Silent Hunter 6

[Frumpkis]

Originally Posted by The General

How 'bout combining all the work done in the series and making Silent Hunter 6 a global naval simulator? Most of the models have already been built. A player could chose a German, American or maybe even Japanese or British Sub? Hell, why not throw in a playable surface vessel too, a sub-chaser or whatever?

Okay, I have feeling the franchise is over with this one, but just for grins...

At the time frame of SH4, that idea (above) would have been feasible. The next sim (SH5) could have been a very broad-based package covering everything from the USA Civil War, to WWI, to WWII in both theaters. You'd have a bunch of good exterior 3D models, and very minimal interiors... maybe no interiors at all, just a basic periscope/bridge command interface.

Now, however, Ubi has limited future options with a release that shows both a full 3D sub interior and interaction with the crew (sort of) inside that environment. That takes much more in art and programming resources to pull off, and it's probably the reason we only got the Type VII in this game, and the most we might ever get in an expansion is the Type IX. Game companies don't usually reduce the feature set from one version to another, so any hope of more sub models (not to mention surface ships) probably died with this release.

However, remember this is the #1 thing people asked for, back in the SH4 days when people were discussing what they wanted in SH5. Everyone wanted a full walk-through sub interior, and a crew that was more than just mannequins standing there without player interaction. Well, now we have it, but it closes out other options.

Personally, I don't mind that very much. I've always preferred "deep" sims that modeled one platform well, to do-everything sims that can't really do it except in a superficial way. For example, compare the B-17 bomber in something like IL-2, to a dedicated B-17 sim like the one Microprose made. That latter game wasn't perfect, but it was more immersive and detailed (IIRC) than what you get in IL_2, because IL-2 is trying to model so many other aircraft at the same time.

Anyway, to respond to the main topic... given a choice, I'd like to see an upgraded version of SH5 in the same Atlantic theater, building on the current game engine, and expanding into wolf pack tactics. Unfortunately I don't think that's very marketable for Ubi, and they're more likely to make SH6 (if there is one at all) a modern sub sim... something like a Virginia class attack sub, or going back a few years to a Cold War scenario. Whatever it is, it'll be a single boat... if they ever do another version at all. They can't go back to a sub without a full interior now.