My Suggestions for Campaign Mode Improvement

[Jeseric]

First let me acknowledge that we all know this is a Game In Progress, I love the changes that have been made so far, this is intended as Constructive Ideas, Not Complaints in any way.

 

For the Campaign Beginning in 1890 

1) I would suggest the system generate obsolete ships "BB" & "CA" 12-24 of them with a build date of 1885 that the player can keep for cost, or scrap and replace as part of the setup.  Also that the game begin in a peaceful state.  A Lower Budget, a limited amount of available crew, forcing complicated choices to be made prior to campaign launch. 

2) I would hope that in the final version, the game will permit many cycles of Peace and War Throughout the Campaign.

3) if peace/war cycle Idea is in the future, I would suggest ships be given several "states" from Mothballed (no Maint, but costs Money & Time to reactivate) Reserve Ships (1/3 Maint, not available for Combat this month, but easy to reactivate for Next month to Full Active (Normal Maint) ships.  It appears the ability to Refit Ships will be added in the future, a cool idea.  I would love to see ALL ships requiring Refit every 5 or 10 years.  Because the Player has little control over the Peace/War Mechanics, the constant flux of ship available would add an interesting randomness to the game.  At 5 years the Ships Warn the need for a refit soon, at 10 years they Breakdown or something.

4) Naval Budgets for Peace State and Combat State should be vastly different, forcing the peace player to make difficult choices, that the war player has the additional funds to activate ships.

5) Humble Suggestion, revive the Shipyard Tonnage Improvement rate up.  Small Complaint, Ships should not be considered Obsolete Prior to the Ability of the Shipyard to construct the Newer Version.  Just because you have the Design For a Dreadnaught, but not the Shipyard tonnage, that should not prevent you from making the older ships until the Shipyard improvements are complete.  Perhaps Permit the older ships to be constructed AS LONG as the shipyard investments have been made, but one could potentially end up not able to build new ships for several years while improving the shipyard.  I think its more realistic to permit construction of existing older ship models, UNTIL all the requirements of the newer ships are met.

6) Cool Visual Suggestion:  As the computer itself does not much care Meters or Yards, permit ranges to be displayed in Yards for a more historic feel.  Also the computer should be able to convert the standard Dollar Quotes to Pounds or Marks or Rubbles, with an approximate conversion rate benchmarked say in 1912 (never updated) its only visual, the system would still calculate in the existing dollars and Meters but convert to local currency and units for display only.

7) it would be nice to see the available crew impact the ability to fully commission ships.  In war more sailors would be available, but in peace time crew requirements should force ships to be mothballed or placed in reserve (say 1/3 main and 2/5 crew, but not available for deployment for 1 month) 

8 ) I like the idea of short wars, if you are winning the computer offers peace quickly from 1890 to 1914, but World War 1, The Washington Naval Conference & World War 2 should be fixed events, with no peace possible.  (Not certain how far your intent to allow the campaign to progress...)  

9) It would also be nice to see the ability to set aside a group of ships in a "Fleet" that always deploy together.  This game offers infinite possibilities to create a Varity of ships to fulfill different missions, but at present there is no way to designate the ships for their designed roles  ie Fleet Units verse more like Scouting Units.  I would suggest at the very least that the player is permitted to assign 8 or 12 ships that are ALWAYS together.  The "Home Fleet" as it were.  A Limited Selection of the Most Powerful Units or whatever the player prefers, intended only to be in battle as a unit.

Jeseric, a Humble Player

 

 

[Kommandant Flauschige]

I like these suggestions! 

I am particularly looking forward to other nations being added, + a diplomatic system which will allow you to sign treaties.

What I was envisioning was basically an event that is either random or triggered by you: 'Send Delegation'. This is an all-encompassing diplomatic legation that will try and either iron out differences, deliver news of sanctions / declaration of war, or simply bring gifts / reparations.

Anyways - treaties. You would first select the nation on the World Map, then right-click on the Capital City and click 'Send Diplomatic Mission'. This would show up as 'Propose Conference' if you already had an embassy established there.

Let's say that it's peacetime in a future UA:D campaign scenario. 

Germany and Britain are allies, or at least realpolitik allies, and want to make a world treaty to restrict other nations' naval power. France in particular. So, everyone sends a diplomatic mission to London. The Germans and British bully the French into signing a naval treaty that disproportionately affects them - say, not being able to build more than [x] number of smaller ships but no restriction on BB's (which the French can't build anyway due to small shipyard size) - and both walk out of the naval conference with smug smiles on their faces. France will not be able to build up for a coming war nearly to the same degree as Germany and Britain.

Also, one small suggestion - during peacetime, any ships set to 'Sea Control' will occasionally run across other ships that they are (for the moment) at peace with. All guns, torpedoes and otherwise are set by default to 'off', and the ships either show up as 'allied' or 'neutral'. 

You can sail as close as you like, and little message boxes will pop up saying that 'gifts / greetings were exchanged', etc - and after a minute or two of that, your ships leave with a little 'toot' on the horn in farewell, and your nation gets a reputation boost with whatever nation owned the ship.

If you order your ships to open fire on the enemy, then war will be declared.

 

Speaking of war being declared - could major news of such a declaration, peace or a big battle show up as notifications in a 'newspaper'? With smaller notifications showing up as 'telegrams'? I think it would add to the ambiance of the game.

Also speaking of newspapers - how about losing battles will result in a decrease in popularity? With the player being able to remedy this by setting a 'Press Freedom' slider in the 'Finances' section? This will result in a minor long-term reputation loss, but news of defeats will hurt popularity less, and news of victories will do slightly more.

[Candle_86]

I'd say strongly to allow Battleship 3 to be build during the same period you can build dreadnaught 1, historically sevral nations laid down PreDreadnaughts after starting their first dreadnaught. The USA layed down one more connecticut class ship after they started work on South Carolina. Also can you move Battleship 3 to Hull Strength 4 instead of 3, I hardly see a reason to build Battleship 2, when 3 is more capable for both Germany and Brittian. I think a simple move when the hull becomes possible would make it more gradual. Also you already did the work for Monitor class ships, they where very much a part of the navy's of the world in 1890-1910, so down the road could you introduce them as a class, they mainly served as guard ships or shore bombardment so maybe limit them to port strike or port defense missions.

Edited January 25, 2022 by Candle_86