I was trying to find a list of all special abilities in v1.5 but all the threads about those were somewhat incomplete. It would be helpful if we had a list of those here and how many abilities can one have at the same time. Note that Im talking about crew abilities...not captains abilities as those only work in german campaign

So...lets make a list shall we? Post all abilities your crew has. I recently started a new campaign so I dont have too many yet.

There are two types of abilities. I will call them active abilities and passive abilities. Active abilities are time limited and passive abilities are not and they are always available. Active abilities have availability and duration. I will use the overcharge ability as an example. Overcharge ability will reduce the chance of a dud torpedo by 25%. It has an availability of 1 hour and it's duration is 5 minutes. Every time you use it, it effects the torpedoes for a period of 5 minutes and that 5 minutes is subtracted from the overall availability time. This means you can use this ability 12 times during one patrol.

Available crew abilities

"ACTIVE" ABILITIES:

OVERCHARGE:
Required compartment: BOW TORPEDO ROOM, STERN TORPEDO ROOM, COMMAND ROOM
Reduces your chance of a dud torpedo by 25 percent.
Duration: 5 minutes
Available: 1 hour

MEDIC:
Required compartment: ANY ROOM
The crew heal rate is higly increased and the fatique progression is slowed.
Duration: 30 minutes
Available: 3 hours

QUICK ESCAPE:
Required compartment: ENGINES ROOM, COMMAND ROOM
The time required for dive is reduced.
Duration: 30 minutes
Available: 3 hours

QUICK REPAIR:
Required compartment: ANY ROOM
Reduce the repair time and flooding.
Duration: 3 hours
Available: 1 day

SENSORS ALERT:
Required compartment: DECK WATCH
Vampires look upon your watchcrew with envy with your darkness penalty reduced.
Duration: 30 minutes
Available: 3 hours

RIPOSTE:
Required compartment: BOW TORPEDO ROOM, STERN TORPEDO ROOM, COMMAND ROOM
Cuts the torpedoes loading time in half.
Duration: 10 minutes
Available: 1 hour

STALKER:
Required compartment: ANY ROOM
While in stalker mode, more information about your enemies are available.
Duration: 6 hours
Available: 3 days

PERFECT PITCH:
Required compartment: RADIO ROOM
Hydrophone detection range is increased.
Duration: 30 minutes
Available: 3 hours

BOMBARDE:
Required compartment: DECK GUN, FLAK GUN, DECK WATCH
Both AA gun and the cannon have their accuracy increased and and reload times are two times faster.
Duration: 5 minutes
Available 1 hour


PASSIVE ABILITIES:

THEORETICIAN:
Required compartment: ANY ROOM
This man has great courage and charisma, and he inspires all around him. While he is onboard, the entire crew will receive a strong boost to experience gained. You as captain will benefit from his work by getting a major bonus to renown.

MEDIC:
Required compartment: ANY ROOM
A good mechanic is required to keep the submarine functional, but a good medic is needed to take care of the crew. The medic is able to reduce the resting time and remove all the wounds of the crew.

MASTER ENGINEER:
Required compartment: ENGINES ROOM
This man knows his trade well. The master engineer knows trics of the trade to effect repairs faster and pump water out sooner.

ENGINES EXPERT:
Required compartment: ENGINES ROOM
This experienced man knows engine procedures well enough to make a few unorthodoxed shortcuts on diving procedures. Your boat might just become the quickest diving submarine in the US Navy as result.

WATCHMAN:
Required compartment: DECK WATCH
This man has been eating alot of carrots and has better night vision then most.

RADIOMAN:
Required compartment: RADIO ROOM
Everyone enjoys the miracle of radio but only an expert radioman will know how to use it at best in time of war. He knows how to hide your radio transmission. An expert radioman will lower the chance of beeing triangulated by enemies when sending messeges and will increase the chance of getting contacts from friendly ships.

TORPEDO EXPERT:
Required compartment: BOW TORPEDO ROOM, STERN TORPEDO ROOM
When not making homemade hooch out of torpedo alcohol, he is maintaining and charging the torpedoes and does both particulary well. Torpedo speed is slightly increased.

TORPEDO SPECIALIST:
Required compartment: BOW TORPEDO ROOM
This man knows how to run a torpedo room with greater efficiency. Torpedo load times are reduced.

PROPULSION SPECIALIST:
Required compartment: ENGINES ROOM
When it comes to milking the diesel or batteries for all their worth, this man has experience without equal. As a result, your submerged and surface endurance has been streched to their absolute limits.

EXPERT RADARMAN:
Required compartment: RADIO ROOM
When other sailors were reading fictional books, this man was reading technical manuals and has more hands on time with Radar than any crewman. Your submarine radars will benefit from this experienced crewmember by having its range increased and detection time reduced.

EXPERT SONARMAN:
Required compartment: RADIO ROOM
When hunted by enemies your life depends on his keen ear. Improved range and detection time can be the difference between life and death. While using sonar, the expert sonarman will be able to increase the detection range and offer information about enemy ship heading. All of this in half of normal time.

I will update this post as I get more.

Captain Q

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CaptainQuarry,

Personally I am interested in playing a simulation (except when my evil side temporarily loads up the slightly subnuclear Mark 14 torpedo mod ) and choose to play with none of these special abilities crewmembers.

I don't mind a simulator having arcade modes as long as I can turn off the arcade aspects. Looks like even RFB may be infested with these special abilities freaks and our only option is to throw them overboard when they develop.

ow everyone here feels the same way? I too like the simulation side which is why I never play with anything other than 100% realism. But I also think those abilities are interesting additions. And not arcade as you put it. Worth trying anyway.
So...pretty please with sugar on top...post the abilities you know anyway because I would like to know even if you dont like em.

I actually like the special abilities It adds a little extra to the game play. I personally like a good balance between realism and casual play.

I think it helps add realism than take it away. Not everyone is the same, and some people are naturally talented at what they do.

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I actually like the special abilities It adds a little extra to the game play. I personally like a good balance between realism and casual play.

I couldnt agree more

quote:

I think it helps add realism than take it away. Not everyone is the same, and some people are naturally talented at what they do.

My thoughts exactly

So...if you guys have seen other abilities than those I mentioned in the first post please tell me. Im pretty sure I havent found them all yet. On another note I think 9 is the maximum amount at any given time since any more and the icons would fall off the (for lack of a better word) commandbar.

I got a passive watchman ability on mine. Supposedly he can spot ships at a greater distance. Kinda feels like it will be obsolete once I get radar though.

Thanks. Added it to the first post. I Havent seen that one myself. Although I would find that useful because I like to report task forces and convoys to get an extra objective. And that particular ability would make it much much safer.

I have a guy onboard who is great at fuel economy, it's a green jerry can as a icon This fella sits in the engine space and help with extending your fuel range!

Thanks Goose. Could you have a look what that ability is called? Is it Economist or what? I take it that one is a passive ability too right? I'll add it to the first post as soon as you tell me what exactly is that ability called.

Added few more abilities. Your's too Goose, but correct me if its not called economist.

@ CaptainQuarry

The correct term is "Propulsion Specialist". I have taken the liberty of presenting a screenshot of all my specialists on board my boat. For those eagle eyed there I have more officers than I should, I changed a setting in one of the config files...don't ask me which file 'cos Ican't remember

Anyway here is the file, I hope you can read it

WOW!!! Thank you thank you thank you

First post updated. Soon I will also update the list with required compartments and active abilities avalability and duration times.

First post updated...again...

I was thinking has anyone tried to edit the files to create a particular special ability? I'm particulary interested in expert sonarman which I havent been able to get in three careers (Long careers too...from 41 to 45) Is there a way to edit the save game to get a particular ability? I would really appreciate if someone can enlighten me on the subject!!!

I recognize my penmanship in some of the above descriptions. Im fairly certain that list isn't from stock.

If it came from TMO, be advised that some of the more "gamey" abilities were disabled, so you may not get them.

Later version of TMO (yes, still beta), will be redoing all those abilties, to something a little more realistic to represent the effects by an experienced crew.

I think some are fair game, why others are not.
So I keep a few and toss a few. For sure the one that makes the torps go like rockets is silly.

A mechanic, good watchman, sonarman, ect..OK.
I like the one that increases crew morale. Like me, he is obvioulsy a charmer on land and a get er done person on the boat.

quote:

I recognize my penmanship in some of the above descriptions.

Oh... Didnt know that. Yes these are from TMO but I had no idea TMO changes something in the abilities. I assumed they were as they came with 1.5. I quess I should finally read the TMO readme

Anyways I was able to find the special ability entries in some of save game files. I was trying to edit one of my LT that had the Stalker ability. Tried changing the ability into expert sonarman but it didnt work. Probably need to change something in more than one file.

quote:

For sure the one that makes the torps go like rockets is silly.

Yep... That ability was ment to increase the speed just a little I think but obviously it doesnt work too well. Although If you dont reload it wont become a problem. I've tested it by saving the game near a convoy and reloaded the game a few times...the torpedo gets a little faster after every reload until its a rocket. But if you restart the whole game instead of just reloading then the torpedoes wont become ridiculously fast.

quote:

Yes these are from TMO but I had no idea TMO changes something in the abilities.

The changes are minimal. I simply deactivated some of the more gamey abilties, but not all of them. As time goes on there is less and less i haven't altered in some form or another.

New skill descriptions in future version(s) of TMO you'll find in the (outdated) 1.8 beta changelog:
http://forum.kickinbak.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=1779