Armor Plate tenders requested

[The Rock Doctor]

Darman and I were discussing a deal, but he went silent.
It's funny, Italy has a smaller navy and much much smaller army than historic, but is broke.
My best guess is that OTL, they basically ran a military focused budget, because they certainly didn't do much infrastructure investment.

I should get back to posting thursday myself.

I've been taking care of some backed-up Wesworld stuff.

And tending to Mrs. Rock's pneumonia and my own cold.

Maybe I'll get back in gear here in a couple of days.

[Darman]

I apologize to those I've kept waiting for replies.  I've been awaiting an answer from the mods before I finalize any transactions for the rest of 1902. 

[Darman]

Can I just point out that overhauling all my old ships is going to hurt.....

[Walter]

Hurt your mind more than the UKs budget. Juggling all the overhauls and all the docks available...

[The Rock Doctor]

My heart bleeds for you, Darman. 

*Plays tiny violin*

[Darman]

Hurt your mind more than the UKs budget. Juggling all the overhauls and all the docks available...

This was actually spot on.  Its what I was referring to. 

[Desertfox]

#RichCountryProblems

[The Rock Doctor]

I invoked "First World Problems" with Mrs. Rock as we tried to fit three hundred pounds of beef into our freezer earlier today.

[Walter]

#RichCountryProblems

Yes. Darman had something like 1000 BPs for his fleet and naval infrastructure. I myself kinda regretted going for that bunch of small river patrol boats.

I invoked "First World Problems" with Mrs. Rock as we tried to fit three hundred pounds of beef into our freezer earlier today.

Man! That is almost like a whole cow. :o

[The Rock Doctor]

That's exactly correct.

[Logi]

We've discussed and decided:

Any ship constructed with a mix of foreign constructed components and domestically constructed components is considered to be foreign built for the purposes of costs and upkeep. This rule does not apply to any ships with mixed construction laid before 1901/H1. This rule does not apply to components that originated from a foreign country and were fully integrated by the country building the ship prior to it being laid down, e.g. a gun design.

This has been appended to the rules.

[Logi]

In response to a clarification request, we've discussed and decided:

We can think of integration as taking a foreign component, dissecting it, and reconstructing it with domestic materials/components. An integrated component, is fully compliant with domestic standards and is no longer compatible with foreign standards.

As such, regardless of whether it is a integrated gun or technologies (e.g. armor), purchasing such components from a foreign supplier still incurs extra cost.

Specifically this section will be appended to the rules:

Regardless of whether the component or technology has been integrated, purchasing from a foreign supplier still results in the ship being considered foreign built for the purposes of costs and upkeep.

The line of reasoning is as follows:
We can think of integration as taking a foreign component, dissecting it, and reconstructing it with domestic materials/components. An integrated component is fully compliant with domestic standards and is no longer compatible with foreign standards.

[Walter]

I disagree with this. To me, integrating a foreign component is altering your domestic standards to that of the foreign standard (otherwise it will not work) and therefore after integration both are the same. If you do not want to alter your domestic standards you will have to research the tech on your own. I could understand the increased construction cost equal to 'foreign build' and label it as 'transport costs' or taxes or whatever, but upkeep should be that of a domestic ship, not a foreign ship.

[Kaiser Kirk]

I find this a curious decision, which will likely destroy player->player BP trades.

In my opinion, the foreign built penalty should be applied to ships built in foriegn yards to their specifications. I.e., Italy will try to be first to the MTB tech, once she gets it, I fully expect to offer MTBs on the open market.  Those would then be foreign built.
I've toyed with the idea of if I somehow get engines earlier than others, selling boilers. But since that would be to a "Italian" design with their specifications, notes and instructions, I could see why that would make a ship with them "foreign built".

Currently, the UK was going to pay Italy to build armor plate - big slaps of metal- to UK specs.
The end result would have the same dimensions and curves as domestic, and be big slabs of metal.
Maintenance for said slabs of metal would be exactly the same as those domestically produced. The same would apply to structural members.

Now, things with moving parts might make more sense. But if it's being produced to the specifications and blueprints of Country A...does it really matter that the parts were machined in Country B if they work just the same as those also produced in Country A?

The foreign built penalty raises the maintenance cost, presumably because it's more difficult to understand/work with/maintain - i.e. some fool used metric instead of imperial, and all the instruction plates are in cyrillic alphabets... but shouldn't apply (in my opinion) to widgets produced to specifications.

[Walter]

The foreign built penalty raises the maintenance cost, presumably because it's more difficult to understand/work with/maintain - i.e. some fool used metric instead of imperial, and all the instruction plates are in cyrillic alphabets... but shouldn't apply (in my opinion) to widgets produced to specifications.

Well, that depends on whose specifications. Using your MTBs as example with Italy selling them to China... If they are build to your specifications, then the penalty is mine to pay (i.e. foreign build upkeep). If they are build to my specifications, then the penalty is yours to pay (i.e. foreign build construction cost). That is how I see it.

Also I would find it a bit silly if we were to pay 'foreign' for really simple stuff like hull plates, chains, ladders, doors, hatches, etc.