First impression comments and questions

hmatthias · 03-21-07, 08:15 AM

So I finally got to play last night, after staring at the box for what seemed like eternity waiting for the kids and the wife to go to bed, and here are some first impressions, along with some questions.

1) Started with some of the sub school missions. I kept missing the stupid cruiser in the torpedo mission, because I could not figure out the new TDC. Are you supposed to click the white/red light on the position keeper before you input the data?

2) I really like the environment, and even running on "medium" settings, it was pretty emmersive. However, I had to turn off the event camera, because it was causing single frame rate drops for some reason. Odd, since I assume it is using the same graphic settings. Not a showstopper though. Stadiumeter(sp) did not cause any problems or CTD. Just incompetence on my part on getting it to work. Does the bottom ship have to rest on the line of the periscope, like in SH3? Maybe somebody with more knowledge could post a FAQ on setting up this stuff.

3)Found small bug on map. Was using the 3.15 minute rule to get speed. Marked target, clicked on the stopwatch, and lost the pencil tool. Had to click to another station and click back to the map to get it back. Not a "critical game breaking bug"

, but annoying none the less.

3) Tried out a patrol, Asiatic Fleet in Porpoise class, 1941. WOW. I really liked the radio messages telling you about the war, and the campaign video at the beginning was cool as it explained strategic strategy. Was ordered to the Celebes sea. Seemed much more emmersive then "patrol grid AN43 for 24 hours" (always hated that, seemed 'gamey'). Headed out to sea, admiring the ships in Manilla harbor. Love the moving crew on the decks. Did a "General Quarters" drill when out of the harbor, along with a crash dive. Worked great. Boat surfaces fast, was this normal for US subs?

4) Heading into Celebes sea, TC dropped to 4X, and grinding noise. OOPS! I hit an island! Should have zoomed the map more when setting my course, I guess. Damage taken, but was being repaired at a realistic rate by my crew. Did a dive for sonar a couple hours after the grounding, could not maintain depth, and died. Not sure if that was a bug or from damage from grounding. I laughed it off as "learning curve" and tried another career.

5)Choose a porpoise class boat out of Pearl. Ordered to Honshu for patrol. First went to Midway to refuel. Don't like how you can just click "refit" when near Midway and you magically refuel without having to dock. One for the modders, I guess. I can pretend next time, no biggie. Made my way to Honshu, but never got there as it was getting late and I had to go to work the next day. Did notice the time compression at high levels worked great, and dropped me right back to 1X when a radio message came through. Seems to handle that well.

6)Tried single mission Midway. CDT when event camera showed a plane being shot down. I think my sytem can't handle the event camera. I'll leave it off for now.

7)Back to the torpedo school thing. Finally hit the cruiser with 2 torps. it listed and stopped, but did not sink. Couldn't hit it after that, my torps kept doing odd things, because I don't know how to use the TDC.

Overall, I am impressed. Yes, there are some bugs. The voices are too soft on my system, for one thing, and don't say much. Other bugs I mentioned above. None of them are show-stoppers though, and I can't wait to play again when life gives me the time. I actually felt a bit patriotic sailing out of Pearl for my first war patrol, which was odd, as a game never made me feel that way. Helped that there were several ships around, all waving the stars and stripes. My suggeston is, play it now, get used to some of the quirks (some bugs and some WAD), and wait for some mods that will make the game more emmersive. Should be a wild ride!!!

Onkel Neal · 03-21-07, 08:16 AM

Well done.

Mikkow · 03-21-07, 08:18 AM

Thanks for the impressions. Most feedback has been focused on malfunctions, so it's nice to get some idea of how it feels and all the new features (overlooking the current flaws).

Can't wait for patches! UBI surely wouldn't shoot themselves in the foot.

Seth8530 · 03-21-07, 08:22 AM

Finaly a change from all the whining

hmatthias · 03-21-07, 08:24 AM

Thanks, all. I was looking for a post like this all day yesterday, as I just wanted to know how the game "felt", not just "the stadiometer causes my game to crash", and "I can't use AA". While the game is nowhere near perfect, it is fun, and makes me look forward to playing it when I get more time. If only I can figure out the crazy American TDC...

HannesGM · 03-21-07, 09:05 AM

I skipped training and handbook and just threw myself into a patrol in 1941 our of Manila - many things fell into place all at once. I must say I'm impressed with the control interface - it's far simpler and easier to use than in SHIII.

And of course the fact that time acceleration won't get as jumpy as it did in SHIII when coming near convoys or coast (at least not that I noticed).

And, lastly, I'm positively surprised how smooth the game runs, even on a 1.8GhZ AMD64 with 1GB of RAM and an X800XL - no problems at all with medium settings.

The bugs are gonna be worked out soon enough

Only gripe I've got is that I really, really would love to play as a Japanese sub commander *Sigh*

AVGWarhawk · 03-21-07, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HannesGM

I skipped training and handbook and just threw myself into a patrol in 1941 our of Manila - many things fell into place all at once. I must say I'm impressed with the control interface - it's far simpler and easier to use than in SHIII.

And of course the fact that time acceleration won't get as jumpy as it did in SHIII when coming near convoys or coast (at least not that I noticed).

And, lastly, I'm positively surprised how smooth the game runs, even on a 1.8GhZ AMD64 with 1GB of RAM and an X800XL - no problems at all with medium settings.

The bugs are gonna be worked out soon enough

Only gripe I've got is that I really, really would love to play as a Japanese sub commander *Sigh*

Interesting it runs well for you. I see some fellas with super computers that dim the lights when turned on having issues running the game. I feel better that my rig will run it because I'm just above your specs.

HannesGM · 03-21-07, 09:28 AM

I learned to disregard most of the chitchat about the game running badly on other rigs - mine hardly ever has problems even with modern games (of course it doens't run the most recent games on high settings, but I can lvie with that)

I just selected the medium setting from the game options menu, left the sound settings as they were (i do have an Realtek AC97 onboard sound card, too) and it ran just fine for me, even better than SHIII. Can't say much else about it.

Plus that I have noticed no slowdown whatsoever when closing task forces (the one I engaged consisted of 5-6 Japanese destroyers and 2 Agano class CLs) - no slowdown either with time compression when approaching, using periscope or camera to observe hits. I don't know what fps I got, but I don't bother to check that out if it's running nicely.

Of course, the graphics I got with medium settings look just as much as SHIII did. Not that I mind, being used to playing Fighting Steel....

Barkhorn1x · 03-21-07, 10:03 AM

Nice write up. It really made me want to play.

Now - MUST - GET - GAME!!!

03-21-07, 08:15 AM	#1
hmatthias Loader Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: United States Posts: 82 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	First impression comments and questions So I finally got to play last night, after staring at the box for what seemed like eternity waiting for the kids and the wife to go to bed, and here are some first impressions, along with some questions. 1) Started with some of the sub school missions. I kept missing the stupid cruiser in the torpedo mission, because I could not figure out the new TDC. Are you supposed to click the white/red light on the position keeper before you input the data? 2) I really like the environment, and even running on "medium" settings, it was pretty emmersive. However, I had to turn off the event camera, because it was causing single frame rate drops for some reason. Odd, since I assume it is using the same graphic settings. Not a showstopper though. Stadiumeter(sp) did not cause any problems or CTD. Just incompetence on my part on getting it to work. Does the bottom ship have to rest on the line of the periscope, like in SH3? Maybe somebody with more knowledge could post a FAQ on setting up this stuff. 3)Found small bug on map. Was using the 3.15 minute rule to get speed. Marked target, clicked on the stopwatch, and lost the pencil tool. Had to click to another station and click back to the map to get it back. Not a "critical game breaking bug" , but annoying none the less. 3) Tried out a patrol, Asiatic Fleet in Porpoise class, 1941. WOW. I really liked the radio messages telling you about the war, and the campaign video at the beginning was cool as it explained strategic strategy. Was ordered to the Celebes sea. Seemed much more emmersive then "patrol grid AN43 for 24 hours" (always hated that, seemed 'gamey'). Headed out to sea, admiring the ships in Manilla harbor. Love the moving crew on the decks. Did a "General Quarters" drill when out of the harbor, along with a crash dive. Worked great. Boat surfaces fast, was this normal for US subs? 4) Heading into Celebes sea, TC dropped to 4X, and grinding noise. OOPS! I hit an island! Should have zoomed the map more when setting my course, I guess. Damage taken, but was being repaired at a realistic rate by my crew. Did a dive for sonar a couple hours after the grounding, could not maintain depth, and died. Not sure if that was a bug or from damage from grounding. I laughed it off as "learning curve" and tried another career. 5)Choose a porpoise class boat out of Pearl. Ordered to Honshu for patrol. First went to Midway to refuel. Don't like how you can just click "refit" when near Midway and you magically refuel without having to dock. One for the modders, I guess. I can pretend next time, no biggie. Made my way to Honshu, but never got there as it was getting late and I had to go to work the next day. Did notice the time compression at high levels worked great, and dropped me right back to 1X when a radio message came through. Seems to handle that well. 6)Tried single mission Midway. CDT when event camera showed a plane being shot down. I think my sytem can't handle the event camera. I'll leave it off for now. 7)Back to the torpedo school thing. Finally hit the cruiser with 2 torps. it listed and stopped, but did not sink. Couldn't hit it after that, my torps kept doing odd things, because I don't know how to use the TDC. Overall, I am impressed. Yes, there are some bugs. The voices are too soft on my system, for one thing, and don't say much. Other bugs I mentioned above. None of them are show-stoppers though, and I can't wait to play again when life gives me the time. I actually felt a bit patriotic sailing out of Pearl for my first war patrol, which was odd, as a game never made me feel that way. Helped that there were several ships around, all waving the stars and stripes. My suggeston is, play it now, get used to some of the quirks (some bugs and some WAD), and wait for some mods that will make the game more emmersive. Should be a wild ride!!!

03-21-07, 08:18 AM	#3
Mikkow Gunner Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Sweden Posts: 93 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Thanks for the impressions. Most feedback has been focused on malfunctions, so it's nice to get some idea of how it feels and all the new features (overlooking the current flaws). Can't wait for patches! UBI surely wouldn't shoot themselves in the foot. __________________ Freelancing Illustrator http://mikkow.deviantart.com

03-21-07, 08:22 AM	#4
Seth8530 Captain Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Tennessee Posts: 546 Downloads: 17 Uploads: 0	Finaly a change from all the whining __________________

03-21-07, 08:16 AM	#2
Onkel Neal Born to Run Silent Join Date: Jan 1997 Location: Cougar Trap, Texas Posts: 21,385 Downloads: 541 Uploads: 224	Well done.

03-21-07, 08:24 AM	#5
hmatthias Loader Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: United States Posts: 82 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Thanks, all. I was looking for a post like this all day yesterday, as I just wanted to know how the game "felt", not just "the stadiometer causes my game to crash", and "I can't use AA". While the game is nowhere near perfect, it is fun, and makes me look forward to playing it when I get more time. If only I can figure out the crazy American TDC...

03-21-07, 09:05 AM	#6
HannesGM Watch Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 30 Downloads: 8 Uploads: 0	I skipped training and handbook and just threw myself into a patrol in 1941 our of Manila - many things fell into place all at once. I must say I'm impressed with the control interface - it's far simpler and easier to use than in SHIII. And of course the fact that time acceleration won't get as jumpy as it did in SHIII when coming near convoys or coast (at least not that I noticed). And, lastly, I'm positively surprised how smooth the game runs, even on a 1.8GhZ AMD64 with 1GB of RAM and an X800XL - no problems at all with medium settings. The bugs are gonna be worked out soon enough Only gripe I've got is that I really, really would love to play as a Japanese sub commander Sigh

03-21-07, 09:28 AM	#8
HannesGM Watch Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 30 Downloads: 8 Uploads: 0	I learned to disregard most of the chitchat about the game running badly on other rigs - mine hardly ever has problems even with modern games (of course it doens't run the most recent games on high settings, but I can lvie with that) I just selected the medium setting from the game options menu, left the sound settings as they were (i do have an Realtek AC97 onboard sound card, too) and it ran just fine for me, even better than SHIII. Can't say much else about it. Plus that I have noticed no slowdown whatsoever when closing task forces (the one I engaged consisted of 5-6 Japanese destroyers and 2 Agano class CLs) - no slowdown either with time compression when approaching, using periscope or camera to observe hits. I don't know what fps I got, but I don't bother to check that out if it's running nicely. Of course, the graphics I got with medium settings look just as much as SHIII did. Not that I mind, being used to playing Fighting Steel....

03-21-07, 10:03 AM	#9
Barkhorn1x Captain Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Davie, FL Grid DM 23 Posts: 544 Downloads: 60 Uploads: 0	Nice write up. It really made me want to play. Now - MUST - GET - GAME!!!