What makes SH3 so great?

[Sailor Steve]

SH3 is lacking in several areas, but they are easy to overlook. The graphics are still quite good, just not as good as the newer versions. There are stock things as well as mods that were great from the start. There's something about having the home guard and the pretty nurses waving and cheering and the band playing while you sail in and out of the harbor.

On the other hand, SH4 has become kind of a poor relation to SH3. Because it had certain problems it was avoided in favor of the older game, even though most of those problems have been long since fixed. So SH4 has some great AI and performance and campaign mods, but very little of the graphics mods that SH3 has benefitted from. Call me a graphics junkie if you like. I don't need the latest pretties or the biggest explosions, but I love sailing out of Kiel and through the working locks, admiring the ships coming and going and the planes circling overhead. That kind of ambience tickles me.

The other thing that only SH3 has is Commander, which not only lets you control all sorts of in-game functions, but gives you a realistic career with crew reassignments, a huge database of crewmen so you'll almost never see the same name twice, and it gives names to the ships you sink, as well as the cargo they were carrying, the number of crew aboard and the number of crew lost.

Those are just a very few of the things that keep SH3 ahead of the rest. For now.

Originally Posted by privateer

SH4 has only what? 3 years? But that will change.

I certainly hope so. There's so much more that can be done with it, and it is the better game for several reasons other than just the graphics.

[Dissaray]

I think it is the depth of play that puts SH3 out ahead; especialy when compared to 5. The ammount of sea that you have free range to hunt and kill in is astounding. I have played the game for a year or more fairly consistantly and only just now ran into a battle ship and a CV in open waters. The graphics of the game are good enuf to not bother me at all realy, the only exception being I can't get the game to run full screen on my moniter so some of the graphics are hard to see on the dils and such. Lastly it is the moding comuntiy that makes the game great. The near free range the moders seem to have with this game make it a bit of a play ground for the creative people and they do the best work, if only a few of them got consulted for SH5. It could have been so much better.

[ryanglavin]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

There's something about having the home guard and the pretty nurses waving and cheering and the band playing while you sail in and out of the harbor.

I always wonder if thats my last patrol of my career... Late 1944 is the nexttime I ship out from Penang. God help me.

[JScones]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

The other thing that only SH3 has is Commander, which not only lets you control all sorts of in-game functions, but gives you a realistic career with crew reassignments, a huge database of crewmen so you'll almost never see the same name twice, and it gives names to the ships you sink, as well as the cargo they were carrying, the number of crew aboard and the number of crew lost.

Perhaps I'm biased, but were it not for SH3Cmdr I wouldn't be playing SH3 now.

A similar-concept SH5Cmdr may just be the thing that tips me over to playing SH5...but I haven't read of anyone developing one.

[Sailor Steve]

It's also the main thing that keeps me playing SH3. That and the visuals I described and love so much.

If SH4 had any of Commander's functions we could stick in all of IABL's ships and make them nation-specific, with names and all. I could have Liberties for the US, UK Dutch, Norse, Russians and even China.

Of course SH5 seems to be even more adept in that category. Once the DRM is gone I'll be checking it out for that very question. I've been shown a screenshot of how it applies names to ships, and I'm very excited to try it out when I get the chance.

[JScones]

I've been toying with creating library files (DLL) containing key SH3Cmdr functions such as ship names, captain/crew names, randomised events and other "popular" features that don't exist in SH4 or SH5. The DLL could then be called by any frontend application. The DLLs wouldn't be tied to any game in the series, so would work with SH3, SH4 or SH5...that would be controlled by the frontend applications.

Wouldn't be onerous to do, as everything I develop is modular anyway...but it would only be worth doing if someone was working on frontends (I could do a very simple interface that would work with SH3/4/5, but it would be simple and nothing like the SH3Cmdr interface).

And I'd need to know the functions that SH3Cmdr has that would be useful in SH4 and SH5, recognising that some of SH3Cmdr was incorporated into SH4 and so presumably SH5.

[ryanglavin]

I also have to agree, without SH3commander, and its additions to the game, I would definitely not be playing. On a side note, I have learned something from the forums: spelling "definitely" like how it is instead of definetly.

[The Enigma]

Originally Posted by JScones

...but it would only be worth doing if someone was working on frontends (I could do a very simple interface that would work with SH3/4/5, but it would be simple and nothing like the SH3Cmdr interface).

I could do frontends, as long as it could be developed in the languages I'm familiar with (VB or AutoIT).

[JScones]

You can develop the frontends in whatever language(s) you like. You would call the DLL in much the same way you call any Windows DLL.

I'd provide a list of the exported functions so you'd know how to call.

Would just need someone to tell me what features are needed in SH4 and SH5...

[Brag]

As Sailor Steve says, SH3, even in vanilla, has a great atmosphere. With GWX it is simply superb. I only wish the water graphics were like in the screenies I´ve seen in SH5.

Besides the OSP/DRM in SH5, just the mission orders make me want to barf.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by JScones

You can develop the frontends in whatever language(s) you like. You would call the DLL in much the same way you call any Windows DLL.

I'd provide a list of the exported functions so you'd know how to call.

Would just need someone to tell me what features are needed in SH4 and SH5...

When we met in Houston two years ago Dan told me that SH4's ship names function worked (at least I think that's what he meant), but I've never seen it. Either way, adding names to SH4 is the same as SH3, very difficult. You have to open the Roster file for the ship and add in the name, the dates and the other info for each individual ship.

Commander's functionality makes it so much simpler and easier, that's the first one I'd vote for. I could do a database for both Allied and Axis ships.

I don't know how the crew names work in SH4. They added middle names and initials which seem to show up at random and are silly. If it could be overridden in favor of Commander's method it would be much better. Then we could have Commander's marvelous database for the u-boat side and create an American counterpart for the fleet boats.

All the other functions are probably just gravy - not necessary but would be nice to see.

Obviously I don't know what's needed for SH5 yet. It looks like they have an easy ship names function that may work quite well, but from what I've seen and heard they've removed the crew names except for those same exact officers over and over. I could be wrong about that. I certainly hope so.

[tonschk]

Originally Posted by JScones

Perhaps I'm biased, but were it not for SH3Cmdr I wouldn't be playing SH3 now.

A similar-concept SH5Cmdr may just be the thing that tips me over to playing SH5...but I haven't read of anyone developing one.

SH5 came out yesterday and therefore is not a 5 years old game like SH3


.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by tonschk

SH5 came out yesterday and therefore is not a 5 years old game like SH3


.

As already stated by privateer in #3

SH5 aided by better graphics should get there eventually, given the same amount of work and time.

[Iron Budokan]

What makes SH3 so great?

Immersion.

Imo, it still wins hands down on that.

[STEED]

Talk is cheap...Get stuck in and sink them all.