A good list, however, for my pennyworth, playable escorts would have to be top of the list, so that when you're detected allied players can either man the ship in asdic contact, or, can continue to man the ship they spawned into. By blurring the difference between AI and human controlled escorts, so that U-boat captains can no longer rely on knowing their behaviour, visual safe distances etc, all escorts would have to be treated as if manned, and all DC attacks would in all likelihood last much longer.
I think to strike the right gameplay balance between time invested in game, and opportunity to detect and/or attack a U-boat, tying a player to a single escort ship is not going to be an attractive system. I would suggest that players could join an escort in asdic contact, or any escort at will, provided more than say circa 8-15 minutes has elapsed since they last changed ship. This final wrinkle is arguably needed to prevent players jumping between ships to prosecute attacks on the same U-boat at a rate faster than the reload speed of the escort they started with....
Sea-mines might be fun in the North Sea/English Channel - cables scraping along the hull, reversing the U-boat to allow them to lose the cable and avoid dragging the mine onto the hull...
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