Matrix Games Forums

Are actual historical ships in the game? If so, can one play purely with historical ships?

Hmm, no answer to my question. Let me ask a similar one then:

I see there were some historical scenarios made by others available for RW2, is it safe to assume that this will be the case for RW3?

And, just out of curiosity, how difficult is it to make historical scenarios?

Is it difficult to make up historical ships? What data would one need to know?

All good questions, which I can not answer...never played this series.
I am excited for the release of this one, however...particularly after watching DasTactic's series on this one.

There is no specific game option to play with historical or semi-historical fleets. However, there's nothing stopping you from creating a ship based on a real world design (indeed, most of the auto-generated ships follow plausibly historical layouts).

As you mentioned, people have created a few historical scenarios for RTW2, including both starting OOBs and individual battle scenarios, and I would be very surprised if we don't see similar things for RTW3, particularly given the increased exposure from Matrix/Steam.

Many of the pre-designed ship templates in the game used for auto-generated designs are in fact based on historical ships, also historical ship/class names are used for the naming pool. The end result is that on any given play through, you will see ships appear in your own auto-designs and in other nations' fleets that may look quite familiar. In terms of explicit historical ships, this is a sandbox of sorts where once you start playing, history starts to change so you will not see the exact historical fleets just fleets that look and feel similar to them.

RTW2 has mods that allow for the various nations to start with a full roster of historical ship - to the point that you can check Conway’s and see what your starting ships can do. Of course once the ball starts rolling it is up to the player and the AI to evolve their respective fleets.

I always play RTW2 with these mods installed (there is even one for 1939) but it is a question of taste. Some want a random legacy fleet while others have more fun in designing it. I guess that we will see similar mods for RTW3 - including one for the ironclad era.

There are, in RTW2, several collections of historical ships you can start with and indeed add into the game's Ides file for the AI (and player) to build from as the game progresses. (Though the AI will often do it's thing and tweak them a bit).
I quite enjoy the ship designing bit myself though so I made my own semi Historical fleets for the 1900 start. It's a bit of a struggle with some of the stuff really present at the turn of the century though as the game is determined to limit you in terms of layout and you have to cheat in the save edit sometimes. Early armour values need to be finessed a bit to simulate the pre-Krupp types.

I'm a bit miffed they've made the 1890 start auto design only as it'll make doing something similar more of a phaff to do.

It'll take a while (especially with the glorious new graphics options!) for the modders to do new a designs.

Error: Ships are built to design with this name! Select another name!

It should also allow the player to delete old designs so that historical names can be used in ship types.

I got the game on launch day and started playing it. I got fired in my first attempt at running the 1890 Austrian-Hungarian Navy, but that was just tooling around with the game.

I stated a new game running the same navy and am having a blast. Currently at war with Italy and managing the fleet through that endeavor. I've fought three battles so far and am learning quickly how to fight these ships. Good stuff!

I thought I would want "historical ships" to like this game, but now, after getting into it, they don't matter.

The gam is addicting and it is not difficult to play mechanically, but there a lot to it to play well and that is good.

When you play the Austrian-Hungarian Navy what size fleet do you use?
Thanks.

stormbringer3 wrote: Sun May 21, 2023 9:37 pm When you play the Austrian-Hungarian Navy what size fleet do you use?
Thanks.

I'm playing with a small fleet.

If you are interested in historical ships and battles, it may be worth while trying to get hold of Steam and Iron - it uses the same game engine for battles, more or less.

greycat wrote: Wed May 24, 2023 12:01 pm If you are interested in historical ships and battles, it may be worth while trying to get hold of Steam and Iron - it uses the same game engine for battles, more or less.

Actually Steam and Iron can be considered an alternative to this game - especially with the campaigns (The North Sea and The Baltic, and The Russo-Japanese war.

I was able to retrive a very good review written firThe Wargamer when it was a reputable site. It goes in-depth on the naval model, and a lot of the contents are still valid for SAI3:

https://web.archive.org/web/20151117201 ... ticle/3179

STEAM and Iron is on sale for 10USD now at the NWS web site. it's the same interface with RTW2. I don't know if it's the same with RTW3 I haven't gotten to any battles yet. still building 1890s ships.

Steam and Iron and Steam and Iron Russo-Japanese War are an absolute bargain at $10 each. I have had these games for years and IMO they are a must have for naval wargame enthusiasts.

https://nws-software.com/collections/pc-games

miv792 wrote: Sun May 21, 2023 11:15 am Error: Ships are built to design with this name! Select another name!

It should also allow the player to delete old designs so that historical names can be used in ship types.

You can over-write designs unless you have ships in service using that template.

So, for example, if you have a class of Bs that you called 'Nelson', you cannot design a class of BBs and call that 'Nelson' until all the old 'Nelson'-class Bs have been scrapped.

I had a situation where I created a design and started building it. Then there was a treaty and it was scrapped. Years later I tried to create a new design with same name and got the dreaded "Error: Ships are built to design with this name! Select another name!" I had no ships of that class and the one with that name was never built.

Eisenbar2000 wrote: Wed Aug 16, 2023 1:55 pm I had a situation where I created a design and started building it. Then there was a treaty and it was scrapped. Years later I tried to create a new design with same name and got the dreaded "Error: Ships are built to design with this name! Select another name!" I had no ships of that class and the one with that name was never built.

Hmm, that does seem quite annoying. Do you have a save showing the issue that you could share?

Sorry no. Have since started a new game and saved over that one.