Crew abilities et al

[captainprid]

Having completed the game and started again I have noticed how much I really dislike the crew special abilities function.
Before SHV came out, I was really hoping that the game would include some kind of improvement based on training feature. I would have liked to see the crew progress from virgin submariners in to a vetrans crew through drills and general experience. I would have loved to see drill times improve through practise. Crash dive time getting quicker and quicker as the war progresses.
Some of the special abilities are just silly, like heating up the eel's. I know that in real life torpedoes had to be heated up anyway prior to launch in order to work. Another one is the Chief's ability to stop flooding quickly, I mean if the boat was sinking, I don't see he could do it any faster because you ask him to.

I hope a mod corrects this at some point

[severniae]

I have to agree, the 'special abilities' are a real immersion killer for me. The only one that I feel is realistic is the 'special meal' option. Overcharging the electric batteries I'm sure would blow a fuse somewhere and would result in no forward motion, instead of an increase. It just seems a little silly and aimed at the casual market.

I also find the crew 'passive ability' upgrades a little silly too. At a stretch, I can believe that the sonar operator could increase his detection range a little (getting used to 'tuning' his ears in...so to speak). However, I think that the navigator ability to turn the ship faster and the motor officer ability to push the elec and diesel engines to go faster is just ludicrous in my opinion. The rudder only turned so far, unless the navigator keeps a larger set of rudders in his bag then they ain't getting faster turns any time soon. Plus the idea of the diesel engines being 'tuned' to achieve a faster ship is just silly. I've had my ship running along the sea at a whopping 24 knots! A whole 7 knots faster than a VIIC could go! I could imagine that a little optimisation and tweaking could perhaps improve fuel efficiency and maybe squeeze half a knot extra out of them...but 7!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Noren]

I fully agree, there's a big difference between becoming better at a job and pushing the machinery to magical new heights. Operational officers were'nt supposed to invent or radically improve operational speed, turning rate etc... I imagine all they cared about was reability and solid engineering.

On the note of the diesels, I've heard that big ships use 50% of their available power to achieve flank speed, which is why they are so economical with fuel at cruising speed. With that in notion, there's no way that the uboat engineer can suddenly and reliable milk +7 knots (whats that, like a +5000 horsepower?).

[Cap.Palla]

I'm agree with you guys!
These special abilities (passive and active) are totally unrealistic. Maybe UBI wanted a little of arcade in sH5. Inconceivable for the target of the game, i think... :nope:

[captainprid]

Arcade or possible console cross-over can be the only reason as far as I can see

[Iron Budokan]

Arcade or possible console cross-over can be the only reason as far as I can see

^^Bingo.

[robbo180265]

I'm with you guys , I think the special abilities are daft.

It also annoys the crap out of me when I cant run silent because one of them is injured.

Not very realistic IMO