Dwight Looi

The game is NOT VERY REALISTIC and VERY ARCADE right now anyway. If it is going to be arcade then it should be easy to understand. If it is going to be realistic, then it needs to model armor in a 3D, layered, manner with tapering belts, canted belts, splinter decks, etc. -- more like World of Warships model the ships and their armor design (not that that game is not arcade BTW, just that it is more sophisticated in the armor modelling. Not sure that is practical given that this game is about design ships on the fly on canned designs.Currently an All-or-Nothing or Turtle back scheme is simply a percentage modifier to armor weight for a certain thickness which is BULLSHIT. They behave VERY differently in real life with the latter being optimized for close range direct fire. If it is going to be simple, then make it simple. Besides, historically, proofing against 14" guns does actually require about 14" of steel or thinner belts which are angled to be about 14" given the trajectory within the range of immunity. The Iowa for instance has 12.1" internal belts angled to be proof against 14" and arguably 15" weapons, but not it's own 16" main battery. Right now, the Displacement of the hulls and designs are total Bullshit and not period accurate by a factor of two or three. Before 1936 everything should be more or less capped at 36,000 tons -- treaty battleships forces interesting and realistic compromises!

I am played through 80% of the Academy missions and many Custom Combat scenarios. Here are where I think the game can be improved:- Use Historical Hull types. Instead of Modern Battleship, Dreadnought II or whatever, design and name the available hull types after historical ships. Eg. Dreadnought, Queen Elizabeth, New York, South Dakota, Yamato, etc. And, make them available based on country selected. The Citadel Weight Penalty should be proportional to the Length between the foremost and rearmost turret. This will discourage players from ridiculous designs with lots of turrets pushed to the ends of the ship as it rewards a compact superstructure and turret location. To keep things simple and easy to understand, Gun Penetration should be roughly equivalent to the caliber. That is an 18" gun will penetrate 18" of armor plus or minus a few inches of RNG fudge at <= 25% of the gun's range. Beyond that it should decrease progressively and it penetrates 25% of the gun caliber at maximum range. An 18" gun will hence only penetrate ~4.5" at maximum range. This should make deck armor practical. Instead of Mk5 14" Gun, Mk3 16" Gun or something along those lines, more advanced guns can be named for their calibers. Eg. 16"/45 vs 16"/50. Guns and Weapons should be individually have a "target closest" button. That is, players should be able to point the Main Guns or whatever they what manually, or have certain weapons designated for close in defense. Allowing the player to be deliberate about targeting the main guns while letting the AI fire some or all of the secondaries at DDs nearby will make the game more enjoyable and logical.