I've gone through the German side of your MOD a little more in detail and found some inconsistences and obvious errors.
1°
Quote:
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In the stock game both German officer and enlisted ranks were primarily made up of Cadet ranks save E-1 through E-3 and O-1 (they were the only non cadet ranks).
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That simply isn't true. Stock ranks are ALL non cadet ranks save O-1 (Fähnrich z.S.) and O-2 (Oberfähnrich z.S.). The problem here lies in the fact that there were more ranks in the Kriegsmarine than in any other branch of the Wehrmacht. To be precise, there were no less than 12 non officer ranks (without cadet ranks!). Since the game limits the number of ranks to 13 (well... I suppose, I don't know really, you can perhaps confirm), you have to leave out some ranks.
The Kriegsmarine had 3 subdivisions of enlisted personnel, Unteroffiziere (NCOs) beeing further subdivided into 2 classes, "mit/ohne Portepee" (allowed/not allowed to wear a sword):
A) Mannschaften (Seamen)
B) Unteroffiziere ohne Portepee (NCOs without sword)
C) Unteroffiziere mit Portepee (NCOs with sword)
D) Fähnriche (Cadet officer ranks)
E) Offiziere (COs)
The ranks were as follows:
A 1 = Matrose
A 2 = Matrosengefreiter
A 3 = Matrosenobergefreiter
A 4 = Matrosenhauptgefreiter
A 5 = Matrosenstabsgefreiter
A 6 = Matrosenoberstabsgefreiter
B 1 = Bootsmannsmaat
B 2 = Oberbootsmannsmaat
C 1 = Bootsmann
C 2 = Stabsbootsmann
C 3 = Oberbootsmann
C 4 = Stabsoberbootsmann
D 1 = Fähnrich zur See (cadet rank)
D 2 = Oberfähnrich zur See (cadet rank)
E 1 = Leutnant zur See
E 2 = Oberleutnant zur See
E 3 = Kapitänleutnant
etc.
Even if their names are almost the same, there is a big difference between Unteroffiziere without and with Portepee, C1-C4 being much closer (in terms of uniforms, esteem etc.) to real officers than to B1-B2. So despite the denominations the dividing line within enlisted ranks runs between A/B and C rather than between A and B/C.
Now, the stock game had the following ranks (all with their correct names):
A1
A2
A3
(A4-6 were left out)
B1
B2
C1
C2
C3
C4
D1 cadet rank
D2 cadet rank
E1
Since I see no reason to include cadet ranks (especially when there is already a limitation), I fully approve your decision to leave them out and to include E2 and E3
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But you also left out B1 and B2 and replaced them with A4 and A5, a choice I cannot approve for several reasons. First, you left out a whole class of NCOs. Second, it doesn't reflect history: while there were many U-Boote on which there were no A5 or A6, there was hardly a single one whithout a B1 or B2. (You can take a look at this site, which provides information about almost every crew member of the German U-Boot-Fleet:
http://ubootwaffe.net/crews).
So I would suggest to use the following ranks (please let me know if you need pictures of rank insignia)
E1 / A 1 = Matrose
E2 / A 2 = Matrosengefreiter
E3 / A 3 = Matrosenobergefreiter
E4 / B 1 = Bootsmannsmaat
E5 / B 2 = Oberbootsmannsmaat
E6 / C 1 = Bootsmann
E7 / C 2 = Stabsbootsmann
E8 / C 3 = Oberbootsmann
E9 / C 4 = Stabsoberbootsmann
O1 / E 1 = Leutnant zur See
O2 / E 2 = Oberleutnant zur See
O3 / E 3 = Kapitänleutnant
(The non-inclusion of A4 remains a problem, but due to the known limitation it is the better choice after all.)
But even if you don't want to make these changes, you really have to change the rank names in your Ranks.upc file, because a Feldwebel etc. simply doesn't exist in the Kriegsmarine (save in the coastal artillery and in some other very special branches like the Navy musicians) and you used the same name (Matrosenobergefreiter) for two different ranks. In that case, please rename the ranks as follows:
E1 = Matrose
E2 = Matrosengefreiter (better without hyphen)
E3 = Matrosenobergefreiter
E4 = Matrosenhauptgefreiter
E5 = Matrosenstabsgefreiter (NOT: Matrosenober-gefreiter)
E6 = Bootsmann (NOT: Feldwebel)
E7 = Stabsbootsmann (NOT: Stabsfeldwebel)
E8 = Oberbootsmann (NOT: Oberfeldwebel)
E9 = Stabsoberbootsmann (NOT: Oberstabsfeldwebel)
O1 = Leutnant zur See
O2 = Oberleutnant zur See
O3 = Kapitänleutnant
2°
The shoulder board of Oberleutnant zur See in the bust_G02.dds file lacks the golden star.
3°
The officer shoulder boards in the crew management screen are upside down in respect to all other (enlisted) rank insignia. Is that intentional?
4°
The new background screen (showing a U.S. rear admiral) is also shown for German decorations. Is there a possibility to include two separate screens for each Navy? If not, will it suffice to delete the AwardsBackground.dds file from your MOD folder to bring back the stock brown screen?