Penalties for Undermanned Ships
In v2.5.1, the only penalty for being undermanned is an impact on morale once the current crew drops below half of the standard class crew. Morale is also affected by other factors, such as ships exceeding their deployment time. However, as morale affects chances to hit, maintenance failures, fire control delays, fleet training and surveying, it is only a factor for military vessels.
For v2.6, under-manning will have separate, specific consequences beyond its impact on morale, which are listed below. Note that the direct under-manning penalties begin as soon as the crew drops below the normal manning level (rather than less than 50% for the morale impact).
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The rate at which shore leave reduces deployment time (normally 10 x time elapsed) will be reduced if the crew is not at full strength. This modifier is equal to Current Crew / Class Crew.
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The time required for ships to load/unload cargo, colonists or ground forces is increased if the crew is not at full strength. This modifier is equal to Class Crew / Current Crew.
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The ‘production rate’ of the following modules is modified on ships with less than full crews by Current Crew / Class Crew:
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Geological and Gravitational Survey Sensors
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Sorium Harvesters
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Orbital Mining Modules
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Maintenance Module
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Salvage Modules
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Terraforming Modules
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Jump Gate Stabilization Modules.
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There is an existing order called Add Replacement Crew. This can be used at any colony with a population of at least one million. Currently, this order uses crew from the Academy pool to provide replacements. For v2.6, it will not reduce the pool if the class requiring replacements has the Conscript flag set.
Captured Ship Penalties
Currently, when a ship is captured it suffers the same penalty as a ship leaving overhaul early. This ‘overhaul penalty starts’ at 99% and gradually reduces to zero over one month. It affects engine power, shield strength, chance to hit and crew grade. However, after a month the captured ship is effectively fully functional.
For v2.6, I have added the following additional penalties:
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The time deployed for the captured ship is set to double the max deployment for the class. So if a ship with a 12 month deployment time is captured, the deployment clock on the captured ship will be set to 24 months
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The current crew is set to 1, which will trigger immediate penalties for being severely undermanned. This is to simulate that even if a prize crew is added, it will be completely unfamiliar with the ship.
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If the ship is military, morale is set to 25%, as the crew and deployment penalties would result in this number anyway.
The ‘Add Replacement Crew’ order (see previous post) will appear in the potential orders list if a ship has less than the standard crew and the destination is a colony with a population of at least one million.
Due to the deployment penalty, even after the ship is fully manned, it will still need to spend time at a colony undergoing ‘shore leave’, which simulates the time required for the new crew to learn how to operate the ship. Unless the crew is replenished first, shore leave will be ineffective due to the penalty for being under-manned. In practice, this means the captured ship has to be taken to a population of one million to eventually become fully effective, rather than a recreational facility or the 50k population required for shore leave.