Placeable Secondary Turrets

[smrfisher]

Based on the same fixed locations for main armament and torpedo launchers, we could have a more customisation secondary fit out. 

Included would be consideration for second arcs of fire, specific rate of fire penalty for overloading; technologies including double stacked case-mates; super-firing batteries, secondary batteries on the centre line, super super-firing (a la Yamato), twin/triple turrets for secondary battery; director/radar guided fire control (particularly good for AA secondaries).

I think this would add to the personalisation of ship design and add a more creative cap on total secondary barrels.

[noshurviverse]

This topic has been the center of some debate that seems to be somewhat deadlocked right now. I'll refer to my earlier post on the matter, since my opinions on it are largely the same

nws-online.proboards.com/post/69701/thread

If you look at ships of WW2, centerline secondaries are somewhat rare. I think the reason they're uncommon is that centerline space is a highly limited resource on a warship that needs to be taken up by main battery guns, funnels and superstructure. The issue, and where the "gamey" element comes into play, is that in RtW superstructure and funnels mean nothing. You can create a design that leaves no room whatsoever for those things to exist, but the game accepts it.

What I'm trying to get at is this series of questions:

•In what scenario would the game disallow a centerline secondary turret?
•If the game does not disallow it, why would any ship designed by the player not incorporate this design, as it is a nearly universally preferable design?
•If we accept a centerline secondary turret as a nearly universally preferable design, why was it not used in reality to such a great extent?
○Short answer: centerline space was heavily limited and utilized for vital components rather than secondary turrets in most designs

◘General conclusion: RtW does not simulate certain design elements that would inhibit use of a centerline secondary turret. As a result, the possible present options appear to be:
•Disallow centerline secondary turrets in all designs (current solution, somewhat ahistorical)
•Allow centerline secondary turrets in all designs (very ahistorical)
•Allow centerline secondary turrets based off a yet undetermined metric

I feel the third solution is the best, so perhaps the best use of this thread is to determine what metric would be best to judge whether or not to allow a centerline secondary turret.

There is one other possibility I see at present, which is to introduce superstructures and funnels as things that have influence upon a ship's design. For example, each fire control station past the first could require dedicating a centerline space to housing it. Funnels could also do this as well, with the number of funnels determined by a combination of engine type, speed and tech. This might require extra centerline positions being designated for balance purposes.

[polygon]

I would put in my $0.02: there already is a pretty okay measure of topside crowdedness, the topside positions factor. Could this not be expanded in some way to include a "superstructure" factor? It doesn't need to actually be associated with the ship art.