Part of real life that can never really be replicated by a simulator is that of standing watch, like Steve says. If you're lucky you're outside on the periscope shears scanning the horizon with binoculars that seem like they weigh several tons, back an forth across your quadrant in a prescribed search pattern over and over again for four hours.
You can't allow yourself to stop and think about anything else, read a book or even to take the binoculars away from your eyes except to clean the lenses. Then it's back, scanning the empty ocean hour after hour on the off-chance that one week you'll actually sight an opportunity or a threat. It's perhaps the most grueling, boring job on the boat, and everyone's safety depends on it, including your own!
If you're not so lucky you could spend four hours scanning pressure gauges on the off-chance that one might be anomalous one day.
No game would reproduce that because people wouldn't buy the simulation of boredom/vigilance.
There are times when I just go to 1x, hit the bridge, turn up the tunes and enjoy the submarine. But most of the time I'm playing I have a pretty set routine.
- When I'm just in transit, I'm at 2048x or two steps higher at night, relying on my radar to pick up targets. If i'm in a target-rich area, I will go to periscope depth periodically, throttle back to 1x and do a sweep every 40 miles or so.
- When I'm in a high traffic area in the daytime I never go above 1024x and sometimes 512x because I want to pop out of TC with plenty of time to react. If your time compression is too high you can pop out in the middle of a not so friendly fleet of DDs. That's not nice.
- In air patrolled areas I'm at max 1024x. When I pop out for a plane sighting, I draw a 5 mile radius circle around my boat, mark the position of the plane and go to 8x. If the plane will enter the 5 mile radius I go to periscope depth with the "P" key, no crash dive. I time the dive so I'm at 40' or below when he crosses the line. I raise the radar antenna. If the plane is not coming closer than a mile I'll just sit there and watch him go by. If he is coming closer than a mile but not directly overhead, I'll lower the antenna long enough for him to pass and pop it back up when he's a mile away going away. If he's coming directly overhead in smooth water, I'll take her to 110', hit periscope depth immediately when I reach depth, pop up the antenna. In all cases when he passes the 5 mile circle going away I hit surface. I'm at 8x or 16x all during this.
- Back on the surface I go back to my normal time compression of 1024x.
- Upon contact with enemy vessels, either by sonar or by radar, I begin running at 1x and don't leave real time until the end of the engagement.
That's pretty much it. Sometimes if I have a long range sonar contact I'll use limited time compression to see how the bearing changes on approach. But in all cases, once there is visual contact I never leave 1x.
So pretty much, if I'm not in action and want to enjoy the sub, I do it. But otherwise time compression is my friend.
