Crew management, explaination

[Avatar]

I think I figured something out.
Damage control and the guns are not supposed to be filled up before a mission. That would explain why crewmen die when they are at the gun stations and the gun stations get blowed up during a mission. I think youre supposed to leave those areas blank and then use the crew to fill those spaces whenever you need them. I guess that's it. I dunno. I'm starting to get annoyed with this game. But it's all I play so....
I guess it only matters in how much realism you want out of the game. I guess.
this is crazy!

[fullmetaledges]

i've come to the same conclusion but in doing this you have to drag them to the gun station everytime you want to man it, the same thing they tried to get rid of by implementing the watch system

[fullmetaledges]

Originally Posted by Banquet

While on the subject of crew management.. after filling up my damage team with zero renown recruits I notice during the patrol they get an up arrow saying they've been promoted. They're no longer called recruits but are given another title. They seem to get specialties assigned (some become quite good!) When I get back to port I have a few promotions listed but when I drag them across the screen I get a message saying nobody has been promoted so I can't continue.. Does anyone know what that means?

I would also like this answered but I think that because it doesn't say anywhere that nobody else knows either.

[-Pv-]

Simply put, a compartment will be more effective if you place a crew member in a slot he has skills in, with leadership people in the 1st slot. Experiment a bit and you will see the green bar go up and down as you move people around. Get the bars as high as you reasonably can. You can hover the mouse over the compartment bar to get an exact status reading in percent.

When you get back to port, people who gained experience in their positions they have capability and training in will get a skill boost and/or are elegible for promotions. Your next mission will have a much better crew.

If you just randomly assign people to positions, you will not have as effective a crew or get rewarded as welll when you get back to base.


To expand a bit further...
Better Control Room crew will answer the helm command faster and be more accurate with the heading and depth keeping.

Sensor crew will detect contacts further away and give better bearing and range estimates. Of course, torpedo crew will load faster.

Engine room crew effectiveness results in faster response to commands, quicker acceleration, and will keep the engines running under stress and combat. It also takes fewer crew to keep the engines running and do so quieter. Should you need to move one or two to damage control or to fill in for another dead crew, a partial crew will still be effective.

At the begining a lot of people complain about ineffective crew and damage not getting repaied fast enough etc. This is because your crews are relatively GREEN and need time and experience. A lot of people give up and rely on cheats to boost the crew so at the end of the tour, you have invincible supermen.

I propose if you are patient, keep your risk manageable in your 1st mission or two and work the sim to build your crew, you will have a very satisfying experience as you see the results of the effort and attention to detail. As the manual mentions, like a good commander, you learned your crew's capability and weakness and made the most of what you got, protecting them from harm, sinking ships, and polishing them into a strong fighting machine. This worked in SH3 and will work here too. I suspect the underlying code is largely intact in this respect. Remember, in 1941 sub crews went to war having never sunk and enemy ship. They had to learn everything by trial in fire.
-Pv-

[raymond6751]

The manual says nothing about assigning crew to anywhere. It says nothing about recruiting other guys for empty slots.

How do you do that?

Also, in the torpedo section it appears the tubes and slots are full, but on my game all the base slots show zero torpedos. That is the section on the left of the screen.

I thought the crew and torpedo load out were defaulted in a new campaign start?:hmm:

[JackChen]

I don't really get Ubisoft in giving away a manual that really doesn't explain much. Not to mention a tutorial they gives no hint of shortcut keys, how to use them and effectively no explanation of the game in general. You start the tutorial with some assumptions of your capabilities. I am thinking tutorial actually stands for practice runs.

Anyway, crew wise, I guess the Damage Control team is when you are slinking away deep down under, you get them off General Quarters and assigned some people specifically to get critical stuff repaired.

This situation is like Das Boote where the senior officers including the Captain himself chipped in to repair the batteries.

[Floyd]

Originally Posted by Avatar

I think I figured something out.
Damage control and the guns are not supposed to be filled up before a mission. That would explain why crewmen die when they are at the gun stations and the gun stations get blowed up during a mission. I think youre supposed to leave those areas blank and then use the crew to fill those spaces whenever you need them. I guess that's it. I dunno. I'm starting to get annoyed with this game. But it's all I play so....
I guess it only matters in how much realism you want out of the game. I guess.
this is crazy!

I think it works different, at least for the gun sections. You can assign a crew to the gun sections on the crew screen, but that doesn't make them actually sit behind the guns all the time. You have to click the "man aa/deck gun" buttons to send them to the guns. If the guns are not manned, you can see the crew men doing maintenance or sleeping. Maintenance is doing repairs (IMHO), so the crew member might get killed if the sub is under attack and they're doing repairs.
Better to order the crew to battle stations if under attack ...

[THE_MASK]

SH4 game manual made by the people who play it and available as a sticky would solve a lot of problems .

[shad43]

I agree with Floyd, crewmen assigned to the guns and the DC are not always there,
you see them in the slots but they are performing maintenence or sleeping unless you
actually click the Battlestations or man the guns buttons.
When they are not in use we must assume they are in the "absent crews quarters" or
performing maint at their stations.
You know they are on duty when the DC or guns box is highlighted, just like the watch
highlights when they are on duty.

On my first patrol I dident add any crew and had to fill the gun stations with men from
other compartments, I chose torpedo crewmen with gunnery skill and took them from
the aft torpedo compartment since I don't use it much, then after some damage from an air attack I had to pull men from "off watch" compartments to do the DC, by the time the damage was repaired I had a mess trying to get wounded and fatigued men into off duty compartments without leaving my self short for the current duty watch. because of injuries I had crewmen with the wrong skills working a duty watch, what a mess. By the time I got back to Pearl I had lost 1 man.

On my second patrol I filled every available slot, this way I have dedicated crew for
DC and don't have to pull them from other compartments.
The only problem with this is the only way to manage wounded crewmen is to swap them out with someone from an off duty watch, which is ok if you keep track of them, if the wath cycles around to them before they heal you have to swap them out again.

On my next patrol Im going to dismiss a few men and leave a few slots open on the DC, since the DC only functions when you tell it to I can put wounded men there.
Wounded men either sleep or perform maintenence no matter where they are but
at least in the DC you won't have them accidentally going on active watch and screwing your compartments efficency.

If SH4 had a dedicated crew quarters or sickbay we would have a place to put
wounded and fatigued crew to keep them from cycling on duty.

Crew management is almost my favorite part of the game, the dev's need to tweak it and
maybe add a crew quarters for better managment, the current problems and lack of actual
knowledge of how it all works is almost a game killer for me.
I like the rotating watches but sure miss the cew quarters and the medic.

Just my 2c

[Fat Bhoy Tim]

Originally Posted by shad43

If SH4 had a dedicated crew quarters or sickbay we would have a place to put
wounded and fatigued crew to keep them from cycling on duty.

Crew quarters would screw up the watch cycle system as they automatically are assumed to be there, but a sickbay may be a good idea.

[shad43]

Originally Posted by Fat Bhoy Tim

Crew quarters would screw up the watch cycle system as they automatically are assumed to be there, but a sickbay may be a good idea.

I think you are most likely correct, but a sickbay would work.

[ccruner13]

i was thinking something like that too. some place where they wont do anything but get healthy.

and...in 1.1..noone has the special abilties anymore like the faster torpedo load or reduce broken chance, increase fanatical chance. or whatever others there were. anyone else notice this? and all my ensigns of which i have like 10+ to recruit all but 2 are specialized in sensors the other two always in engines. whats up with that?

[Driftwood]

Originally Posted by CCIP

I think the damage control team is the 'task force' who you can assign to priority items anywhere in the boat where the guys at the posts might not manage.

If SHIV damage control is anything like SHIII, and I'm sure it is, I believe the crewmen assigned to compartments will repair systems in those compartments, but very slowly without the help of a DC team.

I think the damage control system is bugged. There's been two other threads on the issue.