Silent Hunter Online

[KeldorKatarn]

Originally Posted by BigBANGtheory

You are publishing a game through Ubisoft which basically shat all over its customer base and you expect the sub sim fans to just wipe the slate clean because its a different bunch of guys developing the game?

No seriously get real yourself.

Oh common. WE don't publish silent Hunter through Ubisoft, they let us develop it. We don't own it, they do.

Jesus, people. I understand certain sentiments here but if you make accusations like this, first get your facts right on how the industry works. Ubisoft own the franchise and they contract developer studios. This is one of the biggest projects that Ubisoft gave away the last year. Do you honestly expect a studio to turn down such a huge offer?


As for the comments "Prove to us that this game is worth it". Well, that's what the beta is for. I haven't played it but I can say it is far from being casual. it is much too complex for that. I don't know how realistic the combat is yet, as mentioned I haven't played it myself, just watched our QA doing it, but I can only encourage you to try it and then voice your opinions. Ubisoft does not target the casual audience with this, because they know very well that no Farmville audience in this world will ever tough something this complex, no matter how much you dumb it down.

There may be stuff in there to make it more simple to let people get into the game more quickly, but that is necessary in this kind of product, otherwise you don't get a big enough player base (and no, big enough in this case doesn't mean mainstream, this was never intended to be mainstream, it is intended for the SH crowd). if you don't agree with the complexity or other parts, voice your opinions. You may think of free to play whatever you like, but let me tell you this. You have more power here than you think. SH5 you bought and after that you had no more say in it.

This game you don't buy. Ubisoft needs continuous money flow, even if in small amounts per player or big amounts of very few players, doesn't matter. And they also need a lot of people haveing fun with it without ever spending a dime. because the people willing to pay for it won't pay a dime either if there's nobody around to play WITH. And since this is not targeted at mainstream, ubisoft NEEDS this to appeal to you guys, otherwise they'll have sunk money 5000m deep in the atlantic ocean.

So give it a chance, check it out, then tell the team what's good and what's crap. Ubisoft needs this to be a success so they will have to listen this time.

You may think Free-To-Play is just a big money grab... and it is... potentially, and that's completely alright, but compared to legacy methods of selling products, F2P is a huge risk. because if the game doesn't take off, you'll have flushed a huge investment down the toilet. And in case of a company like Ubisoft that hurts, because everybody knows them and sees that happening. That's bad.

So I know this isn't what you wanted, but on the other hand, you never had so much power over a SH game before. Think about it.

Edit: Also one more thing. I'm not the boss of my company. I'm one single developer not even working on the SH team. So I don't speak officially for anyone. I'm just a guy who happens to work for the same company and thought I'd offer some insights from the other side of the fence since I'm just a big a SH fan as you all here. I have tons of WW2 books in my shelf and a lot of them about the Battle of the Atlantic, I ate up SH3 like crazy, trying most of the great mods being pumped out here and did a few myself. Before joining the company and until recenly I also was the co-producer of a free "for fans by fans" game calles Wing Commander Saga, recently released on www.wcsaga.com, that I worked on for 5 years for free, just so that the fans could have a fun space sim game again because EA didn't want to make them anymore. So you see I'm just a big a fan and crazy gamer as you are.
Don't beat me over the head for Ubisoft or even for what my boss decides to accept in terms of a contract or not (but honestly, would YOU have said no if Ubisoft had offered you to make the next SH and you are a fan of the series? REALLY?) I just came here because I know the guys working on this and that they are really trying hard to make it the best game possible. They are really nervious that you might not like it because it is really such a new approach, but they are pumping a lot of work into it, and honestly, the only thing these guys are hoping for right now is for you to give it a chance and then tell them what is good and what isn't, so they can continue working on making this a really good SH game.
That's all I was trying to do. Sorry if I offended anybody in the process. I didn't want to pour gasoline into the fire...