Latest update on the Ubisoft site

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Letum

There is a great photo somewhere of a destroyer being towed into harbor after losing it's entire bow section.

Other ships suffered massive damage, but stayed afloat.
It's not unusual.

The USS Minneapolis
USS St. Louis
HMS Eskimo
and USS LST 387

All lost large parts of their structure with out sinking.

The one that comes to my mind is HMS Javelin http://www.uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4451.html

She had her bow and stern blown off, and survived to be rebuilt and go back into service. I likewise could find no picture online, but I've seen one in a book and it's impressive.

That said, these are warships and have much better compartmentation thatn merchants. Still, I like the idea of pieces sinking at different rates, or not sinking at all. As long as I get credit for the sinking, I'm happy.

[JU_88]

Originally Posted by fireship4

Why aren't people banging drums and launching fireworks from tall cocktails after this news? It's great that AI subs are in and one massive step closer to wolfpacks - which everyone has been banging on about for ages. If in the end they don't manage to get them in we are close enough for modders to get the rest done.

That's unless it's for a later patch/addon, and its made intentionally hard to mod in so we cant add something they plan to make money out of!

Totally, people are missing the big picture,
Dont they realise that Ai subs mean that NPC Uboat will attack ships?
thats already half way to having wolfpacks.

With so many people responding to every new snippet of info with sceptic remarks like: "This is rather worrying" or "I am deeply troubled by this"
its no wonder there are hardly any updates about the projects status.

The most 'worrying' thing I keep reading is the amount of negetivity.

[FIREWALL]

Originally Posted by kapitan_zur_see

I cannot say i'm not a bit worried about this kind of news...
I just can't get why people are nearly opening a bottle a champagne whilst hearing something like "kleine fahrt voraus" instead of "eine dritte[...]" and that sort of ultra-minors things! Come on, it can be modded in like an hour of your time

And it doesn't push devs to concentrate more on important things if we keep asking for minors things. And their choices of our questions to answer to reflect this in my opinion...

I would have rather like to see major questions only, those that has a great impact in-game be it for gameplay or atmosphere and are huge work to mod (when it's possible...).

What about the weather engine and how it is depicted?? I'm tired of getting ridiculous storms and the like, that even has no impact on your speed and navigating ability. And that's not even talking about the immersion factor...

What about crew life?? are we to expect some standing by crew never moving around the boat, plagued with just the same 10sec animation looping endlessly, spawing around when you gives order like repair, losing their tongue except for some very arsh "yes sir! aye aye sir! at once sir! " shouted like we were darth vader on board and no uboat commander, and ultimately never really looking very lively? Why it's a major question is because expectations should be pretty high regarding how dev said it was some of what was really new, and you might get very dissapointed afterward considering the trailer.(What I fear is how time consuming it could be to make this decent enough...)

What about our own damages!!!?? instead on concentrating on how a ship should sink in 31.6 minutes instead of 31.75896, and how equal should be the broken parts! It's just minor eye candy or "gameplay" details! However, having a great damage model for our own sub and a strong depictation of it, makes the experience way more entertaining, critical moments are strong and are always a big part in any sub movie, and actually provides for gameplay.

I'd definately rather see those BIG questions be asked... come on guys, ask for questions more on those subjects and don't spread minors one all around that could be chosen to avoid talking on strong points that could really makes it for a new and stronger experience...

In that fashion, wolfpack was a major question, "will i be able to cross an AI driven submarine" is not. Odds are, it will barely happens to you one time in several entire campaigns, and it will just be a sub passing by. 1 min of no gameplay in your entire SH5 experience. But still, it has somewhat be answered and all we have about crew life is a mere "it will be lively" and about sea state "sea will be far (?) better modeled" (but obviously not all that different compared to SH4 for the time being...).

I'm not really sure that this kind of questions will really change my game play experience. Is it really worthy to ask things like, I dunno, for example: "Will seashells be model and will one be able to get stuck on the propeller shaft and if so, will the average 0.00000561 nautical miles performance drop loss will be scientifically calculated granted you take into account sea pressure surrounding you and it's temperature based on your precise coordinates matched with downloadable realtime data? (of course)"

Now I don't mean to be rude, but it's kind of always the same thing when a new SH is under development and we have some big deceptions afterward, some that can't be moded because it's hard-coded...

I share your thoughts on this.

Way to many rivet counters.

[sergbuto]

Originally Posted by TDK1044

Will there be any AI operated boats forming a Wolfpack?

There will be AI operated boats. Wolfpack mechanics are under consideration. This is something we always wanted to do but we want to do them properly so there’s a question if we’ll be able to fit them before release.

The question is whether the AI subs will get sub-specific AI routines or such subs will be implemented on the level of SH4?

[Donkey-Shot]

Originally Posted by Racerboy

That must be some kind of super ship. Any ship I've ever seen that has a breach in it's hull ultimately sinks....the degree of sinking determined by size of breach. Why are we going backwards here? This is a SIM not a shoot'em up game!
We'll see how much they improve the explosions and the SFX. I'll lay money down saying they will be a minor improvement that will need to be modded (once again).

This is by no means unrealistic!
Ships for instance have a fore-peak (if this the wrong term please correct). It is specifically designed to take hits and survive. A ship can, and have, stay(ed) afloaIf a compartment shears off at a watertight bulkhead, but the bulkhead itself isn't damaged a ship will stay afloat. Case in point: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...IsP3-AaN-pGMAw

Scroll down till you see HMS Exrpess with its -entire bow- blown off and still alive (sort of).

But

[FIREWALL]

Originally Posted by sergbuto

The question is whether the AI subs will get sub-specific AI routines or such subs will be implemented on the level of SH4?

Hi Sergbuto Gonna go OT and ask whats new ? Working on any new kool stuff ?

Don't recall you posting lately.

[sergbuto]

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

Hi Sergbuto Gonna go OT and ask whats new ? Working on any new kool stuff ?

Don't recall you posting lately.

I do post once in a while. As to new stuff - maybe.

[JU_88]

Originally Posted by sergbuto

The question is whether the AI subs will get sub-specific AI routines or such subs will be implemented on the level of SH4?

IMHO -the level implemented in SH4 does not qualify as Sub AI

[Letum]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

That said, these are warships and have much better compartmentation thatn merchants.

That said, merchants often carried lighter than water cargoes that made
the ship lighter than water, even when totally flooded.
Empty oil barrel, wood and oil where regular cargoes.

Oil tankers have especially good compartments that will fill with water
without causing the slightest problem for the ship.
Then there are many cargo ships that where designed with the risk of
torpedoes in mind, even before the war. The C3 hull is a good example.

[Ping Panther]

My 2 cents here. If it's worth any more than that, feel welcome to keep the change.

If the AI could just be tapped into the communications, FOR REAL, within the SH5 stuff. That would be awesome.

Right now it's all really been a virtual immersion of ... you send a contact report ... reply of "good work, be more aggressive", etc. ... send out a patrol report ... "pat on the back" from BdU ... just patched comments with a slim chance of reporting contacts to a local Luftwaffe airfield, etc.

If you could truly send a contact report ... it then goes to an AI Bdu ... it then tweeks nearest AI subs (or even AI warships!) to dispatch towards your area ... this provides further immersion to consider your own tactics ... hang in there ghosting the contact for other AI's to join your feast, etc.? A REAL radio communications link. That's what it needs.

Ca-ching ... the cash drawer is now closed.

[TheDarkWraith]

ok, I stand corrected on the ship being able to stay afloat

Now the AI subs....hmm....that depends on what you can do with them. If we cannot access 'triggers' on them then they will be hard to mod. If they can dive on their own, shoot their own torpedoes, etc. then it will open up many possibilities (for things other than AI controlled subs).

[AVGWarhawk]

It is to my understanding the uboats worked together (packs) and independently. This we know, correct? However, when working together the boats were often miles and miles apart working the convoy's projected course. Evey once and a while several boats were close enough to see the others torpedo work and become part of a closer pack visually. The fleetboats did as well. Can we say the more often than not the close in pack was much less than the spread out pack working miles of ocean in the convoy's projected path? If that is the case, does the AI submarine interaction really need to be heavy? For the most part you do not see your pack mates. Although most want the packs is it really an integral part of YOUR simulation?

[TheDarkWraith]

Just tell me they're (AI subs) not stupid drones who sit on the surface all day and exchange gun fire with the enemy. I want to see them be able to actually dive on their own and fire torpedoes. This would open up a ton of possibilities for other things.

Originally Posted by Racerboy

Just tell me they're (AI subs) not stupid drones who sit on the surface all day and exchange gun fire with the enemy. I want to see them be able to actually dive on their own and fire torpedoes. This would open up a ton of possibilities for other things.

agreed, the way carriers charge in to point blank range to fight with battleships in sh4 is just stupid so i hope they fix that part too

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Racerboy

Just tell me they're (AI subs) not stupid drones who sit on the surface all day and exchange gun fire with the enemy. I want to see them be able to actually dive on their own and fire torpedoes. This would open up a ton of possibilities for other things.

Well no RB, I would expect them to act accordingly. I'm not sure if you are familiar with IL2. The AI aircraft do react on their own and do react when directed to do so. I would expect this at the very least. Perhaps rudimentary commands. Leave port in a pack. Follow command. Once on station have a take postions command. If under you have no radio contact. Have attack and or evade commands for AI. It does not have to be super micro-managed. Would be cool to surface and radio your packmates only to find U-? does not respond. Probably sunk.