Electric drives on Destroyers

[Kaiser Kirk]

Tangentially related question. Can you refit a cruiser to destroyer standards? I have a cruiser at 47.7% engine weight, shouldn't be difficult to get that over 50%.

I see those particular rules as more ministerial than interpretive.
I think that if you meet the tonnage criteria for your destroyer tech level and the machinery % criteria for the destroyer architecture , then you currently can.
Likewise, if you have a 3000t cruiser built at 0.9 and research the 1920 cruiser tech, it would be eligible for the 0.75 hull if reconstructed.

If folks want to tell me I'm incorrect, I'm open to other views.


Edit : I will observe that the cruiser caveat of Turret = 1.0 hull would still apply, and supercede DD arch.

[The Rock Doctor]

I guess my take-away is that we're not going to see destroyers with electric drives.  And I don't think they were historically common anyway, so it doesn't seem like a big issue to me.

[Kaiser Kirk]

In game- they aren't sufficiently efficient.

Out of game - recently read a tidbit on US battleship powerplants putting turbo-electic at ... I think it was 15-18 SHP/Ton, gears at 21-25 SHP/ton, and lightwieght machinery at 51-53 SHP/Ton.
I can't see a real destroyer built with the choice of getting 1/3 the SHP they could with the same tonnage of lightweight machinery.  And that's just tonnage, Destroyers tend to have more internal space issues.

Overall, it does slightly limit DDs, but they get bonus - heck we undercharge for Destroyer/Sub construction and maintenance in the first place.