Thoughts on possible additions, spotting aircraft, anti-aircraft guns, etc.

[epicscorpion]

I have been wondering for some time now if we would ever get ships such as Submarines, Seaplane Carriers, or if we are super lucky full on Aircraft Carriers. Each of these ship types would allow somewhat unique gameplay and add a lot more consideration for when you are designing your ships.

I believe Aircraft have a place in naval strategy games at large when dealing with 20th century warships. They can provide reconnaissance, such as locating enemy ships, or even assisting in fire control, accuracy at range is key to victory after all. Aircraft could make you think twice about just making a fleet of the biggest baddest ships you can and maybe bring some Destroyers and Light Cruisers to screen your larger ships and cover them from air attack.

The ships capable of bringing aircraft too should be interesting, Cruisers with catapults to launch small float planes for instance could be a well rounded ship, but it's armament would obviously be impacted by the lack of deck space and the weight of the hangers could make your ships have less armor. Whereas purpose built or retrofitted ships turned into Carriers would be vulnerable to all sorts of attacks as carrying many planes necessitates less armor and a larger displacement making them slow, expensive,  but effective option.

Submarines could add a potent option for scouting as they can hide under the waves for a short time. Large torpedoes have a hefty blow against all kinds of ships but subs themselves are very lightly defended at best, small caliber guns if any and staying on the surface for the majority of their voyage can lead them vulnerable to attack, whether it be by quick destroyers that chased them down, battleships firing from further than they can see even lightly armed aircraft pose a massive threat.

All of these of course would require ways to design ships to defeat then and we already have sonar for destroyers so that makes me think Subs may be in our future, Anti Aircraft guns could add an interesting dilemma in design, as the choice to put them instead of say a secondary battery could leave your ship undefended against, let's say Torpedo Boats, and having no anti-aircraft guns, well it's obvious why that could be problematic. 

But this is just my opinion, I'm interested to hear what other people think of it, and if I'm very luck maybe have a Dev see this, well here's to wishful thinking.

yours truly, Yet Another Military History Nerd

[Skeksis]

I like the idea of adding anti-aircraft guns to ships, increasing designer tool blueprint for weapons.

The potential of adding aircraft to the game cannot be denied.

Not only having the current scope of all the big gun battleship battles and their campaign and fleet challenges but to add in on top of that, spotter planes, on shore aircraft attacks, carrier missions and their campaign challenges, well, it simply expands the game and content tenfold. And add to that, the “player consideration” (more content) of designing a fleet of specialized ships such as AA cruisers to support battleship armadas, “potential” does seems like an understatement.

But is it in the privy of the development team?

 

Edited October 24, 2019 by Skeksis

[Duke Flapjack]

I mean, the semi-obvious comparison this game gets is the old Koei game Warship Gunner 2. It had full size carriers (and battle carriers, for as useless as they were in the game). Air power was important. We already have heavy AAA guns (2"), so it wouldn't be too big of a stretch, I think.

[Zak MacKay]

Their is no AAA I believe right now (maybe the ranges on some secondaries means they could be). 2" guns where actually common on predreadnoughts. On the King Edward 7th class they had 4x12", 4x9.2", 10x6", 14x3" (12 pounders), 14x1.9" (3 pounders). Many many many pre dreadnoughts had these tiny guns which where meant to defend against torpedo boats. They where not that useful and where removed at the end of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QF_3-pounder_Hotchkiss

The AAA would be a easy implement as a HA/LA secondaries in higher tiers. But its all the mechanics associated with aircraft. We may get spotters/observation in a rudimentary form. Just increasing vision or long range accuracy for example. You would need to add a entirely new part of the game which diverts development from the core features. How aircraft and AAA actually functions outside of a simplistic method.

The game starts in 1890 before the first pre dreadnought launched. So you would start with ironclads then work your way to first of the interwar. Aircraft really did not become a thing until after the game ends. Warship gunner 2 was set in 1939 so should have aircraft.

It would be more a expansion or squeal which carries it past the 30's into ww2. This is one of the few naval games set in its time period. Why would you want it to divert its focus to become yet another WW2 naval game? It would be neat but what is more important is getting the core surface combat mechanics down.

Subs will exist in campaign mode but not surface. So maybe carriers just operate as that.

[DarkTerren]

We already can guess it goes past the 1930s. Right now 1930 is a chooseable start date. People really seem to be forgetting this . Start dates as of now are 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930

Edited October 24, 2019 by DarkTerren

[Skeksis]

@Zak MacKay do note though, ship designer tool isn’t recreating history, it's rewriting history!

Edited October 24, 2019 by Skeksis

[epicscorpion]

@Zak MacKay
I should have added that Spotter Planes date back to before WWI, and Seaplane Carriers were used heavily in WWI, to what effect is hard to say but I digress. Additionally in the 20-30s a massive amount of what we would recognize as true Aircraft Carriers did begin to appear. I.E. Lexington, Akagi, etc. so in the time frame of the game it would be completely feasible to expect that you could see Aircraft Carriers.

As for the caliber of AAA guns I could expect 1" (25.4mm) Auto-Cannons all the way up to, 5" (127mm) Long Range AA, if we want to go really small there are historical examples of 1/3" (7.62mm) and 1/2"(12.7mm) Machine Guns used on numerus ships of all classes.

Edited October 24, 2019 by epicscorpion
additional information

[epicscorpion]

@Skeksis
I unfortunately have neither the courage nor the know-how to contact the Devs.

[Skeksis]

12 hours ago, epicscorpion said:

I unfortunately have neither the courage nor the know-how to contact the Devs

You already are, in contact with them... woo x-files... 

ha… by the way of the forum. 😊

 

Edited October 24, 2019 by Skeksis

[killjoy1941]

The last mission in the current alpha includes a Yamato-type BB, so AA, aircraft, and CVs are definitely not out of consideration unless the objective is a purely War Plan Orange-type game.

See my thoughts on how CVs could work, and then AA guns and spotters and seaplane tenders become viable, though I'd reiterate that I believe such content would be better relegated to a DLC.