Decks awash
Wow! What a great discussion this has turned out to be. Yup, I totally agree that we should confine ourselves to historical methods. And history seems to bear out that this is a limited tactic used in special conditions, always in calm seas, usually while engaged in an attack, usually on electrics. Unfortunately, the game has no system to keep us honest, so we're all on the honor system. The game's safety system is the very high fuel consumption while in this condition. Beware of that! The same throttle position for 12 knots on the surface gets you less than 5 flooded down.
I don't think the game is fun when you cheat anyway. I'm playing to experience the same frustrations and trials that the real skippers did. I'm going to experiment with partially flooded down states to see what it does to dive times. 25' or so should keep the deck dry but allow fast dives, but like everything else in the game, experimentation is called for. I always crash dive and catch her at periscope depth as best I can. Usually I overshoot by 10' or less, so that's not too bad.
I agree that depth control is pretty good, although if I'm descending from the surface sometimes I'll unexpectedly pop back up to the surface. If I'm going to be decks awash I like to ascend into it and have had no trim problems that way.
Anybody try the "high periscope watch" technique on the surface, ala Gene Fluckey? I messed around with it a bit last night with a convoy on the horizon and I didn't think I gained anything from the scope 20' in the air that I couldn't see from the deck. That's a shame if true.
Always looking for a historically justified edge!
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