News From The Fronts: Crew Look Alive Part 3

Secondary Specializations
Secondary Specializations are additional skills that a crew member can learn in order to improve aspects of a vehicle outside of the crew member's primary specialization. Training for these skills is available when a crewman reaches 100% in his primary specialization. A small plus icon will appear on the crewman's icon to indicate that he is now ready to start training a secondary specialization. Secondary skills can be stacked with equipment and consumables like Camouflage Net, Tool box, and Fire Extinguisher.

There are three secondary specializations available:

Repair

This skill improves the crew member's ability to repair a module that has been knocked out, a higher skill level allows faster repairs. The skill bonus starts to take effect as soon as a module is damaged. Repair skills are essential for the vehicles where returning to operational condition as quickly as possible is paramount, such as scouting tanks which rely on their tracks being in good shape.

Camouflage

This skill improves the crewman's ability to hide the vehicle from enemies, a higher level lowers the chances that the vehicle will be spotted by the enemy, requiring enemies to be closer to the player in order to detect him. The camouflage skill is always active, and stacks with the camouflage bonus given for not moving the turret or chassis. Tank Destroyers already start with an inherent camouflage bonus and don't break the camouflage bonus when moving their gun. This skill is quite useful for Tank Destroyers or any other player that finds that remaining still and in one place is advantageous for them.

Firefighting

This skill improves the crew member's ability to put out a fire, should a vehicle ever be unlucky enough to be in such a situation, with a higher skill level resulting in shorter times to extinguish the fire and thus prevent it from spreading to other modules. This does not affect the chances of a vehicle catching on fire in the first place. The skill bonus takes effect as soon as the vehicle catches on fire. Firefighting skills are useful for large vehicles that can stand to take some damage without being utterly destroyed.

*note - vehicles with gasoline engines have a higher chance of catching on fire (as shown in the engine's statistics)

After selecting one of those qualifications there will appear a corresponding icon with the percentage level of that specialty. Maximum level a crew member can reach on the secondary qualification is 100%. After that, the crew member can start training another specialty, and continue the process until all specializations are acquired.

Secondary Specializations work immediately and are averaged across all crew members. Crew members that do not have any training in a certain secondary specialization will add 0% to the averaging calculations. Thus, to reach 100% of a secondary specialization for a tank with a crew of 4, all 4 crew members must reach 100% on that specific specialization. However, a crew member who is currently training one specialization cannot cancel his current training in order to learn a different specialization.

If a crew member reaches 100% and unlocks the option to select a secondary specialization, and you do not choose one that crew member will continue to gather experience for that(unselected) skill. And will receive the proper percentage when a secondary skill is chosen. This is beneficial when purchasing a new tank with 100% crew but not yet knowing what secondary skills would benefit it, you can play some battles with that crew before selecting the secondary skill.

If a crew member's primary qualification percentage drops due to retraining for a different vehicle, all new experience earned will go toward the primary qualification until it reaches 100% again. However, any secondary specialization will not drop and will remain in affect.

Training And Retraining
Tank crew members can be trained outside of battle, and retrained for a different vehicles
Training

When acquiring a new crew you will be faced with the option to select different levels of training.

Tank Academy

At the cost of 200 gold, this option trains a crew member to 100% in primary specialization, and thus automatically unlocking a secondary skill.

Regimental School

At the cost of 20,000 credits, this option trains a crew member to 75% in primary specialization.

Rapid Courses

This option is free, and trains a crew member to 50% in primary specialization, which is the absolute minimum that a crew member can be at.

When acquiring a crew member at the Barracks you will also have to specify a Nation, Vehicle Type(vehicle class), Vehicle Model and Qualification(role).

Retraining

You can retrain your crew for a different vehicle, or simply boost their current level. Once a crew member has been recruited, his nationality and role will be locked in, and will not be changeable when retraining. A crew member can also increase his skill in the vehicle he is currently in, as long as the vehicle selected for training is his own. Note, you can not retrain a crew member to a tank of a different nation.

Just like training, when retraining, you will have three levels to choose from. Retraining a crew member can be done by opening the crew member's profile and selecting the "Training" tab.

Tank Academy

At the cost of 200 gold, this option retrains a crew member to the same level as he was before, but for the new vehicle.

Regimental School

At the cost of 20,000 credits, this option retrains a crew member to 75%. If a crew member's primary specialization is below 75%, then his primary specialization after retraining is automatically 75%. If the crew member is above 75% in primary specialization, then after retraining it will be as follows:

If the crew member is retraining to a vehicle of the same class, then the final experience is 90% of the crew member's current experience level.
If the crew member is retraining to a vehicle of a different class, then the final experience is 80% of the crew member's current experience level.

Rapid Courses

This option is free, and retrains a crew member to 50% in primary specialization, which is the absolute minimum that a crew member can be. The final primary specialization level after retraining through rapid courses is as follows:

If the crew member is retraining to a vehicle of the same class, then the final experience is 80% of the crew member's current experience level.
If the crew member is retraining to a vehicle of a different class, then the final experience is 60% of the crew member's current experience level.

When To Retrain

There are two main reasons why retraining an old crew is preferred over recruiting a fresh one:

Retention of Secondary Specializations: Fresh crews, regardless of what primary specialization that they started with, will not have any Secondary Specializations. Since secondary specializations are not lost, it is better to retrain the old crew so that the bonuses that they provide are kept, even if it means the tankers in the crew will have a drop in primary specialization.

Continuation of the Crew Member's Career: Crew member will keep their statistics and awards regardless of what vehicle they are put in. Even though a retrained veteran might preform as well as a fresh tanker, the veteran's personal records are kept, including medals.; Ranks

As your crew gains experience they will be awarded with higher ranks, with every 50% experience is a new rank. If, when retraining, a crew member loses some competence he will not be demoted in rank. There are separate ranks for each nation. A crewman's rank also depends on his role.

Germans