I'm concerned about game ballance on the American side of things.

[flintlock]

Originally Posted by Steeltrap

Part of the issue for the game is that some players might expect to be able to rack up totally unrealistic kill/tonnage totals by firing a single torp at each ship encountered.

Reminds me of the rampant posts by frustrated submariners and those stubborn C2s when SH3 was originally released.

[Morts]

Originally Posted by hyperion2206

If you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn't plan your mission properly.":rotfl:

TRUE

[Egan]

The beauty of doing the Pac theatre, though, is that we will have a more varied diet of missions to undertake: Life-guard duties for downed pilots, photo recon and insertions (if the game info is accurate.) Not that U-boats were entirely limited to sinking shipping, of course, but we seldom see it in sub sims.

I can imagine that squeezing through a narrow, shallow and heavilly defended strait to take photos of some harbour or other is going to be pretty tense no matter what the date is. I doubt it is going to be a clever move to shoot everything that moves in a mission this time around, there will be other factors to take into acount. I can't wait.

[flintlock]

Originally Posted by Egan

I can't wait.

Some good points, and yes, that ever elusive release day.

[Aimbot]

Originally Posted by hyperion2206

As Colonel David Hackworth once said:" If you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn't plan your mission properly.":rotfl:

Sure, but he didn't fight from his Den and, should he have died in combat, he wouldn't have respawned.

[Safe-Keeper]

SH3Gen sometimes told you to go recon neutral (and enemy?) harbours. It did have this tense atmosphere, even though I knew the neutrals wouldn't hurt me. Recon missions on enemy harbours - now there's a different thing entirely.

[THE_MASK]

Originally Posted by Aimbot

I have to say I'm interested to try a sub sim of American exploits, as I know virtually nothing about it, but what little I do know seems to make for a poor video game.

1. American torpedos, particularly the Mark XIV, were extremely unreliable up until ~1943. There was the ocasional dud on the German side of things, but from what I have read working American torpedos were the exception rather than the rule. The most famous proof of this was the Seawolf, which launched four Mark XIVs at the stationary and anchured Sagami Maru under ideal conditions and photographically recorded a 100% rate of falure. It was only when they resorted to the Mark X that they had any success. The odd dud just makes things tense, but If I have to worry about duds to that extent that's one realism setting I'll have in the "off" position.

2. Japanese strength was greatest early in the war, and America's was weakest. That of course was inverted by the end of the war. What we have here seems to me to be an inverse learning curve. Sure, technology increases still aply, but America advanced quicker than Japan in that regard too. It seems to me that this would produse an inverse learning curve, which is not a good thing for a video game...

Like SH3 there will be boxes to check/uncheck regarding realism i am sure 100%.
I am sure there will be a box that says enable realistic torpedo failures or something so you dont have to worry . Like SH3 it will be up to you if you want arcade or 100% realism or anything in between . This is a great feature .

[NEON DEON]

Originally Posted by Aimbot

Sure, but he didn't fight from his Den and, should he have died in combat, he wouldn't have respawned.

And

If you play dead is dead you still have the adavantage of learning every thing from your mistakes where as real skippers were well dead.:p

[hyperion2206]

Originally Posted by NEON DEON

And

If you play dead is dead you still have the adavantage of learning every thing from your mistakes where as real skippers were well dead.:p

To avoid that you'll have to behave like Ensign Parker for the first 3 missions, that should do the trick.:p

[Iron Budokan]

I was worried about this, too. But then I figured since I always play DiD it might not be so arcadish in the long run. Heck, maybe I won't ever live to see '45. (I'm a lousy kaleun, I'm sure I won't be any better as a skipper.) Anyway, I'm not looking forward to the waning months of the war gunning sampans and fishing boats, though I'm sure the game will still have good targets modeled for us.....

[Aimbot]

On the bright side...


I don't think Bernard will defect just to vex us...

[CCIP]

Originally Posted by Aimbot

On the bright side...


I don't think Bernard will defect just to vex us...

No need, his distant American relative Ensign Parker has already been assigned to the Silent Service

[GlobalExplorer]

Originally Posted by Safe-Keeper

SH3Gen sometimes told you to go recon neutral (and enemy?) harbours. It did have this tense atmosphere, even though I knew the neutrals wouldn't hurt me. Recon missions on enemy harbours - now there's a different thing entirely.

I am glad someone noticed that it does that

I went to great lengths to get that type of "neutral port" - mission, like in "Das Boot" (supply in Vigo) or a fictional reconnaissance in swedish port.

Now there still that Gibraltar-breakthrough mission in the back of my head ..

Regarding concerns expressed in this threads: SHIV will be perfectly balanced through mods, I'm 100% sure. The interesting change is that the game will be very hard in the beginning, and getting easier later on - the exact opposite of the German U-Boat campaign. I say interesting because I prefer to play early war patrols, and they should be a real challenge for the Americans.

[danoh]

Originally Posted by danoh

American torpedoes at the start of the war had two problems: they ran deeper than set and the exploder was faulty when using impact rather than magnetic detonation.

Reading up on the issue over the weekend, I found this paragraph (perhaps not the most authorative source) Time-Life's "War Under The Pacific" volume in their WWII series. P. 46 reads, in part

"What was not understood was that the magnetic field encasing a ship varied in shape depending on the circumstances. Near the Equator this magnetic envelope flattened out until it resemebled a thisk disc more than a hemisphere. Thus a torpedo would enter the magnetic field some distance from the side of the ship - where it would explode harmlessly."

So a third, widely reported problem - premature explosion of torpedoes - also existed.

I'm curious if the game will recreate this level of detail, or if the early-war Mark XIV torpedoes are simply very likely to be duds that bounce off the sides of ships.

[VipertheSniper]

I only hope it's not as frustrating, albeit realistic, as with SH1, where dud's and premature detonations were very much the rule with the dud torpedo setting on.