Sailors not going on duty

[TheBlueReindeer]

Hi everyone!
Cant work out whether this is a bug or I am doing something wrong but I am halfway through a Patrol in the Atlantic when I got the popup: "Stations are empty." It states that I do not have any sailors working at the Helmsman station and therefore wont be able to turn the rudder.

The crew icon on the top right of the HUD says 2 out of 18 sailors are on duty and these are the sailors assigned to my captain.

I have pretty much all of the default crew management settings for officers and crew so I cant see what the problem would be. Has anyone encountered anything similar or is this a bug?
I am on the latest Christmas update.

Thanks.

[Dewgle]

Originally posted by cobruh:

you realize that you can limit the sailors per shift? so no i dont have 11 sailors per shift. not even in my interface

Realize it? Heck, I made a guide on it >.>
https://youtu.be/AZee0IohHow

Limiting your sailors per shift reduces the amount of sailors available to fulfill the duties outlined in that shift which is why you might've been having trouble getting your sailors to perform their duties.

Please try watching my crew management video and let me know if it helped.

[Dewgle]

Originally posted by McDewgle:

2 sailors on watch duty assisting the bridge officer <-- assisting
2 sailors on relief watch duty
2 sailors assisting the engineer officer on engines <-- assisting
1 sailor steering the boat at the helm station
1 sailor assisting the radioman or manning the radio by himself
1 sailor cooking
1 sailor cleaning
= 11 sailors

You can view how many sailors are currently on duty at the top of your user interface.

And if you noticed, I included sailors assisting officers in this list.

[Dewgle]

I think we're getting some crossed wires here, Cobruh.

The point I was making was that there is at least 11 sailors on duty at any given time, whether they're on the crew shift or assisting an officer. And if the devs required sailors to get the same amount of rest as officers (which is what you seem to want) then you would need at least 30 sailors on board, not 18, just to make it work.

And as I explained in my "18 or 50" YT video, we simply can't squeeze 30+ sailors into the game, it won't work. So instead we have 18 sailors who don't need sleep. I hope that makes sense now.

[cobruh]

Originally posted by McDewgle:

Originally posted by cobruh:

you realize that you can limit the sailors per shift? so no i dont have 11 sailors per shift. not even in my interface

Realize it? Heck, I made a guide on it >.>
https://youtu.be/AZee0IohHow

Limiting your sailors per shift reduces the amount of sailors available to fulfill the duties outlined in that shift which is why you might've been having trouble getting your sailors to perform their duties.

Please try watching my crew management video and let me know if it helped.

i dont need to watch the video if you dont even make sense...
i can set priorities (helm, depthkeeping, engine, whatever) and limit my shift to 4 so 1 would helm, 1 would valve, 1 would engine and one would do whatever else needs doing. you made no sense at all of what i said. you just ignored what i said and promoted your "guide"... especially when youre using 3 shifts in your guide and telling me, that you cant maintain 3 shifts.
also ignoring the fact that my 3 shift system worked for half an ingame year, but right after vacation when nobody should even be tired, it stopped working

edit: sorry not using 3 shifts, i misread and i havent watched the whole video. just zooming through because its so long and im not sure it helps with my issue

[cobruh]

Originally posted by McDewgle:

I think we're getting some crossed wires here, Cobruh.

The point I was making was that there is at least 11 sailors on duty at any given time, whether they're on the crew shift or assisting an officer. And if the devs required sailors to get the same amount of rest as officers (which is what you seem to want) then you would need at least 30 sailors on board, not 18, just to make it work.

And as I explained in my "18 or 50" YT video, we simply can't squeeze 30+ sailors into the game, it won't work. So instead we have 18 sailors who don't need sleep. I hope that makes sense now.

sorry i dont understand what youre trying to tell me, as i said if sailors dont need sleep, then i should easily be able to keep 18 sailors running for 24/7 if im willing to take morale hits. which is obviously not the case. even if youre willing to take morale hits they just wont work

[cobruh]

ok so you use a 2 shift system, why? if sailors dont need sleep then the only reason is morale. but when your morale is at 90+% why whouldnt anyone crew the stations even if you kept your crew at 24/7 shifts? and why did 3 shifts work for half an ingame year, but not anymore STRAIGHT outta vacation?
i cant follow your train of thought

[cobruh]

ok so i watched the most important parts for my issue of your video and i have to say, its nicely done. but it still doesnt answer the questions i have asked, even though i see it has a lot of valuable information on the subject. as an old rimworld player (and from working in logistics IRL) i know a few things about schedule and priorities. so being fully aware of the issue i still ask my crew: "WHY U STOP WORK AFTER 6 MONTHS?"

[Dewgle]

I'm glad parts of the video were able to help.

On the subject of sleep; As I've said, there's a reason the devs did not allow sailors to become tired. Because if sailors required the same amount of rest that your officers do, then you'd need more than 18 sailors to make it work (as you had to rotate sailors out to get rest).

And as shown in the '18 or 50 men' video, we're limited to how many sailors we can have in the game because of bed limitations and collision boxes. So we have 18 sailors who don't need rest.

"But then why did the devs give us 3 default shifts called 'morning, midday and night?"

Well that's in case you want your sailors to perform different duties depending on the time of day. For example, in my opinion you don't really need a bridge watch at night (unless you're attacking) because visibility is so poor at night. A watch crew is more important during the day when you're most likely to be attacked by aircraft. So to save a few men you could reduce the night watch while bolstering the day watch.

If you wanted to you can also make your cook and janitor work at night instead of the day. There's all sorts of things you can do to make your crew more efficient based on the time of day. But no, they don't need sleep.

Also here, this is the icon I was talking about that lets you see how many men you currently have working. This includes the men assisting officers.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2705169084

And here's some screenshots of my current crew management set up with. It works just fine for me.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2705166467
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2705166732
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2705166921
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2705167156

[Dewgle]

And if you're curious as to why I only have 2 sailors assigned to the 'aux duties' shift, well it's a simple trick I discovered.

The depth steers are unavailable while surfaced. So if I make the depth steers a higher priority than cooking or cleaning, then my two sailors will cook and clean while surfaced, but they'll drop what they're doing the moment we submerge to man the depth steers.

This is a nice little trick if you don't like seeing your sailors continue to cook or clean while in combat.

[cobruh]

after F*ing around for a few hours i got back home, completed my mission and started a new one with readjusted sailor priorities and shifts (for the whole mission of idk, 17 days?). same issue again. now with two shifts... ill try your setup and report my findings. if it works it makes no more sense though

Originally posted by McDewgle:

And if you're curious as to why I only have 2 sailors assigned to the 'aux duties' shift, well it's a simple trick I discovered.

The depth steers are unavailable while surfaced. So if I make the depth steers a higher priority than cooking or cleaning, then my two sailors will cook and clean while surfaced, but they'll drop what they're doing the moment we submerge to man the depth steers.

This is a nice little trick if you don't like seeing your sailors continue to cook or clean while in combat.

good to know, thanks

edit: ofc right after sending my save to the devs it worked, before sending the save file they were just going full ♥♥♥♥♥♥ -_- so much for sending valuable data

[urseus]

You don't need shifts you just need roles with assigned sailors. I've never had a problem this way. I also have 30 sailors on board which is the amount of avialble beds so that way the boat has a nice busy feel without being redic.

[cobruh]

how do you even have 30 sailors, its not even possible to assign more than 18. everyone else loses their checkmark box when you reached 18
i call BS upon thee

[The cursed Jäger]

Originally posted by cobruh:

how do you even have 30 sailors, its not even possible to assign more than 18. everyone else loses their checkmark box when you reached 18
i call BS upon thee

The power of mods, my friend. The mod is called Expanded Crew.

[cobruh]

great, so now modded game users qualify to answer vanilla problems - with mod solutions. what a time we live in.
maybe ill start looking over at onlyfans for my problems in the future...

edit: i mean sure, there are mod fixed for vanilla problems, but dont act like its a vanilla quickfix... i had plenty of mods for plenty of games that fixed stuff, its all great until they get discontinued and youre left with a broken vanilla

[urseus]

Relax. It's a wip, and adding the mod takes exactly 6 seconds. I said I ALSO have the mod.

Just enjoy that you live in a time when the game exists and you are able to play it.

Here's my sailor setup:
https://ibb.co/dbvcsxZ

Recent genius move: have 1 sailor doing valves and electrical tasks. That way he's always close to the switchs v some dude waking up and walking all the way to the control room just to make the lights red.