it seems to Blei - but I have another frustration getting in the way, which is that when I go to the recognition manual, looking for the 'Maru's, as I have one approaching, the game ctd's. Twice it has done that. I pause the game and leaf through the manual and then.. CTD. Maybe this is one of the vanilla bugs Peter warned about (sigh). I seem to spend more time troubleshooting than playing.. still.. better than knitting!
I am relieved that you advocate 'shooting from the hip', as that is my tendency, not being much good at plotting, and I got quite adept at it before I stopped playing for a few months. Soon forget though!
Now I have watched the vids and copied down guidance, but when you are in the game, you just 'do it' doncha, and if I get it wrong I will go back on that save and try again. As long as OTC or similar is in place, that seems to work quite well.. ho hum..
ahh.. others have had this problem
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=145604 and the RSRD mod seemed to fix it.. I shall wait to see what you wise ones might say before I do anything
I have 1.5 of course.