[Kpt. Lehmann]

Further supporting notes from Pablo, posted at the Lair:

Regarding the question of U-boat ranges, here are some potentially useful comparisons between the real world and the world as it is modeled in Silent Hunter III:

• The surface area of the earth

  Real life: ~510 million square kilometers (km^2).
  
  SH3: ~933 million km^2 (180° N-S x 360° E-W x 14400 km^2/deg^2)

• Distance per degree of longitude at 5° N/S latitude (Penang/Jakarta)

  Real world: ~111 km
  
  SH3: 120 km

• Distance per degree of longitude at 45° N/S latitude (La Spezia)

  Real world: ~79 km
  
  SH3 World: 120 km

• Distance per degree of longitude at 63° N/S latitude (Trondheim)

  Real world: ~50 km
  
  SH3 World: 120 km

• Distance per degree of longitude at 74° N/S latitude (Svalbard)

  Real world: ~31 km
  
  SH3 World: 120 km

• Distance per degree of latitude (all latitudes)

  Real world: ~111 km
  
  SH3 World: 120 km

The complicating game factors are:

• Almost all of the gameplay in SH3/GWX occurs between 74°N latitude (Svalbard) and about 40°S latitude (Cape Town, South Africa; Melbourne, Australia)
• U-boat bases can be found from near the equator (Penang) to over 60 degrees N latitude (Trondheim).
• Silent Hunter III entails a lot of east-west sailing as well as north-south, so I don't think we should base range changes solely on the effect of changing latitude.

I suggest basing the new range on the extent to which the SH3 world is larger than the real world at the point where the U-boats are operating, as follows:

SH3: the distance from Point "A" to Point "B" is always square root of (120^2 + 120^2), or about ~170km by the Pythagorean Theorem.

Real: distance obtained from "Latitude/Longitude Distance Calculator," http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gccalc.shtml

Case 1: 45°N latitude (La Spezia)

Real life: the distance from Point "A" to Point "B" is ~136 km

The "SH3:Real" ratio is 170:136, or about 1.25:1

Case 2: 54°N latitude (Kiel)

Real life: the distance from Point "A" to Point "B" is ~128 km

The "SH3:Real" ratio is 170:128, or about 1.33:1.

Case 3: 63°N latitude (Trondheim)

Real life: the distance from Point "A" to Point "B" is ~122 km

The "SH3:Real" ratio is 170:122, or about 1.39:1

I suggest increasing the U-boat ranges from their historical values by different amounts to account for the "fat, flat, and square" world of Silent Hunter III:

• Type II U-boats: increase by about 33% for specified range/speed combinations, since they operate only in the mid-latitudes of the North Sea or the Black Sea
• Type VII, IX, and XXI U-boats: increase their range by about 25% at specified range/speed combinations, since they can or will operate from the poles to the equator, and the 25% increase roughly reflects the increased size of the world half-way between the poles and the equator.