Crew Attributes/Skills/Perks/Traits?

[Méo]

In an interview Jürgen Oesten, he says that as a submarine commander the main and the most important thing is the crew, the training/experience/mentality of the crew.

And he also says that you have to know strength and weakness of every man.

So i was wondering how cool would it be to have something like a: Atrributes/Skills/Preks/Traits? for each man?

[GoldenRivet]

agreed

each crewman should have a skill set with a status bar indicating strengths in various areas of operation.

for example

Technical
Electrical
Gunnery
Navigation
Torpedo
Sonar
Radio
Radar
Medical

each crewman would be rated on a scale of 1 to 10 for example in various areas of skill sets

[looney]

Again look at B17 II The mighty Eight

Outstanding idé, Méo.

[Sailor Steve]

Technical: 0
Electrical: 0
Gunnery: 0
Navigation: 0
Torpedo: 0
Sonar: 0
Radio: 0
Radar: 0
Medical: 0
Cook: -1
Knot-Tying: 1
Deck-Swabbing: 3
General Order-Following: 7

Just your average crewman.

[Méo]

Originally Posted by Snestorm

Outstanding idé, Méo.

Thanks!

I thought maybe they could have some inborn abilities:

Strength, intelligence, endurance, resilience, self control, potential... post your idea!

Of course they could have skills like GoldenRivet said.

And maybe qualifications who would give a boost to those skills.

[mookiemookie]

So long as these "perks" don't allow you to do things that you historically could not. I don't care how many war patrols he has been on, your chief should not be able to make a VIIC go 20 knots.

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

So long as these "perks" don't allow you to do things that you historically could not. I don't care how many war patrols he has been on, your chief should not be able to make a VIIC go 20 knots.

You got that right!

Strikers (Just like the real navies):

Top Seamen are eligable for a qualification.
After earning enough experience they can be promoted to PO, in that rate.

After all, that IS where POs come from.

[Sailor Steve]

I'm sure it happens at different times in different navies. Right out of boot camp I was tested and put into Radio school. As a second-and-first-class seaman I was destined to become a Radioman Third. I would never have been transferred to another specialty, and was never a generic sailor.

[Lord Justice]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

So long as these "perks" don't allow you to do things that you historically could not. I don't care how many war patrols he has been on, your chief should not be able to make a VIIC go 20 knots.

Aye, spot on, old school, no cyborgs with super special powers or bionic spanners passed through selection please!!

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

So long as these "perks" don't allow you to do things that you historically could not. I don't care how many war patrols he has been on, your chief should not be able to make a VIIC go 20 knots.

agreed.

I think the best use of the skill sets would be as in the following example:

you have damage to several compartments, and some critical systems are down.

The main pump is down, the forward batteries are damaged, three men are badly injured and you have moderate flooding in multiple compartments.

1. Prioritize

even though three men are injured - your job as Commander is to save the boat and crew first.

even though the forward batteries are damaged, you still have aft batteries and some maneuvering ability underwater.

your damage control team can only address one issue at a time, and you want to control that flooding before addressing anything else... but you need the main pump online first.

2. Delegate

You have a hand full of petty officers on the job of repairing the main pump... those with "technical" or "engineering" skill sets are best placed on the job.

3. Adapt

The main pump is online... and the flooding is being contained, now we are on to work on the forward batteries.

though your petty officers with "technical" or "engineering" skills can fix the batteries... it would be most wise to pull them off of the damage control team and replace them with petty officers which have "electrician" skill sets. with these guys now on the job of addressing the battery issues - they can not only fix the batteries... but they can do it in a fraction of the time that the other skill sets would normally require to complete the same job.

With damage control humming along like a well oiled machine because you have the right team on the right job, get your petty officer(s) with "medical" skill sets moving forward with the task of patching up the injured men.

a final element to this thing.

what about multiple damage control teams?

in real life you could send the "technical / engineering" guys to work on the main pump while the "electrical" guys worked on the batteries and in the mean time your "medical" guys were helping the wounded.

in SH3 / 4 you had one big team that took care of one thing at a time.

in SH5 it would be nice if you really had to be a manager of the whole team and keep the ball rolling on multiple issues at once.

Edit:

in the same argument... you could easily send a petty officer with the gunnery qualification to the bridge to use the sextant to plot your position... however your position on the map will be plotted with a far greater degree of accuracy if you send an officer or petty officer with the "navigation" skill set.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

in real life you could send the "technical / engineering" guys to work on the main pump while the "electrical" guys worked on the batteries and in the mean time your "medical" guys were helping the wounded.

In real life the Damage Control team didn't handle electrics or medical. Their job was 'Damage Control' - repairing actual physical damage that could endanger the ship. SH3 had it completely wrong. SH4 came a little closer, but not close enough. You should have Petty Officers designated to lead the Damage Control team, and they should be trained in fighting fires and flooding. They should be able to put together a team of off-duty personel. These people didn't need to know how to repair damage - just how to follow orders. If the torpedo room is flooding, the torpedomen wouldn't have anything to do except help with damage control. Likewise the enginemen if the boat is submerged.

Damage Control is controlling damage.

[SNAKE1937]

As retired military ( E1 to CW3 ), I love the role of each of the three states of crew members. In SH4 looking at all of the "shavetails" with out some worker bees (enlisted) was unreal. The thought of all of those officers "WORKING" on KP, chipping paint, and other dirty work was unrealistic.

SH3 had it about right, except for the extreem endurance of some of the CPO's and Officers later in the game.

Remember "Jonsey" in Hunt for red October? Specialist among the enlisted and CPO ranks are needed for realistic input to the game. Remember it was an enlisted radarman who saw a "very large" flight of airplanes coming from the north on 7,Dec 1941 --- and a officer who said " don't worry".

The repair crew in SH3 was a good idea, and it took them from the crew.
In SH4 those bunch of guys were just hanging arround.

That's my two bits worth.

Thanks for your input SNAKE1937

Welcome aboard, SNAKE1937.

"(E1 to CW3)": That's quite an achievement, sir.
With the highest of admiration and respect, I (voluntarily) salute you.