Resting Officers

[onelifecrisis]

I'm in the habit now of putting my weapons officer in rest while not in combat, for reasons I assume are obvious, but I'm wondering whether I can do the same for the CE or the NO? I know I can, but I don't know what will stop working as a result. Does the boat still follow the plotted course without an NO? Are there any ill effects at all for not having one (other than not being able to ask for depth under keel, range at current speed, etc)?

Also, what effect does the Command Room efficiency have? You know, the green bar over it? Not that it really matters - one decent officer seems to be enough to max it out - I'm just curious.

Thanks
OLC

[BROJD]

Gute frage.

I usually cruise without a weapons officer too and wonder what effects it has.

[Puster Bill]

Generally, as long as the guy in the Chief Engineer slot has a 'helmsman' qualification, you can put anyone in the Navigation Officer slot. That doesn't effect following a plotted course, etc. I rotate the non-helmsman qualified officers throught the NO station so that I always have a helmsman resting.

You can probably get away with having non-helmsman qual'ed officers in both slots, I just haven't tried it. I wouldn't do it if there was a risk of sudden combat, though.

[TarJak]

You can run without a WO but if you try to plot or change course without a NA you'll stay on the last plotted course. Without a CE you can;t change speed, depth or course so its all to do with changes. The boat will go it's merry way without any officer in the control room but as soon as you want to change course, speed or depth then you've gotta have someone in both NA and CE positions. Interestingly the WO can be out of there for torpedo attacks as long as you are not requesting any info from him.

[Stealth Hunter]

Sadly, there's not a drop of coffee aboard ship.

[Jimbuna]

In a nutshell a WO position can be carried out by any officer

[looney]

I normally have 1 helms officer on rest and 2 on the job. there fore I have always 1 rested LI or NA avail. I do the same with a WO. I regulary use 1 of my WO as helmsmen seems to work fine

[Tom]

I'm accustomed to running the boat with 4 officers. Two officers with helm qualification alternate as the CE (with the other one resting) and two officers with watch qualification alternate on the bridge (again, with the other one resting).

When I submerge, the bridge officer goes to either the NO or WO spot, depending if I'm going to attack something or not.

So most of the time I have both the NO and WO spots empty and two officers resting. The adverse effects I've noted:

- Unable to access any of the NO or WO commands.
- Unable to access the Weather command from the watch officer.
- No reports for sinking ships. (But this isn't a problem, because if I've torpedoed something and am submerged, the watch officer is sitting at the NO spot, since he can't be on the bridge anyway).

If I manually plot a course, the ship starts following the course I plotted even without a NO. I can't, howewer, order "Return to course." without the NO.

If I need to check weather, range at current speed, depth under keel, or just return to the plotted course, I move in a resting officer for a minute to do that.

If I need to ask for weapon officer assistance, I move in an officer for a minute. And if attacking submerged, that's where my bridge officer goes until I shoot my torpedoes. (During surface attacks, I usually move in a resting officer just before shooting, to be able to ask for assistance and open tube doors from the uzo if needed.) After shooting, if submerged, the officer moves to NO spot to report sinking ships.

This way I always have 2 out of 4 officers resting unless I use one momentarily for NO/WO commands, or some of them are helping my men reload torpedoes or repair the ship.

No officer fatigue problems ever.

[onelifecrisis]

Thanks everyone for the info!

[BROJD]

What is the advantage of having officers rated as "Helmsman" as the CE? What happens if he's not a Helmsman?

[Tom]

Originally Posted by BROJD

What is the advantage of having officers rated as "Helmsman" as the CE? What happens if he's not a Helmsman?

Since I normally have only 1 officer in the control room when surfaced and 2 when submerged, I use helm qualifications on the officers alternating at the CE spot to ensure I've always got a full green bar, i.e. the station is working at full efficiency.

Honestly, I haven't even checked if I'd get a full green bar without the qualification, using just one officer and three sailors (I have no helm qualified POs.). Even if I could, it seems realistic to me to have qualified officers.

I'm not really sure this actually affects something. I vaguely remember that a less than full efficiency might have caused problems keeping periscope depth in some mod I used to play. Not sure if this applies to GWX 1.03 I have now. If it does, the idea of the bridge breaching the surface when sneaking into firing position on a convoy doesn't sound appealing.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by BROJD

What is the advantage of having officers rated as "Helmsman" as the CE? What happens if he's not a Helmsman?

Speaking personally, I don't see any benefit in having an officer with a Helmsman qualification. I don't use them, therfore creating an extra slot for something more useful

[Hakahura]

Never let any of them rest!

If they complain.....

Eastern front!

[Brag]

As long as a station is manned by any officer, the station will work. Machinist and torpedo quals help to give you better efficiency in those departments. An watch qual for bridge duty.