General Social/Chatter Thread

[The Rock Doctor]

Decided to start sketching out the Angstrom class.  I'll be borrowing heavily from the historical Mackensen class for that.

[snip]

yay, Rocky drawings are coming back!

[The Rock Doctor]

Not many of them, and probably only a side view.  Probably just the huge or weird stuff.

Although I'm flattered that these would be cause for excitement.

[Desertfox]

Woot! Woot! I can steal more drawing elements!

[snip]

One of these days I will reacquire a CAD program, then I can fiddle.

[The Rock Doctor]

I just use Paint.  Can't be bothered to pick up or learn anything more complicated.

Although I did like my old Corel Draw back in the day.

Woot! Woot! I can steal more drawing elements!

That's the spirit!

[snip]

I did enough CAD way back in HS that I know enough to make it work. Then it also lets me scratch the little itch of "I know its the right size". At some point I should try Paint

[Desertfox]

CAD is great but way too time consuming to do it right for something like a ship. Paint is great for most everything we need, and quite simple to use. I use the same 1 pixel = 1 foot scale as Rocky, but if you go to 2 pixels = 1 foot, (like Guinness) there's a huge library of Shipbucket stuff you can borrow from.

[TacCovert4]

I did some stuff in AutoCAD back when I was in college.  Even had AutoCAD lite on my PC.  Made an all aluminum (aluminium?) trebuchet for a competition, that was fun.

[The Rock Doctor]

Did some tinkering around with electric drive designs today.  Reckon it's a challenge for precisely the ships that would benefit most from responsive powerplants:  Small, fast stuff in the destroyer and cruiser categories.  For a 1,000 t destroyers, with 500-550 t of machinery, one loses ~150 t of the light displacement just to the electrics.  That takes away from maximum speed, armament, and freeboard in some order and is pretty painful.  Cruisers aren't as bad, but still hurt.

Also played around with electric drive refurbs of my youngest VTE-equipped pre-dreads and ACs for giggles.  With turbines, electric drive and 100% oil, the pre-dread could add about 5 knots (24 max).  But it's still got a mixed battery.  Swapping out the twin 20 cm for single 28 cm doesn't work.  Swapping out the main and secondary batteries for a universal 25 cm battery would work if I wanted to effectively duplicate the Blucher.  Swapping the main battery out for twin or maybe triple 20 cm would give me a big, slow CA if wanted to do that.  But the cash cost of replacing the machinery is around $8 (inc. refurb) before I even start on the armament, and I just don't see a circumstance where that makes sense since the outcome still doesn't produce a first-rate ship.

The cruisers have a uniform battery, happily, but more machinery means a higher base cost to refurb it, and I've still just got a ship with 6 x 20 cm on the broadside.  I can build an Exeter clone for less cash and not much more BP. 

So all that to say, my construction plans didn't change at all.

[Kaiser Kirk]

I admire those that can furnish illustrations of their vessels.
I've found myself poorly suited for that.
So welcome to doodling Rocky :)

[The Rock Doctor]

Reading the rules on a refurbishment, as I ponder the fate of a couple pre-dreads.

The class has 2x2 305/45 and 4x2 200/45.  Operationally, we've figured out by now that the two calibers don't get along well for fire control purposes.  I'm giving thought to yanking the 200/45 turrets out for use in cruisers.

Refurbishment requires me to pay a $ and BP cost for components added.  But if I just remove the turrets and plate over the holes...is there a cost?  Like, besides the basic cash cost of the refurb?

[Kaiser Kirk]

Game Sim : I treat multiple calibers as the equivalent of more than 1 ship shooting at the target - essentially the extra splashes confuse fire control.

Implementation : I treat the ship captains as having a brain.  If the penalty (-5) looks to substantially degrade the Hit %,  I don't fire the extra guns. If its a bit closer in, where TH % can be in 25-30+ range, I fire the extra guns as the value offsets the penalty.

Refurbishment:
Practical matter : Simply removing the guns supposedly could cause real issues with the hull balancing. They need some weight there.
Implementation : I don't really know how one would police that.
The rule : Yes, while refurbishing you can yank guns off. I don't see that you have to replace them.
The possible exception is the phrasing for main battery,  but that doesn't sound like an issue here.

[Desertfox]

You could sell them... no need to worry then!

I would think there should be a note about ballast in the misc weight section. But that should be all.

[maddox]

On the refurb -turret removal-.

Removing the turrets and plating the holes in the deck over shouldn't cause an issue. The weight of the ship changes all the time, with greater variations than the secundary turrets.  That is why there are ballast tanks.

An if it causes a real life problem, adding more armor to offset the lost weight or even pouring in a block of lead in the empty barbette (or hoist-well) isn't high tech. 

Even main gun turrets can be removed.
We have seen that done in the Japanese Hybrid carrier rebuilds of the Ise class BB's.