Never had that problem, cept within 1000 yards if I left in up too long and I use TMO with a much harder self mod AI...

Never had that exact problem before either, first time for me. I suspect a programming glitch; (1) the damaged escort was inside 1000 yards and firing at the scope when I shot a spread at him, then dunked the scope, (2) he was hit in the bow so his forecastle was awash, rudder and screws halfway out of the water, he continued at 9 knots on the same course after that, (3) I popped the scope up and looked at him, noted 5000 yards then turned to look at the liner to see if he needed the deck gun to finish him off, (4) saw splashes in the water and wondered what weapon the liner was firing at me with (she WAS within 1000 yards and COULD POSSIBLY have seen the scope).

My conclusion is the fact that the escort HAD seen the scope when he was inside 500 yards somehow got stuck in memory resulting in him seeing and targeting the periscope from the ridiculous distance of over 2 1/2 nautical miles. Why reducing the max visual range from 9500 to 7500 works I have no idea, but somehow it does. 1000 yards is half a mile, and with the attack periscope we're talking about something the size of a fence post. 500 yards is more realistic, 5000 yards is impossible.

Well, one thing in the game, if one ships spots you, those not shouldn't see you often shoot at you, but that's on the surface. Also, if a light hits you, double the visuals at night.

One thing for sure, the gun skills are god like, they can bust ya quick from afar. I don't know how of if you can tone the gun crews done except by crew ratings and they screws everything else up. I did make gun loading times longer.