Ok, which one should I pick? SH3, 4 or 5?

[EFileTahi-A]

I've played all versions, I own the original SH3 and SH5. Needless to say I spent more time playing SH3 than I did SH4 or SH5. For SH4, the shaking water issue ruined it for me, this the reason I did not purchased it.

Recently I begun to feel the need to sunk some ships. So, I want to go back to SH franchise, however, having into account that there are tons of mods for each version of the game, I wonder which one should I choose.

Please can someone tell me which version (modded or not) offers the best experience ever? Is the SH4 shaking water issue fixed?

Thank you! I'll be watching this through my periscope.

[Hitman]

Depends on your taste. In my opinion Sh4 is the best of the franquise, but it lacks all the tons of quality mods available for SH3, which set this one in a different level. Hence, with SH3 you never can go wrong.

For Sh4 you have however the excellent Operation Monsoon and yes it has a new environmental mod that makes substantial changes to the water etc. If you get hooked by it, the game itself is more refined and plays better on the same PC, with faster loading times and better use of time compression without bugs.

Give it a try, you can't lose anything.

[EFileTahi-A]

Hmmm... your words are tempting... I will try SH4.

I hope the water mod also changes the water colors, I think SH4 has the most unrealistic looking water. What Mods are there for SH4?

[Sailor Steve]

What mods are available for SH4 depends on whether you want to play American or German. There are several supermods for the American side. The German side has Ducimus' excellent 9D2 mod. The only full campaign for u-boats so far is the very good Operation Monsun.

As Hitman said the biggest problem with SH4 u-boats right now is the lack of cool "fun" mods that have been made for SH3 - the harbors, bridges, blimps, and there is nothing like SH3 Commander for SH4. As he also said, the upside is the much better-looking water (and yes, there are several good mods which change the way it looks, depending on your taste).

[King_Zog]

I own both SH3 and SH4. I play SH4 with TMO to experience the American side of the war, I have only briefly dabbled with the U-Boat side of things.

SH4 does several things better than SH3, firstly the graphics are much more detailed and the look of the water is indeed lovely. It also does a few minor things better aswell, like a much improved crew management system.

However it is still just as buggy and unstable as SH3 (atleast for me) which I think is a shame.

However, I still prefer playing SH3 with GWX and and a long list of mods. For some reason I have a lot more fun sinking ships in SH3. This is probably just down to the talent of the modders and the fact that SH3 has been practically modded to death so you once you realise what you want out of it, you can tailor your experience to almost exactly suit your own tastes.

I'd say get both, Silent Hunter 3 is very cheap now.

[EFileTahi-A]

Thank you for the advices!

I already have SH3 and you know what, I had the best fun in sinking ships in SH3 than other versions too. In SH5 ships never roll to their sides, its strange, even they way they sink...

I remember spending many minutes watching ships in SH3 sinking and I can't stand doing the same in SH5, not to mention there are no fire reflections on the water, it seems odd watching them burn, specially at night.

Well I guess I will have to try both versions. Are there still critical bugs present in both SH3 and SH4 that I should know of?

[King_Zog]

Originally Posted by EFileTahi-A

Well I guess I will have to try both versions. Are there still critical bugs present in both SH3 and SH4 that I should know of?

The main one is just to be careful where you save your game. This is a problem with both SH3 and SH4 (atleast in my experience). People say to save on the surface, and away from land, or other ships to avoid issues.

Also SH4 on my system hates it if you alt-tab away from it to another application and then back again. It causes me several issues, including killing all my crew with forever rising CO2 levels even after surfacing.

[EFileTahi-A]

Originally Posted by King_Zog

The main one is just to be careful where you save your game. This is a problem with both SH3 and SH4 (atleast in my experience). People say to save on the surface, and away from land, or other ships to avoid issues.

Also SH4 on my system hates it if you alt-tab away from it to another application and then back again. It causes me several issues, including killing all my crew with forever rising CO2 levels even after surfacing.

Damn! That's a nasty one! But this happens with stock version or when mixing it with moding?

[King_Zog]

Originally Posted by EFileTahi-A

Damn! That's a nasty one! But this happens with stock version or when mixing it with moding?

I'm not sure... I never actually played vanilla SH4, I installed TMO straight away haha... If I remember rightly though it is not the fault of any mods, I think it is a known bug. Maybe someone has fixed it now, I'm not sure, I hardly read the SH4 forum on here.

edit: But in Silent Hunter 4's defence, it does cope with running very high TC compressions much better than SH3 ever did and loading times are indeed fast. Sometimes when I start an SH3 GWX patrol, the loading screen is like a signal to go make a cup of tea while it slowly crawls to completion.

[Tinman764]

Like someone already said, I think the best combo is SH4+TMO for the US side of the war and SH3+GWX+what ever else you want for the German side.

I was really disappointed by SH5, sure it looks lovely and the detail is amazing, but the gameplay just felt like an arcade game to me.

[EFileTahi-A]

Yeah, SH5 looks wonderful! If only they didn't waste resources on useless stuff like crew animation and the sub's interior. Sure this adds something to the game but come on! What good is a elegant Ferrari without its engine?

Thanks for the info guys!

Originally Posted by EFileTahi-A

Thank you for the advices!

I already have SH3 and you know what, I had the best fun in sinking ships in SH3 than other versions too. In SH5 ships never roll to their sides, its strange, even they way they sink...

I remember spending many minutes watching ships in SH3 sinking and I can't stand doing the same in SH5, not to mention there are no fire reflections on the water, it seems odd watching them burn, specially at night.

Well I guess I will have to try both versions. Are there still critical bugs present in both SH3 and SH4 that I should know of?

To answer what is in the bold about H.sie, I'm not sure about 4 but 3 had a fix come out a while ago that opens a pandoras box (hopefully on for) from a modder named h.sie that fixes the hardcoded game. Now if your traveling at TC and fog arises, you get a written message warning so you can accept and drop TC before you crash into a ship, as well as... drum roll... whenever you surface, the watch officer goes to the conning tower! Plus some other realism added things, blur of the periscope at higher underwater speeds, being able to reload internals only 30 m or deeper in anything but calm seas, and not being able to dive for a certain amount of time while loading externals. I love it, and Im sure that there is much more realism wise to come. Also there is a new mod (or super mod I should say) that is a WIP called U boot HAHD that seems very promising and fixes many things graphical wise. Lets just say thanks to a few modders, alot of things deemed impossible before in SH3 are not that far off anymore!

Casey

[FIREWALL]

Let me see if I have this right. You want me to tell you what mods to choose for 3 different games. When.....

You can download all the Great Mods for all 3 for FREE and have the FUN of checking them out yourself and, posting YOUR opinions on what YOU think about them.

Trust me. Your computer won't blow up trying them.

Enjoy the mods EFileTahi-A

[EFileTahi-A]

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

Let me see if I have this right. You want me to tell you what mods to choose for 3 different games. When.....

I did not asked it directly at you but please, proceed...

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

You can download all the Great Mods for all 3 for FREE and have the FUN of checking them out yourself and, posting YOUR opinions on what YOU think about them.

First I need to know the existance of these 'great mods' before I can download them. And how I do that? I can google and even post on forums regarding such subject (like I did).

Of course mods are free and of course anyone can install and try them. But which mods are worthy? I don't know about you but I always try to optimize my spare time with usefull things. Trying mods can be an extremely time consuming task. And time does not play well on my side. The same reason why you ask which places are safe to dive. Of course I could jump on doubtiful waters and see for myself if those waters are indeed safe or not. Stupid right? I could simply ask away which places are safe to dive, it would save me time, equipment and probably my life. The FUN you mention might not be there at all. Also you talk like I'm only allowed to post my opinions regarding mods and not entitled to ask people about theirs.

With your post count you should know better than me why forums exist. It is a place designed mainly to share and collect information. I believe this thread has the objective of collecting information. If you read all previous posts (again or not) you will find persons doing what this thread intended them to do, that is, sharing their experience on mods they've tryed or even suggesting me to try mods they believe or heard that might be worthy. You didn't accomplished none of this. Instead you suggest me to be on my own. Thanks.

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

Trust me. Your computer won't blow up trying them.

No it won't. And I have more than a half dozen of TBytes of HD to install all version's of SH, Sub command and Microsoft Flight Simulator countless times until my future son graduates and see quantum computers becoming a reality.

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

Enjoy the mods EFileTahi-A

If that happens its because all previous persons actually post useful info.
You see the colors from my banner? Red and black? They are warning colors. In wild life these colors often alert predators to stay away. Hmm... I like this last phrase. Maybe I will add it to my signature.

Anyway, take care.

[stokeyblokey]

Originally Posted by Tinman764

Like someone already said, I think the best combo is SH4+TMO for the US side of the war and SH3+GWX+what ever else you want for the German side.

I was really disappointed by SH5, sure it looks lovely and the detail is amazing, but the gameplay just felt like an arcade game to me.

I agree with this although my experience of SH4 is very limited to date, spend far too much time on SH3

If you want to play an improved SH5 it seems from reading the SH5 forum that you will have to spend a fair amount of time installing mods and then editing files yourself as TDW has yet to get his "magnum opus" megamod fully tested out as working - but damn are they working hard to fix all the known issues and add new/more realistic features!