Observations on Realistic Realism and gameplay

[AVGWarhawk]

Running with decks awash provided both advantages and disadvantages. It did reduce the boat's silhouette in calm seas or if the moon was behind the boat. You could still use radar and have the lookouts stationed. But there was a huge disadvantage to this tactic. With the decks awash, the mufflers and overboards for the main engine exhausts were submerged. The engines were not designed to continuously push water out of the exhaust pipes, it produced too much back pressure. It would blow out the exhaust manifolds on the engines or even worse flood them. So if you are going to run decks awash you would secure the mains and run on the battery, and if you are going to do this you might as well run submerged. Your speed would be the same. I haven't tried this in the game yet, so I don't know if the speed issue is modeled correctly.

You can run decks awash in the game but the diesels will still be working. You can get the submarine to a point were the electric motors will kick in. At this point, you are pretty much submerged. So, yes, one might as well just submerge fully as you suggested. As far as speed while in game, your speed drops to about 10 knots when at decks awash and full ahead. It is a very fine line in the game when running decks awash on diesels or electric. Unfortunate we can not switch in game. No maneuvering room