Difference between SH3 and SH4?

[Sailor Steve]

I just reread these comments a little more closely, and felt I had to say something.

Originally Posted by Spin Doctor

So with SH4 on the nerar horizon, what's going to be so different here than in Sh3? Other than eyecandy, I mean. I don't care about that. Gameplay is all that I'm concerned about. At the very least, I'd like the systems to work as historically documented. There was some definite laziness on this aspect in SH3.

Have you tried Aces Of The Deep? Though it's now sixteen years old, it had almost perfect gameplay, but compared to today would be extremely lacking in the eye-candy department. You should love it.

If this is SH3 in a new dress, then I'll probably pass. No offense, but I don't need SH3.5. When you consider the major sub battles were in the Atlantic, I would imagine the developers would need to incorporate a lot of innovation to make the Pacific interesting, given the fairly light merchant traffic compared to the Atlantic.

Considering that the original Silent Hunter was a Pacific-based game, you should consider yourself lucky there's a franchise around at all. Some of us have been waiting for this for more than a decade.

Having new subs in a new theater is nice and all, but at the end of the day, they all use the same dials, gages, optics and have the same mission. Campaign involvement is the only savior in the sim world, I think. Think EAW, panzer Elite, Mig Alley, Red Baron 3D, ya know? The campaign is what made these classics. I would like to see a new classic come out of the sim world and this has the potential as much as anything out there.

Again, if you want Atlantic, think AOD; if you want Pacific (which obviously you don't) try SHI. They both had great campaign systems, and still do.

[Spin Doctor]

I've heard of aces of the deep, but that was before my time in gaming. I might have a bit of trouble finding parts/building a computer to run a 16 year old game, but it does seem that the developers of older games and sims had to put most of their efforts into gameplay vice graphics since there was no graphics revolution going on as it is now. It seems to be an either/or situation with most developers leaning hard into the graphics upgrade race.

It's not that big a deal. I was just wondering the emphasis behind SH4 was. I think I have a pretty good idea now.

Thanks

[NorthStorm]

For me, the biggest improvement is the fact that i will be able to command a destroyer on the multiplayer.

[joea]

Originally Posted by NorthStorm

For me, the biggest improvement is the fact that i will be able to command a destroyer on the multiplayer.

News to me!!

[OlegM]

Originally Posted by NorthStorm

For me, the biggest improvement is the fact that i will be able to command a destroyer on the multiplayer.

Not really. BTW I look forward to this as much as you but I find the lack of MP-related info and screenshots suspicious. Neal promised his MP preview two weeks ago and postponed it indefinitely

What we do know is you will not be able to excatly "command a destroyer". It will be one guy as escort commander vs up to 3 guys (7 over LAN) as subs attacking his conwoy. I **guess** the escort commander guy will be able to issue only generic commands to his escorts like "go there, use ASDIC, drop DCs now etc".

[Janus]

Originally Posted by Barkhorn1x

What we know - besides the graphics overhall - is;
- Double the radio traffic
[...]
But still, much of the time you are going to travel to a patrol area to sink stuff. If that is boring to you then you should pass.

Barkhorn.

Double the radio traffic - compared to "be more aggressive" and "good job" you get from BdU in SHIII what can there be in SHIV?

The campaign definately was the weak spot in SHIII for me: missions always the same, no communication with BdU and most of all no Wolfpacks and some other stuff.

It would have been cool if the SHIII campaign would have been more like Falcon 4's campaign for example.

[John Channing]

Originally Posted by Janus

It would have been cool if the SHIII campaign would have been more like Falcon 4's campaign for example.

You mean that you would prefer that it took 10 years to get it almost working properly?

JCC

[Spin Doctor]

Originally Posted by John Channing

You mean that you would prefer that it took 10 years to get it almost working properly?

JCC

I'm pretty sure that he just means one that is immersive. You already knew that, I've no doubt even if it did take awhile to get its act together. It was worth it in the long run since someone had the foresight to put the basic campaign building blocks into place even if they were not allowed the time (since Microprose was about to go under) to put it all together. I have a copy of the Falcon 4.0 special edition binder here at work and people ask about it from time to time. I work for a military flight simulator developer doing hardware QA and some of the programmers seem impressed with the level of detail included in the manual.

Actually, a good MP component can make up for a multitude of campaign sins. Take IL2 for instance. The campaign and single player were mediocre at best, but the online component, which was very well done, kept it alive for over 5 years, with little signs of stopping. It holds the record on my harddrive for longevity and it's still excellent for a quick fix or a long campaign type online war.

[joea]

Originally Posted by Spin Doctor

I'm pretty sure that he just means one that is immersive. You already knew that, I've no doubt even if it did take awhile to get its act together. It was worth it in the long run since someone had the foresight to put the basic campaign building blocks into place even if they were not allowed the time (since Microprose was about to go under) to put it all together. I have a copy of the Falcon 4.0 special edition binder here at work and people ask about it from time to time. I work for a military flight simulator developer doing hardware QA and some of the programmers seem impressed with the level of detail included in the manual.

Actually, a good MP component can make up for a multitude of campaign sins. Take IL2 for instance. The campaign and single player were mediocre at best, but the online component, which was very well done, kept it alive for over 5 years, with little signs of stopping. It holds the record on my harddrive for longevity and it's still excellent for a quick fix or a long campaign type online war.

3rd party came out with some superb campaigns for offline which should have been integrated from the start.

[John Channing]

Nothing personal guys... I just love poking "falconeers".

JCC

[FIREWALL]

Originally Posted by John Channing

Nothing personal guys... I just love poking "falconeers".

JCC

Smile when you say that hombre

[Spin Doctor]

He's probably smiling when he's poking, regardless...

[Sgian Dubh]

Originally Posted by Boris

Well, the missions won't be the same old, same old boringness of grid clearing as in SH3.

You'll have commando drop offs, photo reckon, pilot rescue, specific targets etc. Mission objectives will also change during missions.

As for the ability to night attack, don't know how the AI will react. But it is moddable. GWX vastly improved this instance for SH3, allowing you to get closer than 1km to enemy ships in some cases... being able to slip past the escorts and into a convoy on the surface.

Really?

My experience with GWX thus far is that the ships all seem to have long-range, night-vision equipment....

[ReallyDedPoet]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Differences I've seen so far:

Much improved crew management with assigned watch bills and automatic rotation.

Upgraded weather with dynamic cloud shifts.

Completely changed damage-control system.

Special missions.

I like this stuff plus I think there will be more than enough new stuff to make SH4 its own game, then once modders rip into it Look what happened to Stock SH3.

[Mush Martin]

Originally Posted by Boris

Well, the missions won't be the same old, same old boringness of grid clearing as in SH3.

You'll have commando drop offs, photo reckon, pilot rescue, specific targets etc. Mission objectives will also change during missions.

As for the ability to night attack, don't know how the AI will react. But it is moddable. GWX vastly improved this instance for SH3, allowing you to get closer than 1km to enemy ships in some cases... being able to slip past the escorts and into a convoy on the surface.

:hmm: