SH3 Bugs and Workarounds help please

I'm sorry if this is a repost. I tried searching for similar threads but didn't get lucky.

There's a problem with earining renown that I've read about, one that has a workaround. The way I understand it you have to spent it before a mission, not after it (or was it the other way around?) At least I saw something like this mentioned in the Gray Wolves 1.1 readme.

What I don't understand is how I can tell if it's before or after a mission. The way I see it before = after a mission. It's the same screen, isn't it? Do I have to exit the campaign and then reload to before a mission to by some new hardware? Do I have to avoid buying something and then leaving the campaign?

Also, I don't think any of my crewmen are actually gaining any experience. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong here or if it's a bug, but after a patrol none of my crewmen have gained XP and I can't find a single one with a medal, even though the after-mission report says that my crew has earned some.

And while I'm at it, I think I've encountered a bug in the Gray Wolves 1.1 mod. While the harbours were alive with activity I've only found cargo ships that were dead in the water during my patrols. Is that normal?

If someone could clear some of this up for me I'd really appriciate it.

after you finish a mission and dock at your port, you will get s screen showing a "summary" of the ships you sank, tonnage, etc. go back a couple of screens (with the bottom left arrow button) until you see an overview of your "office". at the top left is a drawer corresponding to CREW. here you can enrol new officers/crew and/or award the medals, promotions etc. it is here that you should do this.

as far as i know, you must do this before starting another mission, ie. just after arriving on port.

hope this helps.

[AVGWarhawk]

GW only said do not upgrade your boat before the first mission. Other than that you can upgrade when you want.

The crew is getting experience. You have to award the medals in the crew recruiting screen. It it not done automatically. You are the captian so go award these medals.

Yes, GW has plenty of dead cargos in ports. There should be a few ships moving about.

Thank you

These dead ships weren't in any port. It'd make sense to find them there, docking or doing whatever it is ships do in a port. I found them during my patrols in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes two of them in a small convoy. Is that normal, too?

[AVGWarhawk]

Actually the ghost ships out in the ocean are not GW related. I have found this on one patrol. Sunk them both. Anyway, this was also noted in the vanilla version. Kind of spooky seeing them just sitting there smoking but no movement. Oh well, sink the bastard! I believe they spawn or were put in for the patrol but never given waypoints. Oh well, I have only seen this twice, once in vanilla and once in GW. Like I said, sink'em anyway for the fun of it. Also a great time to practice your depth and magnetic triggers set up on torpedos.