Crew Management

[Kip Chiakopf]

What's the consensus about crew management, the main interface or the Commander interface? I notice that available medals and awards differ between the two.

Depends. do you mean managing the crew from within the game itself or commander??? wellll if you want a crew with many qaulifications from the get go, commander is the way to go as you can assign each sailor that can have one a qaulification. I usually like to at least give my officers two qauls total after my shakedown patrol but thats just me. Awards I usually do from within the game, save the uboat war badge since everyone should get that if they all were on patrols.

[frau kaleun]

I use a combination of both, but mostly Commander. I'll give out what promotions and awards the game allots after a patrol from within the game (provided they are appropriate - the u-boat war badge usually isn't, the way the game handles it) and then supplement that in Commander if I feel more of either is merited.

Qualifications are handled in Commander, since as noted above you can assign at least one to everyone that way, even the ratings. Even if it doesn't count for anything in the game, it helps keep track of who belongs where and who is responsible for what job on board - very helpful when it comes to handing out medals later.

When it comes to dismissing a crewman I will usually do that in Commander, although it's a tossup as to whether I will let Commander replace him (at a cost of renown) or wait until I'm in the game to add a replacement. If it's a crewman of some importance I will usually let Commander replace him since IME I'm more likely to get someone who is better qualified to replace him in that fashion (and if he's not, I can give him the qualification while still in Commander). Once you go into the game, you're limited to what's available in the "barracks" and if all I need is a replacement Matrosengefreiter, I can get that at no cost - but if I need an officer or senior NCO, there may not be one who is already qualified in the area where I my crew is now lacking.

In general, probably 95% of my crew management is done in Commander... but then I may spend as much as 2-3 hours, total, in between patrols just on that alone. So I do a lot of crew management, lol. Especially early on when it's a new crew and I'm still sorting out who goes where and does what.

[WH4K]

I don't put nearly that much effort into crew management, but I did notice something odd when doing it the "regular" way, from inside SH3.

Why is it that some petty officers have 2 qualifications, but I can't add a second one myself?

For example, in my Type IID I now have a PO who has both Helm and Watch qualifications. But the game won't allow me to create any other POs with a second skill.

I'm not sure whether it really matters anyway. Due to the OLC GUI's method of doing longer repair times, I have no green efficiency bars.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by WH4K

I don't put nearly that much effort into crew management, but I did notice something odd when doing it the "regular" way, from inside SH3.

Why is it that some petty officers have 2 qualifications, but I can't add a second one myself?

POs have different ranks, not all of them can have 2 quals. IIRC only a senior PO - Stabsoberbootsmann - can have more than one.

[desirableroasted]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

POs have different ranks, not all of them can have 2 quals. IIRC only a senior PO - Stabsoberbootsmann - can have more than one.

Officers: up to three qualifications. Radioman and helmsman don't work, and medic has so little effect as to be worthless. Also, in real life, you wouldn't have an officer with any of those qualifications on a small boat.

Petty Officers: you can give more than one qualification, but the 2nd one is only for eye candy. Radioman works, here, but helmsman does not. Some people give it out for eye candy; I give it to my senior PO. If you are going to waste a qual on a medic, here is the place to do it.

Seamen: no qualifications work, even if you assign them.

[Damo]

I mix and match my crew management between game and commander. I like to start a career with a SH3C generated crew and stick with it, I enjoy turning these green sailors into full on officers so I use realistic crew transfers (which can really upset the equilibrium sometimes but sometimes works out well), realistic career length so I tend to stick with the uboat more than the crew and start a new career commanding the same boat and crew through SH3C, I also try to stick to the game generated promotions but rewards are awarded on individual merit and depends on the level of the patrol's success. Normally I have enough medals in game to dish out (invariably too many) but I can always supplement with SH3C if needed.

Qualifications are given out to officers and petty officers normally through SH3C and I've set a minimum of 2 patrols for the crewman to become qualified in each compartment. I also use the little known feature of the game that Commander doesn't allow, promoting between classes. I promote my sailors up through the ranks then to petty officers, then to officers. With the random transfers active I can watch a basic sailor progress through the ranks, through multiple Kaleuns and a number of different U-Boat types until he makes Chief Engineer and eventually gets transferred off to his own U-boat.

That is of course, if he and his crew survive long enough, which more often than not, they don't.



Oh and I use the no fatigue option, so the crew members can easily be organised by rank with the sailors normally in the forward quarters and the petty officers in the rear. Torpedo petty officers stay in the torpedo rooms at all times and I move the sailors in when reloading or firing is needed, unless I have no reserves left and it's just the eels in the tubes, in which case the petty officers have it covered. All new sailors to the uboat start their career in the engine room and work their way to torpedo crew, then to the control room, then watch crew, and finally the highest ranked are part of the damage control team (use LRT), until there's a petty officer vacancy.

Complicated, but works well and keeps to a realistic pattern I think.

Damo.

[desirableroasted]

Originally Posted by Damo

I also use the little known feature of the game that Commander doesn't allow, promoting between classes. I promote my sailors up through the ranks then to petty officers, then to officers.

I've been playing 5 years and have never cracked that one. How does it work, exactly? Others have mentioned it, but it is sort of like the grassy knoll guy.

Many thanks!

[Damo]

You can only do it with the highest ranks of sailor and Petty Officer (Matrosenhauptgefreiter and Stabsoberbootsman). In game, open the crew management screen and select awards, promotions, then select the guy you want to promote and drag a promotion onto him, just like you would any promotion, but you must have a spare space for him to be promoted into, or it will refuse it. Like I said, I do it when crew get transferred out via the realistic crew transfers in SH3Commander and most of the crew I enlist are new guys with no experience, chucked into the engine room with everybody else moving up to maintain a fair rotation, nobody jumps the promotion queue on my boat.