Thoughts about officers and ranks

[arminpfano]

I really like the officer system, it adds color and tone to the game. One more aspect to fiddle around endlessly. Well done! Especially nice: now there is a useful sink for the prestige points, so now you know what you are working for.

However I think that the effects of the decisions about promotion and assignation etc. should be more "feelable" for the player. In most cases you don´t get any info about the results and consequences of the competence levels and (even more relevant) the special characteristics. They are just some modificators working in the background of the game mechanic.

Here some proposals, some of which may be not too difficult to implement in some further update:

1) The manual states that the quality of an officer may cause the level of the crew quality to develop faster or slower. A message about this would be nice, like "Officer XY managed to raise crew quality of  his ship NAME faster than expected, due to his "above average" command skills".

2) Some after battle window like "The ROF enthusiast trait of officer XY caused his ship NAME to fire very fast. He was awarded a medal of honor".

3) The traits may also be a reason for some peacetime events, like "The "poor shiphandling" trait of officer XY caused a collision with a merchant in harbour during a test run. The ship NAME is in repair for 2 months, causing extra costs. The press wrote sardonic articles about the accident. Your prestige suffers".

4) There may be special tensions if an "brilliant/above average" officer has to serve under the command of a "below average/incompetent" superior, leading to "The brilliant Officer XY decides to quit service and work for a civilian company due to differences with his less competent senior XY".

5) Especially the officer with variable traits like "music lover" or "loose cannon" need some messages or results (but maybe there are events linked to them and I just haven´t experienced them in game up to now).

6) Also the effect of the "naval academy" should be statet somewhere, like "Officer XY, formerly of average skill, was able to acquire "above average" skills when promoted due to a special course of the naval academy".

What do you think? Additional proposals?

[seawolf]

May 25, 2023 1:58:13 GMT -6 arminpfano said:

I really like the officer system, it adds color and tone to the game. One more aspect to fiddle around endlessly. Well done! Especially nice: now there is a useful sink for the prestige points, so now you know what you are working for.

However I think that the effects of the decisions about promotion and assignation etc. should be more "feelable" for the player. In most cases you don´t get any info about the results and consequences of the competence levels and (even more relevant) the special characteristics. They are just some modificators working in the background of the game mechanic.

Here some proposals, some of which may be not too difficult to implement in some further update:

1) The manual states that the quality of an officer may cause the level of the crew quality to develop faster or slower. A message about this would be nice, like "Officer XY managed to raise crew quality of  his ship NAME faster than expected, due to his "above average" command skills".

2) Some after battle window like "The ROF enthusiast trait of officer XY caused his ship NAME to fire very fast. He was awarded a medal of honor".

3) The traits may also be a reason for some peacetime events, like "The "poor shiphandling" trait of officer XY caused a collision with a merchant in harbour during a test run. The ship NAME is in repair for 2 months, causing extra costs. The press wrote sardonic articles about the accident. Your prestige suffers".

4) There may be special tensions if an "brilliant/above average" officer has to serve under the command of a "below average/incompetent" superior, leading to "The brilliant Officer XY decides to quit service and work for a civilian company due to differences with his less competent senior XY".

5) Especially the officer with variable traits like "music lover" or "loose cannon" need some messages or results (but maybe there are events linked to them and I just haven´t experienced them in game up to now).

6) Also the effect of the "naval academy" should be statet somewhere, like "Officer XY was able to acquire "above average" commanding skills when promoted due to a special course of the naval academy".

What do you think? Additional proposals?

I like these, 3 and 5 are already in game

[arminpfano]

May 25, 2023 2:00:37 GMT -6 seawolf said:

I like these, 3 and 5 are already in game

Ah, thanks for info. Haven´t got them so far, so the frequency maybe could be a little higher.

[jeeweej]

Would also be nice if chosen doctorines have an impact on officers. So officers can become torpedo or night fighting experts.
They are a really nice addition to the game though! They give your fleet more personality.

[pvtlarry99]

I also have been really enjoying this feature. My only remark is that I wish it were a bit easier to figure out which officers need to be replaced due to retirement/promotion, hunting through the whole list of ships is cumbersome with large fleet sizes. Even just grouping all the notifications in a separate dialogue box could be helpful.

[zulu354]

May 25, 2023 2:04:32 GMT -6 arminpfano said:

May 25, 2023 2:00:37 GMT -6 seawolf said:

I like these, 3 and 5 are already in game

Ah, thanks for info. Haven´t got them so far, so the frequency maybe could be a little higher.

I've got an officer, who managed to breake the engine of his ships, which was only able to sail a knot slower than before for the rest of her lifespan (maybe a refit would have helped). I got the choice, wether to keep the captain or to sack him.

[zulu354]

First of all, sorry for the double post - but I didn't manage to get two quotes into one post...

May 25, 2023 10:39:50 GMT -6 pvtlarry99 said:

I also have been really enjoying this feature. My only remark is that I wish it were a bit easier to figure out which officers need to be replaced due to retirement/promotion, hunting through the whole list of ships is cumbersome with large fleet sizes. Even just grouping all the notifications in a separate dialogue box could be helpful.

If you right click an officer and chose reassign, a window will open with available ships. At the top there will be ships with vacant commander places.

[pvtlarry99]

May 25, 2023 2:04:32 GMT -6 arminpfano said:

May 25, 2023 2:00:37 GMT -6 seawolf said:

I like these, 3 and 5 are already in game

Ah, thanks for info. Haven´t got them so far, so the frequency maybe could be a little higher.

So far I've had music lovers raise my prestige and lower crew training, sports enthusiasts lower crew training through excessive exercise, speed enthusiasts damage my ship, several flavors of affairs, espionage, petty corruption, and a suspicious hunting accident. If you play on a larger fleet size you get a lot of events bc you'll have dozens of officers.

[stww2]

One feature to the officer system I'd like to see would be some sort of history log for each officer, showing what ships they have commanded and what battles they have fought in. Something similar to what we have for ships currently.

[sjpc302]

My only complaint would be the imbalance of numbers of officers, I have 42 active officers promoted to admiral, many of my best I would love to have commanding battleships but I can't use them there. I only have 29 CL level officers, and have to scrape the bottom of the barrel there.

I would also ask - does anyone know if highest level admirals "In staff position" actually do anything? It would be cool if good officers there provided a tiny fleet maintenance or morale buff.

[cwemyss]

I like all the thought people are putting into officers... this is a very fun, cool new feature, that gives a lot more meat to the "head of the navy" role we're in.  Having spent a few prestige points on moving officers around (and with precious little to spend thanks to Entente Cordiale), I came up with a workaround.

Create CL-level divisons, and name them Whatever. I chose "Imperial Naval Academy" and "Inspectorate of Shipyards" but "Out to pasture", "Stop bothering me", "Get the heck outta here" and "Sinecure 1/etc" would be just as acceptable. CL-level divisions can be commanded by O6 or O7 level officers, meaning when someone reveals themselves as an idiot you have a place to shuffle them off to.

I would absolutely love to see *actual* positions with game-mechanic impacts (great officer in BuOrd improves gun research, incompetent boob at BuEng means slow ships, etc), but this appears to be a workable first step.