Post by janxol on Nov 10, 2019 13:28:26 GMT -6
There was already some discussion about this and the fact that the wing turret arcs in-game are limited to their "safe" amrgins, which could be used without damaging the structure. The thing is that theoritical ability to fire directly ahead or astern was an influence in the early dreadnought designs (most notably dreadnought herself, which was expected to mostly chase the enemy). The ships did in fact have the ability to fire the wing turrets ahead or astern and could do so, while of course risking superstructure damage. I believe the player should be given the same ability at the same risk.
The way I would see this implemented would be a two-way authentication, so to speak.
1. In the design - The theoritical ability of that particular ship to train the turrets to said extended arcs, without any parts of the superstructure getting in the way. Not retrofittable. Similar to cross-deck fire capability, but not limited by technology. A ship with this checkbox ticked would have some weight and cost added to wing turrets (again, similarly to cross-deck fire). Deck space should also be reduced, secondaries above certain size should be forced into casemates (again, like cross-deck fire). I think we should be able to stack this with cross-deck fire as well. I do not think casemate mounts should be affected by this option at all (no cost, weight or firing arc change)
2. In the doctrine screen, a checkbox similar to oxygen torpedoes, diving shells and floatplane search - "allow extended wing turret arcs". This would be to say to all ships that have the theoritical capability to use or not use it (if, for example, the player deems the damage too risky he can toggle that to forbid firing at the extended angles. The ships themselves would be unchanged, as the "extended arcs" in the design cannot be retrofitted or removed.
Only if BOTH the ship has the theoritical design capability AND the doctrine allows it will the extended turret arcs be utilised. If a ship has extended arcs in the design, but doctrine forbids from using them, she will use standard arcs. If a ship doesn't have the theoritical capability for extended arcs, she will sue standard arcs regardless of doctrine setting.
For the turrets themselves I see two options.
1. All wing turrets gain full 178 degree arcs, as long as there aren't other wing turrets fore or aft that would limit them. For example: H/I turrets can fire 1 degree off stern and bow. if there are both FG and HI turrets present, the FG can fire 1 degree off bow and have standard arc aft, while HI can fire 1 degree off stern and have standard arcs forward. I mention this as a possibility because HMS dreadnought could supposedly fire 6 guns forward and 6 guns aft.
2. Turrets DEFG get extended arcs forward and standard aft, as long as theres no turret in the way (FG get no benefit if DE present), HI get a slight arc extension both aft and forward, but can't fire directly forward or aft. JKST are the same as DEFG except their arc is extended aft.
In battle, if using the extended arc (and allowing to use it) it would work the following way: Each time a wing turret fires in an extended arc it has a chance to damage DE or superstructure. The chance and damage would be dependent on caliber (a twin 12" on a BB gun has higher chance and higher damage than a shielded 6" mount on a CL.
The way I see it it should be fairly easy to code. I have no intention of meddling with the EXE, as I believe that's forbidden, but if any of my assumptions about the internal functions of the game are true it should only require fairly minor modification to existing functions. The game already checks which turrets can fire, the game already checks doctrines and cross-deck fire. While this would by no means be a "small" feature, I think it would be great addition to the game.
