Submarine customization

[nuclearnadal]

I feel like the subs currently are only influenced by Tech and the enemies ASW factor.

What if subs could be built as actual ships and set as raiders?? My reasoning behind this is as follows:

- It allows for the build screen to be used and allow submarines to be built to specific requirements, an example being the I-400 class which could help with scouting.
-Allows a more direct control over commerce raiding
-Allows for direct control in battles

This would be a significant change if ever considered and would heavily impact the game, an entire new sub tech tree, direct control over ASW in battles, and other factors. Still it just seems like this would add more flavour to the game and allow for some interesting designs....may or may not want 40 knot Papa class sub’s....

[mycophobia]

Many important consideration for sub such as speed vs underwater speed, range, torpedo load etc will be too abstracted in the current RTW system of raiding imho. Even if there is well-constructed formula to simulate the weight of each factor and their effects, It might still be too difficult to convey to the player how each factor actually influenced sub performance.

Controlling the sub directly will make designing the sub much more rewarding for sure, and that can be an excellent game in of itself. The problem is that with limited battles per month, it will take away from the surface portion of the game. Further, submarines are not commanded or coordinated the same way as surface fleet. The player are most likely gonna end up commanding a single sub, and coordinating wolf packs and they hunt for shipping. This can be a lot of fun, but it will pretty much be based on radio report to coordinate, where the player wont have good knowledge of where the other sub are at. Basically I cant envision this as being much more different from a SH game with less direct player control of the sub and the dseign/campaign process.

If we still focus on the surface fleet but now with moving subs, that will be a nice addition, but surface units have even less control of the sub, and indeed even less coordination. It is not realistic for the surface commanders to have any significant control over the submarine within the engagement time of a RTW scenario. If we have long, multi day scenarios we maybe able to make use of sub spotting report or direct subs to harass the enemy fleet. But direct control of subs in battle from the surface fleet perspective is highly unrealistic within the time frame of the battle imho.