SSN isn't as arcade as it looks. When you go up against the more capable enemies like Akulas and Kilos it can be very challenging. Its main shortcomings were the poorly done surface forces and helicopters which always felt like they didn't have time to complete those features.
In fact, I liked SSN so much and it did so much right that it is one of the major influences on Cold Waters; the others being Red Storm Rising and Fast Attack.
Also, the reason the designations are not there is because none of the sub games that influenced us had them, and so it never occured to us. We've also had to shorten the unit names anyway to fit our minimalist GUI, and I have about 10gb worth of UI concepts to not want to redesign it again.
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