crew management help
 

Maybe I am over-analyzing this. Crew management in SH4 doesn't make sense to me (was an exclusive SH3 player till last month). Is there a good tutorial out there?

Not much to manage, though you can move the crew around, grouping them as you wish, and for whatever purpose you wish. The game does most of it for you. But when they get tired, they sleep, so you do have to watch for that, but it seldom happens. Generally, if you don't forget Battle Stations, you're OK. If one gets wounded, you can move them to a less-important station, and move another to where they were. :salute:

it may help us with advice if you explain what you are trying to accomplish via crew management. unlike you, i am not a SH3 player so i do not know what you are trying to do.:Kaleun_Salute:

In SH3, there are resting berths. Crew members get tired, u move them from their stations to the barracks. In SH4, I dont understand the levels I II III and who is resting and who isn't. Again, maybe I am over analyzing this

The crew are divided into three watch sections that automatically rotate. Crew members assigned to the deck or AA guns are only active when you give the order to man said guns. As far as the game is concerned all crew members eat, sleep, and stand watch in the compartment they're assigned to. What that means is that the Watch Crew on the Bridge will be injured by depth charges while submerged. Some mods have added another compartment for you to move external crew members so they don't take damage. However, all crew moves must be done one at a time by clicking on, dragging, and dropping the crew member into the new slot. There is no way that I'm aware of to move entire compartments like in SH3.

Command or Watch-standing?
 

Checking back in to the forums after an absence, I was glad to see this thread. A minor issue I've had is what specialty to put where. That is, should the conning tower be populated with watch standers, command, something else? Who best to assign topside? I assume the control room is best filled with command, until someone from the torpedo room (or sometimes engine room) suddenly shows up as a pro in diving? (An online course I suspect.) I've also been surprised that I can sometimes replace a seasoned officer with an e-6 who is more efficient and get a noticeable boost in the green bar next to that watch section. Is it a case of shuffle the players to find the best result or are there some pointers somewhere? :k_confused:

This is the most useful I've found.

As for ratings by compartment: Command in Control, Sensors in the Conning Tower, and Guns or Watch on the AA and deck guns. Usually it's Guns but I have had a few Watch guys with high Gun values who do a fine job.

[QUOTE]

Guns:
50% Mechanical, 50% Electrical, 20% Guns and 50% watch


Thanks for this link, really useful. One question- I don't understand the above, seems to me Guns would be influenced most by Guns efficiency. When I have a two man gun I do try to find a #2 with both decent Gun and Mechanical as I do get the loading needing a better Mech rating. The Electrical part I don't get at all...but it's Ubi so who knows why I guess. :k_confused:
Thanks again for the useful info.

I don't get the electrical aspect either and had indeed forgotten about it, going strictly by Gun and Watch values when selecting gun crew. Seems to work well enough.

welcome aboard!
 

For the engine room, you want high mechanical ability.
For the control room, you want high command ability. High mechanical helps.
For the conning tower, high electrical ability. Watch ability helps.
For the torpedo rooms, you want a combination of high mechanical and guns ability.
For watch, you want high watch ability.
For guns, you want high guns ability and high watch ability.
For the damage control crew, you want high mechanical ability. High electrical ability helps.
For every compartment, every shift, you want the leader to have high ability for the compartment and high command ability.
After taking time to get your crew set, then you don't need to mess with them again. Although, crew members will get promoted and/or gain special skills in which you may want to move them for the better benefit.

SH 4 crew management is the best in the series IMHO. It requires very little micromanagement. I usually just give it a good workover at the beginning of a patrol to make sure each station has the best crewmembers based on their abilities.

I will also micromanage before an attack to make sure each station is properly crewed.

There are other details I cannot figure out in the management screen:


a) The red line that crosses all the compartements shows the active crew for the turn shift, and the others are always inactive, right?


b) Probably my deck gun and AA gun which are damamged and in red are destroyed, because even if I assemble a repair crew and give the command, it's never repaired (while on surface of course, but rough sea will maybe avoid repair?). That brings me to this: immediately on the right of the icon there is a vertical progress red bar; I always thought that the fuller the bar is, the more damage the item has, but it must be the contrary, because my deck + AA gun have an empty progress bar. So empty means destroyed, and much red means slightly damaged?


c) If you don't assemble a repair crew then nothing is ever repaired? Also after awhile the green bar denoting how good in general the repair crew is will plummet to zero although they are not sleeping. That means I should change all the repair crew?


I'm playing with FORTSU mod.


Thanks very much to clarify for me!
Greetings,
:Kaleun_Cheers:XS

Correct
if you are referring to your Equipment Status screen, when a piece of equipment is highlighted in red, then, yes, it is damaged. it will remain red while it is damaged. certain deck watch equipment cannot be repaired until you surface. the deck guns and flak guns repair also require that you be on the surface and you must station one or more crew at the gun to facilitate repair...especially serious damage.

the vertical bar is another indication of damage. if you hover your mouse over the bar, SH4 will display the percentage of damage. 1 means it is destroyed. if you have a Master Engineer or a Quick-Repair guy, there is a slight chance that you may be able to repair the item, given enough time. more than likely, the repair will take more time than you have remaining in your patrol.

you can repair damage two ways: using the damage crew and manning the section.
all crew has a fatigue factor. you can see it when you click on the individual crewman. 100 to zero...as a percentage of being ready for duty. 100 is where you want it. time on duty diminishes that number until they automatically stop doing whatever they are doing and go to sleep. sleep will occur without you knowing however if you want to actually see it, switch places of two crew in the same section and you will see little z's appear.
the non-damage-crew departments are divided into three sections, which are fairly representative of life at sea: On-duty, maintenance, and sleeping. i believe that the Maintenance Section is your repair team for the equipment in that section. Their repair efforts can be augmented by the Damage Control section if you enable the Damage Control section. There is an icon for Damage Control under the Crew Management icon. While your various watch section automatically rotate duties (watch, maint, sleep), Damage Control will work til they drop and then sleep. the only indication you will get is that the Damage Control icon will go out.
yes, you can change out crewmen in the DC Team but remember that the crew coming out of DC will be tired and you will get no more productivity from them until they rest.
you can also read more at my Crew Fatigue post in the download section.
https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloa...o=file&id=5221
good luck and have fun.
:Kaleun_Salute:

Thanks very much, KaleunMarco, that says it all for sure, it greatly helps me :up:
I now notice when clicking on a crew member, I see 'Maintenance' in his statistics. I guess I should move such members to the damaged compartment when they have a high percentage of Maintenance and not tired. Then, when I even want to speed up repairs, I also also assign a repair crew separately.


This design is a clever system for sure once you understand it :)


Thanks and cheers,
:Kaleun_Salute:XS

In SH3 there is a way to alleviate the crew management, I only found it yesterday, some mods have it in but I found a post where you change the text in a file.
It always niggles me, I mean in a real life situation I would think the captain has more important things to do than rotate the crew, I'm sure another officer would be given that task.

This is the post I found for SH3, it might also work in SH4 but they rotate anyway.

https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...t=Crew+fatigue

Col.

that does not work in SH4.
there is a lot of material (parms, values, etc) from SH3 that is carried over from SH3 into certain SH4 CFG files but it is ignored and no longer in effect.
:Kaleun_Salute:

I recall (it's been some time) that in SH3 you can move an entire group to another compartment, you cannot do that in SH4. But the crew management is very more detailed in SH4 with a lot of crew attributes that all have a function in the sub as I understand now.


XS

Sorry for the thread necro. I'm starting a new SH4 campaign and it's been years since I was last on patrol.
Does the damage control compartment need to be crewed from the onset? In other words I recruit enough Petty Officers and Seamen to fill it while in port. Put another way, what are the pros and cons of filling it before sailing, vs grabbing and dropping existing crew from other compartments as required during a patrol?
Thanks.

Damage control parties were formed by skilled members of the crew when certain repairs were required of key equipment and to fight emergencies such as flooding. Crews in different compartments can handle most damage, so best to leave slots empty and then if/when take serious damage...say flooding , put the proper members in their slots and click the activate damage control party button in the orders bar. Review your crew and see who has best mechanical and electrical skills, as well as leadership and experience, these are best for the DC party.


My usual composition is :


Officer: Usually a mechanically inclined Ensign or Lt jg with Mechanical skill rating of 80 or above. Leadership is key for the leader of team, as it does maximize efficiency (see the green bars above DC team) and how timely repairs are made.


CPO: Skilled, Senior Chief Petty Officers with high mech ratings. Leadership helps a swell.


Petty Officers with high mech and electrical ratings from engine and torpedo rooms usually help fill out the DC party. One in a while a skilled non rated manned is assigned as well.

It's a gamey thing I am working to adjust, but the "Mr Fix It" Chief Petty Officer (Special Ability-Wrench Icon) is a great asset as to get the realistic repair and pump times game should have in the first place. Big help, especially with flooding, so if one comes up while in port, get him on board.

In my TMO Update, I made it where his ability is only active when placed in the damage control slots, otherwise things get repaired way too fast. I only assign him when have something serious like flooding.


My current DC is team is :


Ensign, three CPO's, and rest are petty officers 1st and 2nd class. Team works well, has saved boat twice, including last patrol when had flooding and hull damage from a seven hour depth charging.



If your forward torpedo room is the one flooding, and crewmembers are injured. Shocked (read over the avatars) then do not add them to the DC party, find substitutes. This is because they will not be at peak proficiency and will actually slow down repair efforts.

If see the red avatars, look at their stats, including morale carefully. Sometimes will see "shaken" or even "manic". They should be removed to the crew berthing as they drag down the compartments efficiency. This represents crews who have lost it.

I once had a crew member injured during an attack, listed as manic and put him in crew berthing, he eventually passed away en route home. Rare, but it happens.