[derstosstrupp]

To add more complexity to the radioman role, and to incentivize people to learn Morse code, it would be interesting to have the game send a “Fühlungshaltermeldung” (shadow report) as if from a fictitious shadower that BdU has designated. It would be Morsed, but the message itself could be plaintext until at some point standard Enigma keysheets are possibly implemented.

The report itself would contain approximate convoy data, subject to some small fudge factor, but at any rate it would be at a minimum base course and speed. So the incentive of course is for the radioman to help out the team by knowing Morse and transcribing the message to provide the skipper with reasonably accurate data. The message could be sent in the beginning, and it might not always be sent, maybe it’s random whether or not you even get such a message in the engagement.

Because the data is not 100% accurate in the message, skippers would need to still go through the exercise of obtaining their shooting data, just as in real life shadow reports were not relied on for shooting data but were simply for situational awareness, especially for base course, which is valuable info to have at the outset.

Along these lines, maybe the players’ boat gets designated by “AI BdU” as the contact holder, in which case it would be reversed. That radioman would have to send a contact report via Morse and the game would evaluate the accuracy of the Morse keying.

Thoughts?