[Pisces]

I like your suggestions. However a few I think differently about.

Originally Posted by derstosstrupp

Test (Routine) Dive
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D – Switches to electric motors, great speed ahead, mans aft ballast vents, reports “aft vents ready, all vents ready”.

N – Marks current position on chart, gets depth under keel (reports), mans negative tank controls.

C – Shuts tower hatch, orders “Flood!”

R – Opens fwd ballast vents, reports “Forward open”. Mans diving station and sets fwd planes hard down, aft down 10, then mans hydrophone.

D – After about 5 seconds, opens aft ballast vents, reports “Aft open, vents are open”. Mans diving station.

D moves back to aft ballast vent, N to Negative valve, R to dive station. Seems like they all run crossing through eachother's path. Why not have D stay at diving station and negative, R only fwd ballast vents. And N to aft ballast vents. And their movement is as little as possible obstructed by the ladder/conningtower-base. I often got stuck or slowed my movement down.

Also, I would think that for each situation each crews movement should be the same as much as possible. So it becomes an automated reaction. Not in this situation to forward ballast vents, another to negative valves, then another situation to aft ballast vents. I can see that you gave it enough thought. But its a bit disorganized for my liking.

At 8-15 meters depth:
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D – Reports depth in 10-meter increments, having established a down angle of 5-8 deg. Levels off 2-5 meters below ordered depth, sets planes fwd up 10, aft up 15 and approaches ordered depth from below.

Approaching from below, wasn't that only with a quick shallow dive? No need to come up from below at deep depths. As far as I can remember from the document. Unless real submariners have a different view.

Originally Posted by derstosstrupp

Stations

Stations While Surfaced:

H – Bridge (Watch, Rudder) – since there is a rudder station with compass on the bridge, and the game does not require the helmsman to concentrate on holding course, he can be a set of eyes too when no rudder orders are given, concentrating on the forward sector.

I have different experiences with unmanned rudder on the surface. After I turned and left the rudder amidship on a specific heading I still noticed the boat slowly turned a few degrees or so. It interfered a bit with my plotting. That is to say, I had to correct with my attackdisk too much for my liking. This was at max speed iirc. I'm sure that would not make the Navigator happy when this happens. Also when I move around a convoy I often do so with a special kind of intercept drawing and as such a specific course to get my relative motion pointed correctly w.r.t. a convoy member. With this sim I would really like to have a helmsman that stays awake on the job. (As opposed to SH3)