Crew specialtiy assignment/upgrades
 

kylesplanet:
Back in port and, no, I cannot upgrade any crewmember to any specific speciality, after 8 patrols - promotions, yes: specialties, no - and I see nothing that would give me that option. Should this be a separate thread in the forum for others to read and respond to since we've drifted away from the original thread theme?

I think I know what it is. You can only assign abilities to the sailors with no rank at all. If they have one of the little emblems on their picture, (like a prop) they have already been assigned their abilities. From there, you can only promote.

I replace some of my crew each patrol. In real life, skippers typically lost about one third of their crew each patrol so I try to replace a few of them each time with the greenest of green hands. If you want to build a sailor from scratch, grab yourself a swabbie and when he gains enough experience to be promoted, you can choose what abilities he will have such as command, watch, guns etc...:sunny:

Kyle:
I understand that once a crewman has a specialty assigned one cannot change or add to it, but do you really mean that a crewman with no rank (ie, a pure newbie) is the only one that can be given a specialty assignment - as opposed to an experienced veteran seaman? Maybe you are right, but it doesn't seem to be rational.

Your idea of rotating in new crew every once in a while is good one. I'll try it once I return to Milne Bay from a current patrol.

Thanks for the responses.

Thats the way it works. As they gain experience, some of their skills increase. Some crew receive special abilities such as pharmacist mate, dive expert, etc... but that is received random.

EDIT: I'm assuming you are playing 1.5.

Query: what, exactly, do those abilities do for you?

If your talking about the special abilities, as they appear, if you'll move your curser over the green marker, it will tell you what the abilities do and what compartment they need to be placed in.