is a very good game. Not arcade at all. You'll enjoy it. __________________ “You're painfully alive in a drugged and dying culture.” ― Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road

06-25-21, 01:35 AM	#5
Mowgli Sparks Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: South Wales Posts: 248 Downloads: 158 Uploads: 0	I am convinced Thank you gentlemen for your replies. I am sure the detailed reports will be most useful to many others besides myself. I shall download today. This forum rocks. __________________ Now this is the Law of the Jungle -- as old and as true as the sky; And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back -- For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.