SH3 Commander crew management questions

[Rangoon]

I'm still a bit confused, so perhaps some gracious submariner can help me. Quotes are from the SH3 Commander manual.

Note that if you award medals using Crew Manager some medals may accumulate in the
game that can't be awarded. Either ignore these, or award medals in the game before doing
so in Crew Manager.

Does this mean to Launch SH3, award medals, back out to main menu, quit, then go to SH3 Commander again, then award in Crew Manager and launch SH3 again?

· awarding the *first* qualification to a Chief Warrant Officer impacts compartment
efficiency as if awarded via Silent Hunter III;
· awarding subsequent qualifications to a Chief Warrant Officer, whilst being recognised in
Silent Hunter III, has no effect in Silent Hunter III;

So if I award the 2nd and 3rd qualifications to a CWO in SH3 it will have an impact but not if I award through Crew Manager in SH3 Commander? Or will 2nd and 3rd qualifications be inert regardless of where they are awarded?

· awarding a qualification to a seamen, whilst being recognised in Silent Hunter III, has no
effect in Silent Hunter III;

· promoting/demoting has the same effect as if awarded via Silent Hunter III (although
there is no demotion via Silent Hunter III);

I understand that I can't effectively award a qualification to a seaman, but can promote him. If I promote a seaman to a petty officer in Crew Manager, then award a qualification to that newly promoted petty officer (who moments ago was a seaman), will his qualification be reflected in SH3?

And if so (if the above works), do I need to promote, then load SH3, then exit and go back to SH3 Commander, then award the qulification so that SH3 first recognized the new rank? Or can I do both in one SH3 Commander Crew Management session?

Further, I think in stock SH3 (and GWX), I can award one qualification per patrol, make promotions and give medals per the grace of the game itself. So is it best to do this in the game (as I described earlier) and then back out to SH3 Commander in order to do any other Crew Management I deem appropriate?

Thanks for any clarification here. What a fantastic tool SH3 Commander is. Just need to sort out a few details.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Rangoon

Does this mean to Launch SH3, award medals, back out to main menu, quit, then go to SH3 Commander again, then award in Crew Manager and launch SH3 again?

No. Ignore the game, and do everything through Commander, just before you start your next patrol.

So if I award the 2nd and 3rd qualifications to a CWO in SH3 it will have an impact but not if I award through Crew Manager in SH3 Commander? Or will 2nd and 3rd qualifications be inert regardless of where they are awarded?

I'm not sure, but I think it's the second one; i.e. there is no effect no matter how it's awarded. When you start a new career there is a PO with the Watch qual, and one with Helmsman and Watch. That second guy seems to have very little effect when he's on the bridge, so I don't think the second qual does anything even in the stock game.

I understand that I can't effectively award a qualification to a seaman, but can promote him. If I promote a seaman to a petty officer in Crew Manager, then award a qualification to that newly promoted petty officer (who moments ago was a seaman), will his qualification be reflected in SH3?

That one I'm not sure about at all. JScones will have to answer that.

And if so (if the above works), do I need to promote, then load SH3, then exit and go back to SH3 Commander, then award the qulification so that SH3 first recognized the new rank? Or can I do both in one SH3 Commander Crew Management session?

Again, once you're using SH3 Commander you can ignore the stock game. Don't do any crew management from in-game - Commander will do it all for you.

Further, I think in stock SH3 (and GWX), I can award one qualification per patrol, make promotions and give medals per the grace of the game itself. So is it best to do this in the game (as I described earlier) and then back out to SH3 Commander in order to do any other Crew Management I deem appropriate?

Same thing. Once you're using Commander the in-game function becomes redundant.

[JScones]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I'm not sure, but I think it's the second one; i.e. there is no effect no matter how it's awarded. When you start a new career there is a PO with the Watch qual, and one with Helmsman and Watch. That second guy seems to have very little effect when he's on the bridge, so I don't think the second qual does anything even in the stock game.

Correct.

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

That one I'm not sure about at all. JScones will have to answer that.

Yes, if you promote a seaman to a petty officer and then award a qualification to that newly promoted petty officer , the qualification will be reflected in SH3.

In simple terms, awarding a qualification through SH3Cmdr will work exactly as if awarding through the game. What won't work are the extra abilities that SHCmdr adds, such as awarding qualifications to seaman and the like, that is, stuff you can do in SH3Cmdr that you can't do through the game.

[Rangoon]

Thanks to you both for clarifying.

JScones, excellent mod! (I'm sure you hear that all the time.)

From what I can tell, SH3 is fairly conservative on allowing you to make promotions, assign qualifications, and award medals. In SH3 Commander you could promote everyone on board to Chief Warrant Officers, give them all medals, and make them all specialists before the second patrol, right? So just to be sure...it's entirely up the player to determine what is appropriate, correct?

Also - regarding the promotions, SH3 seems to be designed with crew limits of 4/9/14 or something like that. If I promote two seamen to petty officers, I have 4/11/12. When I first start a career, there are limits such that I wind up wtih 4/4, 9/9, and 14/14 crew. Since SH3 didn't award me the promotion to pass to the crew, does SH3 balk at exceeding the apparent limit on petty officers? (4/4, 11/9, 12/14)

[JScones]

Yes and No. Yes in the sense that you can award whatever medals, badges and quals whenever (as available). It's all down to your own discipline levels and how you want to play the game.

No in that in SH3Cmdr you can't promote a seaman to a PO or a PO to an officer. Whilst you can in SH3, I chose not to allow it in SH3Cmdr because in RL you would lose the crewman to appropriate training and then to a new crew. SH3Cmdr will, of course, recognise circumstances where you have chosen to promote across bands from within SH3.

[Damo]

Well that's interesting, because I also only promote within the bands and once a seaman has reached top whack I dismiss him for his PO training. I generally stick to these rough guidelines:

Realistic Crew Transfers on to have a little uncertainty about who's gonna get into a bar fight this month...lol.

All crew earn Uboat Badge after 2nd (war) patrol once available.


Matrosengefreiter: Promoted at 50 exp (Upper rank limit is 20) and assigned engine room duties or helm.

Matrosenobergefreiter: Promoted at 100 exp (upper rank limit is 50) and assigned torpedo duty moving onto repair as they gain exp.

Matrosenhauptgefreiter: Dismissed for PO training at 150 exp (upper rank limit is 100). All positions left free by crew dismissals are filled by the highest exp lower rank and new Matrosengefreiters brought into the engine room.

Bootsman: Promoted at 200 (Upper rank limit is 150).

Stabsbootsman: Promoted at 300 (Upper rank limit is 200).

Stabsoberbootsman: Dismissed for Officer training at 450 (Upper rank limit is 300).

My officers I leave in place and the only time they leave is through the realistic crew transfer setting. I promote them on merit as opposed to exp.

As you can see, I try and emulate the idea that as you rise in rank, promotion comes less often. I have a similar setup to decide whether crew members qualify for awards or not, depending on length of service, exp, any crucial events that they were involved in (Flak gunning, Deck gunning, repairing stuff, etc).

It's a science, and one made possible by SH3Commander. I didn't even know you could promote across bands in game, I played very little stock before I started using Commander.

Thankyou JScones!!