Ship Sub-Class/ Role Selection Suggestion

[octravon]

Since battles are random, and the ships that show up in battle, for the most part, are random, would it be possible to add something to the ship designer that allows you to designate the role of a ship? An example would be in the later era of the game, you normally have multiple destroyer types at once. Normally a gunship destroyer, a torpedo destroyer, an AA destroyer, an ASW destroyer, and a minesweeper/minelayer destroyer (Those are the types I could think of, I'm sure there are more). Obviously, when designing an AA destroyer, you want that ships jobs to be escorting your battleships and aircraft carriers so they can intercept incoming aircraft. Likewise, you wouldn't want to have a small engagement between destroyers and your fleet consist of 2 AA destroyers. In that scenario, you would want your gunship destroyers there, because they are designed to fight other destroyers and small craft. I think it would be cool if when you design the ship, under the class (which in this case is a destroyer) you have another drop down option which allows you to choose the role of the ship. Some ideas for different roles would be:

Destroyer
    -No Role     -    This could be used if you have a destroyer that fits multiple roles and want it to have a chance to appear in any battle in any position
    -Gunship    -    Designed with multiple gun turret(for example 4 dual 5 inch turrets) and few torpedoes so they can quickly intercept incoming destroyers                             (ideally intercepting incoming torpedo destroyers before they get to the battle line).
    -Torpedo    -    Designed with a focus on carrying a large array of torpedo tubes and minimal guns. Meant to operate with the capital fleet in seperate divisions                             so they can harass capital ships. 
    -ASW        -    Designed to carry maximum amount of k-guns, depth charges, and anti-submarine mortars. Meant to hunt down submarines, escort convoys,                         and not meant to operate with the battlefleet. 
    -AA           -    Designed to carry a large amount of dual-purpose guns and anti-aircraft guns to intercept incoming planes. Meant to escort/screen a division                         to protect them from airplanes. Not meant to appear in battle alone, but appear as a support of other ships. 
    -Minesweeper/minelayer    -    Designed to carry minesweeping gear and/or mines. Meant to be a strategic ship and not meant to show up in battle. 

Light Cruiser:
    -No Role                -    Same as the destroyer's no role option.
    -Torpedo cruiser    -    Designed to carry a large array of heavy torpedoes. In this case, a cruiser is used as a cheap, but durable way to combat larger surface                                     ships or large cruisers. Meant to be used against capital ships, but wouldn't appear in medium engagements or convoy defense. 
    -AA cruiser    -    Designed with the bare minimum amount of anti-ship guns so as much tonnage can be used for anti-aircraft weaponry, or designed with a                             large array of dual purpose AA guns to provide flak barriers. Meant to escort larger vessels like dreadnoughts and carriers and not meant to                             engage other ships. 
    -Gunship Cruiser    -    A cruiser designed to carry a large array of guns, normally 5 or 6 inch guns in turrets. They are meant to engage other cruisers and                                     defeat them with superior, long range firepower and would serve as escorts, support ships, or independent ships.
    -Fast light cruiser?    -    (This is an idea that I'm still toying with in my playthroughs) It is essentially a smaller cruiser (maybe only 4500 tons vs                                         the normal 6000 tons) with high speed and as many 4inch guns as you can fit. It would be designed to quickly take out destroyers                                         with their large array of fast firing, light guns, and are fast enough to run from other ships. 

Heavy/Armored Cruiser:
As we start to get into larger ships, it feels like there aren't as many diverse roles. I can really only think of one role for the heavy cruiser, but would love to hear other ideas
    -Heavy Cruiser    -    Designed to carry medium guns, probably 8 inch guns, to quickly destroy incoming cruisers so the destroyers can make torpedo runs. 


Other capital ships:
Similarly to the heavy cruiser, I don't think there is a need for roles for capital ships like dreadnoughts and carriers. I think the dreadnought has one role and that's to fight other dreadnoughts and the carrier already has different roles depending on the planes it is carrying. I could see an argument that the battlecruiser would have multiple roles, like scout vs a fleet battle cruiser.

I'm curious what other people think. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I thought it would give players a little bit more control about what appears so they can focus on designing purpose built ships to fulfill a specific role, because I know we all find it frustrating when our carriers are being escorted by gunship cruisers rather then AA cruisers. 

 

[ludovic]

I'd agree but I would allow designation by ship and allow it to change since roles can change over time. Also I would leave some randomness and allow the role to influence but not mandate when ships will show up.

I agree that it is most useful for DDs and CLs, but I sometimes use CAs as AA ships and torpedo ships. But there isn't much difference between the deployment of a gunship cruiser versus a torpedo cruiser, and the battle generator is pretty good at putting your AA ships next to your carriers.

However, it sometimes does too good of a job at figuring out the best AA escorts. Once DP becomes available I load up my BCs to the max with DP, and sometimes I am rewarded for that with my BCs being sent to guard my carriers instead of in the front line. So perhaps designating roles for CAs and BCs would be useful for those times when you don't want them to be AA escorts.