I got the game today and I am in
love. This is without a doubt one of the best games I've ever played.
I spent about four hours clumsily doing my first patrol and finding no targets or convoys at all, but I think that's because I didn't really go out of my way to identify anything on the way to my sector, which was empty. I assumed I was meant to behave and just run along to my patrol and then the game would crudely generate a convoy or something, but it's clearly better than that.
The only flaw I've bumped into is that the war ended after my first patrol and my last save was too far back to bother reloading. The game runs fine, but the tips above helped a lot (good post) and I've trimmed up a lot of the config files. There is a graphic artifact that flickers on the center horizon on deck though, but only through naked eye.
Hopefully I'll get better at manual aiming and plotting contacts/attacks. Anyone know of a good base level tutorial? The Naval Academy missions are good, but the things that confuse me are tactics, common patrol procedure and just generally how people play the game. I'm twitchy and indecisive and find myself randomly checking different things or adjusting depth but for no real reason because I don't know what a normal cruise depth is or how often I should be dropping down to listen.
This whole U-boatery thing is getting to me. I'm going to go and watch Das Boot - Directors Cut.