Do you embrace failure?

[ParaB]

Ok, looks like I'm not the only one who accepts failure as an important part of the game.

[Anachronous]

Sounds like cheating to me. You might as well just have unlimited torps and enemies that dont move if you are simply going to keep reloading until you get it right.

[partyboy]

I'll reload while I'm still learning the mechanics of something, but once I'm pretty comfortable with it I play dead is dead. If my torpedoes don't sink a target before I'm spotted by the escorts and I have to bail, so be it. Where's the fun in a perfect patrol if you have to keep reloading just to secure it?

[NefariousKoel]

I play Dead is Dead.
Even when I shoot down an aircraft and it crashes right into my boat and I go down with all hands.

The only times I've been saving is after making an attack and making clear just to be sure there's no CTD even though I've only had one thus far, found the problem, and worked around it.

I should probably save before making an attack run in case of CTDs but I've not needed it.

[Werewolf13]

Originally Posted by ParaB

Yesterday I played a multiplayer game of SH4 and chatted with a couple of guys about the general gameplay. What surprised me a bit was that obviously everybody except me regularly completes 100k tonnage patrols, sinking battleships and carriers left and right. When I told them that I often suffered from dud torpedoes or a bad manual aiming I got the reply "well, always save before firing your tops, then you can reload if you miss".

Guys that play like that are better off puttin' quarters in a machine. I can hear 'em now when their torps miss. "Do over - do over".

That would take all the challenge and the fun out of it for me. Without consequences what's the point...

[Werewolf13]

Originally Posted by clayton

Though diving during the day works out ok, though I wonder how realistic that was?

Very realistic. Read Admiral Richard O'kane's (I think that's his name) book Clear the Bridge (again - I think that's it - been about 15 years or so since I read it and about 20 since the first time I read it). He commanded the USS Tang in WWII and was XO for one of the more famous skippers before that (I think the Wahoo and Mush Morton). Diving during the day in enemy held waters was the rule - not the exception.

[Linavitch]

I had a 'training' patrol where I was saving every five minutes while I got the hang of the manual targeting.

It's not really a game you can complete so I don't see the point of saving and reloading. As long as you learn from your mistakes for your next patrol.

And hey! Where would the 2nd patrol and your dead club go if you never died?

[CCIP]

DiD! DiD! DiD!

The only gameplay-related reason I'd reload a game is if I die in a completely stupid way that doesn't reflect reality - for example if I forget to put the game on pause when the phone rings and something kills me meanwhile, or if I accidentally run up high TC while heading into land (on a clear day). Otherwise, there's just no satisfaction from what you do get in the game.

I'm a naturally cautious, defensive player to start with - and a bit of a roleplayer at that. I'm really less interested in the tonnage than I am in having a tough run for it, and fighting to bring my sub back home after it.

[Jungman]

I play like Captain Bly sometimes. I do things no one would ever do in real life. I enjoy testing the gameplay mechanics to the extreme. Never completed a Career yet.

I ran out of torps and ammunition, the last ship was almost sunk...so I ordered Ramming Speed and ran over the small merchant!:rotfl: Whilst under heavy enemy fire.

Had 7 crew die and bleed to death after trying to make it back to port. (I notice if you put a crewman in the aft torpedo room he will recover health, else any men wounded at all will slowly die away. Even crew at 100 health with broken morale die which is kind of odd unless the captian took him down to make an example).

Back in port the M.P. grabbed me and threw me in jail!

[JSF]

I save and ofton...........So, whats your points?

[zzodr]

I save and reload every time I miss with torp, deck gun, AA gun..

Originally Posted by zzodr

I save and reload every time I miss with torp, deck gun, AA gun..

:rotfl:

Let me guess you've never gotten through a patrol then....:rotflyea I know your joking probably)

After all Bernard's Law states that:

"A perfectly aimed deck gun, when fired at a target you need to sink, will always find a way to miss, even if this means defying the laws of physics."

I play DiD unless there was somehow a way I could of gotten home, like if I still had an engine, or was close enough to a home port to be able to get a tow. Never reloaded unless there was a CTD. Do save in-patrol but thats only till CTDs are sorted out and such.

[nova bomb]

Iron man!

I save before an attack in case I CTD.... That's it!

[zzodr]

Originally Posted by Rilder

Let me guess you've never gotten through a patrol then....:rotflyea I know your joking probably)

Yeah true I was joking. I only save at waypoints, etc...I imagine it would be quite a challenge to hit a ship with a sub deck gun in real life, with the sub sitting low in the water and a rolling deck!

[Beery]

Originally Posted by ParaB

When I told them that I often suffered from dud torpedoes or a bad manual aiming I got the reply "well, always save before firing your tops, then you can reload if you miss"...

I'm with you. What's the point of these folks playing if they're going to cheat? It's like playing chess and taking back moves if your piece is taken. Playing that way it's impossible to learn anything from the game.

I just don't get it. I mean SH4 is not supposed to be about getting the perfect score. It's about experiencing the life of a submarine commander.