ORIGINAL: MateDow
ORIGINAL: Gary Childress
...For instance, I've created a CVL conversion of the Omaha class cruisers which, though never implemented, was in fact once thought over by the US Navy. Why not create a "bind" in the editor whereby the player could convert Omaha class CLs to CVLs IN GAME? Is that any more objectionable than creating binds for the Japanese to turn Fuso into a flight deck battleship and what not? It gives the player a little more flexibility over his building program and if players can already buildout ships which were historically never refitted during the war, then why not give the player more room to convert different ships into different types of refits?
Just a thought. I'm curious what the strictly history buffs think of the idea? [:)]
I have no problem with conversions like the Omaha-class CVL or CLAA when they are backed up by real data. For the US ships, I think that this data is contained in books like Friedman's US Cruisers, and is based on real design studies made by the US Navy. These will probably be very expensive conversions similar in cost to those performed on the West Virginia, California or Tennessee. There was a reason that these conversions were not carried out in wartime, and the cost should reflect that.
For the British ships, where there were other C-class and D-class (?) cruisers converted to a CLAA standard, that should also be an option, just not an inexpensive one. I am not sure if the British shipyards would have enough spare capacity to make such a conversion, or if the Americans would have diverted the effort away from their own conversions. These were cruisers that were older than the Omahas that the US did not take the effort to convert even when they were already in the shipyard for extensive repairs.
Yes, shipyard time and space are the real limitations here. With the yards going at full capacity during WWII it's hard to imagine that there was any extra space available for additional conversions other than what historically happened. So maybe it's best to leave the CL->CVL conversions to the truly alternative history mods.
