Will there be a patch 1.4?

[-Pv-]

"...It is my belief that the subsim fans have been let down with SH4..."

You are speaking for yourself and not everyone.

"...improve the game play on a somewhat regular basis without having to whine and beg for them..."

I've not whined for a patch even once nor has UBI officially stated at any time there would be be more patches.
Nice there are enough whiners here for everyone to benefit without having to contribute to it.

-Pv-

[jdkbph]

Originally Posted by LukeFF

Incorrect. USS Cobia, with the oldest working radar set (1943):

Well, I'll be darned...

You're right, I'm wrong.

I still don't like the always on SD though...

Originally Posted by LukeFF

Peace?

Sure thing.

JD

[Rockin Robbins]

I declare peace! Everybody reload.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

I declare peace! Everybody reload.

That would be a time out.

[Myxt25]

Originally Posted by harrymanback

For ****s sake Ubisoft fix the ****ing repeating missions bug! I'm mean do other people not have this problem, or they do and they're not bothered by it, or what? I've never come across such a basic, ridiculous bug thats still in a game after 3 patches. Is there a mod that will just fix this (I don't want a mod that will fix it but also make the game harder/more realistic etc).
All I want to be able to load up a campaign and not have to patrol the south china sea again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again...

I have the same problem, I can't believe it. I started 3 careers and it's the same thing. After 2 or 3 missions it's always the same. There are other bugs with 1.3 but they are "minor". This repeating missions bug prevents me from playing career, an I can't accept that. This game is not finished and if Ubisoft doesn't correct this bug I'll never buy again a game from them.

[Rockin Robbins]

It reflects real life, where Admiral Lockwood and Admiral Christy both did this.

Hey, this is war. You expect to like all your assignments? You know the territory and one Jap freighter looks and sinks like any other in any other piece of ocean. What more do you want? Do your duty son, and you'll get the plum assignments. Until then, let's see some work ethic. I'm not sending you into the meat grinder until I can see you've learned enough to survive out there. You're showing progress, but let's not get overconfident. You're not going to do me any good in thousands of pieces on the bottom of the Sea of Japan. Dismissed!

[Woof1701]

After reading in this forum for a while I have to add something:

After what it took you to beg for that last patch, and taking my own experience with previous Silent Hunter games, I'm sure there won't be another patch!

BUT, there is one thing you should consider that noone has mentioned yet. Let's go back in time a little.
For those who do not know: SH3 was declared finished when there were many more loose ends to tie up. SH3 with patch 1.4 is not really that much better than stock SH3. Enemy AI was aweful, there were graphics and gameplay glitches that made playing it a real nuisance at times. Important features were missing, and historical facts were wrong. Patched SH2 was even far worse BTW.
But there is a good thing that came out of SH3 being an unfinished subsim. Many people liked SH3 nevertheless and saw potential to improve it themselves. The graphics were good and the gameplay and career was sound. The modders learned the hard way how to mod the game, and improve it and add new features, many of which were said to be impossible without an SDK. And look what we have now! The supermods introduced new Theaters of Operation like the Black Sea and the Pacific, wolfpacks and milk cows were implemented, graphics were improved. The amount of available ships has been doubled. New sounds were implemented to make the game more immersive. Enemy AI (which was the worst problem of all) was more or less tweaked to realistic and still enjoyable proportions. And there were so many more improvements that it would take me hours to write them down here. But still SH3 is nor finished! New mods come out every day, and we're still waiting for the latest (and sadly the last) update to the Grey Wolves supermod.

AND ALL SH4 PLAYERS WILL BENEFIT FROM THAT!
Because the good thing that came out of this for SH4 is that the sims are similar when it comes to modding, so a lot of expertise painstakenly gained by the SH3 modders are now modding SH4 without having to have learnt everything from scratch again.
From reading in this forum it also seems that the problems and glitches people are complaining about in SH4 are minor in comparison to what SH3 was like after the Devs stopped patching it. Since I don't have SH4 yet I can't be sure of course.

So don't be so negative. I'm reasonably sure the modders will attend to most of the problems. You will see improvements and most likely solutions to most of the problems that there currently are. Give it some time.

[Penelope_Grey]

I've read this thread, and I am stunned, really stunned at a lot of what I have seen here. I won't pick out individual quotes or posters but so many here standing and saying "I never complained about SH4" "I think the developers did a great job" "It doesn't need more patches."

I think Ubisoft and the game developers are obliged to deliver more patches to us. For one thing, you wouldn't put up with a toaster that kept ejecting the toast before it was ready, you'd take it back to the shop with the recipt and demand a refund, or to have it fixed. Since we all spent good money on this game I think we have a right to expect it to work properly.

Its all well and good for others then to sit back and say "The modders will fix it." Well yes Im sure they will and I have lots of faith in them... but... why should they have to? Its the duty of ubisoft and the developers to make sure the game is fixed.

I was about when the begfest for 1.3 began. I refused outright then to take part in that, my attitude is, I won't beg for anything, and I sure as hell won't beg for something I am actually entitled to have. When we first purchased SH4, we were sold a deffective product. As I say, you wouldn't take it from a toaster, a TV, a washing machine, anything... so why sit back and take it from this?

[Schultzy]

Originally Posted by Penelope_Grey

Its all well and good for others then to sit back and say "The modders will fix it."

why should they have to?

I refused outright then to take part

my attitude is, I won't beg for anything, I sure as hell won't beg for something I am actually entitled to have.

why sit back and take it from this?

So in short you think we shouldn't beg the developers to do something that they're not obligated to do and they wont do now that they have our money, not that you would do that anyway and besides there are modders around who'll fix it, not that you would if you were them. Clear as mud, thanks.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Penelope_Grey

I think Ubisoft and the game developers are obliged to deliver more patches to us. For one thing, you wouldn't put up with a toaster that kept ejecting the toast before it was ready, you'd take it back to the shop with the recipt and demand a refund, or to have it fixed. Since we all spent good money on this game I think we have a right to expect it to work properly.

Its all well and good for others then to sit back and say "The modders will fix it." Well yes Im sure they will and I have lots of faith in them... but... why should they have to? Its the duty of ubisoft and the developers to make sure the game is fixed.

You're missing a very important distinction here. The development team has stated on these very forums that they "wanted to implement this feature, they wanted to fix this issue, they wanted to put more work into X, etc, they'd like to fix this still-existing problem"

They cannot do any of that, as much as they want to, without the blessing of Ubisoft. They can't release another patch without corporate signing off on it.

Place the blame where it belongs.

[Woof1701]

Unfortunately in the past ten years I owned no complex game or simulation that I would have pronounced completely finished. It's true that software companies nowadays often tend to publish a game before it's finished. Sad truth, but the next problem is forums like this one. Don't misunderstand me. I love this forum and what it has done for Silent Hunter 2-4, but it also means that since everyone finds different things not to his taste and complains about it here, many problems are being exaggerated and some are just being created. In fact I've read about problems in game forums that I never would have even thought about and I've seen perfectly playable games flamed by people who just had nothing better to do.
I'm out on a limb here. I don't say that SH4 is perfect the way it is now, and I wouldn't dare since I don't even own it. But since it seems playable and enjoyable to many people with the newest patch and it seems stable as well. That's much more that I could say about SH3 1.4b. So why blame the devs just because it doesn't meet everyones requirements and there are things that could be better? NO sim will ever satisfy everyone and you can always make something better. But leave that to the modders.

[TDK1044]

The reality is that it's cheaper to pay a Dev team for 11 months work, and then pay a much smaller Dev team to patch the game, than it is to pay the full Dev team for the 18 months that they should have been given in the first place to build this game.

That's the way accountants think. Sad but true.

[PepsiCan]

Hi

Let me clarify why I started this thread.

1) Patch 1.3 does make the game very playable. But that nevertheless leaves some bugs still out there (see the start of the thread).

2) Great that people have faith in the modders, but what about all those people who bought the game and don't know anything about Subsim and the modding community? I myself, didn't find out what a mod was until I bought SH4 and by accident stumbled over the subsim website. In the mean time I have now found out that I own at least three other games with a modding community. So, for those people who don't know what modding is, a patch is the only way they'll get hold of a fix for a problem.

3) I didn't want to start a discussion about whether we need a new patch or not. What I was after was a response from Ubisoft or someone close to them. I know that some Ubi devs have stated in subsim that it is by no means certain 1.3 is the last patch, so I wanted to see if there is a way we can support their case.

Edit: And my heart felt apologies to Ducimus for trying to get a fourth patch ;-)

[TDK1044]

Originally Posted by PepsiCan

I didn't want to start a discussion about whether we need a new patch or not. What I was after was a response from Ubisoft or someone close to them. I know that some Ubi devs have stated in subsim that it is by no means certain 1.3 is the last patch, so I wanted to see if there is a way we can support their case.

I think the Devs will assess the need for a patch 1.4, knowing that their bosses will only authorize such a patch for critical issues and not 'wish list' issues.

My own view is that patch 1.4 would be nice in order to mop up a few outstanding issues, but that this game is now very playable and enjoyable patched to 1.3 and modded to taste.

I'm now more interested in the bigger issue of the Silent Hunter franchise. I truly hope that SH4 is selling well and that Ubisoft are actively considering SH5.

[Penelope_Grey]

Originally Posted by Schultzy

So in short you think we shouldn't beg the developers to do something that they're not obligated to do and they wont do now that they have our money, not that you would do that anyway and besides there are modders around who'll fix it, not that you would if you were them. Clear as mud, thanks.

Your very welcome... but...

First up, no, I don't think we should beg. The game was not up to par, millions of copies of a below par game are sold, if the companies behind SH4 thought anything of their customers they would make a concerned effort to fix it without the need of said customers to beg. Yet that is what it took for patch 1.3, lots of fans pleading for a patch like dogs begging for a treat.

Secondly, don't try to teach your granny to suck eggs... I never said modders shouldn't fix the game, I said with regards to modders fixing the game - "yes Im sure they will (fix the game that is) and I have lots of faith in them... but... why should they have to? Its the duty of ubisoft and the developers to make sure the game is fixed."

And I am not going to budge on that fact. SH3 was the same it took 4 patches to put it right, but at least the four patches came out to get it up to par. SH4 needs to be treated the same.

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

You're missing a very important distinction here. The development team has stated on these very forums that they "wanted to implement this feature, they wanted to fix this issue, they wanted to put more work into X, etc, they'd like to fix this still-existing problem"

They cannot do any of that, as much as they want to, without the blessing of Ubisoft. They can't release another patch without corporate signing off on it.

Place the blame where it belongs.

If I were to place the game where it belongs, I would place it with myself first and foremost for being silly enough to talk my brother into a buying a copy for us even though he said wait. At the time I had no job and was skint, but just getting well into SH3 so I thought, it would be cool to have SH4.

You say place the blame where it belongs... Well frankly I don't give a monkeys who is at fault, be it ubisoft or the developers or whether its six of one and half a dozen of the other... the end result is the same I (and others) am sat with a game that is not up to scratch, yet it is very playable at present have to admit.

I just want to be 100% clear on one thing, I respect and admire the efforts of the modders and what they do, without them, SH3 and 4 would be quite dire all things considered. But I don't think its fair that they are the ones the community leans on to get all the game issues fixed (immaterial of if they mind or not). That is my point. Myself and others paid for a product that is effectively, deffective in a lot of respects. There should be as many patches as it takes to get it fixed, in the long run it makes good business sense for them concerned if they show loyalty to their customers, stands to reasons their customers will show loyalty to them.