The answer to all of this is to go back to the technology method used in HoI-1. There, as I recall, each ship Type had about 5 basic technologies that you had to research: engines, guns, hull, armor, and fire control. Later in the game, when your overall technology improved, things like refrigeration, radar and radio came into play and required research. Submarines and surface ships had their own different torpedoes, and each level of ship had improved torpedoes. In addition, submarines had their own set of special technology, like periscopes, engines, batteries, sonar, deck guns, hull (diving depth), welding, etc. Later submarines also got into radar and unusual things like sonar deflecting hull coatings.
Basically, you had to build up the technology in each area for each class of ship, and you could field ships along the way that were not as good as you would like, just to get them into the water. The system also allowed you to "Up grade" your finished ships. They had to be in harbor, and it was like upgrading a land unit, it took time and IC to do it. As I recall, the ship actually disappeared from the game Map, went into a special column, and was governed by the overall amount that you had assigned to upgrading units. When it was complete it showed up again in the exact same harbor that you had started from when you commenced the upgrade. I believe that it could only be done in your own national harbors. You could only do this within a certain type of hull...in other words, you could not put a modern Alaska Heavy Cruiser onto a WWI or 1931 cruiser hull, the size, hull shape and other factors would make this impossible, and the game prohibited a "Frankenstein" upgrade.
I believe that the Game used the technology level that you had researched to "rate" the performance of each one of the games' statistic for that ship. For example, if you still had the WWI torpedoes on your new Level 3 destroyer, then it only had a torpedo attack of "1", instead of "3", like other Level 3 destroyers might have. However, if you ever researched the new surface torpedo, then you could refit those destroyers (for a very small cost in time and IC) to the new torpedo. But you could avoid this cost, if you didn't need it.
For example, US destroyers in the Atlantic did not need a good surface torpedo attack, they were mostly chasing submarines, so you would put the latest in sonar, depth charges, radar, etc. on those DD's, but forget about researching the latest model of surface torpedo. The Americans could also skip the latest engines, so speed would suffer...not a problem if chasing submarines! The Japanese player, as I recall, got the Level 5 surface torpedo gifted right from the beginning of the game, and starting with his Level 3 destroyers he could always field the Type 93 "Long Lance" and have a torpedo attack of "5". They could then go and research the DD/CL tech "On-board Reloads" and "Night Optics" and boost their torpedo attack number even more up to "8" or even "10". (
Note: these are not real HoI attack #'s, just for illustration!) Because of this you were very careful when confronted with Japanese light naval forces, as was historically true. Here is the Type 93 in action:
I used to love the Tech Tree in HoI-1, it was a lesson in History! But it was complex, and required a lot of micro-managing. Thus, they did away with it in HoI-2 and all subsequent versions of the game. But maybe, just maybe, there is a reason to put it back into the game, but only for the Naval features.
The mechanics are quite simple, really. You take the 10 basic stats of a ship, Sea Attack, Land Attack, Caliber, Range, Sea Defense (armor), Speed and so-on, and for each ship type and basic "class" (or really year and fundamental size and characteristic), you apply the value for that "tech" into the appropriate column under the named ship. If a later improved tech is researched, it can be added in at a cost. Once a technology out-grows a certain "class" of ship, those upgraded are no longer available. Achieving certain "levels" of ship required certain basics, such as hull size and starting engine...but after that they did not care too much. Thus, if you had a Level 3 Heavy cruiser, but you had not researched any guns since the Great War cruiser classes, you could still build an Level 3 Heavy cruiser with 5" or 6" inch guns (127mm or 153mm) instead of the standard 8" (203mm). Nothing to stop you, and the battle statistics would represent that choice!
Computers are extremely powerful these days and can easily take the extra load in managing some more data...and HoI-4 can always allow the player to switch on an "automatic" generic ship build if they want to avoid all of this. But it would be great for the enthusiast! HoI could also take the "real" stats, such as
Nick3210 has developed, and say something like, would you like to build a ship equivalent to the "South Dakota" class? It could then take over the necessary research until it was complete.
Maybe like in the movies, we should go "Back to the Future"?
