Originally posted by Chiteng
Yes it was a complaint about S boats and the Mk-10
The question of S Boat servicability and Mk 10 effectiveness has been brought up many times. It's less a question of the over effectiveness of the torpedo and more that of the S Boat's overrated operational servicability in game terms. S Boats were pigs that spent more time in upkeep than effectively conducting patrols.
This brings up a point I've mentioned a few times in the past. There is no real operational limitation for any ship in the game any way. Ships are just icons with ratings. Most other aspects/units of/in the game deal with fatigue, morale etc, but ships and their crews are not represented as well. If a ship is greivously damaged, a player can still use it if he so chooses. In the game, a mechanism exists (some may dispute this;) ) to minimize the chance of unescorted bomber airgroups attacking high CAP dense targets. Players routinely, on the other hand, advocate the use of strategies based on the use of various minor ships as cannon fodder and decoys, and just thrust merchants into harms way. For a naval game, I find this flawed and believe it should be altered.
Ships should have a morale rating governing their performance in addition to their combat ratings.
Allied ships should suffer from a constant reduction in performance down to a base level due to the stripping of ships veteran crews to man the new construction. IJN should suffer less from this as they tended to maintain the core of the crew strength and had a reduction in fleet size over time instead of the massive inflation of the size of US Navy.
I find the system damage aspect acceptable but once a ship reaches a certain degree of "damage", a period of forced upkeep should be triggered.
Sub crews should have a rest and refit period after each patrol, usually in the two week range as was done historically to deal with special nature of sub duty.
Ships were never used as they are in the game. They required training periods and generally operated in divisions and squadrons or rather static TFs (in terms of individual capital ships and escorts). We can just mix and match with no positive or negative effects on their performance.
There are many other issues which can be brought up regarding naval aspect of this game. The above are just a few. Right now the air aspect is dominant in a theatre where all three elements (land/air/sea) went hand in hand.
