[BillCar]

All good points, and I agree with the sentiment that having the boat on the surface for the vast majority of time is preferable (especially in the event of crossing paths with a ship of any kind with very low battery power – a merchant you can't attack, or a warship you can't evade).

I myself frequently detect smoke on the horizon with my binoculars, as that is how I keep track of my relative position to the enemy when flanking by day. However, I don't believe I've ever had my watch crew spot smoke – whenever I hear "Schiff gesichtet!" it's always already completely over the horizon, and about 15km away. I wonder if this is a byproduct of the GWX 16km environment or if I just have a really, really negligent watch crew.

In any case, I really wish that the watch crew spotting smoke was more effectively modeled – it'd be a big help!