Destroyers- I think they need help.

[Spitfire109]

Soooo destroyers in the game are currently in a weird place. This place balance wise isn't even a bad place, it makes them quiet strong actually. This place is called Torpedo hell. They exist for the soul purpose of slinging torpedo's and hiding in smoke. This actually makes them probably even deadlier than a BB per pound but its not what DDs were made for. Id like to know if the general UL:A community agrees with me. 

What ive found is a few things, First Destroyers practically never hit or damage anything at all with their guns, even other DDs. Secondly torpedos are faaaar too reliable as weapons, being unaffected by accuracy debuffs, and essentially requiring guess work to dodge or just a very fast boat. Lastly they live and die off of smoke. the moment the smokescreen drops all the DDs disintegrate. It makes them into smoke belching torpedo spewwers. 

First thing I think needs to be addressed is they shouldn't get reloads unless given the higher torp amount, as it was historically. They should be a little more resilient, not tanky, but not papier-mâché as its just kinda silly how many destroyers you can lose in one single battle. They should also get an accuracy boost, so that they can contribute in some meaningful way to a gun fight, and achieve their IRL role of a screen, allowing them to effectively engage other DDs, TB, and even CLs while still remaining as a 'Potential' threat to BBs and CAs with the torpedoes, but not unreasonably dangerous due to less torps and perhaps less torp accuracy.

[ColonelHenry]

Destroyers in fact did fk each other up with guns a lot of times during WW2
Though I do agree with you that destroyers are very "gamey" right now. Torps are too accurate all the while gets ridiculous amount of reload. Torps should be less accurate and scarce yet extremely deadly unlike what we have got right now where a pre-dreadnought BB builds in 1903 could have the tech to tank 3 17inch torps and live

[madham82]

Torpedoes and Torpedo Protection definitely need reworking to gain some semblance of realism. Have not noticed their accuracy suffering, so can't comment there. As far as being more resilient, no. They are called tin cans for a reason. The utter lack of armor means anything with cruiser or bigger size guns should and did frequently reduce them to wrecks in quick order. Another issue is the fact they have exposed torpedoes on their decks. Their survival was due to being small and maneuverable. One issue is the AI is suicidal by charging them directly into concentrated fire. DDs only on rare occasions charged head on into superior firepower. Their preferred tactic was to flank, launch torpedo attacks and retreat under cover of smoke. The AI really doesn't do this from what I have seen. 

At least one major issue has been fixed with the speed penalty. No more untouchable speedboats zipping around dumping tons of torpedoes.  

[SonicB]

I would like to see a little more unpredictability and scare factor with torpedoes, as I feel that would more accurately reflect their historical impact. Right now in mid-late era, you can reliably spot them very early and avoid them at long range with ease - even travelling at 30+ kts at which sonar and hydrophone performance would have been severely degraded. On the other side, torpedoes are usually very accurate and are 100% reliable, meaning that a close-in shot is an almost guaranteed hit.

To achieve this, I agree that torpedoes should only exceptionally have combat reloads, and furthermore, there should be a dud percentage and less accuracy (this would not be a complete nerf as it would make it more difficult to evade large spreads.) On the other side, torpedo visibility should take a significant cut, especially at high speed, spotting torpedoes should be a chance that improves with proximity not a hard spotting radius, and the enemy's torpedo reload status should not be visible.

Right now the only torpedo type that accurately reflects reality is Electric. Fighting an electric-equipped ship, unless you cheat and look at the reload times, you need to anticipate when the enemy will launch, watch his behaviour carefully, and always maneuver your ships with the torpedo threat in mind. This to my mind is a much more interesting game than playing dodgeball with torpedoes spotted ten kilometres away.

[admiralsnackbar]

Evading torps is tricky at the moment because the act of maneuvering one ship in a formation causes the rest of the formation in line to start pirouetting on the spot rather than following the path set by the lead ship which would keep all the ships moving. When your AI dodges torps it only ever evades away, which would make sense as a pre-emptive move but to deal with torpedoes close by might be the wrong call. The AI does not attempt to dodge the individual torpedoes but seems to only ever try dodging the salvo which sometimes causes it to needlessly hit one torpedo or more to avoid another. 

[Shaftoe]

Currently, destroyers don't die easily enough when hit with 6-8" shells.

But at the same time, they become crippled way too easily from 4-5" shells.

[Skeksis]

I hate to break it to you guy's but...

It would seem the game is taking on a life of its own!