Is the rec manual paradigm still screwy?
 

Just curious.

If by 'screwy' you mean 'use master for some, funnels for others, some the mast', then yes -- yes it is.

is there any info on what ships to use funnel and what ships to use mast? cant find any thread on it but im sure its been discussed.

No, I mean does it not resemble any RL rec manual, both in look, AND in the way the submariners used it to determine what ship they were attacking?

In SH4, the rec manual was nothing at all like a real one. The RL ONI manual has the observer note certain general characteristics which then takes them to the right area of the manual. Passenger, Composite, Split, or engines aft?

Answer that, then go to stern type (cruiser or counter), then that gets you to a section, then look at Mast/Kingposts/Funnel arrangements to narrow it (MKFM, MFM, etc). Also, the ability to have data in it not be accurate if that is appropriate would be nice.

Everything about the way they did the rec manual stank, IMO. It was also very hard to mod in a useful way.

I'm not where I can launch the game to verify this, but I think you can select hull shape, number of funnels, and a couple other things so when you scroll through the ships to select the correct one only those that fit your criteria are left.

Not sure that's what you had in mind though.

It's a love hate relationship:

The good:
- no more 30+ countries to browse through
- class of target automatically selected
- ability to filter with bow shape, number of funnels, type of castle (superstructure)

The bad:
- only side profiles
- a few identical ships
- no info whatsoever on mast, max speed, length and so on
- the draft is indicated at the torpedo settings but the values seem to be wrong

In all you spend much less time finding ships... but then again you get used to sinking just 2-3 types so...

Forget the friggin' stadimeter! Use the ruler in the navigation tools. It's good enough (...for government work)