Let's play Silent Hunter 5! (New update)

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Let's play Silent Hunter 5!



Table of contents:

New updates:

Sebtember 20, 1942, Brest

September 30, 1942, somewhere in the Atlantic

Every now and again someone posts a thread asking whether or not Silent Hunter 5 has finally been modded into a playable game. There are those nay-sayers who quickly flock to such threads, claiming that it's a broken mess, and that it's not worth the trouble to mod SH5 when several years of modding have made Silent Hunter 3 and 4 great games. Wait another year and ask again, they'll tell you. In the meantime, play something else. Something that won't CTD every five seconds.

Well the time for waiting has ended, comrades! The game has been patched by the original developers, modded by an incredibly enthusiastic and persevering community over at Subsim, and this is my attempt to prove to you that SH5 is not only a playable game but also a fun and challenging experience. Only an occasional graphical glitch is still present, and no CTDs are to be found in my games.

Don your life vests and keep an eye on the depth gauge, 'cause we're going down, and we're going deep with Silent Hunter 5!



Okay, so now that you've been sufficiently hyped up, let's take a look at the mods I'll be using. I don't believe in modding SH5 into the ground with dozens upon dozens of mods, because this will eventually cause a problem that, depending on your mod soup, may be so obscure and difficult to reconstruct that no one at Subsim may be able to help you out. Instead of pouring countless mods into the game, I'll just use a small number of them, focusing on those that fix some crucial issues while completely disregarding the fluff mods that add a wetness texture to your sub, make flags more accurate, adjust the pitch and roll of your submarine etc. I'll just use the ones that actually make the game work.

Here are the mods:

Magnum_Opus_v0_0_1
Magnum_Opus_Patch_2
IRAI_0_0_30_ByTheDarkWraith
IRAI_0_0_30_No_hydrophone_on_surface_No_Aircraft_s potting
FX_Update_0_0_19_ByTheDarkWraith
NewUIs_TDC_6_8_0_ByTheDarkWraith
OPEN HORIZONS II_full
OH II Campaign Radio Messages v4
Dynamic Environment SH5 Basemod (realistic version) V2.1
Dynamic Environment SH5 Atlantic Floor V2.1
Dynamic Environment SH5 Undersea (temperate and polar) V2.1
Dynamic Environment SH5 Waves (realistic version) V2.1
Dynamic Environment SH5 Sleet For Winter Campaigns V2.1
Grossdeutscher Rundfunk With MilRad
TheDarkWraith_DC_Water_Disturbances_v2_0_SH5
Speech recognition MiTons NewUI

The speech recognition mod is really good and quite handy. Just make sure you don't use it when your time compression is turned up high or it might crash your game.

You can find these mods hosted over on Subsim, or simply by googling their names. Some of the users have nice modlists linked in their signatures, like mia389 or 0rpheus. They are prominent posters so you'll come across them eventually.

You'll also find video tutorials on how to install mods on Subsim as well as tutorials on strategies used in the game. The community is very positive and helpful so feel free to ask them anything. Just remember to be polite. If you have any questions, let me know.

Enough talk, let's see what this baby can do.



Yeah, thanks for telling us, game.



After the loading screen we find ourselves in a hangar in Kiel. This is our base of operations for now, and in case we need to upgrade our equipment or request a mission we have to address the officers nearby.



Our missions is to sink 70k of merchant shipping by December. It may sound unrealistic, but most of the merchant ships will be defenseless at this point in the war.



I set the realism to 96%, meaning that everything is realistic except the external camera.



We'll be playing as Dark Underlord, the lord of the dark depths.



Setting our engines to ahead slow, we slowly roll out of the bunker.



The world awaits out fail. We shall deliver.







We wave back to the tiny people milling about on the deck of that carrier.



It takes us forever to sail out of the Kiel harbor, but there are sailing scripts that have been modded in. You just pop one of those babies onto the list, activate it, and the ship sails itself out.



Somewhere north of Denmark a hostile ship is spotted. I decide not to spend our precious supply of torpedoes on its meagre tonnage, so we shoot it with the deck gun.





Glorious victory! Oh shit, wait was it even hostile



I dive after its sinking hull and take a look at the flag. It was Norwegian, so I look it up on this useful little chart. It says AL next to Norway, so I suppose that means it's one of the Allies, while friendly ships are marked as Ax for the Axis powers. I think. I hope so.



Your sub can receive messages, and while most of them are from your HQ, there is a chance that you'll intercept someone else's message. In the above shot we intercepted the message from our target's crew informing nearby friendlies that they're abandoning ship.



We turn our backs to Fatherland and sail into the North Sea, heading for Britain. We are greeted by huge waves and fog.







The fog is getting thicker. We dive a couple of times just to make sure we're not missing anything. The hydrophone doesn't pick up anything, though.





It's getting pretty lonely out here, guys. The sea is eerily calm, and we're not spotting any targets. Where did everybody go?



Of course, as soon as weather starts to turn ugly, the hydrophone notices something. We're quite close to Britain now, so it's risky to stay on the surface. However, we haven't seen anything for so long that I decide to go for it. My watch officers clamber up to the deck and gaze out across the horizon, but the target is too far away to identify it.



Let's catch up to it, shall we?



Oh christ, I forgot about those damn coastal boats. We've exposed ourselves for this shitty thing, risking everything for a thousand tons at best. Let's turn back to our original course and forget about th- Wait, what's that sound? Oh shit

CRASH DIVE!



The bastard strafes us, but we're good, we're skinking. Except there's nowhere to hide in 20 fucking meters of water, so maybe we'd actually be better off on the surface, fighting him off like real men.





He drops the bomb and the entire ship rocks, valves loosen and several compartments sustain damage. We have flooding, but guys are working on it. The damage seems minimal, thankfully. Hull integritiy is still at 100%. But what if he returns or, even worse, brings some buddies along? Let's run away while fixing our sub at the same time.



We slowly crawl away, making sure not to raise the scope so as not to alert any aircraft searching for us. Nothing is heard above. I think we're good.



Once all the repairs are done we surface to get some air. The sun is setting so we stay surfaced, looking out for any evening traffic.







Later that same night something is spotted. I plot the target's course and then turn to intercept it.



It's a real merchant this time. I dive once just to check its sound. Turns out we have two contacts on the hydrophone. Hopefully the other one isn't an escort. The crew is ordered to man the deck gun.





Balls of fire rise from the ships. The special effects aren't really all that good, but they're passable at a distance.





Feels like that scene from Das Boot. The two burning wrecks are left behind, illuminating the night.



Our current tonnage is listed on the right. As you can see, we've officially finished our first patrol so we're free to do whatever we want. We should probably return to base, but I'm not going home with just 10k.







We remain on the surface for the rest of the night, looking for targets. None are found, so we decide to dive during the early hours of the morning.



The day is spent underwater, sleeping or listening lazily to the hydrophone. We surface again as sun sets, only to be greeted by some pretty ugly weather.



We sail north for a change and just as we're passing a harbor we spot something on the horizon.



It's a big column of ships, and none of them seem to be escorts. I plot their course and get into position, they're heading roughly in my direction, so I just sit tight and wait.



They're sailing parallel to each other so it's kinda tricky to get more than one for me. I focus on a single target instead. I have yet to take out anything using a torpedo, anyway.





The attack is a success, but the columns have immediately started to crumble so I order my crew to surgace the sub. We'll mop up with the deck gun.





I'm busy shooting at a troop transport when a shell whizzer over my head. What the hell?



One of the merchants is armed! And he's less than a mile from us. Dive, god damn it.



We dive unharmed. At least the troop transport is sinking. The kiil is soon confirmed.





We don't stand still just because it turned out that one merchant had a little gun on its deck. We scope a target ahead of us and send two magnetic torpedoes its way. Both strike home.



We intercept their message. Another kill in the bag.



A couple of torpedoes are wasted on a target that's zig zagging unpredictably, so I just let them be and turn up the TC. A few hours later the coast is clear.



We surface again after we've left the coast of Britain. It's time to head home. We need more torpedoes and we're out of shells as well.



A Polish merchant is spotted on our way home, but there's nothing we can do about it. Probably carrying copies of that popular console game The Witcher 2 that seems to be all the rage among our enemies. Ah well.



As we're reentering Kiel harbour, the announcer on the radio informs us it's Hitler's birthday. Definitely a good omen.



The final tonnage is a respectable 35k. A solid beginning of a career.


***

Here a couple more shots left over from the patrol that I ddin't know where to put. The game certainly looks good.

Re: Let's play Silent Hunter 5!

Dont worry, the game will crash if you sink a friendly.

Re: Let's play Silent Hunter 5!

LIES

If you sink a friendly, the boat spins around and around in place, eventually standing up vertically on one end.

of LPDex. Will watch this topic.

This game looks really intriguing. I have never given this series much attention.

Onward and downward, comrade.

Chapter 2: Scapa Flow



We're back in Kiel, and this time we're getting ready for an attack on Scapa Flow. We've been issued a mission to sink at least one capital ship in Scapa Flow, and while this may not sound like much of a challenge, I'm not feeling too confident about this whole idea. The approaches to the harbor will probably be well-guarded and surrounded with underwater nets.



After the last mission we received a medal for our performance.



We pick up an improved hydrophone on the way to our sub.





We're rollin' outta here.



The sun sets as we leave Kiel.



Nothing is spotted on the fancy new hydrophone in the region around Denmark.



Keep those babies warm, boys. We're heading straight for Scapa Flow.



The first night on the sea is uneventful. We listen to the radio and the announcer commenting on various events in the world



In the meantime, the siege of Warsaw has begun.



Early next morning smoke is spotted on the horizon. I climb up to the deck to see what we've got.



A tiny little thing, hardly worth the time it would take to gun it down. We'll let it live.





Heavy clouds gather in the sky as we approach Britain.





Heavy fog sets in as we close the distance. I hope this type of weather continues to follow us to Scapa. It would certainly help us while we're sneaking into the fortress.



I decide to keep approaching from the east, and pretty soon we start spotting warships in the distance. I remain on the surface since no one seems to notice us. Maybe we'll manage to squeeze into the eastern channel that snakes toward Scapa.



We succeed in passing through the channel and submerge as we approach the wide area just outside the harbor.



Just as I'm scanning the horizon through the attack scope, the dreaded pinging starts. Two destroyers start circling above us. I drop the speed to a knot at most.



I hold my breath as the first of the destroyers passes right over us, but he doesn't drop a charge.



I try zig zagging for a bit, and after a while the pinging stops. A few minutes after this shot was taken I lost visual contact, though I could hear them loud and clear on the hydropohone. They were somewhere to the south of us.



I locate a stationary ship, but it's so far out in the fog that I'm not sure if it's the capital ship I'm looking for. There's another one right next to it, so I decide to risk it. I send two torps toward each of the targets. They're set to magnetic.





The first one turns out to be a 7k tanker, which is still cool, but the other one is a puny little 1k destroyer. I immediately start moving out of there, heading further north toward the inside of the harbor.



Those British scientists are always up to something. How the hell am I supposed to hit levitating ships?



Another pair of targets is spotted. The one shown above is a tanker, but a little to the left of it is the reason why we're here: a capital ship. I set my tops to magnetic and send all four towards it.











In a single attack on the Nelson Battleship we've achieved the tonnage from the previous patrol. All we have to do now is sneak out of here. However, just as I'm starting to hear the pings I spot another big target out in the fog. Should I go for it? One of the torpedoes has almost finished loading...





A single torpedo takes out Renown Battlecruiser. I have no idea how the hell we're going to sneak out of here after all the mayhem we've caused, but at least we'll go down feeling proud.



Luck smiles on us this night, and after some evasion tactics we're out of the harbor and back in the eastern channel. We surface for air and rush toward the mouth of the channel and the deep waters.



A destroyer is spotted as we're exiting the channel, but it doesn't see us.





We wait until we've put a fair number of miles between us and the destroyer before surfacing. We spend the day on the surface, turning up the engine to flank speed. I'm out of torps and want to reach the home port as soon as possible.





We dive once or twice to avoid aircraft.





Poland surrenders during our trip home.





A small French vessel is sunk near our home port.



We dock at midnight and a shiny new medal awaits us there as a reward for our glorious 72k tonnage.

Good going!...?

I have enjoyed the two updates immensely, but could you possible explain some of the game mechanics to us who don't know much about the game? I presume that you have to complete the mission or lose the game, but what is the incentive to sink higher tonnages than what you are ordered to sink.

Do the medals and accolades account for anything other than personal pride, or do they let you get new equipment for your sub?

Forgive my ignorance. Carry on.

I don't think you can lose the game if you fail to complete the missions. Maybe that was so in the vanilla version, but I think the modded game allows you to continue playing however you want. I think you can completely ignore the missions and just go hunting after the targets that interest you or simply sail to any place in the world. But to be honest, in my campaigns I usually do stick to the missions, so I'm really not sure how it would work out if you failed some of them.

You earn renown for every kill, and with renown point you can buy better equipment and better torpedoes once they become available. However, German tech is pretty shitty compared to the shiny toys the Allies have, so it's no big deal even if you just stick with what you get at the beginning. I just picked up the improved hydro because it has a 360 degree coverage. I think that later in the game a decoy launcher becomes available, but it may be bugged. There's a mod for it but I didn't include it as it's not perfectly in sync with Open Horizons II, which is the mod that opens up the campaign and gives you all sorts of missions.

The new version I have installed should actually give me missions to go hunting in wolf packs with other German submarines, and I'm really looking forward to that. Here's one such patrol:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=188286 (you might have to read from the last page, Subsim occasionally has a weird way of ordering the posts in a thread).

Ah. Many thanks.

are there any signs of this : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuttling_ ... Scapa_Flow in the silent hunter 5 version of scapa flow ?

No, at least in the un-modded game (no idea if OH II added anything like that) and honestly it does not need to be, most of those ships were salvaged before WWII even started, I would say its more important to have the barrier ships and the Churchill Barriers that having the wrecks of 7 WW I ships.

important ? no ... nice fluff ? yes

reading about scapa flow in this LP just reminded me of the scuttling and i was wondering how deep the fluff side of sh5 is as this was a rather big deal for the german navy (and its self confidence)

Well according to wikipedia the remaining ships have 20 meters of water over then, meaning at best they are just a navigational hazard.

So in normal conditions you would never see them, its not like the USS Arizona were its superstructure was still above water (and was like that in SH4), I am pointing this out because SH5 does not even have the Laboe Naval Memorial, even as fluff goes there is a lot that have priority over them.

Not to say it seems the game just creates the seabed as it goes, it random meaning wrecks are going to be a rather big problem if the game creates the seabed on the fly.

Not much if you are looking at accurate representation of ships, the Graf Zeppelin is not in the game (at least un-modded) and there several mid-representations of ships (like the HMS Eagle that is using the HMS Illustrious mesh, also the German 3.7 cm Twin SK C/30 guns are missing), not to say we have entirely made up aircraft, I suppose because of licensing issues.

Events ... it can be done, it seems SH5 uses a rather capable mission editor so if you want re-enact historical events you can do that even in the campaign, however things can be held back by what you can actually do in the game ... you can only command a Type VII sub that, naturally, limits your range of action.

yeah, it does make sense to randomly generate it, as you normally wouldn't have the outside camera on or go deep enough to see it, if you did... still i'd prefer actual seabed data with some sightseeing stuff

oh wow... really ? ffs

Yes, it have a 3 engines PBY Catalina and a Liberator with a B-17 tail, both are from Consolidated that no longer exists but was brought by McDonnell Douglas that closed it, what is really irritating is the 3 engine Catalina as its the only US flyboat and also its used by Britain.

I would also say there is the odd omission, there are no TBF Avenger and instead we have the SB2A Buccaneer, they also are using the F2A Buffalo that a very odd choice instead of the Wildcat.

The issues seem to be limited to US aircraft, Germany have the Me 109, Ju 87, Ju 88 and other known aircraft and somewhat unknown aircraft (the FW 200 Condor and BV 138), Britain have the Hurricane, Mosquito, Swordfish, Wellington, Beaufighter, Beaufort and Wallrus as I understand people are going to talk about the Spit not being on it but I would say the Spit would be used as a interceptor and would not go looking for U-Boats much, that was the Hurricane job.

There are also Italian aircraft since there is a Med campaign choice ... the Macchi C.200, Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 and the CANT Z.501, I suppose its a acceptable rooster as the Macchi seem to been the most used Italian aircraft, the Savoia was used in Malta as well being the most produced bomber as the Z501 seem to been their only seaplane, it was already obsolete in 1940 and it was only retired in 1950 ... it served during the entire war. So I am not going to voice anything despite FIAT also being a Aircraft manufacturer and several FIAT aircraft being in service during WW II.

this is awesome

Maybe you'll stumble in a carrier's way... maybe.

Sinking a carrier would be epic. Specially because of how all its escorts would start the hunt.

Also, only Type VII can be commanded in this one? Not interested until modders fix it and add at least Type IX and Type XXI.

One of the objectives in the sinking of HMS Ark Royal.

Not really, sinking warships is hard because they outrun you even when emerged so if they detect you they can simply speed up and leave you behind ... escorts seem to usually stay in formation as they can keep up.

Its not a bad tactic since most warships lack the ability to sink a submerged U-Boat so they dont risk it, they will not be shy of shelling you if they can do that.

Yes, only the Type VII A/B/C/41.

The Type IX is not available and the Type XXI would not even be available as without mods as the game ends in 1943 and historically the Type XXI suffer so many construction issues only 4 out of 118 were fit for combat when the war ended.

The problem to why mods have not "fix it" is ... the interior as if you cannot see in the screenshoots you can walk from the forward torpedo tube section to the aft torpedo tube section.

after a bit of googlefu i found this list of included vehicles... seems pretty extensive so i guess the omissions aren't that bad. actually it'd be more irritating to include spitfires or seafires than to leave them out. the only way a seafire would hit a submarine was if it rolled off a carrier and landed on one. they weren't really built with the focus on having a good downward view. so all fine there... but goddamn that three engined catalyna abomination thing... that's just horrible on so many levels... the missing cockpit, the triple fin, the extra B&V engine construction.

i mean look at that:


and compare with this (civilian version, so lacks the nose turret... but at least it has a cockpit):


rather not include it at all.


oh btw.: great LP, Quilty... sorry to interrupt... but look at that thing...

This looks like an interesting LP, keep it coming!

Do you know Falcon 3.0? One of the really cool things in that flight sim was how that your performance in critical missions had a direct impact on the way the fictional Second Korean War depicted in it progressed. Sure, submarine convoy raiding never had the same strategic importance that air supremacy has in the contemporary battlefield, but it would be cool if sinking enough convoys would starve out British forces in North Africa to the point of aiding Rommel to get all the way to the Suez, or if you really make the lend-lease shipments to Soviet Union bleed dry, for example, and make changes in the course of history deviating from how things happened in the real world.

Of course being an alternatehistoryfag rather than a historicalrealismfag, I would enjoy such a feature in a subsim.

Also, considering that if you perform well in SH games, by 1945 you'd be using iron crosses as paperweights, I see nothing wrong in the U-boat commander you play as being given the privilege of being one of the few who gets one of the Type XXI U-boats if he is one of the Top 4 U-boat aces.