What do the medals actually DO? and other imponderables

[vindex]

Got back from a mission (with ridiculous tonnage totals) and won me some medals to distribute to the crew: one silver star and several bronze stars (using real medals mod). When I handed out crew medals in SH3, stats changed immediately. In SH4, I couldn't see any change at all. Does anyone know what each of the medals actually does? What bonuses (if any) they give?

The other imponderable I'd like to ask about is crew morale. Everyone in my ship has "normal" morale. If we sink an entire Jap taskforce, virtually winning the war, they still have "normal" morale. If we cruise for days without finding anything to engage, they have "normal" morale. If I give someone a medal, he barely cracks a smile. While I admire their unflappable composure, I'm wondering what, if anything, would cheer or dishearten my stoic crew? And if their morale actually did change, what effect would it have on my sub?

One of the most interesting aspect of the sub movies and books I've seen involves how the crew embraces or rejects the captain's leadership. How the sub performs creates a sense that the captain and his boat is either "lucky" or "unlucky" which affects crew performance. As far as I can tell, this element is missing from SH4 (and SH3 as well) but should reflected through the morale feature.

[captainFlunky]

I've often wondered the same thing. Nothing rattles the crew, they are..."Normal"... Got depthcharged for 3 hours; Normal. Sunk a few battleships; Normal. Half the watch crew wiped out by an attacking Zero; Normal. It's like 'Das Boot' on qualudes.

And the medals, yeah, you might as well give out paper chef hats for all the impact it has.

[bruschi sauro]

For me il the game Silent Hunter4;Bugs of the Pacific is AB NORMAL.:hmm:
THIS GAME NEED A BIIIG BIIIIIG PATCH.:damn:

[hmatthias]

And the medals, yeah, you might as well give out paper chef hats for all the impact it has.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[Silence]

Has anyone seen the crew with anything other than Normal. Wonder what needs to be done to shake these guys. :hmm::lurk:

[vindex]

Morale looks to me like an unimplemented feature. I wish they would patch it to do something, because it could make things more interesting.

Come to think of it, the state of the crew overall has very little -- almost no -- effect on the performance of my sub. There have been times where, especially due to the loaded-game fatigue bug, my watch has been DEAD tired, with effectiveness in all compartments virtually zero, and the only thing it seems to affect is torpedo load times. The engines operate, the sub dives and surfaces normally ... if they're too tired to fire my guns, I can do it myself, I usually do anyway. They seem to sight ships and airplanes just fine with their eyes drooping closed. What gives?

Oh my God, my icon just turned into Popeye (rolling my eyes).

[jdski]

I had a couple guys that had their moral in "shaken" state for awhile. Another one had worse moral then that but I forget what it was called.

[vindex]

Do you know what did it to them? Or did they just have a bad day on the potty?

[ccruner13]

i havent seen it in 1.2 but in 1.1 some of my guys were shaken and some were broken and then a few were also fanatical. this was when your people still had abilities at the beginning of a campaign. the shaken and broken guys were injured pretty badly i think and had lower efficiency.

[CaptainHaplo]

I have not yet gotten far enough into the game to award medals to my crew. To much testing - not enough playing.... But I suspect that it will do the same type of thing as in sh3 - increase overall efficiency and reduce accumulated fatigue. If I ever get far enough in (or motivated to edit my crewfiles) I will let ya know.

[SteamWake]

For me il the game Silent Hunter4;Bugs of the Pacific is AB NORMAL.:hmm:
THIS GAME NEED A BIIIG BIIIIIG PATCH.:damn:

Another on topic helpfull post.

Thanks for sharing.

[GSpector]

Have any of you guys ever tried B-17 II? That had the best Moral feature I've ever seen. Crewmen will sometimes get so shaken up when they are under attack that they will literally shake and be unresponsive until they calm down. Granted these crewmen are worthless that the time but was very realistic.

I would like someday to see a Sub Sim that modeled the entire Sub and crew and then see things like that happen.

As for SH4, I too would like to at least see moral and medals change the stats for the crewmen.

[vindex]

I agree with GSpector. There is HUGE room left to flesh out the crew and make them an active and vital part of the experience. SH4 got rid of SH3's problem of having to tell each crewmember to tie his shoes and brush his teeth, which was not fun. But in solving that problem, it has largely turned the crew into non-entities. I don't really even need them to run the boat.

The crew can and should be a major part of the immersion experience. I mean, these are your brothers in arms, breathing the same stale air and trapped in the same tin can. It should feel like it. There should be discipline cases, and guys who freak out, other guys who you know you can always depend on, and surprising heroes that emerge. Guys should get pissed off when they DON'T get the medal or promotion they deserve. Some guys shouldn't get along with each other, affecting performance. I'm hoping some real attention will be paid to this in future generations of the game.

I remember playing a game called "50 Mission Crush" on the Apple II. It was simple simple graphics, but I really felt it when that young airman who had finally mastered the turret gun got critically wounded with flak over Berlin and bled to death on the return journey. Or when our crew all bailed out over the North Sea, and my navigator who had been with me from the beginning never showed up again. And then on my next mission, my new navigator was green and got us so lost we nearly ran out of gas trying to find our target. SH should feel like THAT.

[TheVillagePeople]

^That would be awesome, but if not that maybe we can have them move around a bit more? Like maybe let them walk around because they dont move their feet the entire time? Im not sure if the damage crew appear instantly though.

[GSpector]

I have not tried it with SH4 yet, but in SH3 you can go to the Crew Management screen and move the crew members around and if you go to the Bridge, you would actually see the crewmen you selected in the position you wanted. The Ranks and ratings helped to identify the crewman so it became easy to tell.

Is this even done in SH4? I really can't tell 1 crewman from another other then whether they are Seaman, Chiefs or Officers.

[Karl-Heinz Jaeger]

For me il the game Silent Hunter4;Bugs of the Pacific is AB NORMAL.:hmm:
THIS GAME NEED A BIIIG BIIIIIG PATCH.:damn:
Another on topic helpfull post.

Thanks for sharing.

Steamwake,

You owe me a new Sarcasm Detector, the needle on my old one permanently reads Biting now.....:roll:

[vindex]

Just a little bit more detail on your wounded personnel would add a lot. I don't know what 95% health means. It would be better to say he has some shrapnel cuts, or a broken finger. There should be critical wounds such as losing an arm or leg that mean you lose the crewman on your return. Some wounds should grow worse over time. There should be some kind of aid station (this was addressed half-heartedly in SH3). Yeah, it's all eye candy, in a way, but isn't eye candy a large part of what this game is about?

[ccruner13]

there are things like that in the save files such as 'sucking chest wound' or broken arm but that isnt displayed anywhere in game.

[vindex]

See, this is what I mean when I say (in other posts) that I'm frustrated they (Ubi, not the devs) didn't take the time to bring this game to its full potential. They could have gotten a 95-99% rating on reviews, rather than the tipid ones they did get.