You've obviously tested more than I, but from what I've seen, the radius effect of larger fleets is not linear. Adding 2 more ships to a squadron (2 + 2, in Maranho) did not increase the patrol range. I don't see why.
I think that instead of putting in code for each possible number of ships, they just put in thresholds. 1 ship will go this far, 2 will go this far, 5 will go this far, and 8 will go this far. I saw no difference between a 29 ship fleet and a 8 ship fleet, so I think 8 is the upper threshold that was coded for.
It does seem to be the case that combining ships into one Sq does make them more effective than the same #, in the same location, would be, separately.
True.
And on speeds, my big ships are only 1 point slower than in vanilla, it's really the lights which I've nerfed. And that is much more realistic. IRL, frigates were faster, but not that much faster, than SOLs. And under many conditions they weren't faster at all. Further, you have played my mod, it does not take my ships weeks to get from Haiti to Florida, unless there's TI-exploration involved. And that's a very special case.
Well, yeah, I exaggerated a bit.
Add the fact that, in the game, you never have contrary winds, & it is much more realistic.
But there were plenty of cases where ships literally couldn't get from point A to point B; this is not factored in, at all. Nor calms, nor the general vagaries of ocean travel. There was a reason the RN kept 2 squadrons in the Carib area (Windward Is & Jamaica).
But don't the trade winds have some effect on that now? I know they are supposed to effect the speed of ships, I don't know how much though.
It would be better if ships got faster over time, but we cannot do that in EUIII.
True.
Did you find that all ships (I just mean B/L/G/T, not more specific) were all equally effective, except transports? Or were there differences?
I did not test this particular variable, but I'll go do so in a few minutes.