NYGM fatigue modeling compromise

Originally Posted by irish1958

I agree with about all of the above statements. The only realistic way to do this is to set watch crews at the start of the patrol, and have them automatically rotated when due. During stress times, even fatigue should not interfer with duty. During a convoy encounter or while being depthcharged is it realistic for a sailor to stop working because he is too tired? Perhaps reduced efficiency, but not complete collapse.

I can hear it now: "Herr Kaleum, I just can't run this engine anymore; It's tea time and I need my rest because all these booms have made me nervous"
Kaleun (drawing Luger) "Perhaps a little motivation is in order"
Bang bang
Suddenly the rest of the crew enjoy new vigor, and devotion to duty.

:rotfl: :rotfl:

How about this as an idea? As fatigue increases, the time it takes to perform duties also increases (which some mods already do) but . . .

Once a crewman reaches 'full' fatigue, then passes that (i.e. forced due to circumstances to continue working), things start happening.

For instance, my idea would be that, once reaching full (100%) fatigue level, a crewman could be 'pushed' past that. Doing so would not only continue to increase the time needed to perform a task, but would add a chance of something being overlooked, or done wrong. Things like torpedo depths and pistols set wrong, or not at all. Engines being damaged because an oil leak was missed and it cracked a rod. Breaching the surface when meaning to go to periscope depth.

You could 'push' a crewman until 150% of max fatigue, at which point they would 'grey ghost' and stop functioning. Effectively passing out on their feet. It would take as long to recover back to full fatigue (go from 150% to 100%) as it normally does to completely recover (100% to 0%). So a passed out crewman would take twice as long to recover than just an exhausted one.

You'd get warnings that your crew was exhausted, but they'd still keep working, alleviating the abrupt engine stops and the like, which in turn gives you time to rotate them before things stop working.

I'd also love to see an ability to pre-set watch billets and action stations: who is on what watch, how long the watch is, which ones man damage control, etc. Sure that might take a while, but you'd only have to do it the once (except as you enlist additional crew over time, but that'd only take a moment).