Realistic ship maneuverability, please.

[karamazovnew]

@Rosen:
@Webster, Java and Ritmester: I completely agree. Fire might not sink a ship but it would cause explosions and a very uncomfortable environment for the crew. Not to mention the cargo might arrive a bit crisp at its destination. I've always wondered why I have to separate the command section of a ship from its hull for the enemy captain to give a damn... however, the command room only contains remote access controls for rudder and engines. You'd need to hit the rudder control room below deck to cripple the ship.

Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen

How about currents? That would be an even greater factor than the wind.

I haven't forgotten about them, but currents have no effect on combat maneuvers.
Let me put it this way: manual targetting in SH becomes boring after a while. Dodging destroyers becomes obsolete once you learn how to attack from a distance with magnetic eels. Engaging 50+ convoys after that becomes more of a chore than the nerv-racking tension activity it should be. With the right tools it's barely a challenge. I'm one of those nerds that played MSFS with zero visibility, no autopilot and I used to slap myself for being more than 10 seconds late at my destination 500 miles away with 30+ waypoints in mountains at less than 200m above ground all the way. Unlike many, I'd love to have the sub simulated with all of its systems. I want the port hydraulic cillinder of the rudder system to break a leak because of stresses from the cold viscous oil and force me heat the oil and then switch to the other pump/cilinder assembly. I want each bulb to drain my power and to adjust the buoyancy every time the crew throws out the garbage or dumps the toilet tank. I'd like to feed the crew myself with a rusty fork and whipe their buts clean. I'd like to have water splash in my face and someone to rock my chair while I play SH. I want to read a 2000 page manual just to complete the Navigation Training Mission. This will never happen of course, but at least manual targetting should be more than just intercepting those trains (I mean ships) that start to zig-zag like imbecile sportcars once they smell Markus' soup. At least the attacks should be as realistic as possible. Having convoys that alter course every 30 minutes by up to 20 degrees, while at the same time being affected by wind and inertia, would transform manual targetting into an art form.

Currents will throw you off your intended course, but currents affect large areas of water so, in a normal attack, you wouldn't be able to notice their effects on ship maneuvers. They have almost no effect on turning the ship and they affect you the same way they affect any nearby convoy. I've heard horror stories of 10 knot currents in the Magellan Straights. I've heard stories of ships forced to drop both anchors and run at full speed into the wind+currents just to maintain position. I'd love to see them implemented in SH5, along with tides. It would make the ocean much more hazardous and infiltrating harbours would be AWESOME. But I have given up hope that we'll be able to simulate real non-gps navigation. That's not neccesarily a BAD thing, considering that the average Joe needs 3 semesters in naval school to understand how to do it. It wouldn't have been hard for the devs to lift up their sleeves and do it, all we needed was a proper star sky, a spherical world and overlapping matrixes of currents and tides, available from existing charts, as long as the scripts generating the position of the sub were ok. And a smart sistem of order queues for maintaning the bloody speed and compass course . Once in place, any navy student would've been able to just pick up his charts and practice with pen and paper math while the normal player would just pick the destination with the mouse as they do now (and will continue to do in SH5). We came so close to actually doing it right in SH4 that it pains me. Each small addition to the game, like the base clock from SH4 adds a lot of possibilities. The more they add now, the more we have to play with after.

Just to show you what ship simulator can be like: http://www.transas.com/5000/. Now trust me on this one, this is really hard stuff. Even with all the computers we now have, any officer must still be capable to take you from A to B with just a crayon and a ruller made from a folded A4 paper sheet. Having to also fight in those tin cans we call uboats with an entire fleet depth-charging you, while having to kill fellow sailors simply cannot be put into words. My respect for those brave men (on both sides) knows no bounds.