Crew fatigue

[U-Schultz]

I understand the realism concerns of a fatigue free Damage Control area but its the "most real" area I could think to do it. Coundn't see doing any other of the available areas on the sub. And I think (in my sim world) that a crewman doing nothing should not accumlate fatigue. He's eating, sleeping, playing cards, etc. And I like the limited berthing areas because there is always some maintenance to be done. In my sub fantasy thats what these extra bodies not resting are doing.
Try it out.

[GoldenRivet]

here is my personal way of managing my crew:

In real life you would have shifts... unless you micromanage this is not possible that im aware of in SH3. so...

No fatigue - man the boat like this:

Electric Engine Compartment:
2 machinists and the rest sailors

Diesel compartment:
2 machinists and the rest sailors

Stern quarters:
1 Officer qualified as watchman, torpedoes, and repairs the rest torpedo qualified
petty officers

Control Room
3 officers of varying qualifications, everyone else sailors

Bow quarters
1 Officer qualified as a watchman, torpedoes, and repairs
1 deck gun qualified petty officer
1 watch crew petty officer
all others enlisted sailors.

I arrange it so that when surfaced there are 4 spaces for men in the bow quarters so that when we are dive men are not forced to carry over into a torpedo room.

this keeps me from having to micromanage the crew and it helps me to simulate "shifts" because every 6 or 8 hours the crews would be changed out and i dont have to even mess with it.

[Avatar]

Your crew can manage fatigue better if you dont carry many of them. I've been on patrols with as few as 39 crewmen. If you find yourself in a hairy position and cannot change them, or forget to do so, having fewer men will make life easier.
I usually start a patrol with:
After Torpedo: full
electric room: empty
Diesels: full + one qualified officer
After quarters: empty
Control room: full +3 officers
Watch: full +1 officer
Radio/sonar: full
Forward quarters: empty
Forward torpedo: full - 2 or 3 crewmen

The trick is to take as many men as there is bunk space when you dive(with both torpedo rooms empty), and are able to place one of the radio/sonar dudes in a bunk.
All in all, I think that means taking about 39-41 peeps on your boat. I forget the real number.
When you dive and are not at battle stations(not manning either torpedo room) and at least one person from the radio/sonar room is in quarters you shouldnt have any spill over into the torpedo room or the diesel room.
If you need help with loading torpedoes you can always recruit the weaps officer to help in loading, but you wont hear the "torpedo loaded" message.

so... underwater and not at battlestations should look like this:
aft torpedo: empty
electric room: full +1 officer
diesels: empty
after quarters: full
control: full + 3 officers
watch: empty, of course
radio/sonar: 1 person at sonar
forward quarters: full + the one watch officer
forward torpedo: empty

now you can have everyone resting who is not at an important watch station. When your sonar dude tires, you can change him with the radio dude. If your electric peeps tire, you can interchange them with the aft torpedo crew, keep in mind your engine qual. officer will come in handy when you have torpedo personnel manning engines. You can rest the officers at a different pace than the other members of the crew. While on the surface you can interchange the watch with the forward torp. crew. I usually like to have at least 2 crew that are qualified at watch on watch at any one time, though.
Theyre called mixers for a reason! mix 'em up! Just don carry a lot of them and you'll find crew management much, much easier.

sorry for how long this became, as I think I've gotten crew management down.

[Avatar]

oh, I forgot.
When you need to recover fatigue, just sail around a bit at 1x TC and you see them recover faster than at 1024x TC. It may get boring, so listen to some tunes and maybe have a smoke break

Also, as officers go:
1 qualified in engines and damage
1 qualified in control room and damage
1 qualified in control and watch
1 qual. in control and torpedo
1 qual. in watch and control

You can switch them around easier and not have any nasty surprises by the way of surface threats.

ONe more thing, I like how in sh4 the watches switch automatically, but with my method in sh3, there really isnt a problem arrising, just the changing of the watch manually may become tedious to some, but it does offer a more immersive feel to the submarine simulation.

[onelifecrisis]

Originally Posted by U-Schultz

My system is I rotate all crewman (for fatigue reasons) every 8 hours. 3d TC is set at 1024 so its a constant thing but I don't mind.

Am I understanding this right? Is the point at which fatigue is "switched off" actually determined by the 3D TC setting? Or is it hardcoded at 64x as ischo said?

If so, and if I up 3D TC to 1024 so that fatigue is "always on", is there a fatigue model that will work well like that? Or would I have to create my own?

NM... I found other threads with the answers

Kewl! I just might get a fatigue model I like after all...

[Tom]

A lot of people seem to recommend 5 officers. I have found it easier to use 4 officers. That way I can have 2 officers working and 2 resting most of the time.

I usually divide all my crew into 2 shifts, except for torpedo crew, and then switch everyone around at the same time when needed. Each shift consists of:

2 engine POs
3 engine crew
3 control room crew
1 radio PO
1 radio crew
1 watch PO
3 watch crew

So, I have 2 sets of those, one resting and one at work. When submerged, both watch crews are resting. To have enough room to rest the second watch crew when submerged, this leaves me with 6 more PO/crew slots for other crew on a type VII. On a type IX, I think I'd have room for 4 more. I currently have:

4 torpedo PO
1 repair PO
1 medic PO

I'm probably going to get rid of the medic and take a flak PO instead. This crew is used to load torpedoes. In case I need crew loading both bow and stern torpedoes, I have torpedo qualification on 2 officers, and might occasionally use resting watch (when submerged) or control room (when on surface) crew to help load torpedoes.

As for officers, I have 2 officers with control room qualification, and they take turns at the left most slot in the control room. The navigation and weapons officer slots are empty when cruising, and filled only when needed. The other 2 officers both have watch qualification, and they take turns on the bridge.

When I submerge, the watch officer currently on duty goes to either the navigation or the weapons position, depending on if I'm planning to attack something or not. So normally, during submerged attacks, I can still have 2 officers resting.

As for officer qualifications, I currently use the following combination, and have found it works well:

The officers alternating on control room duty:
repair, helm, engine
helm, torpedo, medic

I never have any real use for the engine qualification, but it just feels logical to me to have.

The watch officers have:
watch, deck gun, flak
watch, torpedo, flak or watch, torpedo, repair

Haven't decided yet which is more useful for the second watch officer, flak or repair.

[Iron Budokan]

I also tried the "no fatigue" and found it hurt the immersive quality. I've stuck with the 8-hour model from then on.

You don't have to sail around at 1x to have your men recover. They'll recover at 32x just fine...but higher than that the fatigue model turns off. Sail around a little at 32x and they recover pretty fast.

[papa_smurf]

Im now using No fatigue in my latest career, and im enjoying the game much more.
No more going onto the crew screen every few minutes to check how worn out my crew are.

[jazman]

The crew management feature is totally lacking. I want to be able to manage supplies--food--and the cleaning of the washrooms.:p

[Hakahura]

I'm fatigued just reading all this.

No fatigue for me.