About the SH5 campaigns - what you like/dislike

[Rongel]

I have to say that I like the SH 5 dynamic campaign and find it much more interesting than just the patrol area x -missions. There are expections though, like the sink carrier in Total Germany. I haven't tried the infamous Mare Nostrum yet... Anyway, it would be really great to have improved campaign mod.

The supply ships/milkcows are "living" things! That means, they patrol the sea for a very long time period and then head back to base for refit. This is the reason why many times the resupply is denied. If is no supply ship in the area, its logical to be denied on the resupply request, but if is one close enough you will have his coordinate.

Wow, I didn't know this! It sounds realistic now, but could we have more of those ships to increase the possibility for the resupply? I guess the propability for a resupply now is really really low. Increasing it may compromise realism but I think gaming experience is equally important too.

[Zedi]

Originally Posted by jwilliams

..
Are you going to mod the campaign??? I hope so. But I understand that this is alot of work.

Not yet. Just talking about to see what people would like to have in the campaigns, mostly like a reference for a upcoming project. What I could do alone is to replace the hunt of capital ships with tonnage war.

Also, Im very tempted to put the Bismarck into the campaign, but I have no idea how to script the battle with the royal navy and keep things under control. Would be nice to get a urgent message about Bismarck being chased and asked to assist, but Im afraid that is kinda impossible to keep up the speed with a rushing BB. But I really wanna see a mission where we can witness a huge battle between 2 enemy surface taskforce. Im really curious to find out what 2 or more enemy elite BB will do when they cross each other path...

Originally Posted by Rongel

...
Wow, I didn't know this! It sounds realistic now, but could we have more of those ships to increase the possibility for the resupply? I guess the propability for a resupply now is really really low. Increasing it may compromise realism but I think gaming experience is equally important too.

Thats why is imperative to plan your trip and fuel consumption. There are only few supply ships available and they are very busy and also hunted. Keep that in mind when go out on patrol.

[Tronics]

Mare Nostrum's 'assassination' missions.


Ex, go to this wrongly labeled enemy patrol area and sink X battleships.

Completely absurd.


To complete do the following:

Just go patrol in zigzags on the incoming shallows off of Gibraltar and sink the incoming BB's and CV's there, it will count for mission credit for Force H and Malta Supplies.

Theres usually a RoyalSov patrol incoming about once every 7 days, and typically theres a CV incoming around that time +- a day as well.

I'm still trying to find another CV for the Malta supplies, and then to go find the routes for the two Force A BB's floating about in the east somewhere.

[StarTrekMike]

It would be interesting if you could have more of a sense of "moral" in the game, have missions that show the desperation that was felt early in the war when the Kriegsmarine did not have nearly enough ships to fight the royal navy but had to go out anyway.

During "the happy time" we could see the cautious arrogance that was felt as ships were hitting the bottom but not as fast has they needed too.

I guess you guys probably see where I am going with this, the game is really good at presenting a setting by putting you in a U-boat with a crew that you can interact with.

It only needs to work on feeling like you are part of a larger picture both in the war effort and morale wise.

Mike

[Rongel]

Oh, one more thing. If this should happen it would be nice if the improved campaign could include also the icebergs, mines and subnets mods. Kind of like the "Campaing Megamod". Am I asking too much?

What I could do alone is to replace the hunt of capital ships with tonnage war.

That sounds pretty good already! Attacking a capital ship with 5-6 destroyers is a suicide mission. Sinking the 3 armed merchants in Total Germany was kind of fun, I would keep that.

[Zedi]

Right now Im waiting for TDW return and his improved mines and nets, then the mod is ready to release. This will include icebergs, mines and nets for all campaigns but also improved harbor defense in all campaigns, no more easy camping ports for easy tonnage. Its amazing to see that Scapa has only 3 (!) destroyers patrolling the area, now this is fixed.

I could change the capital ship hunt with tonnage missions for now if the majority want it, except MNostrum where is way to much to work for a single person.

[stoianm]

Originally Posted by Zedi

Right now Im waiting for TDW return and his improved mines and nets, then the mod is ready to release. This will include icebergs, mines and nets for all campaigns but also improved harbor defense in all campaigns, no more easy camping ports for easy tonnage. Its amazing to see that Scapa has only 3 (!) destroyers patrolling the area, now this is fixed.

I could change the capital ship hunt with tonnage missions for now if the majority want it, except MNostrum where is way to much to work for a single person.

thanks for your work and your time.. yor work is very important because make the game more immersive... and i think is a good ideea to change the capital ship hunt with tonnage... i dunno if the submariners had special task like to hunt a capital ship in real... i think that they just go on the ocean and hunt what they were capable to catch on theyr periscope, radar or hydrophone

[Txema]

Originally Posted by Zedi

I could change the capital ship hunt with tonnage missions for now if the majority want it, except MNostrum where is way to much to work for a single person.

That would be a very good change, in my opinion.




Txema

[mr chris]

The current campaign style in SH5, Is totally borked beyond belief.
A total redesign in needed.
Was one of the main reasons i lost interest in the game so fast.
That and the total disgrace that was the amount of merchant ships in game.

[Zedi]

Originally Posted by mr chris

The current campaign style in SH5, Is totally borked beyond belief.
A total redesign in needed.
Was one of the main reasons i lost interest in the game so fast.
That and the total disgrace that was the amount of merchant ships in game.

Dont just say .. its broken and thats it. Elaborate a bit more, what do you like, what do you hate, why and how do you see a redesign. Every opinion counts.

[Captain Joe]

Not sure if its possible but a random mission popping up when on patrol at times and if close enough can accept, sometimes you wait for many game days/weeks and no contacts, a type of side mission would be good to maybe break the boredom of patrolling in mission area only.

[dcb]

I'll repost here what I posted about the campaign in February, in another thread, so sorry for the deja-vu sensation, but it has its place in this thread about the stock campaign:

I played three missions and completed the British Supplies part of the game, about sinking 50 K tons.
In all three missions I never saw one escort. Period. Nobody came at me after sinking ships 50 km off the Brit coast, no plane, no destroyer, nobody. And each of these guys radioed for help... Patrolling on surface in the range of Brit airbases, I was only attacked by 2 planes, which I was able to avoid easily.
In the last mission, I sunk a totally unescorted convoy (6 ships), some 100 km off the British coast. Two hours after the attack, still nobody cared to answer their calls for help.
That's because no air and sea patrols got scripted in the campaign layers.

Add to this the fantasy missions about sinking carriers, the whopping tonnage objectives - everything that's been already said by others in this thread...

Bottom line, I second what Mr. Chris said earlier: "borked beyond belief"

[mr chris]

Originally Posted by Zedi

Dont just say .. its broken and thats it. Elaborate a bit more, what do you like, what do you hate, why and how do you see a redesign. Every opinion counts.

Well i can tell you that i like bugger all about the current campaign in SH5.

What i would have love to have seen with regards to the campaign. Is that they had built on the campaign from SH3 /SH4.
All that was needed was to add to the campaign with little things like adding in the ability to have a comms link to BDU in game that actually works like it did in real life. Like during the war at certain periods like during the lead up to the abortive Operation Sealion. Bdu would send the odd Homeward bound boat to a position to report the weather. Or getting sent to home in beacon signals from another boat who is shadowing a convoy.

Or adding Special missions like having to land Abwehr agents, or looking for survivors from the Bismark sinking if you are in the correct area at the time of the incident.

Fully integrated all U - Boat Types and Variants , U - Flotillas and areas of operation from the full duration of the war. Such as Indian Ocean , Black Sea , Mediterranean.

If the above can be added to a nearly full degree with mods in SH3 why they are not in SH5 is a complete mystery to me.

Finally to make a good campaign you need plenty of shipping and variety of shipping. Just take a look at the number of ships that are available via mods in SH3 / SH4 these days, The are so so many.

This needs to addressed big time one of my major gripes with SH5 apart from the campaign was the dearth of different merchant ship classes. The is only so long that you can carry on sinking the same 5 types of merchant.

So there you have it a small list but im sure if thought a little longer i would come up with some more. But im sure the are many others around here that will have some great ideas to help make a good campaign for SH5.

[Zedi]

Originally Posted by Captain Joe

Not sure if its possible but a random mission popping up when on patrol at times and if close enough can accept, sometimes you wait for many game days/weeks and no contacts, a type of side mission would be good to maybe break the boredom of patrolling in mission area only.

I think this is very doable. I finished twice the whole SH5 campaign and the overall feeling was that Im all alone, that this is MY war and I fight against the whole world. Is like playing a pirate game where my objective is to hunt ships all by myself.

So I will try to bring more life in the game by launching the kriegsmarine at the sea. The SH5 campaign is full with allied traffic, but almost no german taskforces around except the shore.

I did a quick test to see how the AI will behave when encounter the enemy on surface, here is the result posted on screenies topic. The germans are deadly precise and I had a great feeling seeing this short battle taking place, the feeling that Im not alone anymore and Im a soldier, not a mercenary or pirate.

[robbythesub]

Originally Posted by Zedi

This was my biggest fail in Open Horizons. I just cannot figure out how to send messages on different layers. Every mission in OH include a radio message sent to the player when the mission become available. But to pull this out simply with events and triggers is not working in the campaign. Still looking for an answer/solution...

Thanks Zedi- I hope someone can find a result for this as it would really change the game