Type II, crew management

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Warning this is long.

So I think I've figured this out a little.
While on patrol, I think I've got 2 watches. 1 for gefectstationen(battlestations) and one for cruising, due to the limited amount of people onboard. I switch them off using the torpedo room crew. I also have a rotation of 2 with the 4 officers onboard. that way 2 officers will be on duty at one time. Also, I dont fill up the engineroom or bridge when in "cruise" mode. I change watch whenever those already on watch are starting to get fatigued.
When in "battlestations" mode I put all the watch in the torpedo room, that way no one is just sitting around when it comes to the importance of shooting ships.
My radio and sonar operator are alone in their own watches, when it comes to switching.

I have a few questions concerning this:

1. Why does it take a long time to regain fatigue sometimes, where sometimes it doesnt? Does the medic onboard have something to do with endurance gathering?
After my first patrol, I opted to assign a medic, then after my second patrol I assigned another w/o to the mechanics. That way, I'd have a w/o with mechanical skills always in the engine room. I think it's because the longer I leave them on watch, the longer they take to recover.

2. Should I do an 8 hour shift change, my 2 watch method wouldnt work. What is a good watch method for a type 2. More importantly, how much is too little for each station? I think I can get away with having 1 person absent from the engineroom and 1 person absent from the bridge watch.

3. Does practicing crash dives increase your diving time?

4. Do you need to qualify a person in the radioman experience inorder for him to be good at sonar? There is not a specialization for sonar operator.

5. What is the best optimization for the control room with w/o's and sailors? Right now I have a sr. w/o(specialization damage), w/o(no specialization yet), and a seman(no specialization).

6. How do you get morale up? My first patrol I got a c2 cargo and a coastal freighter. Patrol 2: c2 cargo. Patrol 3: Coastal freighter, fishing boat(I was the one who blasted him with my aa gun) and last but not least a V/W destroyer. The destroyer shot was a beauty. I was going to try and dive deep and just let him go by, but we were in a perfect position. He came along nicely and we let loose all 3 fish, because I have trouble with my calculations, range was under 500m. I've never seen such an explosion than the one the DD gave up. I was completely stoked, but I was wondering why my crew wasnt 100% morale?

Sorry about this being a long post, but I think I've covered everything.
Thanks for any help. Also, if anyone has a post or a website on their type 2 watch metond would help enormously.

I havent yet the renown for a type 7b, but I think I'll wait to the type 7c. I'm really enjoying this understanding of crew management. I understand whay their is a type II club.

[GoldenRivet]

1. I think that the fatigue model in SH3 is based on the situation. On the surface in rough seas or when in a combat situation or silent running etc. fatigue builds faster. I think fatigue recoveres faster if you are submerged and not in a combat situation and there is a medic in the quarters with your fatigued personnel.

2. Not sure how to answer this question, i would assume it depends on how experienced the crew you have on the bridge or engine room is. More experienced or trained personnel will increase the efficiency of the room in question so i guess if you have 3 really well trained watchmen or really experienced sailors on the bridge you can get away with fewer of them being up there.

3. I dont think practicing crash dives increases dive time, i dont think that moving more men into the bow sections will do it either because i have tried both and havnt noticed any big change. Biggest factors in dive time are sea conditions and your speed. If you are at ahead slow and order a crash dive it will take longer than if you were already moving at ahead flank and order a crash dive.

4. I qualify both radio room personnel as radio operators, i dont think that having a radio trained person at the actual sonar station makes a difference i think its just that you have enough trained and experienced personnel in the compartment to give the compartment a high effeciency rating. (little green bar at the top of the room)

5. It really does not matter what their specialization is in the command room, my crew room officers speciallization are helmsmen. What i do is leave the control room officers specialization alone. and put three sailors in there with them. My other 2 officers (type VIIB/C) will have the following specializations... watchman, repairs, torpedoes. this makes the 2 remaining officers interchangable should one be busy or injured. I can also bring the bow and stern torpedo rooms quickly up to max effeciency this way by sending one of those officers aft and the other forward.

6. When you take an 18 -19 - 20 year old man away from skirts and bras and beer and send him to a sausage festival at sea in an iron tube with nothing but bearded dudes for several weeks (or longer) his moral will most likely suffer big time. This is why supply ships and milk cows should have all been crewed by women... something to look forward to mid patrol. :arrgh!: The only way to improve moral is return to base for a while and i think pin a medal on their chest... I have to be honest though, my crew moral has always been right around 50% to 60% and never really changes much unless we take a casualty or something like that. In short i wouldnt worry too much about moral.

i'll also offer this to you, micro managing the crew has been one of those things a lot of people have complained about in SH3, there are good aspects to the crew managment in SH3 and there are bad aspects to it. If you find yourself dedicating a LOT of game play time to crew managment and tweaking who needs to be where and at what times etc i would recommend getting SH3 commander and using its tweak options to turn off the fatigue model. Some people do this. Given the restrictions to crew managment in SH3 i certainly wouldnt think any less of a person for doing away with fatige all together.

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Thank you
I would love to get sh3 commander and gwx, but I have the slightest idea on how to go about that business. I need someone to hold my hand in figuring this out.
I have a disc with all of the gwx files on it and I dont know what to do next. I wish there were a step by step instruction booklet on this.
I dont know which sh3 commander files to use either.
Here goes:
1. I have all gwx files (.exe, 103.exe, bin-1, bin-2, bin-3, bin-4, bin 5) on a disc.
2. what do I do next? put them on my desktop? I dont know how to get them in a folder from there. This must be a headache for you, I'm almost completely computer illiterate.
3. then I dont know what sh3 files to d/l or even begin to understand how to get them to work.
4. right now I have sh3 patched 1.4b

any help would greatly be appreciated
thanks!