Returning skipper - Is SH3 still the best SH?

After playing Cold Waters I needed some Silent Hunter realism but I seem to have misplaced my old game boxes at some point


Is SH3 still the go to sub game if one wants lots of high quality mods and realism or have any of the other sub-sim games been modded to become "good enough" in you opinion? In any case could a kind soul link me to what specific version I should buy (steam link, through Subsim, whatever is best and possible) to get the most out of the game and the bonus mods that I of course will also donate to get access to?

Thanks!

[THEBERBSTER]

A Warm Welcome Back To The Subsim Community > Dahoon
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Thanks THEBERBSTER


I know this is asking an opinion, since everyone likes different games, but I'm guessing SH3 is still the king... or has another SH come a long way or maybe even *gasp* surpassed SH3?

Someone please tell me what to throw my money at and if I should buy Steam or non-steam for best mod compatibility


EDIT: It just dawned on me that these games aren't full price any more. I don't know what I was thinking. I'll just buy more than one. So now the only question is steam or non-steam?

[propbeanie]

If it's an opinion you want, well... but I prefer SH4, the US Fleet Boat side in the Pacific, but you can play UBoats in it too. There are all sorts of mods available for it, including a few for the UBoat side. It's got better graphics than SH3, and isn't as broken "out-of-the-box" as SH5, though there are some really cool things in SH5 (Uboats only). Wolves of Steel and Sober's Bonus Mod are the only two ways to go in SH5 (my opinion), though as I always joke, I can't get up and down the ladders in the sub... SH3 (Uboats only, basically) has the broadest selection of mods, and the most mods that work together. Really nice stuff in GWX, LSH & WAC...

You could probably do some research on YouTube and watch some of the videos for each, and get an idea of what you like visually in them, and browse around here in the respective SH forums for what you like in game play. Are you more of an auto targeting kind of person for the torpedoes, or manual targeting? Do you like being able to hit shortcut keys for instantaneous crew response, or do you want to have to "speak" to a specific individual to get something done on your boat?

I understand completely about misplacing the game disks. I couldn't find my old SH3 nor my original SH4, and purchased other copies myself. Steam has versions of them available, but preparing a Steam version for modding can be bothersome, especially SH5. Amazon has these in the US download store (SubSim Store links)

Silent Hunter III
Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific - Gold Edition
Silent Hunter 5: Battle for the Atlantic - Gold Edition

There are, of course, other sites that offer all three, including some with the DVD disk, though they are definitely getting difficult to find.

[XenonSurf]

For the Atlantic Battlefield (german U-Boote), IMO you basically have the choice between:

- SH5 + TWoS (state of the art grafics and all stock bugs corrected, best IMO because no need to mess around with lots of mods)
- SH3 + GWX3.0 ; SH3 + WAC5.01 ; SH3 + LSH3-2015 (all megamods after stock game, and chose a good Widescreen GUI suited for you).

For Pacific Battlefield you should play SH4.

Cheers,

Thanks for the help guys

I didn't really listen and got the Steam versions of all of them instead of Amazon. I hope I can make the mods work without too much of a hassle. I just didn't want to end up with missing discs...again

[propbeanie]

In which case, you'll definitely want to read through the links that THEBERBSTER has above in his post. He helps walk you through the process. SH3 is easiest to deal with from Steam, followed by SH4. SH5, you have to do some hoop jumping, but you barely get off the floor for it. One thing to note with SH4 from Steam is that you ~have~ to purchase the UBoat Missions separately. What you get when you buy SH4 from them is v1.3, and you cannot apply a v1.4 update to it (Steam security). Most mods are made for v1.5, UBoat Missions... As for "King" of the series, going by the mods, SHIII is... it's a gorilla.

[XenonSurf]

Yes, I echo this , I don't know much about SH4 but by reading the stickies and mod descriptions, the situation is so that without patching to 1.4 (at least) you don't have a decent stock game, and Steam AFAIK doesn't have the U-Boot expansion. (1.5)

Also generally speaking, I would never chose the Steam platform for complex games to mod, you just don't have any freedom there as I very recently said in another topic (Cold Waters; Steam vs. GOG). Simple example is that you cannot just use an external patch with Steam versions of games. If Steam doesn't have the right game versions you are stucked with an uncomplete - and in some cases even unplayable game, for them all what matters is that you can 'start' a game, after that they pretty don't care.

Normally I use GOG.com but they don't sell Silent Hunter as far as I could tell. The Steam pack does include "Silent Hunter Wolves of the Pacific U-Boat Missions" beside SH3, SH4 and SH5. I'll try to follow the guides but if I give up I'll go look for some boxed versions. We'll see

[propbeanie]

You'll do OK with the Steam version, it just takes a little more research and effort is all. Follow THEBERBSTER's links. Do not install any of the games in the Program Files directories. Manage the Steam Library first, and edit the path to not include "Program Files" or "Program Files (x86)" (as the case may be). Steam itself will have a folder in one of the Program Files folders, but the games have to be in a folder elsewhere, as previously mentioned. Here's a screenshot of the Library from one of my other posts:



which came from here:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...97#post2534397

which is from an older post...

[XenonSurf]

Oh, I forgot to mention one aspect that makes SH3 still the prime game:

In SH5 the sub interiors are awesome but this comes to a high price: only Type VII u-boats are in the game AFAIK, however a modder is just working on a Type IX one, however in SH3 all subs are modelled and playable already from the stock game (incluse the Type XXI).

Yikes! I just tried SH5 again, made the Steam conversion, installed a lot of mods and patches (some real great stuff have been made I must say!) but playing it just feels so.... arcadeish. Some mods can make it real hard but the overall feel just doesn't do it for me at all

[XenonSurf]

Originally Posted by Dahoon

Yikes! I just tried SH5 again, made the Steam conversion, installed a lot of mods and patches (some real great stuff have been made I must say!) but playing it just feels so.... arcadeish. Some mods can make it real hard but the overall feel just doesn't do it for me at all

If you are looking for good realism, good grafics, then I would play

SH3+GWX3.0 which is very stable and proofed for all lower and more powerful computer systems alike, plus excellent documentation.
Has Atlantic, Mediteranean, Black Sea, Africa, Indian Ocean (+ Indonesia), Pacific (Philippines, Japan), Australia

SH3+WAC5.01 which is worked on currently with even better grafics, better campaign (the core of the mod), top outside environment in ports, water quality etc. but you need a pretty good computer system (3ghz+ processor, 4GB+ RAM, a decent GPU). Here also excellent documentation about real operations in WW2 and which are all in the mod.
Has Atlantic, Mediteranian, Baltic (Black Sea?).

[Eichhörnchen]

This has been really informative and useful... thanks to Beaniebaby and XenonSurf's helpful answers... and shows Subsim at its very best

It needs to go into Subsim Awards For 2018 just as soon as it's out there

[hauangua]

Not forget NYGM if you want the ultimate in gameplay realism(..your mission? Survive!!
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=139231

" NYGM Tonnage War Mod - More than a mod: it's an experience!