Post by corvus on Mar 30, 2021 5:49:39 GMT -6
During one of my more recent playthroughs I ran across a problem where the Kaiser kept demanding new Battleships while a particularly harsh treaty (max 10kt and 6 inch guns, IIRC) preventing any designs that the game would recognize as valid Battleships was in effect. That got me thinking about the current treaty system and how it could be improved.
From what I have seen in game, there are three possible limitations: a limit on max tonnage of new ships, a limit on max gun caliber on new ships and a ban on subs. I would suggest expanding it a bit for better realism, more variety and as an anti-frustration measure to prevent situations like described above.
Firtst of all, seperate the limitations into several categories (e.g. Capital Ships (B, BB and BC), Carriers, and everything else) with stricter limits for smaller ships, as was the case in historical treaties.
Aditionally other potential limitations could be implimented, such as a limit on max number of guns, max aircraft capacity, max total tonnage of the corresponding type (potentially forcing the player to scrap a bunch of older ships) , max speed, max armour thickness or even a total ban on certain ship or weapon types.
So a treaty might look like this: (based on the Washington Naval Treaty)
Capital Ships: max 35kt, max 16 inch guns, max total tonnage of 525kt
Carriers: max 27kt, max 10 main guns, max 8 inch guns, max total tonnage of 135kt
everything else: max 10kt, max 8 inch guns
or this: (arbitrary)
Capital Ships: max 29kt, max 9 main guns, max 16 inch guns, max sped of 25, max total tonnage of 250kt
Carriers: max 23kt, max 4 main guns, max 6 inch guns, max aicraft of 50, max 3 inches of armour, max total tonnage of 112kt
everything else: max 10kt, max 8 inch guns, max 20 secondary+tertiary guns, max horizontal armour of 6 inches, max vertical armour of 2 inches, max speed of 30
Carriers: max 23kt, max 4 main guns, max 6 inch guns, max aicraft of 50, max 3 inches of armour, max total tonnage of 112kt
everything else: max 10kt, max 8 inch guns, max 20 secondary+tertiary guns, max horizontal armour of 6 inches, max vertical armour of 2 inches, max speed of 30
Ban on subs, BCs and mines
Also I'd like to see the current mechanic of automatic scrapping of anything treaty violating replaced with a grace period of 2 or 3 months for the player to scrap, refit or sell (another mechanic that could be added for dealing with unwanted ships. Would generate more money than scrapping but also increase tensions with the parties not involved in the sale and give a ship to potential enemies if sold to another naval power) anything that's non-compliant or face massive increases in tensions and maybe prestige losses under certain government types. It would also allow the player to engage in shenanigans, like the current cheating mechanic or even a new "hide ship" status representing stuf like converting it into a training ship but in a way that it's easy to restore with a limit on how manny ships could be hidden.