A thread for Rule the Waves players

[Tankaxe]

Greeting as the developers are hard at work making the campaign I'd like to call on Rule the Waves players for input regarding campaign as the game took a lot of inspiration from. There are plenty of mechanics in RtW campaign that should be considered implemented but also some quite frustrating features. 

What part of RtW would like to see in UA:D? What can be improved or what best should be avoided.

My suggestion is for the battle generator to have small cruiser actions be together with an actual number of cruiser task forces engaging each other along with escorts besides the various 1v1 and 2v2 cruiser actions RtW likes to throw at you that shouldn't happen unless its raider hunting.

[FinnishJager]

For me, these are some things from the Rule the Waves Campaign that needed some work or would have been nice to have.

1. Creating Fleet Order of Battles - Being able to group ships of different classes so you had an idea of which ships would be present in a battle. A further expansion of this system should include setting your "orders" for the fleets. Examples: Trade Defense, Engage Enemy Fleets, Commerce Raiding, Invasion Support [Select the Invasion Target], Reserve, ASW Hunter-Killer Group. Ultimately, in RtW you were commanding the fleets, but never really had a say in what they were doing in the sea zones. Things felt uncoordinated and sometimes battles or invasions happened that you wouldn't have planned or even wanted. I think looking at historical operations/amphibious landings and the massive planning and coordination needed to conduct them can help improve this part of the game. We need to have better control over what our ships are doing in sea zones compared to RtW.

2. Battle Auto-Resolve - I'm told by people who got into the UA:D campaign that it exists. Great! Let's hope the After Action Report is detailed and informative for players. Sometimes I just want to design and build ships and skip battles.

3. Wars between the AI Nations - Something RtW lacked. In that game, having an Allied Defense Treaty which causes another nation to join your war wasn't good enough.

4. More Territories on the Map to invade or gain/lose in Peace Treaties -  Should be self explanatory.

5. Oil as a Resource (For Later Game Ships) - This one is mostly inspired by WWII Germany and Japan's lack of fuel which hindered Naval Operations. You'll have oil producing territories, and if they're not already a part of your home territory, will require merchant ships to bring it to your nation. Each territory could have a fuel stock pile and each class of ship has a fuel consumption stat when they're not docked in port. In RtW you have an option to pick non-historical oil producing territories, so something similar here would mix things up if players wanted that challenge.

6. Budget Investment into Merchant Shipping - Inspired by #5, you should be able to invest a percentage of your naval budget to support the construction of merchant ships at civilian ship yards. Constructed ships should be added to a pool and all this trade is organized outside player control. These merchants would bring oil back to your home territory or to the naval bases you build around the globe. The loss of merchants (and their abstracted cargo) should also impact the willingness of your government to seek peace terms or civilian unrest.

7. Showing How Many Shipyards and Building Capacity your Nation Has - In RtW I feel that this has been abstracted into the budget. It would be more realistic to show how many shipyards you have, which would cause a cap to how many ships you can build at one time:
    2 Dockyards Available for Ships up to 60,000 tons.
    8 Dockyards Available for Ships up to 10,000 tons.
    10 Dockyards Available for Ships up to 5,000 tons.
    20 Civilian Dockyards Available for Escorts/Landing/Merchant/Submarine Construction.

Of course you should be able to build more naval shipyards, invest in civilian shipyards and build ships at foreign dockyards.

Things I liked:

- You're just in control of the Navy - Sometimes political power, current events, arms treaties, peace deals, and available budgets are just outside your control.
     - It would be nice to occasionally get ship design parameters from the government that you'll have to follow. Minor updates about the ruling government/political party's foreign policy ambitions would be nice. "We don't like Spain and are preparing for a war against them." or "Following recent elections the new ruling Purple Party has an anti-war stance." or, like the Rule the Waves pop-up "The Cabinet has passed a bill which requires 6 new Destroyers to be added to the fleet." or say for example if you're playing as Germany and are in a war against France "The army has suffered some defeats and the Government is looking to conclude a Peace Treaty soon."

- Most of everything else - I like RtW's campaign. There's a lot of good stuff there to work from. Numbers 1 and 2 on the above list could sometimes make it frustrating to play.

Short Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts Campaign "Wishlist":

- Based on point #1, having to build things like Fleet Oilers, Troop Transports, Landing Craft/Landing Ships, Smaller Convoy Escort Vessels (Frigates/Corvettes) would add realism and strategy for your operations. Fleet Oilers being important for extended naval operations. Troop Transports and Landing Craft being necessary to seize territories. And Corvette escort vessels being necessary to protect the merchant shipping and being the first line of defense against submarines.

- Ability to design submarines, even if we're not controlling them in battles and they're running around under AI control like RtW.

Edited November 1, 2019 by FinnishJager

[Cptbarney]

@FinnishJager Basically this, Wouldn't having ships who performed well during battles and wars to be sort immortalised as well kinda like that playthroughs own little trivia or something.

Minor but eh. Was thinking of a fear factor kinda thing or awe factor but that would probs just be too much stuff to put into.

Hope we get design the non warship, ships lol. Various different hulls, engines, funnels etc. Maybe merchant ship creation as well? Unless its sorely military which i dont mind.

[Mycophobia]

One RTW feature worth noting is the relative length of scenario allows for much more maneuvering, extended engagement, ability to retreat into the night, retreat into batteries etc... 

Scouting is extremely important in naval warfare and currently UAD scenarios are almost always set up to be meeting engagements instead. I would like to see more things happening in the movement stage for some scenario types. (Coastal Raids, Convoy Raids, and Fleet Battle comes to mind) 

When two fleet meet and engage, the current system works just fine, but I think the game could burrow a bit from RTW or Victory at Sea to have a "travelling map" where player can move around, send out scouting forces, lead enemy back to a main force, etc... Enemy ships can be spotted in this travelling map, but only with vague infos, and once fleet enter a set range(probably just a bit out of effective firing range), we go to the current tactical battle map and fight out the scenario as it happens. 

This allows things like the famous run to north in Jutland, ships withdrawing to wait for night before returning, baiting escorts away from the convoy etc... This "phase" does not need to exist in all form of engagements, but can add flavor to some type of battles. 

[SiWi]

5 hours ago, Mycophobia said:

When two fleet meet and engage, the current system works just fine, but I think the game could burrow a bit from RTW or Victory at Sea to have a "travelling map" where player can move around, send out scouting forces, lead enemy back to a main force, etc... Enemy ships can be spotted in this travelling map, but only with vague infos, and once fleet enter a set range(probably just a bit out of effective firing range), we go to the current tactical battle map and fight out the scenario as it happens. 

speaking of victory at sea... that game had later a reinforcements feature base on the position of other fleets on the map.

If you fought near an enemy 2nd fleet and had a allied somewhat more far away, then first the enemy would reinforce then your allies.