All the World's Fighting Ships, 1936-46

[Director]

Slightly OT but just came to me. Were any ships ever built with hollow armour plating, i.e. 1 inch plate/ 1 inch hollow/ 1 inch plate, the reason I ask being that a hollow tube is significantly stronger than a solid tube. Is the same true for plate?

If I understand your question, the answer is 'No'. A sheet of armor plate with a hollow center would crumple like a cardboard box when hit.

Italy did design and use what was called the Pugliese torpedo defense (named for the designer). A large tube of rolled armor ran the length of the ship's side inside the hull. The idea was that an exploding torpedo would use its energy crushing the tube - like hitting a beer can with a hammer - and prevent the ship from taking structural damage. In theory, it worked, and in practice it would have worked except for one little point: torpedo warheads got more powerful. The unexpected side-effect was that with a more powerful warhead the crushing actually got much, much worse and the damage was greater than if there had been no tube at all.

 

[Rancher]

I dont really think we should get hung up on armour discussions. Let us rather concentrate on the ways in which we can get the most out of the navaql game, bearing in mind thgat any ship in game is generic ie a stage 3 cruiser is the same in any nation

 

[Director]

I think it's reasonable to answer a question and I don't see signs of the thread going off-topic.

But in fairness, you could have sent me a PM.

 

[Axe99]

Aye, while it's unlikely we're going to get into specific anti-torpedo protection systems (of which there were various levels and types), no harm in discussing it.

In terms of ships being generic, only the base model is generic, and only then if there's no company involved in its production (I'm not sure if companies affect naval production, but hopefully we can mod it in if they don't already), and if a player hasn't used experience to make a variant yet.

 

[Wraith11B]

I'm betting that they variant out most major nation's ships, especially the capitals. If the point of the whole system is to give meaning to encouraging one nation to personalize their forces, then there's no reason not to have them set up already as individualized.

 

[Rancher]

I think it's reasonable to answer a question and I don't see signs of the thread going off-topic.

But in fairness, you could have sent me a PM.

That was not a criticism of you but a wish for the thread as a whole. there is a whole bunch of stuff we can talk about with regard to how it started