Not Your Grand Mothers Crew Management Mod 1.1
READ the Crew Management.doc & Crew Management - addendum.doc (or TXT files).
Observer has done an excellent job of incorporating MORALE, yes; we have a morale impact now, into what was essentially an ‘Operationally Impaired’ crew system.
Crew management now means something; it is not just a matter of crew running out of efficiency, this should be clearer after reading the above mentioned files.
If you don’t want to manage your crew or have the engine room stop when the crew are fully fatigued after 18+ hours, then the NYGM Crew Management Mod is not for you.
I ask that you give yourself at least 2 patrols to become accustomed to the NYGM Crew Management Concept before drawing any hard conclusions.
We did the NYGM Crew Management Mod as we wanted more than just a 24*7*365 robots for crew. This means that occasionally you may have to stop and rest your entire crew for a while. Guess what, it happened in real life as well.
The Crew Management Mod Menu_1024_768.ini Mod changes are NOT required. Some Beta members like it, I prefer not to use it. It is a cosmetic change that is designed to visually support the engine room changes.
Players need to set the 3DRender= to the maximum compression setting in the 'My Documents' main.cfg.
I have included my settings.
I have set the PrayState=256 & HunterState=256 so that I do not know when I have escaped from an encounter.
[TIME COMPRESSION]
TimeStop=0
RealTime=1
LandProximity=16
CriticalDamage=1
CrewEfficiency=1
AirEnemyDetected=1
SoundEffects=16
CharacterAnim=4
EnemyDetected=1
RadioReport=8
Particles=8
PrayState=256
HunterState=256
3DRender=256
Maximum=256
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In NYGM CM Mod, as time goes by the crew’s morale decreases as does their performance due to that. So instead of 10 men it might require 11, instead of 18 hours they are only good for 15 etc.
The NYGM CM Mod also rewards you for being successful. Sinking ships increases your crew’s morale. If it has been 5-6 weeks this will result in your crew performing better. If luck and the likes are on your side, it will keeping you crew at peak performance (with normal efficiency cycle)
The NYGM CM Mod will, if you have crew wounded or killed, have an impact upon your crew Morale. Obviously decreasing their performance. But never to the level that with say 6 dead crewmen that you could not still bring your u-boat home.
While a crew would be tired from a long patrol, a successful u-boats crew would be in rather good spirits and the long patrol would have less impact of an impact on their performance as compared to that of an unsuccessful u-boat. The NYGM CM Mod reflects this through the use of Morale.
Rather than just keeping on punishing a very successful player by making it harder and harder as time goes by, the NYGM CM Mod says if your are successful we will reward you with better performing crew than if your were not.
You, the player, now actually have an input into how your crew performs as does luck, as some patrols will be bare, but while we have made it slightly harder, we have not overly burdened you.
It is the compartment efficiency that governs how well it performs.
What a qualification does is allow you to achieve the compartment efficiency with less men, so long as that qualification is relevant to that compartment.
For example...
1 qualified Petty Officer = 1.5 seamen
1 qualified Senior Petty Officer = 2 seamen
1 qualified Chief Petty Officer = 3 seamen
The once Uber Officer effect has been toned down to put the emphasis onto the Petty Officer's but an officer is still important.
The officer effect works by multiplying the total value of the PO's and the seamen by X when his qualification is relevant to that compartment.
Sub Lieutenant = 1.3
Lieutenant Jr = 1.4
Lieutenant Sr = 1.5
Lets look at a compartment that might require 10 men to function.
Example 1 needs 10 men
10 seamen = 10 men
Example 2 needs 8 men
2 qualified Senior Petty Officer = 4 men
6 seamen = 6 men
Example 3 needs 6 men
1 qualified Lieutenant Sr
2 qualified Senior Petty Officer = 4 men = 6 men with officer effect
3 seamen = 3 men = 4.5 men with officer effect
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Minimum effeciency and Compartment effects.
The minimum effeciency effect on the engine & torpedo compartment is obvious, the boat stops moving forward & torpedos do not load.
Due to the shortness to which the original crew could function, certain areas were made to continue to function even after reaching minimum effeciency. Though they 'function', there is a minimum effeciency effect on these compartments that is not so obvious.
The Command Room...
The minimum effeciency effects the ability of maintaining the periscope depth in non smooth water. Essentially, you are more likely to broach the surface.
The Bridge...
The minimum effeciency effects the ability to spot ships and planes. It does not stop them from spotting, not does it stop them from spotting long distance. What does happen is that the bridge watch are less likely to spot something until it gets closer.
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Crew Management
Purpose: Provide a challenging yet intuitive and stimulating method for crew and submarine management without the tedium associated with stock SH3 “fatigue” or the limitations of other SH3 “fatigue” modifications.
Discussion: Many elements of the stock SH3 “fatigue” system do not work well, or simply do not work at all. In the stock SH3 model fatigue is the dominant factor, yet there is no automatic system of rotating watch crews leading to a tedious process of switching crew members. Furthermore, contrary to WWII U-boat operations, adequate space is not provided for officer berthing leading to unrealistic officer behavior unless certain awards are given, then rendering the default SH3 fatigue system moot. Other elements such as crew promotions are broken. There is no reason to promote enlisted sailors because they provide no added benefit to the operation of the ship. This mod will attempt to address these deficiencies as well as others.
Definitions: This mod is based on three critical crew member statistics:
• Efficiency: A measure of how capable the crew member is of conducting certain tasks. Many factors have an impact on crew efficiency such as fatigue and proficiency.
In this model, awards and promotions will tend to improve crew member performance. This behaviour can be correlated to the promotion and award systems in modern navies where those sailors better able to perform tasks in a given rating are given awards and/or promotions to higher ranks. While SH3 does not model individual crew members well, this system can be applied such that those crew members receiving awards or promotions are those deserving the recognition and as a consequence receive a “bonus” to performance. This performance bonus allows higher ranking crew members to recover efficiency 10% faster than the next lower rank.
The decay rate for crew efficiency has undergone many tweaks. The version of the “Not you grandmothers crew management mod” will cause all crew efficiencies to be at a minimum after about 18 hours, however many other factors will influence how well compartments function. The rate at which efficiency is lost varies based upon the location of the crew member. For example, crew members in the torpedo rooms, engine spaces, damage control and the bridge will reach minimum efficiency first. During harsh weather, crew members on the bridge will reach minimum efficiency even faster.
In order to offset the lack of additional crew berthing, “neutral” spaces have been established in the engine room not currently in use. Crew members will not regain efficiency, but they will not lose efficiency either.
Crew members at minimum efficiency will be denoted with an “E” next to the character portrait.
• Morale: This is a measure of the emotional condition, or confidence, of the crew. Morale has a dramatic impact of crew effectiveness. Crew member injury or death has a tremendous negative impact on crew morale, and can devastate crew morale in affected compartments. Sinking ships, on the other hand provides a boost to crew morale. In the “Not you grandmothers crew management mod” four to five crew deaths or eight to ten crew injuries will result in the crew reaching minimum morale. Like the efficiency statistic above, crew members at minimum morale will be denoted with an “E” next to their portrait. Due to the limitations in SH3 it is not possible to differentiate between minimum efficiency and minimum morale without looking at the individual crew members. The easiest way is to avoid situations resulting in crew injury or death.
The current system starts every crew member at maximum moral. This morale is slowing reduced during the course of the patrol. Morale has been timed to go down very slowly over about a six to seven week period. If you sink ships during this period of time, you will increase crew morale and improve overall crew efficiency.
• Health: As the name implies, this is the physical well being of an individual crew member. Rank no longer provides improvements in health with every crew member on an equal basis.
The goal of the “Not you grandmothers crew management mod” is to maximize the efficient operation of the uboat compartments, with many possible methods to accomplish optimal compartment operation. The crew’s ability to perform operations has been linked to compartment efficiency where possible (there may be issues with this as it does not always appear SH3 uses crew efficiency for spotting purposes). If the crew remains on watch too long, the engines will shut off.
One of the most difficult tasks was balancing efficiency and moral. The designers complicated this because of the way they chose to implement these two factors. This has been accomplished within the limitations of the SH3 model. The 18 hour rotation is designed to provide challenges during repeated convoy attacks, but not make crew switching a undo burden during long transits. Crew configurations have been reworked to provide port and starboard watch sections for rotation in order to help here as well. Crew management does become easier as the crew gains experience and qualifications, though even a veteran crew can suffer challenges if not thoughtfully managed.
Officers’ qualifications are now important, but they are not Uber as in the stock SH3 model. Officers will tire, as will other crew members, even if awarded the German Cross in Gold. The compartment impact of an officer can be important, but not as important as having qualified warrants and seamen in the compartment.
The helmsman qual is no longer required and has been eliminated.
Torpedo loading operations provides an example of the need for efficient crew management. Low efficiency crew may be able to load torpedoes, but probably not for long, and they will only load torpedoes at the slowest speed (~20 minutes per torpedo). A properly rested crew with some of the correct qualifications (provided in the default crew configurations) can load torpedoes twice as fast. A veteran crew can load torpedoes faster yet. This is just one example of how thoughtful planning and crew management will matter in efficient uboat operations.
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