Crew Management Directions?

[gclarkso]

Originally Posted by OddjobXL

Some people also load up damage control folks from available recruits at port. That's what I tend to do as well. I also sometimes keep my gunners in there but since the damage bug is fixed (people on deck like gunners would keep getting wounded if their guns were damaged and repaired) that hasn't been necessary.

I really can't offer too much advice for how to put together a good damage control team as the documentation for crew skills/specializations/abilities and their effects is nonexistant. I can tell you what I do and it seems to work. Before my first patrol I look at all my compartments for unskilled/unrated characters like recruits and seamen. If there are some with really bad skills I retire them. Next I go look at who's available to hire. I focus primarily on "free" characters like ensigns and recruits.

After filling up compartment slots with the most qualified available for free I'll go talent hunting. Anyone with reasonably good stats, especially in mechanical, gets put into the damage control team as a standby alternate. I try to find at least one ensign with reasonable mechanical and electrical stats as well as a solid leadership score to put in charge. If there's a second with impressive potential I'll stick him in too. After that I stick with seamen. Why as ensigns have better stats by and large? I suspect there must be a downside, undocumented, to having too many officers around and too few enlisted under them. Otherwise I can't see why you'd have so many free ensigns available. They'd cost something and be less numerous.

That might just be my imagination at work trying to think like a game designer, YMMV.

There are two ways to use damage control teams. Hit "Battlestations" and they come active along with every other seaman on the ship - and you'll notice efficiency in every compartment maxes out. However this is very fatiguing and you'll want to make sure you turn it off when you're done. I suspect this helps the damage control people out as well since regular crew stationed in a compartment will do minor repairs on their own. When the danger is over and you've ended battlestations make sure you also manually turn off the damage control team. They'll stay on duty even after the alert has ended. The other way to use damage control, of course, is to select it. Both battlestations and damage control activation orders are under the reports/personnel tab.

Assuming you have damage and the damage control team activated go to the damage reports. You can decide what systems you want repaired and in what order. Bulkheads are very important as are engines and pumps. Once a bulkhead is fixed flooding will usually go down. Not sure if one of the pumps is associated with this or not. You can also select entire systems from the left handed column and it will highlight which individual bits of equipment you need to get them operational again. Just drag and drop from the lists or from the damage control priority list at the bottom of the page. Special warning: even after bulkheads are repaired you may not want to dive - at all - until you're out of danger. They're probably weakened and can collapse with the slightest external pressure and there is no indication of this, that I can see, on the damage control page. Even refitting won't completely fix this - you need to return to port and end your patrol.

But if you want to experiment make sure you're safe and then slowly dive to periscope depth. If that works take it down a little deeper. I'd stay in the 3D internal view because that's the only place you'll get an early warning of things going badly. What warnings? Look for spewing water and flickering electrical lights. At this point try to surface. If that's not working blow ballast, a command under the contol room tab. Increase your speed as well. The faster you are moving the faster you surface or sink because of the flow of water over and under your diving planes (those fin like whiskers sticking out from the nose of your sub).

Good luck. Hope this was helpful.

Excellent post! Thanks!

[hmatthias]

Filling the Damage control slots is an unrealistic exploit. In real life, there would be no place for these guys to sleep...

[U-Bones]

Originally Posted by hmatthias

Filling the Damage control slots is an unrealistic exploit. In real life, there would be no place for these guys to sleep...

Unrealistic exploit ? LOL

Think of it as a duty station instead of a physical location. There is no place to sleep modeled anywhere on the sub. Quarters are virtual for the rest of the duty stations, why not damage control ?

[FAdmiral]

I have had systems damaged and then repaired with NO crew in the damage
control slots at all?? Not sure what that implies but maybe its just eye candy
when you see crew inside the sub repairing various items. (have seen them
turning wrenches and plugging leaks)...

JIM

[fredbass]

Sometimes you can force them to sleep sooner than they normally would. But usually I don't bother with it.

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by U-Bones

Think of it as a duty station instead of a physical location. There is no place to sleep modeled anywhere on the sub. Quarters are virtual for the rest of the duty stations, why not damage control ?

Beacuse it's NOT a duty station, but rather one that's manned only in an emergency. Do you really think submarines had a 10-man team dedicated to nothing but damage repair? NO! Damage control should work like it does in SH3: you pull ten of your best guys from their regular duty stations and put them to work. It IS an exploit in its current form here in SH4.

[U-Bones]

Originally Posted by LukeFF

Beacuse it's NOT a duty station, but rather one that's manned only in an emergency. Do you really think submarines had a 10-man team dedicated to nothing but damage repair? NO! Damage control should work like it does in SH3: you pull ten of your best guys from their regular duty stations and put them to work. It IS an exploit in its current form here in SH4.

Ok, duty assignment... station was a bad choice of words, even if I made it clear I was not talking about a location. And you are equally wrong in your inplication that it is a station that is physically "manned". DC goes where the damage is, when there is damage.

I understand that it upsets some that they do nothing else, but remember the whole thing is a very simple virtualization of how jobs get done. It's not like every task on the sub is accounted for here or that it takes exactly so many people to keep that diesel humming...

If it makes you feel better, I leave 6 of my torp room slots empty and pull folks off DC duty to reload fish. I understand what you are saying, but getting the job done here does not mirror reality and I dont get hung up on it. Its more important to have the DC crew assigned for fast reaction than the torpedo room full. I will lose the 30 seconds on reloads, but 30 seconds on DC can be a disaster. Which would a captain give priority to ? Would the DC party balk at leaving their "day jobs" when there is damage ?

This is a GAME issue that you play through. The SIM issue is that the sim falls short of reality with duty assignments, why should I let that impose stupid priorities on my game decisions ?

DC is high priority. Why would I roleplay not assigning anyone to DC and placing my ship and crew in mortal danger ? Essientially that is what you do if you declare this an exploit.

So accept and mitigate the imposed limitations or call it an exploit as it suits you, but this really makes me laugh.

[Torpex752]

Subs then and now had a "Watch, Quarters and Station Bill" It assigned every person by name or billit a duty to perform during certain events Like battle stations Surface, Battle stations Submerged Torpedo Attack, Sea and Anchor detail, etc...

So YES having an assigned DCparty is not an exploit but rather a simple assignment.

Frank

[LukeFF]

U-Bones, I accept and understand that damage control is an essential part of the game that needs to be paid attention. My whole grief is that, in it's current form, the damage control team does nothing else on the boat. I can accept that positions like the radio operator, cooks, medical, etc., are abstracted in the background. That's fine. What I want is a simple system back like we had in SH3: when you have damage, your best men from among the crew (selected by the player before the patrol) are sent to repair damage when the damage control team is activated. Shoot, I think it'd be even better if, for instance, off-duty crew would fill in slots on the DC team, providing a quick-reaction force, if you will. When battlestations is called, they go back to their regularly assigned station. Activate the damage control team, and your pre-selected men for DC go to this station.

I just think there would be so much more flexibility with this game if crew management was implemented in a more realistic manner, instead of putting forth the image that there were dedicated damage control parties aboard every ship. Damage control is one of the key elements all new recruits learn in basic training, and SH4 should reflect that.

Actually, I do like your idea of pulling guys off the torpedo stations and putting them into the damage control slots. It's a realistic way of dealing with realistic problems. Unfortunately it's just not automated at this time.