Cold-War Era SH5

[GOZO]

Well with a war that never came it could be a challenge with a dynamic imagined campaign based on the Soviet Unions ambitions during these days.

Middle East, Korea, etc etc.

Why not! Thinking caps ON.

OB

[Javelin]

Originally Posted by The General

Anybody's who's played Red Storm Rising on the C64 knows the potential of such a sim. Trust me, it's gonna be awesome!

I still believe Red Storm Rising is one of the finest computer games ever. I always hoped that someone would bring it back. just think how great it could updated on todays machines, not just eye candy as they did with CAW.

[The General]

Originally Posted by Javelin

I still believe Red Storm Rising is one of the finest computer games ever. I always hoped that someone would bring it back. just think how great it could updated on todays machines, not just eye candy as they did with CAW.

Amen to that Brother!

[oscar19681]

I would love to see some modern subs with the current engine. I do have some interest in DW but the grafics really dont apeal to me that much and the lack of a 3-d interieur holds me from buying it.

[StkNRdr]

SH5?? I don't think I can get on my knree again to UBI to fix another game that will be messed up out of the box.

[Trout]

Cold war yes, but only in the time period before wire guided torps and sensors so good that you never need to use a periscope.

I dont want to be glued to a sensor screen.....

[Trout]

Tater is correct.

However, if the game were set in (lets say) 1955-60 in the Pacific, then it could basically be a mod of SH4.

1) Replace the Japanese ships and planes with Russian/chinese ones
2) Diesel subs only, but with snorkels, much longer battery life, and deep diving capability (hmmm....maybe you could earn a nuke sub if you wanted?)
3) More accurate sonar and the ability to do TMA underwater
4) Combat against enemy subs under the ice pack (if you want those missions)

Come to think of it, you can ALMOST play SH3 this way with the most advanced german sub.

There would be a large amount of new art work required, but not much coding. Properly marketed it could be a fun expansion pack that makes sombody $$$

Trout

Originally Posted by tater

I see the graphic issue immediately. A ww2 sub visually tracked and fired on the target most of the time. Watches were stood on deck, on the surface a fair chucnk of each day. Ships were observed to have been sunk with Mark 1 eyeballs. Small craft were attacked with guns.

A cold war sim puts you underwater. The firing solutions are gathered passively, no eyeballes except looking at a CRT. Surface watches? Putting in to port. Kills? Not observed, the proper data gathered.

Unless you play with all kinds of externals on all the time in a 3d person view the pretty view would be entirely inside the boat.

tater

[SilentOtto]

My thoughts are that Ubisoft or any other company who wants to win this niche battle, should do a solid, stable, physically accurate and easily modifiable platform, with the whole world mapped (some zones in more detail than others...) so that later, the company (or the community) could develop expansions to play different theaters with different boats and objectives. Firms probably will never be too happy with the sales for hardcore subsims, but maybe this way they could make a base framework with everything more pluggable than it is now. Anyway it's a matter of personal taste, experience and opinion which theaters you prefer. And as for me, I simply don't care about almost any other theaters than wwii, and most if we are talking about sub sims. My war history library (about 100 books, 25 about subs) is all wwii related. I've been reading about that for 25 years. So I would never be a customer for a cold war sub sim, or nukes or anything like that. But I would surely buy a new subsim with those premises I mentioned, and every expansion which was wwii related, even if they were expensive. I am getting tired of buying messy game upgrades like shiv was for shiii... If shiii had been designed with modularity in mind, ubi or anyone else could mod whatever is not right in the original models, and new theaters would just be a matter of research and work. Beacuse talking about historic theaters, there are many flavours... What about a b.c. ambiented, greek history wooden sub sim to sink the persian ships like they tried to do?

[Snakeeyes]

I want it but guys... Cold War is old news. It may be MY favorite time for military sims but lets face it, it's AMAZING SHIV was produced in an era of pinhead teenagers and their shoot-em-up consoles. Take what you can get. I think SHIV will be IT for a long time. Hell... SHIV may just be the last good sub sim to come out until another graphics revolution.

The bottom line is that the vast majority of young buyers don't care about that era or their lib parents won't TEACH them about it.


Be a good student of history and not forget about the cold warriors game developers!

[senecalalbrecht]

Here's my thoughts:

just like folks playing D&D or the 40,000 AD battles, I'd stay away from Cold War only because its all hypothetical.

Here's what I"d want:

An all-encompassing SH-5 would focus on
-Atlantic theater
-command either a U-Boat, an Allied Destroyer or an Allied Aircraft patrol.
or conversely
-create a new sim modelled on IL-2 called "Air War over the Atlantic"
-Think about how much fun it would be:
1) fly a Condor or HE-111 and attack Convoy PQ-17 on the way to murmansk
2) command a Beaufighter or Mosquito and go head to with some of the Ju-188s of KG 40 over Biscay or vice-versa
3) command a Liberator and seek out a Type IX-D with your radar and then drop depth charges amidst a barrage of flak from its 20mms.
or
1) do all the things you could do in DC but do it better.
(DC got almost hardly any play and needs to be relaunched in some form.)

That's my thoughts.

-Karl Albrecht
Commander, U-111
currently on patrol in mid-Atlantic, March 1943, Atlantik Kampaign, Mission 18

[NightCrawler-SimHQ]

As probably other people have already stated, I cannot possibly see Silent Hunter moving away from World War II. Why do I say that? because that is the only era where the submarine was actually utilized in battle on the high seas for several years. There is absolutely no other timeframe in OUR history where the submarine had anywhere near the combat or known naval skermishes. After WWII, the submarine moved to a more "deterrent" factor and up until the "cold war" they were vertually unknown until the conception of the Trident missile.

So to move the Silent Hunter 5 series up to the "cold war" era, would mean that the developers would have to invent or fictionize a WWIII, or treat us with something on the line of what Jane's 688i Hunter/Killer gave us. Basically a never ending tale of hide/seek with the Russians, Chinese, Iranians, or whoever the developers invent for us to combat with.

But since the SH series has somewhat been based on historical data and feel, I cannot see the series go away from WWII. And I know they have accomplished both sides in this game, except as a Japanese Submariner!

[Redwine]

Silent Hunter is a WW2 saga... i think so will be a big mistake to make a nuke SH V.

[swifty]

It seems like most everyone relates DW to a CW sim but it is more of a modern world sim. I would like to see a 1950 - 1970 Cold War Sim. Being realistic I don't see it being like a WWII where 90% of the game is search and destroy. The the game could still be very rewarding and filled with CIA espionage. In a campaign a goal would be to prevent a nuclear war or become a what if and fight it out. Here are some mission I see could be rewarding.

1. Transit to Russian/US ports and shadow and identify track boomers.
2. Support the Cuban missile blockade.
3. Tap telephone lines (transatlantic and line in Russian ports.)
4. Support conflicts N. Korea, Vietnam, Falklands.
5. Test new subs, take the Nautilus on her maiden voyage, first trip to N. Pole.
6. Evade russian/US fast attack subs in boomer.
7. Launch/test nuclear missile.
8. Support US space program.
9. Command K-19, USS Scorpion and bring sailors home after disaster.
10. Track and shadow US CVG.
11. Recover lost US bombs, (Men of Honor)

[Rockin Robbins]

A submarine is meant to hunt and destroy targets. Since none of that took place in the cold war, and because the time period is too recent for animosity to have dissipated, I believe a cold war Silent Hunter would be a yawner. I also think that the state of submarine simulation as modeled is pretty close to the highest possible given the current state of hardware. So...

On to something completely different! We could go to WWI, but WWII had such variety of submarines and nations with submarines. I would model both German and American subs. The English, French and Japanese had subs that were very interesting as well. But all that would duplicate present efforts, so lets load up a curve-ball (apologies to non-Americans for that obscure metaphor).

I would propose an on-line game with cooperatively crewed boats, one player per crewmember (or one player per compartment in some cases like torpedo rooms). Unfilled slots would have to be able to be manned by AI NPC's (non-player characters). Wolfpacks could be modeled with multiple cooperating boats and the targets could also be manned by players too if they wanted to do some really fancy footwork. This game would incorporate both Atlantic and Pacific theaters, or could be sold as two separate games, I'll buy 'em both. It really should use the British, French and Japanese subs too.

I think this is the idea that will sell enough units to finance the next generation of submarine simulations. My bill will be in the mail. I'll accept free games as payment.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

I would propose an on-line game with cooperatively crewed boats, one player per crewmember (or one player per compartment in some cases like torpedo rooms). Unfilled slots would have to be able to be manned by AI NPC's (non-player characters). Wolfpacks could be modeled with multiple cooperating boats and the targets could also be manned by players too if they wanted to do some really fancy footwork. This game would incorporate both Atlantic and Pacific theaters, or could be sold as two separate games, I'll buy 'em both. It really should use the British, French and Japanese subs too.

Time Compression. I don't want to stare at the screen for an hour while someone plots an intercept or an approach.