Naval unit thoughts

[stjeand]

In playing around with the game and seeing some other player observations I am thinking a few naval changes need to be implemented and/or at least discussed.


1) Naval unit efficiency. This does not drop, at least in my eyes, the way that is should. Ships at sea often experience mechanical issues as well as crew fatigue. Engineers do what they can to patch them but from many things I have read units must always go to port at some point due to this.

My suggestions...

A) Every turn naval units at sea should lose some efficiency. It is just like land units that move (as ships are always moving) but they seem to be able to move at this time and it does not effect them in any way. Not sure of a good number but I will use 5% for the moment...IF the unit does not move.
B) IF a naval unit moves it should lose 1% per move...this is above and beyond the 5% base.
C) Naval units returning to port should gain efficiency but not go to 100% from say 5%. I feel they should gain similar to land units, perhaps a bit more
D) Naval units bombarding should lose efficiency per bombard, perhaps 1%?.
E) Fleets out of "supply" should lose "extra" efficiency each turn. Not sure of the amount but units running around the map unsupplied waiting for supply should not just be able to travel freely.
G) Fleets that efficiency gets low or to 0 should start taking damage or randomly take damage. Basically your ship is breaking down badly. This of course should never happen since there are ports all over the place and ships should go to port from time to time.


2) Naval unit supply oilers. This is off a bit. Resupplying a fleet of 100+ ships should not take 0 time or effort.

My suggestions

A) Resupply should reduce efficiency by a small amount, 1% to 3% say for crew fatigue. It takes quite a bit of effort to resupply a ship at sea. SO much easier in port.
B) Fleets using an oiler should lose 1 movement point. Sorry but it should not be free and take 0 time.
C) Fleets using an oiler should only be able to use it when they have 2 movement points available. This means that they must use the oiler right away when out of supply and perhaps near the enemy fleet. Not run away with no supply and resupply in a place that is not under enemy interdiction.



NOT sure what is possible via the game engine but figured best to ask / know.


Thoughts and suggestions?