I'll just address two things, since AVG has done a pretty good job here:
- Charts (note: only landlubbers use maps!
): the charts you see in the control rooms were downloaded from the NOAA website. With the shortage of charts, especially early in the war, these may or may not have been used by boats going on patrol. Also, do note the areas the charts cover: the Philippine Islands and Hawaii. It would thus be logical to believe these areas would be detailed, as the U.S. had long occupied these areas before the war began. While I have plenty of good charts from the Kriegsmarine, I have not found a single US navy chart from the WWII era.
- Renown and radar: yes, like others here, I don't totally like the way renown works in the game. It reminds me of arcades where one redeems their tokens to claim a prize.
In reality, radar and sonar was added to the subs as the equipment and time was available to install them. It wasn't really contingent on a commander's success at all. Now, guns were a slightly different matter, as it was really up to the commander (within certain limits, of course) what type of gun armament he wanted for his boat. Thus, the renown system works alright here.
In a perfect world, radar, just like the conning towers, should be installed automatically between patrols, based on the time period being simulated. Gun upgrades should pretty much stay like they are now, IMO.
As a final note, do note I am working on an entirely new renown system for RFB 2.0. The bigger the merchant, the more renown one will earn (not to mention, transports and oil tankers will carry a higher renown value than your garden variety maru
). In addition, the cost of all equipment will depend on how many ships of a given class had the equipment installed at a given time. It's a big project (mainly because of the huge numbers of Gato and Balao class boats commissioned), but I think it will be doable.