RedParadize

If I had to do it myself. I would split superstructure and tower. Looking at the mesh they seem to be already two part merged. That what would be left would be to figure out a way to restrict what tower can go over each structure. The modeling part would be pretty easy (I use to teach modeling) As for the rest I do not know.

@Reaper Jack 47knots does not give more "speed protection" than 37kt. The only advantage of this design is that it can give both max "speed protection" and cruise speed bonus at the same time. In my latest version I moved down to 40kt, so max protection with a safety margin and no cruise speed bonus. The balance got dumped in even better armor!

You do not need torpedo belt when you are that quick. You just need to maneuver a bit. As for barbette, I don't experience ammo explosion often enough to justify them. Latest version have a III aux. engine and props. sooo much better when dodging torpedo. Doesn't cost much too. I went against 2 super BB and 4 destroyer with a redux version of this. Killed the escort and brought both of the 112000t beast down to 30%. Then we were all out of ammo.

Ah, yes. A AI ship will go slower if its on "follow" mode. I forgot about that.

Note that "size" matter allot too. Size seem to be two separate factor combined. Mainly hull displacement and "target signature". Each thing you add to your ship add bits of signature. In designer, you can see the value on each item stats and the total on the right row, 2/3 down. Btw, I keep the "ship detail" and "weight & cost" tab closen as the most important factor are in the last tab "stats". If you aim for a ship that is accurate and hard to hit, go for: BC, not bigger than it need to be. Good tower. Best rangefinder/radar. High speed (37 is max penality for the enemy). Best high caliber gun mark. No or low smoke interference. Low target signature.

@KiloZulu Hull have stability attribute. It influence how accurate guns are in bad weather and at high speed. If you look on the left. You can see what affect accuracy, that depend on what you are pointing at. If you point your cursor at enemy, you will see what penalty you receive from speed or else. Note that some of these number can be really high, such as Ship size and speed.

If it was not clear, my answer deal with the possibility that his foe had faster ship, and/or did not slow down to cruise speed. As I said, I never seen a AI slow down on purpose.

I know its silly. Its just that atm going for anything but increased ammo and max amount of barrel is a mistake lol.

If all design factor are equal (ship balance, tower etc...). It can all come down to speed. You have speed malus inflicted on enemy by your own speed, ranging non linearly form 10% to 100%. On the other hand, you have the potential cruise speed bonus, ranging from 0% to +-35%. From my experience AI never slow down to cruise speed. So the question you have to ask yourself is what is better? slowing down to cruise and get the bonus or going faster and penalize the enemy? The answer all depend on your ship top speed. If its relatively slow, then its probably better to slow down. If it goes fast then its better to penalize the enemy. At 37knots enemy will have -100%. its not worth getting a 25% buff if enemy penality drop to 30%. There is however one way to get both the cruise bonus and still inflict max penalty on enemy. Have top speed of 49knots and slow down to cruise at 37.

I think your torpedo reached their max range just as they were about to hit.

Kongo tower is almost art yes. I would like it. I would like it even more if tower were modular, that would bring way more variety.

You should consider it. I reach top speed with 40%, it take longer trough. Btw, my meta at the moment is to built BC with top speed of 47knot. But I real aim is to have it go at 37 wich is max aiming penalty for the enemy, its very close to cruise speed and have almost top cruise bonus on my side. Doing so, you can get away with +-37 funnel capacity and minimal/no smoke interference. In this case 40% engine capacity. I have a safety margin to keep it at 37knot and the capacity to reach 47 if the need present itself.

If you want to go max speed you need about 40% funnel capacity. Anything above that will give you better acceleration and some safety margin. Note that most of the speed lost is due to damage to the hull and not funnel.

Its disheartening to see how many AI built ship have lowered ammo count. It 100% guarantee they will lose the fight given the new balance.

I would like to have more generic tower. All the late game hull have a very limited amount of tower available, often just one. These tower are extremely good (except for one on the 4th modern BB and its BC equivalent. That one is pretty bad) and basically make all previous hull obsolete. For late game there is not much building option, you have to go for the latest hull, and there is very few ways you can customize these model. That is not fun.

I made myself clear in feedback of what I wish for, hopefully it will considered for future update. I do not think it will be adressed in hotfix as it add new mechanics: I would take dud torpedo too. I just forgot to add this to my comment. @Accipiter Humm, after few try I am not so sure that TDS are that great. I mean they work, but the best one can take up to 20% of the ship mass.

I do not think they can correct this with the hotfix. It was there in alpha 3 as well.

Oh, note that if I feel threatened. I just need to turn away form them a bit. By doing that they will all target the two battleship again. If you have the room to do it repetitively then you can stall the enemy in a perpetual target switching and ladder fire.

@arkhangelsk Sorry, I placed word in your mouth on my last post. What I said was literally true btw. The AI is very easily abused. Before we discuss this let me explain how easy it is to game, just to make sure we are on the same page. Battle was a 2xBB 1xCA vs 4 BB 2xCA 4xDD. I made the CA, it need to be small, priority on speed and armor. it had 4 double torpedo launcher per side and 4 triple 6" turret. I placed my two BB on AI right at start. The two main fleet turned right, so they were going parallel. So I went center left, torpedoed the first BB of the line, one torpedo hit and it got engined. As it moved to the back of the formation, I got closer to make them all turn around me instead of the two ally BB. Doing so, they got closer to my two allied battleship, but were still firing at me. The engined BB, now last, got isolated and killed by my two ally. This is a picture that I took a bit later on, I think it clearly show the abuse:

Well, you are free to think that predictable and easily abused AI behavior is not a problem for a strategy game.

lol

I intended to drop this in its own tread, but you did a nice job at explaining the problem. Currently AI is not sophisticated, its more or less look like this: Targeting: 1 Ship will target the enemy highest chance to hit. With exception on destroyer or when ship get too close. Avoidance (take priority over everything else): 1 Collision avoidance: Sometimes it get messy and ship get stuck in that mode. 2 Torpedo avoidance: Trigger when torpedo are close. torpedo spotted by closer ship will not trigger this. Main line 1:Leading main line ship go to max range then turn at a 80deg angle to their target. If target change, they change course. Leading ship will not slow down, regardless of following ship speed. 2:Following main line ship just follow the leading ship, regardless of their surrounding. Support line Secondary ship can be in 3 mode: 1 Screen: Ship will go toward target until it reach a certain distance (what decide it?). Then from there they will angle 80deg to their target... or do donuts on the spot for some reason. 2 Follow: Same as the ship following the main line, sometimes triggering collision avoidance and messing up formation. 3 Retreat: Self explaining. This can easily abused. I use to do this with a simple destroyer, but now that they are easier to hit than a CA, the latest is now a better option. What you do is you send a CA toward the enemy, more on the front or the rear depending on were you want the enemy to turn. Front if you want them to turn away or back to turn them in. You can go around them too. By turning the CA in or out, you can split formation, slow the enemy, waste their ammo/torpedo and make them perpetually switch target. I did this several time with great effect yesterday. I pitched 2 AI built BB and my own CA versus 6 BB 2 CA and 4DD. I won every battle hands down without ever controlling the two Battleship.

At the moment, I wish I had ammo cargo ship in the battle itself. I know its silly, but it would be very helpful.

The reason why AI doesn't on that picture is that main battery is low on ammo, not the 2.3% hit chance on secondary. When AI is put on ammo saving mode, it does it for all caliber. I think that is wrong. As I said in the previous post, I disabled guns to save them for the moment I have high pen. As for torpedo, well, that ship have no hull left. The 25x24" torpedo would only do minimal damage against already destroyed compartment, so I am saving them for the other ship that still have some hull left. The only way I could have finished that ship is by a lucky ammo hit, wish is more likely at close range, or by going back to the 12km in hope to do some damage to its mostly intact deck and superstructure. I tried both, still ran out of ammo. Now think about this, what does it mean for campaign? Sure, enemy would have retreated, that only make it worst. This match was already 45 mins long, if the enemy would have retreated it would have taken forever for that ship to reach map border at 7knot. To make it worst, it would have got repaired and I would have to do it all over again, knowing that I would certainly dominate. This is a recipe for boring repetitive battle.

Looks like when AI get into ammo saving mode on main gun it is also applied to secondaries, even if there plenty of ammo left for them: Edit: 15 minute and 600 15" round later he is now at 8 %. Even when saving shot for when pen is above 50% it still wont do it. Its all nice to say that Battleship were trough... But this is a game, I can't leave the battle and leave him to die, he would not... This is not fun.