Will ship classes be properly represented

[Axe99]

Oops, I meant Tokiwa of Asama-class, not Asama. Tokiwa had been relegated to minelaying roles and sometimes escort duties before the war, and survived until 1945.

I think they can be sort of super escort. Slowness doesn't mean much for escorts, but being decently armored and having a big deck after removinng the old guns to mount all sort of things can be a boon. On the other hand, better engines would enable them to be ok-ish raiders.

I did the same with Tokiwa - went through my list of IJN ACs and just missed it. While super escort sounds sensible (Tokiwa even got some DCs in 1943), I'm not sure if (Tokiwa-asides) they were used for that (although could be wrong). Head's cracking at the moment though, won't try and think it out now. I think the stats should be easy enough (just base it on actual capabilities), but the trick will be in getting the AI not to do silly things with them (sending them up against modern CAs wouldn't have been nice!)

 

[SchwarzKatze]

I did the same with Tokiwa - went through my list of IJN ACs and just missed it. While super escort sounds sensible (Tokiwa even got some DCs in 1943), I'm not sure if (Tokiwa-asides) they were used for that (although could be wrong). Head's cracking at the moment though, won't try and think it out now. I think the stats should be easy enough (just base it on actual capabilities), but the trick will be in getting the AI not to do silly things with them (sending them up against modern CAs wouldn't have been nice!)

I don't mean that they're good at anything at their original configuration, but that they could be retrofitted to do such things. Ships with only two main guns of 8", 20 knots, armor between heavy cruisers and BC, weight almost 10,000 tons just don't appear to fill any niche during WWII. Historical roles of training, minelaying, river gunboat, and radio decoy don't really fit in HoI.

 

[Orlunu]

Historical roles of training, minelaying, river gunboat, and radio decoy don't really fit in HoI.

Floating flak batteries? Could be quite nice protection against port strikes, as well as passable escorts.

 

[Secret Master]

Yes, the Victory has never been out of commission as far as I know. She has long-held the record for the oldest commissioned battleship, and has never been struck off the Royal Navy's register.

Huh, I guess the bragging the USN does over Constitution is unwarranted in this case.

Of course, the USN is not even as old as HMS Victory, so I suppose we'll never catch up.

 

[bcoop1701]

My understanding as well is that HMS Victory has been in commission longer but she is now permanently dry-docked. USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship still afloat. I've had the chance to tour both, Constitution a couple of times. Both are incredible representatives of naval history. Actually, for anybody who enjoys naval history, Portsmouth, England is a great place. Victory, HMS Warrior, The Mary Rose, and HMS Alliance a WW2 (or just post WW2) era submarine is across the harbor along with the British Submarine Museum.

 

[Orlunu]

My understanding as well is that HMS Victory has been in commission longer but she is now permanently dry-docked. USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship still afloat.

Now that sounds like the right kind of nit-picking. I love how many of the British regiments claim some variant of "we're the oldest" based on mildly differing criteria.

 

[Cpack]

Floating flak batteries? Could be quite nice protection against port strikes, as well as passable escorts.

Generally I like the idea of implementing lot of new and smaller types of units into the game. After posting and reading in the new AI thread, my biggest concern about this is the inability of the AI to use them properly.

So if you can't teach the AI about the purpose of such Units...what happend?
- AI mixes thoose AA batteries with "normal fleets" and the Speed of the whole fleet is completely slowed down because of one of thoose ships. As one example

 

[Orlunu]

Generally I like the idea of implementing lot of new and smaller types of units into the game. After posting and reading in the new AI thread, my biggest concern about this is the inability of the AI to use them properly.

So if you can't teach the AI about the purpose of such Units...what happend?
- AI mixes thoose AA batteries with "normal fleets" and the Speed of the whole fleet is completely slowed down because of one of thoose ships. As one example

A very valid concern, but I'm not going to speculate too much about the AI's abilities in areas I haven't seen. It doesn't seem too smart, but a basic fast/slow division and judging roles off of one major stat (say, ASW values for anti-sub duties) shouldn't be beyond it.

 

[Axe99]

Generally I like the idea of implementing lot of new and smaller types of units into the game. After posting and reading in the new AI thread, my biggest concern about this is the inability of the AI to use them properly.

So if you can't teach the AI about the purpose of such Units...what happend?
- AI mixes thoose AA batteries with "normal fleets" and the Speed of the whole fleet is completely slowed down because of one of thoose ships. As one example

Aye, I'm still waiting to see exactly what we can and can't do in detail before getting too carried away with what we can do, at least at launch. Fingers crossed we can do a bit though .

 

[Beagá]

Generally I like the idea of implementing lot of new and smaller types of units into the game. After posting and reading in the new AI thread, my biggest concern about this is the inability of the AI to use them properly.

So if you can't teach the AI about the purpose of such Units...what happend?
- AI mixes thoose AA batteries with "normal fleets" and the Speed of the whole fleet is completely slowed down because of one of thoose ships. As one example

Specialized ships don´t break the AI, as long as they are done so they are always fast and can keep up with carriers etc.

Speed is one of the main reasons why component damage isn´t placed in the game. Deciding when to abandon a ship because it is slowed/dead on the water and when to try to escort it to port is an insanely tricky thing to program. So they don´t care.

 

[Denkt]

Carriers can do it, but not always and the 'not always' part can cost you a lot.

Saying this is all it takes to say that battleships was still important in world war 2.

It is sometimes said that the treat is more dangerous then the execution, in the first world war there was just a single large battleship engagement so engagement between massive fleets was something no side was really willing to take because as long as you have a fleet you have a treat against your enemy.

People say that battleships are pointless due to not being able to sink carriers but how many ships in ww2 could destroy an airfield anyway. Navies dont exist to sink enemy warships but to hinder enemy shipping and protect their shipping (convoys) and battleships proved to be effective in that role, the whole point behind fleet in being and why the british spent so much time and resources to sink the Tirpitz (who became an important ship while having never fired at an enemy ship). A single battleship + maybe a few lighter classes could maybe have be enough to stop the Normadie invasion.

The Sverige class is sometimes been said to be a reason why Germany did not invade Sweden as these ships would have outclassed the ships Germany could use against them and while the possibility to sink them with airpower or submarines do exist, it is not easy and every day that passes would allow Sweden more preparations and the chances of a successful invasion would diminish.

 

[Orlunu]

Specialized ships don´t break the AI, as long as they are done so they are always fast and can keep up with carriers etc.

Armoured cruisers are never fast.