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Originally Posted by Beery
As for it not being a good idea to simulate actual survivability, I disagree. I did it with RUb and RUb was the most popular mod for SH3 among players who strove to play historically. I see no point in making a mod that factors in a player's tendency to play carelessly - my mods aren't intended for such players. Players of RUb and RFB should always play as if their lives depend on the outcome. That's the only way these mods can be played properly. Anyway, real skippers sometimes took suicidal risks, so I think the notion that we all play too carelessly to be able to simulate reality is a false one. Real skippers were brave and went into harm's way at probably the same rate a careful player of SH4 does.
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I'm not saying it shouldn't be a factor, but I would not use it as the baseline for realism decisions (i.e. will this or will this not cause an overall improvement in survival rates). I'm also not saying artificial difficulty should be inserted wherever possible, but some heightened difficulty in specific areas compensates for much greater ease than real life in other areas. Take for example your average Japanese task force. A powerful, well-escorted task force that has had its AI tuned in such a way to bring about a global reduction in loss rate will present an incredibly easy target for a player, as it will not be zig-zagging and will be behaving in other ways divergent from reality.
Furthermore, overall historical survival rate is based on a global tally of all subs and all missions, a reality not likely to be reflected in the game. While the survival rate of patrols to some areas was 100%, the survival rate for patrols to other areas was disastrously low. Take, for example, the suspension of patrols to the Sea of Japan in 1943. Overall global survival rate just doesn't tell the whole story. The U-boat campaign was a completely different equation with a whole different set of factors affecting survival rate. I don't think the two are directly comparable in terms of realism
within the game.