Silent Hunter V Dev Team Interview: Deeper, Kapitän, deeper. (1/19/10)

[mookiemookie]

After giving it some thought, I can definitely understand the decision to only include the Type VII. Having to model an entire interior and associated crew would, I imagine, be a pretty time consuming process. Having to do all that work for multiple sub types would, I assume, not fit into their timeline.

On some level I can understand the 1943 decision as well. Think about when the "rules of the game" changed, so to speak - right around 1943. Allied radar became a concern, hedgehogs, schnorkels, BOLD decoys, FaT and LuT torpedoes, etc. A lot of new technology was introduced in the latter part of the war. To accurately model all of that and its interaction and effect on the sub and your mission would be complex. I am assuming again, it would not fit into their timeline.

The sub and technology you start out with in 1939, for the most part, is basically not much different than what you've got in 1943. The major upgrades over that time span that I can think of off the top of my head would be improved AA armament, maybe one or two turm upgrades, very early versions of the FuMO and Metox, and not much else. Those things are probably not that hard to model in, leaving the developers time to focus on the boat and the first years of the war.

So I keep seeing it mentioned, but I guess it really is a question of quality over quantity. I'd rather have the first 2/3rds of the war done well, instead of the entire war done so-so.

As an aside, and since I mentioned it, I always was kind of irked at the reliability of the Metox in SH3. From what I've read, it was nowhere near as reliable as it is modelled...especially when the Allies introduced the Mk III radar which the Metox could not detect.

[Rip]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

After giving it some thought, I can definitely understand the decision to only include the Type VII. Having to model an entire interior and associated crew would, I imagine, be a pretty time consuming process. Having to do all that work for multiple sub types would, I assume, not fit into their timeline.

On some level I can understand the 1943 decision as well. Think about when the "rules of the game" changed, so to speak - right around 1943. Allied radar became a concern, hedgehogs, schnorkels, BOLD decoys, FaT and LuT torpedoes, etc. A lot of new technology was introduced in the latter part of the war. To accurately model all of that and its interaction and effect on the sub and your mission would be complex. I am assuming again, it would not fit into their timeline.

The sub and technology you start out with in 1939, for the most part, is basically not much different than what you've got in 1943. The major upgrades over that time span that I can think of off the top of my head would be improved AA armament, maybe one or two turm upgrades, very early versions of the FuMO and Metox, and not much else. Those things are probably not that hard to model in, leaving the developers time to focus on the boat and the first years of the war.

So I keep seeing it mentioned, but I guess it really is a question of quality over quantity. I'd rather have the first 2/3rds of the war done well, instead of the entire war done so-so.

As an aside, and since I mentioned it, I always was kind of irked at the reliability of the Metox in SH3. From what I've read, it was nowhere near as reliable as it is modelled...especially when the Allies introduced the Mk III radar which the Metox could not detect.

Yes, I love how in Iron Coffins one day they are picking up aircraft on it and diving to avoid routinely. Then all the sudden not getting detection on it. But the planes are showing up out of nowhere. It must have been a WTF time for them.

[Hartmann]

One of the forgotten motives of the big losses past 1943 was the enigma code, allies can pinpoint positions in the sea and send planes, hunterkiller groups , and modify the convoy routes with the decoded info.

with a code change and the early use of snorquel and XXI boats it could be very different

Having more activity and action in the spaces could really spice up the game. More interation with shipmates (and I assume all rates will be selectable for particular action) would be quite interesting. More reality like Das Boot from stem to stearn. Should prove highly interesting and add a lot to the game.

Just my thoughts.
Jib01

[CNA0]

Thanks for the interview. It provides us a good idea about the game limits.
For me, if the game is just for the WWII UBoot campaign, is a nonsense to try to go farther than 1943 (unless you think that a U-Kaleun could prevent Allied Forces achievements as total atlantic air cover, sonar and radar improvements, and so on).
Also, if the devs understand that their main effort has to be centered in the inside compartments and crew performance developments, I also respect their decision of starting only with VII-type.
For me is a pretty good idea to perform the training phase as XO.
I keep wondering a lot of other things, (e.g):
-How devs perform interaction bwn Kaleun and crew? Could Kn take a rest, or as in previous games (scorning any realistic situation) is he the only one allowed to order GQ or dive?
-Crew AI; are skills improvement linked with the time spent in the posts, or simply with the time underway? Has any influence on this improvement the fact that Kn (acting as a lookout, a radar or sonarman, a gunner, etc) takes the handle in these posts?
-Navigation: will it be possible to forget GPS position? Its pretty hard for me to believe that any Navy (Rumanian perhaps?), adopting the knot as speed unit, uses the Km to measure navigation distances. So that, if spherical mapping is impossible for SH5, I’d like to find al least that one minute is equal to one mile (and not to two km).
-Torpedo attack: will be the crew able to perform some useful work (ships identification, bearing and range tracing on maps, fire solution, etc), or the options are automatic solution or Kn’s sole activity?
-Gun attack: when shoting, can any officer (from UZO, scope, or nude eyesight) give an estimated range to the gunnner, or keep they behaving as this fight is not their bussines?
-Land details: could land show some milestones (as ligthhouses or towers), and could this milestones be marked and kept on the navigation maps?
As you can imagine after all this comments, and respecting any wish (included a virtual jamboree the eve before getting underway), my wishes are related with my submarine two main objectives: to reach on time the assigned point in the operations theatre, and to sink ennemy ships.

I hope that SH6 will return to the Pacific Theatre, in a spherical Earth, and with a sextant to shot stars and get a fix.

PS. I’m not a game developper, but I can remember that there was a straigthforward procedure to convert a cylindrical coordinates system to a polar coordinates system.