Silent Hunter: Wolves of the Pacific

[Admiral Nelson]

Doesn't matter now, far more important question: how do you find targets in the campaign?
I mean, I see them on the map but it takes a couple of hours to get to them by which they're gone. What am I doing wrong?

What you are seeing on the campaign map are radio reports of enemy ships. Look in what direction the ships appear to be headed (where the symbol is pointing) and according to the speed, lead ahead. Usually, fast contacts are either destroyers, task forces, or if you're really lucky, passenger liners.

Here are some pics I've taken in SH4. It's a massive graphical improvement over SHIII!













EDIT: This is odd, I have image tags around the images but they are still only showing up as links!?

[Germanicus75]

Here are some pics I've taken in SH4. It's a massive graphical improvement over SHIII!

Does that mean the SH3 graphics sucked?

[Skyler]

Does that mean the SH3 graphics sucked?

No the graphics do not suck, they are pretty good, anyway you should by SH3 and see for your self.

[Germanicus75]

No the graphics do not suck, they are pretty good, anyway you should by SH3 and see for your self.

I've got it, had it lying here for months. TW games are taking all my time ;-)

[SonOfCrusader76]

Does that mean the SH3 graphics sucked?

Quite the opposite, matey! They were great, simply amazing!

[Ulyaoth]

it all looks nice except for the sinking, shouldn't the ship have split in half or something? Anyway, I still doubt I could run it, does it require a lot of RAM? How much have you? And how well does it run? My graphics card is pretty good, a Radeon X850 pro, but I've only got 768mb RAM and a really slow cpu(athlon 2400) maybe if it's not too cpu needy I'll give it a shot, otherwise, I'll just wait, I still don't like Pacific theatre much, unless it was a battleship simulator or something.

Also, do you think there'd be a chance in hell they'd release a demo? Did 3 have a demo?

[Admiral Nelson]

it all looks nice except for the sinking, shouldn't the ship have split in half or something?

It happens sometimes, but not always.

Anyway, I still doubt I could run it, does it require a lot of RAM? How much have you? And how well does it run? My graphics card is pretty good, a Radeon X850 pro, but I've only got 768mb RAM and a really slow cpu(athlon 2400) maybe if it's not too cpu needy I'll give it a shot, otherwise, I'll just wait, I still don't like Pacific theatre much, unless it was a battleship simulator or something.

It runs perfectly well (no big issues, no lag) with this mid-range system:

-Pentium 4 3.0GHz
-1 GB RAM
-ATI x850xt video card
-Windows Vista Ultimate

Also, do you think there'd be a chance in hell they'd release a demo? Did 3 have a demo?

Unlikely, SHIII didn't have a demo, and I don't think that one is planned for SH4.

In any case, the graphics are beautiful, and I really like the new features, but if you're not a real subsim fan, I'd wait about a year for the price to go down, the big issues to be patched, and some realism mods to be released.

But I think that your system would run it reasonably well, the x850 is a good card. The CPU is only really important when using very high TC (Time Compression), which speeds up travel, but increases the CPU load.

[Oldgamer]

I'll get around to buying SH4 as soon as I've completed a career in SH3. I play the game on 1 x 1 time compression. I'm on my second patrol, December, 1939. Besides, the price of the game will be down, by then!

By the way, I use the Gray Wolves supermod and SH3 Commander. Also, I employ SH3 Gen, and the latest version of the Weather mod.

[mdibatti]

I'll get around to buying SH4 as soon as I've completed a career in SH3. I play the game on 1 x 1 time compression. I'm on my second patrol, December, 1939. Besides, the price of the game will be down, by then!

By the way, I use the Gray Wolves supermod and SH3 Commander. Also, I employ SH3 Gen, and the latest version of the Weather mod.

1x...your nuts man! you are part of a very small club indeed

I use GWX and SH3 commander as well......amazing mods, especially GWX.

[RusskiSoldat]

Soviet warlords: so ship chasing is not futile?

[Admiral Nelson]

Soviet warlords: so ship chasing is not futile?

Task forces, comprising of aircraft carriers, battlehips, cruisers, and destroyers are generally much faster than any US sub, even when running on the surface. You have to be lucky to get in a good firing position towards those targets.

However, there are many Japanese convoys which go much slower and therefore are prime targets.

Did that answer your question?

[Savage_Swede]

Hello, this game sure looks sexy. But i have quite a big question to ask. What do you do in the game? I know it's a sim, but truth is, the last time i played a sim was Flight Simulator when i was like 8 years old. So if anyone could just give me a hands-on summary i would appreciate it.

And please refrain from throwing 10 links in my face. I rather want some unbiased views.

[Skyler]

Hello, this game sure looks sexy. But i have quite a big question to ask. What do you do in the game? I know it's a sim, but truth is, the last time i played a sim was Flight Simulator when i was like 8 years old. So if anyone could just give me a hands-on summary i would appreciate it.

And please refrain from throwing 10 links in my face. I rather want some unbiased views.

I can't say that I have played the forth instalment, but I have heard it is very similar to Silent Hunter 3 which takes place during the second world war in which you play for Germany, I can try to give you a summary.

I will try to keep it as unbiased as possible.

With silent hunter you can choose to play a dynamic campaign, which as its suggests is really dynamic; no two campaigns are really the same.
Before starting the campaign, you can chose to train at a academy to get familiar with the basic aspects of submarine manoeuvers and warfare, if you complete the individual components of the academy you will receive prestige.
Prestige is a form of currency in the game, with it you can buy new u-boats or upgrade existing ones.

After you typed the name of your u-boat captain and choose which flotilla (base) you wish to be assigned you will be taken to the HQ hub where you can manage your crew, spend prestige, watch mission statistics, accept missions and adjust difficulty in the form of realistic u-boat warfare; no supertopedos, no external view, no fast torpedo reload time, no unlimited fuel ect.

Once you choose to accept a mission you will be given a sectorgrid on the ocean map to patrol, these grids are randomly chosen and therein lies the dynamic campaign feature. Once the grid is chosen the game will randomly load allied and enemy boats (british, french, american, ect) and airplanes in that grid and you will start at the flotilla you chose at the beginning.
You can use time compression to speed up u-boat travel to get you at your destination.

The aim of the game is of course to sink as much ship, preferably cargo ships, as possible without getting killed , which is pretty easy early in the game but gets harder as the war progresses as the enemy will use technologie (sonar) and tactics (escorts). The more tonnage of ships you sink the more prestige you will get.

Sounds exciting? wait there is more, much more, more then I can possibly explain.

The real immersion of Silent Hunter comes from the inside of the u-boat,well atleast when you choose a difficulty level of 70-80%. Inside you can visit the controle room, radio room, sonar room and the main deck with crewmembers that occupies those rooms ( immersion ). With a high difficulty rating you will have to preform torpedo trajectory, which is rather difficult if you do not have an external view and you will basicly be restricted to your perryscope as your source for the surface world, if the perryscope is destroyed you will be blind underwater and therefore very vulnereble.

Disclaimer:

To conclude this incoherent mumble of Silent Hunter gameplay I would like to say that my views and opinions of SH are not necessaraley the views and opinions of the developers and producers of this game and therefor no affilation whatsoever can be made between them and me as I am sure they will probably just denie my existence and lie about me to make me look bad.

But seriously, go buy Silent Hunter 3, which is budget priced, and see if you like it.

Oh and its got a modding fanbase aswell... and mods.

[Savage_Swede]

Very good post Skyler. Thank you for taking the time to write it. Now, in almost every review i have read, it says that the AI kinda sucks. For example, you are spotted close to an enemy port, but no-one fires anything at you. They simply sit around and watch as their friends and themselves get torpedoes shoved up their arse. And i have also read that it is very buggy.

Anyone agree with those statements?

[Skyler]

Very good post Skyler. Thank you for taking the time to write it. Now, in almost every review i have read, it says that the AI kinda sucks. For example, you are spotted close to an enemy port, but no-one fires anything at you. They simply sit around and watch as their friends and themselves get torpedoes shoved up their arse. And i have also read that it is very buggy.

Anyone agree with those statements?

Disagree, I have never encounter pasive AI in ports, when I get spotted by ship far away, close by or in the port they tend to treat me with extreme prejudice till I am... well dead most of the time.

And mods are a must Savage_Swede they will make you experience much more rewarding.

Thanks for the rep.

Edit: Make sure you patch the game of course.

[Mikelus Trento]

I was pleased to see that with the increased transit distances involved in the Pacific, the game now can increase the time scale to over 6,000 times normal. I believe the max with SH3 was around 2,000.

The USS Snapper has just left Java on it's third patrol. It has victories over 8 merchantment, 1 Betty bomber, 2 fast passenger liners, 1 destroyer, and 2 cruisers....for a total tonnage so far of over 100,000.

[Niccolo Machiavelli]

Got the game yesterday - I must say I'm somewhat disappointed as the games 3d engine is locked at 1024*768 resolution (the 2d elements are at the resolution you set it, but everything 3d will just be scaled). Even worse, at widescreen res, the game cuts the upper and lower part of the picture, so you don't even have 768 pixels. Needless to say how horrid it looks on a 24" LCD with 1920*1200 as native resolution. I hope they fix it - otherwise i might return it...

[Admiral Nelson]

Got the game yesterday - I must say I'm somewhat disappointed as the games 3d engine is locked at 1024*768 resolution (the 2d elements are at the resolution you set it, but everything 3d will just be scaled). Even worse, at widescreen res, the game cuts the upper and lower part of the picture, so you don't even have 768 pixels. Needless to say how horrid it looks on a 24" LCD with 1920*1200 as native resolution. I hope they fix it - otherwise i might return it...

Don't worry, the devs have stated that they are going to fix the resolution and anti-aliasing problems. Hopefully it won't take too long.

[Niccolo Machiavelli]

Don't worry, the devs have stated that they are going to fix the resolution and anti-aliasing problems. Hopefully it won't take too long.

Phew - from what I've played it would have been a pity to have to take it back - I just hope they fix it soon... (Nice Avatar BTW )

@Oldgamer: Wow - how do you do that? What do you do when traveling to patrol zones? Keep it running in the background or do you have a dedicated computer for it?

[Admiral Nelson]

Phew - from what I've played it would have been a pity to have to take it back - I just hope they fix it soon... (Nice Avatar BTW )

Hahaha yes!