hello and a big welcome from everyone to the game. its always good to play stock for quite sometime to get your bearings in game. it will give you some decent senses for when you decide to mod your SH3 to bring it up to a much higher standard.
you will find endless information on this website about the game like hunting /evasion techniques, graphics boosters, super mods, solutions to bugs and answers to any possible question you could think of.
personally i started the game 4 months ago and like you was completely hooked. i say it will take that long of constant playing in stock before you get really bored and want to start checking out the all the cool mods available and i wish you some happy sailing herr kaluen