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Hi there, It seems that with respect to the Live Oak Framing and Diagonal Riders ship qualities/refits, the developers have sought to create a statistical tradeoff between increased hull strength and reduced speed. I'm not sure this is necessarily historically accurate. Live Oak is certainly an extremely dense material, and diagonal riders do add additional weight, but a ship's speed depends on hull form as much as, if not more than overall weight. In the case of the most famous live oak-framed ship with diagonal riders, USS Constitution, these characteristics played a key role in not just strengthening the ship's ability to resist enemy fire but maintaining the shape of the hull over time--which allowed her to be a remarkably fast vessel (fast enough to escape 5 pursuing British warships in a dead calm at the start of the War of 1812). Moreover, Constitution's partial-sister ships, which were also Live Oak-framed and had diagonal riders, had speeds that varied significantly: USS United States was notoriously slow, while USS President and USS Constellation were renowned for their swiftness. If the developers are looking for a statistical tradeoff, it may be more realistic to increase expense and labor time when working with Live Oak, as the wood was notorious for wearing out carpenters' tools more quickly than any other. As for diagonal riders, the tradeoff may come in the form of reduced space in the hold--as indeed these additional frames lay over the main frames of the ship and marginally reduce hold volume (pictures of Constitution's hold will demonstrate what I'm talking about in this regard). If there is a metric for it, both refits can also increase total ship weight--the same way gun armaments presently do in-game--which would have some more limited impact on speed than what is currently modeled for ship design characteristics. Many thanks--