yeh the first thing im doing when i get the game i will test the damage scamatics

the boats were only divided into three watertight compartments, Aft, COmmand Room and Fore. so the command room could hold survivors until rescued...

sorry wrong topic

They better be able to die, this is war, if they can't die, then where is the risk?

In some games, certain characters are flagged as essential and cannot be killed. In Oblivion, for instance, there are mods to remove the essential flag from all characters, but you run the risks of it breaking the plot/quests. I suspect there's something similar going on here. Certain crewman, the "bio'd" ones, likely cannot be killed. But the rest of the crew probably can. It might be possible to edit the files to allow essentials be killed, but care would have to be taken to ensure it doesn't break the game. Having a means to replace killed crew, for instance, would be required. Assuming that other crew members can be killed, which is far from certain, there would be a method to replacing them. If none of the crew can be killed, then there's likely to means to replace them. All conjecture, of course.

I wish we could have an answer at some point before next thursday. This is a buy or not to buy issue for me. The idea that they would release a submarine simulator set during world war 2 and not give the crew the ability to die is beyond me.