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Post by srndacful on Apr 11, 2017 12:13:07 GMT -6
zardoz: Logo saved. Take your time with designs - you still have 3 and a half days 'till deadline. theexecuter: Um, I tried to provide some guidelines for the Design requirements in the opening post, but maybe I wasn't clear enough: Colonial and Coastal Patrol duties, IMHO, include anti-raider work. If there's anything else not clear, by all means, ask away.
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Post by srndacful on Apr 11, 2017 1:11:32 GMT -6
Fair enough, I had the bad luck of people posting while I was stupidity making the logo in paint ms. I tend to lose out on stuff cause I take to long on the minor details, should have thrown a design out then done that stuff. So what is the list of shipyards in service? To others, who will have a poor suddenly unemployed ship builder following the market collapse of his Ukranian employers? Excellent! Glad to have you still on board. So far, the list of available Shipyards, by seniority, is: 1. "Wignall & co." - lead Designer: wiggy 2. "Fritz ***** Shipyard inc." - lead Designer: zardoz - note: no logo submitted as yet. 3. "Newport Iron Bathworks News Union Cramp River NSY (Philadelphia & New York Division)" - lead Designer: davedave - note: no logo submitted as yet. 4. "small s shipbuilding" - lead Designer: skwabie 5. "Clark Family Builders" - lead Designer: theexecuter 6. "Murphree & co. Ships & Guns" - lead Designer: wolfpack - note: no logo submitted as yet. I also take a minute to remind the lead Designers that without their (easily distinguishable) logos, the Shipyards are not eligible to enter a Competition. Note that this doesn't mean that they'll be immediately declared 'Bankrupt' - that happens only after two (2) unentered Competitions ... Cheers!
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Post by srndacful on Apr 11, 2017 0:31:33 GMT -6
Greetings, Designers! skwabie: theexecuter: wolfpack: "small s shipbuilding", "Clark Family Builders" and "Murphree & co. Ships & Guns" have been added to the Admiralty's list of available Shipyards at 4th, 5th and 6th most senior Shipyard slots respectively. Welcome Aboard! Unfortunately, boomboomf22: this means your "Ukrayinsʹka-amerykansʹka Sudnobudivna Hrupa" will not be able to register as an independent Shipyard (awesome logo notwithstanding) - I'm sorry. You are, however, free to join any other Shipyard, if you so desire. (And I hope you do.) konstantinua00: 1. Yes - all Shipyards are restricted to only one (1) Design per class per Competition. (OTOH, I plan on making a lot of competitions ... ) Which means the Designers will have to agree (by majority vote - all ties to be resolved in favour of the senior Designer) on a specific Design to submit. 2. Yes - any Designer / Shipyard not submitting at least one (1) Design (total) in 2 consecutive Competitions will be declared Retired / Bankrupt, and it's points so far will be lost. (Additional Designers would be able to take over if a senior Designer dropped out. Naturally, Shipyard's name & logo can be changed (by the most senior Designer) at any time, so ... ) To make the 'several Designers in a Shipyard' a bit more enticing, I'll be adding a new rule: 6. Each additional Designer in a Shipyard (above the 1st) will bring in a 10% bonus points to the Shipyard's Design. Hopefully, this will make the 'working in another man's Shipyard' a bit more palatable. Also, I'm clearing up the rules on top a bit - to clarify the points above. Good work on all of the Designs so far, and remember, you have nearly 4 days left: still plenty of time to submit new and/or improved ones! (Although, as things are going, I might just shorten the deadline a bit ... we'll see)
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Post by srndacful on Apr 10, 2017 14:48:30 GMT -6
Aaand beaten to the punch by 23 minutes! No problem at all - I like to see young, enterprising people covering all the bases in their Shipyard's name. (and quite a mouthful it is, too) Shortening it to N.I.B.N.U.C.R. seems to work just as well in getting the message across, so I'll be taking that - as a shorthand code only - have no fear. Welcome aboard as our 3rd most senior shipyard!
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Post by srndacful on Apr 10, 2017 14:25:44 GMT -6
Greetings, y'all! Great to see some interest in this - I half expected to come home to no response. Thnx y'all! skwabie : 1. 1.34b1 (with bonus Improved Coastal Batteries mod - but that one won't affect design ... much) 2. Naturally - the more the merrier. 3. A Shipyard can submit any (and all) Designs required - as long as it's one per type. I.e. in this case: one B, one CA, one CL and one DD Design. Wiggy : "Wignall & co." Shipbuilding Company, with wiggy as lead Designer is now registered as the first most senior Shipyard in this game. Welcome aboard! CL Design "Pegasus" will be taken under consideration in due time. Meanwhile, the Admiralty hopes to see more of your Designs in the future. zardoz : "The Fritz ***** inc." out of Norfolk with zardoz as the lead Designer is now registered as the second most senior Shipyard in the game. Welcome aboard! Unfortunately, since it's the start of the game, RtW will not let me save the game (providing the available options & technologies) and post it on this page for you to make your Designs out of. However, future Designs will be able to be made in this way. boomboomf22 : IMHO, your point about limiting the number of shipyards is well taken: later shipyards will hardly get to build anything at all, and will fall behind in points. So, as I estimate USA will be building up to about 6 ships simultaneously tops - I'll make a hard cap at 6 Shipyards total. OTOH, having Shipyards specialize is a bit unfair IMHO: if we make a bonus as a percentage, then everyone will pick BB/BC yards for maximum bonuses. If we make a bonus flat rate - we're saying a BB and a DD are worth exactly the same - which, obviously, they aren't. And, ultimately, specializing - for what? Everyone will be submitting designs for everything, anyway, and the only bonuses I will apply are those from Combat - which are the ones that matter the most, since everyone wants to see ships blowing up. So, sorry, but I'll have to pass on that one. konstantinua00 : Unfortunately, somethingawful forum has a policy of avoiding undesirables from entering by requiring 10$ to be payed on registration. Fortunately, this policy seems to be relaxed on Sundays - which are the only days when you seem to be able to see a part of the forum. So, unless you register, I suggest you hold it in 'till next one.
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Post by srndacful on Apr 10, 2017 2:28:10 GMT -6
Greetings y'all!
Having reached the end of the German 'war is good for business' game over on the somethingawful forums, I was struck by the desire to have some more of such gameplay (and to play RtW in general) so, not having any similar game available, I'm hereby opening my own, and invite you to participate. Obviously, and as you're no doubt aware, my people skills are low, so, if anyone wishes to take over this AAR, I'll be more than happy to participate as a Designer.
In any case, the 'rules' (so to speak) if you're not familiar, are simple: I'll be actually playing the game as the Grand Admiral in charge of Admiralty. However, I'll be needing Designs of ships to fill my fleet with - which is where YOU come in: as Designers representing your Shipyards in any shipbuilding Competitions.
Each and every Designer will: 1. Be required to represent (work in) one (and only one) Shipyard with it's (Shipyard's) easily distinguishable name & logo. 2. Each Shipyard, however, can be represented by several Designers, which must approve one (single) Design by majority vote (ties broken in favour of the most senior Designer) in order to submit it. All such submitted Designs will gain a 10% bonus to their point value for each Designer (above the most senior one) contributing to the Shipyard. 3. Any Designer / Shipyard failing to submit it's Design in two (2) consecutive Competitions will be considered Retired / Bankrupt. However, Shipyards will be losing all the points gained so far and no further ships will be built in it, while the next senior-most Designer will step into the Retired Designer's shoes. 4. Designs will be created according to the specifications given by the Admiralty, using savefile detailing available technologies provided by the Admiralty. Any designs outside the specifications must damn well better have a good sales pitch to even be considered. 5. There will be a maximum of 6 Shipyards in this game. New Shipyards can only be made upon an existing Shipyard becoming bankrupt. 6. A Shipyard Design formally adopted by the Admiralty, following the appropriate Competition, will receive a number of points equal to the tonnage of the Designed ship + 10% bonus for each additional (i.e.other than 1st) Designer participating in it.
Furthermore, each Shipyard will be given building orders (and receive a number of points equal to the tonnage of the ship to be built) according to the available slipways, and with senior shipyards being given priority. In other words, I'll be making sure all of them (except the bankrupt ones) have their slipways full before taking up another slipway in the most senior Shipyard.
Also, each Design will be further judged on it's effectiveness in it's primary mission (Ruling the Waves) by being given (or taken) points for Defeating (or being defeated by) enemy ships, equal to the amount of sunk ship's tonnage. Bonus points will be awarded according to combat situation & effect: An enemy B sunk after being hit by 4 6" shells and 2 torpedoes will (naturally) be judged as effectivelly sunk by the ship that fired the torpedoes. An enemy B sunk after taking 20 12" shells & 1 torpedoes will have the honors for it's sinking divided by the ships involved. Additional points will be given / taken away for the relative combat value of the ship: so, a 9000 tonne CA sinking a 12000 tonne CA will receive 3000 points extra, while 12000 tonne CA sinking a 9000 tonne CA will receive 3000 points less. The final factor will be the amount of damage the Winning ship takes in the engagement: Heavy Damage counting as 1/2 of the ship's value, and Medium Damage counting as 1/4 of the ship's value. So, continuing the example above, a 9000 tonne CA sinking a 12000 tonne CA while taking Heavy Damage will still receive 10500 points bonus for successful action. On the other hand, a 12000 tonne CA sinking a 9000 tonne CA while taking Heavy Damage will receive 0 points. (9000 base -3000 for size difference -6000 for damage taken) Naturally, this counts for actions vs. enemy ships only - the unfortunate Designers losing their ships to mines and submarines need not worry.
So, without further ado, let me announce the First Competition: Legacy Fleet. We'll be beginning as United States, with Very Large Fleet, Historical Resources, 50% research rate, Variable Technologies and (obviously) Manually Built Legacy Fleet in Game 1 folder.
The Admiralty will hereby require: An Battleship Design, suited for Coastal Defense, of no less than 18 knots speed, nor more than 13000 tonne displacement. An Armored Cruiser Design, suited for both Colonial and Coastal Patrol work, of no less than 6000 tonne displacement. An Protected Cruiser Design, suited for Colonial, Coastal Patrol and Scouting duties, of no less than 3000 tonne displacement. An Destroyer Design, suited for Coastal Defense, of at least 26 knots speed, with at least two torpedo tubes.
To give enough time to first-time applicants (and to gauge interest in the game) the Designs must be submitted no later than 06:00 hours (GMT) on April 15th.
Admiralty also announces the building of a dozen 200 tonne Minesweepers to be done by several minor Shipyards along the coast.
If there aren't at least two Shipyards involved in this game by the final date, I'll know that there's no interest in this, and shelve it.
Again, if anyone wishes to take over the Admiralty, I'll gladly resign, and take over as a Designer. (I'm looking at you, here, oldpop2000)
Good luck, everybody!
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Post by srndacful on Mar 22, 2017 23:17:59 GMT -6
I've always figured that those two numbers represent the current tonnage of ships being supplied from that area, and the maximum tonnage of ships that can be supplied in that area. So, you're currently using 280 thousand tonnes of your 460 thousand tonne capacity. The catch here is that the game takes the tonnage of each individual ship, and then rounds it to the nearest full thousand - so, for example, a 7100 tonne ship is rounded to 8. This is why you have 266.500 tonnes of ships - drawing 280 points of supply. So, for the West Africa, I'm guessing you had 4 CA's weighting about 6100 to 7000 tonnes, and then added another weighting 8100 to 9000 tonnes. Meanwhile, in the Med, you have 3 CA's in 6100 to 7000 tonne range, and 2 more in 8100 to 9000 tonne range. Let me know if I guessed right. Cheers! That's an interesting guess srndacful . One thing to keep in mind with force in area (adjusted) number is that that takes into account any ship with the colony service trait. Any such ship(s) will count as 1.25 its actual tonnage in that total number. Of course there might not be any ships in Northern Europe with that trait so then it wouldn't matter. Either way, none of that seriously undermines your guess. I'd be interested to know if it's right as well because I'm not sure how the 280 out of the (280/460) is calculated either based on what qossuth wrote. IMHO, and other than the fact that both deal in the same ship's tonnage, there's no other point of contact between those three values: 1. You have the 'Colony patrol' - which is basically the tonnage + 1.25 modifier - and which deals with the tonnage required to keep the people 'happy' & prevents your Prestige loss due to 'unhappiness'. 2. You have the 'Blockade' value - which is the same arbitrary value mentioned by qossuth above (DD = 1, CL = 3 and so on) and it deals with the 'force' required to keep the enemy 'penned in' & losing. 3. You have the 'Supply' value - which is basically the total tonnage currently in the area, rounded up + the total tonnage able to be supported by the area, and deals with prevention of ship breakdowns/scuttlings/internments. A bit confusing, true - but that's all in a Grand Admiral's job description, and noone said it's be easy. Cheers!
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Post by srndacful on Mar 21, 2017 22:21:46 GMT -6
I've always figured that those two numbers represent the current tonnage of ships being supplied from that area, and the maximum tonnage of ships that can be supplied in that area. So, you're currently using 280 thousand tonnes of your 460 thousand tonne capacity.
The catch here is that the game takes the tonnage of each individual ship, and then rounds it to the nearest full thousand - so, for example, a 7100 tonne ship is rounded to 8. This is why you have 266.500 tonnes of ships - drawing 280 points of supply.
So, for the West Africa, I'm guessing you had 4 CA's weighting about 6100 to 7000 tonnes, and then added another weighting 8100 to 9000 tonnes. Meanwhile, in the Med, you have 3 CA's in 6100 to 7000 tonne range, and 2 more in 8100 to 9000 tonne range.
Let me know if I guessed right. Cheers!
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Post by srndacful on Jan 29, 2017 10:09:47 GMT -6
It would be nice to specify roles for particular ships, especially considering that by WWII battleships had more to do than just sail in lines or raid commerce. I know people have been asking to designate divisions manualy, but even if that isn't allowed, people should be able to specify weather a ship is supposed to travel in a battle group, escort carriers, or cruise independently. And if you do let the players set divisions, it would be nice if they could direct entire groups of ships to particular theaters manually. Much less clicking. This, please. Especially when we already have command & control system with basic orders available in the game: Core, Scout, Screen, Support & Independent/None. And then we have various Engagement types: Battleship, Raider, Cruiser, Destroyer and (presumably) Carrier. Combining these two can yield a (somewhat) better definition of a role. For example, a Very Light (i.e.Scout) Cruiser can be: Battleship Scout, Raider Core, Cruiser None, Destroyer Support and (presumably) Carrier Screen. Just my 0.02$ anyway. Cheers!
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Post by srndacful on Dec 10, 2016 1:09:37 GMT -6
Just to throw in my 2 cents here:
The reason (IMHO) for the (utter) obsolescence of the Battleship lies in it's very name: Battleship is derived from 'Line-of-battle ship' - i.e. ship designed to engage in gunnery duel (at 50 paces) with an enemy ship and batter it into submission.
This is (just about) the same role assigned to it's contemporary (i.e.18th century) ground troops' equivalent: the Battalion - which was comprised of a bunch of men standing up in the open, shoulder-to-shoulder, firing their muskets as fast as possible until one side gave in and ran.
Naturally, as guns got better, the range of that gunnery duel got further away, but the intent stayed the same - two ships with guns, duking it out.
But, like for their mud-based counterparts, those pesky newfangled "technology" and "industrial revolution" nonsense threw a wrench into that nice, clean clockwork-operated machinery. I'm not going to bother with the whole resulting issue of Offence vs. Defence race - since we all know it all too well.
Suffice to say is that, even by the time WW2 rolled in, a navy was no longer comprised solely of ships with guns - Aircraft and Submarines (with their bombs and torpedoes and rockets and missiles) were now here, too - and they were deadly, as well. It wasn't just a matter of "two ships duking it out on the high seas" anymore - it became a team effort - with various types of vessels needed to defeat various threats.
The whole point I'm trying to make can (perhaps) be summed up in a single image titled: (paraphrasing the title a bit) "Can we make a (18th century) model Battalion in modern day that can fight effectively and survive modern weapons?"
Care to try and imagine it? 600 men in three ranks deep, goose-stepping proudly, with their shouldered M-16's, across the deserts of Iraq to the sound of fife-and-drums in their headphones and regimental colors unfurled in the breeze.
Just how long would you expect them to survive? (personally, I give them 3 minutes - tops)
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Post by srndacful on Nov 27, 2016 23:36:39 GMT -6
IMHO, being blockaded is not so much a question of material advantage, but of morale advantage.
Even an (numerically) inferior navy (i.e. Japanese at Port Arthur) can maintain the blockade if the enemy is too afraid (i.e. doesn't feel confident enough that he'll win) to come out and fight. Sun Tsu sums it up the best: "When a Tiger camps on the river's crossing, not even 10,000 deer dares to cross."
So, yeah, current blockading rules aren't all that grand (with one battleship more or less determining who gets blockaded) but it'd take a whole 'engine overhaul' (or at least a major one) to put the more 'realistic' ones in, so I'm not holding my breath.
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Post by srndacful on Oct 17, 2016 22:20:41 GMT -6
I'd definitely love to see this. (Possibly along with, say, +1 Prestige for Nation with the most powerful BB/BC of them all)
And, if I may suggest an additional catch: (assuming we're talking about RtW2) Let this continue until a Fleet Battle gets fought with Aircraft only & totally beyond visual sight (i.e.Planes achieve dominance)(including the appropriate Newspaper clipping) - at which point switch BB/BC ratings with CV ones.
Actually, this would also be good to implement even before the first Dreadnought is built (i.e.right from the start).
Just my 0.02$ anyway.
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Post by srndacful on Oct 13, 2016 22:15:06 GMT -6
...And meanwhile I'm here way on the other end, having spent somewhere on the neighborhood of $1200 on third-party software add-ons for my flight simulator alone Be glad we're not all at those levels! Yup! I'm on a similar boat here: By the time all the DLC's are done Total War Warhammer will cost over 400$. And that's about the same as a single army in tabletop - only now I'm getting all of them. So, all in all, 35$ for a great game I played over 1000 hours so far is awesome in my book. *two thumbs up*
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Post by srndacful on Oct 8, 2016 0:29:29 GMT -6
chz & ccip: BC's in all of my games tend to suffer a (proportionally) higher amount of casualties compared to BB's. Mostly (IMHO) due to their lower armor. Usually, a couple of hits is enough to slow them down - which gives the enemy time to pour some more hits into them. So, basically, I wouldn't even build them if it weren't for all the Cruiser Battles & Scout Forces in Battleship / Fleet engagements. Any BB duel is basically a race to see which side will melt first. In all of my Battleship / Fleet (post-Dreadnought) engagements to date, I had to switch Flag to 3rd (or even 4th) Battle Division once most of the ships in front and 2nd (or even 3rd) Battle Division got crippled during the battle. I was going to launch into a sermon about Armor, guns and Lanchester's N-squared laws, but then I remembered the site discussing that very point which makes the same point much clearer than my lack of eloquency ever could: www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-076.htmarchelaos: Virtually all of my BB's after 1916 have at least 27 knots speed. However, I notice that it doesn't do any good, actually, since they always end up being a part of the same 23-24 knot battleline, or (if they're in the front) end up so far ahead that they're practically fighting a solo action vs. the entire enemy battleline. Follow up question: has anyone ever had 'fast' battleships attached to the Scout Force? I.e. like 'Queen Elizabeths' at Jutland? I had BC's attached to my main battleline (as independent detached 'scouting' divisions) tons of times - but never the other way around.
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Post by srndacful on Oct 7, 2016 5:37:46 GMT -6
Wouldn't it be an infuriating pop-up to get the "boss wants you to build x 12" coastal batteries"? Just saying. Also, I like the deadly batteries mod idea. Since they are stationary and have pre-plotted fire capability, IMO shore batteries should be better than the equivalent guns on a ship. OK, here is a link. This replaces the coastal battery files in the Data/IDes folder. Do not forget to backup. Maintenance cost severely reduced, 20% bonus on rate of fire and 150% bonus on accuracy of coastal batteries, all batteries have quality 1 guns and increased elevation. They start with central rangefinders and get the better firecontrol through technology progress. Dangerous in early game they become deadly in mid- to late game. www.dropbox.com/s/uuzgtvujnmtb1dj/rtw-coastal-batteries.7z?dl=0Great work with that mod, tbr! *thumbs up* I just had 1st battle vs. new & improved fortifications, and all I can say is: holy s#it! I got a bombardment mission up on Norwegian coast as Britain vs Germany in 1902. (And no, I have no idea what they were doing there either. Smuggling codfish through my blockade perhaps?) 3 of my CA's (13 ktonnes, 22 knots, 14*7" guns) ran into German patrol (5 CA's @ ~10 ktonnes, 21 knots, 10" & 6" guns) and managed to see them off without a lot of hassle - yes, I could have sunk some, but I wanted to see the new coastal artillery at work - if there was any. At this point all of my cruisers had Light Damage from the preceding scuffle but all of their guns were intact, so I sailed on in high spirits & blissfully unaware of the 'shark' (in a form of a single 8" battery) nearby. It took just 4 passes before first two CA's of mine got utterly crippled (one sank on the way home) and the last one & one supporting CL barely managed to get away with (just) Medium Damage, while the Bombardment target & 8" battery took some Light Damage each. According to the reports, the coastal battery was scoring about 4 hits to each one of mine. So: kudos, man! This should definitely be in the vanilla game.
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