Ship/submarine Design Feature

I am not sure if this has been mentioned before, but how about a feature that allows players to customize their ships/submarines for each faction?

Reasons for a customization features are obvious. This would extend the game's life span indefintely. Futhermore this would solve the need for cheats or trainers since players would be able to build their own ships with more armor or weapons, etc. (Of course this feature should be regulated in mutiplayer version but for sinlge play it doesn't need to be).

Unlike naval strategy games (e.g. PTO or Harpoon series), naval simulation games often, if not always, don't allow players to design and build their own ships. Nevertheless, ERT could be the first in this case.

If undertaken, the proposed customization should include specifics such as hull design, colors; perhaps it could even allow players to name their ships as. Better yet it may even have a customized scenario options.

Not knowing much about game designs, I don't know how difficult this might be, but such a feature would ensure ERT's position as the benchmark for all future nav sim games.

The good news is, yes this is on the drawing board. I'm not sure how far down the line it is though, it almost certainly won't be in the first release of mutilplayer.

/bux

I have a PlayStation game, Naval Ops Commander, that lets you design your ships. I have only made it to level B-10, but I have my badass carrier UES Constellation with three TBD squardons, 2 fighter squadrons, an interceptor squardon, and 18 14" guns in quad turrets. I can get in there, launch enough aircraft to harass the entire task force coming at me (usually about 20 ships, depending on the mission) and can proceed to blow them out of the water in a heart beat.

Of course, the game is set in an alternate universe, and eventually gets into shields, rayguns, and the like... but I haven't made it that far yet Got too into Enigma to really care.

I'd love to be able to try to build my own battle-bohemoeth, or, to be honest, a nice British heavy cruiser... but I do love this game so much... I won't be utterly dissapointed if I couldn't.

Rob+

i have navalops commander and i already beat it.

i have navalops commander and i already beat it.

And this is the point where I officially... uh... never mind

NOC is fun, but it's certainly not realistic. I never played the first game in the series, Naval Ops Warship Gunner, but when I saw double hulled ships, I was hooked.

Of course, that whole thing about having to play level A-5 about 100 times to sink the merchant shipping to *get* a double hull capability is a load of horsecrap!

Nevertheless, it's fun to put huge guns on a carrier and blow a BB out of the water. My starboard side features island, funnel, and my turrets, the port side features a badass array of AA guns, 6 inchers, and a Phalanx Gatling gun Torpedos? No problem! Other planes? No problem. BB's? No problem! Now, if I could just find a way to put depth charges on my carrier or some kind of ASW stuff, I'd be in hog heaven. Sadly, NOC won't let you do that

I also have an equally megabadass Heavy Cruiser, the UES Seastalker, that has BB'esque guns, rocket launchers, ASW Missiles, and Depth Charges out the wazoo. It's got pretty thin armour though, thus I'd classify it a Battlecruiser, and a good air strike can kill me. Still, it's my weapon of choice against subs.

Now, back to E:RT...

While I love megabadass (in the Trek Tech world we call them Fanboy Ships when we are polite... won't mention what we call them when we are being rude) ships from time to time, the fun of Enigma is that the ships are realistic, and are realisitically armed. Having just watched "Battle of the River Plate" helps me to appreciate strategy behind setting up an attack a bit more... taking your guns into account and comparing them to your opponent is a very major part of battle prep.

Oh well... as I said before, I'd love to be able to design ships, but I am not going to quit the game if I can't.

I do believe, however, there would be a market out there for a sim that begins with the launch of HMS Dreadnought and allows players to pick their side and design a battleship race into WWI... but the AI would have to be pretty darned advanced to do it properly.

I'd love to play the UK, start with the Dreadnought, and begin a shipbuilding project that would lead into the First World War, and then command some of those big ships and see what would happen. The Alterverse could continue past WW1 and into the WW2 era, but again, the AI would have to be darned advanced.

Rob+

This would be an interesting feature. I've always found one of the better features of ERT is the historical accuracy, which may or may not be ruined by this feature. I'd reccommend a certain amount of credit-like objects to have to be put into constructing a ship, with a limit equivalent to that of a Battlecruiser, because otherwise the one who would win would be the one who put to most time, and therefore parts onto, their ship. I'd also request we keep it realistic... exe choosing a submarine for the stealth, but then adding 10 14" "just in case..." I don't think a realistic sub during this time period could hold 1 14" (okay, maybe that's a bit of a hyperbole, but oh well). Not to say I wouldn't drool at this feature's release date, just keep it real and give it limits, so to say.

This would be an interesting feature. I've always found one of the better features of ERT is the historical accuracy, which may or may not be ruined by this feature. I'd reccommend a certain amount of credit-like objects to have to be put into constructing a ship, with a limit equivalent to that of a Battlecruiser, because otherwise the one who would win would be the one who put to most time, and therefore parts onto, their ship. I'd also request we keep it realistic... exe choosing a submarine for the stealth, but then adding 10 14" "just in case..." I don't think a realistic sub during this time period could hold 1 14" (okay, maybe that's a bit of a hyperbole, but oh well). Not to say I wouldn't drool at this feature's release date, just keep it real and give it limits, so to say.

Ideally, there would realistic tradeoffs involved with such a submarine. Or any ship pressing up against the limits of it's displacement or size. I'm thinking about some prewar Japanese DDs (IIRC), that looked absolutely menacing for their size, armed to the teeth, that had a horrible tendency of capsizing owing to being too top-heavy. You put two twin 8" turrets on a ship displacing only 2100 tons, expect to take some heavy rolls, steam only into the wind, and make slow, gentle turns.

Likewise, if you enjoy placing torpedo mounts all over your heavy cruiser (as the IJN also did), don't be surprised if an errant 5" shell sends the whole works sparking and literally tears your ship a new one.

Goodgood. Does that mean they're going to add damage ratios and capsizing into the game :oD ?

Those were just some of my ideas.

Well if you don't tell us the rest, they'll never get in the game nor can I ruin them for you :oP