-=FAQ=-

[Nick Thomadis]

In this thread we will gradually add some clarifications on gameplay aspects that new players usually have difficulties in comprehending them. 

Does the AI cheat?
The AI uses absolutely the same rules with the human player. The only bonus it gets is from the increased difficulty levels of the campaign with some extra money (+ extra research with update v1.4.1.0). The game can be overly complex in designing an effective ship and maneuvering it successfully at sea, so players familiar with other, more casual  naval games, may think that there is something else going on with their ships which keep becoming shredded by the AI opponent. Keep playing and ask questions in the forum. Most likely other kind players will help you to become better in this game. We will also try to offer some guides later.

Why my guns or torpedo launchers do not fire? Is there a bug?
During the game's development and quite recently, we fixed issues that indeed could create guns or torpedo launchers to not fire at their targets. Currently there is no known game issue (at least something that can be fully reproduced) of the aforementioned category. However, there are the following game functions which can confuse players (confirmed with players):
- Gun/Torpedo reload cycle has not finished: Indeed, some players were confused and did not notice the reload cycle which can be long in torpedoes.
- No effective fire arc: When the ship has very high pitch/roll values, especially on stormy sea, then the weapons will often lose their ability to shoot at the target, because there cannot be a solvable ballistic curve (for the gun shells) or safe angle to shoot (for torpedoes). Guns have an extra indication "Angle '' which warns about their inability to shoot due to bad angle. Torpedoes do not have this warning, but usually it should be self-evident that when a ship shakes so much and has a list close to sinking, it cannot fire a torpedo at that moment. We could make this functionality more realistic but most players would  hate that they would have to slow down their ships and make them more stable in order to fire.
- Ammo save: By default the ships are having a mode to save ammo when accuracy can be too low, in order to help players not waste their ammo. If you set this mode to "Aggressive" then the weapons will always fire at the targets, even when there is zero accuracy.
- Friendly fire: One reason that could cause ships to not fire is the estimated friendly fire mode, which can be triggered more often when you circle a lone ship with many torpedo boats. As a combat rule, you never fire guns when a friendly is close and ahead of you and so this functionality helps to prevent unwanted friendly fire, arguably, sometimes can be more sensitive than it should.
- Torpedo range not enough: Torpedoes will be fired when the estimated range of the target is sufficient for the torpedo. If the target is moving away and is near the edge of the torpedo range, then the torpedo will not be fired, although the target is, typically, within the range. The reason is that the torpedo will be wasted as the target would most likely continue to increase the distance and the torpedo fuel would expire. Usually players expect torpedoes to be fired at the moment the target "touches" their range circle, but without the auto-aim system, players would complain for the opposite reason, that their torpedoes are too often fired prematurely and are wasted.
- Ship lists heavily on one side due to flooding: When a ship is nearly sinking it is natural that the guns lose almost or completely the ability to fire because of the hull angle.

You can also find useful explanations about the torpedo subject in this post of "bgp_spook" https://steamcommunity.com/app/1069660/discussions/0/4030220670860976140/#c4030220670861293154 

Why I have not enough money in the campaign and I can barely afford 10x super battleships?
Ok maybe this question has been asked differently but the main point is this. The game tries to simulate realistic constraints which prevent a nation's economy to support an inflated amount of heavy warships. Furthermore, the economy of any nation in the real world should suffer from prolonged wars, and this is reflected in the game. Therefore, in order to succeed you should not just build infinite battleships and go on to fight wars for an indefinite time, because this will lead to the progressive deterioration of your economy and a diplomatic isolation, which usually leads to the bad situation that inexperienced players are having.

[b] Why I have not enough money in the campaign and I can barely afford 10x super battleships?[/b]
Ok maybe this question has been asked differently but the main point is this. The game tries to simulate realistic constraints which prevent a nation's economy to support an inflated amount of heavy warships. Furthermore, the economy of any nation in the real world should suffer from prolonged wars, and this is reflected in the game. Therefore, in order to succeed you should not just build infinite battleships and go on to fight wars for an indefinite time, because this will lead to the progressive deterioration of your economy and a diplomatic isolation, which usually leads to the bad situation that inexperienced players are having.

Why my Transport Capacity is not growing as it used to be?
The Transport Capacity simulates the amount of transports needed to service your economy and it is directly related to your GDP. The larger the GDP the more transports will be needed and more expensive they will be.

At the early years of the game, it is expected to have a Transport Capacity growth which is more profound, but also more fragile to have more losses in percentage during war. It is like having a fleet of 100 transports and then losing 5 means there is a loss of -5%. But in a fleet of 10,000 transports this is transposed to only -0.05%. 

What many players are experiencing after war is heavy losses in transports that they cannot replenish as they were able to do, before some years, and this is caused because of the larger need of transports. for the current state of economy and empire size. This is perfectly normal, and simulates a real situation as closely as possible, using the abstract system of Transport Capacity.

The Transport Capacity aims to simulate in a non-complex way the transports’ value for a nation's economy. We could also have a far more detailed system which would require far more details to assess and calculate and thus far more time consuming turns.

Why enemy submarines keep sinking my battleships?
The game simulates in an abstract way the importance -and annoyance- of submarine warfare. It is expected that battleships without sufficient escort to be very vulnerable against submarines. 

The ASW value of a task force is based on an average value taken from all ships of the task force. So if you have many battleships with low ASW and a few exceptional destroyers with very high ASW, the overall effectiveness of the task force against submarines is expected to be mediocre at best. The average value simulates the undesirable noise caused by bigger ships which conflict with the effort of detecting the stealthy submarines. 

In order to be more effective against very advanced and stealthy submarines of the enemy, it is advised to issue dedicated Task Forces, specific for hunting down and destroying submarines and not mix them up in  a large, less effective group.

Why do my ships in a large formation often crash with each other when I order them to move somewhere?
The game tries to simulate realistic formations which take into consideration the inertia of ships. Taking into consideration the inertia of the ships means that we cannot order big ships to turn left, then right, then go back and follow us like they have no gravity. Most RTS games use large artificial aids to force ships into following very strictly a formation, disregarding actual acceleration, mass and physical properties, so many players, getting used to mass-select and move their ships somewhere, expecting that all ships will perfectly align magically into their desired position, are creating a very problematic situation for their ships.

It is advised to know the following basics to have a better handling of your fleet.
- Ships in "Battle Line" are moving independently. This means that the ships will move straight until you order them to do something else.
- Ships in "Screen", "Follow", "Scout" mode are moving in a specific automatic pattern around the division they are attached to (either initially or with your orders). They will crash to other ships if you do not order them and that is not a fault of the game.
- The easiest way to control a large fleet is to set in "Battle Line" your main attack force, usually the slowest and biggest ships. With right-click you set other divisions to "Screen", "Follow", "Scout" your main Battle Line. When you want to move somewhere, you do not mass-select all your ships (although it can work fine for small formations, because they will make an auto-line), but instead you just move your main battle line, and the rest divisions will follow accordingly, with better efficiency than trying to move all of them separately.

Players who are familiarized with the above mentioned procedure will surely have better results in controlling a large fleet.

How Logistics work?
Logistics is a vital factor which determines the efficiency of your land army. Without sufficient logistics it is expected to lose battles more often, especially vs armies with better logistics.

The Logistics are calculated by the game internally by factors which are dependent from Transport Capacity, GDP per capita, the ratio of State Budget in relation to Army Budget, and your Navy's Power rating. There is also an additional factor which is determined by the tech year, simulating the different needs of the army according to the technology. Logistics need to be at a certain level up to 100%. 

The Navy's Power affects Logistics up to 10x more but as stated above it is not the only factor. If the enemy has a small navy but retains a strong economy, enough budget to support the Land Army budget and a growing transport capacity, it can keep a high Logistics factor and remain a difficult opponent to beat in the land battles.

What the player needs to know about Logistics, in order to keep it at an effective number is the following:
- Invest in Transport Capacity. Even if you think it is not worth the money to keep it at high percentages with negligible growth, it will help in sustaining your Logistics to a high number.
- Increase your power projection at sea, by having more battleships or battlecruisers (which have the biggest power projection rating) but also to operate at sea. If they are stationed in port their power projection is much less. You need also to build ships which are fast and have high range to produce power projection. If your fleet is slow, with too much armor but little range then its power projection will be ineffective compared to its tonnage.
- Try to not prolong wars because this negatively affects your GDP, your land army grows larger and becomes more expensive and eventually this affects your financial status significantly. - Try to not over-extend your borders. Having a very large empire means a potential stronger economy but a much bigger responsibility, as you will require a larger army and more funds to support it. Usually when you fight prolonged wars, the provinces which were conquered got severe economic damages in each turn that a battle occurred on them. These provinces will need time to grow again to their previous standard or they may decline economically if your nation suffers from a recession. Conquering many provinces within a short time, will most likely negatively affect your Logistics as your economy will not rise at the rate your army expenses increase.

How oil resources affect my economy?
- Oil resources in a province directly affect its income: So when you conquer a province with oil resources, the increased income is already calculated based on the much  increased income of this province. Oil resources may become depleted and then the extra income is lost.
- Oil resources affect the cost and time of refueling: When your ships refuel after a long journey or combat, there is a calculated cost depending on the ship's designed operational range and its costs. Furthermore, the ships with oil fuel will have a much increased cost and a longer refuel time if there are not enough oil resources. Coal ships are not affected by this extra penalty but they have their own disadvantages in having a smaller operational range.
- Minor allies with Oil resources benefit more: An alliance agreement with a minor nation provides an income bonus dependent from the total income of the minor nation (which is increased if it has oil resources). Furthermore, a portion of the oil resources contribute to the major nation's oil resources.
- Large populations need more oil: Oil resources are first provided to serve the basic needs of the domestic economy and production, directly related with the size of the population. Then the surplus is given to the military. Therefore, a large nation needs a larger amount of oil resources to have a noticeable benefit. This is measured comparatively by the statistic "oil per capita".

Why my ships are often low on fuel

Your ships need a sufficient operational range to be strategically useful, depending on the technology era and the needs of your empire. If you need ships mostly for coastal duty then you can build cheaper ships of small range that will mostly operate near friendly ports.

But if you want to build a strong expedition force or have the ability to send fleets in overseas territories in order to protect them, then the operational range is mandatory to be at least on the "medium" setting.

This is something you learn in the Naval Academy when you build ships with more powerful armament and protection and minimum range only to find out that you get low on fuel very easily and then your ships become much weaker as a result.

Another thing that you should pay attention to is to operate your fleets near ports that are either yours or allied. Players who send huge task forces on long journeys to invade other nations but they are thousands of kilometers away from any friendly port, will last for a couple of turns before they get the “Low Fuel” status.

Furthermore, the nearest port that your fleet uses for refueling must be of a reasonable size in relation to the fleet’s size or else the refueling time may be so slow that eventually your fleet may suffer having many ships with low fuel state.

Lastly, you will need oil resources in the later technology era, for your ships which use oil fuel. If you lack oil fuel ,the refueling time and cost become penalized to an extent that may make it very difficult to travel to a destination before depleting your fuel.

[Nick Thomadis]

Updated

[Nick Thomadis]

Updated

[Nick Thomadis]

Updated

[Nick Thomadis]

Updated