Answering all your questions hunter301 (unless oldmanitis strikes and I forget one...
), but with the SD radar, it does NOT show on the radar screens... I can hear you with a "say whuh?? Why would you guys do that???" and the reply is, that is the way the game is built, for whatever reason. Even though you do not have SJ radar at the time of the Hunt For Wounded Bear patrol, the "consoles" are still visible. So you see the A-Scope view, with the green screen, and the PPI screen view, with the orange circle and the degree markers, and you have to pretend that those pieces of equipment are NOT in your conning tower, even though you accidentally run into them every time you try to move around the periscopes, AND... the stations are "manned"... The only display indication for the SD radar is on the NavMap, which if you want to run with Map Contacts off, really cripples your ability to conduct anti-aircraft operations by avoidance... "Radar contact bear-..." "CRASH DIVE!!!" "Yes sir! yes sir! yes sir!!!" There is no easy-to-see indicator for the SD radar condition either, as to whether it is on or off, except by that text box prompt. This is one (of several) areas of the game where Silent Hunter (the original SSI game) was light years ahead of SH4.
As for re-fueling at ports, the US subs in SH4 can only fuel at US Naval Bases, indicated by the Anchor icons, with your Home Port being the "fouled" anchor, with the rope tangled in it, and the anchor sitting at an angle. You cannot find fuel anywhere else, even if holding the port master at gun point, and no matter the hour that you slip into the harbor. Fuel and ammunition is available only at Naval Bases for the player.
As for the Darwin port itselfe, it is very difficult to "model" any port in the game. I was for a while, making clones of ships, but in a "sunken" condition to pepper about the harbor, but then there are the docks that do not take damage, and the cranes continue to function ad infinitum ad nauseum, and personnel and vehicles wandering about the place, remarkably unconcerned about the Japanese bombers that had attached, or could potentially attack again at any moment. So the "sunken" ships, with smoke or not, look a bit ridiculous, so I quit attempting to do that. For a hint of what it looks like, do a start in Pearl Harbor at the very beginning of the war, and while you'll see the four battleships in sunken states on Battleship Row, nothing else around is damaged, with all sorts of dock activity going on all about the place. It is what it is because of the way the game is built, so we just removed most of the ships (hopefully) at Darwin, and then filter them back in over time. You'll notice that the NavalBase anchor is there at the start of the game (Career Mode), but is just a "plain" harbor then from 19th February, 1942 (the day of the IJN Strike Force attack) until near the end of August, 1943. These are definitely "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" moments...
