BilgeRat22

I just sent an in-game report about the "Ghost Ship" issue. I hope it proves useful!

(This is just a bug report, I hope the information proves useful.) I am experiencing something similar in my Italian 1890 campaign. I was blockaded pretty much from the start. I immediately gathered my BBs to try and challenge the 15 CAs the AI had had in his southernmost port. I tried sea control, invade... but no encounters were generated. The AI could keep me blockaded by sitting in port and sniping my transports. Setting 2 fleets to protect (covering the entirety of the Adriatic Sea) seemed to improve my transport situation somewhat, and then something broke the blockade. Could've been protect, could've been my shipbuilding efforts, I cannot say. So, purely for testing purposes, I set all my budget options to 100% and went down the Hull Strengthening research tree, heading towards the first Dreadnought hull. My economy held up nicely, Austrian transports started to get sniped occasionally instead of mine. The VP counters kept creeping up but they may be showing erroneous data. I reached the Dreadnought I hull in 1901, which was nice. I noticed the AI CA count going down and thought they may be scrapping older designs, and then I was again under blockade. The game tells me it's a 1,350,000 (!) vs 350,000 navy tonnage advantage in their favour. When I took a look at the AI ports, I noticed what appear to be "ghost ships" which all count against me in the power projection calculation. I am attaching a screenshot for each port to showcase the issue. Again, I hope the information proves useful. My blessings and prayers go out to all of you in these difficult times.

This sounds awesome. Can't wait for the beta!

I like this hull so much more than the default German Armored Cruiser I & II ! Also yes, I can see the small side turrets. Very cool.

Of course I do expect the AI to use every tool at its disposal. But in its more "torp-spammy" builds it carries so many torpedoes and reloads that I'll be dodging torpedoes for most of the battle while trying to catch up and gun its ships down. And that will take time, and speed. I can't claim to be an expert of course. This has only been my experience so far. I have also learned today that 1930 heavy cruiser hulls can have so much Resilience and armor quality (Krupp IV, +100-110%), that even 11" guns (with Standard ammo) won't do that much damage, will be bouncing a lot, and they'll have a hard time penning a 7" belt. One of the AI cruisers ate about 200 11" hits (mostly HE, because AP would rarely go through even with near perfect angling) before finally going down. With 6" and 7" guns being so very outclassed, I suppose my 1930 CLs can should be useful as destroyer leaders.

I tried a few a 2v2 CA duels against the AI (1930 tech, patch 1.03 beta), and its ships tried to open the range about 60% of the time. At some point, when it became clear that I'd be catching up, they turned around to have a fight and spam more torps at me. On the other hand, fleeing AI BBs and BCs often just keep running until I knock out 1 or more engines. Me having torpedoes or not didn't seem to influence the AI's decisions, though I strongly agree that since we're ignorant of what the AI will bring to the table (at this time at least), having 10" or bigger guns on your cruisers is likely a bare necessity. Mark 4 11s seem to be always better than Mark 5 10s in 1930 already, so every useful CA will have be a pocket battleship. These guns have the range, accuracy and power to damage the AI whatever its configuration is. Effectiveness at a decent range is important because if I get too close, AI surprise torp drops become pretty much unavoidable. As for CLs and DDs, in my 1920 campaigns they only appeared to be useful as torp platforms, scouts or distractions.

I was in the middle of another 1920 German campaign before the last Beta update released, and I got a couple large fleet engagements in which the AI behaved in similar way to what you just described. CAs and DDs turned to approach & distract me while the major capital ships sailed away at max speed. CLs usually joined the retreat. I can remember 2 or 3 similar battles in which my fast BCs (bless them) caught and demolished the retreating AI ships one by one. Thankfully, only the AI DDs had torps, so I didn't have to go through a crazy torp gauntlet to finally get into effective gun range. When I play custom duels, especially in 1900 and earlier, I usually set starting range to 5 km or less. It makes the battle shorter and more fun, since 66% of the time, the AI will just run away and 'kite' me, and all I can do is chase and try to slow him down. Worst spawn position is with the AI already just sailing away from you, firing 'byee!' salvos.

As it was pointed out by Nick Thomadis, the problem is likely caused by some of the ships in my 1918 Italian Navy - ships that I designed in a previous version of the game (1.02). I auto-designed 2 ships of each class for a 1920 French Navy just now, in 1.03 Beta (each ship being from the same version of the game) and no "Design Invalid: Can not build. Select a ship of the required type" error appears. It all works. I just might have to track down and delete all of my old designs to fix this.

I would like to share some additional info about the "Design Invalid: Can not build. Select a ship of the required type" issue. I put together a small collection of designs for the 1918 Italian Navy, including 2 BBs, 1 CA, 1 DD and 1 CL. Everything was working fine, until I completed my 2nd CA design. Now I cannot start a custom battle unless I have at least 1 CA and 1 BB in my task force. If I try to go for a 1 CA vs 1 CA or 1 BB vs 1 BB duel vs the AI, for instance, the "Design Invalid" error will appear and prevent me from playing. I've had 2 BB designs up there for a couple days and the game still worked fine. The error message only appeared when I added a new CA design - the issue may appear for any Navy in any year when there is more than 1 non-BB design in your custom list of ships, I think.

I am experiencing the same issue with my 1920 German BCs in Custom Battle. I have several designs saved for all ship types in my 1920 german shipyard, and the game just won't let me play if I've only got 1 or more BCs in the fleet composition screen. The error message is the same as Captain Meow's, repeated about 4-5 times. However, strangely, if I have ships of different types in my fleet, say 1 BB, 1 BC and 1 CA, the game will allow me to launch the battle. You could try that and see if it lets you play. Might help isolate the issue, one little step at a time.

Hi there, when you spot a torpedo (or when otherwise needed) you can always hit the 'P' key to pause the game. It'll give you time to think about what can be done. Avoiding a torpedo attack from the AI can be tricky. Here's what I've come up with: Keep an eye on your Min. Turning Circle stat in the Ship Details panel when you design your ship. It all starts there. One of my 1900 CL designs was way too large, made a great torpedo target. Since then I have started making smaller ships for better agility. (Though they will be more fragile, but also less expensive). Lower speed means a tighter turn. It's why even crippled AI ships (with a decently functional rudder) always seem to dodge at the very last time. There's an optimal balance between speed and turning rate. You want the turning circle to be tight, but you normally also want to get the maneuver done quickly. 10 kts or maybe "Slow" speed seem to hit the spot for most ships, I think. When in torpedo range, do what you can to throw the AI's aim off. Speeding up seems to be always faster than slowing down your ship (especially true for the bigger ones), so "hiding" your top speed by travelling at cruise speed or lower may help. You can sprint when needed. Zigzagging/changing heading can also dodge that spread before you see it - all that maneuvering will probably mess with the accuracy of your guns, though. As for the AI's uncanny ability to dodge your torps, I think it may be spotting your 'fish' as soon as they're in the water. Fast torps are much, much more visible in my experience. On the other hand, I've seen long range normal torp (slow) spreads from me catch the AI unawares. So great when that happens!

A little clarification may be needed - by "make torpedoes more visible" I am referring to torpedoes that are already spotted. When there are many torp walls in play, it's... really a bit of a nightmare. I am attaching a couple screenshots for clarity. And with that kind of loadout, the AI can spam torp walls all day...

Hi everyone, new player here. I got the game a few days before Christmas and I am just amazed. It does so many things right in my opinion, I'm simply loving it. So, the yellow flashing "!" sign that marks newly detected torps is lovely, would there be any option to keep it active, maybe not flashing, but as a very useful marker? Currently, torps tend to blend in a lot. I'd wish they were more visible. I'm having a lot of trouble keeping track of them, both the AI's and mine, especially when I'm working at low zoom levels to manage my entire fleet. (Right now the AI went for a torp-heavy 1920 fleet, hurling fast and slow torp walls at me with wild abandon...)