first impressions

[kstanb]

I just bought the game and these are my 1st impressions after playing the tutorial and one mission


- Game is a bit on the light side of simulation compared to SH; that said it is more detailed in some administrative aspects, like for example you have to manually recharge compressed air or change the lights to red at nightime


- It has some interesting crew management aspects, but as it is now, very unrealistic. Main issue is crew morale after contact with the enemy, basically you enter some form of "alert" status that depletes your morale, and there is very little you can do to avoid it. And I am not talking about getting depth charged or rammed; I am talking about finding 3 unarmed freighters. So as long as I am in contact, morale will go down, even after sinking the ships, the survivor's dinghies maintained this alarm and there is no way to turn it off, so eventually some sailors would started panicking, hurting themselves, etc just while I am trying to sink them.. Hopefully they will fix it, because as it is now, it is laughable


- Interface is good, you learn a bit about how submarines work by managing it, this is a good point


- Game mechanics are simple compared to SH; you have automatic map update, full automatic torpedo solutions, but I think you can calculate manually if you wish


- Missions are, in addition to the standard "patrol here", a bit of what you would expect from Hollywood, like the shipwreck searchs


- Overall I recommend it because it is cheap right now, and it has potential once it is finished and maybe modded

[skin-nl]

Originally Posted by kstanb

- It has some interesting crew management aspects, but as it is now, very unrealistic. Main issue is crew morale after contact with the enemy, basically you enter some form of "alert" status that depletes your morale, and there is very little you can do to avoid it. And I am not talking about getting depth charged or rammed; I am talking about finding 3 unarmed freighters. So as long as I am in contact, morale will go down, even after sinking the ships, the survivor's dinghies maintained this alarm and there is no way to turn it off, so eventually some sailors would started panicking, hurting themselves, etc just while I am trying to sink them.. Hopefully they will fix it, because as it is now, it is laughable

I agree
In real life morale went up when they found a target.

[kstanb]

yes, days of patrolling without any result was a big morale problem

I have read USN submarine that were returning "empty handed" would deck-gun bombard Japanese held islands so that sailors would think they achieved something


Also fun to have food as morale boost; I mean yes, Uboats carried the very best food available in Germany, but this came with a catch: no freezer space to store fresh food meant that after a week or so their meals were a mix of canned, pickled and salted stuff. Uboat also lacked bread-making ovens, which was a significant morale boost in USN fleet boats

[Hjalfnar]

You have a "bounty hunt" positive boost on discipline when you engage, but over time your get more negative modifiers the longer the engagement goes on. With the new patches you get discipline back for torpedo hits and sinkings.

[Smss]

Originally Posted by kstanb

you have to manually recharge compressed air or change the lights to red at nightime

I would be ok with this if they had EVERY switch in the sub, no exceptions, like a kind of Wolfpack on steroids. But to force you to do some micromanagement of a few arbitrarily chosen systems doesn't enhance the immersion.

The interior model is perfect, it makes SH5 look like a C grade game from 2004. I wish they would focus on a modding interface and let us make our own game with their 3d system. We could make a SH serious sim with their 3d. Or Wolfpack with all the compartments.

They should focus on their excellent graphics skills and make sequels with other ship types and let modders worry about the sim part.

[Faamecanic]

Originally Posted by skin-nl

I agree
In real life morale went up when they found a target.

Totally agree...this is my only real complaint so far about this game. but it is in early release...so hopefully this will get adjusted.