Nice explanation pegleg.

It also helps you see why good bases are useful. You get more skill as you level up.

A heuristic I like to use for really understanding the concept of true ability is to start
at a very simple level and then understand the nuances.

So at a very high level:
ability = skill * manpower

Think about it, the more experience the more ability likewise the bigger the crew the
more ability.

So Skill is easy, that number is what is given to you which increases every level.

Manpower they've made more complex.

Manpower = 4 * Vets + Experts - Penalty for lack of rookies

So rookies give you no skill but if you lack them (to save weight), you get a penalty.
Experts count for 1
Vets count for 4

A sailor with no experts no vets has no ability.

A sailor with 100% experts has abilty = skill * number of crew.

Now you see why vets are so nice.

Also now you see why skill growth gets so high as you level up since ability = skill *
manpower which both increase each level.

Hope that makes it more understandable.

Your math is correct, the sailor in question has around 214k in true accuracy ability.

The next step after that is to compare its true ability to how far it is from the cap, which
is in the same guide that you read:

4706 * lvl of gunners + 1000000

Or, to put it another way, the accuracy cap starts at 1 million and increases by about 5k
for each level on the gunner in question. The higher level your gunner is, the higher the
cap and the better it can potentially perform, even if it's already hit the cap. In your
case, depending on the level of your gunner (I'm assuming somewhere in the high-20's
to mid-30's or off the top of my head), you would be about 20% of the way to the cap.

Overall, the numbers are arbitrary and grow exponentially as you reach higher levels,
but there isn't much we can do about it.


-e-

Another tip: you can just discount the total crew/max crew if you keep your sailors fully
replenished with new recruits. That part of the formula only really exists if you want to
shave sailors off to save weight (ie., your sailors have hit their corresponding caps and
additional ability won't really help them at all), which starts to become a factor in the 90's
or so.

Because the percentage are rounded up to integer, so you will not have the exact asnwer
when you use it in your formula.

The complicated formula is always exact.
The second one just give you a quick view.


To asnwer, your question, this is perfectly normal.

Alright, but the question still is should it be coming out as something in the 200 thousands?

use the easier formula.

(skill percentage * displayed ability * max crew)