Sailors in Navy Field

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Sailors in Navy Field are the crew that operate the player's ship in the game.

Each player can own up to fifty Sailors. Each Sailor represents a group of officers and enlisted crewmen who are (usually) specialized in a particular role. Sailors have ability in various aspects of running ships. They rise in level as they gain experience through battles, growing in ability and gaining the option to control bigger and better ships, guns and aircraft.

Contents 1 Classes 2 Skills 3 Recruits, Experts, and Veterans 4 Crew Death 5 Soft Defense

[edit] Classes

All Sailors begin as a level 1 Neutral Sailor with no special class, and the ability to control Neutral ships and fire small guns and torpedoes. To gain other abilities, the Sailor must be converted first to a National Sailor, and then to one of four main roles, each of which lead to more specialized roles later:

1. Bridge Operator
2. Armament Sailor
3. Support Sailor
4. Special Forces

All National ships require a Bridge Operator of an appropriate level to command them. Bridge Operators cannot be further classed. As stated earlier, as they increase in level, they gain access to more powerful ships to command. Their Operating ability dictates the ship's sight-range, ability to mark where shells land, and the distance at which enemy torpedoes are spotted.

Armament Sailors control and fire the weapons on a ship; the higher their level, the more accurate they are and the faster they reload. Armament sailors are among the most diverse sailors that can be classed, ranging from turret gunners, to torpedomen, to anti-air gunners.

Support Sailors repair damage that is done to a ship while it is in battle, as well as manage the engine of the ship. They also contribute the most to Soft Defense, which is discussed in detail later. Currently, they can be classed to become Repairers, Restorers, or Engineers at higher levels. The Accountant class for the USN, RN, and KM is currently disabled.

Special Forces perform many roles. For the most part, they are classed to become pilots for use on aircraft carriers, though they can also be classed to become Marines or Airborne for use in Harbor Assault, which is discussed below. There are currently two disabled classes for Special Forces sailors, the Ground Crew (except in the case of KM, which does not have a Ground Crew class) and the Drill Trainer.

A Sailor can also be converted into two other minor roles:

• Radioman: allows the player to send and receive in-game messages, as well as join squadrons and fleets. At higher levels, the Radioman can be further classed as a Radio Officer at level 26, and an Officer of Naval Operations at level 50; this allows players to form their own squadrons and fleets, respectively, for a certain amount of credits and, in the case of the fleet, only after their squadron possesses a certain number of players.
• Seaman: increases the various support abilities of all sailors on the ship, making the ship harder to sink. Many players debate its usefulness. The Seaman can also be classed as a Medic, which helps to reduce crew death in the event of critical hits (explained below).

All Sailors, with the exception of Bridge Operators and Radiomen, can be traded to and from other players in return for credits or points.

The combination of these conditions is intended to prevent a player from simply buying the ability to control a high level ship; he or she must raise their own Bridge Operators to the appropriate levels. Additionally, they can't buy a high level Neutral or National but unclassed Sailor, and then convert him to a Bridge Operator. While Neutral Sailors can be bought and sold, this only applies so long as the sailor in question is at or below level 11.

[edit] Skills

Each Sailor has 11 statistics that govern how well they perform in each respective area. As a Sailor is classed, he gains growth in certain abilities and loses growth in others.

Skill Name	Information
Potentiality	Governs several factors. For Bridge Operators, it dictates how far the player can see through the fog of war, the distance at which enemy torpedoes are spotted and marked, and the distance at which a player can see his or her shells land. For Landing Forces and Airborne, it dictates their ability to lower a harbor's DP in Harbor Assault. Also affects the various abilities of currently deactivated classes.
Accuracy	Dictates how far from the intended spot that a shell lands after it is fired from a gun. As the Accuracy ability improves, the "spread" of the shells tightens, landing within a smaller area. Important only for gunnery sailors.
Reloading	Governs how quickly a gunner is able to reload the gun between shots. While arguably not as important as Accuracy for naval gun operators, this skill is very important for AA gunners, where volume of fire is more important than accuracy. Another important skill for gunnery sailors only.
Torpedo	Limits how quickly torpedoes can be reloaded into their launchers after firing. For certain IJN ships, this skill becomes very useful. Only important for torpedomen.
AAW	Dictates the accuracy of the automatic anti-aircraft machine guns mounted throughout the ship. The higher the total rating is, the more often they'll be able to hit enemy aircraft. The closer an aircraft to the ship is, the higher the probability it will be hit. Important for all sailors.
Repair	Governs the ability of a ship's sailors to repair damage to a ship as it is damaged in battle. The higher it is, the faster a ship's durability is repaired. In most cases, it is impossible to repair a ship back to full strength; however, the maximum amount of durability that can be restored is dictated by another skill, Restore. Important for all sailors.
Restore	Increases the maximum allowed durability of a ship that can be repaired as it sustains damage. At its highest level, ships with good Repair rates can be repaired almost to full strength. Important for all sailors.
Engine	Improves the engine capability of a ship. The higher the level, the more extra speed is added to cruising speed and overheat speed, and the longer a ship can be put into overheat. Important only for sailors in a ship's support slots.
Aircraft	Dictates how easily an airplane can avoid enemy AAW and enemy fighter attacks. The higher it is, the less the chance is that the plane will be hit by the enemy AAW or fighters (it is impossible to evade enemy AA flak shells). Important only for pilots.
Fighter	Governs a fighter pilot's ability to hit enemy planes. The higher the rating, the more times it can hit an enemy plane with a single attack. Very important for fighter pilots if they are to be able to shoot down enemy planes.
Bomber	Controls how quickly a pilot can increase or decrease his plane's altitude. For dive bombers, this dictates how long they stay within AAW range of a ship as they dive towards their targets, and for torpedo bombers, this dictates how quickly they pull up after releasing their torpedoes.

In addition, sailors get extra growth in certain skills for joining certain nations:

• USN sailors get bonuses in AAW and Fighter
• RN sailors get bonuses in Repair and Restore
• Kreigsmarine sailors get bonuses in Accuracy, Reload, Engine, and Fighter
• IJN Sailors get bonuses in Torpedo and Bomber

Currently, all skills have a "cap" set on them in-game. This means that additional ability in a Sailor's skill will not add any more after a certain point. These caps are usually reached at very high levels, however.

All skills have a maximum potential growth of 12, except Potentiality, which has a maximum potential value of 15. Players may also purchase "Elite Sailor" items for a cost of $2us per sailor. They are as follows: - Elite Potential Sailor (+16 potential, +9 all other stats)

   Elite Potential Sailor's are good for making bridge operators, landing forces and airlift forces and medics.

- Elite Accuracy Sailor (+13 accuracy, +11 reload, +9 all other stats)

   Good for making accurate gunners

- Elite Reload Sailor (+11 accuracy, +13 reload, +9 all other stats)

   Good for making reload gunners

- Elite Torpedo Sailor (+13 torpedo, +9 all other stats)

   Good for making torpedo men 

- Elite Repair Sailor (+13 repair, +9 all other stats)

   Good for making repairers

- Elite Restore Sailor (+13 restore, +9 all other stats)

   Good for making restorers

- Elite Engine Sailor (+13 engine, +9 all other stats)

   Good for making Engineers

- Elite Fighter (+13 fighter, +9 all other stats)

   Good for making fighter pilots

- Elite Bomber (+13 bomber, +9 all other stats)

   Good for making Dive Bomber pilots and Torpedo Bomber pilots.

Additionally, game moderators are sometimes given "mod crews", which are sailors that are either already at a certain level, or have a base stat above what is possible to roll. It is not known what game master policy regarding these crews is when moderators with mod crews cease to be moderators and return to become a part of the normal gaming community.

[edit] Recruits, Experts, and Veterans

As said above, each Sailor represents a group of officers and crewmen. The maximum size of this group rises as the Sailor gains level. The group is composed of three types of crew, in decreasing order of skill:

• Veterans
• Experts
• Recruits

Each individual crewman that composes a Sailor contributes towards the Sailor's effectiveness. The amount of contribution is dependent on the crewman's type. A Sailor with a large number of veteran crewmen has significantly more effectiveness than a Sailor with the same number of crew but fewer veterans.

A Sailor's effective ability is calculated from the total ability that he has earned from gaining levels, modified by the effectiveness that comes from the crewmen that compose him. A Sailor with relatively low level or low ability but with a high proportion of veterans could have equivalent effective ability to a Sailor with a high level and high ability, but few veterans. Veterans and experts are therefore very important to a Sailor's performance.

Recruits are promoted to experts automatically during battle, particularly when the ship that they are crewing delivers a critical hit, or shoots down enemy aircraft. Experts can be promoted into veterans through a "gambling" process. The player pays a certain amount of points and attempts to promote 10 experts. If the conversion is successful, the 10 experts become veterans. If it is not, the 10 experts are lost and must be replaced with recruits. The chance of successful conversion is not shown, and the formula for calculating it is unknown, but the chance of conversion is low. Many players estimate the percentage chance of a successful conversion to be around 10% at low levels, and less than 3% at higher levels.

Alternatively, players can purchase guaranteed veteran conversions, although these cannot be used if the Sailor already has at least 100 veterans, or if 40% or more of his crew are veterans. This process costs $1 per veteran conversion. Beyond that point, conversions must be gambled for as normal.

[edit] Crew Death

Crewmen can be lost through battle damage, particularly critical hits. If a player's sailors are killed in battle, they receive a message telling them how many recruits, experts, and veterans were lost. Recruits can be purchased for points, up the number needed to fill the Sailor's group of crewmen to its capacity; however, experts and veterans must be gained as normal. If a Sailor does not have its maximum number of available crew, its performance is hindered, so players must make sure that their Sailors have maximum crews in order to avoid penalties. Many players believe that using AP ammunition (explained in the Weapons section of the main article) has a higher chance of causing crew death. This has not been proven, however.

In order to prevent or lower crew death, players may place Medics on their ships. Medics aid against crew death, though the extent to which they do this is not known.

Crewmen on pilot Sailors (Sailors of the Rookie Pilot class tree) can be lost when their aircraft are shot down. Because players who have carriers tend to use many pilots and planes, they often do not risk converting their experts on their pilots into veterans, since pilots suffer the highest crew death of all sailors in the game.

[edit] Soft Defense

Soft defense (SD) is protection added to a ship by its sailors, instead of the normal armour plating. All sailor classes can contribute to SD equally, with the number of experts and veterans determining a given sailors contribution to SD with veterans being four times more effective then experts in increasing soft defense. The stat for SD can range from 0 to 900, with 900 being a cap imposed by the developers. The purpose of SD is to transfer damage from being taken straight off of a ships DP and transferring it to burning damage, which can then be reduced by the restore ability of your sailors. The SD stat divided by 10 gives you the percentage of damage taken that is transferred to burning damage, eg. 900SD/10 = 90% of damage transfered to burning damage, 10% is taken straight off the DP of your ship.

Here is an example of its effectiveness:

Assume that a ship has 10,000 DP and a SD stat of 900.

The ship gets fired upon, receiving 10,000 damage. SD will then come into effect: 10,000/90 = 9000 damage is burning damage and 1000 DP is taken from the ship instantly (If that ship had 0 SD, the ship would just instantly take 10,000 damage to its DP, severely damaging it). The ship would then start "burning", gradually losing DP until the SD is repaired, in which "burning" stops occurring and the ship will start repairing its DP. This is advantageous because when a ship takes damage, it is not completely instantaneous, allowing to it to fight without it appearing to take much damage. However, this "burning" damage that can be taken is not unlimited. When enough "burning" damage is at the limit, the DP will suddenly drop rapidly (For example, it is not uncommon for a Battleship with 4000 DP to be sunk by a shell splash, which normally does 100-400 damage).

On top of this, repair ability will repair damage as it occurs, and therefore give one time to gain DP before it is burnt off, allowing you to survive where otherwise you would have instantly been sunk.