Crew Management FAQ?

[Zero Niner]

Is there a FAQ or write up on crew management for SH4? The manual is woefully inadequate.
For instance yesterday after sinking the CA on the torp attack mission, I sailed on a bit. I noticed that one "row" of crewmen was asleep, except those assigned to watch duty. Shouldn't they be asleep too, since they're supposed to be off duty?
How am I supposed to rest the crew assigned to the deck & flak guns? If I max out the crew slots so that every avaliable slot is taken, I'll have no billets left for them, if you get what I mean. Similarly for the DC party. If left assigned to the DC slots, wouldn't they get more fatigued over the course of a patrol? How can I stand them down so that they follow the normal cycle of duty - rest - maintenance?

[John Channing]

The watches will change automatically. The watch currently on duty is highlighted with a dark band behind it. There is no need to micro-manage the crew as in SH3.

When you go to Action Stations then your entire crew is on duty and nobody gets any rest. Always remember to stand them down after the battle is over.

JCC

[-Pv-]

Zero,

If you want a lot of reading, try searching this forum on the subject of Crew Management.
A few simple basics based on your comments:
1) The dark row is the current crew on duty.
2) The three main shifts last 4 hours between each change.
3) When using Battle Stations, the entire crew are on duty. If you leave the crew in this state too long, you have no rested crew to take over at the next regular shift change.
4) The computer will place ANY overy-tired crew (on or off duty) in sleep mode. This should be avoided by your attentiveness.
5) Even crew assigned to guns will be put to sleep automatically when they are tired enough as long as the guns aren't placed in "manned" mode (the gun icons on the control bar are not bright yellow.) It's good to keep crew assigned to guns (if you have enough crew) even if the gun is not activated so you can get the gun into action faster. These gun positions (as well as the DC positions) become a resource to replace or assist other crew members in critical situations.
6) As renoun permits, place the highest experienced electricians and engineers you can afford in the Damage Control positions. As long as DC is not activated, the crew will rest automatically but not necessarily when the regular shifts do.
7) The shift PRIOR in the shift cycle to the on-duty crew are in "maintenance" duty. The next crew in order AFTER the current on-duty crew will be placed in sleep mode (if they are tired enough.) Individual crew members who are not tired enough during the shift sleep cycle, will be placed in sleep mode at a later shift change when they are tired enough. This may result in mixed crew of sleeping and maintenance.
8) You can manaully force individual crew members to sleep by dragging the crew member sideways within their crew shift. You can only do this if the crew member is not on duty, is tired enough and they are in the crew shift next in line after the on-duty crew.
9) It's very important to keep the highest rated leadership crew member in the 1st slot in each compartment. This improves efficiency.
10) The DC crew are very important for damage recovery.
11) The normal shift crew are responsible for maintaining and repairing the equipment and bulkheads in their OWN COMPARTMENT.
12) The DC crew will ASSIST the compartment shift crew based on the repair priority list in the Damage Control screen. The regular compartment shift crew do not need to be told to repair anything. They will repair their own compartment. The DC crew ADDS to the compartment crew and specialize on the priority list. This often confuses people who see things being repaired out of order in the priority list. Only the DC crew serve the priority list. The regular crew will work to save their own lives, then work on the equipment in their compartment.


The above is the most important, but there is a lot more subtle detail than this which you will learn over time.
-Pv-

[Bosje]

thanks for that clear explanation

so some remaining questions:
-i have some repair qualified guys on the watch crew, as they are the easiest choice for dc, is that very unrealistic?

-would the dc instead always come out of the engine room?

-my crew get promoted during the mission, does this give them any advantages?
i noticed i can only give them specialization on the promotion in port

-what do the specializations/skills/abilities do exactly?
i figure electric guys man the sensors and watch crews man the watch etc, but my ensigns who are the watch officers have other skills, are they useful? like hang on to that guy who has repair skills and watch specialization?

same for torpedoes, room gets flooded easily, good idea to have mechanics in there?

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by Bosje

thanks for that clear explanation

so some remaining questions:
-i have some repair qualified guys on the watch crew, as they are the easiest choice for dc, is that very unrealistic?

-would the dc instead always come out of the engine room?

All of the crew were expected to contribute to damage control, so any crewmen with a good Mechanical rating is certainly realistic. Remember that a lot of these men grew up in rural/agricultural areas, which rely heavily on manual labor and farming machinery. American military equipment was pretty much always designed to be "repair-friendly" in the field.

same for torpedoes, room gets flooded easily, good idea to have mechanics in there?

Yes, you should have men with good Guns and Mechanical skills in the torpedo rooms.

[peabody]

Like they commented a lot is done automatically. But of all the comments, I think the most important is don't forget to relieve them from "Battle Stations" which also turn on DC and "Silent Running" after a battle. I had a sub stop dead in the water when I forgot to relieve them. After checking damage and scratching my head, I finally checked the crew and EVERYONE was sleeping:rotfl:. I couldn't even move the boat, so I relieved them went to "Stop" and time compressed a bit. But this could be a problem depending where you are, especially if you are surfaced and a DD suddenly appears.

Peabody

[Zero Niner]

That happened to me too...

[Schultzy]

not directly linked to the topic, so apologies for the slight hi-jack.. but...i noticed a mod (i forget which one) had placed a line of crew slots called 'crew berths' or something similar, that's a great idea, as i hate the idea of a man being designated as aa gunner and him staying in that slot for the whole voyage...i always felt we needed some off duty slots...

So my question is, does anyone know if this is going to be putting in an appearance in the "supermods?"

cheers lads... carry on.

[starbird]

Originally Posted by Schultzy

not directly linked to the topic, so apologies for the slight hi-jack.. but...i noticed a mod (i forget which one) had placed a line of crew slots called 'crew berths' or something similar, that's a great idea, as i hate the idea of a man being designated as aa gunner and him staying in that slot for the whole voyage...i always felt we needed some off duty slots...

So my question is, does anyone know if this is going to be putting in an appearance in the "supermods?"

cheers lads... carry on.

They're not at station the whole time. The crew list shows who is assigned to which station, not where they are in the boat (unlike sh3). The crew background shows whether they are on duty, off duty or sleeping. Notice that when you go to action stations, all of the crew lights up, telling you that everyone is on duty at that point.

I really like the sh4 watch rotation better than the manual crew moving of sh3. If this does show up in a mod, I would ask that it be optional.