extreme waves (size and wavelength)

[Sailor Steve]

Yes, SH4 had the "riding the rails" problem. SH3, on the other hand, had your boat moving around quite a bit at periscope depth. You had to get down to 50 meters or so before it calmed down.

[rosentorf]

Yeah I noticed that in SH3 you have a stronger "boat in water"-experience. I still have it installed with GWX3. Unfortunately I do not like to play it as the TC is very low (I changed it to higher values but my PC can't take it - SH4 actually runs better on my computer regarding TC) and it takes forever to get to the action.
Another thing are the loading times...they always make me go back to SH4 after a short while.

This is why I have strong hopes on SHV as I do not like the u-boats in SH4.

[iambecomelife]

I also want to see vessel behavior in sheltered waters modeled correctly. I live near a port city, and the only vessels that bob in sheltered waters are tiny personal watercraft. Even small ships should stand still. There are usually a couple of container ships there and I've never noticed them moving while at anchor - even the small 400-450 foot vessels. Until Thomsen created his "Thomsen's Ships" mod for SH3, tankers and freighters moved like corks, regardless of the seastate & location. It can't be too much effort for the devs to get things correct right out of the box.

[Ilpalazzo]

I hated the way the boat behaved in the big waves. Like it was just hovering at a certain height, regardless of what the waves were doing. I want them to make that experience look realistic. It was embarrassing riding in the big waves in SH4. I tc right through it just so I don't have to look at it. Calmer sea's looked so nice (when they weren't jiggling!) that I would enjoy just leaving that view in real time on my monitor for some time.

While we're at it, how about the crew looking like they are actually affected by the waves/weather? I super hated how they would just disappear when the wave got to big, and then magically reappear when it was acceptable to them. I also hated when they would forget to disappear and would just stand there like nothing is happening when they were underwater. I'd rather they just not be there at all if those are my options.

We need a better rough sea experience all around. The wave, boat, and crew just aren't doing it right.

[Méo]

Originally Posted by Ilpalazzo

We need a better rough sea experience all around. The wave, boat, and crew just aren't doing it right.

I couldn't agree more, this should be one of the top priorities (just below wolfpacks ).

[kapitan_zur_see]

Originally Posted by Méo

I couldn't agree more, this should be one of the top priorities (just below wolfpacks ).

I second that very much!!! It is to me of top priorities as it does very much for the immersion factor

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

I also want to see vessel behavior in sheltered waters modeled correctly. I live near a port city, and the only vessels that bob in sheltered waters are tiny personal watercraft. Even small ships should stand still.

This has been one of my major complaints for a long time. The very word "harbor" means shelter or protection, even when not in a naval context: "They harbored the fugitives". Likewise "haven". They make harbors specifically so there won't be any waves.

Originally Posted by rosentorf

AAAANNND....it should be modeled that you have to navigate accordingly to the waves...If waves are to strong you can be damaged,injured or tipped over by the waves if you go parallel. I am not a first hand mariner but I would assume this. But maybe this does not apply for u-boats.

This is true. Running parallel to the waves causes the ship to roll - possibly even roll over. In a really bad storm a whole convoy would turn into the wind (and waves) and use just enough power to keep themselves stationary in that direction. This practice is called "heaving to". Into the wind is always safest.

And a surfaced u-boat would also do the same, for the same reasons. Rolling over might not sink a u-boat, but it would certainly cause anything not tied down to come loose, and maybe even some heavy things that are bolted down - like engines. Certainly the bridge crew wouldn't enjoy the experience very much.

[java`s revenge]

Here look at my post,

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=157243

[Hitman]

This is true. Running parallel to the waves causes the ship to roll - possibly even roll over. In a really bad storm a whole convoy would turn into the wind (and waves) and use just enough power to keep themselves stationary in that direction. This practice is called "heaving to". Into the wind is always safest.

And also it isn't very recommendable to show your stern to the incoming huge waves, at least not in a sailing ship! You have a large tendency to lose control of the ship when a big wave is pushing behind your a**s and the bow has an enormous tendency to dive under the water, even if you are not on a submarine!

Bow against the wind/sea is the safest practice

[rosentorf]

Imagine if that was possible to model, it would add a whole new dimension to convoy attacks. You'd have to tack/beat/run the course you actually want to go to intercept (Can I use these terms like this? I meant zig-zagging in case the mean course you want to go is perpendicular to the wind/parallel to the waves).

This would make you much slower and you had to really spend a lot of time on the bridge navigating - or an autopilot like your Navigator

[sav112]

Why cant they do the Waves right? No excuse in my view. Have the developers been locked away or have they not played something like forza-motorsport-3 with the cars having the right weight, power, grip weather conditions etc. that’s more or less expected these days that the physics is right on the money or have we jumped back to the early 90’s

I did not buy SH4 but did enjoy my SH3 that had some of the Mod’s on. I almost felt embarrassed for the developers as to what the modding community could do. Harbours had life, weather systems, torpedo wakes, better dials, better smoke and explosions, debris in the water after a sinking. All this added so much to the game you thought if these guys can do it why can’t the developers.


Its time for the developers to grow up, ships ramming each other or having not the slightest intelligence is a pure embarrassment. This is not the 90’s the Subs should feel right in the water and the sea state should be spot on and its effects in the new game and I hope they are. If not they should get developers in that can.


Not having a go at the Team working on SH5 but SH3 was so poor at times but still a good game, but they lost my sale on SH4 plain and simple with some of the bugs and lets face it rather poor programming.