need help with damage control and crew management

[Joe S]

Hello Everyone,

I am getting back to SH4 after an extended leave. I do not have any game mods, just some sound mods.
I have the "gold edition"

When I go to the crew screen, I see the crew organized into three watches.
1) How do I determine which watch is on duty?
2) Do I need to know?
3) is there any recommended technique for assigning members to damage control?
4) What is the meaning of the crew member icon turning red? I assume it means he is wounded but the status panel does not so indicate.
5) Do I need to micro manage the damage control team or will they prioritize their repairs in some logical fashion, such as leaks first?
I did a search and could not find answers on the forum , even though I am certain these questions have been asked and answered before.

Thanks!
Joe S

[TorpX]

I play RFB, so stock/other mods profiles may be slightly different.

1. The watch on duty will be shaded darker. In RFB there is a sound file that plays when the shifts change.

2. For the most part, you can ignore the crew. They aren't that important unless they have special abilities, or you don't have enough to man the compartment.

3. I'm not an expert here. Usually, I'm either OK, or dead. The crew within a compartment will try to repair damage in that compartment, without orders.

4. You should have some info as to their condition, I think.

5. When you have multiple things damaged, the items on the top has priority over anything lower down. You can change the order, of course.

[fireftr18]

Crew management is one of the most confusing and useful things in sh4 and it is poorly explained in the user's manual. There are volumes of threads about crew management and it gets even more confusing. It really takes some time to really get the hang of crew management. I'll try to explain how I understand and how I do it.

1. For game purposes, the crew is divided into three shifts, or watches. Two will be in black and white, the on duty shift will be in color.

2. Short answer is "Yes." You can click on each crew member and get information about the individual. You can see name, rank, health, fatigue, specialty, and skill level on the different skills. Suffice to say, the higher number, the better at the skill. This is important. You want to assign your crew members so they contribute best to the crew. High mechanical skill, you want in the engine room. High watch skill, you want in deck watch, etc. You will notice that the skills don't necessary match all the compartments, that's one of the things that get confusing. You'll notice there isn't torpedo, control room, or sensors skill. You want to put Mechanical skill in the torpedo rooms, command skill in the control room, and electrical skill in the sensors room (conning tower or whatever it's called). You will want to divide the shifts evenly according to the crew member's skill levels. At the top of each compartment, there is a bar that shows how well the crew in that compartment is working. If just the watch crew is on duty, it will show green in 1/3 of the bar or less. It shows the compartment is operating at 1/3 efficiency. Go to battle stations, the bar should be close to completely filled. The exact level depends on the skill level of your crew members. Take your time to set up your crew when you start your career, then after that, it's just tweaking. I like to arrange my crew members in order of skill level. It helps for deciding who to put where. It also helps when later on, you want or need to move crew members around. Once your set up, during routine patrol, you can ignore the crew, it takes care of itself. During an attack, you will want to go to battle stations.

3. For assigning damage control, you will want those with mechanical skill. Some say you want the better crew members. If available, I go for those crew members that have high mechanical and electrical skill. I don't know if it really matters.

4. Red means injured. I think a minor injury is pink and a serious injury is red. You can click in the individual crew member and see the health level, it should be 100%. As time goes, an injured crew member will heal, unless you have traveler's mod.

5. The crew members will automatically repair the damage in their compartment. The damage control team needs to be micro-managed. On the damage control screen, you have a list of items damaged and repairable (your deck gun is damaged and you're submerged, the deck gun will not show on the list). On the right side is a scroll bar, on the left are up and down arrows. Scroll through the list to find the item you want (bulkhead). Highlight it, then use the arrows to move it in the list. You want to fix the bulkheads first to stop the leaks, then use your judgement. As long as the water pumps are working, and the leaks are stopped, then water will be pumped out.

Good luck and good hunting. :salute:

[Armistead]

I haven't played stock, but seems red is injured and I get an X over a member that is killed.

If a compartment is damaged I will also fill it with with good mech. people.