Old Shipbuilding rules

[P3D]

WARSHIP CONSTRUCTION

To lay down a warship from scratch, an empty slipway or drydock long enough to hold your warship is required. An oversized slipway can be used if so desired. Also, one must be in possession of all the required technology to build the vessel at the time it is laid down. This is especially true for machinery equipment, as it is placed in the hull relatively early. Leaving the engineering space empty for later installation would require dismantling the higher part of the hull, removing the armored plates, and riveting the hull together again. Which is basically a complete rebuild. The same is true for large caliber guns and gun mounts. Although they are installed relatively late on the warship, they are long lead time items. A large caliber gun usually took several months to build. Also, any change in the guns and gun mountings usually cause further redesigns and would add to the cost of the ship.

The financial construction cost of a ship must be paid when the ship is laid down. The price is the pound figure in SpringSharp, corrected for inflation (divide cost by the relevant factor in the following table), and multiplied by a factor of 10.

SpringSharp Inflation
Up to and including 1912: 1
1913 1.09
1914 1.27
1915 1.46
1916 1.64
1917 1.82
1918 2.00
1919 2.18
1920 2.36

Building of a ship takes up a considerable part of nations heavy industrial capacity. 1BP equals 1000t of light displacement, thus a ship of 20000t displacement requires 20BP to build.
Work advances on a warship at the maximum rate of 1,000 tons a month. To get 6,000 tons of material into a warship in half a year, a nation will need 6 BP for that one warship. Once a warship is 40-50% complete the warship is launched. One month is needed to clear up the slipway before another warship could be started on that same slipway. Once the warship is launched it is undergoing fitting out till the warship is ready to start its shakedown cruise. Note no time on a ships production lost during launching.

A ship usually takes 9 plus its BP cost in months to build. Small ships, up to 500t, take six months to finish.

Ship building time
Table 1.1
30,001 to 50,000t - 40 months to 59 months
10,001 to 30,000t - 20 months to 39 months
2,501 to 10,000t - 13 months to 19 months
501 to 2,500t - 10 months to 12 months
Up to 500t - 6 months

Shake down time = 3 months


Ship construction can also be expedited, reducing build time by 1/3, but at the expense of other ships, and problems associated with the hasty construction.

UPKEEP
Wartime/readyness:The ships' is ready to leave port on a short notice, and spends a lot of time on patrols and exercise.
Upkeep is 5% its construction cost per half year, paid in $ (no BP cost associated with upkeep)
Active: The ship is on the active fleet list, but spends most of its time in harbor, taking part only in the occasional patrol or exercise. Upkeep 2.5% construction cost per half year
Reserve: The ship is staying in a protected anchorage, its equipment is conserved, with a minimal maintenance to preserve its state. is 0.5% its construction cost per half year


REFITS:

A capital ship, and every ship over ages (not only ships larger than 2 500t!). Its combat ability degrades and time and technology advances. After 15 years all capital ships suffer a penalty if the have do not have a refit. A refit does basic things to a capital ship in addition to certain player defined improvements. Basically a refit is any modification to a capital ship where the new ability or upgrade is added to existing structure. An anti-torpedo blister, a flared bow, additional AA guns, radar, wireless and fire control directors are just a few examples.

A refit can only be performed in a drydock.
The cost for refitting a capital ship is equivalent to 25% of its build cost, both in money and material. The time it takes to refit is equal to that figure as well. If a battleship originally cost 40,000 tons of material to build, its refit cost would be 10,000 tons of material and the time required would be 10 months. A refit does not add to the value of the capital ship, it just refreshes its combat ability.

Once a capital ship is refit, it is considered a first class combat vessel once more and has another 15 years of 1st class life in it.

REBUILDS:

Regardless of whether or not capital ships have had a refit, it will need a rebuild at age 30 from its original commissioning date. If the capital ship did not receive a refit until it was 20 years old it would still need a refit at 30. A rebuild is an extensive operation. Nearly anything that can be done to a ship where items are removed or replaced falls under the definition of a rebuild.

There is a short list of exceptions to what may be conducted under the rebuild category. The actual structure of the ship may not be altered by reduction; you may not alter length, beam or draft except to add blisters or reshape the bow for better sea keeping abilities. The barbettes may not be altered in size or location but a barbette may be removed and replaced by some other element of the ship. The belt may not be increased in area of coverage.

For instance; removing coal fired boilers and replacing them with oil-fired boilers; removing standard tube boilers and fitting small tube boilers; removing engines and replacing them with completely new ones of the same type; removing the superstructure and replacing it with a modern equivalent; removing the old TDS if there was one and installing a new one; removing old upper belt armor and installing thicker plates on the same hull area; strengthening deck aror; removing casemated guns and replacing them with deck mounted turrets, removing the old main guns and replacing them with new models (this could be a situation where large twins were replaced by triples of a smaller caliber or where a smaller caliber triple was replaced by a larger caliber twin) so long as the barbette is not altered in size.

Rebuilds, because of there extensive nature can only be performed in a dry dock. Rebuilds will extend the new life of the ship another 15 years at which time another refit will be needed and so on.

The cost of a rebuild is 50% of a new construction, in BP, money and time. Ship displacement cannot be changed by more than 15% of the original light displacement.


RECONSTRUCTION:

Sometimes even a rebuild is not enough to transform the capital ship in question into what the owner desires. In that case the ship can be reconstructed. This too has an upper limit. No more then 30% additional increase is allowed over her original light displacement at commissioning. Now, as extensive as the rebuild was, reconstruction goes one step further.

In some cases the ships is cut into two pieces and a new section is inserted to create a longer middle section. In others, there is a wish to remove or rearrange the barbette locations or size.

Reconstructions, because of there extensive nature can only be performed in a dry dock. Rebuilds will extend the new life of the ship another 15 years at which time another refit will be needed and so on.

The cost of a rebuild is 75% of a new construction, in BP, money and time. Ship displacement cannot be changed by more than 20% of the original light displacement. Granted this is now getting very expensive but some nations may have no choice depending upon circumstances.

SCRAPPING

At some point in time the time has come to just scrap a ship, perhaps its so old and out dated its not worth rebuilding. Perhaps its so badly damaged its not work repairing. In any event a ship can be scrapped at any port at 4 times the build rate, this costs no industrial capacity to do. If you wish to save parts for future use talk to the moderator about your design to figure out exactly what can be saved.

After a ship has been scrapped the scrapping nation receives 15% of the ships cost in BP and money.

VANGUARDING

Perhaps for anyone number of reasons people may want to reuse the weapons or parts for one design on another. Or perhaps they wish to cancel a well advanced design and divert the materials to another project. As a general statement there will be a 10% surcharge to the cost of the items to be recycled for future use. For example you want to use the power plant of a QE Class BB that you just canceled on something else. The Machinery weighs in at 2,208 tons out of the 28,473 tons standard for the whole ship. In addition they are rated at "Oil fired boilers, steam turbines, Direct drive, 4 shafts, 55,373 shp / 41,308 Kw = 24.00 kts" If you want to just transplant them to another ship with the exact same shp you can. The cost to do so would be 2,208 * 0.1 = 220.8 tons of warship material. If you want to split the plant between two ships you can do that too so each ship would pay 2,208 * 0.05 = 110.4 tons of warship material. On whatever new ship you use then subtract out the cost of the machinery to a maximum of the size of the power planet on the new design. Same with the cost, although determining cost might be more complicated.

Damage points and survivability

After a battle is over a warship will be assigned a percentile of the ship's total ability to withstand damage before sinking.
A ship in pristine condition would rate 100 and a ship in a virtual sinking condition would rate 1.

QUOTE
96 to 100 - Nominal

Ships in this rating are in normal use and are typical for the day. There are always a few problems on every ship from time-to-time and this small range is designed to reflect. In general assume the average in your fleet is 100.



QUOTE
81 to 95 - Light Damage

Ships in this category have had contact with the enemy and received one or more telling hits in the exchange. Damage is generally superficial and can be repaired by general maintenance at the rate of one point per level of the naval base. These repairs cost nothing but if the player wishes to see this unit return immediately to service the order to "expedite" repairs can be given.

All except the most seaworthy ships can be damaged in the heaviest storms. This would be the category we can expect to find an unlucky ship in after a bad ride trough a hurricane or typhoon.

Repair of this damage is done at the start of the next quarter.
If the damage needs to be repaired faster, this can be done at a 10-15% cost and an appropriate time in a militairy port or with a sheltered anchorage and a fleet tender.

QUOTE
61 to 80 - Moderate Damage

These vessels have been exposed to serious counter-fire from the enemy and the hull as well as the superstructure is testaments to this confrontation. Warships with this level of damaged, may not be repaired with the previous system, but must utilize a different system.

These vessels must expend the amount of material and time normally required for a refit of this ship. After doing so, they are fully repaired but a refit has not been performed, it merely serves as a means of determining repair time and cost. As a normal refit a dry-dock large enough to accommodate the warship is needed.


Light hulled vessels that get cought in heavy storms can be damaged this badly.
Also, keeping ships with this amount of damage at sea for extended time will see the damage go worse.
This means longer than the shortest possible time before reaching a fleet tender to repair the most important damage and/or getting the ship safely to a port


QUOTE
36 to 60 - Heavy Damage

These vessels, if they are returning to base from a sea engagement are lucky to have survived the return. Their superstructure, guns and general control facilities are usually shot away or made inoperative and the hull itself is holed in one or more places producing considerable flooding.

The expenditure of material and time equivalent to a rebuild must occur before this ship is operational once more. As a normal rebuild a dry-dock large enough to accommodate the warship is needed.

As previous, these ships need to return asap to a safe port , or risk more damage, the crew is capable to keep them afloat for extended time, but nothing more. Fleet tenders can get temporary repairs in place, but those just stop the damage to grow worse. The ship is in dire need of extensive repairs only feaseble in a military port.

QUOTE
1 to 35 - Crippled

Generally ships in this condition will be scuttled since all motive power has been stripped from the ship. Even buoyancy is in doubt and the ship has a very small chance of returning to base even if towed in a calm sea. Ships receiving this level damage in port usually bottom or settle to the harbor floor and will require a reconstruction to be operational once more. As a normal reconstruction a dry-dock large enough to accommodate the warship is needed.