Observations re Rev v2.4.4

[justMike247]

Ultimate... kinda implies it won't ever be better than this... brave word...

Admiral... Implied a degree of control over which ships are based where, and some control over taskforce or fleet composition prior to engagement.

Dreadnought... nothing to fear huh?

 

I'm exploring this from 2 aspects; fleet design and fleet disposition

 

Firstly, during build, I've lost count of the number of designs I've had to roll with where pitch is insanely high. Any crew manning the outermost turrets would be subject to significant positive/negative G-forces with pitch as severe as 35 even though weight distribution is as close to even as practicable. Why so pitchy? Simple... the Main and Secondry towers are so insanely vast that you've no control over where the main guns end up. Warships are a weapons delivery platform; their express purpose is to carry firepower on a platform with sufficient stability under "normal" conditions for those weapons to have a fighting chance of being effective. When every main and secondry tower in the limited choices have exactly the same rediculous footprint, how exactly is that stable platform achieved? Yet, strangely, a well balanced platform never seems to be a detriment for the opposition. Some of the designs I've faced have literally left me gaping at the screen wondering how on earth these things don't pitchpole in any seastate above flat calm, and yet, they all charge around, pitching and rolliing like drunken lords without a care.

Second major gripe during build; the addition of rangefinders, sonar and radar and their effect on displacement. With the exception of rangefinders, radar sets fitted across different vessel types (destroyers, light/heavy cruisers, battleships) were absolutely identical in the size and weight of their major components, the only major difference being the physical size of their antenna arrays, where they were mounted on the vessel and the lengths of cabling to connect all the parts. For the life of me, I've been unable to figure why installing any RADAR onboard a battleship has the same effect on displacement as bolting an entire destroyer to each tower. And yet, installing those same, or even more advanced RADAR sets to those same destroyers barely nudges the displacement upwards.

I'd love to hear an explanation re why any SONAR/ASDIC set (by necessity, installed in the hulll because it's listening for noise transmitted through water) should have a similarly negative effect on tower weight. Some of the most advanced SONAR/ASDIC sets were installed on Flower class corvettes; tiny little things, yet these sets made for a particularly small percentage of their displacement. But if I dare install that same equipment on a capitol ship, suddenly that vessel is struggling to carry the weight of two to three of those same corvettes.

 

Campaign gameplay.

 

Admittedly, campaigns are new to me, having only played double digit numbers, and yet, a common thread in every campaign emerges. Firstly, who's the Admiral here? It sure as hell isn't me. Homeport... the last place any vessel is likely to be found beyond the opening month of a campaign. Why? Within a couple of months, they're bound to be shot up necessitating repair. But rather than head back to their home port, invariably (from German perspective) they end up in Danzig or Kiel. OK, maybe there's better repair facilities there. But eventually those ships complete repair and I'd like to try moving them to their home ports, Essen or Bremen. I needn't bother... they never get there; invariably, long before they've made it even half way around Denmark, suddenly they've magically appeared hundreds of miles off course, flung into near suicidally one-sided actions. If I try to play them out manually, the opposing side seemingly has lazer guidance on at least 25% on their munitions, achieving astonishing hit counts when the apparent chance of a hit is less than one in a thousand. I religiously slow my capitol ships down to best cruising speed, make very slow, gentle turns whenever possible, just to see broadside after broadside do nothing more than kill some fish. And yet, the opposition can charge around absolutely flat out in their pitchy and rolly creations, achieving insane hit rates especially at extreme ranges; laws of physics be damned. If I let the game play the engagement, I've a 50/50 chance of being sunk, 25% chance of merely being shot to pieces with no overall winner from the engagement. A successful outcome, maybe 5-10% of the time, but never without ending right back in Kiel or Danzig to get those pesky paint chips properly taken care of.

 

Ships in repair can't be moved. Fair enough, this makes sense. What doesn't make sense is the number of times those very same ships in repair show up in engagements, hundreds of miles away from where repairs are taking place, then instantly returning back for repair, only with yet more damage to fix.

 

The game's tough enough when, from the outset, you're out-numbered by several factors, irrespective of which country you play and who your allies/competition are. Strangely, I enjoy that... I like a challenge. But given that premise, the only way I stand a chance of protecting my merchentmen is if I carefully husband those scarce initial capitol ships, deploying them carefully until shipyards begin to bolster my fleet size. So why is it, if I pick battles carefully, extract capitol ships from suicidal engagements, I still end up losing because suddenly popularity goes through the floor? I feel like a one legged long-tailed guy in an ass-kickin contest among a room full of rocking chairs.

 

Torpedos... No... don't get me started on that... I'd end up getting banned.

 

Ultimate? Gawds I hope not...

Admiral? I'd love the chance to do that job; 95% of my time is spent managing limited finances

Dreadnought? I guess... But not from the implied sense of the word. I know before beginning any campaign, the odds are stacked so insanely against me that loss is just a matter of time, so.... lets see how long we can make it...

 

Fixing ANY of these fundamental issues would have a huge effect on gameplay... Hell, even modest improvements would drastically even the odds some...