Have just returned to SH3 after a long, long, layoff and I'm stunned by what's going on!
Many thanks for breathing some new life into Mikhayl's superb (but unfinished) mod.
I see from your list that you are planning to include Racerboy's engine smoke. Strictly speaking this is not accurate as the S Boots exhausts were below the water line.
Mention this mainly in case the engine smoke deletion would help to reduce the graphic overhead and enable you to include the smoke screen generation ???
Would love to see this, even if it didn't actually provide any "cover" in game.