Silent Hunter 4

[Highspeed]

Is this the place for computer game discussions ? hope I got it right.

I've always been fascinated by submarine warfare and I just eat up information on it.

Recently I've been mostly confining my gaming to car racing sims ( I built a cockpit with proper pedals and a force feedback wheel so I can be Micheal Delaney at Le Mans )

But my mate recently pointed out that Silent Hunter 4 was on offer for $12 at the local gaming store, so I thought I would grab a copy.
You command a US sub in the Pacific theatre and the graphics are pretty damn good. The gameplay is customisable from arcade right through to extremely bloody difficult.
I've currently playing at 76% realism level because while I can set up an attack on a ship in full manual targeting mode I can't yet get a complete tactical picture of what is going on around me.
Which leads to pinging from active sonar, unexpected destroyers ramming you and depth charges.
So the map is set to 'g-ds eye view' for now....

The very best thing about SH4 is the radio though. It's an in game MP3 player which can 'tune in' broadcasts and play them on a certain date. The SH4 modding community have made sound packs available of real radio shows and news broadcasts.
If you install them and start your career in 1941 then you'll hear about Pearl Harbour on your first patrol, with all the uncertainty and confused reports before the situation becomes clear.
Plus the patrols can be long, before you get to an area where something is going to happen, and it helps to have the George Burns and Gracie Allen show in the background - Herman the duck is priceless

The only problem I have with SH4 is that it eats time and saving games is very unreliable. Setting up for a single attack can take a couple of hours or more, which is realistic,but I can't devote that much time on a regular basis.

[randy]

When I was at CINCPAC HQ in the late 80's, copies of 688 Attack Sub "appeared" on our weaponeering computers (high end, for the time, 386's) and some how the computers were networked via serial ports so that our resident Bubbleheads could "maintain proficiency" on the "simulator".

Both from observing them (lots of time sitting and staring at the screen) and talking to them (as much as they would, even in a secure environment), I get the impression that submarine warfare is basically team sniping. Stealth, stalking skills, patience in waiting for the right shot, and then getting the hell out of dodge ("clear the datum") after you make the shot. Except that instead of a 2 man team in ghillie suits, we have a larger crew in complex underwater machine.

The use of authentic radio broadcasts is neat touch.

[Highspeed]

I get the impression that submarine warfare is basically team sniping.

It's two guys fighting in a darkened basement with knives and flashlights.
You can try to identify your opponent with the light ( active sonar ) but that tells him where you are. And maybe he's been listening so carefully to your footsteps that when you flick the light on he's right behind you.....

[Johnnyreb]

I have Silent Hunter III and it was a lot of fun, if very time eating. When you leave the dock in your U-boat there was a band playing and everything. I'll have to pick up IV even if I don't have time to play it right now.

Of course, right now I am counting down to the arrival of pre-ordered Hearts of Iron 3. Now there's a time eater just waiting to happen... and happen...and happen. Hell I still spend half a dozen hours a week playing HOI2. I keep ongoing campaigns for each major power to play as the mood strikes me.

[Highspeed]

I have Silent Hunter III and it was a lot of fun, if very time eating.

I think that is what is going to kill SH4 for me,as much as I like the George Burns and Gracie Allen show.
Which was sponsored by " Swan" - the white floating soap which is as pure as the finest castilles ( whatever the hell that means )

[Drone 7 of lots more]

I've lately stumbled across Distant Guns, a Russo-Japanese War naval game which would be right up my alley. Bring on the pre-dreadnoughts! Also have a Jutland using the same system. Thought the shellcam thing was going to be gimmicky but whilst riding along with an 8" shell I saw numberous streaks passing me and it occurred that they've actually modeled the shells in flight. It's not just a hit probability table with abstract damage assessments.

There's something called UFO:Alien Invasion which is a GNU-license work in progress which if you've ever played XCOM you'll feel like old home week. Can't wait til they get proximity grenades written in again, the dirty bastage's weapon of choice.

Actually popped for Horse & Musket I recently, aka 7 years war courtesy of Freddie the Adequate. You really have to know what you're doing to pull off a win as Freddie in most scenarios. The modding community seems to be hard at work extending it to the AWI.

[MiddleAgedKen]

Recently I've been mostly confining my gaming to car racing sims ( I built a cockpit with proper pedals and a force feedback wheel so I can be Micheal Delaney at Le Mans )

:jacked:

What racing sims are you playing, Highspeed? I would like to get back into Grand Prix Legends (love love looooove those cars), but I am holding off buying a new wheel and pedals for the time being.

[ButchS1066]

Have ya seen Dave Kaemmer's current project?

:jacked:

What racing sims are you playing, Highspeed? I would like to get back into Grand Prix Legends (love love looooove those cars), but I am holding off buying a new wheel and pedals for the time being.

[Highspeed]

Recently I've been mostly confining my gaming to car racing sims ( I built a cockpit with proper pedals and a force feedback wheel so I can be Micheal Delaney at Le Mans )

:jacked:

What racing sims are you playing, Highspeed? I would like to get back into Grand Prix Legends (love love looooove those cars), but I am holding off buying a new wheel and pedals for the time being.

Grand Prix Legends is pretty awesome and still alive and kicking. Better still it's in the public domain now. The mod community have udpated the graphics, the physics and AFAIK you can now race the seasons '65 through '70 - plus there are literally hundreds of add on racetracks.
It looks like GPL will be around for a long time to come.

My favourite though, by a long long way is the HistorX mod for rFactor. It's a recreation of the modern FIA classic GT and TC series ( and borrows heavily from the GT Legends sim in terms of the 3d models - so much so that you need a legal copy of GT Legends to install the mod, due to copyright issues ). The way the cars handle is incredibly realistic though, because the physics are so well done. With a good FFB wheel on the right settings you almost feel like you are really driving one of those dinosaurs - I've owned several of the cars in the mod in real life ( albeit the crappy ones, and all of them street versions ) and I'm convinced....
One of the mod team who developed the physics models is an instructor at a racing school, I guess that must have helped.
For me, there just isn't anything else which compares. It's just a shame that you don't get weather in rFactor, or are dazzled by the sun at dusk and dawn, like in GTR2. My thing is endurance racing and obviously that's a big consideration in the real world.

My wheel and pedals are the G25 set. I use the clutch and manual shifter. It's a little toy like, but the best at it's price point. You have to spend an insane amount of money to get anything significantly better.

[Johnnyreb]

If any of you guys have played Hearts of Iron. This 3rd version lets you custom design divisions. Picking what kind of regiments, etc. it will have. Not sure from the video I saw if that means you get to fight with deployed regiments, or if that means you can have named leaders WITHIN a division, such as colonels. I have read stuff that says if is the uber of the genre, and others that cry that they dumbed it down. Just have to see it for myself.

It also has a very revamped research process. I am wondering if instead of reasearching a thing like an airborne division and watching the progress bars reach completion on half a dozen sub-areas, such as parachutes, and basic submachinegun. Instead they may have changed it so you just research all that stuff seperately before you can research the airborne division itself. I should be finding out by this weekend.

Another major change is that each province is subdivided in say a half dozen sub-areas. So if you have two divisions in that province, they will only occupy up to two of the half dozen sub-areas, which will make managing your troops a movements and positions a lot more detailed. Also, I believe now there is a limit to how many divisions can attack from one place at one time. No more pile ups. If 40 divisions are going to fight 3, they will be doing it a few at a time.

There was an old game I once played, long ago called East Front. In that one you didn't just control the industry, you controlled what got built. If the Panzer II wasn't to your liking, you could switch that factory's production to the Panzer III. And divisions were composed of squads, so a division would have x many infantry squads, x many tank of a specific type, such as Panzer IIIB, x many artillery pieces, etc. And you could keep older stuff still in storage and issue it out again to fill out a division with old Czeck tanks if there weren't enough of the latest type of Pazer to fill out all your divisions with them. And to bring a unit back up to strength, you had to have enough of the right kind of squad in the replacement pool.

I don't know if they have done it or not, but I am hoping that perhaps HOI3 has elements that will remind me of that old East Front game.