Suggestion: Let me select the specific gun (Mk I, II, III and so on) I want on the ship

[melchior]

At the moment, as soon as I research a MK IV gun, and I have Mk III it will automatically upgrade the gun when I try refit a ship, which makes some ships unable to be refitted as the guns wont fit; 3, 4 and 5-inch comes directly to mind.

[Richard Dastardly]

The new marks are usually significantly better though, so it's probably worth sacrificing something else. You can step down a starting size & increase the bore until it's almost the same gun too, as an alternative ( 4.9" vs 5" fx ).

[Mobzonk]

During a refit guns should not be changed unless the player chooses to do so. Then there should be cost and time implications in making the changes. it's currently a bit mad that big main guns can be upgraded in just a 2 month refit at minimal cost.

[melchior]

Why not just give us the choice of selecting the mark?
Perhaps sometimes I just want to add a radar to a ship, and not rearrange the whole main battery.

[[15th] lolpox]

Umm, while I do would like to have something like this, keep in mind that some advancements should not be "reversable", ie the foundry will not produce you inferior quality steel with old technology (for an older mark gun, eg)...

[melchior]

Originally posted by 15th lolpox:

Umm, while I do would like to have something like this, keep in mind that some advancements should not be "reversable", ie the foundry will not produce you inferior quality steel with old technology (for an older mark gun, eg)...

I agree. I change my suggestion to that I should atleast be able to keep the guns on my existing ships, and not downgrade them.

[Aegis270]

Personally, when this happens I just shrug my shoulders and say "Welp, time to build a whole new class". This is largely because I pay close attention to the research, and so I'll wait for any crucial techs to be unlocked following a hull or something before I start building a new class. This means that whenever a new crucial tech comes out, it's often accompanied by enough other new things that it's worth the effort to assemble a new class. I especially wait for the highest grade guns I'm going to get for the immediate future too, since those are the most predictable and are easy to rush if needed.

[CaoLex]

Originally posted by melchior:

Why not just give us the choice of selecting the mark?
Perhaps sometimes I just want to add a radar to a ship, and not rearrange the whole main battery.

Perhaps to make it not abusable to create low tech high tonnage fleet purely for blockading?
I mean, guns influence blockade power, but not that much as you expect and tonage is requirement for blockading.

[Rax Savvage]

i'd love to have access to the old equipment too

1945 steam powered, no jazz , 18 inch mk3 guns
just cause that speaks to our broken mind

[munroburton]

Originally posted by Mobzonk:

During a refit guns should not be changed unless the player chooses to do so. Then there should be cost and time implications in making the changes. it's currently a bit mad that big main guns can be upgraded in just a 2 month refit at minimal cost.

It seems mad, but that is because big main guns are not connected to the hull. They're lowered into there by cranes and sit upon roller bearings. When a warship capsizes, its main turrets just drops out and sink like the loose bricks they are.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/013958a.jpg

So it's a bit counter-intuitive but the big main guns are therefore among the quickest parts to change. Historically navies also designed and planned for quick upgunning, for example double 16" turrets which had the same external diameter as triple 14"s. Or triple 6"s and double 8"s.

[Haytor]

Agree - I wouldn't want any upgrades done other than what I intended - I mean a full set of modern guns &c must cost a zillion pounds, i may just want to tweak a minor thing.

[Haytor]

Originally posted by NoJustNo:

In Kriegsmarine some ships had no provisions for fixing turrets in place, in other navies they had them.
http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-118.php
Not like it was very hard to dismantle, should the turret needed to be removed.

Anyway, I think old guns should no longer be possible to produce once they become obsolete, but should be an option for simply keeping the old guns in place.
More than one ship never had her guns updated even if she was given new fire controls.

And some ships were built using old guns that just happened to be lying around...

[rossi191]

Originally posted by melchior:

At the moment, as soon as I research a MK IV gun, and I have Mk III it will automatically upgrade the gun when I try refit a ship, which makes some ships unable to be refitted as the guns wont fit; 3, 4 and 5-inch comes directly to mind.

it would be nice to be able to use older guns on ships would be a way to keep costs down its also historically accurate not all ships had the most modern gun fitted to them