rickidoo
03-03-2010, 05:11 PM
I'm a long time SH fan. As I played SHV for several hours today, I came to the following conclusions about this product.
1. UBI clearly wants to expand the series from the small niche of hard core simmers into the younger crowd. Their decision to create a sleek, small and definitely non-WWIIish interface for basic sub commands (like speed and depth) are good examples of this. They could have saved money by reusing the older interface. Clearly they had 14 year olds in mind. To a 14 year old, WWII is a million years ago. I can't say I blame UBI for trying to attract a new demographic.
2. UBI also successfully removed some of the less desirable features. Crew fatigue management was a ridiculous burden in SHIII.
3. They also added what I thought were nice enhancements. For example, they have "travel mode" which allows you to quickly cover large distances in compressed time without being set back to time compression 1 every time a message was received. (there are some bugs in Travel mode, but they hopefully will be fixed.)
4. So clearly, a lot of thought went into this product.
5. On the other hand, UBI completely missed the boat and created a massive fobar, in my opinion, with the TDC (Torpedo Data Computer). In their attempt to simplify it, they created a system that just plan feels wrong. From the "Forward Attack Radar" chart, to the line of wrapping text when the TDC yields its results, or the series of numbers that one must align like some sort of a high school graphing exercise, it brings no sense of reality and no sense of real accomplishment. It's a real downer for me.
6. Another major fobar, so far as I can see, is lack of direct controls for the various functions. If you don't have the game yet, here's the deal. Some functions, like speed and depth, you can control easily. But for many, many others, there are no keyboard commands and one must walk through the sub to issue orders or use functions. For example, if I want to get a radar report... damn if I know how to do it remotely. Ditto sonar. Perhaps when the other bugs are fixed the need to exercise direct control will go away. I hope.
7. Speaking of bugs and issues, the lack of ability to get the depth under keel is also a fobar of major proportions. They do put a small icon warning you that your boat is dangerously close to the bottom... but its not enough time to do anything about it when you are crash diving.
On the bright side, I can see that if they can work out the bugs, and perhaps mod the game so we have a choice to use a little more realistic TDC, SH5 has the potential to expand the legions of submarine fans world wide - including all those 14 year olds.
Rick
1. UBI clearly wants to expand the series from the small niche of hard core simmers into the younger crowd. Their decision to create a sleek, small and definitely non-WWIIish interface for basic sub commands (like speed and depth) are good examples of this. They could have saved money by reusing the older interface. Clearly they had 14 year olds in mind. To a 14 year old, WWII is a million years ago. I can't say I blame UBI for trying to attract a new demographic.
2. UBI also successfully removed some of the less desirable features. Crew fatigue management was a ridiculous burden in SHIII.
3. They also added what I thought were nice enhancements. For example, they have "travel mode" which allows you to quickly cover large distances in compressed time without being set back to time compression 1 every time a message was received. (there are some bugs in Travel mode, but they hopefully will be fixed.)
4. So clearly, a lot of thought went into this product.
5. On the other hand, UBI completely missed the boat and created a massive fobar, in my opinion, with the TDC (Torpedo Data Computer). In their attempt to simplify it, they created a system that just plan feels wrong. From the "Forward Attack Radar" chart, to the line of wrapping text when the TDC yields its results, or the series of numbers that one must align like some sort of a high school graphing exercise, it brings no sense of reality and no sense of real accomplishment. It's a real downer for me.
6. Another major fobar, so far as I can see, is lack of direct controls for the various functions. If you don't have the game yet, here's the deal. Some functions, like speed and depth, you can control easily. But for many, many others, there are no keyboard commands and one must walk through the sub to issue orders or use functions. For example, if I want to get a radar report... damn if I know how to do it remotely. Ditto sonar. Perhaps when the other bugs are fixed the need to exercise direct control will go away. I hope.
7. Speaking of bugs and issues, the lack of ability to get the depth under keel is also a fobar of major proportions. They do put a small icon warning you that your boat is dangerously close to the bottom... but its not enough time to do anything about it when you are crash diving.
On the bright side, I can see that if they can work out the bugs, and perhaps mod the game so we have a choice to use a little more realistic TDC, SH5 has the potential to expand the legions of submarine fans world wide - including all those 14 year olds.
Rick