Modifying Historical Ships

If this option is enabled in the game options, you can now modify the design.

The design editor is extremely simple and intuitive to use. Just a few mouse clicks is all it takes to modify a design.

A design consists of a small number of design factors: the type of ship (eg, whether it is a battleship, cruiser, submarine etc); the size of the ship (which is a scaling factor for its type); the number and calibre of the main guns; the quantity of secondary/tertiary weapons; the amount of heavy armour; the hull structural strength and extent of light protection and compartmentation; the maximum speed, and the amount of fuel for cruising.

The design factors are relative factors. For example, a "Calibre" factor of 2 for a size 2 battleship means something different for a size 3 battleship, or of course, for a cruiser or escort of any size.

The screen lets you set any of these variables with one mouse click. As any factor is increased or reduced, the ship's fighting capability in the chosen area will be increased or lowered, as will the ship's full load tonnage. You can see the ship design details change as you change any of the factors.

The factors are largely self-explanatory; but there is detailed information available on each of them if you want to know more. See ship design factors for more information.

Let's take an example of modifying an historical design - we will be upgunning the King George V class - just as Churchill had wanted - with 10 * 15 inch guns instead of the 10 * 14 inch guns it actually carried.

Pictured below is the ship summary for the King George V class:

And here is the set of design factors that makes up this design:

To give the ship 15 inch guns instead of 14 inch, just increase the "Calibre" factor by 1. That's it. It is as simple as that. The ship now has 10 * 15 inch guns. You will see from the updated summary that some other details of the ship have also changed:

The changes are as follows:

The ship class is no longer the "King George V". The computer has given the modified design a default name of "Medium Battleship". You can change this class name to anything you like - so long as it is unique - by typing in a suitable name in the "Class" text box. In the example below, the name of "Modified KGV" has been given to the new design:

The default name is now "Jellicoe", which is a name chosen by the computer. As explained in naming ships, you can change this name to another by selecting another suggested name, or just typing in your own choice of name.
The full load tonnage has increased by almost 100 tonnes.
The structural strength of the ship has increased very slightly
But the cruising range for the now heavier ship has been slightly reduced.

These changes illustrate an important fact about ship design - everything is a trade-off. As capability increases, so does tonnage: "you can not get a quart out of a pint pot", as the saying goes. To keep tonnage the same, you have to reduce some other design factor or factors.

Escort specialisations

Escort ships are a special case. They have an additional factor to denote if the design is "general purpose", i.e., able to carry out any function reasonably well, or is specialised for anti-submarine, anti-aircraft, minelaying and sweeping, or as a torpedo-attack vessel.

See escort specialisations for more information.

By default, escorts are general purpose (or "GP"). If you decide to specialise, the vessel's capability in the chosen area is doubled, and halved in all other areas.

As soon as you decide to build any ship to this new design, the design details will be saved as a template for you to use later. The illustration below shows the "Modified KGV" has been added as a battleship class to select at any time in the future in the current campaign. (Your own designs are not saved from one campaign to the next however).

If you are now completely happy with the modification, and have enough resources, you are ready to build the ship..