We have been attempting to "balance" the upgrade process. We want to have to where a player is not discouraged when they actually do good, but by the same token, not have the game hand them everything in the first six months, which is what we were having. Version 81 was turned-down in that regard. Also, with TMO, Ducimus found a few things of interest that still applies, and that is the "math" involved in producing the skippers "score", both in renown, and also in their Patrol performance. It works out that if you score poorly on your first or second patrols, that you are in a big hole and don't even know it, as far as the scoring is concerned. We hope to have a "Pointers" pdf for the initial release that will have information on the way the game scores, and what you need to accomplish to succeed. In the meantime, with v0.81, it is rather tough to advance in both boats and conning towers. As for the guns, v0.81 has an 'experiment' in it that tested fine in the laboratory, but once in the wild, did not function as intended. If you are in port at the time the guns are available to change, it all works fine, but under certain circumstances, the old original SH4 Gun Bug still reaches out and bites... We've got another attempt coming in the next v0.9x coming out soon.
