SH5 player review thread - post your opinions about the game here

mookiemookie · 03-06-10, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AS

So what the new interface basically gives you is more awareness of the situation, which results in better orientation.

Do you know at a glance what general compass direction you're headed in? What your fuel supply is? What your battery level is?

No. Therefore you do not have more awareness of the situation. Q.E.D.

Onkel Neal · 03-06-10, 03:09 PM

Ah, but even the captain of a sub does not know the battery state or fuel level at a glance. In SH5 just touch one key ENTER and you have the info.

mookiemookie · 03-06-10, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Ah, but even the captain of a sub does not know the battery state or fuel level at a glance. In SH5 just touch one key ENTER and you have the info.

If we were talking realism, I would agree. But we were debating awareness.

longam · 03-06-10, 05:39 PM

Return to course is the Zero key on the Number Pad.

swampa · 03-06-10, 06:19 PM

I found out how to set speed in knots

, what depth I want

, only the course and heading is missing

or not found it, other than that starting to get use to it. Using one of the key mapping mods depth under keel

Frederf · 03-06-10, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie901

The INTERFACE would be acceptable had the Devs actually finished the game and added all of the necessary dialogue options to your crewmen...

Such as Depth Under Keel...etc.

You and I expected to be able to give orders through the crew member dialogs but it's pretty clear that UBI only really intended the crew to be an interface into the "how's your mum" and the special abilities, not common order tasks. I'd still like to have that changed but it's not fair to say it was forgotten, just designed differently.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Do you know at a glance what general compass direction you're headed in? What your fuel supply is? What your battery level is?

No. Therefore you do not have more awareness of the situation. Q.E.D.

You know direction from the TAI, fuel/battery is not displayed 24/7 though but it wasn't possible to have all 4 CO2/O2/Batt/Fuel values shown simultaneously in SH4 as well. If you're arguing SH4 vs SH5 awareness then it is a teeter totter with all the features of SH4 on one side and SH5 on the other. There are indicators in SH5 that SH4 simply doesn't have like the order progress boxes, TAI (big one!), day/night porthole, etc. It's not nearly as cut and dry as you state.

Quote:

Originally Posted by longam

Return to course is the Zero key on the Number Pad.

No, that's rudder center.

Cpt. Rochenfeller · 03-06-10, 07:40 PM

Yes i have to agree too!

At first i was furious about how many things were missing, but after I tried out
the Mod that brings the SH4 UI into Sh5 (nice work btw, don't get me wrong), I noticed right away that I actually missed the slick and nice Vanilla UI.
As the OP said, it does a very good job to bring you all the little tools you need to get a hang on whats going on around you.
AND It isnt all over the screen like the sh4 UI.

All I needed was the MOD that remaps the keys and brings you depth under keel back in the game(many many thanks CCIP I think he´s name is!).

So after my first stuttering hours with the game, I now have high hopes that this will turn out to be a really good game after some more patches, and some more work by this BEAUTIFUL community here at SUBsim!

You have my gratitudes!

Kresge · 03-06-10, 05:36 PM

Finally received my game in the mail and had a chance to sit down for a few hours last night and play around. I definitely like the interface better than I was expecting. Like others have said, there are some very important items missing, but we'll take care of that problem soon enough. I think the whole process of tracking and setting up a firing solution, even in auto mode, is a bit more cumbersome than the old ways, but there seems to be a bit more flexibility built in there.

That said, I'm really looking forward to a finished keyboard mod, something like ol' Set Keys where I can lay down the key associations I am more familiar with from years of habit. D for dive, S for surface, P for periscope depth, etc.

nycoroner05 · 03-10-10, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Do you know at a glance what general compass direction you're headed in? What your fuel supply is? What your battery level is?

No. Therefore you do not have more awareness of the situation. Q.E.D.

good point

hachiman · 03-10-10, 03:25 PM

I'ver played all 4 SH games and would probably say this is my least favourite.

The Pro's

Graphically it's beautiful. I love it!!
Being able to walk around and through your boat and interact with the crew.
Small neat nice touches like the Kiel canal.

The Con's (If i am wrong in any of these things then please correct me)

Escorts that are useless. They seem uber slow and i think they have dropped depth charges (Approx 2) near me. I've been rammed a few times with minimal damage as i tend to ignore escorts as they are so weak.
Salvo is 4 torpedoes or nothing. No twin or triple shots.
No Salvo spread angle.
Just straight running torps. I haven't seen a ladder pattern or an acoustic torp.
No escorts with hedgehogs((But perhaps like the torps i haven't got to the point they appear.)

It's back to SH3 for me.

quantumpawn · 03-10-10, 05:43 PM

Although new to the forum, I have been playing sub sims since Silent Service for the Commodore 64. I was very excited about the release of SH5. That is, til I learned of the new DRM. I absolutely will not buy any game that has such a ridiculous DRM. That being said, from everything I have read on multiple forums, I can say that Ubisoft did me a favor, because it appears that the game itself is a complete disaster. I sympathize with those who purchased the game.

Safe-Keeper · 03-10-10, 05:55 PM

"Complete disaster" is a massive overstatement, and frankly I think much of the naysaying of the game comes from people who predisposed to hate it because of the DRM. We had a poll recently where people who had bought the game were asked to rank it, and the only four people who gave it the lowest score possible were those who said they'd never, ever buy it, and also failed to give any kind of details as to what they disliked

.

Sure, it's got its faults. I'll post both pros and cons when I've played a week. But "total disaster"? That's something I'd reserve for a game that's actually broken. SH5 is far from broken, it's just still very obviously in beta. Looking away from all the bugs and imbalances, it has the potential to be a really, really fun game. The dynamic campaign structure and modifiability alone makes it worthy of the attention of players and modders.

LiveGoat · 03-10-10, 11:30 PM

Some have complained about the the stubby torpedo graphics in the load out screens but for me they take me back to the good 'ol days of Aces of the Deep. Also the ping kinda sounds like the one it used as well.

Also, I might as well give a review. I think she's a diamond in the rough. The only real worm in the apple is the drm. Everything else seems moddable. Will it make it a pioneering sub game? Maybe not but with a little work she can be a worthy upgrade.

I owe an apology to the devs. I really didn't like the interiors when I saw the first few screens but now I love em. I love ducking my head through the hatch when I request contact reports and seeing the soundman peer around the corner at me. In fact the forward bulkhead hatch is my favorite place to rest my fat captain's ass while overseeing the lads. With the 3 gauge and shortcut keys mods I can still have a bit of the functinality of the old games. The graphics of course are very nice and run surprisingly well on my 8800gt with 2gigs of ram. The water looks fantastic. Underwater it's a bit like the U.S. Gulf Coast but that can be fixed... or not, there are other more pressing issues.

Things I hate:

-I don't know if this is chronic or just my own isolated issue but if you get flooding and the ship leans heavily to port or starboard then you better make damn sure you are in the command room or it's all over, reload. You will find it impossible to enter through the command hatches forward or aft. I think it has to do with the extreme angle of the 1st person camera.

-Dumb crew. This has already been talked to death

-Morale. I don't use it so I don't know exactly how it works but I modded it out from the get go. It'd be nice for the option to be in the settings.

-The pop ups, tool tips, "helpful" info icons and messages are annoying. I feel like I'm playing the game as broadcasted on MSNBC. I can't believe a NASDAQ report hasn't scrolled along the bottom of the screen yet. Yes I know what a merchant and a warship is. Tell me once and then only show me their ranges andspeeds from then on.

-Scope Views: I don't hate the scope UI nearly as much as I did before I actually bought and played the game. The simplicity is nice, actually,although a more authentic looking torpedo button interface would look good in the upperleft corner instead of the default. The tube selection buttons look like keys ripped off of the Enigma machine. Wait a minute, now I know why our messages are unreadable! Bernard! That said, if any modders wanna put some TDC dials in here I won't kick them out of bed.

-Some of the outlandish explosions are nice and have their place. Others feel like I'm in a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. Also the sinking mechanics and... aahhh you know. As to the Street Fighter health bars? I just deleted then from the config. I hope that didn't screw anything up. It seemed to do the trick. Oh well I'll blame any mistakes I made on Ubi and the DRM. Just kidding.

-Oh, the DRM. Utter crap. This game requires more from me than AC2 in terms of shepherding my game along. Progress in this game is pretty slow so when you get to a spot and save and backup save you want to be damn confident that those saves will be there when you log back on to youbeflacid's server. In any other game it may be annoying to have to start from an earlier save. In SH5 it can make you want to walk away from the game for a few days or forever. Even saving every five minutes won't guaratee you will have all those saves. I'm not sure about everybody else but this has happened quite a few times already for me. In short, DRM's more trouble than it's worth.

-No option to just right click the frig down the hatch. I still like running up and down the ladder at this point but sometimes you just wanna get on with it, especially when your replaying your mission for the third time due to Ubifart's server losing your current saves. I just want options is all ahm sayin' aight?

-Wish the boys had more to say. I realize it's a new gameplay thing for SH but it'd be cool to have more to talk about. I kinda like it though.

-One place that could definitely have used those damn "helpful" hints would have been the crew management screen. It wasn't until the second mission of the campaign that I realized I had to distribute skill candy to the lads.

Anyway, I think she has potential. Keep in mind that I have played it with pretty much every new mod installed that didn't conflict, which is to say nearly all the mods, and (by the way, thank you to the modders for such a quick bud nipping to some of the immediate issues) so maybe I would've had a less enjoyable experience had I played vanilla, but the game is not a failure out of the gate so much as an underdog in the making. Of course time will tell. BTW I ain't getting rid of SH3 just yet. I just got a VIIC and still have work to do in that game.

marcel1980 · 03-12-10, 09:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Safe-Keeper

"Complete disaster" is a massive overstatement, and frankly I think much of the naysaying of the game comes from people who predisposed to hate it because of the DRM. We had a poll recently where people who had bought the game were asked to rank it, and the only four people who gave it the lowest score possible were those who said they'd never, ever buy it, and also failed to give any kind of details as to what they disliked

.

Sure, it's got its faults. I'll post both pros and cons when I've played a week. But "total disaster"? That's something I'd reserve for a game that's actually broken. SH5 is far from broken, it's just still very obviously in beta. Looking away from all the bugs and imbalances, it has the potential to be a really, really fun game. The dynamic campaign structure and modifiability alone makes it worthy of the attention of players and modders.

This is not completely true, as i bought the game, really looked forward to play it and i don't hate the DRM ! It's not a dealbreaker for me, just something i can live with. Its the game itself and its current state which pissed me off big time. After some while i couldnt believe all the dumbed down potential, arcadish elements and non workable sensors - just a small extract of the errors and dissapointings but enough for me, to uninstall it. Unfortunately i won't go back to SH3 after seing the great graphics of SH5 - instead im just disgusted and propably will get t34 vs tiger.

pythos · 03-12-10, 09:59 AM

Been playing for a total of 24 or so hours within the past three days. The game is very solid (no CTDs for unknown reason, so far).

I just acquired a dual core processor (AMD Atholon X2 6000+, the highest my MB can take) and now I have proper vapor and explosion effects.

As I have stated in other threads, this sim is very promising. I think in a year of being in the jaws of the modders, and with the removal of DRM, this sim will be fantastic within this year.

As far as the smartalleck asking how the beta testing is going.

Please stop with such stuff. This has been the case of EVERY Silent Hunter sim since SH2. The devs no that when the game has been out for a while, it will be only of slight resemblance to the one they put out on market.

Having said that, I don't know why the devs messed with functions like depth under keel, various ranges, the way the engine reacts to power changes as far as sound is concerned.

Hopefully these and others that I have not yet noticed will be remedied and or re instated.

03-06-10, 03:09 PM	#2
Onkel Neal Born to Run Silent Join Date: Jan 1997 Location: Cougar Trap, Texas Posts: 21,385 Downloads: 541 Uploads: 224	Ah, but even the captain of a sub does not know the battery state or fuel level at a glance. In SH5 just touch one key ENTER and you have the info. __________________ SUBSIM - 26 Years on the Web

03-06-10, 06:19 PM	#5
swampa Mate Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: UK Posts: 55 Downloads: 104 Uploads: 0	I found out how to set speed in knots, what depth I want, only the course and heading is missing or not found it, other than that starting to get use to it. Using one of the key mapping mods depth under keel

03-06-10, 05:36 PM	#8
Kresge Engineer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: The Motor City Posts: 209 Downloads: 4 Uploads: 0	Finally received my game in the mail and had a chance to sit down for a few hours last night and play around. I definitely like the interface better than I was expecting. Like others have said, there are some very important items missing, but we'll take care of that problem soon enough. I think the whole process of tracking and setting up a firing solution, even in auto mode, is a bit more cumbersome than the old ways, but there seems to be a bit more flexibility built in there. That said, I'm really looking forward to a finished keyboard mod, something like ol' Set Keys where I can lay down the key associations I am more familiar with from years of habit. D for dive, S for surface, P for periscope depth, etc. __________________ ". . . sailors do not fancy living underwater without breathing in sunshine occasionally." Commodore Joseph Smith commenting on the USS Monitor

03-10-10, 03:25 PM	#10
hachiman Planesman Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Edinburgh Jockland Posts: 199 Downloads: 33 Uploads: 0	I'ver played all 4 SH games and would probably say this is my least favourite. The Pro's Graphically it's beautiful. I love it!! Being able to walk around and through your boat and interact with the crew. Small neat nice touches like the Kiel canal. The Con's (If i am wrong in any of these things then please correct me) Escorts that are useless. They seem uber slow and i think they have dropped depth charges (Approx 2) near me. I've been rammed a few times with minimal damage as i tend to ignore escorts as they are so weak. Salvo is 4 torpedoes or nothing. No twin or triple shots. No Salvo spread angle. Just straight running torps. I haven't seen a ladder pattern or an acoustic torp. No escorts with hedgehogs((But perhaps like the torps i haven't got to the point they appear.) It's back to SH3 for me. __________________ Whats not to love about Submarines? Long'Hard and full of Seamen!!

03-10-10, 05:43 PM	#11
quantumpawn Nub Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 4 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Wouldn't trade Silent Service for SH5 Although new to the forum, I have been playing sub sims since Silent Service for the Commodore 64. I was very excited about the release of SH5. That is, til I learned of the new DRM. I absolutely will not buy any game that has such a ridiculous DRM. That being said, from everything I have read on multiple forums, I can say that Ubisoft did me a favor, because it appears that the game itself is a complete disaster. I sympathize with those who purchased the game.

03-06-10, 05:39 PM	#4
longam Admiral Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 2,014 Downloads: 26 Uploads: 0	Return to course is the Zero key on the Number Pad.

03-06-10, 07:40 PM	#7
Cpt. Rochenfeller Swabbie Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 11 Downloads: 42 Uploads: 0	Yes i have to agree too! At first i was furious about how many things were missing, but after I tried out the Mod that brings the SH4 UI into Sh5 (nice work btw, don't get me wrong), I noticed right away that I actually missed the slick and nice Vanilla UI. As the OP said, it does a very good job to bring you all the little tools you need to get a hang on whats going on around you. AND It isnt all over the screen like the sh4 UI. All I needed was the MOD that remaps the keys and brings you depth under keel back in the game(many many thanks CCIP I think he´s name is!). So after my first stuttering hours with the game, I now have high hopes that this will turn out to be a really good game after some more patches, and some more work by this BEAUTIFUL community here at SUBsim! You have my gratitudes!

03-10-10, 05:55 PM	#12
Safe-Keeper Ocean Warrior Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Norway Posts: 3,234 Downloads: 11 Uploads: 0	"Complete disaster" is a massive overstatement, and frankly I think much of the naysaying of the game comes from people who predisposed to hate it because of the DRM. We had a poll recently where people who had bought the game were asked to rank it, and the only four people who gave it the lowest score possible were those who said they'd never, ever buy it, and also failed to give any kind of details as to what they disliked. Sure, it's got its faults. I'll post both pros and cons when I've played a week. But "total disaster"? That's something I'd reserve for a game that's actually broken. SH5 is far from broken, it's just still very obviously in beta. Looking away from all the bugs and imbalances, it has the potential to be a really, really fun game. The dynamic campaign structure and modifiability alone makes it worthy of the attention of players and modders. __________________ First Strike Mod tester. Hardcore sub skipper.

03-10-10, 11:30 PM	#13
LiveGoat XO Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: New York City Posts: 408 Downloads: 439 Uploads: 0	My Big Damn Review Some have complained about the the stubby torpedo graphics in the load out screens but for me they take me back to the good 'ol days of Aces of the Deep. Also the ping kinda sounds like the one it used as well. Also, I might as well give a review. I think she's a diamond in the rough. The only real worm in the apple is the drm. Everything else seems moddable. Will it make it a pioneering sub game? Maybe not but with a little work she can be a worthy upgrade. I owe an apology to the devs. I really didn't like the interiors when I saw the first few screens but now I love em. I love ducking my head through the hatch when I request contact reports and seeing the soundman peer around the corner at me. In fact the forward bulkhead hatch is my favorite place to rest my fat captain's ass while overseeing the lads. With the 3 gauge and shortcut keys mods I can still have a bit of the functinality of the old games. The graphics of course are very nice and run surprisingly well on my 8800gt with 2gigs of ram. The water looks fantastic. Underwater it's a bit like the U.S. Gulf Coast but that can be fixed... or not, there are other more pressing issues. Things I hate: -I don't know if this is chronic or just my own isolated issue but if you get flooding and the ship leans heavily to port or starboard then you better make damn sure you are in the command room or it's all over, reload. You will find it impossible to enter through the command hatches forward or aft. I think it has to do with the extreme angle of the 1st person camera. -Dumb crew. This has already been talked to death -Morale. I don't use it so I don't know exactly how it works but I modded it out from the get go. It'd be nice for the option to be in the settings. -The pop ups, tool tips, "helpful" info icons and messages are annoying. I feel like I'm playing the game as broadcasted on MSNBC. I can't believe a NASDAQ report hasn't scrolled along the bottom of the screen yet. Yes I know what a merchant and a warship is. Tell me once and then only show me their ranges andspeeds from then on. -Scope Views: I don't hate the scope UI nearly as much as I did before I actually bought and played the game. The simplicity is nice, actually,although a more authentic looking torpedo button interface would look good in the upperleft corner instead of the default. The tube selection buttons look like keys ripped off of the Enigma machine. Wait a minute, now I know why our messages are unreadable! Bernard! That said, if any modders wanna put some TDC dials in here I won't kick them out of bed. -Some of the outlandish explosions are nice and have their place. Others feel like I'm in a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. Also the sinking mechanics and... aahhh you know. As to the Street Fighter health bars? I just deleted then from the config. I hope that didn't screw anything up. It seemed to do the trick. Oh well I'll blame any mistakes I made on Ubi and the DRM. Just kidding. -Oh, the DRM. Utter crap. This game requires more from me than AC2 in terms of shepherding my game along. Progress in this game is pretty slow so when you get to a spot and save and backup save you want to be damn confident that those saves will be there when you log back on to youbeflacid's server. In any other game it may be annoying to have to start from an earlier save. In SH5 it can make you want to walk away from the game for a few days or forever. Even saving every five minutes won't guaratee you will have all those saves. I'm not sure about everybody else but this has happened quite a few times already for me. In short, DRM's more trouble than it's worth. -No option to just right click the frig down the hatch. I still like running up and down the ladder at this point but sometimes you just wanna get on with it, especially when your replaying your mission for the third time due to Ubifart's server losing your current saves. I just want options is all ahm sayin' aight? -Wish the boys had more to say. I realize it's a new gameplay thing for SH but it'd be cool to have more to talk about. I kinda like it though. -One place that could definitely have used those damn "helpful" hints would have been the crew management screen. It wasn't until the second mission of the campaign that I realized I had to distribute skill candy to the lads. Anyway, I think she has potential. Keep in mind that I have played it with pretty much every new mod installed that didn't conflict, which is to say nearly all the mods, and (by the way, thank you to the modders for such a quick bud nipping to some of the immediate issues) so maybe I would've had a less enjoyable experience had I played vanilla, but the game is not a failure out of the gate so much as an underdog in the making. Of course time will tell. BTW I ain't getting rid of SH3 just yet. I just got a VIIC and still have work to do in that game. Last edited by LiveGoat; 03-11-10 at 12:19 AM.

03-12-10, 09:59 AM	#15
pythos Grey Wolf Join Date: May 2005 Location: Somewhere over there Posts: 834 Downloads: 46 Uploads: 0	Been playing for a total of 24 or so hours within the past three days. The game is very solid (no CTDs for unknown reason, so far). I just acquired a dual core processor (AMD Atholon X2 6000+, the highest my MB can take) and now I have proper vapor and explosion effects. As I have stated in other threads, this sim is very promising. I think in a year of being in the jaws of the modders, and with the removal of DRM, this sim will be fantastic within this year. As far as the smartalleck asking how the beta testing is going. Please stop with such stuff. This has been the case of EVERY Silent Hunter sim since SH2. The devs no that when the game has been out for a while, it will be only of slight resemblance to the one they put out on market. Having said that, I don't know why the devs messed with functions like depth under keel, various ranges, the way the engine reacts to power changes as far as sound is concerned. Hopefully these and others that I have not yet noticed will be remedied and or re instated.