Initial Thoughts from a Newbie

[Lonecrow]

It has been yeaars since I played a sub sim and after seeing the whole concept of walking around and actually commanding the ship really intrigued me. I used to be a die hard flight simulation enthusiast with the full HOTAS setup but eventually go out of it. I missed a simuation so I decided to go for this. I did play Aces of the Deep

This brings back memories.. look at those graphics!!

So my initial thoughts were - this game takes fricken forever to load! The manual was a joke and useless. I have no idea what the hell I'm doing. But it looks great! I mean it runs perfectly on my GeForce 250 in high rez. But looks will only get you so far.

Sort of like meeting and dating chick that looks really really smoking hot and then you are lucky enough to date her, get her in the sack and she's so horrible that is spoils the fact she's hot. Not to mention you find out she can't cook or clean!! She's just a trophy to show everyone.

So far that was my initial impression of the game.


Some of the things I had to learn by reading through the forums here and some questions are still unanswered. I shall post them

Is there ANY WAY to get the deck gun or flak gun to be fired by anyone else other than the captain? Why do I have to do it? I mean I like the option of doing it but I'd rather have someone else. Am I missing something? I'd like to see the gunner get more and more accurate as I assign them points etc.

Firing underwater is a joke as well. The water in high waves we shouldn't be allowed on the deck at all we'd be swept away. It shouldn't even allow you to man the deck gun/flak gun at all if the waves are too high.

Never been able to figure out how to use the TDC for the aft torpedo, not even sure if it works or I'm going something wrong. It always shows it trying to go out the front.

It would be nice if it would somehow tell you when you were trying to shoot something that would be out of range as a reminder to us newbies.

Some of us are not history buffs but also don't want it to be point and shoot, want it to be as realistic as possible but there has to be some sort of aid tools to help you learn to master torpedoes and how to do it. I would have never figured it out without the help of some posts here.

Ships you can damage them heavily and they don't sink at all after hours. I understand it seems to show the damage where you hit so if you hit below the water it should be flooding. I know they could close off those compartments and keep it afloat etc.. But some ships would be smart enough or not damaged enough to pull that off. I know some warships were hit by Japanese dive bombers were on fire and managed to limp to port.

Using the deck gun - does it even matter WHERE you hit it? Can you aim for specific points that will do more damage? Will HE do more than AP? If I aim to hit below the water will it help the flooding along?

Seeing the guys on deck standing around like they are having a smoke makes me laugh too. If they were scrambling around jumping overboard and maybe throw some lifeboats out there as well it woulda helped add to the realism.

For the sounds - if you were in the middle of a convoy of 6 undefended merchants that I just sunk pretty much with the deck gun, you wouldn't hear just "water" splashing on the bow. You'd be hearing screams of men in the water, shouting and all that. It is missing that whole element of knowing you just sent a lot of men to their graves and it is well known you could hear them screaming swearing etc..

Alot of it is pretty dang cool though I admit I am hooked for now, but I can see myself get pretty bored soon.

But there is nothing more exciting than bumping into a euro liner that is 80000tons heading at 22kts and you can't catch up in time so you surface to try and close the gap, it sees you and kicks it up to 29kts and gets away. Damn how exciting .. like a BIG FAT juicy target .. the temptation of tartarus...

I'll post more newb type observations as I get them