some newbie questions

[theold1]

I just bought this game (SH4 + uboat expansion). Since I like realism, I've immediately installed the follow mods - I'm sure it's a bad idea to start off with a modded game, but anyway, in order of installation:

BBC World radio
194? music for the sub's MP3 player
Environments 4.4 (have also tried POW Pacific envs 3_3)
RFB 1.5
RSRD_RFBv15_V395_RC5

Most everything is exactly how I want it, and I'm really (!) looking forward to playing this game. I haven't played a sub game since Silent Service (I) in 1987! All I've done so far is sub school. I have one problem though, and a few questions.
Problem: I seem to be getting the "torpedos are off about 20deg to port" bug. I'm using manual targeting, and I think I'm doing it OK because I can shoot moving targets in the sub school torpedo class. But if I try shooting a stationary target from 400 yards, my torpedos go off to the left *every* *time*. Like 25 out of 25 tries so far, even with the TDC speed set to zero for the target. I've searched the forums and seen references to this bug, but by all accounts the RFB 1.5 was supposed to fix it. Could it be some combination of my mods above that causes it to come back? I've even tried editing the Torpedos_US.sim file and changing the MK14 error angle to 1 degree, and the chance to 0.5 instead of 1, and this has no effect - every single shot goes to the left. Yet in deep water I can hit moving targets (well, sometimes...). This might be almost a showstopper for me if I can't hit unmoving targets. I still have to try this mod-free, but I would really not want to give up my mods if I can possibly help it .

Questions:

1. For visual observation, if there is a small landmass between me and the enemy observer, does the game take into account that a landmass is in the way and he can't see me through it? Or does land effectively "not exist" for this purpose?

2. It seems there are shallow depths at which I cannot run the sub. I can run surfaced (~15 ft to keel), or at depths over 30 ft, but I can't put my keel at, say, 25 ft and just run the engine intake out of the water. The sub just won't obey that command. Is that right and/or realistic? I wanted to find a depth at which I could get the engine intakes out of the water while the main body of the boat was underwater, so I could better avoid detection while still recharging batteries.

3. *EDIT* Is there any way to get my ship system settings to keep their values when I move from station to station? For example, I can set the radar to sweep mode instead of focus, but if I move to the deck and back to the radar station, it's set back to focus again.

4. *EDIT* I see a big difference between the range to target I measure with the stadimeter, and the range I measure on the map if I'm surfaced and have a box showing the contact location. I'm pretty sure I have entered the ship's mast height correctly from the identification manual. Somehow though the range I measure with the stadimeter is much shorter than what the ruler says for the distance from my sub to the contact on the map. I'm not sure which one to believe

I guess that's all for now. Just a newbie looking forward to his first patrol and trying to iron out some early issues... thanks for any help!

(PS - the game seems to run great for me with all gfx detail maxed. No crashes or lockups so far).