Campaign: Please please add individual Shipyards/Slipways instead of an abstracted "Shipyard Size"

[Floxolydian]

as of now, whether there are available facilities to build a certain ship is determined by the abstraction of "Shipyard Size".

This leads to countries with far less developed shipbuilding capacities (Especially _military_ navy shipbuilding capacities) beeing able to unrealistically easily catch up with historically naval power houses such as the UK and the US, where Shipbuilding (and number of Shipyards) far surpassed that of other navies (Germany, Russia, Ottoman empire, etc.).
#####
Here is how I envision this feature:

Instead of increasing all my Shipyards' (which are of a practically unlimited number as of now and in Rule the Waves 2) sizes at once with the click on a button. Let's think Shipyards as what the historically were: Individual and gigantic infrastructures, taking a long time to build, limiting very directly the number of capital ships a navy could lay down (or refit/sometimes even repair (when there was heavy damage)) at a time.

Let's have a "Shipyards"-Tab in which we see a list of our nation's Shipyards and how they are occupied right now. For every Shipyard one "Card"-View-Element will be visible, in it we see the silhouette the ship currently beeing build/refurbished/refitted/repaired and it's remaining time to finish occupying said precious, precious capital ship -yard.

we are also able to expand shipyards' sizes (during which I guess they should not be able to operate) and build new ones of specifiable size.

Building them should take perhaps close to what it takes to build a capital ship itself - two to three years - they should cost some maintenance - directly depending on their size.

(To add Cherry on top perhaps they could even be "leased" to build for private shipbuilding - Titanic etc - in times of lower budgets and/or tensions. In the reverse way perhaps it could be possible to buy/lease private Shipyards - costing 10 percent or so more in maintenance. These would be color-coded)

I do think these Shipyards should only be necessary for ships above a certain size - as there were (truly) a lotttt of shipyards for smaller ships - that would (truly) be tedious to manage. But 2-12+ Shipyards (depending on what nation you're playing and how far the campaign has progressed)? Should be managable. And enjoyable to manage too. This all could be made optional for players looking for a more simplified, abstracted experience.

But if you were a Tirpiz, a First Sea Lord - these were the kinds of dilemmas and decisions you would face.
#####

Main arguments:

This feature would add sooo much to the strategic thinking that's necessary for a balanced and monetarily responsible long-term ship building strategy. Somebody once said "Naval Strategy is Build strategy".

Germany can't just build 8 battleships at a time, there are capacities on for example aquiring certain naval guns (granted, managing gun industry would be a feature too far) but especially slipways, shipyards.

This would also - and the more I think about it this is actually perhaps the most important argument for this feature - finally give more incentive to keep ship designs smaller!!!

In Rule The Waves 1/2 for example, I would constantly be increasing Shipyard Sizes, and every generation of BBs would just get bigger and bigger, always on the edge of this arbitrary-seeming Cap.

With this added feature the player has to think long-term much more. (Again, historical) Questions and dilemmas such as these arise:

What if a shipyard is occupied by a refiting of an older ship? Can I refit all my ships at once
without disturbing my newly planned BBs? Can I expand my slipways while building, refitting or repairing a ship in it? Do I have to hold off on refitting/repairing a ship in dry dock because there's simply no space at the moment?

Do I invest in the longterm strenght of my navy, increasing not only the size of slipways but **number of them** - laying a solid foundation to build and **support** my navy in the long run?

[Littorio]

An excellent suggestion, i agree.

[catloverjerrygarcia]

I too concur with this suggestion.

[Candle_86]

I agree except when you expand you shouldn't loose access to the shipyard, lots of shipsyards where expanded during peacetime and wartime, they always had access to the slipways and dry docks already comepeleted, Pearl Harbor is a great example, they where building 2 new dry docks on Dec 7th, but they could use the other dry docks to repair ships, I'd also like to expand it to certain ports that historically couldn't handle capital ships but could handle smaller ships should also be taken into account

Edited February 6, 2022 by Candle_86

[Danz_Von_Luck]

I'd like to see a mix of both. You could have the max tonnage we have now but the the slips at ports variable. So if you have 100000t max you could have say hamburg with one slip of 100000t or 10 slips at 10000t or even 1 at 50000t and the 5 at 10000t

 

[Danz_Von_Luck]

50 minutes ago, Danz_Von_Luck said:

I'd like to see a mix of both. You could have the max tonnage we have now but the the slips at ports variable. So if you have 100000t max you could have say hamburg with one slip of 100000t or 10 slips at 10000t or even 1 at 50000t and the 5 at 10000t

 

This way u could set each port Differently eg hamburg builds bbs with 2x 50k slips bremen builds cruisers with 10x 10k slips and wilhelmshaven builds dds with 50 2k slips. 

It's would also offer balance if u will nation's can't build 20x super bbs if they only have 1 slip that can

[nightraven1901]

Agreed an a component of my greater suggestions list.