Evaluation Of SH4 - Page 2

Banquet · 03-24-07, 06:46 PM

I certainly won't claim SH4 isn't bugged but I am really enjoying it. I think you have to be realistic about what can be included and what can't in the initial release. In my career starting from Pearl I didn't count the amount of ships in port but it was probably 10-15 (There were 2 or 3 carriers, a battleship, a few dd's, possibly a CA or 2 and a handful of merchants) My frame rates were down to 15-20 with all details maxed and I reckon they got it about right. I certainly wouldn't want 107 ships there to bring my pc to a halt!

There's a game called 'War in the Pacific' which is a very detailed 2d wargame of the pacific war.. and people argue all the time about whether this or that should be at this or that location. If a 2d wargame can't get everything right I certainly don't expect a submarine sim to be 100% historically accurate on things such as the handling of aircraft.. although I agree it would be great if it was!

Midway, for instance has a carrier docked in the first few days of the war.. I don't think it's port was anywhere near big enough to dock such a capital ship.. If memory serves the carriers have devastators and dauntlesses on board which I don't think they had until later in the war.. On return from my 1st patrol from Pearl I saw a big US taskforce containing (amongst other things) 4 BB's when I think only 1 BB was shipshape after Pearl was bombed.. but such is life. I remember in SH3 when it was released there were no ships in friendly harbours at all.. now we have them.. maybe not enough for some people, but they are there. When SH3 was released people moaned that the campaign was always patrol this or that area.. with no special missions.. now we have photo recon, agent insertion, pilot rescue, etc.. We have the radio with updates on the war, which was only put into SH3 as a mod. We can tune it too.. which I think is a great feature!

When I think about the original SH3 and what GWX and other mods did for it I am very excited about the future of SH4! There are bugs and lack of features which in some ways seems like a backward step from SH3 but overall I'm finding it a very immersive and beautiful sim. I just had the time of my life getting a agent onto the coast near Osaka. Surfacing my sub under the moonlight and carefully scanning the horizon for all the contacts I'd picked up during the day when I'd remained submerged in the deepest waters I could find near the coast. For all it's faults I'm having a great time!

vois2 · 03-24-07, 11:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by High Command

poor manual

The printed manual is definitely an example of "produce anything by publish date". I've looked it over very carefully and I am very surprised at the poor pedagogical sense with which it has been designed. Over and over again, I can see that the absolute newb would be quite puzzled in the search for "help" in this manual. I find myself greatly relieved that I happen to already know the important stuff from my experience with SH3. Soon I'll be teaching a friend how to play SH4, and I can see that I will need to warn him to just read the manual with the most casual eye.

Quote:

Originally Posted by High Command

Dive Sequence poorly moddeled, (Few effects, sounds ect)

I agree that the dive sequence is poorly modeled for "action" style, but my greater concern right now is that the physics of the dive are actually incorrect. More than once I have issued the command to dive while simultaneously asking for full ahead, and the sub has careened to unheard of depths (and its death) with no recovery actions responsive. That is to say, when I manually select a depth I want in this condition of dive+flank -- and I reduce speed, call out a reasonable depth to trim out and a depth which I have not yet passed so that the vertical recovery to trim can be smooth. Yet ... nope ... she just keeps on plumetting to the floor. This is certainly not behavior i experienced (ever) in SH3.

vois2
firefighter@graffiti.net

03-24-07, 06:46 PM	#16
Banquet Machinist's Mate Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 122 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	I certainly won't claim SH4 isn't bugged but I am really enjoying it. I think you have to be realistic about what can be included and what can't in the initial release. In my career starting from Pearl I didn't count the amount of ships in port but it was probably 10-15 (There were 2 or 3 carriers, a battleship, a few dd's, possibly a CA or 2 and a handful of merchants) My frame rates were down to 15-20 with all details maxed and I reckon they got it about right. I certainly wouldn't want 107 ships there to bring my pc to a halt! There's a game called 'War in the Pacific' which is a very detailed 2d wargame of the pacific war.. and people argue all the time about whether this or that should be at this or that location. If a 2d wargame can't get everything right I certainly don't expect a submarine sim to be 100% historically accurate on things such as the handling of aircraft.. although I agree it would be great if it was! Midway, for instance has a carrier docked in the first few days of the war.. I don't think it's port was anywhere near big enough to dock such a capital ship.. If memory serves the carriers have devastators and dauntlesses on board which I don't think they had until later in the war.. On return from my 1st patrol from Pearl I saw a big US taskforce containing (amongst other things) 4 BB's when I think only 1 BB was shipshape after Pearl was bombed.. but such is life. I remember in SH3 when it was released there were no ships in friendly harbours at all.. now we have them.. maybe not enough for some people, but they are there. When SH3 was released people moaned that the campaign was always patrol this or that area.. with no special missions.. now we have photo recon, agent insertion, pilot rescue, etc.. We have the radio with updates on the war, which was only put into SH3 as a mod. We can tune it too.. which I think is a great feature! When I think about the original SH3 and what GWX and other mods did for it I am very excited about the future of SH4! There are bugs and lack of features which in some ways seems like a backward step from SH3 but overall I'm finding it a very immersive and beautiful sim. I just had the time of my life getting a agent onto the coast near Osaka. Surfacing my sub under the moonlight and carefully scanning the horizon for all the contacts I'd picked up during the day when I'd remained submerged in the deepest waters I could find near the coast. For all it's faults I'm having a great time!