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Post by rhetoric on Sept 19, 2015 18:07:49 GMT -6
Hello chaps and chappesses. I've been playing a little while, and this is my first NWS game, so apologies if I'm asking questions that could be found on other threads, or are verboten subjects on the board. Also, some of my questions are probably going to be partly suggestions based on my experience, but probably more in a "Is there a design or technical reason we can't have XYZ?" vein. Also, this is pretty much a pure stream of consciousness thing, so sorry if it gets a little hard to follow. So without further ado;
Light cruisers; I'm quite fond of building these due to the low cost, and I find them easy to design due to the limitations placed on you (Wierdly. I tend to make em fast and long range and stuffed to the ginnels with torpedoes). I am curious to know if there's any reason I can't just build 8000 ton CLs from day one to day Z? It seems odd that your options don't open up as much as other classes do. Also, is there a fixed limit on the number of torpedo tubes and such I can stick on CLs? As doctrine evolves, will I be able to add swivel mounts or something (To make what I'm after with CLs, that is "a really really fat destroyer/destroyer leader type thing"). On that note, does the game support having CLs work as a destroyer flotilla flagship and I've just missed it?
I'm also curious as to how people design their cruisers. I'm finding myself building CAs that outmass my Legacy battleships by quite a bit, which seems strange, (is it?) even with the kind of tonnage creeping that I feel going on.
Speaking of tonnage, I don't suppose there's a way of leveraging a high tonnage dock to build smaller units more quickly? Part of me says that the fact we can build as many ships as we can afford is a reasonable alternative abstraction, but I suppose it's worth asking.
Does anyone find the "accelerate construction" option useful? At the start of a 2-year or so build it just seems to shave off a month or two (which I guess could be critical, but you don't really know what's going to happen that far in advance) and closer to completion it often makes no difference.
Could we maybe have a variation of the "Political superior X asks you to build Y of Z type of unit", where you can propose to your superiors a particular kind of plan? I mean for instance a way of going to your masters "Look, we need to refit or replace our light units, which are suffering from the needs of the Dreadnought race. Can I have more funding in the short term to fufill this plan of action, in return for a budget cut after" maybe? Although I guess it could do with having a prestige cost too.
Does anyone build more than one type of destroyer per technological generation, or is my "build one new class every time a class goes obsolete" a normal attitude?
Is there a way of telling the game the role a type of ship has, or to prevent a certain class appearing in a certain type of battle? For example, if I build a smallish cruiser designed for commerce raiding or something, is there any way of saying "there's no point taking this for a bombardment mission because it lacks the oomph for it"? I'd be happy with a negative option like that, because I do like the fact you don't really get to preselect your fleet because reasons. Part of me says it might be nice to make permanent formations like squadrons, so the likelihood of a certain group of ships appearing together is increased, but you're more likely to not get any of them. Even if it just meant that if giving Move orders in the strategic screen you could just order one ship to move and the rest of it's fleet or squadron would go with it, rather than having to scroll through the fleet list and fiddling about.
As the UK, does anyone really use Colonial Service in their designs? I can see how it'd be useful if you don't want to spread your fleet out a bit as one of the other powers, but I don't find myself really needing to buff my foreign deployment tonnage (I'm normally worried about raiders or a potential foe has a big empire too) Is there more to this option I'm missing? (Better chance of good outcomes for colonial events maybe?)
When you get intel reports showing you the blueprints of enemy ships, is there any way of hanging onto these for future review? It seems odd that I apparently have to burn this intel report after reading.
And can we have it so I can get another blueprint window open at the same time? I want to be able to compare my designs to the AI's without having to photograph the screen or write the figures down.
EDIT: With Coastal Patrol, are there any costs or benefits to having ships in multiple theatres on CP/ASW duty?
I think that's it. Thanks for your time, and thanks Devs for the great game  |
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Post by brucesim2003 on Sept 19, 2015 19:06:55 GMT -6
I'm also curious as to how people design their cruisers. I'm finding myself building CAs that outmass my Legacy battleships by quite a bit, which seems strange, (is it?) even with the kind of tonnage creeping that I feel going on.
Late game this is very common. Especially if you transition to battlecruisers.
Does anyone build more than one type of destroyer per technological generation, or is my "build one new class every time a class goes obsolete" a normal attitude?In my games that's pretty much the norm. 6-8 classes throughout the length of the game. For DD's it's all about serial production. Is there a way of telling the game the role a type of ship has, or to prevent a certain class appearing in a certain type of battle? For example, if I build a smallish cruiser designed for commerce raiding or something, is there any way of saying "there's no point taking this for a bombardment mission because it lacks the oomph for it"? I'd be happy with a negative option like that, because I do like the fact you don't really get to preselect your fleet because reasons. Part of me says it might be nice to make permanent formations like squadrons, so the likelihood of a certain group of ships appearing together is increased, but you're more likely to not get any of them. Even if it just meant that if giving Move orders in the strategic screen you could just order one ship to move and the rest of it's fleet or squadron would go with it, rather than having to scroll through the fleet list and fiddling about.
I've been arguing on and off for this since before the game was released. Answer every time has been a NO!
When you get intel reports showing you the blueprints of enemy ships, is there any way of hanging onto these for future review? It seems odd that I apparently have to burn this intel report after reading.
None that I know of.
EDIT: With Coastal Patrol, are there any costs or benefits to having ships in multiple theatres on CP/ASW duty?
None that I know of. |
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Post by networkpesci on Sept 20, 2015 7:51:51 GMT -6
I'm fairly new myself, so I don't know the answers to most of your questions, but regarding the "can I look at enemy ship blueprints" question, on the main game window you can click on the nations' flags underneath the tension meter to get to the Nation Data tab, and then select a nation and go to the Ships tab. Right-clicking on any ship lets you pull up Ship Data which includes whatever information you have about the enemy ships. I don't know if this is omniscient (and therefore technically it ought to be considered a cheat) or if it's limited to the data you've acquired through espionage, but it's definitely there.
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Post by cwemyss on Sept 20, 2015 8:19:34 GMT -6
That info is definitely subject to all the inaccuracies and uncertainty of any intelligence estimate.
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Post by rockmedic109 on Sept 20, 2015 9:21:12 GMT -6
As far as ship roles go, if you have your commerce raider cruisers on Raider status, they will not be pulled for other operations. This won't help you in a first month's battle before you can put them on raider status or if they go into the yard for mechanical repairs {they come out active fleet}.
I hate the "political superior wants...." event. With one exception, they have always been stupid and unreasonable which is quite historical. And I usually make political enemies {lower prestige} when I tell them to go pound sand. While I hate the event, I have to say it is immersive, accurate and believable. Changing it would take away the frustrations of having to put up with unreasonable superiors who don't have the sense to pour **** out of a boot with instructions on the heel.
Colonial service only adds 60 tons. Very cheap on a cruiser hull. I've been playing without sending ships to foreign service {just putting enough ships on foreign stations} but as Great Britain I think it will actually be cost effective to do the Foreign Service route in which case ships with colonial service become quite attractive. I might also saves maintenance.....Ships stationed away from home cost more in upkeep. I remember seeing maintenance costs of same class ships being higher when not in home waters....perhaps ships on foreign service status don't have this added cost? I have to check this out.
I build a lot of ships of a fewer number of classes. Saves a little money. Occasionally the yard will be so used to the ship class that they will shorten build time by a month....which is about 10% of the cost for destroyers.
I don't build light cruisers. I have Armoured Cruisers and Raider Cruisers. The Protected Cruiser armour scheme will not stand up to much damage. The Armoured Cruisers are for fighting. My Raider cruisers are captained by the most cowardly bullies I can find. When they see anything with guns, they run! I only want them fighting unarmed merchants. Any captain of one of my raiders that fights with {and survives} a combat ship is instantly demoted to command a rowboat.
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Post by brucesim2003 on Sept 20, 2015 9:40:44 GMT -6
As far as ship roles go, if you have your commerce raider cruisers on Raider status, they will not be pulled for other operations. Yes they will. I've built cruisers with 2x 6" guns (and no other weapons), long range and extreme (for the time) speed. Built for raiding and running. Had them dragged into a cruiser battle on several occasions. Cheers Bruce |
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Post by rhetoric on Sept 20, 2015 15:55:07 GMT -6
I hate the "political superior wants...." event. With one exception, they have always been stupid and unreasonable which is quite historical. And I usually make political enemies {lower prestige} when I tell them to go pound sand. While I hate the event, I have to say it is immersive, accurate and believable. Changing it would take away the frustrations of having to put up with unreasonable superiors who don't have the sense to pour **** out of a boot with instructions on the heel. Colonial service only adds 60 tons. Very cheap on a cruiser hull. I've been playing without sending ships to foreign service {just putting enough ships on foreign stations} but as Great Britain I think it will actually be cost effective to do the Foreign Service route in which case ships with colonial service become quite attractive. I might also saves maintenance.....Ships stationed away from home cost more in upkeep. I remember seeing maintenance costs of same class ships being higher when not in home waters....perhaps ships on foreign service status don't have this added cost? I have to check this out. I build a lot of ships of a fewer number of classes. Saves a little money. Occasionally the yard will be so used to the ship class that they will shorten build time by a month....which is about 10% of the cost for destroyers. I don't build light cruisers. I have Armoured Cruisers and Raider Cruisers. The Protected Cruiser armour scheme will not stand up to much damage. The Armoured Cruisers are for fighting. My Raider cruisers are captained by the most cowardly bullies I can find. When they see anything with guns, they run! I only want them fighting unarmed merchants. Any captain of one of my raiders that fights with {and survives} a combat ship is instantly demoted to command a rowboat. I'm not advocating getting rid of that event, I'd just like another type added which is in reverse: "I want to build these ships (select class)" - Prestige +Budget (Unrest or prestige penalty if you don't actually build X of said type) "No, I don't need to go and beg for more money for a particular program" (No effect) To be honest, I've been lucky and only had that event to either build subs or destroyers, (Which I tend to neglect or I keep meaning to get around to updating respectively) so the event isn't a pain for me, it's an excuse to do something I've wanted to do for ages. Yeah I've had the yard event thing too, but I'd like a more predictable way of making efficiency savings of time and/or money. I like light cruisers because I'm prone to building gigantic cruisers otherwise, and the CLs seem to build a bit quicker. As soon as I get CL armour config, I go to the All Or Nothing layout, and that seems to toughen them up by quite a lot. The class limitations also give me a good destroyer-killing platform (lots of smaller, quickfiring guns. I'm hungry for multi-gun turrets though) and I'm rather excited now I have swivel torp tubes. Also I find it hilarious when my CLs beat down on ships bigger than themselves, or murder lots of DDs horribly. As I said, I don't use Colonial Service because I find myself needing more hulls than the game expects overseas to counter enemy raiders or the "You don't have enough ships here so the enemy has attacked one of your possessions". I was wondering if it had any other special effects than buffing tonnage requirements. |
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Post by ramjb on Sept 20, 2015 16:18:39 GMT -6
To be honest, I've been lucky and only had that event to either build subs or destroyers, (Which I tend to neglect or I keep meaning to get around to updating respectively) so the event isn't a pain for me, it's an excuse to do something I've wanted to do for ages.
Just you wait until you're playing Spain with it's poor tiny budget trying to keep your head avobe water, deeply compromised into building the not that big battleship you desperately need to give your battleline at least a minor reason not to be laughed at by everyone else, while keeping your cruiser force up to date, not neglecting light forces, etc... Only to have your usual braindead politician in charge demanding me building 12 cruisers. Yup, that's it. 12. I was doing magic tricks each month to keep a reasonable building program up and this moron comes up with 12 cruisers. I would've told him to shove his ideas where the sun doesn't shine, but that would've meant a big budget cut (And as Spain, you can't take budget cuts  ). So I said "yessir" and did absolutely nothing. Some turns later I took the prestige hit when the moron realized I was going to do nothing about his insane request, but at least was able to keep my building program up 
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Post by ramjb on Sept 20, 2015 16:21:46 GMT -6
(also some turns later I got the 50 million fund raised for a BB event. To compensate, I guess XD. So in the end I ordered a 2nd battleship  ) |
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Post by rhetoric on Sept 27, 2015 5:47:36 GMT -6
Isn't there a "How about we build half of that as a start?" option normally?  |
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). So I said "yessir" and did absolutely nothing. Some turns later I took the prestige hit when the moron realized I was going to do nothing about his insane request, but at least was able to keep my building program up 
)