[Ludwig van Hursh]

I figured I would throw in a few suggestions as well that will help you be a bit more successful and perhaps live longer as well as feel more like a real US Fleet Boat skipper, though I am no expert like BubbleHead. I do remember when I first started playing SH3 and not even knowing how to get out of a turn because I didn't know what "Amidships" meant haha.

*Dive during the day when you are a few hundred miles from enemy territory or you will be detected by aircraft then surface at night. When you get more confident and start adding consumable resources like your batteries you will want to run at low speeds so you don't have to surface before the sun goes down to recharge.

*Use your deck gun against unarmed merchants since torpedoes are a precious commodities when on patrol and you want to save them for when you really need them like convoys. Don't be a hero and try to get into a gun fight with a destroyer, you will lose or the victory will be very hard won.

*When you chart you course, double check that you are not passing over any little tiny islands, take this from personal experience, you don't want to ground your boat when you are riding high on success or just super early. However this is realistic and the US Navy has had a alarmingly large number of groundings in its history, look up the Honda Point Disaster to see one.

That's all I can think of right now but as you go you will get more and more bold and experimental with your realism. Currently I'm working on making my own plots to better track targets to eventually get rid of the map contacts to do them on my own. I would also suggest looking up some YouTube docs on US Fleet Boats to get a better idea how they operated and the challenges they faced, notably the Mark 14 Torpedo which luckily the game doesn't fully incorporate all the little quirks it has.

Enjoy the game and good hunting!