Well I am, quite underwhelmed.
Myself; fifteen years in the United States Merchant Marine, offshore Hazardous Chemical Barge Captain.
My computer; HP quad core intel i975 extreme 3.33 processor, with 24GB of ram driving a thirty inch HP LP3065 professional monitor.
Neither of us were impressed. 'Siegfried' my pc was looking forward to a visual feast, instead it is graphically mediocre at best.
The physics are all wrong. A modern tug built to the 3 to 1 standard, that is to say, one foot width to every three feet of length does not roll like an older 6to 1 Navy 'Standard' tug.
A three to one is more stable in normal conditions, however in heavy seas she does not roll, but slams down bow first so hard you'll think your teeth will slam through the roof of your mouth.
Either way a graceful six to one or a modern three to one, neither are as pleasant in heavy seas as this 'simulation' suggests. Six to nine foot rollers in the Gullfstream can roll you out of your bunk, and nine to twelve foot swells are the the reason most small offshore tugs have a seatbelt in the Captain's chair.
Patton used to say there are no atheists in a foxhole, and I'll add, I never saw one in a tug in heavy seas either.
I was in 'Andrew', 'Gilbert', 'Hugo' and the 'noname' storm (re-dubbed perfect storm for Hollywood) and I can tell you the situation was each time dire. Each time we dove into the troughs we wondered if we'd come back up, and each time we slid crazily off the crests we prayed the tow cables would not jerk us backwards under the seas. In between we held our breaths and looked warily over at our barge that just seemed to be topping it's own crest high above us as if any second it would close the gap behind us to slam down on our heads.
I get no sense of impending doom running a sim tug through hurricane force winds. It is just way too tame, the Gulf Stream off the coast of Florida will have the tug 'dancing' far more than that during a 'small craft advisory'.
And why so few American ships? Once American flagged ships were 80% of the world's fleet. These vessels did not just go away, they have just been re-flagged outside our borders to save our corporate scum from paying their fair share of taxes.
The most Powerful tug ever built is still the Coastal Port Everglades, 10,500 ship hp pushing the biggest hot oil barge ever made. The two of which make up a tug and barge combination, which come to think of it seem o also be missing from your game.
