Captain does and doesn't

[totodog]

Originally Posted by sober

Dont forget though , the devs said we could play as other officers as well .

Do you have a source for this?

[THE_MASK]

Originally Posted by totodog

Do you have a source for this?

Its on the forum somewhere .

[JScones]

Being accountable and being responsible are two different things.

For example, I am accountable for staff at work, yet I have subordinates who are responsible for managing their day-to-day activities. My subordinate team leaders are directly responsible for their team's performance, leaving me to develop the forward plan and strategies (for which I am responsible and my superior is accountable). And if I notice something wrong in one of my teams, then I alert the appropriate team leader to fix it (unless it's time critical).

Same in a U-boat; the Kaleun is accountable for his boat and meeting the objective of sinking enemy ships in-line with his boss's (Onkel Karl) directives. How he does that with his available resources is then up to him to manage. He has subordinate ranks to micromanage the day-to-day activities to ensure smooth running. He generally wants "health of the boat" updates, not to be down in the galley counting eggs, tapping pistons and so on. Otherwise, why bother with rank structures or positions (such as LI, navigator, watch officer, discipline WO, storesman, cook etc) at all?

Now having said this, of course there were occasions when the Kaleun got involved in discipline, food rationing, or other nuts and bolts. That's what line management implies. It's just that they're not the first in-line to deal with every trivial issue that arises.

And this is where there's no black and white answer to the OP's question. The further one goes up the line of command, the more their personality affects the execution of their duties. This includes how much control they want over their subordinates and to what level they want to micro or macro manage. Just compare the leadership styles of Wolfgang Lüth to Peter Zschech to see this diversity in action. For every "I want to know everything" leader there's a "don't bore me with the details" leader. Neither approach is necessarily right or wrong, as other factors make up the effectiveness of the leader.

Anyway, there's many books on the subject of U-boat crew responsibilities, and frankly the only information I've seen posted here that I think is wrong comes from those who think that the Kaleun does everything himself. Now if the game allows that, then fine; the misinformed will be blissfully happy. But as long as the game also allows the Kaleun to be the Kaleun, I'll be happy. Then everyone wins.

[JScones]

Originally Posted by sober

Its on the forum somewhere .

When you find it, pls post a link as I (and seemingly others) must have missed that post.

The closest I could find was from the Q&A thread over at Ubi:

Will this be the same in SHV as in SHIV that the player can replace the sailor or officer of his job and do it himself? (Or are we restricted to giving them commands only?)

The player can jump in most of the key positions on the ship – firing guns, periscope, hydrophone, navigation map. More so, each of these stations is realistically modeled, and, combined with the FPS view, the immersion should be total. Additionally, we’re aiming to make the player work SIDE BY SIDE with his crew – be it on the periscope, when identifying a ship, or on the map, when looking for enemy convoys.

which is no different to SH3 and SH4. In fact, unless I am misunderstanding, the "side by side" concept will reinforce your role as Kaleun by having you with the responsble crewman, not the responsible crewman. But that's how I read it, and from one simple sentence I may be way off.