Ship Upgrades - How does this work?

[blueatoll]

So I'm in April 43 as the Allies. I've got a bunch of CVEs and other warships in port in the USA with no ships in the yards. All the ports have 40+ shipyards and I distributed my ships pretty widely amongst them. Most of them have no damage or less than 2 points damage in any category.

Now I'm sitting and waiting for them to upgrade. I wait and wait and occasionally, and at what seems to be completely at random, one of the upgrade eligible ships finally get pulled in for a refit. All of them are set to allow upgrades, I've got plenty of supply, fuel, and drydock. What am I missing?

Also, I've got a couple of AEs that have 'missed this upgrade'. I wasn't sure how upgrades worked earlier in the game (this is my first go) and now I've got these critical AEs sitting in ports with large shipyards waiting for them to upgrade. Does 'missed this upgrade' mean that it won't happen even if I've got the yards, supply, fuel, etc.?

Is there a primer on Upgrades anywhere that I can read?
Thanks

[LoBaron]

Upgrading is pretty straight forward. See pic below, you see the date an upgrade gets active on the bottom right on the ship screen, or on the top left on the ship upgrade screen. Also in the ship upgrade screen you see the requirements for that specific upgrade (how long is the minimum yardtime, is a shipyard required,...).





My first guess from how you describe the problem is that you might have misread the upgrade filter criteria of the ports the ships are disbanded in.

Check a port where a lot of ships to upgrade are disbanded in. When you selected "show ships due upgrade bottom right you can filter on the top of the screen.
For active upgrades you need to set the right filter to "overdue". If you leave it at "All upgrades" it does not tell you anything.

[n01487477]

Yes, LoBaron got to this question before me ... but in his example I see that the upgrade is set to "no"

Furthermore, as to your other questions

What are you missing?

No a lot ... If you're thinking an upgrade won't occur with any major float or engine damage, you are wrong - It will. Same with minor damage too. I haven't tested the extent of this but I've had ships with 10 major & 30 minor damage upgrade. Thinking about the damage bands that ships are repaired, I believe there is a correlation with what will occur a) goes to shipyard for repair b) goes to shipyard for upgrade.

And there must be an upper limit to this as the ship would sink otherwise

Also, I've got a couple of AEs that have 'missed this upgrade'. I wasn't sure how upgrades worked earlier in the game (this is my first go) and now I've got these critical AEs sitting in ports with large shipyards waiting for them to upgrade. Does 'missed this upgrade' mean that it won't happen even if I've got the yards, supply, fuel, etc.?

No, they are still eligible for upgrade and in fact if you have 2 or more upgrades pending on a vessel it will go from one to the next. Upgrading to the first and then after that is repaired to the next. I believe that LoBaron is correct in that you probably haven't got them in the right places. Still a screen shot might help solve this.

Once they have upgraded I also then change their status to pierside repair, which allows for other shipyard repairing to take place on other ships (capacity). [edit] maybe this is not needed though...

The one thing I was unsure of was whether upgrades occur if there are a number of ships already in the shipyard taking up space... I tested this and it makes no difference. They will still upgrade even if the shipyard is at / over capacity.

[Barb]

One of the possible reason for ships not to upgrade could be that they are loaded ... Especially auxiliaries and tenders usually perform when loaded Try unloading them before upgrade ...

[n01487477]

ORIGINAL: Barb

One of the possible reason for ships not to upgrade could be that they are loaded ... Especially auxiliaries and tenders usually perform when loaded Try unloading them before upgrade ...

Doh - of course that is the most obvious thing i missed

[blueatoll]

Hmmm...I've done all the things listed above prior to this post and I'm definitely at ports that can handle the upgrades (I was extremely diligent about that). The only thing that I hadn't done was unload the auxiliaries as my AVs upgraded fully loaded. Maybe the sub tenders, destroyer tenders, and ammo ships need to be unloaded because who wants to do a lot of welding surrounded by shells and torpedoes? Could the game really be that smart [;)] I wonder if there is some sort of random port-check that goes on to determine what get's drydocked.

I also put everything allowable pierside as soon as possible. I've noticed that some ships that started out in mandatory shipyard to fix damage can be put into pierside after certain repairs have been completed as well.

Also, what the heck is the purpose of the Long Island? It always doesn't launch planes 'due to bad weather' when at sea. I don't have it overloaded (I have 8 planes on it). Is it just a 'carrier trained' platform? Not worth the gas at this point.

Sorry for all the questions, even us Grognards of 35+ years of cardboard pushing need a little help sometimes with this game.

[n01487477]

ORIGINAL: blueatoll

Hmmm...I've done all the things listed above prior to this post and I'm definitely at ports that can handle the upgrades (I was extremely diligent about that). The only thing that I hadn't done was unload the auxiliaries as my AVs upgraded fully loaded. Maybe the sub tenders, destroyer tenders, and ammo ships need to be unloaded because who wants to do a lot of welding surrounded by shells and torpedoes? Could the game really be that smart [;)] I wonder if there is some sort of random port-check that goes on to determine what get's drydocked.

Yes, it will check to see if there is any cargo in the hold before it allows an upgrade.

I also put everything allowable pierside as soon as possible. I've noticed that some ships that started out in mandatory shipyard to fix damage can be put into pierside after certain repairs have been completed as well.

Glad - I'm not the only one...

Also, what the heck is the purpose of the Long Island? It always doesn't launch planes 'due to bad weather' when at sea. I don't have it overloaded (I have 8 planes on it). Is it just a 'carrier trained' platform? Not worth the gas at this point.

The CVE Long Is was mostly used as a trainer anyway (as I'm sure you're aware) ... I thought most allied players used her as a plane ferry. Are absolutely sure she is not flying planes ? Check the missions for the pilots ?

[Flicker]

Barb = "One of the possible reason for ships not to upgrade could be that they are loaded..."

Thank you so much for that tip! I have some support ships that have been moved halfway around the world in attempts to get them to upgrade (thinking that maybe a different port would help - doh).

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: n01487477

ORIGINAL: Barb

One of the possible reason for ships not to upgrade could be that they are loaded ... Especially auxiliaries and tenders usually perform when loaded Try unloading them before upgrade ...

Doh - of course that is the most obvious thing i missed

The would not impact warships such as carriers. The do not need to unload as a requirement for upgrade. As long as there is a yard big enough they should upgrade. If you can move them to pierside manually, (have to have a least a little damage first) that might help. When the game was new upgrading was a problem but that seems to have been worked out. You do have all the patches installed?

Also, the Long Island should work fine as a carrier as long as it is not over stacked with planes and has carrier capable planes. Worked fine for me. Well, worked fine until that torpedo found it.....

[LoBaron]

ORIGINAL: n01487477

Yes, LoBaron got to this question before me ... but in his example I see that the upgrade is set to "no"

Haha yes, I was a lazy Admiral and simply copy pasted a screenshot I used in the war room for a related topic. [;)]