[Vaux]

Hello, everyone! I was a big fan of the original Silent Hunter. I bought it when it came out and literally played it for years. As time passed, and my PCs were replaced with newer hardware and operating systems, it got to the point where it wouldn't run anymore.

I tried Silent Hunter II, but didn't like it nearly as much. I played one carreer through and never played it again. It lacked the "free-form" aspect of the original SH (being able to roam at will during campaign play), crashed a lot and, frankly, I just prefer the Pacific Theater.

Fast-forward a few more years and I stumble across my original SH disk while going through some boxes. I decided to see if there was an update, and I discovered SH4. I got it about a month ago and have been playing it a few hours a week. I'm rapidly becoming just as hooked on this one as the original SH.

I did the tutorial missions, found out for my self just how crappy the "manual" is, and have lurked around this site for a couple of weeks. I've had many questions answered and learned a lot here at SubSim (thanks everyone!).

I do have some un-answered questions, though:

1) I've just finished my 5th patrol on my first carreer. On my first patrol, I got jumped by a Betty bomber and didn't dive fast enough. Minor damage to my boat and my gun crew and I were injured (I was on the bridge). When I RTBed, I was awarded a Purple Heart. Cool... but now, after every patrol, I'm awarded a Purple Heart, even though I haven't been injured again. Only one award shows up in my "Medal Box" in my office, but after completing each subsequent patrol I see the picture of the medal and the citation. Interestingly, it has the date of the encounter where I was actually injured. Looking at my log for each mission when in my office shows "Award" as the last entry for each patrol. Is this normal? I've pulled off a couple of impressive actions during some patrols (in my mind at least) and I'm suspecting this "bug" is preventing me from getting other medals.

2) After completing my last patrol, I was given the opportunity to take a Salmon-class boat, which I did. Leaving Brisbane, I decided to see what it can do before getting in the thick of things. The red needle on the shallow depth gauge (periscope depth) is at ~55feet. When I call for periscope depth, my fully extended periscope is still about 3 feet below the surface, even in glassy-calm conditions. Bug?

3) The original SH had a "leader board" that showed your total tonnage to date and compared it with other, historical skippers. Is there anything like that in SH4?

4) In Crew Management, why are some of my crew's photos black and white? They seem to eventually become color photos... they seem to go to black and white when I move them between slots.

5) The original SH had a hot key for Radar Depth ("R", IIRC), dos SH4 have something similar?

Sorry, for the long-winded introductory post. It's been fun getting back into the Pacific Theater after so many years away!

Vaux