Changing ranks

[hyperion2206]

I don't know if that was discussed before, but if it was I'm sorry and ask anyway:p
My question is if it would be possible to change the starting rank, meaning one would start as a Kapitänleutnant (Lieutenant Senior Grade). If you would be really succesfull you would be promoted to Korvettenkapitän (Lieutenant Commander) and if you become a real ace with a lot of renown (and I mean a lot, like 30000) you'd be promoted to Fregattenkapitän (Commander).
Is that possible or are the ranks unchangeable?

[Jimbuna]

I have known some people openly admit they have 'tweaked' their renown at the beginning of a career to 100'000 + renown (usually for upgrades) but never mention the effect on their rank....so I would doubt if it has an instant effect other than to raise you one rank at the end of your first patrol ...perhaps someone will come along soon and inform us otherwise :hmm:

[hyperion2206]

I really don't care how much renown I've got;) but I think it would be far more realistic to start as a Kaleun. At the beginning of the war Germany had only few U-Boats and I don't think they'd given a noob Leutnant z.S. such an expensive weapon to command. Because of that I want to start as an Kaleun. As the war progresses lower ranks were given command over a sub but not at the beginning, everybody agree?!;)

[azn_132]

I really don't care how much renown I've got;) but I think it would be far more realistic to start as a Kaleun. At the beginning of the war Germany had only few U-Boats and I don't think they'd given a noob Leutnant z.S. such an expensive weapon to command. Because of that I want to start as an Kaleun. As the war progresses lower ranks were given command over a sub but not at the beginning, everybody agree?!;)
Yeah I was thinkin the same way since I only got to OberLetnuat something only on March of 1941 in my 4th career.

[hyperion2206]

I really don't care how much renown I've got;) but I think it would be far more realistic to start as a Kaleun. At the beginning of the war Germany had only few U-Boats and I don't think they'd given a noob Leutnant z.S. such an expensive weapon to command. Because of that I want to start as an Kaleun. As the war progresses lower ranks were given command over a sub but not at the beginning, everybody agree?!;) Yeah I was thinkin the same way since I only got to OberLetnuat something only on March of 1941 in my 4th career.


One of the many reasons why I love GWX is that you're promoted to Oberleutnant as soon as you've got 1499 of renown, during the Happy Times it's farely easy.:up:

[Spadefish]

There is no way that a Leutnant (USN Ens/Ltjg equivalant) is going to get a II/VII command. They're wet behind the ears p*ssants who I wouldn't trust to command the harbors garbage scow. There must be some way in SH3/GWX to change the starting rank.

[azn_132]

I really don't care how much renown I've got;) but I think it would be far more realistic to start as a Kaleun. At the beginning of the war Germany had only few U-Boats and I don't think they'd given a noob Leutnant z.S. such an expensive weapon to command. Because of that I want to start as an Kaleun. As the war progresses lower ranks were given command over a sub but not at the beginning, everybody agree?!;) Yeah I was thinkin the same way since I only got to OberLetnuat something only on March of 1941 in my 4th career.


One of the many reasons why I love GWX is that you're promoted to Oberleutnant as soon as you've got 1499 of renown, during the Happy Times it's farely easy.:up:
Too many Careers for me to play on like six right now.

[hyperion2206]

There is no way that a Leutnant (USN Ens/Ltjg equivalant) is going to get a II/VII command. They're wet behind the ears p*ssants who I wouldn't trust to command the harbors garbage scow. There must be some way in SH3/GWX to change the starting rank.


Once I read a book by Heinz Schäffer (Oberleutnant z.S., U-148, U-977) and he said that he was an Oberfähnrich z.S. when he was ordered to an U-Boat and everybody treated him like dirt because he knew nothing. As a Leutnant z.S. you still would not know enough, so there's no way that you could or should take command of Germanys most feared weapon;)

[DGJ]

Here
http://www.uboat.net/men/crew/commander.htm (bottom of page)
is a link to the last(highest) rank of all uboat commanders. Six commanders never reached higher than leutnant zS so those did obviously start out their command as leutnants. 625 commanders never made it past oberleutnant zS. Probably some of those 625 started their uboat commanding as leutnants too.

But I agree with your point that if you start early in the war you should start with higher rank than Leutnant z.S.

[hyperion2206]

Here
http://www.uboat.net/men/crew/commander.htm (bottom of page)
is a link to the last(highest) rank of all uboat commanders. Six commanders never reached higher than leutnant zS so those did obviously start out their command as leutnants. 625 commanders never made it past oberleutnant zS. Probably some of those 625 started their uboat commanding as leutnants too.

But I agree with your point that if you start early in the war you should start with higher rank than Leutnant z.S.
I suppose these 6 Leutnants started their career in '44 or '45 and the 625 Oberleutnants got their command upon reaching the rank of Oberleutnant (probably around late '42/ beginning of '43).

Here's a quote from http://www.uboat.net/men/crew/commander.htm :


The age of U-boat commanders

During the first years of the war there was a strict rule, that a commander had to be at least 25 years old. That's why "Teddy" Suhren, then already a Knights Cross (http://www.uboat.net/men/decorations/ritter.htm) holder, had to wait in a training unit for a few months until he became 25-year old. Later in the war this limit was lifted and Leutnant zur See Ludwig-Ferdinand von Friedeburg became the youngest combat U-boat commander. He took over the command of U-155 (http://www.uboat.net/boats/u155.htm) on 15 August 1944. He was then 20 years and 3 months old. There were 3 others Leutnants who took over a boat while only 20 years old; Hans-Eckart Augustin (U-62 (http://www.uboat.net/boats/u62.htm)), Gerhard Ady (U-704 (http://www.uboat.net/boats/u704.htm)) and Hans-Joachim Dierks (U-14 (http://www.uboat.net/boats/u14.htm)). They all commanded training U-boats only.
The oldest Commander was Fregattenkapitän Wilhelm Kiesewetter. He took over the command of the training boat UC 1 (http://www.uboat.net/boats/uc1.htm) on 20 November, 1940. He was at that time 62 years old! In WWI Wilhelm Kiesewetter was Commander of SM UC-56.
The oldest Commander on patrol was Korvettenkapitän Georg von Willamowitz- Moellendorf, the well known commander of U-459 (http://www.uboat.net/boats/u459.htm), one of the Milk-Cows (http://www.uboat.net/types/milkcows.htm). He died in 1943 at the age of 49 years.
The usual limit for combat-commanders was 40 years.

[andy_311]

If you want to edit your rank you can do it in the en menu I think the players ranks start on line 172 to 179 if am not mistaken.

[JScones]

I really don't care how much renown I've got;) but I think it would be far more realistic to start as a Kaleun. At the beginning of the war Germany had only few U-Boats and I don't think they'd given a noob Leutnant z.S. such an expensive weapon to command. Because of that I want to start as an Kaleun. As the war progresses lower ranks were given command over a sub but not at the beginning, everybody agree?!;) Yeah I was thinkin the same way since I only got to OberLetnuat something only on March of 1941 in my 4th career.


One of the many reasons why I love GWX is that you're promoted to Oberleutnant as soon as you've got 1499 of renown, during the Happy Times it's farely easy.:up:
As you start a career with 1,500 renown anyway (assuming you've done the academy), all you have to do is take your boat out and get it home to get your promotion...unless you are an upgrade freak. ;)

Anyway...

Points to consider before artificially inflating your rank

1. The highest rank SH3 awards is KptLt. There is provision for KvtKpt but I have never been aware of it being awarded in SH3. There certainly is no greater rank awarded by SH3.

2. You can change the rank labels in **_menu.txt but you will break compatibility with SH3Cmdr (if you use it) and most other mods as well. Some of you may remember a forum member that was running a mod that did same and had no end of problems with losing/gaining/losing/gaining rank all the time.

3. Fudging even 1,000,000 renown will not get you promoted any quicker.

When the game first came out, time was spent trying to find the best way to start with a more "realistic" rank of ObLt, with the result being reduction of the renown required to get it. Thus, if you've completed the academy and you don't buy up big before your first patrol, you're pretty much guaranteed a promotion after your first patrol.

This method was chosen as it maintains full integrity with the original SH3 and hence does not break any add-on or mod.

To alleviate it even more, some people (myself included), tend to use the first patrol as a shakedown cruise, simply to get familiar with boat and crew, whilst awaiting the promised ObLt promotion, which "BdU has assured me will be through in time for my second patrol".

Now, if you are an upgrade freak, or tend to lose renown via other means ;) then you can simply lower even further the renown required to get to ObLt:

NON-SH3Cmdr users:
Open Basic.cfg and edit the line RankLevel1=1499; SCORE (under PLAYER_RENOWN) to be RankLevel1=10; SCORE (or whatever you want)

SH3Cmdr users:
Open SH3Cmdr's Static settings.cfg and change the line ;PLAYER_RENOWN|RankLevel1=1499; SCORE to PLAYER_RENOWN|RankLevel1=10; SCORE (or whatever). Make sure you also remove the leading semicolon (if it exists)!

I haven't tested whether lowering RankLevel2 or RankLevel3 gets you to the higher ranks any quicker, so play around with it too and let everyone know.

[hyperion2206]

I really don't care how much renown I've got;) but I think it would be far more realistic to start as a Kaleun. At the beginning of the war Germany had only few U-Boats and I don't think they'd given a noob Leutnant z.S. such an expensive weapon to command. Because of that I want to start as an Kaleun. As the war progresses lower ranks were given command over a sub but not at the beginning, everybody agree?!;) Yeah I was thinkin the same way since I only got to OberLetnuat something only on March of 1941 in my 4th career.

One of the many reasons why I love GWX is that you're promoted to Oberleutnant as soon as you've got 1499 of renown, during the Happy Times it's farely easy.:up: As you start a career with 1,500 renown anyway (assuming you've done the academy), all you have to do is take your boat out and get it home to get your promotion...unless you are an upgrade freak. ;)

Anyway...

Points to consider before artificially inflating your rank

1. The highest rank SH3 awards is KptLt. There is provision for KvtKpt but I have never been aware of it being awarded in SH3. There certainly is no greater rank awarded by SH3.

2. You can change the rank labels in **_menu.txt but you will break compatibility with SH3Cmdr (if you use it) and most other mods as well. Some of you may remember a forum member that was running a mod that did same and had no end of problems with losing/gaining/losing/gaining rank all the time.

3. Fudging even 1,000,000 renown will not get you promoted any quicker.

When the game first came out, time was spent trying to find the best way to start with a more "realistic" rank of ObLt, with the result being reduction of the renown required to get it. Thus, if you've completed the academy and you don't buy up big before your first patrol, you're pretty much guaranteed a promotion after your first patrol.

This method was chosen as it maintains full integrity with the original SH3 and hence does not break any add-on or mod.

To alleviate it even more, some people (myself included), tend to use the first patrol as a shakedown cruise, simply to get familiar with boat and crew, whilst awaiting the promised ObLt promotion, which "BdU has assured me will be through in time for my second patrol".

Now, if you are an upgrade freak, or tend to lose renown via other means ;) then you can simply lower even further the renown required to get to ObLt:

NON-SH3Cmdr users:
Open Basic.cfg and edit the line RankLevel1=1499; SCORE (under PLAYER_RENOWN) to be RankLevel1=10; SCORE (or whatever you want)

SH3Cmdr users:
Open SH3Cmdr's Static settings.cfg and change the line ;PLAYER_RENOWN|RankLevel1=1499; SCORE to PLAYER_RENOWN|RankLevel1=10; SCORE (or whatever). Make sure you also remove the leading semicolon (if it exists)!

I haven't tested whether lowering RankLevel2 or RankLevel3 gets you to the higher ranks any quicker, so play around with it too and let everyone know.


Tu sum it up: I theory it's possible but if you do you have caused havock, right?:rotfl:

[irish1958]

The way I loose U-Boats, my rank should be a seaman on probation.

[Jimbuna]

The way I loose U-Boats, my rank should be a seaman on probation.

Possibly...but the Brits would keep on promoting you again lol :lol: