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Tunk
07-30-2005, 05:14 PM
Welcome to the world of support crew.
This guide is for those who dont quite know what support crew are for, or how they can help them.
It also explains some of the concepts behind support crew and support stats.


I will start off by explaining a few basic concepts.

What are support crew and what do they do?
Support crew are the unfortunate little souls that have to run around trying to keep your ship afloat during combat.

What stats do they need and what do they do?
Support crew require the following stats:
Repair, Restore, Engine.

Repair:
Increases repair rate.

Restore:
Increases "soft defence", also keeps "potential HP" higher (see reference on both).

Engine:
Increases overheat time and engine perfomance.
NOTE: only engineers use the engine stat.

The stats of all you crew effect your ship, however most sailors do not have high enough stats in these areas to significantly effect your ship.

Types of support crew.

Repairers.
Main stat: Repair

Repairers do as the name says, they repair your ship based on their repair stat.
The higher it is the better, so make sure to use a +11 or +12 repair growth sailor for them.


Restorers.
Main stat: Restore

These guys are basically damage control, they provide the bulk of what is called "soft defence", they also allow you to repair more damage by keeping your "potential hp" higher.

See reference for further information.


Engineer.
Main stat: Engine

These guys work on your engine, a good engineer will give you longer overheat time aswell as improved speed.
Engineers do not stack like other support crew, you get diminished bonuses for each engineer you have onboard your ship.


Seaman.
Main stats: Torpedo, Restore, Repair, Engine, and supposedly Reload.
They provide bonuses to other crews stats, how and how much no body really knows (way too many theories).
Often suggested to have atleast 1 seaman at higher level.



Country differences.

British are the king of support, their national bonuses are +2 repair and +2 restore.
Japan has the worst support crew available.

Best repair sailors ranked by Country:
British
America
Japan
Germany

Best restore sailors ranked by country:
America
British
Germany
Japan

Best engineer sailors ranked by Country:
Germany
British
America
Japan

Additional notes
As you can see japan blatently has the worst support crew, however dont throw them away!
Japanese may have bad restorers, however the stat difference is only 8% in restore value at level 52 (17% at level 120) compared to american restorers.
Ontop of that being single promotion they tend to keep a large amount of the repair stat, so its a mixed bag.


Questions.
Q: Why should I promote support crew, they have more stats combined if I dont promote them!
A: Support crew gain the skill associated with the stat, making it more effective and provides stronger bonuses.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b208/heytunk/guide/skills1.gifhttp://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b208/heytunk/guide/skills2.gif
Here is a restorers skills screen next to a Support sailors screen.
Notice how the support sailor has no support skills yet.

Q: What kind of stats should I look for?
A: Look for sailors with high ratings in the stat that you wish to specialise the sailor in.
You should also consider the other stats when making a decision.
For repairers consider Repair first and Restore second. (11+ repair/10+ restore is good)
For restorers consider Restore first and Repair second. (11+ restore/10+ repair is good)
For engineers consider Engine first and the other two stats second. (11+ engine/10+ repair&restore is good)

The higher the overall stats of the support sailor the better.


Q: How many of X or Y should I have?
A: However much you want, be original not a cookie fresh from the cutter.

Q: How can I increase the effectiveness of my support crew further?
A: Have them fully manned and having Experts and Veterans on them.
Aka if you skeletonised your crew your stuffed.



Reference.

Soft Defence:
You can tell how much soft defence by looking above your armour ratings.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b208/heytunk/guide/SD01.gif
The maximum soft defence you may have is 900.
Soft defence turns a percentage of the damage you take into "burning", which is damage you take over time rather than instantly.
Burning is signified by both smoke comming off your ship and the blue arrow on your health bar being lower than the health bar itself.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b208/heytunk/guide/burn1.gif
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b208/heytunk/guide/burn2.gif (OMG IM ON FIRE!?)
The amount of damage you turn into burning is determined by dividing your soft defence by 10.
This in effect gives you more HP when it comes to damage being done to you, which may save you from that big torp hit, battle ship salvo or squadron of bombers.

Note that your ship is still being repaired while burning which is signified by the blue arrow going up the bar, so a good balance between restore and repair crew will keep your HP high.

Also note that if your blue arrow reaches the end of the HP bar your soft defence will be rendered ineffective, meaning you take 100% of any further damage instantly untill it recovers.

And finally, contrary to popular belief soft defence does not decrease damage like armour does.
Though it may appear to reduce damage, you still take full damage.
This is caused by only instant damage being displayed minus the burning damage, so for example with 100 soft defence you will appear to take 10% less damage.

Potential HP:
Potential HP is the red arrow on your health bar.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b208/heytunk/guide/hpbar.gif
You cannot repair past that point, and this is where restorers are usefull as they keep this red arrow as high as possible.
Restorers effect your potential HP based on how much armour you have.
If you have no armour it falls quickly, if you have thick armour and good restorers it hardly moves.


Screenshots pending.
More information to be added on request.

papajohns
07-31-2005, 05:21 AM
seaman adds to soft defense as well...their contribution is only second to that of the restorer...so thats one of the good reasons why you want to have a seaman

acgdickie
07-31-2005, 05:25 PM
Hey thanks for the guide tunk has really helped me understand the support crew and there uses. also papa can we stiky this as i think it is very good.

Tunk
08-02-2005, 01:49 AM
Thanks for that papajohns, didnt know seaman added so much SD O.o

mixmkz
08-02-2005, 09:02 AM
yea good guide, got some info i ddnt know :P

papajohns
08-02-2005, 11:48 AM
mm..as far as i know seaman dont help in torpedo activities

Tunk
08-02-2005, 12:03 PM
That tid bit comes from asain tests, Im to lazy to raise a seaman to do my own tests though.

Apparently using torpmen together with seamen = uber torp spam of death, but im not too sure on that either.

When I get around to it I should really look into seamen further.

papajohns
08-02-2005, 12:06 PM
asian tests as in the asian servers? or the us servers? cuz they are implemented differently...a lot of what goes on over there dont apply here....

mixmkz
08-02-2005, 12:08 PM
damn i raised a special sailor for ever branch of the tree cept seaman lol

crap -.-

gotta tw again to lvl up more support

Tunk
08-02-2005, 12:19 PM
Could argue black and blue wether sailors work the same here as they do there, but thats too much trouble :/
I doubt that they would radically change much, if anything.

Be easier to ask TeamNF what they do exactly, but then again game devs never give strait answers either...

papajohns
08-02-2005, 12:21 PM
thats why i ask..cuz i said repeatedly (on the other forum) that NF said it doesnt affect torps..yet ppl keep insisting they do..thats why i want to know why they keep saying so

Tunk
08-02-2005, 12:24 PM
Its from a translated test on the japanese server I think it was.
Cant remember now, then again people believe anything if you drop a pin in its direction :/

Tunk
08-25-2005, 10:17 PM
I should get around to cleaning this up putting it on NFs forums :/

Kerberos
12-11-2005, 02:06 PM
I know this is an old thread but wasn't Soft Defense cap lowered to 300?