Realistic Promotions?

[Lunaticus (OP)]

Have been playing some testgames 10+ years with realistic promotions set to on and this does not seem to work as I thought. 
For Naval Officers ranks 1-3 this works fine and I have the number of Captains (R3) as I should (one third of R2).  However I have not yet seen a promotion to Commodore (R4) even though I have 5 Captains and only 1 Commodore for a long time.
I would have thought that once I have 3 or maybe 4 Captains and only 1 Commodore a Captain would get promoted?  Or is there some additional requirement involved?

An additional question: In the beginning of the game I seem to have a critical shortage of R2 and R3 Naval Officers for my military ships.  Therefore I want to keep as many R1 (Lieutenant Commanders) as possible at the bottom of the pyramid.  Therefore I am dreading the early retirement of Lieutenant Commanders due to lack of assignment and have created some empty Task Forces to keep my Junior R1s in training.  Is this to be expected?

[sloanjh]

Have been playing some testgames 10+ years with realistic promotions set to on and this does not seem to work as I thought. 
For Naval Officers ranks 1-3 this works fine and I have the number of Captains (R3) as I should (one third of R2).  However I have not yet seen a promotion to Commodore (R4) even though I have 5 Captains and only 1 Commodore for a long time.
I would have thought that once I have 3 or maybe 4 Captains and only 1 Commodore a Captain would get promoted?  Or is there some additional requirement involved?

It uses integer arithmetic.  Only when NCaptains/3 (rounded down) is greater than NCommodore will one be promoted.  So when you hit 6 Captains, one will be promoted to give you 2 Commodores.

An additional question: In the beginning of the game I seem to have a critical shortage of R2 and R3 Naval Officers for my military ships.  Therefore I want to keep as many R1 (Lieutenant Commanders) as possible at the bottom of the pyramid.  Therefore I am dreading the early retirement of Lieutenant Commanders due to lack of assignment and have created some empty Task Forces to keep my Junior R1s in training.  Is this to be expected?

Yes.

John

[Beersatron]

How many Naval Academies do you have? More Academies means more officers recruited and this more officers at each rank.

[Steve Walmsley]

An additional question: In the beginning of the game I seem to have a critical shortage of R2 and R3 Naval Officers for my military ships.  Therefore I want to keep as many R1 (Lieutenant Commanders) as possible at the bottom of the pyramid.  Therefore I am dreading the early retirement of Lieutenant Commanders due to lack of assignment and have created some empty Task Forces to keep my Junior R1s in training.  Is this to be expected?

The rank requirement for different ship classes can be changed so you can use your lieutenant commanders. Look on the DAC / RANK / Information tab of the class window. In the top left you will find Minimum Rank and Class Priority. Change to the rank you want for that class and press Set. This allows you to use lower ranked officers for certain classes and they will be assigned automatically if you have Automatic Assignments switched on. Bear in mind the max rank for a class is two higher than the min rank so if you set the rank as lieutenant commander, no one above the rank of captain will be assigned to that class.

Steve

[Lunaticus (OP)]

Many thanks for the advice and clarification.  Will try these things out very soon in my next game. . .