Mixed Coal/Oil Engines

[kriegsmeister]

I would like to see 2 new engine types added to the game; Oil-Sprayed Coal, and Mixed Coal/Oil Boilers. These would give smaller HPperTon increases than the current upgrade from Coal to Oil turbines, and more importantly would be accessible by nations which do not have an oil producing colony which are otherwise prohibited from building ships with Oil-fired turbines. Helping them out a bit in the early 20th century before Oil fining is universal.

However, they should be affected by wartime Oil shortages. Before universal Oil, ships would suffer the same penalty as currently when a nation is suffering Oil shortages being less likely to appear in the batllegenerator. We could also add another event similar to the "X Destroyers unable to participate due to lack of range. But rather than outright being left out of the battle, such ships would recieve a maximum speed penalty of a couple or few knots. (Mixed firing being more severe than oil-sprayed)

Another possible caveat, when Oil does become universally available, such ships would either reduce or outright ignore the penalties since their Oil requirements are reduced and thus it would be easier on naval logistics to fully fuel them.

[golingarf]

This is an accurate historical detail but the gameplay effect would be fairly minor.

[cwemyss]

This would fit well with a "partial machinery replacement" or some sort of deep overhaul that's between full replacement and the quick refresh of a no-machinery rebuild. Give back any speed penalties, reset the timer on gaining new speed penalties, but keep the machinery weight largely the same. Such an overhaul would be a good time to add oil sprayers.