MapMod for First World War Campaigns

[Taffy6]

If any of you guys know of the controversy raging in the submarine simulation community right now over the release of Silent Hunter V, you can see where/how a developer concentrating on "eye candy" and "modern graphics" for a new release can literally kill a game series. Silent Hunter III is a five year old, patched, deep and mature game that has been modded into the best U-Boat campaign simulator out there.

The developer (Ubisoft) decided to concentrate on "flash bang" graphics for sucessor SHV. Ubisoft has deep pockets, and spent their money making the game look good. They hoped to grab attention of a younger generation of players and generate better sales for the game series. After all, there are millions of console gamers out there with money. The end result was they shoved a beautiful-looking turkey out the door. The water is so realistic you can feel the salt spray. Want to play in high def? You can. It LOOKS awesome. Even on a lap-top. They spent a lot of time/money on LOOKS. It auto-updates patches etc etc.

However, the new SHV game itself is such a poor tactical/ operational/ strategic simulation that the subsim community has largely turned its back on the product. Game play is horrible. Not just buggy, but crippled because R&D was spent on graphics and gee-whiz instead of HOW it plays. Play as designed SUX. In my opinion, Ubisoft has pulled the plug on supporting the product because sales have tanked. Thus, the series is at an end (in my opinion). Sadly, the best looking naval simulator ever is the worst wargame simulation of the series and signals the end of the development cycle due to the piss-poor sales the poor game play has caused.

Personally, I think HPS has it just right. While there are some very minor game engine changes that might be cool to experiment with, I'd rather HPS keep on keeping on. I do respect the fact that this is the 21st century and PC graphical power has come a long way, but to me the beauty of the HPS games is the research, the engine and most of all the superior support these guys provide for the player. I own about 25 of these games and love every one of them. I hope the HPS guys are at least breaking even on game sales, because I would love to buy another 25 over the coming years. Masterpieces all, and a superior community of gentlemen-wargamers playing them. Maybe someday I will actually learn how to achieve a victory against a human, LOL!

Taffy