View Single Post
Old 10-08-05, 03:34 PM   #29
Observer
Commander
 
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 477
Downloads: 6
Uploads: 0
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Beery
Quote:
Originally Posted by Observer
I've no knowledge on the rate of promotions in the KM. My thought process is that if crew members are transferred off of the boat, they should be replaced by one of equivalent rank (or at least close in rank). That's fine. In fact that's great! If you have to spend renown to "buy" a replacement of similar rank then it's a problem.
I may be mistaken in this, and Jaesen can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure there's no way to get equivalent replacements without spending renown to do it. I think the promotion issue will be optional - you're never going to be forced to lose crewmen, but if you choose to promote someone, you will have to accept a loss in renown if you replace the crewman with a man of equal rank. The only way to get free crewmen is to get someone who costs nothing, and those guys have no experience. A big part of the problem with the replacement system as it is, is that there is too little crew turnover, so replacements are virtually never used. The new crew turnover systems Jaesen is implementing right now (promotions, transfers and casualties) will make replacements become a much more active part of the game. The downside of that is that it will use up renown if you choose to implement the feature.
I can think of a couple of ways to do it, but perhaps the easiest is to change the renown requirement to "purchase" new crew members. It would force the user to go to the "barracks" to look for new crew members. What I'm thinking is perhaps a very nominal renown (0, 5, or 10) requirement, but the higher ranking officers would only have one specialty (i.e. watch, repair, torpedo). I'd think the same should be true for the warrant officers as well. I'll have a look at the files to see if it's possible.

Quote:
Quote:
It's interesting the escorts lose the convoy. I suppose the upper limit should be set at the max the escorts can stay with the convoy. I thought there was a 20 km limit to calls for help from the merchants. One other thing I've noticed is that only one or two (haven't seen three yet) will stay behind at the last known position. For many of the IC convoys that leaves one to three escorts with the convoy. Maybe with this in mind a longer time isn't a bad thing, just as long as the warships are within the 20 km radius.
Basically the problem is that ships guarding a convoy have standing orders to cruise at the convoy's speed, so if they get stuck for 45 minutes on a search routine, after it's over they steam along oblivious to the convoy, constantly lagging behind it. Unless they actually spot you with their sonar, radar, hydrophone or AI eyeball, they won't do anything even if they seem to be able to clearly see ships being hit by torpedoes. After 45 minutes they are only perhaps 8km away, but even at 8km, the chances of spotting a periscope is very small, and sonar and hydrophones have no chance at that range. The only chance an escort has of spotting the periscope is by radar, and I'm not sure how far out even that goes, or how reliable it is.
Interesting. I know while running RUb 1.43 I've seen escorts steam off at full speed to rejoin the convoy. It's usually one of the things I'm listening for when avoiding escorts. As soon as they kick in high speed (as reported by my SO) I know it's safe to come to PD. Maybe there's a range on this as well. For instance if the convoy is more than x km away, the escorts won't rejoin at max speed. I can think of at least one instance where I noticed an escort lagging way behind. At the time I wrote it off to the heavy seas.
Observer is offline   Reply With Quote