Hi Chris,
I am sorry you see fit to be quite so offensive. As for qualifications many of the folks on this forum are highly qualified in the marine field. I myself have a British foreign going masters certificate which covers ALL sizes of ship not just small ones, but I don't make anything of it. Marty is possibly far more highly qualified than many, but he does'nt wear his pedigree on his sleeve either.
Now to one of your complaints, under the chart, bottom right, is a slider which does exactly as Marty has pointed out. It fades the chart down to a level where you can clearly see through it.
All you needed to do is look.
Mind you I cannot see how the chart is obscuring anything, as the ships all sail on the water not in the sky, but that is purely my opinion.
The mission you describe chasing the container ship down river has been dealt with over and over again on the forum here, again all that is required is to look. The handling characteristics of the ships in SS2008 are based on actual dynamics of real ships and have been verified by naval architects and other highly qualified persons. Furthermore these dynamics are frequently updated where they are found to be unrealistic. These updates can be found on the Creators forum and currently on weekly FREE packs from Vstep.
If you are able to find such creative and authentic help in regard to any other game then please feel free to do so.
I would point out, finally, that we are none of us sensitive to criticism of the game, only to uninformed criticism based on insufficient evidence.
Kind regards,
Angus.
P.S. I commend the following to you:-
http://www.shipsim.com/ShipSimForum/index.php/topic,2886.msg28895.html#msg28895
It is worth noting the name of the author, not bad for someone who sits around doing nothing in his armchair knowing nothing about the game. Whilst on this subject, I should point out that the mission "Forgotten containers" is a recognised faulty mission which has been discussed at length on the forum previously. The mission was remade and posted on the Custom mission file some time ago under the title:- "Forgotten containers (Remake)". This will save your precious time being wasted looking for it.