Silent Hunter Online

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by USS Drum

The Beta page said this: You will receive and email shortly.

Errrrr, I don't think a whole night and STILL not getting it is shortly.

I sent a request in at the beginning of last week. Either it's not coming, or they have a different definition of "shortly" than I do.

[PL_Andrev]

Originally Posted by USS Drum

The Beta page said this: You will receive and email shortly.

Errrrr, I don't think a whole night and STILL not getting it is shortly.

1. Now is weekend, so they starts work at Monday.
2. You can be not chosen.
3. SHO forum is closed now, so it should be opened to collect beta-testers opinions.
4. It can be pre-release advertisement only.
5. "Shortly" can mean "this month" or f.e. "next month".

[longam]

New screen shot of the (flash based) game, they expect to patch in 2 years to make it playable. Notice the torp circling back toward the sub.

[KeldorKatarn]

Bluebyte is not the main developer behind this. It is Sproing Interactive Media located in Vienna.

[KeldorKatarn]

Guys, this isn't anything like farmville, and Flash can do a lot more than you think.

At least give this a chance ok?

[kiwi_2005]

Wheres my beta key!

[BigBANGtheory]

Originally Posted by KeldorKatarn

I just wanted to emphasise, no matter what you think about Ubisoft and the former Silent Hunters, this one is developed by a totally different developer so please don't punish us for whatever that other studio did in terms of bugs. Also whatever you might think of Ubisoft (I have my own opinion about some of the stuff they pulled too), give these guys a chance. There are quite a few big SH and WW2 sim fans in that team and they're really doing their best.

Ubisoft need to make some effort to repair the damage they caused, their reputation is appauling I'd suggest you broach the subject with the wider company and ask them what they can do.

If they refuse to enagage with their customer base there are two things the new dev studio could attempt:

1. Get access to the SH5 code under license and basically patch whatever features (within reason) TDW tells you to address.

2. You have opinions of the crap Ubisoft pulled... air them publically.

Now if Ubisoft wanted to truely change thier fortunes, reverse peoples perception, opinions and make news headlines around world (and in doing so promote SH:Online and gain some revenue).... release the source code for SH5 for non-commercial use or even under license to a few modders. Zero cost to Ubisoft, very little risk to their business, everything to gain particularly as they have other product lines.

[PL_Andrev]

Originally Posted by BigBANGtheory

release the source code for SH5 for non-commercial use or even under license to a few modders. Zero cost to Ubisoft, very little risk to their business, everything to gain particularly as they have other product lines.

Dream again...
SH3 is still not perfect but have the best opinion as a sub simulator.
We have not access to source code of old SH3 - and you want to have access to source code of SH5...
Instead SH5 code they prefer produce SHO (in 'pay to play' business model) to sell again and again its poor products based on well known 'Silent Hunter' mark.
We need other developer with new sub sim product.

[Gotmilk]

for those who have not recieved SHO automatic replay mail. Check your junk folder. It is there. A place where it belongs

[KeldorKatarn]

Originally Posted by BigBANGtheory

Ubisoft need to make some effort to repair the damage they caused, their reputation is appauling I'd suggest you broach the subject with the wider company and ask them what they can do.

I told you, we are not Ubisoft and we have no communication with the former developer studio. And as a developer you don't ask a publisher for anything. They give you a project, you do the project. You have no influence whatsoever beyond that.

If they refuse to enagage with their customer base there are two things the new dev studio could attempt:

No there is nothing at all that we could do. It is their property. They can do with it whatever they like.

1. Get access to the SH5 code under license and basically patch whatever features (within reason) TDW tells you to address.

So you want us to get Ubisoft to get us access to a source code written by a totally different studio without any knowledge about their code base and then patch the thing for free.... honestly what world are you living in?

2. You have opinions of the crap Ubisoft pulled... air them publically.

Yeah, right. We all might have personal opinions, but they are just that, personal. If we voice them individually as something official, we get fired, and rightly so. You don't go ahead and publicly denounce a business partner. And you also don't do that as a company if you plan to make business with ANYBODY ever again.

Now if Ubisoft wanted to truely change thier fortunes, reverse peoples perception, opinions and make news headlines around world (and in doing so promote SH:Online and gain some revenue).... release the source code for SH5 for non-commercial use or even under license to a few modders. Zero cost to Ubisoft, very little risk to their business, everything to gain particularly as they have other product lines.

Easy solution: if you don't like Ubisoft, don't buy their games. They have no obligation to you to do anything. If you buy their stuff you seem to be happy enough with it to spend money. if you don't buy their stuff there is nothing to complain about.

Seriously people, get real here.
You can be unhappy with Ubisoft all you want. Solution: Don't buy their products. But it is ridiculous to ask a developer studio that had nothing to do with anything concerning Silent Hunter in the past to go and publicly attack Ubisoft or magically fix problems caused by a developer studio that they don't even know.

The new studio got the contract to develop a new Silent Hunter game on a free to play basis. That's what these guys did, and they tried their best to make it in a way that the community will like it. the contract was to make a free to play game, not a desktop game. And there is nothing the studio can do about that. You get told what to do and you try your best to make that concept as fun as possible.

Seriously I don't see your problem here honestly. The game is free to play. The designers made sure that all the pay-to-play moments are convenience only, you don't need to pay anything to play the game successfully, you just spend more time on certain tasks.

So what is the big cry here all about. Yes, Ubisoft didn't do what you liked them to do most.. fine. But that is no reason to call this game crap before you've even seen it. Our studio is not responsible for Ubisoft business decision nor is our game bad just because you think Ubisoft sucks.

You get a game basically for free, some people will have to pay for stuff for it to be bring in money yes, but nobody is forcing anybody to do that. Also again, this is a different studio. The time and money put into this project is in no way whatsoever preventing the other studio from pushing our patches. So why the hatred towards this project before you even tried it?
Theres a lot of people working on this that had nothing to do with anything that you are complaining about here, and no matter how well founded your accusations might be towards Ubisoft, your downtalking this game is just unfair to the new team that had nothing to do with anything that happened in the past.

You have valid concerns, bring them up with Ubisoft. But don't punish a game and a studio for something that their publisher did in the past.
If you don't like this game once it is out you have three options:
- Don't play it... we're fine with that.
- Play it but don't pay for it. We're more than fine with that too.
- Play it and help the live team make it better. Really cool.

If you like it:
- Play it, love it, but don't pay for it. We're fine with that.
- Play it, and pay small amounts here and there. Thank you.
- Play it, love the crap out of it and sink your life insurance money into it. Thanks a lot, we hope you know what you're doing

No seriously... people should get back down to Earth on this one I think.

[Drebbel]

It better be good. Because I forgot how to spell Messerwetzer

[0rpheus]

Originally Posted by KeldorKatarn

Seriously I don't see your problem here honestly. The game is free to play. The designers made sure that all the pay-to-play moments are convenience only, you don't need to pay anything to play the game successfully, you just spend more time on certain tasks.

So what is the big cry here all about. Yes, Ubisoft didn't do what you liked them to do most.. fine. But that is no reason to call this game crap before you've even seen it. Our studio is not responsible for Ubisoft business decision nor is our game bad just because you think Ubisoft sucks.

You're right about the latter part (and thanks for chiming in with the 'other side of the fence' viewpoint, I and I'm sure others appreciate it) - it's not your fault that Ubi made such an arse of SH5, then refused to fix it. And of course you work to the brief you're given, that much is expected.

Some of the ire directed at this game is based off fear of free to play - a fear quite justifiable given the 'grind or spend' mentality of some other F2P games. I soon stopped playing WoT after I realised just how long it was going to take me to get anywhere without spending any money; these games are designed to profit from human impatience. As it stands, we have only your word that payment items will be cosmetic only, and while I'm not questioning your honesty, until the game is actually out most people will take what you say regarding this with a pinch of salt - and rightly so, as these things are often changed during development.

Another part of the ire is directed at Flash games - generally seen as less complex, casual games rather than a vehicle for a relatively complicated sims. It remains to be seen whether SHO can be developed effectively under a Flash framework (remember, your 'effectively' and ours may differ), add in other issues such as browser crash and the general drift away from flash-utilisation in most major browsers and you should expect raised eyebrows, not to mention the annoyance many modders will have on discovering that they can't tweak their game the way they want.

Getting the game 'for free' is utterly irrelevant - what matters is getting a game that lives up to the series' history. What happens if I want to use manual targeting, and someone else doesn't? Do they have an unfair advantage? Will there even be manual targeting at all? What about traffic - will there be unrealistically large amounts of ship traffic to accommodate all these Kaleuns? What about time compression? Ship ID manuals?

These are the questions you need to consider answering if you want people here to 'like' this game. Nobody expects you to defend Ubi, nor fix the mess they made with SH5. However, from the outside, right now, it looks like you're taking the SH series and transplanting it into not only one of the worst game 'engines', preventing any modding, but also into a F2P format that will be resoundingly hated by any remotely serious gamer (and subsimmers are fairly serious, let's face it). Of course you're going to get a negative reaction.


Convince us that your game isn't just another Ubi money-grab. Convince us that realism will have its right and proper place alongside historical accuracy. Convince us that, despite the choice of format, this will be a game that knows and respects the history of the Silent Hunter series.

Until you do that, few will even give this game the time of day. I've signed up to the beta in the same way bystanders are drawn to watch awful car accidents - I'm expecting it to be a travesty, if I'm honest - but I will give it a decent & proper chance to change my mind, and I will help the devs improve the game if I feel it possible. But given the history, you can't expect people to be jumping for joy at the news that their favourite franchise has just gone the way of APB and other colossal F2P failures.

I wish your dev crew the best of luck - they're gonna need it.

[Iron Budokan]

Well, even The Elder Scrolls is going to MMO. Looks like Silent Hunter has also decided to join the "Me Too's" and want to dip their biscuit in that MMO gravy while it is still hot.

I must admit a move like this on UBI's part doesn't necessarily surprise me. It seems a natural progression given what was released in SH5 with conversations and (very) minimal role playing characteristics a la crew members with personalities. So an MMO would be the next step, I guess?

I dunno. Just trying to figure out the business decision making mechanics behind this move when there obviously is a very broken SH5 game they have all but abandoned.

I know we should always give people a chance. But I feel after being burned so many times by UBI I probably won't jump on this bandwagon. I like MMOs and play several of them. I LOVE submarine simulations, however, and it would take something away from the immersion aspect to see a player named "TorpNoob" or something similarly moronic in chat.

As I said in a previous post I hope the game does well and people like it, though. Who knows? Anyway, if it does work out and if the members of this site play the game and give it a hearty thumbs up, I will be more than happy to say I was totally and completely wrong. I honestly do hope the game does well, it just doesn't seem to be something that interests me deeply in its current incarnation.

[Iron Budokan]

Originally Posted by 0rpheus

Convince us that your game isn't just another Ubi money-grab. Convince us that realism will have its right and proper place alongside historical accuracy. Convince us that, despite the choice of format, this will be a game that knows and respects the history of the Silent Hunter series.

^This. A thousand times this.

Verily, I say unto you, this is my deepest concern as well, given UBI's spotty history with this franchise.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Drebbel

It better be good. Because I forgot how to spell Messerwetzer

Good to see you around, old friend.