Surface warfare would be a little more challenging since the LCS doesn't have the SM2 or any other ASM just a short-ranged ESSM and medium-caliber gun mount. Pirate targets would be more of a slugfest having to get in close, rely on USVs, or combat helos. Traditional missile fights would require an Aegis ship for protection. ASW would be interesting because of multiple UUVs to control, sound signture deception gear to fool enemies, and 40-45 knot top speed to try to out run torps:|\\ all things that the current FFG can't do. Only problem is that it adds another American platform to a game that already has a majority of American platforms.

Going back to the original question. I have been a member of Subsim since 2002 when Sub Command was the latest modern sub sim available. The SC forum had, if I remember rightly, about three times as many posts as the Silent Hunter II forum. If you look at the forums now you can see that Silent Hunter III has almost double the posts the DW forum has. It's difficult to draw any real conclusions from this on how well DW has done, and I know that DW and SHIII are totally different sims and shouldn't be compared, but it gives an indication of its popularity in the Subsim community. Personally, I think Sub Command and Dangerous Waters are both excellent sims, and I have them both, but feel that DW has received less interest from the community. Then again I could be talking total crap.

Nemo

Subcommand was so succesful because Electronic Arts was publishing it. I think the lack of advertising lead to a fewer customer numbers. At first it was sold only online, then after almost a year it started selling in shops... Hell, I found about DW when I exidentily found their site while browsing the net. And ofcourse not all are so advenced to play such game.Most of kids (main computer game players) are only capable play FPS. SHIII got so popular for beutyful graphics and dinamic campaign. Besides these things DW has it all and more... There is many factor why DW didnt or shouldnt get more popoular in simulation world. I just hope there is more simheads than this forum reflects. ( I was drunk when I wrote this... )

That's roughly how I ended up buying DW as well. I was googling around after reading an ariticle about subs, found this site and bought DW simply because it was on top of the forum (also there just happened to be a copy available at my local EB Games). DW could probably do with a ad or two.
I really didn't and still don't give too much of a damn about subs. (though if I'd run into a game like DW a decade ago I might have actually chosen them as a career)
I have to say, I really don't think the problem is so much with the visuals - the visuals actually do their job reasonably decently - but rather with the audio. The more I think about it, the more there seems to be a bunch of stuff that's done by ear at the sonar station which is not available in the game. I keep hearing about stuff like turn counts, creaking, groaning. All of which seems an important part of standard sub operations but is missing and would have gone a long way in helping imersion in the game. SCS might well have missed a trick by not including some of that in the game.