There are three things I would love to see in-game:
1) Nation specific turret designs
2) Additional light cruiser hulls
3) Addition of Naval Forts or shore-based artillery for the defense of ports
On the first subject, I would like to see nation specific turret designs. In the picture below, I am setting up a custom battle as the United States in the 1940s. Regardless of whether or not I am trying to recreate an actual ship (i.e. the Iowa, Montana, etc.) or just make up a brand new design of my own, I find that the turret designs aren't "US Style" depending on what caliber I choose. For example, if I want to put 16 inch (406mm) guns on my battleship, the gun turrets look exactly like the Japanese Battleship Yamato's main guns. If I wanted to put 14 inch guns on my battleship (as was common for US dreadnoughts and battleships such as the USS Nevada, USS Texas and the USS Arizona), the turrets look exactly like the German Battleship Bismarck's guns. If I go with 17 or 18 inch guns, I get what I assume is either a generic model or some sort of European based model. The 9 to 11 inch guns look like old-style US Heavy Cruiser turrets (ones you'd find on the Pensacola or Northampton class heavy cruisers), and the only turrets that look like US 1940s battleship turrets are the 12 and 13 inch guns, which were calibers that had long since been discontinued on US battleships. And this isn't just the case when playing as the US in a custom battle either--it doesn't matter what nation I choose to represent in a custom battle, the turret design choices are exactly the same if I choose the same year, regardless of the nation chosen. The secondary guns have the same "issue," if you want to call it that. With the same United States in 1940 scenario, I can get gun turrets that look like they belong to ships from the US, Japanese and German navies. Now, this could just be something about the gun grades (Mark 2, Mark 3, Mark 4 and Mark 5) that I don't understand because each of those guns is a different grade as well (for example: the 16 inch guns are mark 3s, the 12 and 13 inchers are mark 5s, but the 14 and 15 inch guns are mark 4s). But if it isn't, I would like to see this matter of historical accuracy resolved for, at the very least, the campaign. This issue isn't just for Battleships either, it's the same case with battlecruisers, heavy cruisers and light cruisers. And while on the subject of gun grades and that possibly affecting the look, if different gun grades make the turrets look different, why not make a whole group of nation specific turrets? For instance, the USS Arizona's turrets don't look the same as the Iowa's (maybe the Arizona's guns could be a Mark 3 and the Iowa's a Mark 5 in the US Navy family of turrets?)...just a thought.
On the second subject, more light cruiser hulls would be AMAZING. The additional heavy cruiser hulls were very nice and well done, but again, regardless of nation in a custom battle (and once you get high enough into what year) the only light cruiser hulls look like they are still from WWI or the early interwar period. Some possible light cruiser designs I could see fitting in quite well would be ones based off of the USS Cleveland/USS Brooklyn class light cruisers and the HMS Belfast (the Cleveland/Brooklyn class hull was the basis for the Baltimore and Des Moines class heavy cruisers). It would just be nice to have some more modern looking light cruisers to go with some modern heavy cruisers and battleships.
The third and final subject is one that I feel like could add variety and strategy to the game. If you are going to raid an important and large sized enemy port, it would make sense that they might have coastal artillery to help defend it, right? Essentially, these would operate like stationary case mate guns that would have varying calibers and armor values. You could choose to either destroy these gun placements, or just capture the the port and have the guns now protect YOUR new port. And if, say, you wanted bigger coastal artillery pieces or wanted to add more armor, that could add functionality to convoys as they would then have to transport the necessary materials to said port for construction/upgrade process to begin.
I know that was a lot to read and most of the things I discussed were based on arguments of historical accuracy, but I feel like in a game like this, historical accuracy would be a big factor.
I would also like to point out that I'm not a US Navy fanboy who is whining and complaining because "I can't replicate an actual ship," I'm the same way about all nations in-game, I merely used the US navy as an example...
I might've already brought this up in an earlier post, but here it goes: I think a good way to add some variety, strategy and interesting tactics into UAD would be to add in some sort of defenses for sea ports. What I'm talking about is adding Coastal Artillery or Naval Forts that would help defend a port if it comes under attack. How I'm envisioning this working is essentially these Coastal Guns would be similar to casemate guns on ships: they would have limited firing arcs, variable armor values and a wide range of calibers, shell weight and propellant ( I think the largest Coastal Defense guns implemented were 16 inch, or 406mm, back in WWII). The actual bunker/fort that the guns would me mounted in wouldn't actually be armored themselves (so that way it wouldn't be like having to penetrate two layers of armor and to sort of simplify the mechanics) but rather once the guns were hit and destroyed, the bunker/fort would effectively be destroyed. This could also add to strategy and tactics of the game because then if you were to raid an enemy port, you would have surface threats to deal with as well as coastal defenses to consider, because you could choose not to destroy these coastal defenses and then employ them in the defense of a newly captured friendly port. Now, how it would play out in-game: You take your force and go to raid a distant enemy port. All enemy ships are destroyed or retreating, and a few coastal guns were destroyed...you've captured yourself a sea port. Now, this is where the "casemate nature" of the coastal guns, comes into play. You now have the power to set up these coastal guns as you see fit, and it would essentially be like setting up casemate guns on any other ship. For the guns you didn't destroy, you could either leave them as is, or change them up a bit: you could change gun caliber, shell weight, propellant, add/subtract armor, etc. For ones you destroyed, you could go ahead and set them up, but then you'd have to reconstruct them, right? Enter the transport ships! This could add functionality to the transports/convoy ships by giving them the purpose of carrying the materials needed to set up coastal defenses on sea ports: materials such as ammunition, tools to help rebuild/install guns, they could carry a new gun itself if you choose to swap out the caliber of coastal guns, etc. And then, you would just have to wait for the ships to arrive in port, then construction could begin and after a little while of in-game time, the guns would be repaired/installed. I don't think this is too far fetched of an idea, seeing as how this was an actual tactic used in the World Wars. The construction timer on coastal guns makes sense as the ships themselves have build time estimates, you would need funds for constructing a new ship--you'd also need them to install new coastal guns. The transport ships would finally have a function other than being sitting ducks in a custom battle or as targets in a Naval Academy mission. I know that this probably isn't a high priority for the dev teams right now and may never be a priority for them, but I feel like this would be an interesting addition to the campaign and add functionality as well as strategy/tactics when playing through the campaign.
