Taking requests for the final SH3 Commander

[baxter]

JScones wrote:

OK, I can now go down two paths:

1. Base the retirement solely on the number of days spent at sea. Actually, the above values are based on this option. It appears I confused myself by multiplying average patrol lengths by the number of patrols, which is the same as just totalling the number of days spent at sea and using it (ie 17 patrols totalling 250 days is the same as 17 x (250/17)) and ignoring the number of patrols.

2. Base the retirement on the total number of days spent at sea x the total number of patrols completed. So 17 patrols totalling 250 days would actually yield a result of 4250. 5 patrols totalling 150 days would yield a result of 750.

So, which way's best? Anyone here have any ideas or wants to volunteer and play with some figures?

Using these values:
Type II Patrol = 15 days
Type VII Patrol = 30 days
Type IX Patrol = 60 days

I compared the 2 methods. For the sake of example I compared careers spent exclusively in each type boat. An example based on days at sea alone, looks like this:

Type II Career with a total of 20 patrols = 300 days
Type VII Career with a total of 10 patrols = 300 days
Type IX Career with a total of 5 careers = 300 days

When the number of patrols is used as a multiplier of the days at sea, these are the patrol totals needed to reach approximately the same total value for careers in each type boat:

Type II Career with 15 patrols = 225 days at sea x 15 patrols = 3375
Type VII Career with 10.5 patrols = 315 days at sea x 10.5 patrols = 3307
Type IX Career with 7.5 patrols = 450 days at sea x 7.5 patrols = 3375

So, if I’m not missing something here, I think the method of using the number of patrols as a multiplier is going to provide the most realistic results by avoiding the possibility of unrealistically high numbers of patrols before retirement. Also, going back to the data I got from U-boat.net, the fact that the Type IX commander will generally have more days at sea before retirement than the Type VII commander is realistic…in the careers I looked at Type IX commanders averaged 293 days at sea and Type VII commanders averaged 229 days.