[in_vino_vomitus]

An idle thought that popped into my head....

A couple of days ago, in the stationery store, buying the bits to build a Submarine Attack Course Finder I saw a pack of five school exercise books and boxes of pencils for a quid each and I realised they were exactly what I needed for SHIV. Since I removed my sub from the map and started using Dead reckoning and star fixes, I've found it too easy to lose track of [a] my position and [b] the scraps of paper I've scribbled it down on, so now i find myself with a log for each of my installed versions of the game [what can I say, I'm greedy]

Anyway, last night, spending several hours navigating by DR from one side of Luzon to the other a thought crystallised, that's been sloshing around in my head for quite a while, how we add a feature and suddenly the game we're playing is very different. The Nav. thing is a pretty radical change, but it made me think of others. Learning the Do'K method and switching off auto-targetting; installing MOBO and learning bearings-only TMA; Reading the reprints of things like the Torpedo fire control manual. I realise opinion is divided on this, but Cap'n Scurvy's OTC mod and the Omnimeter included with it was, up until now, the biggest game changer. Mainly because suddenly I had accurate range data, even before radar. I could go on, but to be honest this is a bit wordy already.

So my point. Anyone want to fire in with their game changers? Some small, or not so small adoption of tools or technique that's changed your game experience to whatever degree?

I have no real point to make here - I'm scribbling this down purely in the interests of idle conversation, but if anyone who reads this happens to be responsible for any of the things I've mentioned above [And many I haven't] I guess huge thanks are in order.

P.S. for folks who like doing the whole "Print it out and laminate it to foam board" thing - You can make an Omnimeter pretty much in the same way you make the IsWas, using the graphic in the OTC documentation. Hitman's Spread angle calculator at 75% size fits nicely on the back, and if you've already made your whiz wheel, you can ditch the attached distance to run time conversion, in favour of the TSD calculator on the reverse side of that. To be honest I find the tools easier to use if I can pick them up.