Awards and promotions, what's your approach?

[Damo]

So, it occurred to me that when trying to make your way through a career it's complicated enough without having to oversee your crews' advancement. If you choose to follow the game's system you end up with crew members with loads more experience than their rank limits and not enough promotion opportunities and handing out one skill per patrol isn't enough. Also, some of the medals, i.e. Front Clasp were not available early war yet the game awards them from the start.

On the other hand, you can use SH3Commander to manage your crew but here is the possibility of going overboard (no pun intended) and giving out too many promotions and medals making your crew super duper uber in a few patrols, although the historic availability of medals is solved.

So what's a happy medium? How were promotions handled historically? Were they readily given out to well performing sailors (in this case those that go say, 50 points over their rank limit)? Or was BdU a bit tight with them, only giving them out for those that proved meritous?

How do you manage promotions? Do you have a system, a formula? Do you base your award system on your patrol performance using SH3Commander. Also, personal promotions are too easily achieved and I know I saw a post about editing the reward values depending on tonnage but can't find it. Would be nice to read your takes on what you edit in the system files and what system you use for promotion that makes your crew realistically capable and advance historically. I want to overhaul my crew management before I start a new career.

[Kapt Z]

I use Commander for most of my crew tweeks. Here is my basic formula.

1)Start with 'realistic' crew with random experience.

2)U-boat war badge to everyone after their 2nd patrol.

3)Iron Cross 2nd class to all officers after first successful patrol(over 15,000 tons).

4)Iron Cross 2nd class to any POs and crew who have completed 4 patrols.

5)Iron Cross 1st class to all officers after 4-6 patrols(depends on tonnage).

6)Promote 1-3 crew members who have passed their rank experience per patrol.

7)Award a qualification to one officer and 1-2 POs per patrol.

8)Use Commander's 'random crew transfers'.

9)After about 5-6 patrols transfer out senior officer to his own command if Commander has not done so already. Recruit newbie officer to replace him. Hopefully that leaves you with a Oblt., two Lt.s, one Obf.

10)If Commander does not transfer any crew out after 4 patrols then manually transfer random number of crew 1-5 regardless of experience and replace with newbies. Continue this for each patrol after 4.

11)Once any crew reach 9-10 patrols start transfering them off the boat. The longest serving PO I ever had went out on 11 patrols in the boat.

Can't say if this is accurate realism wise but it seems to work to keep my crew rotating and a good mix of vets and newbies.

[Jimbuna]

I commence with a realistic crew and award medals and promotions as soon as they are earned.

I never transfer crew....I trained em, I keep em.

[JScones]

I use SH3Cmdr exclusively for awarding any bling to my crew.

I avoid "the possibility of going overboard" simply by taking a disciplined approach.

To that end, I:


always start new careers with the realistic crew and randomised experience options selected. This is about as close as one can get to a real U-boat crew composition (and yes, it WAS possible for the Kaleun not to be the most senior rank on a u-boat ;)).
allow crew transfers. Part of the challenge and frustration of being a leader is watching your best men leave. But it's good knowing that you've trained some of them up to be Kaleuns or LI's in their own right.
keep control of my crew composition and line structure. This means not being too "top heavy" rank wise. Promotions are time based, not experience based.
when it exists, award the u-boat war badge after the second patrol, or when awarding a wound badge (whichever comes first). [Historic award conditions]
when it exists, award the u-boat front clasp to those who show courage in the line of fire. In SH3 this may mean successfully repairing a badly damaged compartment, surviving a DC attack or similar. [Historic award conditions]
award the IC2 to the entire crew upon return from a successful, ie over 50,000GRT, patrol. [Not quite historic award conditions - I use a higher GRT to recognise higher tonnage levels in SH3. IRL it was about 20,000]
very rarely, if at all, award an IC1 but if so, only after the crewman has performed at least four more acts of courage.
never award anything higher than an IC1 to my crew. [Close to historic award conditions - there certainly were instances where crewmen received up to GC, but these were quite rare overall]

I've prolly missed something, but this is close to what I've always done.

Anyway, the only real difference between SH3Cmdr and RL is that in RL you recommended an award and BdU would approve it. Here, you are essentially doing both. However, if you show some restraint, discipline and/or common sense, then this will not be an issue. I did, at one stage, consider the historic approach (ie the player recommends an award and SH3Cmdr, acting on behalf of BdU, approves or denies), but I thought the "gamier" players would not like it.

If in doubt though, just follow the provided suggestions shown on the Crew Manager screen.

[norc24601]

These are very good suggestions! Thanks guys, nice thread :up:

[CNYBubblehead]

Thanks for all the great tips, all! :) I try very hard to follow these guidelines when it comes to medals and promotions...I try to be a stickler for historical accuracy!

My question comes on qualifications. My mindset is to ensure that all my petty officers have qualifications. My reasoning, though, is based on the U.S. Navy way of doing things, where by that point, they've trained in a certain field and have a rating. What I don't know is...did German petty officers of that era have specific ratings like their U.S. Navy counterparts? :06:

It's the one missing piece of the puzzle for me that I can't quite figure out. So, I've been ensuring after my first patrol that all petty officers have qualifications based on the compartments I've used them in -- extra guys get watch-rated, damage-control rated, or gunner rated. I'm trying hard not to create a crew filled with jacks of all trades.

[JScones]

My question comes on qualifications. My mindset is to ensure that all my petty officers have qualifications. My reasoning, though, is based on the U.S. Navy way of doing things, where by that point, they've trained in a certain field and have a rating. What I don't know is...did German petty officers of that era have specific ratings like their U.S. Navy counterparts? :06:
If an enlistee elected the NCO career path when joining the Kriegsmarine, the Kriegsmarine would assign them a trade based on their assessment of the enlistee's skills.

ORs could choose a trade on enlistment (or be assigned one) and I *think* carry it through if they were later chosen for NCO training.

In other words, yes, it's safe to assume that a PO+ in the U-bootwaffe had a qualification.

[PappyCain]

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/6734/ffele1.jpg


I train 'em and I keep 'em.

[Damo]

I use SH3Cmdr exclusively for awarding any bling to my crew.

I avoid "the possibility of going overboard" simply by taking a disciplined approach....

Thanks all for your replies and thankyou JScones for a very detailed and sensible strategy for medal allocation, I'll probably follow these guidelines in my next career. One thing you say is that promotions are time based, not experience based. Well I have many sailors in my current career that are far above their ranks' upper skill limit but have been only handing out the number of promotions SH3 awards. Of course, this isn't a high number and I'd like to see what formula you use to decide promotions as I just promote those with the most patrols, using experience points to decide between those with the same number.

Also, nobody has covered the awards system for the player and what I need to edit to make my awards a little less easy. Like I said I can't find the post that had these instructions as I know I saw it here on this forum.

Thanks again.

[JScones]

...I'd like to see what formula you use to decide promotions as I just promote those with the most patrols, using experience points to decide between those with the same number.
I guess me saying that promotions are time based and not experience based is a bit misleading. Of course, due to SH3 logic, crew can only be promoted if they are above their experience level. But that's all I care about.

Assuming this to be the case, then I promote based on number of patrols completed first then rank second. So a Matrosen with 12 patrols gets promoted before a Leutnant with 6 patrols. This approach attempts to reflect the time based promotion structure of the German Kriegsmarine, at least as far as SH3 allows.

Once I promote, I then consider the rank structure of my crew overall and will happily dismiss the newly promoted crewman if it creates a top heavy structure. For example, if I have three Stabsoberbootsmann and promote an Oberbootsmann to the same level, then I'll dismiss him as I don't want to run too top heavy. Besides, with promotion comes extra responsibility which in such a top heavy structure I simply can't offer in my u-boat.

Yes, in RL I am a manager, so tend to apply real world experiences to SH3. ;)

Also, nobody has covered the awards system for the player and what I need to edit to make my awards a little less easy. Like I said I can't find the post that had these instructions as I know I saw it here on this forum.
Frankly, IMHO, the awards system for players just sux. I just go with GWX's settings. Not perfect by any stretch, but I don't think any mod could fix what I think is largely internal SH3 logic.

[Rothwell white]

I commence with a realistic crew and award medals and promotions as soon as they are earned.

I never transfer crew....I trained em, I keep em.
Yep agreed i train them and keep them

[Weiss Pinguin]

Personally, I use Commander to hand out qualifications to all my crewmembers (Enlisted included, though I dunno if that has any effect at all), and hand out a U-boat badge to anyone who still doesn't have one after their 2nd patrol.

I also turn on SH3 Commander's transfer setting, and when I get a new crewmember I qualify him after the next patrol (Since commander closes after you get the transfer popup). I usually lose them by the next few patrols or so anyways, but hey, at least someone else out there has a qualified sailor now. ;)

[Jimbuna]

Qualifications don't have any enhancing effect on ratings, similarly only one qualification dictates the positive attributes of a PO.

[Weiss Pinguin]

So really the only reason I should qualify enlisted is to code each one so I know where he goes? :smug:

[JScones]

Page 17 of the SH3Cmdr User Guide explains all. ;)

[Weiss Pinguin]

What self-respecting kaleun would read a user's guide? :arrgh!:

[Damo]

What is this 'User Guide' phenomena you speak of? Sound like utter tosh dear boy....

:smug:

[Snestorm]

Very interesting reading from all contributers.

OK. My system:

Medals:
All qualified POs get their's first.
All Officers are next.
All Strikers ("POs" with no qualification) are next.
All Seamen, in rank order, take up the rear.

Promotions:
From the bottom up.
Seaman: Minimum 1.
PO: Maximum 1 (Only if a Seaman has also been promoted).
Officer: Maximum 1 (Only if a PO has also been promoted).
Any overage goes to the Seamen.

Rates (Qualifications):
2 BMs (Watch), 2 RMs (Radio), 2 HTs (Repair), 4 ENs (2 for diesels + 2 for electrics), 1 QM (Nav) (The Navigator, being a Chief, fills the other slot.), 2 TMs (Torpedo), 1 GM (Gunner), 1 HM (Medic), 1 to 3 Flak Gunners depending on boat type, and number of Flak Stations.

Officer and "Officer" Quals:
LI: Repair and/or Engine.
QMC/Nav: Helm.
1WO and 2WO: Watch
The extra officer is a duplicate of the LI, stationed permanently in DCC (Damage Control Central on a surface ship). This is the best I can do to simulate the LI controling repairs as there was no extra figure for this purpose.

It generaly takes an officer about 2 years before being eligable for promotion.

My junior BM is assigned to DC. This assures the boat a BM, in case the bridge watch is lost.