Gun quality

[polishkruk]

Hi guys, I’m new here. I have absolutely fallen in love with this game after my first campaign as Italy where I chased the French out of the Med but got slapped down by the British. I’ve learned a bunch in my first play through but a few things are still escaping me.

What is the difference in quality? Is it quantitative or relative? Are you better off trading caliber for quality? Should you focus on the best quality calibers you have? Assuming no naval treaties are in effect.

Maybe these answers are here in the forum but I haven’t stumbled across anything relating caliber and quality.

Thanks!

[cogsandspigots]

Oct 28, 2019 13:06:23 GMT -6 polishkruk said:

Hi guys, I’m new here. I have absolutely fallen in love with this game after my first campaign as Italy where I chased the French out of the Med but got slapped down by the British. I’ve learned a bunch in my first play through but a few things are still escaping me.

What is the difference in quality? Is it quantitative or relative? Are you better off trading caliber for quality? Should you focus on the best quality calibers you have? Assuming no naval treaties are in effect.

Maybe these answers are here in the forum but I haven’t stumbled across anything relating caliber and quality.

Thanks!

Quality is pretty much code for barrel length. Not exactly, but it’s a good approximation. A higher quality gun will have a higher muzzle velocity and therefore more range and more belt penetration at the cost of deck penetration at close range. A higher quality gun will perform the same in terms of reload and damage. As a rule of thumb, a level of quality is **roughly** equivalent to an inch of caliber when it comes to penetration. An increase in quality does not cost extra money or weight, but rebuilding to a higher quality does.

[kriegsmeister]

Also important to note that weight and damage will be the same for a given caliber across quality specs. A 14inQ1 may rl5ughly have the same range and penetration as a 16inQ-1 but that 16in will still do a lot more damage per hit but still weigh significantly more. It's a great balancing act trying to figure out what you want on a ship.

[janxol]

Also ROF is different. A smaller gun will fire faster regardless of quality and larger gun will always do more damage. Also as I recall over several discussions people seemed to reach a conclusion that quality is not really barrel length, as weight doesn't change (and also several other reasons why not, which I can't remember, nor ar they important right now).
Better quality -> better range and pen.
Gun of caliber X with Q1 will have comparable range and penetration to gun with caliber X+1 and Q0. But the larger gun will shoot slower and more damaging shells and weigh more.
It does bring more to the balancing of your ship where heavier isn't necessarily what you want.

[noshurviverse]

While it's been said already, each increase in gun quality comes with an improvement in range and penetration. While I'm not certain, I think this range increase also effectively improves accuracy at a given distance. So if a Q-1 gun's max range is 10k and the Q0 is 11k, then the Q0 will hit at 10k more reliably.

[polishkruk]

Thanks everyone for the information. That clears up a bunch but of course raises more questions. I love that the design phase is so involved and that two people can design vastly different ships for the same strategic task.

[13th Fleet]

For small calibers, the differences between calibers are larger than the improvements quality gives. A -1 quality 6" gun has basically the same penetration as a 0 quality 5" gun. Also, at least the way it seems to me, the difference between 0 and 1 quality is smaller than the difference between -1 and 0.

The way I rate things for capital-grade guns goes like this:
15" Q0 > 16" Q-
15" Q+ < 16" Q0

[dizzy]

Sometimes it's a close call which gun to use for a new BC. Sometimes it's better to go with a 15 inch Q1 gun even though you have 16 inch Q-1 available. If my Armor technology is lacking, I might not have the displacement to put on bigger guns and still protect my ship, so saving weight using a smaller caliber is wise. The idea for going bigger with lower quality is that you'll get more devastating use out of an upgunned ship should you be able to refit to Q1 guns later. So there's a lot of factors involved and none of the decisions are easy. Glad you like the game. Working up to being able to field carriers is my favorite part. I just love the level of smack a carrier brings to a fight. It's such a force multiplier.

[cabusha]

I'd personally take 3x15Q1 easy over 2x16Q-1. While expensive, you could always refit the ship to 2x16"Q0 or Q1 later.

[bcoopactual]

Oct 28, 2019 14:31:32 GMT -6 noshurviverse said:

While it's been said already, each increase in gun quality comes with an improvement in range and penetration. While I'm not certain, I think this range increase also effectively improves accuracy at a given distance. So if a Q-1 gun's max range is 10k and the Q0 is 11k, then the Q0 will hit at 10k more reliably.

Assuming that gun range mechanics haven't changed from RTW1, you're right it makes a difference in the narrow band of ranges that separate short, medium and long range for guns of different quality. 

The range categories are just the current maximum effective range divided into thirds.  So if you have a gun of 0 quality with a current maximum range of 15,000 yards then 11,000 yards would be considered well into long range (10,001 - 15,000 yds) and your ship would have the accuracy penalty for shooting at long range.  If the same caliber Q1 gun has a maximum effective range of 16,500 yards then 11,000 yards falls right into the boundary between medium and long range (5,501 - 11,000 and 11,001 - 16,500 yds) so at 11,000 yards or just inside it the ship would have the accuracy penalty for medium range instead of long range.  So in that example from 10,001 - 11,000 yards the Q1 gun would be more accurate than the Q0 gun.