The idea of 'special abilities' always bothered me and seemed to be paving the way for Silent Hunter to attract a wider audience. Things like that are way too 'rpg-ish' for me. Yes, they need to make money in order to continue the series, but if it has to be at the expense of the sim's quality (in relation to technical specifications), then that flat-out sux for us who care about such things. [Obviously the folks who want to stand on the bridge and shoot at low flying aircraft with a pistol could care less...
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The idea of the crew qualifying for a certain job, and getting new boats / gear / promotions based on performance is normal, rather than just randomly assigning some 'super ability' based on sinking X amounts of tons.
Same with decorations, they need to scale with the performance of the patrols.