Modernizing Older Ships

[alp177]

I do not know if it is asked or not but is it possible to modernize your existing ships like nearly all countries did during that era. For example i got 2 1922 class BBs and i want to increase their effectiveness by improving their Naval AA power or like overhaul old Kongo class ships to fast BBs. It would be very good for gameplay as a flavour

 

[Gort11]

I don't believe there is such a mechanic in game at the moment. It could be cool if when you researched newer versions of ship classes you could "back-port" some of the improvements to existing ships (AA loadout mainly).

I think the toughest thing with ship conversion mechanics is how non-standard they were. Sometimes it was just taking off lighter AA guns and replacing them with heavier ones (EG: USS Intrepid) but in other cases you ended up with a radically different ship. (EG: Cruiser to carrier conversions)

 

[Oahkoah]

There used to be an option in the files that allowed upgrades for all the components of a ship, for example allowing a tier 1 carrier to upgrade engines and armour etc, but the default game only allowed anti-air, I think

 

[alp177]

There should be some implementing this for example if you put your ship to reserve in any naval base it can improve its' departments. It was done that era. Also there are a lot of examples of overhauling old ships like Roma class BBs Queen Elizabeths class BBs Kongo and Fuso Class BBs and as CVs HMS Glorios IJN Akagi. I could be implemented easily

 

[Swinds]

Completely agree alp177

I have even made the same suggestion.

You can upgrade your aircraft, tank and ship production models why not also allow you to upgrade existing ships the same way?

 

[Gort11]

You can upgrade your aircraft, tank and ship production models why not also allow you to upgrade existing ships the same way?

Because a production model is a blueprint while an existing ship is tens of thousands of tons of metal?

Not to mention that you can't upgrade existing tanks, planes or hell, even rifles. You just take the existing ones back to your stockpile and give out the new versions. You don't just assign some IC to upgrades and wait for things to improve like you did in earlier HoI games.

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Ship upgrades could be a decent DLC though. It'd need its own UI where you decide which bits of the ship to upgrade, with certain things being economical (AA guns) while other things might be virtually as expensive as building that ship part new (hull or machinery upgrades). Then once you're satisfied the game removes the ship from the map and places it in a unique production queue you can assign shipyards to.

It'd be a tricky balancing act though - make it too cheap and Britain becomes a beast upgrading 1914-era battleships into Lion-classes, while if you make it too expensive you've got a DLC nobody wants to use.

 

[Swinds]

Because a production model is a blueprint while an existing ship is tens of thousands of tons of metal?

Not to mention that you can't upgrade existing tanks, planes or hell, even rifles. You just take the existing ones back to your stockpile and give out the new versions. You don't just assign some IC to upgrades and wait for things to improve like you did in earlier HoI games.

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Ship upgrades could be a decent DLC though. It'd need its own UI where you decide which bits of the ship to upgrade, with certain things being economical (AA guns) while other things might be virtually as expensive as building that ship part new (hull or machinery upgrades). Then once you're satisfied the game removes the ship from the map and places it in a unique production queue you can assign shipyards to.

It'd be a tricky balancing act though - make it too cheap and Britain becomes a beast upgrading 1914-era battleships into Lion-classes, while if you make it too expensive you've got a DLC nobody wants to use.

Think what I was getting at is that there is a limit on the amount you can upgrade a production model that does not make it better than the next model. Improving a Battleship or Aircraft Carrier should follow the same path therefore you choose what to upgrade with the same options per ship. you can then upgrade the armour for HMS Hood.

This would not make HMS Hood better than a G3 Battle Cruiser just somewhere in between. Same as a Hurricane can't be made better than a Spitfire in the production models.

 

[Thracian]

ships can be upgraded in hoi3
i am sure it will be same for hoi4

 

[Gort11]

ships can be upgraded in hoi3
i am sure it will be same for hoi4

Based on what, exactly?

 

[Thracian]

Based on what, exactly?

based on hoi3 and my predictions

 

[Loke]

This would be a nice feature, thinking of the historical upgrades of the four Italian battleships Caio Duilo, Andrea Doria, Conte di Cavour and Giulio Cesare.

The Duilo & Doria were extensively reconstructed between 1937-1940 and Cavour & Cesare 1933-1937 with more powerful guns, additional armor and considerably more speed than before.

 

[Gort11]

based on hoi3 and my predictions

Maybe you should look at HoI4 for ten minutes and then revise your predictions.

 

[leeuw]

In HoI3 some ship components like AA, radar, etc are automatically upgraded when a new blueprint has been researched. Moreover, in the latest expansions it was possible to refit some ships to another kind of ship, e.g. a battlecruiser to a carrier. Which ships can be upgraded was defined through a moddable file.

Anyway, as I understood, in HoI4 the things are a little bit different. You don't research new AA, new radar types, and so on, but the whole new class of a ship. Then, you can modify the basic layout through the variant tool. Thus, I'm not sure that in HoI4 you will still have upgrades of ship components. And I'm quite sure there is no refit mechanic.

 

[Mannstien]

ships can be upgraded in hoi3
i am sure it will be same for hoi4

It's not in the base game from what I've seen, but I would agree it should be possible and added at some point if it's not ready for release.

 

[linen]

How does one upgrade ships already built in HOI3? For inf you just click the little icon next to their name but for ships I can't figure it out.

 

[Swinds]

based on hoi3 and my predictions

I think you are missing all the conversations in this forum and paradox clarification. There is no already built Ship upgrades in release HOI4. It has been discussed before and I was one of the people to suggest it in my own Discussion/post.

I would also point you towards the DDs and the WWWs. Though this is not clear in them.

 

[Mannstien]

How does one upgrade ships already built in HOI3? For inf you just click the little icon next to their name but for ships I can't figure it out.

Well I can't speak for the base game as I've only played BICE mod for past few years but probably the same. Some like AA automatically upgrade after the research is done, but for complete refit the ship has to be in a home port and then that icon to the right should appear same as infantry and it will do a full refit except for starting ships which are done by event only because some are so old it would be very gamey which it is on new ships to an extent but only so many things are possible with HOI3

 

[Arcassa]

Well I can't speak for the base game as I've only played BICE mod for past few years but probably the same. Some like AA automatically upgrade after the research is done, but for complete refit the ship has to be in a home port and then that icon to the right should appear same as infantry and it will do a full refit except for starting ships which are done by event only because some are so old it would be very gamey which it is on new ships to an extent but only so many things are possible with HOI3

That's not in vanilla TFH though.

 

[Axe99]

Because a production model is a blueprint while an existing ship is tens of thousands of tons of metal?

Not to mention that you can't upgrade existing tanks, planes or hell, even rifles. You just take the existing ones back to your stockpile and give out the new versions. You don't just assign some IC to upgrades and wait for things to improve like you did in earlier HoI games.

-----

Ship upgrades could be a decent DLC though. It'd need its own UI where you decide which bits of the ship to upgrade, with certain things being economical (AA guns) while other things might be virtually as expensive as building that ship part new (hull or machinery upgrades). Then once you're satisfied the game removes the ship from the map and places it in a unique production queue you can assign shipyards to.

It'd be a tricky balancing act though - make it too cheap and Britain becomes a beast upgrading 1914-era battleships into Lion-classes, while if you make it too expensive you've got a DLC nobody wants to use.

I'd probably err on the side of making AA upgrades automatic, or close-to automatic, as long as the industrial power is applied (although I'm not sure how to do that in the current model without giving ships equipment, so you can replace the 0.50 cal close-in AA on US destroyers at Pearl Harbour with the far more effective 20mm and 40mm guns they got not long after). Something like an equipment-based model would make it fairly automatic, but I've no idea whether this would be easy to make from DLC or their data structures would groan under the weight (I'm guessing it'd be alright, but wouldn't know). Reason for it being automatic is that pretty much every single ship that survived for a year or so after war broke out for that nation had it's AA upgrade, and some massively - even the old Revenge class BBs had radar and substantially upgraded AA by war's end (although they were no Iowas).

Something like this:

Well I can't speak for the base game as I've only played BICE mod for past few years but probably the same. Some like AA automatically upgrade after the research is done, but for complete refit the ship has to be in a home port and then that icon to the right should appear same as infantry and it will do a full refit except for starting ships which are done by event only because some are so old it would be very gamey which it is on new ships to an extent but only so many things are possible with HOI3

Would work well - proper rebuilds for the 'big stuff' (new armour, new engines, changes in main armament, conversions to different types of ships).

 

[LordOfWar16]

Stuff like aa and radar was automaticly upgraded in HoI III i think. Modernizing the ship itself or even converting it into a carrier only worked in the black ice mod as far as i know. That said, there is nothing that speaks against this being possible in one way or another in HoI IV with mods aswell. Overall, the game is much more mod friendly than even HoI III, so i dont see why it wouldnt be possible to do in HoI IV aswell.