Wish List for an expansion pack

[Suicide Charlie]

There are some very fascinating and exciting ideas in here.

I think the next step for the Silent Hunter franchise has to be an expansion into a wider depth of play. Over four games we've seen a pretty good coverage of the Pacific and Atlantic Theatre of operations, for a World War II sim there's not much else to go... Other than the implementation of new playable nations, the long wanted ability to take a surface command, wider range of subs, and the continuation of a varied dynamic campaign missions (such as previously mentioned retrieval of the inflitration operatives you help deploy).

It would be very exciting to be able to not only re-enact a U.S. Silent Service career in any theatre and/or sector historically availible, but to also be able to perhaps enter service into a different navy, say the Imperial Japanese Navy or Kriegsmarine sub forces. The problem I see with that is, looking at Silent Hunter IV, we have a roughly 4GB game. My guess is that in order to expand a game to such a capacity would mean bumping it up to maybe anywhere .5-2 times that amount. Granted, I'd get it anyways.

I'd like to see some innovation in the multiplayer department.

Perhaps something that would enable players to at least interact and affect each other's games on a Career scale. I think communities like Wolves at War (which I participate in) would love and benefit for such an idea. You can network with a number of other players and while maybe the connection might not neccesarily allow you to directly play with each other your actions can influence another person's campaign.

For instance Player A and Player B are playing their own respective careers, but they match up in starting dates and such. Player A comes in contact with a large convoy at position X. He puts out an ingame contact report. Since Player A and B are playing similar timelined campaigns and are networked to each other, the next time Player B logs into his campaign he recieves a contact report outling information that was reported by Player A. Player B intercepts the same convoy and comes upon a scene where several ships are damaged, etc. noting Player A's attack. Player B commences he own attack and so forth. Perhaps, the computer places a working allied subermarine in the area to represent the other player.

I don't think that's an idea that would be possible with this current game, but maybe an idea for future games.

[Deamon]

Originally Posted by John Channing

A complete training school taking you through every aspect of approach and evasion (preferable with V/O instructors). You would go against allied ships using training torpedos. Each mission would get harder and harder until you could handle just about any situation. Once you graduated then you would go out as a PCO, then get your first boat.

JCC

This idea sounds so very familiar to me. :hmm:

[Fearless]

If any expansion were to happen, I'd like the option of commanding a Destroyer or maybe a Cruiser or Battleship.

[Suicide Charlie]

Originally Posted by Fearless

If any expansion were to happen, I'd like the option of commanding a Destroyer or maybe a Cruiser or Battleship.

Definitely. I'd like to be able to play a career on a surface ship. It would be awesome to serve as part of a taskforce and participate in surface battles and the hunting of enemy subs.

[dean_acheson]

Originally Posted by LukeFF

-Realistic navigation option: no more GPS-accurate locations of your submarine given on the map. The accuracy of your position will depend on the weather, time of day, visibilty, and the experience of your navigator.

-Limited rations: we already have limited fuel, so why not limited rations? Each boat carries a set amount of rations (say, 60 days). Each crewmember consumers one ration unit per day, and if he dies, then his remaining units go into the overall "ration pool." If food runs low, you can cut back on rations, but this will have an effect on the crews efficiency and morale.

-Realistic torpedo loading: if the sub tilts more than X number of degrees, the crew will stop trying to reload torpedoes. WWII era subs needed to be as level as possible for the crew to be able to load the tubes safely and quickly.

-More coastal traffic for the Japanese.

-Realistic numbers of capital ships. Sink two Yamatos, and that's it. They won't magically reappear at a later date.

-Proper voice comms for the crew - things like saying "Double oh" instead of "zero zero", and () "rudder amidships."

yeah, wow. like these ideas alot!

I really like the idea of being able to see how your patrols influence the tide of war in whatever little way they can. It was mentioned that areas of the map could be shaded for areas controlled by Allies / Axis and IJ forces, seeing the results ofmy boat helping to cut off supplies or sinking an invasion force would be great.
And here is another suggestion...
Having read more than one thread about running out of fuel or being dead in the water due to damage, I would like to be able to send out an SOS and have the chance of friendlys coming to my assistance. Maybe a subtender that could refit do some fast and dirty repairs that would allow me to limp home.

[CDR Resser]

[quote=Torpex752]

Originally Posted by CDR Resser

Pardon my confusion, but I'm not exactly sure to what you are referring when you say remove the TBT and install the polaris as historically accurate.

Respectfully Submitted
CDR Resser

My Apoligies..I meant "pelorus" (Brain cramp).

Thanks for the info. You learn something new every day. I remember reading that the S boats had no TDC, but I was not really sure what they had used for torpedo fire control up to this point.

CDR Resser

I mentioned this in another thread but this is a more apt place for it...

In career mode, when flash traffic is received advising of major engagements, lat and long should be included as well as a graphic similar to the mission stars. It is too vague to say "area of solomon islands"

[donut]

One :Would to have some new/expanded features on the boats, like Port & Stbd engine control,w/screws turning correctly

Two :We need transporter beam option back to base,when out of fish/ammo after long patrol.

Three :Having read more than one thread about running out of fuel or being dead in the water due to damage/missing rudder, I would like to be able to send out an SOS and have the chance of friendlys coming to my assistance. Maybe a subtender that could refit do some fast and dirty repairs that would allow me to limp home.

Four : Some sort of way to work with another sub. Making a wolfpack. It sounds just awesome to me that the first attacking sub would get a lot of attention from DD's, luring them away, so the second and third sub would get some decent shots in. Total mayhem in the convoy, ships scattered all over the ocean without structure in the comms. Everyone is running around to save it's own butt.

Five :We should be able to fire @ depth. Doors open @ 100 ft. set up sonar attack plot. Maybe we can already do this? must try!

Six : Over,under,& out

[tater]

Donut, cool bouys!

BTW, "5" is possible, there is a max depth to fire setting in each sub cfg someplace, we had a thread about sonar attacks.

~150' should be possible, I found 2 references for that number. One was a deep diving sub that was DCed at ~300ft. She was damaged to the point a fish started running hot in the tube and they needed to come up---even with escorts above---to 150' to be able to try and get the fish out cause 300 was too deep. Another was a reference (both in Silent Victory) to the fact that Cuties torpedos were required (by the Navy manual for them) to be fired from at least 150' deep to help protect the boat from being homed on by its own fish!

tater