New to SH series today - Any Suggestions?

GWB · 03-14-24, 01:04 PM

Hi all, great to be a part of your community. Here's an overview of what I'm looking for.

I have played UBOAT for at least 2-3 years, and while it's obviously a newer game in this genre, I've found it far too easy once I got the basics down, to the point I would go on mission doing reckless things to try and make it a challenge - hardly realistic. The only setting I didn't have on full realistic was the "cinematic camera" so that I wasn't "stuck inside 1st person" - this was as much for screenshots and video, as it was my sanity!

Despite having these set hard, there were still things that frustrated me that gave unrealistic advantages. Yes late war, hedgehogs & aircraft firing rockets added a new challenge, but this too is a case of avoiding entirely - being caught on the surface by these aircraft has little to do with skill, and everything to do with luck as to how it ends - in other words, knowing to avoid them is the solution that equals a frustratingly easy game. Big update in the pipe, but until then...

I've also played Wolfpack game for a similar time, and while I prefer the realism side of it, the 3D aspect / controls etc, the gameplay itself is obviously extremely limited. Single set piece engagements, no career or time compression - although the Multiplayer aspect is a nice touch to have.

So continuing to hunt for realistic subsim type games, I found a very promising idea 2-3 years ago from steam store, going for super high fidelity model. Sadly after many regular updates, the author mentioned something about having to switch over the graphics engine of the game, and then the whole project died of death, I guess the task overwhelmed him, although who really knows. Glad I didn't invest £50 into that early access.

So by now, you can probably tell I'm a bit of a simulation junkie, flight sims & military sims, top down management sims, anything like that. I have ALWAYS prefered realism over graphics, so if this were a flight simulator forum and the debate were "xplane vs msfs2020" you can guess which side my chips are down on. With all that said...

I keep hearing about the Silent Hunter series, ver 3 4 or 5. The thing that always put me off, was endless comments on what worked, mine didn't, error logs, dev team long gone, and a cryptic exchange between those in the know of what mods & packs (often in shorthand) to get, which left me feeling a bit confuddled, so I just withdrew back to what I already knew, stale as it was.

Today I took the plunge and got myself a copy of SH3 and watched a YouTube tutorial on how to set it up with a modpack, OneAlex, and I must say, despite the game itself being dated to something like 2005 or some such, the community modders have done a good job. That said, I wondered if Version 4 or Version 5 might also be worth looking at?

From what I can gather, version 5 seems to be somewhat buggy and people generally lean towards version 3 and 4. Can you confirm this?

I have a very keen interest in ww2, not least because my family faught on both sides of the conflict, and I used to enjoy listening to their war stories as a kid. I think this is what got me into the whole thing originally.

I would find it very interesting to play as USA in the Pacific vs Japan. I've seen various SH videos on youtube, but the content varies wildly and many constantly "cheat" or at least have difficulty settings easy, which is fine, but not something I would want to do. So if the option to cheat is available, or a difficulty setting behaves like a cheat, this is a bit of a show stopper for me, unless we can turn it off somehow, or providing it's not thrust in my screen by default (see Uboat and enemy ship locations while submerged under a convoy for an example of what I think is a "cheat mode").

Any graphics better than SH3 would obviously be a huge bonus, but not at the expense of realism. Bearing in mind, I am new to the entire SH series, so it would be helpful to include things that are easy(ish) to install and also brief descriptions of what things do. I saw posts similar to this in the past, but they are 4-5 years old at this point.

Any advice really much appreciated, especially as I spent a long time going over what I do and don't like, so thanks in advance!

1Patriotofmany · 03-15-24, 09:14 AM

4 is the best IMO V1.5 , best mods, play more than just the US side,Couple of great german mods, Great US mods, Japanese, British, Italian, even Russian For the life of me I can't figure out UBOAT and Silent Hunter 5 is just terrible too.

Here's my list number in front of them is my rating from best to okay, there are several others I left out of the list that should be in there. Almost all require V1.5 of Silent hunter4, You can usually get SH4 and the uboat add on(V1.5) for $10 each on Steam. If you need help using multiple mods let me know and I'll hunt up my detailed method how I have them all running on win7 and win 10

4. TMO Realism and graphics quick death for swabbies https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=250635
3. TMOwTW Realism graphics and better chance of survival https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/dow...o=file&id=4801
1. Darkwaters German perspective Realism and great graphics https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...ght=darkwaters
2. FOTRS Realism and graphics https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=243064
5. Japanese Mod Vanilla graphics, Japanese subs perspective https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=137761
6. We dive at Dawn British sub perspective vanilla https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=170639

Hopefully soon this new WWI mod for SH4 will be coming out too, should prove to be one of the best if not the best ever for SH4 https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=156161

lederhosen · 03-15-24, 02:42 PM

Have most of them all, but always come back to SH3

onealex / fifi, and in the near future an even better GWX mod will be out

Wolfar · 03-15-24, 04:23 PM

I now have them all.

SH 5 just got yesterday, I do not like the interface so far.

Sticking with SH4 Wolfs of the pacific with Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate Mod for now.

Recently got Silent Hunter Commanders Edition downloaded and working. Boy my memory thought it was better than it is.

SH4 with Mods is the best still even after all these years.

I am 66 years old and go all the way back to my first PC.

Which was an Old Atari 800 with an RGB screen and a tape drive to load games.

GWB · 03-16-24, 06:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1Patriotofmany

4 is the best IMO V1.5 , best mods, play more than just the US side,Couple of great german mods, Great US mods, Japanese, British, Italian, even Russian For the life of me I can't figure out UBOAT and Silent Hunter 5 is just terrible too.

Here's my list number in front of them is my rating from best to okay, there are several others I left out of the list that should be in there. Almost all require V1.5 of Silent hunter4, You can usually get SH4 and the uboat add on(V1.5) for $10 each on Steam. If you need help using multiple mods let me know and I'll hunt up my detailed method how I have them all running on win7 and win 10

4. TMO Realism and graphics quick death for swabbies https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=250635
3. TMOwTW Realism graphics and better chance of survival https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/dow...o=file&id=4801
1. Darkwaters German perspective Realism and great graphics https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...ght=darkwaters
2. FOTRS Realism and graphics https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=243064
5. Japanese Mod Vanilla graphics, Japanese subs perspective https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=137761
6. We dive at Dawn British sub perspective vanilla https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=170639

Hopefully soon this new WWI mod for SH4 will be coming out too, should prove to be one of the best if not the best ever for SH4 https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=156161

Thank you for your incredibly helpful reply.

Steam store and SH 4 it is then! As I write this, luck would have it, the both titles suggested have 75% off! Bought.

I'll do my best to figure out what I can do with the list you've shared, starting with your top 2 suggestions, seen as Wolfar suggested #2 also.

If I get stuck, i'll hit you up. That is super generous of you to offer a random newbie so much help.
Thanks again.

GWB · 03-16-24, 06:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wolfar

I now have them all.

SH 5 just got yesterday, I do not like the interface so far.

Sticking with SH4 Wolfs of the pacific with Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate Mod for now.

Recently got Silent Hunter Commanders Edition downloaded and working. Boy my memory thought it was better than it is.

SH4 with Mods is the best still even after all these years.

I am 66 years old and go all the way back to my first PC.

Which was an Old Atari 800 with an RGB screen and a tape drive to load games.

Thank you for your help. Based on this and what 1PatriotOfMany has said, I just been and got me both SH4 and the SH4 uboat addon via steam store. I was lucky to find them 75% discounted.

Regarding the old Atari's - when I was at school now 25 years ago (eek!) I had a couple of classmates who had an Atari. I remember the old tape contraption, much like a music tape was, and having to wait literally ages for it to load (several minutes if I recall correctly). One of the things it did, was be able to read out loud words you typed in. This might seem childplay today, but back then, a computer reading out load written words was cutting edge. We had a lot of fun with that!

I however had a very early PC (well my Dad did) and this was before Windows. It had DOS and Microsoft works, which made use of the mouse. I only mention this, because it came with a game called 688 SUB ATTACK. This was my introduction to computer gaming, and i'm talking about 32-34 years ago! It was a great game for its time, and featured a 3D unwater map that could be explored while on various missions.

Thanks again for your welcoming & helpful reply!

fitzcarraldo · 03-16-24, 03:10 PM

Welcome aboard!

My installations, working very well:

SH3: NYGM FiFi and GWX OneAlex.
SH4: FOTRSU 1.8 and a lot of addon mods.
SH5: TWoS and addon mods.

I prefer to play FOTRSU (Pacific), but I enjoy all the three games.

I played in the past century SH1 Commander. Great memories with PTC. I´m 61 years old...

Best regards.

Fitzcarraldo

1Patriotofmany · 03-16-24, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GWB

Thank you for your incredibly helpful reply.

Steam store and SH 4 it is then! As I write this, luck would have it, the both titles suggested have 75% off! Bought.

I'll do my best to figure out what I can do with the list you've shared, starting with your top 2 suggestions, seen as Wolfar suggested #2 also.

If I get stuck, i'll hit you up. That is super generous of you to offer a random newbie so much help.
Thanks again.

Hey btw don't install it in the default location. If you did, uninstall them and put them in Steam library directory, Not the C: program files that is default. Also delete the SH4 folder in your documents folder if you already started playing.

03-14-24, 01:04 PM	#1
GWB Swabbie Join Date: Mar 2024 Posts: 6 Downloads: 1 Uploads: 0	New to SH series today - Any Suggestions? Hi all, great to be a part of your community. Here's an overview of what I'm looking for. I have played UBOAT for at least 2-3 years, and while it's obviously a newer game in this genre, I've found it far too easy once I got the basics down, to the point I would go on mission doing reckless things to try and make it a challenge - hardly realistic. The only setting I didn't have on full realistic was the "cinematic camera" so that I wasn't "stuck inside 1st person" - this was as much for screenshots and video, as it was my sanity! Despite having these set hard, there were still things that frustrated me that gave unrealistic advantages. Yes late war, hedgehogs & aircraft firing rockets added a new challenge, but this too is a case of avoiding entirely - being caught on the surface by these aircraft has little to do with skill, and everything to do with luck as to how it ends - in other words, knowing to avoid them is the solution that equals a frustratingly easy game. Big update in the pipe, but until then... I've also played Wolfpack game for a similar time, and while I prefer the realism side of it, the 3D aspect / controls etc, the gameplay itself is obviously extremely limited. Single set piece engagements, no career or time compression - although the Multiplayer aspect is a nice touch to have. So continuing to hunt for realistic subsim type games, I found a very promising idea 2-3 years ago from steam store, going for super high fidelity model. Sadly after many regular updates, the author mentioned something about having to switch over the graphics engine of the game, and then the whole project died of death, I guess the task overwhelmed him, although who really knows. Glad I didn't invest £50 into that early access. So by now, you can probably tell I'm a bit of a simulation junkie, flight sims & military sims, top down management sims, anything like that. I have ALWAYS prefered realism over graphics, so if this were a flight simulator forum and the debate were "xplane vs msfs2020" you can guess which side my chips are down on. With all that said... I keep hearing about the Silent Hunter series, ver 3 4 or 5. The thing that always put me off, was endless comments on what worked, mine didn't, error logs, dev team long gone, and a cryptic exchange between those in the know of what mods & packs (often in shorthand) to get, which left me feeling a bit confuddled, so I just withdrew back to what I already knew, stale as it was. Today I took the plunge and got myself a copy of SH3 and watched a YouTube tutorial on how to set it up with a modpack, OneAlex, and I must say, despite the game itself being dated to something like 2005 or some such, the community modders have done a good job. That said, I wondered if Version 4 or Version 5 might also be worth looking at? From what I can gather, version 5 seems to be somewhat buggy and people generally lean towards version 3 and 4. Can you confirm this? I have a very keen interest in ww2, not least because my family faught on both sides of the conflict, and I used to enjoy listening to their war stories as a kid. I think this is what got me into the whole thing originally. I would find it very interesting to play as USA in the Pacific vs Japan. I've seen various SH videos on youtube, but the content varies wildly and many constantly "cheat" or at least have difficulty settings easy, which is fine, but not something I would want to do. So if the option to cheat is available, or a difficulty setting behaves like a cheat, this is a bit of a show stopper for me, unless we can turn it off somehow, or providing it's not thrust in my screen by default (see Uboat and enemy ship locations while submerged under a convoy for an example of what I think is a "cheat mode"). Any graphics better than SH3 would obviously be a huge bonus, but not at the expense of realism. Bearing in mind, I am new to the entire SH series, so it would be helpful to include things that are easy(ish) to install and also brief descriptions of what things do. I saw posts similar to this in the past, but they are 4-5 years old at this point. Any advice really much appreciated, especially as I spent a long time going over what I do and don't like, so thanks in advance!

03-15-24, 02:42 PM	#3
lederhosen Planesman Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Trier, Germany Posts: 182 Downloads: 425 Uploads: 0	Have most of them all, but always come back to SH3 onealex / fifi, and in the near future an even better GWX mod will be out __________________

03-15-24, 04:23 PM	#4
Wolfar Torpedoman Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Avondale, AZ Posts: 115 Downloads: 11 Uploads: 0	I now have them all. SH 5 just got yesterday, I do not like the interface so far. Sticking with SH4 Wolfs of the pacific with Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate Mod for now. Recently got Silent Hunter Commanders Edition downloaded and working. Boy my memory thought it was better than it is. SH4 with Mods is the best still even after all these years. I am 66 years old and go all the way back to my first PC. Which was an Old Atari 800 with an RGB screen and a tape drive to load games. __________________ Wolfar 20 Year US Navy Retired Former Squadron CO and founder: 1997~2003 JG2, JG26, Strike Masters Simulations: Red Baron mega multiplayer, EAW, SDOE, Falcon 4, IL2 Forgotten Battles, MS Combat Flight Simulator 3, too many more to list.

03-16-24, 03:10 PM	#7
fitzcarraldo Argentinian Skipper Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Somewhere between Buenos Aires and the Bungo Suido Posts: 5,251 Downloads: 3313 Uploads: 0	Welcome aboard! My installations, working very well: SH3: NYGM FiFi and GWX OneAlex. SH4: FOTRSU 1.8 and a lot of addon mods. SH5: TWoS and addon mods. I prefer to play FOTRSU (Pacific), but I enjoy all the three games. I played in the past century SH1 Commander. Great memories with PTC. I´m 61 years old... Best regards. Fitzcarraldo __________________ *My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity - Wilfred Owen.*

03-15-24, 09:14 AM	#2
1Patriotofmany Captain Join Date: Jul 2017 Posts: 503 Downloads: 105 Uploads: 0	4 is the best IMO V1.5 , best mods, play more than just the US side,Couple of great german mods, Great US mods, Japanese, British, Italian, even Russian For the life of me I can't figure out UBOAT and Silent Hunter 5 is just terrible too. Here's my list number in front of them is my rating from best to okay, there are several others I left out of the list that should be in there. Almost all require V1.5 of Silent hunter4, You can usually get SH4 and the uboat add on(V1.5) for $10 each on Steam. If you need help using multiple mods let me know and I'll hunt up my detailed method how I have them all running on win7 and win 10 4. TMO Realism and graphics quick death for swabbies https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=250635 3. TMOwTW Realism graphics and better chance of survival https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/dow...o=file&id=4801 1. Darkwaters German perspective Realism and great graphics https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...ght=darkwaters 2. FOTRS Realism and graphics https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=243064 5. Japanese Mod Vanilla graphics, Japanese subs perspective https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=137761 6. We dive at Dawn British sub perspective vanilla https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=170639 Hopefully soon this new WWI mod for SH4 will be coming out too, should prove to be one of the best if not the best ever for SH4 https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=156161 Last edited by 1Patriotofmany; 03-15-24 at 09:28 AM.