Wave Skipper
02-03-07, 12:45 AM
I think I am like many people who just gave up on the fatigue system of SH3 and opted for none at all. But lately I revisited the mess found in Basic.CFG attempting to find a scheme for it that would never reduce a sub to dead in the water or near so, and yet would still require some care of the crew and meaning for the medals. First I went into the crew configs listed above the fatigue location and tried to better balance the ratios between crew members. It appeared to me that there were some odd jumps between ranks or in some cases lacks there of.
I made a few small changes such as the one listed below:
[CREW_0] ;SEAMAN
MoraleMin=0.30
MoraleMax=0.60
MoraleStep=0.05
FatigueMin=0
FatigueMax=0.5
FatigueStep=0.25 ; was 2
But for me the real breakthrough was simply stopping my habit of trying to make the Fatigue sections all match up or function. I would usually try to give each station, such as Sonar and Radio, or Control Room, or Forward Torpedo room active FATIGUE_COEF or I would zero them all out. But what I have finally done is ask myself what FINAL EFFECT I truly wanted. I wanted a boat where the crew tires slowly over a patrol, especially in a storm or in battles. But I wanted a system where no matter what someone is going to get the strength - no matter what - to sail the boat, run the control room and make sure the sub doesn't sink during flooding when damage occurs. Because in real life - no matter how much sleep a crew misses, or how worn out, someone finds the strength when life or death stares them in the face.
So this requirment was simple to effect. I slightly increased the storm effect for the watch in the tower. I never thought the standard Basic.CFG handled that well. I reduced everything in the Sonar and Radio rooms to 0.005, and removed storm effect totally - because truth is I could not see how sitting in a chair flipping records, typing or listening to the sonar would reduce a man to near death. If the sonar needed listening to in an emergency, I know someone - no matter how tired would crawl in there and listen. I reduced the entire control room to zeros. This means I could run lots of officers in there rather than bunking most of them down even in battle. It means a basic crew is always operational in that room - i.e. this would stand for the fact that no matter what, even a sick crew will find someone who can turn the dials and stearing wheels in order to prevent disaster.
I reduced the effects in all the other rooms, but retained the diesel room as the worst since its great noise would quickly tire a man. Also since in SH3 you can't run electric engines on the surface - I took out the storm effect for men who work in that room since they will always be underwater when operating in there. Running diesels in a storm truly was difficult as water kept trying to choke off their air intake. I reduced the torpedo rooms, even though hauling torpedoes is difficult, simply because I didn't want a crew that always tired out in 4 friken days!! I kept the AA guns as zero since I rarely use them, and when I do, just long enough to hit the DIVE button.
The most important thing was I made the Damage Repair section ZEROs. I renamed it: General Activity Zone. It could include crew who are at the medic's station getting their crabs dusted, or men playing cards, men wiping the pipes with rags, cooking their meals, dancing with coconut halves on their chests (Das Boot), or just anything. They could be men waiting for damage, who, since there is no damage, are just reading a book or brushing up on their studies for naval advancement. The point is, with this large free zone I can keep a large body of men ready to repair damage or to be withdrawn to other areas as needed, without them growing weak as they repair NOTHING! Now it is true that when they repair things they do not grow tired. But since SH3 only has 3 to 10 minutes repair work usually anyway - big deal. My feeling is if the boat was flooding at 50 meters depth, the men - no matter how tired - would rise up like Samsons to get the job done.
The bunks still function as bunks. But the Zero areas, while they do not bleed strength, do not provide rest or increased strength either. So the total effect (over a long patrol) is that after battles and long storms on the surface my crew gets weaker and less effective and I have to juggle them around or dive to renew them. It also means their effectiveness does decrease even in the control room, as I have to often trade non-tired men from the control room with other areas to beef them up. The officers in the control room are of course used in other areas and so the control room loses much of its edge (as these officers are brought back to it). BUT - no matter what, even a very tired man in the control room CAN bring the boat home if he remains in that room. And no matter what, the crew will find men who can still stop a major leak and flooding. Torpedoes may not always get loaded fast, or perhaps, at all. But the basic functions of the boat and its damage control will continue to operate.
This may not be my final version, but its what I am using at the moment in a test career.
;******* Long range fatigue version
[FATIGUE_COEF]
;comp 0
RegularFactor00=0.01
SpecificFactor00=0.02
BadWeather0=0.03
;comp1
RegularFactor10=0.005
RegularFactor11=0
SpecificFactor10=0.005
SpecificFactor11=0
BadWeather1=0
;comp2
RegularFactor20=0
RegularFactor21=0
SpecificFactor20=0
SpecificFactor21=0
BadWeather2=0
;comp3
RegularFactor30=0.01
RegularFactor31=0.01
SpecificFactor30=0.01
SpecificFactor31=0.01
BadWeather3=0.02
;comp4
RegularFactor40=0.01
RegularFactor41=0
SpecificFactor40=0.01
SpecificFactor41=0
BadWeather4=0
;comp5
RegularFactor50=0.01
RegularFactor51=0.01
SpecificFactor50=0.01
SpecificFactor51=0.02
BadWeather5=0.01
;comp6
SpecificFactor60=-0.1
SpecificFactor61=-0.1
;comp7
SpecificFactor70=-0.1
SpecificFactor71=-0.1
;comp8
RegularFactor80=0.01
RegularFactor81=0.01
SpecificFactor80=0.01
SpecificFactor81=0.02
BadWeather8=0.01
;comp9
RegularFactor90=0.1
SpecificFactor90=0.05
BadWeather9=0.02
;comp10
RegularFactor100=0
SpecificFactor100=0
BadWeather10=0
;comp 11
RegularFactor110=0
RegularFactor111=0
SpecificFactor110=0
SpecificFactor111=0
BadWeather11=0
I made a few small changes such as the one listed below:
[CREW_0] ;SEAMAN
MoraleMin=0.30
MoraleMax=0.60
MoraleStep=0.05
FatigueMin=0
FatigueMax=0.5
FatigueStep=0.25 ; was 2
But for me the real breakthrough was simply stopping my habit of trying to make the Fatigue sections all match up or function. I would usually try to give each station, such as Sonar and Radio, or Control Room, or Forward Torpedo room active FATIGUE_COEF or I would zero them all out. But what I have finally done is ask myself what FINAL EFFECT I truly wanted. I wanted a boat where the crew tires slowly over a patrol, especially in a storm or in battles. But I wanted a system where no matter what someone is going to get the strength - no matter what - to sail the boat, run the control room and make sure the sub doesn't sink during flooding when damage occurs. Because in real life - no matter how much sleep a crew misses, or how worn out, someone finds the strength when life or death stares them in the face.
So this requirment was simple to effect. I slightly increased the storm effect for the watch in the tower. I never thought the standard Basic.CFG handled that well. I reduced everything in the Sonar and Radio rooms to 0.005, and removed storm effect totally - because truth is I could not see how sitting in a chair flipping records, typing or listening to the sonar would reduce a man to near death. If the sonar needed listening to in an emergency, I know someone - no matter how tired would crawl in there and listen. I reduced the entire control room to zeros. This means I could run lots of officers in there rather than bunking most of them down even in battle. It means a basic crew is always operational in that room - i.e. this would stand for the fact that no matter what, even a sick crew will find someone who can turn the dials and stearing wheels in order to prevent disaster.
I reduced the effects in all the other rooms, but retained the diesel room as the worst since its great noise would quickly tire a man. Also since in SH3 you can't run electric engines on the surface - I took out the storm effect for men who work in that room since they will always be underwater when operating in there. Running diesels in a storm truly was difficult as water kept trying to choke off their air intake. I reduced the torpedo rooms, even though hauling torpedoes is difficult, simply because I didn't want a crew that always tired out in 4 friken days!! I kept the AA guns as zero since I rarely use them, and when I do, just long enough to hit the DIVE button.
The most important thing was I made the Damage Repair section ZEROs. I renamed it: General Activity Zone. It could include crew who are at the medic's station getting their crabs dusted, or men playing cards, men wiping the pipes with rags, cooking their meals, dancing with coconut halves on their chests (Das Boot), or just anything. They could be men waiting for damage, who, since there is no damage, are just reading a book or brushing up on their studies for naval advancement. The point is, with this large free zone I can keep a large body of men ready to repair damage or to be withdrawn to other areas as needed, without them growing weak as they repair NOTHING! Now it is true that when they repair things they do not grow tired. But since SH3 only has 3 to 10 minutes repair work usually anyway - big deal. My feeling is if the boat was flooding at 50 meters depth, the men - no matter how tired - would rise up like Samsons to get the job done.
The bunks still function as bunks. But the Zero areas, while they do not bleed strength, do not provide rest or increased strength either. So the total effect (over a long patrol) is that after battles and long storms on the surface my crew gets weaker and less effective and I have to juggle them around or dive to renew them. It also means their effectiveness does decrease even in the control room, as I have to often trade non-tired men from the control room with other areas to beef them up. The officers in the control room are of course used in other areas and so the control room loses much of its edge (as these officers are brought back to it). BUT - no matter what, even a very tired man in the control room CAN bring the boat home if he remains in that room. And no matter what, the crew will find men who can still stop a major leak and flooding. Torpedoes may not always get loaded fast, or perhaps, at all. But the basic functions of the boat and its damage control will continue to operate.
This may not be my final version, but its what I am using at the moment in a test career.
;******* Long range fatigue version
[FATIGUE_COEF]
;comp 0
RegularFactor00=0.01
SpecificFactor00=0.02
BadWeather0=0.03
;comp1
RegularFactor10=0.005
RegularFactor11=0
SpecificFactor10=0.005
SpecificFactor11=0
BadWeather1=0
;comp2
RegularFactor20=0
RegularFactor21=0
SpecificFactor20=0
SpecificFactor21=0
BadWeather2=0
;comp3
RegularFactor30=0.01
RegularFactor31=0.01
SpecificFactor30=0.01
SpecificFactor31=0.01
BadWeather3=0.02
;comp4
RegularFactor40=0.01
RegularFactor41=0
SpecificFactor40=0.01
SpecificFactor41=0
BadWeather4=0
;comp5
RegularFactor50=0.01
RegularFactor51=0.01
SpecificFactor50=0.01
SpecificFactor51=0.02
BadWeather5=0.01
;comp6
SpecificFactor60=-0.1
SpecificFactor61=-0.1
;comp7
SpecificFactor70=-0.1
SpecificFactor71=-0.1
;comp8
RegularFactor80=0.01
RegularFactor81=0.01
SpecificFactor80=0.01
SpecificFactor81=0.02
BadWeather8=0.01
;comp9
RegularFactor90=0.1
SpecificFactor90=0.05
BadWeather9=0.02
;comp10
RegularFactor100=0
SpecificFactor100=0
BadWeather10=0
;comp 11
RegularFactor110=0
RegularFactor111=0
SpecificFactor110=0
SpecificFactor111=0
BadWeather11=0