RTW 3: Cruising Range in increments of 500 nautical miles

[garychildress]

This is doubtless more of a wish for RTW 3 but as it stands now we have just short, medium, long and extreme ranges for the ships we create. I would love to see more detail in that department. I would like to see the ability to dial range the same way we do tonnage, in increments of 500. In this case, 500 would be nautical miles. Historically BBs had ranges anywhere from close to 2000 nautical miles to almost 18,000 nmi. I think it would be neat to be able to fine-tune range to take up that extra few tons left over, and then have it factor into things like how far the ship can go to blockade, raid or fight a naval battle prior to invading an enemy country's territory.

So for example, if you are Japan and you wish to invade South Africa, you would need to fight and win a naval battle somewhere near S. Africa before you would be allowed to invade. In order to initiate a pre-invasion battle to take control of South Africa's surrounding sea, your ships would need to be able to reach the area of battle--based on a cruising radius of at least a little less than 1/2 the total range of the ship in your TF (which you would be able to hand pick) that has the shortest range. So if Japan doesn't have any bases in the Indian Ocean it would be almost impossible to get destroyers there to escort your fleet to invade South Africa, leaving them vulnerable to sub attack or enemy DDs. Just like IRL you would need to leap frog your way to South Africa by taking bases in the Dutch East Indies and then India, etc. Maybe later on in the game introduce fueling at rearming at sea to extend your range.

And if you are at war with an enemy nation and the enemy has a base near one of yours then the enemy could like-wise initiate a sea battle near your base prior to invading using the same rule of cruising radius. 

[wlbjork]

I was thinking from the other direction - you can control how much tonnage is allocated to fuel and this determines your range.

As it is, we simply have to guess whether a warship is classed as short/medium/long/extreme range - and it seems quite expensive in terms of how much tonnage gives this range. The Royal Sovereign class of the 1890s carried 1420t of fuel, which allowed steaming for almost 20 days (range 4720 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots) - surely "extreme" range. I haven't managed to replicate these - not assisted by the RS-class using extremely thick armour that isn't available in game

[aeson]

Nov 24, 2019 2:49:34 GMT -6 wlbjork said:

As it is, we simply have to guess whether a warship is classed as short/medium/long/extreme range - and it seems quite expensive in terms of how much tonnage gives this range. The Royal Sovereign class of the 1890s carried 1420t of fuel, which allowed steaming for almost 20 days (range 4720 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots) - surely "extreme" range. I haven't managed to replicate these - not assisted by the RS-class using extremely thick armour that isn't available in game

My understanding is that a cruising range of ~5,000nmi was fairly typical for a battleship of the period covered by the early game - perhaps even a bit short by the 1910s - so I'd have to say that I entirely disagree that it's "extreme" range. If you want an example of what I'd consider to be "extreme" range, consider the designed range of the Columbia-class cruisers - about 25,500nmi at 10 knots.

[wlbjork]

Actually that brings up another point - is range class dependent? Presumably, it would have to be to an extent. CAs were the steam equivalent of the wooden Frigate, as light unit used as a general purpose workhorse, so I should expect a CA or CL to be the longest ranged ships, at least in the early game.

However, this brings us back to the original point - the word doesn't help us understand what it means, nor what tonnage is allocated to fuel (we can infer from the difference in displacement when increasing range but that isn't knowing).

Even a something as simple as saying medium range ships can cruise for a month without resupply, long two months and extreme three months would be a little more useful that what we have now; although I suspect it's more of a random chance of running out of fuel when in raiding mode.

[dorn]

I would say game treated range in different view. More like how long ship can operate in her operational area. And in certain type of missions how far it can operate from bases.

Short range is quite clear, you cannot move this ship between areas.
They have so short operational range that it can happen they need to sail back to port before engagement.

As operational range increases from medium range to long and extreme range than ship can stay longer in her operational area.

This can probably increase chance this ship will be in battle (speculative as I am not aware it is confirmed by devs) and increase chance of intercepting raider as in can operate far from bases and can operate more time as it needs less time spent on refuelling and resupply. It could even increase chance of more merchants sunk (again speculation).

Ankther thing is technologies as they are ones which increase endurance. I think it simulates general increase of range achieved by technology and thus indirectly increases chances all events above.

[cabalamat]

To add some random numbers, the Deutschland (which was built as a commerce raider) could do 17400 nm at 13 knots on its 2750 t of fuel (taking 55 days to do so).

if the world was covered in ocean, you could go from any point ot any other point in 10,800 nm (or 20,000 km). Circumnavigation would take twice that.

[wlbjork]

Nov 25, 2019 2:33:15 GMT -6 dorn said:

I would say game treated range in different view. More like how long ship can operate in her operational area. And in certain type of missions how far it can operate from bases.

Short range is quite clear, you cannot move this ship between areas.
They have so short operational range that it can happen they need to sail back to port before engagement.

As operational range increases from medium range to long and extreme range than ship can stay longer in her operational area.

This can probably increase chance this ship will be in battle (speculative as I am not aware it is confirmed by devs) and increase chance of intercepting raider as in can operate far from bases and can operate more time as it needs less time spent on refuelling and resupply. It could even increase chance of more merchants sunk (again speculation).

Ankther thing is technologies as they are ones which increase endurance. I think it simulates general increase of range achieved by technology and thus indirectly increases chances all events above.

There is the "too far from base" message when destroyers don't turn up supporting that hypothesis about range playing a part in ship availability.

[brygun]

Nov 25, 2019 15:44:35 GMT -6 wlbjork said:

Nov 25, 2019 2:33:15 GMT -6 dorn said:

There is the "too far from base" message when destroyers don't turn up supporting that hypothesis about range playing a part in ship availability.

Definitely seen this. In one UK game in order to fight Russia in the Baltic of the "Northern Europe" I started building destroyers with "Long" range.

If the OP recommendation is considered I don't think 500 km/nm is something to bother with but more like increments of 2,000 nm

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For discussion...

Cruising range is at cruising speed. Going faster is  quadratic power 2 and power 3 affects. Top speed is burning fuel at four or more times the rate.

During the real world chase of the Bismark the UK battleships having to debate giving up the chase for lack of fuel was a real thing.

Based on WW2 Pacific ships were 10,000 nm or more making that likely the "extreme" or just "long" range.

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On short range I have a surrendered BC with Short range hopping between by USA North American East Coast and The Caribbean sea zones during an active war. Not sure if thats from no enemies in one or other sea zone. Could be a bug. I dont normally build Short range ships but as said this came as a prize of war.