Rak1445

Adorably ugly. Want! ❤️

I likewise don't appreciate the numerous DLCs being released across the game industry in the last years, especially those with features that should have already been included in the game to start with. It really brings the quality of games down, look at Crusader Kings for example. Let us hope UA:D will follow a different path. Expansions down the line, however, could be interesting to see, as long as their content and its quality justifies it. We shall have to wait and see...

While I agree that quality of the execution should not be compromised - I'd rather have a great dreadnought game than a mediocre ironclad one - I would argue that the possibility of expanding the scope of the game, potentially *after launch* or even as a paid extra offers no disadvantages to the game. On the contrary, it might be beneficial financially as it could attract a wider audience and, if released as an expansion pack of sorts, would generate *additional* purchases, while still utilizing the default game mechanics (the developers would NOT be required to redo everything from scratch as a separate game). Adding ironclads does not necessarily mean reinventing the wheel. IMHO they fit quite nicely into the existing framework - the Monitor and Merrimac are the proof of this. For example, muzzle-loading cannons don't really need to use entirely new code - in effect, simply extending the reload timer would be enough to differentiate them from breech-loaders, along with a respective research tree in the campaign. The biggest 'bottleneck' would be the amount of new hulls and ship parts for the old ships that would need to be modeled from scratch, but as the developers already stated, "some" will be available by default to cover the early campaign period. The rest is possible to achieve through "simple" tweaking of existing mechanics' values. Of course, nothing is ever "easy", but I'd definitely say it's doable. Of course, if we get mod support in the end and custom ship parts along with it, it's quite likely we'll see some user generated ironclads in time. On a similar note, I wish we'd get gunboats and fleet auxiliaries in the campaign too... Screenshot is from the game 'Ironclads II: Caroline Islands War'

There's more to offer, like early torpedoes, barbette and turret ships, muzzle loaders, development of armor plating, invention of torpedo boats and light warfare... It all deserves to be represented - I mean, come on, these things basically invented Steampunk - how come we're not seeing more of them?

Thank you, devs, for deciding to release on Steam I cannot stress how many good wargames suffer from terrible purchase and licensing methods *cough* RTW *cough*. That said, is there any estimate at all as to when backers will receive their Steam keys?

I think it's fair if the ironclads came as an after-launch expansion, as the technology development from 1860-1890 easily rivals the 1890-1940 period the game covers, and would require a lot of research. Obviously, perfecting the game mechanics as it stands comes first. Besides, the devs have stated that the game will come with 'certain ships' to facilitate players' starting fleets in 1890, so we're likely to get some late ironclads. Now, imagine if UA: Dreadnoughts and UA: Ironclads and UA: Age of Missiles (?) came as three, separate, stand-alone games, that would merge into one if you owned them all, allowing you to fight such crazy engagements as 10 Popoffka batteries against an Aegis cruiser Wishful thinking, but one can hope...

Bump! Great ideas in this thread. I'd LOVE to see the game expand into this unknown time period. It would mean the game covers the entire period of transition from sailing tall ships into just before missile warfare era. I think 1860-1890s were full of extremely interesting and unorthodox design solutions (such as torpedoe on a stick), which would be amazing to see and develop in a campaign. I wouldn't mind seeing this as an expansion after launch!

There's a LOT of really interesting designs and concepts from that era. It's criminally underrepresented, and I'd love to see the game expand further into the past Look at this amazing hull for example:

I'm also interested in when the Steam keys are supposed to ship out?

Thank you for your reply! I suspect warships must have carried some sort of 'fighting ship register' as well. I'm also thinking about naval warfare prior to radio communication, say Russo-Japanese war, where I imagine the situation was more chaotic. In Jane's Warships at a glance the broadside silhouettes of all the world's fighting ships (presumably) are systematically categorized by country, following by funnel count and ship class. I imagine the funnels and masts were among the most easily-seen ship attributes to aid in the identification, and could significantly narrow the search down. Then once the lookouts had the name of the ship, they could look for more detailed ship statistics such as armour thickness, armament or speed in other publications, such as The illustrated guide to the Royal Navy and foreign navies. I wonder if these or similar were standard issue, or just officers' prized personal belongings.

Follow-up question - in the abovementioned publication (Jane's Warships at a glance), available through the link in the original post, the ships each have a one or two letter acronym assigned. Does anyone have a clue as to what it might correspond to? Additionally, in the top right corner of pages there is sometimes 'X Cone (1913 system)' written. Is anyone familiar with such a system, and what does it mean? I'll be very grateful for answers to these questions. Cheers!

I was recently wondering how exactly the process of spotting and identifying an unknown ship on the high seas worked during and prior to WW1. I imagine lookouts were stationed on the masts, reporting smoke pillars on the horizon etc. However, how would a crew go about identifying a sighted unknown vessel? Especially in poor conditions or long range, where identification / national flags would be hard to see? Did ships carry something akin to an encyclopedia, like Jane's Warships at a glance? Were they general issue?