Between Patrols - what do you do with crew

[twm47099]

I've just finished my 4th patrol of my first campaign. When I got back to base, I find all of my semen and petty officers have been promoted to first class during the patrol. I had promotions to give out back at Pearl, but the only eligibles were all my Chiefs. So I promoted them. Now they are ensigns, and I have all officers and all first class POs and Seamen.

Previously, I had filled all of the Damage Control slots with the best mechs I could. I chose the best gun rated watch standers to man the 4-inch and 20mm guns (but I do take them from the deck watch when I plan on a gun action, and then return them to deck watch before diving.)

I give out earned awards, but what else am I supposed to do with the crew between patrols. Why would I swap a low experience replacement for a high skill level crewman. I realize in real life that big navy would do that, and if I was a squadron leader, I would want to do that, but as a ship captain, why?

Thanks
Tom

[troopie]

Generally there is not much needs doing.

If you have excess renown you can replace your low experienced sailors with better ones from the barracks. Eventually officers with green logos attached to their icons become available; these guys have abilities that will make the 'crew abilities' button on the HUD come to life.

[Hylander_1314]

Yep, and those green iconned officers and nco's get the boot evry time they receive them. Very unrealistic abilities for my liking.

[doulos05]

Originally Posted by Hylander_1314

Yep, and those green iconned officers and nco's get the boot evry time they receive them. Very unrealistic abilities for my liking.

For TMO, at least, they seem to have been toned down and tied to historical realities. The CPO that got the torpedo loading bonus hasn't increased the speed to levels I'd consider unrealistic. It still takes me about 8-10 minutes to reload a torpedo. The increased speed one ties in with the mod to have reduced ahead flank down to 20 knots, with ahead emergency allowing you to get up to the theoretical top speeds. Similarly for the modified ballast tanks and the diving speed one seem tied to stories.

[Rockin Robbins]

As long as they are grandfathered in you can keep 'em. As you benefit from their experience, why get rid of them. Yes, you have too many officers for historical accuracy. But there's nothing historically accurate about any of the crew management procedure anyway. You wouldn't pass out the medals. You wouldn't have the final say on who stays and who goes. So do what's best for the boat. Keep the experience on board.

One thing I DO is to deep six any of the super-crew arcade warriors. I have no idea what the devs were thinking........well, I guess I do know. They were thinking of that sims meets "taste my soup" abomination that was going to conquer the world with their brilliance next. Reality be damned! What people want is to be part of Das Boot!

I want no part in a hokey anti-war piece of sob story that happens to have a little authentic U-Boat footage in it. It disgraced the actual crews, it disgraced the pride and professionalism of sailors worldwide in its portrayal of a submarine crew as a collection of overwrought basket-cases.

It tried to be a remake of All Quiet on the Western Front and succeeded by failing. It failed to jumpstart any worldwide peace movement and then was adopted by the submarine fans as some kind of authentic U-Boat saga. It is not. It is a great representation of machinery, a despicable lie in its presentation of men. Time after time, authentic feeling inconsequential details are used to bolster an over-all farcical narrative.

Give me a submarine simulation that can leave the Das Boot tragedy/parody/debacle behind and show us a tribute to the men and machines rising above impossible situations and finding victory. People who make video games are not capable of bringing us anything better than SH4. That is the end of their understanding and unfortunately the beginning of ours.

[Hylander_1314]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

As long as they are grandfathered in you can keep 'em. As you benefit from their experience, why get rid of them. Yes, you have too many officers for historical accuracy. But there's nothing historically accurate about any of the crew management procedure anyway. You wouldn't pass out the medals. You wouldn't have the final say on who stays and who goes. So do what's best for the boat. Keep the experience on board.

One thing I DO is to deep six any of the super-crew arcade warriors. I have no idea what the devs were thinking........well, I guess I do know. They were thinking of that sims meets "taste my soup" abomination that was going to conquer the world with their brilliance next. Reality be damned! What people want is to be part of Das Boot!

I want no part in a hokey anti-war piece of sob story that happens to have a little authentic U-Boat footage in it. It disgraced the actual crews, it disgraced the pride and professionalism of sailors worldwide in its portrayal of a submarine crew as a collection of overwrought basket-cases.

It tried to be a remake of All Quiet on the Western Front and succeeded by failing. It failed to jumpstart any worldwide peace movement and then was adopted by the submarine fans as some kind of authentic U-Boat saga. It is not. It is a great representation of machinery, a despicable lie in its presentation of men. Time after time, authentic feeling inconsequential details are used to bolster an over-all farcical narrative.

Give me a submarine simulation that can leave the Das Boot tragedy/parody/debacle behind and show us a tribute to the men and machines rising above impossible situations and finding victory. People who make video games are not capable of bringing us anything better than SH4. That is the end of their understanding and unfortunately the beginning of ours.

HUZZAH!!!!!!!!!!

[Armistead]

Trav's mod really did a good job reworking crew ratings and management, shame he took them all down, guess something peod him... What I like is you only had two special officers, a mechanic and Doc. If your crew fell below 60% health, their ratings went to zero and they couldn't function.
With his damage model, often the mech could only repair engines just enough to get you a few knots and get you home......Great mod, one that I consider a must have

[Sailor Steve]

@ Rockin Robbins: Nice summation of Das Boot. While I disagree on some points it's not a description I can argue with. I love it just for the interiors, and the lack of true plot is something I like. I really only wanted to say that I disagree that it's anti-war at all. For me it plays more like a typically German opera, complete with the valkyries coming for the hero at the end, even if you don't see them.

I especially agree with your description of SH4 at the end. If only more modders had seen that, we might have a lot more to praise.

[CCIP]

Yep, I agree, Das Boot's position as the U-boat bible is unfortunate - I don't think on either the crew or the technical front it's all bad or all accurate, but it's that blend of fiction and "movie magic" that one needs to take with a grain of salt.

As for the original question:
I've developed my own system for crew management, where I adjust the numbers to realistic (i.e. get rid of the excess crewmen that you get by default, esp. officers), and then between each patrol use dice rolls to simulate crew transfers and promotions, with lower-ranked crewmen more likely to stay on board, and the ones with higher rank and experience (whether seamen, POs or Os) more likely to get transferred off. It tends to result in a few of my crew and a couple of my officers being replaced each patrol.

Wish we had an SH4 commander to do these sorts of things for us!

[Hylander_1314]

I usually dump all the extras, and the the more experienced guys get transferred out to simulate the need for them on other boats. Until later in the war when the experienced men and materials were built up enough to facilitate a slower transfer rate.

Then I slow it down. Usually around the summer of '44.

[merc4ulfate]

I generally open the rum room, wait till they begin to drop and then me and the XO have a bit of fun throwing them over board ... what a reveille that is.

Then they have to scrub the decks till sweep call.