Destroyers on trade protection and disappearing KEs

[Antediluvian Monster]

I wouldn't completely opposed to (O) ships in general having some penalty. Speed would be a good one to represent fouling of the bottom and wear and tear of the machinery. However it might get bit too much to micro for sake of micro (as refreshing KEs is now) and we could instead assume bit of yard time is included in normal operations. The autoscrapping is the really annoying one though.

[director]

@antediluvian Monster - it's all one series of rounds and truces since the Franco-Prussian.

[aeson]

May 21, 2019 8:44:04 GMT -6 zardoz said:

It might be possible to build 300 t destroyer but only without large DC storage.

So certain are you that it cannot be done?

I don't know how useful it'd actually be, but it's a legal design on the 1920 start and it has Increased DC Storage. Can't fit K-guns (needs to be at least 500 tons) or forward ASW mortars (needs to be at least 600 tons), though.

[rimbecano]

May 21, 2019 9:46:27 GMT -6 namuras said:

Also KE do not simply dissapear after 10 years. I have had 600tn KE from 1900 still minehunting in 1940... they get the (O) and you have some time to send them off to the dock. If you forget that, they dissapear since they are in such a bad shape that there is no chance in saveing them. After all they are just large wooden fishingboats (in my mind) that never got a lick of fresh paint...

My finances have not yet permitted me to buy RTW2, but in RTW1, I have had MS disappear within their first turn of [O] status. Not every MS does so, but basically any MS in [O] status can disappear on any turn, so I took to a habit of never scrapping old destroyers and just refitting all of my early destroyers with no torpedo tubes, low-maintenance engines, and extra guns once they become to small and slow for fleet duty.

[rodentnavy]

Actually if you track them over time KEs (RTW1 Minesweepers) actually become more expensive to maintain after they become sufficiently old. The first refit corrects this effect for a bit but from about the second refit onwards there is no stopping the effect in my experience which does tend to pressure the player towards disposal of older vessels.

[JagdFlanker]

massive tip - after every single war refit every single ship in your fleet

that way unless a war goes insanely long (6+ years) no ship will ever go obsolete

also some of the tech you get can be retro-fitted to old ships, many of these techs are 'under the hood' so you wouldn't know they can be retro-fitted, and of course you always want all your ships to have any new tech that can be fitted

also another big tip as rodentnavy mentions is that maintenance on any ship more than 15 years old goes up by 50%, so keep an eye out for older ships with high maintenance and i highly suggest scrapping them after every war as well - if an old ship with old tech that can't be retro-fitted and it costs as much or more than a newer ship then it's not worth keeping in your fleet

because tech moves so fast in this game, outside of KEs almost none of my ships make it past 10 years in service - have a smaller high-tech fleet is much better than having a big half obsolete fleet

[brygun]

I didnt really like the MS (RTW 1) or KER (RTW 2) auto scrapping of obsolete. Id rather they took a performance hit, like maybe counting as 1/2 for TP or weaker battle performance.

I do build a lot of these ships more as a matter of role play. I think each sea zone should have minesweepers on TP and few in the AF representing the various coast, harbor and brown water efforts. Mine sweeeping, intercepting smugglers or spies, watching for frogmen measuring beaches and so forth. Better if it was 1-2 MS/KER per harbor.

War wise their role is pretty small so the micro managing falls somewhat toweard the annoyance not game benefit. In real life RP I so would appoint a Rear-Admiral of Corvettes just to handle this routine turn over.