NYGM Crew Management (Preview) - NOW released

[Der Teddy Bar]

Follow this link to the release info and link in the Mod forum - http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=47907


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 behavior 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.

[Torplexed]

Sounds good. Sure would like to get away from the "rechargable battery" model the stock game came with where you plug a worn-out crewman in the recharge (berthing) slot and put his replacement in the crew position slot. Sure...the batteries got better over time with medals and promotions but it sure never felt realistic.

[Der Teddy Bar]

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.

[Der Teddy Bar]

Originally Posted by Torplexed

Sounds good. Sure would like to get away from the "rechargable battery" model the stock game came with where you plug a worn-out crewman in the recharge (berthing) slot and put his replacement in the crew position slot. Sure...the batteries got better over time with medals and promotions but it sure never felt realistic.

Observer has done an increadible job with what is essentially a broken system. A big issue was that Morale is over represented and Fatigue/effeciency is under represented in compartment effeciency.

I now actually enjoy managing my crew as there is a reward for doing so and I do not feel like I am being punished.

The impact on morale by crew injury and deaths is great in that it makes you think twice about being a Gung Ho captain with your Tiger Tank U-Boat, especially when coupled with the NYGM Ship Damage Mod.

In all of this, even with a morale decimated crew through either being too vrave or bad luck, can still function and bring the boat home. It may take you twice as long as you must rest the crew, but it still can be done.

I really do feel that Observer has the balance between funtion and game play spot on.

[LukeFF]

Teddy,

What, if anything, have you done for the Radio qualification? It seems to me that, right now, my non-rated hyrdophone operator can pick up contacts way too quickly when we submerge. To me, it should make a big difference as to whether a petty officer has the Radio qualification or not when using the hydrophones. What do you think?

[Der Teddy Bar]

Originally Posted by LukeFF

Teddy,

What, if anything, have you done for the Radio qualification? It seems to me that, right now, my non-rated hyrdophone operator can pick up contacts way too quickly when we submerge. To me, it should make a big difference as to whether a petty officer has the Radio qualification or not when using the hydrophones. What do you think?

I agree, but as to the end result, you will have to let me know on that.

How morale will affect efficienty of the crew? Will the 50% moral crew load torpedo 2 times slower that 100%?

[Der Teddy Bar]

What a qualification does is allow you to achieve the compartment efficiency with fewer 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

[bill clarke]

When will this mod be available ?

[THE_MASK]

Keep up the good work .

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by bill clarke

When will this mod be available ?

When it's ready.

[Observer]

Originally Posted by ^SG^

How morale will affect efficienty of the crew? Will the 50% moral crew load torpedo 2 times slower that 100%?

Morale is very difficult to work with because of how big an impact it has on the compartment efficiency. More directly to the point on your question, here's a bit from the included documentation about torpedo loads:

General
• Configured for 10 crew members (no officer) consisting of 2 qualified warrant officers and 8 seamen
• Torpedoes will be loaded at two speeds: 12.5 minutes and 25 minutes
• It is suggested to only use 10 crew members even though spaces may be available for others in order to keep them rested and available for other operations.
• One hour of torpedo loading requires about 3 hours of rest.

Max Efficiency, Max Moral
• About 1 hour (depending on a few factors) of torpedo loading time at the fast speed.
• About 3 hours of compartment working time before efficiency is too low to load torpedoes.

Max Efficiency, Min Moral (Min morale is 50%)
• About 1 hour (depending on a few factors) of torpedo loading time at the slow speed, for a total of about 1 hour of compartment working time before efficiency is too low to load torpedoes.

[Observer]

Originally Posted by bill clarke

When will this mod be available ?

We've done quite a bit of testing, and I think it's about ready to be released. I put together a release candidate that I hope will be distributed within the next 24-48 hours.

This version will work with and without SH3 Commander.

[panthercules]

This sounds great - but, I was taking a look through the unzipped files and I noted that there is a new/modified en_menu.txt file in the data\menu folder. I play in German, so whatever changed in this file presumably won't show up in my game - can you give me any idea what changed in this en_menu.txt file, so I can maybe figure out what I need to change in the German language version?

Also, are there any other aspects you know of that won't work or will be different for those of us who play in German?

Also, I note that the readme-like files included in this indicate that there might be a problem with trying to use this in mid-career. I guess I'll just back everything up and give it a chance anyway as I don't really want to start over with this career unless I really have to.

I was curious how the crew setup works though, as it seems pretty clear that my current crew (even after 6 patrols) probably doesn't have enough people with specialization/qualifications to make this thing work the way it is described as working - do you just go into SH3 Commander's crew management feature and assign what seems like a reasonable mix of specializations and ranks, or is there some better way to do it?

Sounds like this thing took a tremendous amount of time/work - can't wait to give it a workout - thanks again for all this effort

[Payoff]

Cant seem to locate this. Has it been released or not? :hmm: