Player launched ships

[AKP]

This is a great idea! Maybe have CVE groups that spawn at ports as well with the main CV groups. And have these CVE groups the ability to spawn the Destroyer Escorts and such? All the while we would not be able to spawn our ships from the CV groups though.... It would give us a rather interesting reason to have CVE's and to protect them. heh

But we would have to say limit the AA to 40's and 20's please. I dont wana see many mobile flak boats owning the shore. heh

We must expand on this great idea.

Hmmm.... not sure about them spawning from a task group of any kind.  Picture this.  You are in your TBM, or even a low level bomber making your attack run on the CVE.  All of a sudden... out of the sea.... rises at 300' long destroyer right in front of you!!!!  BLAM!  You crash right into the side of it!

It's kindof "Flying Dutchman-esque" if ya ask me.   

Seriously though... I can buy a tank popping up suddenly where there wasnt one before.  Hey... It could have popped out from behind a rock, or a shrubbery    But a destroyer popping up out of nowhere?  Let them pop up out of shipyards in the ports.

[thndregg]

Might be an overall idea worth HTC's time to play with.

[RipChord929]

AKP, I understand your point about the Dutchman'esq deal... But GV's already do it...
And if the DD's would spawn, say 400yds astern of the carrier, and everybody knows it...
It shouldn't be a prob... That would leave your broadside torp drop open too...
And if a player wanted to position his DD to block torps? I say, for takin a hit for the team!!!

Hmmm, just thinkin, I haven't run a low level buff run on a carrier in years...(since I was new)
Pure suicide!!! If the boat has gunners, ya never even get close!!!  Why give'em freebies...?

As far as the Ack platform deal... US DD's were very good at that!!! Just check some of the
fights by DD's against Kamikazi planes, on the Radar picket line N of Okinawa... Absolutely heroic!

They would work very well for escorting LVT's close to shore... NO MORE LVT straffing freebies!!!
They were used for this very purpose many times!!! On Omaha Beach, things were stalled, until
2 DD's cruised up close, and pinpoint shelled German positions.... Then things finally broke loose!
There are numerous other examples as well...

Besides, if ya have a gaggle of DD's movin in on your CVgroup, I'd want some DD's to fight them off..

Baldy is right, we'd do just fine w the DD's in game already.. They have everything needed, and
less work for the makers..

There are so many +'s to this idea..  It'd be great!

Oh yeah, another idea.. PTboats carrying troops, drop'em at the shoreline..

RC

[AKP]

AKP, I understand your point about the Dutchman'esq deal... But GV's already do it...
And if the DD's would spawn, say 400yds astern of the carrier, and everybody knows it...
It shouldn't be a prob... That would leave your broadside torp drop open too...
And if a player wanted to position his DD to block torps? I say, for takin a hit for the team!!!

A fixed spawn point might not be too bad then...

Hmmm, just thinkin, I haven't run a low level buff run on a carrier in years...(since I was new)
Pure suicide!!! If the boat has gunners, ya never even get close!!!  Why give'em freebies...?

Hehe... I do it all the time in the 25H.  I dont always make it out, but I almost always make it in.  <100' off the deck, 75mm cannon.  I can score 2 or 3 hits before I have to start worrying about dodging flak.  But when I do it I just have to make sure I have my mae west ready to go!  I have about a 50/50 ratio on making it out after 1 low level run.  Plane is missing a lot of parts if I get back though, so I am sure it really annoys my ground crews.

[Grape]

  SHIPS that I could drive!!! Wow, that would be cool. I would not mind spawning from a port and then setting a heading, going AFK to make dinner and coming back just in time to be in the fight. Of course, spawning in close would be better when I don't have to be AFK for a long period. I like, I like...HTC do this, NOW!!

[RipChord929]

This is my game PC desktop...
Says it all for me... A group of Kickazz ships, sliding silently thru a stormy night..
"Give me a fast ship, for I intend to go in harms way!!!"

[macerxgp]

The minute you spelled kickass with two z's you killed every iota of interest I once had in this concept.

Besides, look at it this way.


LCA. With DD's.


Scared yet?

[Spikes]

BE...here's something for you to think about...if a member of a squad spawns the CVE...the squad is able to up from it, but noone else. If the player doesn't have a squad, then only a select number of people can up from it (2-3?) The commander can also close the deck.

[BaldEagl]

If everyone so far agrees on starting with the existing DD's, creating a new scoring/stat category and using bomber type gun convergence then the biggest issue at this point is how/where to spawn.  I think a port should always be an option but I like the idea of spawning at least somewhere near an existing task force too.  What if you were able to spawn at the outer edge of a task force radar ring choosing N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W or NW and it would place you at that location on the outer edge.  Of course, if that location is on land or too close to shore that option would have to be closed so there would be a bit of coding to be done to make that happen.  Imagine setting up a defensive ring of DD's around your CV task force.

I'm now less inclined to have mid ocean spawns as that would likely lead to DD/PT spawn camping.

I'm glad to hear that there's support for the idea.  Thanks to all who have made suggestions.

[SAS_KID]

BE...here's something for you to think about...if a member of a squad spawns the CVE...the squad is able to up from it, but noone else. If the player doesn't have a squad, then only a select number of people can up from it (2-3?) The commander can also close the deck.

Or how about a CVE can be upped for a perk price. But only have it allow squad members to use?

Or allow anyone to up from the CVE but you have to join the CVE driver first?

And of course CVE's would only carry the light fighters and Bombers I.E. F4F-4 and a B5N, etc.

Edit: But of course the CVE driver could close the flight deck or open it.

[BaldEagl]

I was just doing some reading and it seems that the CVL's were built on cruiser hulls and were able to keep up with the task forces where the CVE's were build on much thinner merchant hulls and were much slower.

Regardless, the CVE/CVL's could carry 20-30 aircraft whereas the CV's could carry 80-90.
 
If in a typical AH CV fight 10-15 guys are upping off the CV (just a guess) then a CVE/CVL should only allow 1/4-1/3 that of a typical CV in-game, or 2-5 aircraft max assuming my 10-15 number is correct.  There also needs to be a limitation to prevent these things from being everywhere thus my initial thoughts of 2-3 aircraft.

The CVE/CVL's are also much more lightly defended than the CV's, so would need aircraft protection to stay in-play.  This, along with CVE/CVL ord limitations for fighters, somewhat offsets the ability to create too much havok around the arena.

I also think that if someone ups a CVE/CVL then the commander should not be allowed to fly.  He needs to stay with and command the ship and man the guns.

As far as who gets to fly off one I would think it should be by request/accept or invite/accept up to the limit (lets just say 3 for now) of available aircraft.

A couple of other intersting things could be done with this; the commander could allow only specific aircraft to be used for instance.  He could accept or decline a request to land from someone not based off his ship which may have ramifications to those already flying off of it (inability to land or an imposed time delay to land for instance).

Anyway, this is getting much too complicated for an initial implementation but I could really see this aspect of the game developed in the future and I'd bet a lot of people would have a lot of fun with it.

[SAS_KID]

Now perk wise how would it work for the ship commander with the aircraft and such? and would LVT's be able to be launched from these CVE's/L's?

[dunnrite]

My only question is do the cve/cvl's have enough length for our fighters to take off?  Or would a "catapult" have to be coded in?

[BaldEagl]

My only question is do the cve/cvl's have enough length for our fighters to take off?  Or would a "catapult" have to be coded in?

The flight decks are about half the length of a CV so I suspect only the lighter fighters would be able to get off and even they may "dip" off the end of the flight deck.

[LLogann]

The game does need some new ideas!  This ain't bad.