Should I buy SH5 or stick with SH4 for now?

[Gilbou]

Originally Posted by msxyz

SH3 wasn't in such poor state. I was a day 1 customer and, despite some flaws, it was truly enjoyable from the start. No serious or game breaking bugs and the campaign was fun. The interface was actually good (the best so far imho) and progressing through the various types of subs was fun.

I didn't buy SH4 untill the addon came out (I wasn't interested in US boats) and it seems I did the right thing. It wasn't until the add on and patch 1.5 that things got resolved.

SH5 is a real mess, it almost seem they didn't bother to beta test it. And even if it were perfect, it still lacks a lot of content in comparison to SH3. The idea of concetrating only on one sub seems a convenient excuse for budget cuts and schedule problems.

SH5 has less ship variety than its predecessors, only one uboat and the campaign ends in 1943.

Considering the quality of mods such as GWX or OM, there's no excuse to buy a much inferior product unless some people were curious to see how the diesel room of a type VII uboot looks.

Going from SH2 to SH3 had been really nice.
I liked SH2. I didn't knew about Subsim at that time.
I bought SH3 without really reading reviews, and I discovered
the 3D interiors of the sub and spent.. more time doing screenshots
and sending them to friends than play the game

When SH4 came out I tried it. Liked the better graphics, the change
of scenery. Thought those US boats were big (when you start
in a type II and then move to a type VII, any US sub looks huge!)

Those days, I use SH3 for Uboats, and SH4 to play the US side.
I like to play US subs too

I did not buy SH5 (I took the 50 euro and put them on the website
here rather than buy the game...) and unless the DRM is removed,
and the online requirement too, SHV might very well be the last
Silent Hunter I will ever buy.

[jazman]

Originally Posted by jdupree

I guess my processor is a dual core? Not quite sure how to check but I ran a dxdiag and out beside the processor info it had (2 cpu's)??

Probably not real dual core. What you are probably seeing is hyperthreading, which is fake dual core.

Run System Information (XP: start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Sytem Tools -> System Information) and provide the Processor information, that includes Family, Model, Stepping.

Or go here and get CPU-Z:

http://www.cpuid.com

Direct link to installer:

http://www.cpuid.com/download/cpuz/cpuz_153_setup.exe

and run it and post a screenshot of the first page (of the application, of course, not of the install process).

[Hartmann]

stay with SH4 and SH3 GWX

Both gives you an impressive historical review of all years of the submarine war in both theathers of war , and are nearly bug free and tested.

In the other side you can try SHV , that have more bugs that the outpost valley of starship troopers movie, a draconian DRM that makes you unable to play at weekends and demands a lot of patience because of the absurd gameplay involved with arcade an unreal features..

The best is wait until it will be fully patched, modded, and the price goes down. and perhaps DRM removed

[Drifter]

Originally Posted by subsimlee

I think SH5 could be a great sim in the future after 47 patches and 683 mods or so

lmao

[jason210]

I'm sticking with SH4. I reinstalled it recently and added RFB 2.0 and I started creating missions and exploring all sorts of new things.

Manual Targeting in SH4 is not so easy, but it's a great simulator, with excellent graphics and with the free camera you can actually walk around parts of the sub.

To my mind SHIII was the best simulator in terms of functionality and design, and setting. But it's a bit weak on the graphics by today's standards.

[alexradu89]

Same here, waiting for SH5 to get tons of patches (because it really needs them) and mods, until then it's SH4 + RSRD + OM + OMEU =

[Nordmann]

Originally Posted by jdupree

I am having fun learning SH4 and have not got too far into it yet. I have been reading alot of negative comments about SH5. My main concern is will my computer handle it? I read the system requirements for SH5 and mine should handle it. Here is some basic info on my machine. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Pentium 4 @3.6ghz
2 gigs of ram - (will be upgrading to 4 gigs soon)
Nvidia 9800 gt with 512 ram
Windows XP

SH4 runs great on my machine. Thanks!

Stick with SH4, SH5 just isn't worth the current price tag. To say little of the ridiculous net requirement (which by the way is a real headache when the servers are down, frequently!), and the numerous rough edges.

Save yourself the hassle, and wait.

[McHibbins]

Bought the Gold Edition for 10 Euros today.

Sick off this damned Serverproblems i decided to give SH4 another chance.
(sold it nearly 2years ago ´cause the us campaign was boring me).

All i wanna know is, which mods are best for which campaign ?

RSRDC+OM+OMEGU for the german and FOTRS for the US ? Or are they compatible ? Any suggestions are welcome.

Thats what i used. Also whats wrong with the american subs? More torpedos, air conditioning, surface search radar in 1941. They are the cadillacs of the sea Oh yea and you might not die if you serve in one.

They cant dive anything like as deep but you dont need to, japanese ASW is crap!

[IanC]

Originally Posted by MattDizzle

Thats what i used. Also whats wrong with the american subs? More torpedos, air conditioning, surface search radar in 1941. They are the cadillacs of the sea Oh yea and you might not die if you serve in one.

They cant dive anything like as deep but you dont need to, japanese ASW is crap!

I can't believe you forgot the ice cream machine!

[Bilge_Rat]

SH4 1.5 with RFB and RSRDC is now a great sub simulation.




as for SH5, well...




It may eventually be a great sub simulation, but needs a lot of work and TLC to reach its full potential. Out of the box, it is as buggy and messy as SH3 and SH4 were when they came out.

It really depends what you are looking for.

[McHibbins]

Originally Posted by IanC

I can't believe you forgot the ice cream machine!

That was one of the most important reason mate !

It simply produced Soft-Ice, not the beloved Italian Icecream

Ah...btw....the beer is also much better on german subs

[Nordmann]

Originally Posted by McHibbins

All i wanna know is, which mods are best for which campaign ?

I'm currently using TMO, and loving it. I suggest you give it a try, though to be honest, there's so many good ones to choose from!

[Ark]

My quick breakdown:

SHIV:

1. Cheap (about $19 USD at the moment)
2. Works.
3. Tons of mods.
4. No DRM issues.

SHV:

1. $50
2. Has quite a few bugs.
3. Has hardly any mods.
4. Has DRM issues (unless you are a hacker/pirate.....it works fine for them. lol)


I REALLY wanted to like SHV but it is just not up to par at the moment. The product is so reminiscent of a beta test (and I hate that phrase when being applied to full retail games) that is just makes me shake my head.

Here are a few issues I noticed after playing the firstfew times:

1. Once in a while, my sound cuts out after I go to the options screen and then jump back in-game.

2. Sometimes my mouse cursor gets stuck in a "free-look mode" (right-clicking the mouse so you can look around freely) and can only be unlocked by opening another menu screen.

3. The "Missions" are somewhat dumb, IMO. "Sink 50 tonnes of merchant shipping along the coast by June 1st. 1940" (or something to that effect). Seriously...what happened to just paroling an area and not finding anything, requiring you to search elsewhere or just return home due to a lack of fuel? I sank 50 tonnes of merchant shipping. Can I RTB and end the patrol? Nope. Why? I don't know....maybe the ships weren't close enough to the coast. It sort of feels like I have to keep playing a level so my score gets high enough to go to level two.

4. The RPG elements are a little wierd. For instance, I need to "upgrade" my chief so my sub goes faster. I have to upgrade my Torpedo officer so his crew will load torpedos and work at "superhuman speeds" (that's a direct quote from the game, btw). I had to upgrade my Cook so he could make special meals so I can increase morale. I have to upgrade my Radar Operator so he can tracks objects better at night. While I see what they were trying to do with the RPG elements, it sort of comes across as a bunch of "fluff" arbitrarily tossed in so there was more content.

5. My watch crew has no binoculars and yet the subsim preview here shows people on the sub using them (at least I think it was here that I saw the screenshots).

6. I can't order a dive to periscope depth until I go down the hatch.

7. I can't get my deck gun crew to leave the deck gun.

8. The people I am talking too repeat the same things, and they hardly look in my direction when speaking.

9. My settings won't save, so basically despite the fact that I shut off the health bars, gun trajectory path, stabilize view, unlimited fuel, unlimited compressed air, etc.. options they are all still enabled once I load the game. "So shut them off after you enter the sub." Sorry, you can't.

10. "It's raining and there are hardly any clouds, Sir."

11. SHV shadows and shadows alone kill performance on Nvidia cards.

12. Some destroyers are half-submerged (the entire rear deck) while they are moving around.

13. Depth under keel? Might be good to know.........ON A SUBMARINE.

14. DRM - You must be online to play. Period. If the UBI servers go down, you can't play....even if you only play single-player. You are not buying the game, you are essentially "renting" the license. If Ubisoft decided to shut down SHV's servers...you would not be able to play any longer unless they removed the DRM scheme.

Those are a few issues I noticed almost right away after playing for a short period of time.

It's up to you, but I would probably stick with SHIV for the time being. Of course, SHIV models a different aspect of WWII anyways so it's not like you can't enjoy both....the only question is are you able to enjoy SHV in it's current state, and the only person who can answer that is you.

Hope this helps.