Ship overhauls, refits & refresher training

[tanjman]

I know these questions may be premature:

1) During WWII most of the ships that were already in service at the start of the war (and some that commisioned during the first year) went through some major overhauls and weapon system refits. Will this be something the player can select?

As an example say I have the USS Marblehead (CL-13) (which IRL starts the war with the Asiatic Fleet underway of Tarakan, Borneo NEI) which has managed to survive everything the Japanese has thrown at her but is in need of a major refit. Lets say I can spare her and send her to the Naval Shipyard at Mare Island. Will I be able to select what needs to be don to her or will a menu pop up with a list of overhaul/refit options?

2) Refresher Training (RefTra) was used by the USN to get a ships crew up to speed on all aspects of their ship's operations. Will there be a option to send a newly overhauled/refited ship though RefTra? Or will this be included in the time it takes for the overhaul/refit?

I'm well aware of the NDA so if no answers are forthcoming at this time I'll just ask again when the beta testing has started

[jcjordan]

I'd be curious about how refits would be done in WITP. In UV you would send it to Pearl & it would come back in X days. Would you have to send it to some port in the US in WITP or would there be a some kind of refit routine in Pearl where it would be unavailable for X days in Pearl?

[stretch]

judging from the map samples we've seen the west coast ports are present, so perhaps just send them directly, with an X number of days routine for ships sent to the yards on the east coast. This, of course, presents the need to model overall yard capacity for repairs/overhauls/production. But I don't want to be the one to set another thread on the road to discussing production.

unless I just did. ****.

As for possible refit options, I would imagine the choice made time and time again would be to maximize AA capability (IMHO).

[tanjman]

there were also two other major refits, the first was various radar suits, and everyone wants radar, right? The second is the introduction of the Combat Information Center (CIC).

Before the introduction of the CIC (late '42 IIRC) the captain fought his ship from the bridge and all data was passed to him there and he had to keep track of it in his head! With the CIC concept he fought the ship from CIC with all information available at a glance from the plot board (I've had a brain fart and can't remember if that's the correct name). The introduction of the CIC greatly enhanced the fighting ability of the USN. BTW CIC's were retrofitted on all major combats and on ships as small as destroyer escorts.

As far as which ship yards can do what work. One thing to remember is that as part of a normal overhual (usually a 4 year cycle) the ship's bottom was cleaned (usually by sandblasting) and painted, so a dry dock needs to be available for around a week per ship.

A normal overhaul (wartime 7/24 work shifts, not peace time work shifts) would take around 4 weeks depending on if there are any major alterations done to the weapons suite. And another 2 weeks for shakedown (to make sure all of the yard dogs work is up to speed) and for the yard to do any warranty work, plus a week to train the crew in there new equipment an tactics.

BTW I'm basing most of this off of things I've experienced while in the USN (10 1/2 years, with plenty of yard time) as well as books I've read on naval warfare. I'm sure with Paul Vebber on the WitP team they've an excelent source for this kind of info I'm just curious on how it will be implemented.