Awarding medals with SH3 Commander?

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Kielhauler1961

Both (and not just among the PO's), but my point is that it more about the quality of training they have had, their seagoing and combat experience and familiarity with their vessel and shipmates.

An excellent point.

I think we have a different interpretation of how qualifications are modelled and interpreted in the game - as opposed to RL. To emphasise my point, I describe my 'unqualified' and 'qualified' PO's and Officers as 'basic' or 'badged'.

Another good point. When I "qualify" my POs I don't try to boost anything (I'm not even sure how I'd do that), but give them all a job, so they belong in one compartment and not just any. That's it.

Suddenly he's the finished article? I'm not criticising that approach, each to their own, but I think badges are too powerful to be handed out like candy.

You may be right. I just like having them in proper places (OCD?). I'm not sure how much the crew are affected by being qualified. I do make sure there is never more than one First Class in any division, if that.

SH3 (bless it) over-emphasises the effect of qualifications, awards and promotions to create some sort of uber-crew who never need to go to the bathroom or eat or sleep.

Answered my above question before I asked it. I'm blissfully unaware of how the game works under the hood. I even use WE Assistance but still manage to miss a lot.

In my view, the basic PO's in the game are qualified but haven't achieved perfection in their specific area yet.

That makes sense. Unfortunately I can't keep track of who goes where without some sort of label.

Training takes time and the trainee must demonstrate some sort of aptitude and ability for it to be worthwhile to continue. SH3 Commander gets around this by allowing 'instant qualified PO - just add badge!' Not for me. My crew have to earn their stripes. I consider them (and the officers) as partially trained 'specialists-in-waiting' with an aptitude for some technical area that hasn't been defined yet.

To me a First-Class anything got that way by doing it for several years already. SH3 makes everybody have zero experience. Even Commander short-changes time-in-service. My contention is that he's not a Third-Class Petty Officer, but a Third-Class Torpedoman. I know that gives him an extra advantage but there is no such thing as a random guy called Petty Officer.

I also find the basic PO's to be very useful as they can crew any station at moderate efficiency while the badged PO's tend to be less than useful outside their speciality.

As it is in real life. Of course on a submarine there is more cross-training. There has to be. In that I can see your point. All I have to go on is my own experience (which is now 45 years in the past) and what feels right to me.

There is a profound difference between peacetime training of volunteer service personnel and wartime training of hastily inducted civilians. The U-Boat arm personnel had little significant experience prior to 1939 of course (except the handful of Spanish Civil War vets) and the massive expansion of the fleet from 1941-42 onwards created another strain which was exacerbated by rising casualties amongst the experienced crews needed to train the next generation. Training quality was reduced to maximise output which then led to higher casualties. It was a vicious circle.

My answer to that is to have more 3rd Class and less higher-ups, or maybe no POs at all. You still don't become a dedicated anything without first proving yourself, and there are no undedicated POs. Having said that, I can see the argument for saying they aren't really POs, just more experienced sailors.

Just to give a brief, personal, example, my father enlisted in the RN in April 1940. (etc)

Thanks. I enjoy hearing other people's stories. My own experience was that I entered boot camp with the rate of Seaman Recruit and left it as Seaman 3rd Class. Upon graduating four months of Radioman 'A' school I was promoted to Seaman 2nd. When I got out on a special exit just under a year later I was about to be promoted to Seaman 1st. I was in the Radio division and that was my only job, but it would have taken another year of service and training before I could even be called Radioman 3rd Class, so by the time I was "qualified" at the very bottom level I would already have had three years of school and on-the-job training behind me, and would have been certified as competent by my superiors.