Captains: rename your crew for more immersion

[GlideBrick]

You may or may not end up feeling some kind of attachment to your crew. I am only quite new to the game, so by now many of you probably know your crew by their names so well that they are no longer 'sims' you point at, and send them to places.

But for me, I was still having a hard time remembering who is who, so I tried and was glad to find that I can change their names.

The moment you give names to your crew you automatically are changing the way you look at them. They truly become part of your team. You no longer send them so happily to dangerous missions.

At least, that's the way it is for me now, and the reason I'm liking this game much better than I expected.

Disclaimer: there is a bug I reported about the names of the crew showing the original ones when displaying them in the TAB view.

[Menace]

I rename my guys all the time, it adds to the whole experience for me. I also change their appearance as well.

[EssBee]

I've done this too. Well, for the captain and most of the officers anyway..

They've been given names of characters from books I've been writing which kinda makes then extra special to me.
It's nice in some ways, but it'll hurt bad and hit real hard if any of them die while on patrol.
Guess it kinda makes me extra cautious when engaging targets to make sure everyone makes it home safely.

In fact, the entire crew is becoming kinda special now.
I've only done about 7 or 8 missions and a couple of free roam patrols so far, but I've had the same crew members for the entire time I've been playing.

I've now noticed that certain crew members always seem to be first in line to help certain officers too, creating a bond between the different officers and their teams on whichever post they are assigned to work on.
Whether this is intentional or not, I don't know, but if it is then it's a master stoke from the dev team by creating a kinda 'stealth' layer of immersion to the game.

Aside from all of this, I also set a standard set of uniforms for the entire crew. and officers.
No more running around in whatever clothes you dragged from the pile before you jumped aboard.
We're a professional outfit, let's act like it. Take pride in yourself, the team you're a part of, and the boat you serve on.

The Captain has an open black jacket with tan poloneck jumper and captains cap.
The Officers have open black jackets with blue shirts, and an officers cap.
All of the crew have blue fleece type shirts and blue beanie hats.
All ranks have the same trousers without the suspenders.

It all looks very smart, very professional, and yet still very practical for every day life aboard the boat .

Even the reserve officers and crew, some of whom have never even set foot aboard the boat, all have the uniform assigned to them already.
Whether on active duty, or on standby as a reserve, you're still assigned to U-96 and certain standards are expected of you.

I love this game, and I think these customisation options just double the fun.
It all just adds that extra little touch of 'togetherness' and immersion to the whole experience.

[GlideBrick]

Man, I was only being that strict with the officers hats and jackets, but now that you say, the rest of the crew looks like a mess... Gonna fix that too! :)

[Xperior]

i give the cowards a yellow shirt

[Menace]

Originally posted by Xperior:

i give the cowards a yellow shirt

That's a good idea.

[EssBee]

Originally posted by Sergio:

Man, I was only being that strict with the officers hats and jackets, but now that you say, the rest of the crew looks like a mess... Gonna fix that too! :)

Ooops! Sorry!
Didn't mean for my OCD to rub off on you too! ;D

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1898983516
The Captain assembles the officers and crew in the control room for a quick mission briefing before leaving port.
Awwww... don't they look smart? Their Mums would be soooo proud of them! ;D

Originally posted by Xperior:

i give the cowards a yellow shirt

Rumour has it that I give my cowards a map, send them out on to the deck, and then submerge the boat. ;D

Luckily, I've only ever had one guy start to loose his sh** and that was when we were being depth charged by 5 corvettes and running low on oxygen.
He then got trapped in the diesel engine room when he was too busy shouting 'We're all going to die!" to notice the I'd given the order to evacuate and seal the room to contain the flooding, and that he was now the only one left in there.
Everyone else was safely holed up in the control room where the pump was saving our a***es, and in just a few seconds the engine room was almost completely filled with water.

The AI wouldn't allow the officers who all had re-breathers equipped as standard do as I ordered and go an open the hatch for him as they had to go through the crew quarters and galley that I had ordered to be sealed off.... sooo... I had to go manually and save his a**.

His bit**ing and moaning rather than following orders and evacuating as he was told to do almost caused the loss of the boat with all hands due to the flooding spreading as the doors were opened to get him back to the safety of the control room along with everyone else.

Luckily, despite some pretty serious damage, we managed to stay buoyant enough to maintain our depth of around 170 - 180 metres and hold out until the corvettes had all used up all their depth charges on us and gave up their attack.

It was close, but we survived!

Unfortunately, I was too busy amidst the chaos to notice who the culprit was.
He hasn't had an outburst since, so I'm guessing he learnt his lesson and realised that if he listens to me there's a pretty good chance he'll stay alive.

Maybe the 14 day break everyone got when they got back to port gave him time to think things over and realise that he almost had the blood of twenty four officers and crewmates on his hands.
Either that, or he heard the rumours about my 'supposed' map > deck > long swim home punishment and decided not to put it to the test! ;D

[katho]

Here you can find a history of "U 96" and a List of crewmembers and commanding officers (German website) :
http://www.ubootarchiv.de/ubootwiki/index.php/U_96

[Griddlebone]

The crew of "U606" along with some of their personalities are fleshed out in the interrogation report below:
http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-606A/U-606INT.htm

[Urfisch]

Originally posted by Griddlebone:

The crew of "U606" along with some of their personalities are fleshed out in the interrogation report below:
http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-606A/U-606INT.htm

This site is awesome

[Bobby]

Me, because i want instant recognition of them, only change their second names -as that's what shows on the taskbar.
But i'm only saying that i want this:
first name stays the same, then i just add at the end.
Cap
Engine
Navi
Mecha
only one i do name is Radio guy after my fav pop quiz station on Radio 2 UK
Ken Bruce!
That way i have instant guys that i know what they do in the moment or if they are in wrong shifts or stations. Simple and effective

[Tulip]

i can really imagine this becoming like "your name is johnny? not anymore, Slickface"

[Lurhem]

I would like to have more "real" uniforms of kriegsmarine including hats in choices.
Our men just look like a bunch of civilians aboard a fishing or merchant ship. For me, it brakes immersion.

The mod that offers uniforms in the workshop is only a transformation of the civilian clothes to give a semblance of look. I wish I had real kriegsmarines uniforms in the choices.

I am sure that discipline in military Germany was much harsher and strict than that during WWII.
Again, I am sure that appearance and uniformity were to be important in the ranks of Germany.

[athenian]

You can rename the crew?! How?

[Bobby]

click on their name at the top when you give them skill points or on the tab bottom left when you highlight them

[athenian]

Originally posted by zoo:

click on their name at the top when you give them skill points or on the tab bottom left when you highlight them [/Do you mean the officers or the entire crew?