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[longam]

Its already a click fest in SH4 just to do manual targeting. I couldn't imagine adding controls for trim and ballast, this would be way to much to handle during an attack run.

On the other hand if your just stalking and plotting it could serve to ad to the realism.

[Lord Justice]

Originally Posted by longam

Its already a click fest in SH4 just to do manual targeting. I couldn't imagine adding controls for trim and ballast, this would be way to much to handle during an attack run.

On the other hand if your just stalking and plotting it could serve to ad to the realism.

Sir longam, well said, couldnt agree more.

[Sniper297]

No argument here, way too much clicking and dragging involved to do anything in a hurry. I've often said we need a hotkey command, "set all fish to 25 feet high speed, open all outer doors", rather than having to click and drag and Q each tube individually, wotdahell am I carrying all these crewman around for if I gotta do everything myself, I'll make all you scurvy dogs walk the plank. No, I was thinking more on the lines of a daily trim dive, take her down to 150, stop the motors and let her drift to a stop, pump and flood trim tanks until she stops rising or descending or tipping fore and aft for a few minutes. Once that's done the trim is set for the day, wouldn't have to tinker with it in the middle of an attack unless you had flooding from damage or something after getting depth charged.

For those who are unaware, the external ballast tanks are all or nothing when you dive - you would partially flood the external ballast tanks to get a "decks awash" trim, but when actually diving they're flooded completely, no air in them at all. The trim tanks are inside the pressure hull, those are the ones that are partially filled or emptied to get a trim. US fleet boats also had a negative tank which was normally flooded for quick dives, then "blown to the mark" before reaching periscope depth to get that neutral buoyancy. They also had a bow buoyancy tank that was blown when surfacing to get the bow up in a hurry.

Creating full management for all that would probably not really add much fun factor, but taking away the invisible concrete blocks that hold you at 60 feet with zero drift would add realism and be more fun in my opinion. Silent running at 230 feet drifting deeper slowly, here come the depth charges so we can make noise for a few minutes, all ahead flank, pump 500 pounds from the main trim tank to sea. Slow down after the depth charges subside, now we're a little lighter but still can't hold at 1 knot, can we pump out another 200 pounds or so? Not yet, pumps make too much noise, increase to 2 knots and see if we can hold depth at that speed. How are we doing on that after torpedo room bulkhead? 30 more minutes and it's still flooding? Okay, can't run pumps and give them a steady noise to get a bearing on, better a quick blast - blow the after trim tank dry next time one of them tin cans passes overhead.

[ichso]

@Sniper297
Well, I would doubt the Silent Hunter series ever having been a 'submarine simulator'. It has always been rather a wartime simulator as the whole, I think.
And a video game on top of that.
So they always tried to merge intuitive controls, an interesting campaign, historical accuracy, nice graphics and sound, submarine physics and mechanics into a single piece of software. All that within the time constraints that such a commercial products brings.
If they really would emphasis the diving mechanics as you want them to do, they would need to pull some focus from other aspects and the game would stagnate the according parts of it's development. But what they try to do (at least forced by the publisher) is to please a broader audience instead of only the realism freaks.
We are still about to see what they really did with the u-boad interior this time. But I guess that a lot of work must have went into getting the animations and behaviour of your ingame crew to make that a realistic (instead of irritating) experience. So, after all its still rather a video game than a extensive simulation (but still pretty deep for a video game nonetheless ).

You are looking for things that are usually included in mods or specifically dedicated open source projects. The latter ones are interesting because people there have no time limit for their works and can focus on a few points that don't have to appeal to a broad audience.

[Méo]

Originally Posted by ichso

But what they try to do (at least forced by the publisher) is to please a broader audience instead of only the realism freaks.
But I guess that a lot of work must have went into getting the animations and behaviour of your ingame crew to make that a realistic (instead of irritating) experience. So, after all its still rather a video game than a extensive simulation (but still pretty deep for a video game nonetheless ).

You are looking for things that are usually included in mods or specifically dedicated open source projects. The latter ones are interesting because people there have no time limit for their works and can focus on a few points that don't have to appeal to a broad audience.

Well said !