Rule the Waves 3 - Officer Management Dev Diary

[LiamR]

Hello everyone. In addition to update v.1.00.46, we have a dev diary for you. Some players have had issues with how officers and their appointments are currently modeled in game. To help with that we have introduced some new changes to how officers are assigned, and clarified why officers are modeled the way they are.

Dev Diary - Officers and Assignment

As always, we appreciate constructive criticism and suggestions from players. They help us make Rule the Waves III better for you. We have read the feedback on the officer system and have made some adjustments to address these concerns.

First off, the officer system is intended to provide flavor and variation in the game. It is also intended to reflect the uncertainty about peoples’ true administrative and leadership abilities until a crisis arises.

This is intentional – as anyone who has served in a military organization knows, or really in any large organization, both capable and not so capable people can get promoted. The game aims to simulate this.

In RTW3, the player has the role of grand admiral, and as such this position would usually not interfere with individual appointments of ship commanders. The game lets you do so, but at a cost of prestige, which is intended to put a brake on extensive interference in appointments from on high.

When officers are promoted or auto assigned, the system considers time in rank and battle experience as the main factors. Ability is also factored in but to a smaller degree.

There has been some feedback that the officer system is either pointless or encourages micromanagement. We have tried to respond to this, and as a result, there are some changes and adjustments to the officer system in our most recent update.

In this update officer abilities are less likely to be revealed in peacetime than previously, as most officers’ true traits will be unknown in peacetime. We hope that this will reduce the incentive to micromanage.

Having a Naval Academy will increase the quality of officers, and slightly increase the likelihood that officers’ abilities will become known.

Also, if the player chooses the option to have officers assigned automatically to empty slots, this will be done immediately when a slot becomes vacant, instead of after the player has pressed next turn. Thus, if you choose this setting, there will usually only be a few occasional free slots that the player will have the opportunity to fill without prestige penalty after every turn, which should further reduce the incentive to micromanage.

Of course, player’s still have the option to let the game auto assign officers for a turn at a time, or, if you’d like, you can opt for full manual control and try to handle officer appointments yourself.

And that is everything we have for now. Enjoy the Update and Dev Diary, and happy hunting everyone!