I started the ball rolling with the Silent Hunter 4 patch v1.3: Where? When? What? thread to demonstrate to Ubisoft, in a constructive way, that while SH4 is a fairly good game, with some excellent qualities, it still needs additional work to be a complete game, and a successful game. As a community leader, I’ve put forth the assertion that yes, SH4 falls short of the bar set by SH3. I try to be a reasonable man, I understand this is a business for Ubisoft and I respect that. So I do not expect every single thing I can imagine to be fixed and added, but after careful consideration, I am compelled in the interests of the players and Ubisoft to say, "It ain't done yet." That's my opinion. At times Ubisoft displays a monolithic silence; I don't like to be a pest and nag "what's the status of a patch?" But after getting a runaround, this guy says ask that guy, that guy says ask the other guy...I'll just ask all 26,000 of you. Do you agree, Ubisoft would benefit as well as we would benefit, by finishing the game?


Romania is the world’s best resource of skilled, experienced, and successful WWII subsim developers and artists and Ubisoft would be prudent to let them finish the job. Not only for the people who, in good faith, bought the game in its unfinished state, but even more importantly to the customer base who have not bought the game yet. The thousands who are considering buying it soon when they upgrade their PC with their tax return, their summer job money, or their quarterly bonus. The thousands who loved SH3 and would like to dive into SH4 but have held off because it was too rough until 1.2, and without additional work, would disappoint them. The thousands who are waiting to see if Ubisoft is going to set SH4 adrift with borked convoy leader AI, imperial measurement discrepancies, and a stopwatch that, while it has a great name, does not have an important feature to simulate a captain timing a target to estimate its speed.

The reason I don't make threats, employ harsh language, or distribute pitchforks is I respect Ubisoft. They damn well could avoid this whole situation and make a "Battlestations: Midway" clone, which is a nice little game, but it is not a simulation. And simulations like SH3/4 and IL-2 set Ubisoft apart from so many other game publishers who only make FPS, RPG, and kid's games. Ubisoft has a great asset in the Romanian devs, who love simulations and know simulations, and Ubi makes it possible to play a new subsim every few years. Ubisoft has come through in the past, with the beleaguered SH2, and the fantastic SH3, and I think it is sufficient to collect a few thousand posts showing interest in the 1.3 patch to achieve our goal: complete SH4 and keep subsims alive.

It's the same mantra I used in 2001, when SH2 came out; rough, hobbled, and lacking key features. I was a first hand witness to the tremendous amount of time, money, and work that went into SH2, and I cut the devs a little slack. Sure, it's not what we hoped for, but if it does not sell, no SH3... and we know how SH3 turned out--a landmark piece of work. So instead of leading Ubi to the gas chamber, I asked for and recieved the source code to SH2, a game that was not a year old, and hired a programmer to improve it. I paid him $1000 of my personal money upfront and you guys contributed another $9000. I felt this was necessary to keep the hobby alive. In this situation, Ubisoft should step up to the plate and let the dev team do their stuff.

Ubisoft made SH4 to sell as many copies as possible and to allow their talented dev team to create something unique, something they love. I want to see SH4 sell 200,000+ copies, for it's the only way there will be an SH5. And completing SH4 is a key part of ensuring its commercial success, let there be no doubt, Ubi.

Good hunting!
Neal Stevens
Subsim

It's coming up on two months since Silent Hunter 4 was released. Two patches have brought the game up to where it is stable and most of the basic features are functional, but there are still several key aspects that need attention and it's too quiet in the Ubisoft camp. I have not heard anything about the status of a third patch, which the game needs to be considered complete. Before the dev team gets too far from the construction site, Subsim is going to mount a campaign for patch v1.3. Silent Hunter 4 is an enjoyable game but has yet to reach the point where we consider it complete. The future of the Silent Hunter franchise depends on maintaining a reputation for quality.

We call on Ubisoft to complete Silent Hunter IV. We don't expect every wish to be fulfilled, but there are several key gameplay issues that loyal players and Ubisoft customers, who bought an incomplete game, deserve to have addressed. These include:
All AI needs tweaking, too often merchant ships all come to a stop and muddle around when under attack. Destroyers guarding merchants and especially in task forces occasionally seem somewhat uninterested in firing back. The Subchaser is unable to fire its main gun at all. If you mod the Subchaser to have a second gun in a raised position where the AA gun is it will fire this gun. The Akizuki DD has a similar issue, of the four guns it has only the two guns on the raised platforms actually fire. When the boat is rammed by a destroyer (for example) the destroyer generally comes of worse and often explodes.

Units of measurement: Imperial units for ship dimensions, torpedo depth gauge, range figure in the TDC and Position Keeper, all UOM issues need to be resolved.

Campaign retirement – feature or bug? Bug. Suggestion that it should be optional.

Repetitive patrols still get assigned.

Chronometer still doesn’t work as described in the manual. “The Chronometer bug”, this needs a quick and dirty fix, just a simple speed response in the text box when the Speed button is selected in the TDC, as occurs when the player clicks the Depth Beneath Keel button. But, importantly, the player should still have the choice of manually entering his own speed estimate in the TDC.

Radar needs finishing touches. It doesn't work when heading South 90deg to 270deg. Is SD radar fixed? Does is not detect ships but will detect aircraft? Also, when SD radar fitted there is no A scope display.
We need your help to demonstrate the need for patch 1.3. Join the campaign here and make yourself heard. Post here. Don't hesitate or put it off. This thread will need hundreds of names to merit any attention.

To vote, simply make a reply in this thread and add your thoughts.


Neal Stevens
Subsim