BigGun II ?

[Nobody]

That's rather boring (albeit I admit it's simple). But then what is the point in designing 'nice' ships knowing that almost all potential differences are likely going to be ignored by the combat system?

The differences are ignored in ALL RULE SYSTEMS to some greater or lesser degree, Nobody. ;)

From a scientifically point of view, yes. It's called Quantization error.
I don't know any other (looking forward to yours), but Seas of War does a pretty good job I think.

Potential differences aren't going to be ignored as badly as you fear, I think. There are various 'traits' that each ship can have- one makes a ship more vulnerable to underwater damage, one simulates super-heavy shells, another simulates a Torpedo Bulkhead, and yet another makes sure that destroyers are sure to go off like a firecracker when hit by a heavy shell.
Using these, there will be a great deal of room for the things that make a ship 'unique.' I can simulate the trouble that a semi-dreadnought has with differentiating shell splashes in this ruleset. I can handle ships with inadequate flash protection. I can do quite a bit to make two ships with seemingly identical stats turn out to be rather unique.

It'll take a battle to make the degree of differentiation apparent, I'm afraid. ;D

That sounds really, REALLY nice. Problem I sort of still have with your previous statement is that if battleships have an armor of 5, how big is the gap to 4 and 6 respectively. And what do I need to build a Yamato - proof against 18" (which might be 6x6=36!)?

Plus I was hoping to be partially able to recreate the classic WW1 28/30.5 vs 30.5/34.3/38 cm or 'small' vs 'big' gun strategies were the big gun guaranteers decent results in all circumstances whereas the 'small' one is superior under certain conditions. That's an option I cannot see if the basic principle is just "The bigger the guns, the farther they shoot. 1" = aprox 500 yds" (that's not alwas true anyway if you think of the 28cm/L52 and L54.5).

[Carthaginian]

OK- in a rush before work:
Damage dice roll individually- so if you roll 6D6 and get two 5's, two 4's, and one 6- then you only wind up with 16 damage, because neither of the die that rolled 4 counts at all.

'Special Traits' (as they are called) are relatively few in number but broad in application; I like the system, and am going to playtest a few 'customizations' to it while I'm off for my anniversary next week.

Armor numbers are slightly abstracted- so that a very old battleship might have a 4+ even though that is the same as a modern cruiser.

Gun range is something I am going to 'completely customize.' Your program will be VITAL in this respect. We will use our own range estimates for this kind of thing, worked to the range scale used in the game. :) You are one of the most important pieces of the puzzle. ;)

[KWorld]

1" = 500 yards is just wrong on lots of levels.  The 4.1" guns used on early German light cruisers would, by this system, have a range of around 2000 yards, while in reality those guns (10.5cm SK L/40s) could range out to over 13,000 yards.

[Carthaginian]

I think you have tragicly misunderstood, KWorld... 1" = 500 yards doesn't mean the bore diameter. It is the SCALE. It means 1" of tabletop = 500 yards of ocean. The gun's range will be X" in-game, determined by the number of 500 yard increments they can fire. ;)

[KWorld]

Ah, OK, that's better.  :)

[Nobody]

Oh thanks I'm feeling much better now. Because I understood that in a similar KWorld did (+-1" means +-500 yard range).

Why 500 yards btw? If we do navel battles and not using metric (but which we are for torpedos) why not use a half, quarter, fifth (whatever) nautical mile? (I would probably use 1 cm = x hm though)

[Carthaginian]

500 yards is 1/4 of a nautical mile (2000 yds). The designers of the game used this scale for this reason. I didn't pick the scale. :(

[Nobody]

500 yards is 1/4 of a nautical mile (2000 yds). The designers of the game used this scale for this reason. I didn't pick the scale. :(

Interesting, I didn't know that. But that is a coincidence (1 nm = 2000 yard), isn't it?
Anyway, unless the game makes special use of these 500 yard tiles you could just use 1 cm = 200 m which is quite similar (~182.3 m would be more precise) or 10 cm = 1 sea mile.

[Carthaginian]

Unfortunately, the game does make use of that scale for movement. It would be easier to change the meters in the torpedo formula to yards than rework the battle sim rules into metric... even though it would please my wife by requiring only HALF the living room floor. ;)

[Carthaginian]

PERSONAL ADMISSION OF D'Oh!!! The Nautical Mile was actually 6080 feet (a little more than 2000 yds). I was confusing it and the SEA MILE, which was 2000 yds.