SOP (or how I got ALL the game))

[wetwarev7]

OKies, so I'm sitting here at my desk at work, thinking about how I run a tighter ship at home than my boss does here, and how when I give an order everyone jumps to it, and how my sailors wouldn't dare accuse me of goofing off just because I've got my feet up and in a reclined position while on watch, and how noone would give me icy stares just because I barge into thier cubicle and demand a report on the nearest sound contact. And then I remember why I started this thread.

I'm a tad bored, so I figured I'd share with everyone some of the things I do to make Silent Hunter a bit more interesting. As if it wasn't interesting enough already. :p

I've allways liked the idea of doing a patrol in real time, but as I have to go to work every day, and the wife has no appreciation for waking up in the middle of the night to screams of "ALAAAAARM!!!" and the general mayhem that follows, it's a tad impractical for me.

What I have done to attempt to reconcile the loves of my life is this:
When I get home in the evening, I load up my previous save from the night before and use time compression to move the game clock up to match the actual time, and then run the patrol in real time. This gives me almost a full shift on watch in the evenings, more on the weekends, and allows the entire patrol to last as long as it should.

A couple of problems with this though. One, I during the week, it is allways nighttime in the sub, while on the weekends it's allways daytime. (I never get to see sunrise or sunset )

Two, when I speed up time to match what time it really is, I will sometimes run into a contact which has to be investigated and dealt with, and when it's all over, I then fast foward the time again till I get it to it's proper....er...time.

Niether of these problems is really all that much of a big deal, but the second one does tend to lessen the feeling of 'being on watch' as it were. Also, it brings up the question of when do I turn time compression on to sync up the clocks afterwards. If I wait untill all contacts are no longer detectable, that can sometimes take a whole shift, depending on our relative courses, and considering how many hours I can and have stood watch with no contacts whatsoever I am loathe to fast forward through any contact experience.

Any ideas?

Also, what does everyone else do when 'standing watch'? I tend to roam the boat, run drills, sometimes manning equipment to let my sailors go above deck for a smoke, send out progress reports, make entries into my captains log, check gauges, etc...

Is the Captain allowed to kick back and read a book while on watch, or are they expected to do it properly and set a good example?

Thanks for reading!