Capturable tech and gaining partial access to other nation's tech trees

[nightraven1901]

All nations should also be able to capture enemy hull, weapon and tower designs, if they seize a ship carrying those components and built on that hull. Such captured tech should then be available after the ship has gone through a "study" period during which it cannot leave dock. This process, while comparatively short, should be interruptible by port striking the port in which it is held, forcing the process to resume with some loss of progress (or cease completely if the inevitably cadet crew aboard manages to lose the captured vessel in the fighting). This would add an interesting and dynamic value to seizing enemy ships during wars- if your ally loses the war and surrenders, losing some ships, you can make dang sure the winning nation doesn't get any long-term benefits from them. For components like guns and towers, their designs should unlock naturally as you progress, allowing you more freedom in design if you successfully study enemy ships. This would make each campaign unique and more replayable, as your available build options would change based on your choosing to take their ships instead of their territory (because as it stands you'd never take the crappy AI designed ships if territory was available). Just have the affected modules and hulls have a second button located above them in the designer- if I take the British battlecruiser with the deckhouse and casemates playing as Germany, I should be able to mouse-over that hull and another option should pop up above it with a British flag to show I can make a British style battlecruiser instead due to my capturing efforts (or whatever way you'd like to implement it; it's your game after all).

Unlocking another nation's tech tree should require more research to develop their versions of a given technology, whether that be their turret styles or their towers or etcetera- anything that would be unique. As such, trying to research the entirety of the of the tech tree should be prohibitively expensive, so if you happen to kick everyone's butts early on in the campaign it should require a vast increase in research budget to research multiple different normally unique tech tree options. As an aside, the amount of tech budget directed to each branch should be selectable with sliders, replacing the flawed favourite system that presently exists. This way, one could stall research into a newly-unlocked tech tree to save budget, or prioritise it with fine control as opposed to effectively retarding all other research to have it. I would like to be able to increase the tech expenditure to whatever level I please without major repercussions besides increased costs, and I would like this idea considered separately but adjunctively to this main idea. This would allow the player to easily bankrupt themselves trying to research too many trees at once- but it would also permit another way to spend excess income gained by controlling vast swathes of other nation's territory. Another way to gain a nation's unique tech tree options should be to control all that nation's core provinces- If I own all of Germany, I want to take over their tech tree as a secondary prize and a money sink.

Just an idea. Taking ships seems useless and vestigial as it stands...

Edited March 11, 2022 by nightraven1901
Expansion of core idea with supporting sub-ideas.

[Captain Basilone]

This is a good idea. Of course this would mean adding a scuttling option to vessels to prevent this same scenario

[nightraven1901]

I too would like a scuttle option, just in general,

[Candle_86]

On 3/11/2022 at 9:37 PM, nightraven1901 said:

I too would like a scuttle option, just in general,

Same, when they are missing shots with the 8in guns from .2KM away and I've still got zero hits, I'd prefer to just scuttle that ship, my navy would be better off without that crew honestly

[nightraven1901]

3 hours ago, Candle_86 said:

Same, when they are missing shots with the 8in guns from .2KM away and I've still got zero hits, I'd prefer to just scuttle that ship, my navy would be better off without that crew honestly

 

Hahahahahahahaha... Yeah, I hear you mate. I wanna scuttle the ships that obstinately refuse to fire their torpedoes despite being on in a situation where other ship's existence depends on them. But I got ships with that kind of gunnery performance too, and Davy Jones can have them if that's what it takes to get ships I can depend on making up my fleet numbers.

 

I think both weapon types' performance at point-blank and close ranges needs serious attention... A BB or CC engaging at close range, especially when I wrap them in secondaries, should melt anything that gets within about 5 Km.