Gentlemen submariners, what say you? Silent Hunter III, IV, V?

[jomni]

Nobody seems to like SH5

[salazarus]

Among many flaws vanilla SH5 doesn't have TDC, so you can't prepare the torpedo attack yourself. It is a huge NO. How could they cut the best and the most entertaining part of subsim.  And If I remember correctly flooding of torpedoed ships haven't been made properly. I've played all SH games and SH5 was a huge disappointment for me.

[JudgeDredd]

Among many flaws vanilla SH5 doesn't have TDC, so you can't prepare the torpedo attack yourself. It is a huge NO. How could they cut the best and the most entertaining part of subsim.  And If I remember correctly flooding of torpedoed ships haven't been made properly. I've played all SH games and SH5 was a huge disappointment for me.

Wasn't it because they had screwed the mechanics up in SHIV? Or was it SHIII? I remember one of them (sure it was IV) where the community were taring them a new one because the TDC did not work properly resulting in an awful lot of misses

So rather than fix it, they cut it with the attitude "How d'ya like them apples?" <- this is pure speculation. I have no idea why they cut out TDC - but there was uproar regarding a previous version that had a TDC that didn't work.

[smithcorp]

I dunno - I liked SH5.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Among many flaws vanilla SH5 doesn't have TDC, so you can't prepare the torpedo attack yourself. It is a huge NO. How could they cut the best and the most entertaining part of subsim.  And If I remember correctly flooding of torpedoed ships haven't been made properly. I've played all SH games and SH5 was a huge disappointment for me.

Wasn't it because they had screwed the mechanics up in SHIV? Or was it SHIII? I remember one of them (sure it was IV) where the community were taring them a new one because the TDC did not work properly resulting in an awful lot of misses

So rather than fix it, they cut it with the attitude "How d'ya like them apples?" <- this is pure speculation. I have no idea why they cut out TDC - but there was uproar regarding a previous version that had a TDC that didn't work.

It worked properly in SHIV but you had to make sure you had opened the outer torpedo hatches before you fired or the 2 second delay would ensure that your shots nearly always missed astern.  The professionally irate crowd just couldn't cope with this and wouldn't stop whinging about having to actually press an extra key to open the hatch before firing.

[Huw the Poo]

Pfft.  I'd always open the doors first anyway as a matter of course.  It's just common sense!

[JudgeDredd]

I prefer to leave them shut - see if they go off

[Sir Slash]

I had the SH 4 problem of constant rain and cloudy weather until one of the patches fixed it. I thought, "Damn it rains a lot in Japan". Also had very little problem penetrating into harbors to sink ships at anchor even in very shallow water. The update with the U-Boat add-on fixed a lot of this.

[Bison]

I play sh5

[Nefaro]

Nobody seems to like SH5

I like SH5.  It just has more problems and requires far more Mod searching & installation to get around them.  I had to dig high & low for numerous smaller mod fixes and then there were some headaches putting it all together.  Not so with SH4.

Not only is SH5 buggier and less mod-coherent than the others, it uses Ubi's annoying DRM.  Once you get past those hoops, it's a good sim.

[Nefaro]

I had the SH 4 problem of constant rain and cloudy weather until one of the patches fixed it. I thought, "Damn it rains a lot in Japan". Also had very little problem penetrating into harbors to sink ships at anchor even in very shallow water. The update with the U-Boat add-on fixed a lot of this.

I remember that.

The exact same thing still happens in the old SH3.  It will start raining and then never stop the rest of your patrol.  ::)   

Thankfully that eventually got fixed in SH4, along with your engine room crew members getting stuck in the diesel/electric rooms when you submerged/surfaced forcing you to drag them back & forth manually every time you did so (or lose their efficiency bonuses).

SH4 was the one with the most post-release work done and, therefore, the least buggy.  The only big complaints about it were Axis Fanboys who absolutely refused to sail in American boats.  Evidently an issue in some circles.  ;D

[Nefaro]

Among many flaws vanilla SH5 doesn't have TDC, so you can't prepare the torpedo attack yourself. It is a huge NO. How could they cut the best and the most entertaining part of subsim.  And If I remember correctly flooding of torpedoed ships haven't been made properly. I've played all SH games and SH5 was a huge disappointment for me.

Wasn't it because they had screwed the mechanics up in SHIV? Or was it SHIII? I remember one of them (sure it was IV) where the community were taring them a new one because the TDC did not work properly resulting in an awful lot of misses

So rather than fix it, they cut it with the attitude "How d'ya like them apples?" <- this is pure speculation. I have no idea why they cut out TDC - but there was uproar regarding a previous version that had a TDC that didn't work.

It worked properly in SHIV but you had to make sure you had opened the outer torpedo hatches before you fired or the 2 second delay would ensure that your shots nearly always missed astern.  The professionally irate crowd just couldn't cope with this and wouldn't stop whinging about having to actually press an extra key to open the hatch before firing.

That .. and high angle-off shots (in which the torpedo had to turn sharply after leaving the tube) weren't modeled from the periscope (where the solution measurements are taken) but, instead, from the front of the boat where they left the torpedo tubes. 

So, if making one of these ill-advised shots you had to adjust the torpedo heading a bit.  Of course, you generally want to be pointing close to your projected shot angle in the first place.

This was an issue with all the Silent Hunters though, IIRC.  I don't think it was recognized until in SH4.  I guess people were taking desperate side shots more often, in all the shallow seas.

[MengJiao]

I had the SH 4 problem of constant rain and cloudy weather until one of the patches fixed it. I thought, "Damn it rains a lot in Japan". Also had very little problem penetrating into harbors to sink ships at anchor even in very shallow water. The update with the U-Boat add-on fixed a lot of this.

I remember that.

The exact same thing still happens in the old SH3.  It will start raining and then never stop the rest of your patrol.  ::)   

Thankfully that eventually got fixed in SH4, along with your engine room crew members getting stuck in the diesel/electric rooms when you submerged/surfaced forcing you to drag them back & forth manually every time you did so (or lose their efficiency bonuses).

SH4 was the one with the most post-release work done and, therefore, the least buggy.  The only big complaints about it were Axis Fanboys who absolutely refused to sail in American boats.  Evidently an issue in some circles.  ;D

SH4 was the most fun I ever had in a submarine game.  I got it years ago on steam with all the uboat add-ons, I think.  The S-boat patrols were the most fun, I thought.

[Nefaro]

I had the SH 4 problem of constant rain and cloudy weather until one of the patches fixed it. I thought, "Damn it rains a lot in Japan". Also had very little problem penetrating into harbors to sink ships at anchor even in very shallow water. The update with the U-Boat add-on fixed a lot of this.

I remember that.

The exact same thing still happens in the old SH3.  It will start raining and then never stop the rest of your patrol.  ::)   

Thankfully that eventually got fixed in SH4, along with your engine room crew members getting stuck in the diesel/electric rooms when you submerged/surfaced forcing you to drag them back & forth manually every time you did so (or lose their efficiency bonuses).

SH4 was the one with the most post-release work done and, therefore, the least buggy.  The only big complaints about it were Axis Fanboys who absolutely refused to sail in American boats.  Evidently an issue in some circles.  ;D

SH4 was the most fun I ever had in a submarine game.  I got it years ago on steam with all the uboat add-ons, I think.  The S-boat patrols were the most fun, I thought.

Yep!

I wasn't a fan of those slow little S-boats.  I'd usually start with one of the earlier fleet boats after modifying some stuff.  Lower air patrol rates a bit, raise Japanese sonar sensitivity to make sure I'd get DC'd pretty closely if I was taking short range shots at convoys. 

The large variance in water depths, around all those islands, made it pretty damn hairy afterward.

[TacticalWargames]

I enjoyed 5 aswell...with a decent mod soup and some user made fixes it's great. Though you need a non steam version.

I loved 3,4 and 5. Apparently I'm alone in that I liked 5. But to me, I found it realistic enough. In other words, a lot of mods add stuff serious sub simmers want. 5 had everything I needed and was realistic enough that I couldn't tell that anything was off. I liked being able to walk around the boat too. But 4 is good. I had the hard copy. Truthfully, with all 3 I got to the point someone above did...I got bored. Have to stalk convoys forever, then once I hit, it would take forever to deal with the escorts. THATS what a lot of people love about them though

So if you want a realistic sub sim, I think V is fine unless you really know what you're doing and when something isn't truly authentic I guess. Unless I'm missing something