Awarding medals to crew?

[Torpedo Death]

I tried to search, but my phone is having trouble with the search function for some reason....

What is the purpose of awarding medals to your crew members? After my last patrol, I have 2 Silver Stars to give out. How do you decide which members deserve them? Also, is there any in-game description of what the various medals mean? Does it really matter?

[Gerald]

You'll have to give out the medals with a little sense....in some ways eye candy.

[Torpedo Death]

What impact do the medals have? I gave one sailor a Silver Star, but his stats didn't change.

[razark]

That's pretty much the answer. They serve as decoration only.

[aanker]

For some reason I enjoy passing out Awards & Decorations to my crew, though as has already been said, has little if any effect that I know of : )

Happy Hunting!

[Torpedo Death]

Thanks guys! I agree... It's a fun little bit of immersion :)

[woodenboat]

Maybe this is also a reflection of real life. I ran my own business for many years and I discovered that good employees did a good job regardless of incentives. They simply took pride in their work and stayed busy all the time.

On the other hand, I found that I could never motivate bad employees with incentives. There were constantly scamming me and my system for what ever advantage they could gain in an effort to do the very least amount of work possible. In fact, there were times when I would make a "deal" with my workers. I would promise more pay or perks if I could get x amount of work more. The good employees would always step up to the challenge but the bad employees would give me one or two days and then fall back into the old patterns, EXCEPT when payday arrived. Then they would demand the higher pay or the promised incentives and pitch an unholy fit if they didn't get them. It always led to trouble. Now that was real life.

Getting back to the sim: I did run one mission here where I had battle damage on the sub that was not getting repaired and we were at battle stations. We had gone to silent running for a brief period but when that crisis was over, we secured from SR. When i went to check I found a bunch of guys sleeping. I wondered if I had been at battle stations too long and I guessed that was it. But I do know that I had not used the time compression since going to battle stations and so, the best I could figure was that the men had been on high alert for about four hours game time. No... wait. No again I didn't use time compression at all. They had been at BS for about an hour.

Maybe this was another case of my lack of a good video card placing more of a heavy load on the computer's main processor. Hmmmm.

I have not had that experience since and so, I honestly don't know.

[ninja turtle]

Maybe this is also a reflection of real life. I ran my own business for many years and I discovered that good employees did a good job regardless of incentives. They simply took pride in their work and stayed busy all the time.

On the other hand, I found that I could never motivate bad employees with incentives. There were constantly scamming me and my system for what ever advantage they could gain in an effort to do the very least amount of work possible. In fact, there were times when I would make a "deal" with my workers. I would promise more pay or perks if I could get x amount of work more. The good employees would always step up to the challenge but the bad employees would give me one or two days and then fall back into the old patterns, EXCEPT when payday arrived. Then they would demand the higher pay or the promised incentives and pitch an unholy fit if they didn't get them. It always led to trouble. Now that was real life.

Yep. Humans are by nature very lazy IMO. Good, conscientious workers are like gold I have found. I'd also like to add that I consider myself within the 'gold' group. :yep:

[slipf18]

I can't seem to get them to the right guy. It says to drag over a highlighted crew member but when I drag the medal over him and let go generally a guy a couple to the right will get the medal.

[aanker]

I can't seem to get them to the right guy. It says to drag over a highlighted crew member but when I drag the medal over him and let go generally a guy a couple to the right will get the medal.
That used to happen to me years ago. Now I click the crewman first, then drag the medal over to him until he 'lights up'. (it probably isn't necessary to click him first however that's how I do it.)

Happy Hunting!

[slipf18]

Hmmm... Thanks will try that

[fireftr18]

I do the same way aanker does it. It seems to minimize the problem you're having.

[PhatBlasterd]

I remember reading somewhere that the medals given to crew affect their durability (hit points}.

[lukterran]

I hand out medals to each of the shift leaders first. Then the most important aspects of the ship IMO before secondary compartments.

Highest Ranking Officers (those with the highest skill levels for their area) and those crew with special skills first.

Compartments Priority:
Command Room
Deck Watch
Forward Torp Room
Engine Room
Stern Torp Room
Conning Tower

I don't think it changes or makes any difference but that is how I do it.

Also I have two man deck crew which is my most decorated and best skilled crew members. Those two guys are responsible for 1/3 of the kills I make when I happen to run into unescorted Merchants.