World War II Online HQ

The Naval Option

A summary of what I think should make up the naval aspect of WWIIOL by Specterx. E-mail comments to Specterx@erols.com

Since World War II Online is supposed to be a cross-service simulation modeling every aspect of the Second World War, it would be a crime to neglect the naval aspect, even though it might not necessarily be the most popular. As in Sixxo’s excellent article on infantry, for organization’s sake I will divide this article into several categories:

Engine
Movement
Combat
Crews
Miscellaneous

The requirements for a naval simulator engine are relatively basic and WWIIOL should have no difficulty matching them. Ships must be able to start, stop, turn and shoot, as well as list when flooded. In addition, some basic physics must be modeled, like a battleship takes longer to turn and change speed than a destroyer.

The movement of ships is one area where problems may arise, especially in maps with a lot of water. Since the average speed of a ship is only about 50 km/h, it can take hours or even days to get on-station.One solution to this is to make the “starting” or “spawn” points close to areas where heavy naval activity is likely.

The command system for movement should be as realistic as possible. The captain/helmsman inputs a course degree (i.e. 165 for 165 degrees on a compass) and the ship will maintain that heading until it runs aground, sinks or receives other orders. The speed adjustment system should be similar, with the helmsman inputting a speed number in knots. The ship will maintain that speed unless other factors, such as damage or flooding, cause the ship’s maximum speed to drop below the requested speed.

All ships, even modern ones, consume some form of oil as fuel (with the exception of nuclear-powered carriers and subs). Ships would either have to return to port and get fuel or refuel at sea from a tanker. All of the ships in WWIIOL should have historical fuel consumption rates and loads. It should also be possible to reduce or cut off the amount of fuel available to one side’s ships through destruction or capture of the storage tanks or tanker ships.

Naval combat in WWIIOL should be as realistic as possible. All of the various weapons should have historical range and accuracy. For ships equipped with guns, there should be the option to either control individual turrets or all the turrets from a fire control station. Some ships, such as patrol boats and destroyers, were equipped with torpedoes. These should be very configurable from the torpedo control station. Players should be able to set the torpedoes for a short, medium or long range run, set the type of spread (narrow, standard, wide) and select the course and run pattern to be taken by the torps.

As with fuel, all the ships should have historical ammunition loads for every weapon, except for light weapons. AA guns should have unlimited ammunition, since enemy pilots will be able to take off, attack, get shot down, respawn then take off again. To limit the amount of ammunition carried by the AA guns would also cause gunners to instinctively try and conserve ammo, which is not historically what happened.

In the case of aircraft carriers, each should have a limited supply of aircraft equipment (bombs, rockets, gun rounds, spare parts etc.) in the form of Supply Units or something similar for simplicity. Each time an aircraft returns to the carrier, the amount of Supply Units it requires to bring it back to 100% efficiency should be calculated and displayed to the Air Boss or a crew member of similar rank. The Air Boss can then decide to use all the necessary Supply Units or to use only a portion of the required amount. If he enters a number less than the required amount, the aircraft may not be equipped with a certain type of weapon, have a reduced ammo load or have some parts damaged.

When a ship bombards the shore, the fire control officer should select the bombardment point on some kind of overhead tactical map. If ground or air forces request bombardment, the point where they want the shells to fall will be shown on the map.

Damage and damage control is one of the areas where WWIIOL can be most innovative. All of the ships should have an assigned number of Damage Control, or DC parties. Each DC party can work on a single compartment of the ship at a time. Larger ships should have more DC parties. In addition, ships that are not using some of their DC parties should be able to transfer them to a ship that doesn’t have enough. The transfer operation should be somewhat tedious and time-consuming to avoid having ships simply throw DC parties around to whoever is damaged. In cases where a ship is immobilized because of damage, other ships should be able to tow the damaged ship back to a port where repairs can commence.

Weapons should do a realistic amount of damage. For example, a 5-inch shell fired from a destroyer is not likely to cause much damage to a battleship. In contrast, a 16-inch shell fired from a battleship is likely to blow a destroyer apart with only one or two hits.

Another interesting damage aspect is the magazine explosion. More than 70% of all ships lost to naval gunfire (I say gunfire because if you hit someone with a Harpoon cruise missile you won’t need to blow the magazine) have actually sunk when one of the magazines (the part of the ship where ammunition for weapons is stored) exploded and blew the ship in half. For this reason, it comes as a shock that a magazine explosion happens so rarely in naval sims (the main naval sim I have played is Great Naval Battles, and I only witnessed a magazine explosion once). It would be interesting to see how CRS models this because, in the early stages of WWII, battleships were still the primary ships-of-the-line and guns were still the primary means of destruction.

“Rank has its privileges. <shrug>
I can see it now. Should anyone be able to take out anything that they felt like then all I can see would be Seaman 3rd Class idiots who just signed on that afternoon and thought it would be a hoot to beach the Graf Spee up the Thames and shell London for a whole day. But of course the RAF would have to destroy it and that would finish off an asset that the Axis side may have needed for a real operation.”

This quote defines my position on the command structure of ships. Only the most experienced naval officers should be able to take out the really important ships. This is even more a necessity for the Axis side, who, if CRS is sticking to real-war conditions, will have a far inferior navy to England and will need to conserve every ship that they can get their hands on. One interesting idea that I saw brought up in the forum (I can’t remember the name offhand, if it’s you E-mail me and I’ll put your name in here in the next revision) is to allow crewman of lesser rank co-command ships, i.e. it would require a minimum of 5 low-ranking players to crew a battleship before it could be taken out.

Since WWIIOL is the first and only sim to have crewable naval vessels, CRS should take full advantage of their lead. Every major position on a ship, from AA gunner to fleet admiral, should be crewable by humans. When there are no humans around to crew a ship or there are vacant positions, the AI crewmembers should kick into action.

WWIIOL will be the first naval simulation to have ships that can be crewed by multiple players. Every major position on a ship, from AA gunner to fleet admiral, should be crewable by humans. When there are no humans around to crew a ship or there are vacant positions, the AI crewmembers should kick into action.

The AI crewmembers shouldn’t be considered just a “placefiller” crew. Instead, they should act like humans, gaining experience as the ship accumulates more time at sea. When a ship is first launched, the AI crew should be very green, and this should be reflected by reducing the accuracy and reload times of weapons as well as the response time to orders given by the captain. As the ship sails, the crew gains experience, and the accuracy of weapons, etc. is increased to above average levels. In this way, as a commander gains experience, this gain is reflected in the overall functioning of the ship.

Players can create their own units and name them. For example, you choose the type of unit (in this case, let's use Cross-service) and a name for the unit (Dragon Flight). Each unit needs a certain amount of players and positions to be filled. When the first player signs on to the unit, it is officially created.

When a naval commander creates a mission, it's broadcast to everybody on their side (they see it on the Available Missions menu, for example). Each mission has to fill up with a certain number of captains, gunners, etc. before it begins (unless otherwise approved by the commander). Nonaffiliated players can join and fill up the crew position slots, OR a player-created unit can sign up and fill one of the units the mission requires (for example, if the mission requires 4 cruiser crews, Dragon Flight can join up and completely fill up one of the cruisers). That way, player-created units can be used efficiently.

When a unit completes a mission, the surviving players get some kind of medal and the unit as a whole gets “mission completed” marked on their record. Units will be ranked in order of successful missions versus total missions attempted. Even if a unit has completed a lower percentage of missions, if they have actually attempted more they will be ranked higher This means that a unit with 35 successful missions out of 40 total will be ranked higher than a unit with 2 successful missions out of 2 total.

Players should be able to make films using a camera that is mounted on the ship’s bridge. The film can be used to review weapon accuracy and to learn about what mistakes the crew made and what they did that was good.

Mines should be able to be laid by minelayer ships, and remain active until the war ends or they are destroyed. Mines will come in two types: contact and magnetic. Contact mines should do the most damage, but they are also the easiest to sweep. Magnetic mines are somewhat unreliable and should occasionally blow up by themselves. Mines will be invisible unless they are detected on sonar.

Radar should be placed on Allied ships larger than cruiser class starting in mid 1940, and on all Allied and German ships of any kind from 1943 onwards. Japanese vessels should have some radar capabilty beginning in late 1943, but their sets should not work well as their American and British counterparts.

Some technologies (like the American proximity fuse and the German radar detectors) should be limited to one country only, not just to one side. To give all of the American and British technologies to the allied side would completely erase the point of being in an American or British naval service, other than out of force of habit. For example, American ship-mounted AA shells should be equipped with proximity fuses, while British ships benefit from the faster fire rate of their main guns thanks to an improved loading system.