Sort of a "lifeless" game world really | Forums

[TalladegaHack]

Is it just me or do other people here feel there is a lack of life in this game? I wish they would have added comms with other allied ships in. I really wish they had added AI subs that could be contacted to come to your patrol zone to participate in wolfpack tatics. I sort of feel like it's Me Vs. the Japanese navy in a way. There's no sense of accomplishment at all. Maybe a successful patrol could trigger a slight change in the oddes of winning the war. Have blue represent the allies on the map and red represent the axis on the map and after each successful patrol and depending on how much tonnage you sink, a portion of the red would be taken over by the blue. Nothing significant, but a small amount to lead the player into feeling like they are contributing to the war effort.

There's rarely a chance encounter between allied warships vs. Japanese warships, so most of the time I'm all alone in the vast Pacific ocean. There's nothing to keep me oocupied on the long uneventful trips to the same old patrol zones either. It would be great if they had thrown in some form of RPG features into this sim.

It would be great to be able to walk around the sub and see crewmen cleaning their spaces, playing cards, smoking cigarettes, sleeping in bunks or writing/reading letters to and from their loved ones. It would be great to have an Officers mess where you could communicate with off-duty officers and chief petty officers about key issues onboard the sub as well. These officers and chief petty officers could inform you about the crews morale, about rations and how long they will last, about the mission, about their lives, anything!

Underway replenishment would be great as well. I wish distress signals could be passed and ships could come to your aid when you're in need. I wish these events would be interactive as well. I hate just clicking on a link and then abbra cadabra I have a full tank of fuel and 24 new torpedos onboard in less than a second.

The crew in this game is lifeless as well. Sure, there are people manning critical stations, but they don't talk or do anything else life-like. The only thing that makes this sim feel like there's any sort of life is the radio mod packs with the old commercials and music of that era. That is the only thing that makes the game feel somewhat real, but even then, the game world still feels lonely.

We need the SDK to be able to add features like this in!

[joeap]

Originally posted by TalladegaHack:
Is it just me or do other people here feel there is a lack of life in this game? I wish they would have added comms with other allied ships in. I really wish they had added AI subs that could be contacted to come to your patrol zone to participate in wolfpack tatics.

Ughh, two mistakes here, I'll leave aside the other comments for now. Subs did NOT have comms with other allied ships. They listened for messages from HQ, and sometimes sent messages but tried to keep radio silence. The USN did not develop wolfpack tactics to the same degree as the Kriegsmarine. That was also later in the war.

[catlegwest]

Welcome aboard.

"Is it just me or do other people here feel there is a lack of life in this game?"

Yeah, sometimes, sure.


"I really wish they had added AI subs that could be contacted to come to your patrol zone to participate in wolfpack tatics."

That might be cool. Later in the war there were short range VHF and even radar techniques for wolf pack communications, but this might have been a budget issue.


"I sort of feel like it's Me Vs. the Japanese navy in a way."

Welcome to the Silent Service.


"There's no sense of accomplishment at all. Maybe a successful patrol could trigger a slight change in the odds of winning the war."

I disagree. Sinking ships feels great, especially after getting in to position, evading escorts etc. I would NOT want historical dates changed based on my actions. No one sub changed the outcome of the war, not even the Tang or the Barb. I don't think for a second that I alone can end the war five months sooner, that's just not realistic.


"There's rarely a chance encounter between allied warships vs. Japanese warships, so most of the time I'm all alone in the vast Pacific ocean. There's nothing to keep me oocupied on the long uneventful trips to the same old patrol zones either."

Again, this is what it was usually like. I recommend radio mods and time compression. And beer.


"It would be great to be able to walk around the sub and see crewmen cleaning their spaces, playing cards, smoking cigarettes, sleeping in bunks or writing/reading letters to and from their loved ones. It would be great to have an Officers mess where you could communicate with off-duty officers and chief petty officers about key issues onboard the sub as well. These officers and chief petty officers could inform you about the crews morale, about rations and how long they will last, about the mission, about their lives, anything!"

Sure. Would be great, if well executed. But, I have two points: The budget/deadline problem, and how cool would that REALLY be? Firstly, that would have taken a very long time to implement. It simply was not in the budget. Don't think for a second that I would not LOVE to see the whole boat modeled, I really would. But I understand the economics and the cost of that much custom, intricate 3D work.

Also, what would a really animated crew look like, in this game? The planesmen can barely turn the wheels in front of them in a realistic maner, and that's a lot more simple than a lot of other "jobs" that animated sailors would be doing. They would probably end up looking like animatrons from the '50s, IMHO, or electric Santas at the mall, always waiving they're hands and moving they're head the same sterile, slightly disturbing way. I would at least like to see the watch crew climb up and walk to their watch stations instead of appearing and disappearing. That would be cool and relatively easy/cheap.


"Underway replenishment would be great as well."

Not realistic, especially early war. America didn't operate milk cows. Forward tenders will become available.


"I wish distress signals could be passed and ships could come to your aid when you're in need. I wish these events would be interactive as well."

That would be pretty cool once in a while.


"I hate just clicking on a link and then abbra cadabra I have a full tank of fuel and 24 new torpedos onboard in less than a second."

I have to drag each torp in to place; it's fairly tedious. I don't refit, maybe that's what you're talking about. You're not wanting to break out a sweat re-fueling your own boat and loading torps, are you? I'm the captain - I have sailors for that. I don't want to watch them do it, either, or at least, not WAIT for them to. It takes LONG ENOUGH to get on stations. I have a job (or two). (But not EVERYBODY does, I am all for options...)


"The crew in this game is lifeless as well. Sure, there are people manning critical stations, but they don't talk or do anything else life-like."

I've seen them "shoosh" each other but, yeah, the 3D character models are not all that, especially in their animated movements. It is well known that this game was rushed. Maybe that's why.


"The only thing that makes this sim feel like there's any sort of life is the radio mod packs with the old commercials and music of that era. That is the only thing that makes the game feel somewhat real, but even then, the game world still feels lonely."

Yeah. I heard an SH3 fan call it "sterile". It is what it is. I have a laundry list of changes and FIXES that I'd like to see, like more realistic radar (especially SD!), FINALLY kill the repetitive mission bug (I'm dropping off agents to Okinawa for the FIFTH time in a row...wtf?), a better (informative!!) damage screen, and a bunch of other stuff that really SHOULD have bloody well been in the budget.


"We need the SDK to be able to add features like this in!"

That would be nice, but I doubt UBI is going to give up their proprietary code any time soon. And who's going to fly it? Then we'd be screaming at somebody else for our vision of how it should work, but I guess, at least someone probably WOULD be working on it...

Again, welcome aboard, thanks for posting. I hope it didn't bother you (or anyone else) that I disagree with some of what you said.

[andy3536]

Well, I have to agree.
As much as i enjoyed SH3 i find myself rather disapionted with 4.
You feel distant from what is going on and don't feel apart of the game as you did in 1, 2 and 3.
I also feel that the controlls have become a little more awkward (unessesarily changed).
I can see myself re-loading SH 3 in the near future!

[TalladegaHack]

There should still be more content added to keep players occupied on long voyages. Instead all there is to do is time compress to 8000x to cross the long boring Pacific. Why not just make the game with pre-made scripted scenarios instead then and drop the whole campaign aspect? The campaign in SHIII worked well, but in the Pacific enviroment it leaves a lot to be desired.

[Sparhawk81]

I totally agree with what Catlegwest wrote.

I would only add that both stock SH3 and SH4 lack the presence of other subs/u-boats, and it would have really been nice to encounter them.

Sometimes, veeery rarely, even encountering an enemy sub would have been interesting

[Tater-SW-]

There are some in-progress mods that allow you to see enemy subs, though the fact that only AI planes fire torpedoes means they won't engage with their most dangerous weapon.

There're enemy subs you can see (at sea) in a popular supermod, too

tater