The Silent Hunter IV (Pacific Campaign) WISH-LIST

Please include the following in the upcoming hit SHIV.


1. All compartment accessible

2. ALL crew members ALIVE on submarine and viewable in 3d going about their daily routines. (If hitman blood money can create hundreds of characters on the screen at one time why can't this be implemented in with the option to turn off for low end PCs?)

3. EVEN BETTER explosions than stock SHIII.

4. RESUPPLY this time fellas - please for the love of God include this.

5. COMMUNICATIONS with other allied vessels. Following dynamic orders given by allied Capital ships with higher ranking officers onboard that direct the player's sub where to go and what to scout for or attack.

6. Port of calls that are accessible even to the player. - Got to give the boys some time for R/R in friendly and neutral ports.

7. Better weather system than SHIII. Something similar to MicroSoft's Flight Simulator should work excellent in a subsim with dynamically changing weather.

8. Rougher seas - I still think that SHIII sea states are a bit weak compared to real life sea states in heavy winds and storms. I served on the USS Nicholas FFG-47 for 3 years in the US Navy, I would know about the waiting lines to throw up in the head.

9. Lunch for the crew with rationing limits and limits on potable water - Shipmates gotta eat and drink. 3 squares a day should be implemented with potable water, ties in with number 2.

10. Better save game system.

11. 1MC communications throughout the boat. I am not sure if they called it 1MC back then but it is the main communication system in the US fleet right now. It allows the OOD or bridge watch to pass messages throughout the ships intercom system. It would be great to tell the Boatswain's Mate of the watch (BMOW) to pipe and relay messages to the rest of the crew and have them act on it. Things like, "<PIPE TWILL> GENERAL QUARTERS, GENERAL QUARTERS, ALL HANDS MAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS, THIS IS NOT A DRILL."

12. Rust build up on ships after being out to sea for more than a few days and ability to have ships company do paint and preservation while out to sea by going DIW. This would be important before for returning home for all the lovely lasses and important politicians and Admiral's to see as the submarine pulled back into port.

13. More competition against other submarine Captains and Commanders for rank boards. Tonnage is not everything like it is in the SHIII game. The way a submarine crew performs, the way the submarine is presented in port (not rusted), etc.. should all be a part of the ranking process. Not just tonnage and combat action.

14. 3d fires and water flooding in compartments that are damaged.

15. Lots of historical music and radio broadcast from the time that play on accurate dates.

16. Ability to type(write) our own logs and not have them automatically entered for us.

17. SMART crew. - They should be able to handle most of the little things themselves and standing proper watches. This should be an automatic thing so that the Captain does not have to micro managed his whole ships company. The Captain should however be able to overide anything a crew member is doing and put him to work doing something else. The Captain should be allowed or able to rig the boat for red/white lighting at anytime, but the crew should be doing this on pre-determined schedules if not engaged in current combat.

18. Better charting/navigation and proper tools for the period to calculate it all out.

19. Death sequence for player sub killed. Make it dramatic and sad

20. Please give us(modders) the tools to create new objects, scenery, etc to be able to add more onto the game without having to find backdoor ways to get it done. If games like Oblivion Elder Scrolls can allow their players and fans to create and add new mods to the game with a full tool kit why can't we. After all we are your loyal and returning customers who will stick with you and your company so long as you keep pumping out these excellent games and listen to our request.

21. And last but not least - BETA TEST , BETA TEST, BETA TEST. We ALL want this thing stable and as perfect as possible on release date.



GEEZ....I don't ask for much do I? Oh Well, I'm spoiled!

[THE_MASK]

Some realistic looking crew would be nice . Going to war on a kriegsmarine sub with the scooby doo cartoon gang just lets the game down .

[THE_MASK]

If you can make SH4 twice as big as SH3 with 2 or more DVDs than thats ok . Im willing to pay say..........$5 more than i paid for SH3 .

[THE_MASK]

MULTIPLAYER

Instead of the current multiplayer game where it has no relation to your career , i feel that the career game is by far the most important and the multiplayer should contribute to your career game . The game could load your current saved career at your own choosing and you could invite up to 4 people anytime to join you in multiplayer wolf packs . The playing area would be a defined area say 100 square kilometre snapshot around your current saved campaign sub position . If there is 4 mutiplayers than you would recieve a quarter of everyones tonnage to go towards your career and they would recieve a quarter of everyones tonnage to go towards there career . Common sense would say that with more players you would achieve a lot more tonnage . Average career tonnage and other stats from all players could be recorded for all to see . You would register your career name when signing in for the first time and just keep that career name . Does this make sense or do i need a drink .

[Safe-Keeper]

10. Better save game system.

Care to elaborate?

5. COMMUNICATIONS with other allied vessels.

Definetly. That's been brought up many times, so the devs know we want it. Let's hope they act on that. Dynamic communication, changing orders, etc.

9. Lunch for the crew with rationing limits and limits on potable water - Shipmates gotta eat and drink. 3 squares a day should be implemented with potable water, ties in with number 2.

I thought that a stupid idea at first, but why the Heck not, if we're going to 3D-model the whole sub anyway, you might as well have some things like this in. Unimportant, but a good selling point, I'd imagine.

And there should be a limit to so much food, water, spare parts, etc.

Originally Posted by Safe-Keeper

Care to elaborate?

Definetly. That's been brought up many times, so the devs know we want it. Let's hope they act on that. Dynamic communication, changing orders, etc.

I thought that a stupid idea at first, but why the Heck not, if we're going to 3D-model the whole sub anyway, you might as well have some things like this in. Unimportant, but a good selling point, I'd imagine.

And there should be a limit to so much food, water, spare parts, etc.

A better save game system that does not require a return to port and can allow updates while in a patrol or mission. Also, others have complained of some data loss while reloading a save game in a mission or patrol such as (convoys no longer there, missing tonnage amounts, etc... etc...

I think it just needs a bit of an adjustment and not feel so un-userfriendly. I also don't like the fact that it deletes all saved games when you load a specific one. Why does it need to delete anything? If I wanted them deleted I'd do it myself.

[Safe-Keeper]

I think it just needs a bit of an adjustment and not feel so un-userfriendly. I also don't like the fact that it deletes all saved games when you load a specific one. Why does it need to delete anything?

To try to keep you from going back and re-loading a failed convoy attack (ie. "cheating"). My best guess.

To Heck with saving manually anyway, ask you me. Have the game save automatically when you quit the game, just like in Uplink, and have it save automatically at a certain player-controlled interval to keep you from losing your campaign to a nasty crash-to-desktop.

What I'd love would be if there, in addition to the "Silent Hunter IV" desktop shortcut, there was a "Continue Silent Hunter IV" that bypassed the opening film, menus, and whatever else and dropped you right back to where you saved the game last time. Just a single loading screen and you're back in your submarine!

[DeepSix]

Originally Posted by Safe-Keeper

...What I'd love would be if there, in addition to the "Silent Hunter IV" desktop shortcut, there was a "Continue Silent Hunter IV" that bypassed the opening film, menus, and whatever else and dropped you right back to where you saved the game last time. Just a single loading screen and you're back in your submarine!

Hey, now, there's an idea!:hmm:

[Safe-Keeper]

And if I add the shortcut to my Startup folder, my career will start without me even needing to hit the shortcut key. Luxury!

And if I train my doggie to hit the "on" button for me... [trails out]

Seriously, though, if Windows XP allows different Startup folders for different user accounts, all you need to do is create a duplicate user account called "Silent Hunter IV" (give it a nice icon and everything!) with the "Continue"-shortcut in its Startup folder.

So when you want to play the game, just log on to that one and the game starts. If you want to do something else, log onto your regular account.

[BettingUrlife]

The things I'd like to see (some of them have already been mentioned) would be:
1) more ship types;
2) the abililty to see or participate in 'big events' (e.g. Midway, island hopping campaign etc.);
3) when you are sunk on the surface or near the surface, the chance of options other than death (i.e. capture, being rescued by friendly vessels etc.);
4) some reason to make me want to return to port the long way (i.e. welcome ships to guide us home, tugs, activity in port);
5) a more immersive game (i.e. newspapers, movie reels (they could always show Doenitz visiting the fleet etc etc));

That's pretty much it for me, I don't expect complete 100% realism (maybe in the future when we have bigger and better computers).

[Safe-Keeper]

5) a more immersive game (i.e. newspapers, movie reels (they could always show Doenitz visiting the fleet etc etc));

Splendid idea. I think I know how to implement it, too.

For historical information, have that SH 3 Commander feature that shows news for your current month during loading. Just limit it to the events already happened (don't show news for 27th of May on the 5th of May, for example). It's a great feature.

For radio broadcasts, simply have them play as ambience in the Career's "Office Screen"? Movie reels would be more tricky, but I suppose they could be shown as cutscenes after finished missions?

5) a more immersive game (i.e. newspapers, movie reels (they could always show Doenitz visiting the fleet etc etc));

Dönitz? In the USN:p?

[Taurolas]

Wish list

1. more ship types.. and showing if they are loaded or unloaded (height wise in water).. who'd waste a torpedo on an empty ship
2. Crew management... deffinately worth allowing the player to select what crew members go where on a watch cycle, and they remain on that watch cycle rotation unless they are exhausted / killed etc.. if you can train them then make sure you can put them where they will actually do some good.
3. ability to use electric motors on surface (might be good if u need to sneak close in to a beach at night to rescue special forces or spies) i like the sneaky factor
4. mission types... allow for subs to be used for recon / carrying vital supplies / dropping off spies / comando's etc etc... subs were used to get food / fuel to malta during WWII and some dropped off the odd shore raiding party.
5. release a cut down SDK which would allow the Mod community to further improve / add to the games playability, you only need look at the mods peeps have done for SH3 to realise there are alot of really good modders out there

above all make the game enjoyable!

[BettingUrlife]

Originally Posted by Taurolas

... if you can train them then make sure you can put them where they will actually do some good.

You mean like at Crushbone? Apologies all, old joke from EQ haha.

Originally Posted by Taurolas

Wish list

1. more ship types.. and showing if they are loaded or unloaded (height wise in water).. who'd waste a torpedo on an empty ship

That would have been nice for SHIII, but SHIV is another story. I've been looking over Japanese convoy records, and their ships very rarely travelled empty. They had so many different island destinations that they were always picking up something going somewhere else; hence they were always full.

[DeepSix]

...and loaded or not, U.S. subs were ordered to sink 'em all anyway.