Price Scaling

[tavin44]

I love this game and been watching videos..but on youtube people are making battleships at around 150 million...im following exactly what they do and yet my prices are around 650 million...have they increased the prices that much since guides were made with latest patches?

[mlangsdorf]

$150 million is typical for my near dreadnoughts, built in the late 1890 or early 1900s. 25ktons, triple expansion engines, Harvey or K1 armor, and 3x2 11/50 or 4x2 13/50.

$650 million is closer to my super-dreadnoughts in the 1910s. 40 ktons, geared turbines, K3 armor, 4x4 14/53.

It gets worse as the game goes on. My 1930s designs are 75 kton monsters that cost $6 billion or more apiece.

There's not been a lot of difference in cost between v1.4 and v1.5.

[tavin44]

I was watching a video on youtube guy designed a 1930 battleship at around 150 million...i think the video was like a year old tho.citadel 5 armor..krupp 5 and 16 inch guns mark 3

[mlangsdorf]

I can build a $150 million battleship in 1934, but a 25 kton battleship that can only make 15 knots with 7" of main belt armor isn't really viable against battleships from 1910, much less anything even vaguely modern.

I think ships just got a lot more expensive at some point.

[thundercactus]

I recall when 1940s battleships used to be around $600m and now they're upwards of $4bn.
They have scaled up costs substantially.

[Hidden Gunman]

You'd be best to check the date of the clip. That said though, the question you ask on going cheap is 'how long can this ship compete?'.

You have two criteria...will it die easily?, and how long can I continue to upgrade it and keep it competitive?

Some expensive designs can go through three or four upgrade cycles and simply run out of expansion capacity. A ship that can still be effective after twenty years, with a mega experienced crew, is better than a stream of alternatives with green or cadet crews.

Edit: and yes, costs were increased. I cant recall when, though.

[tavin44]

ok thx for replies guys ..1 last question off topic i want to play a full american campaign is it better to start in 1900 and skip the first 10 years because those ship hulls really suck at 1890 lol

[Nitemares]

IF I remember correctly, there was a major change in costs for ships related to time period about 6 months ago, as it created a firestorm on the forums as both ship designs AND countries were thrown out of wack in save games. (meaning countries went broke after just a few turns as their navy costs when from 100s of millions for their fleets to tens of billions over night)


An 1890 start generally means your economy and tech will be move advanced than if you just start in 1900.

And believe it or not, some of those early ship battles can be quite fun and engaging. Yes the ships suck, but so does everyone's, so you end up with is close range furball fights where the first side to land a good hit generally has an advantage.

Also, it helps to train your personal skills of combat awareness if you start on the 1890 side and work your way up as opposed to starting in a more advanced timeline. This can only help you more as things get more complicated as the time line and tech progresses.

[mlangsdorf]

My advice is start in 1890 but don't build horrible BBs or CAs. Build some CLs and TBs. The USA is rich enough to spend a fortune on research, so you can build some of the early dreadnought hulls by 1897. Go to war with Spain in 1899 and your well-designed semi-dreads will blow apart the terrible crap that Spain will throw at you.

But Nitemares is right. Some of the early tech battles are actually quite fun, and learning how to manage TBs with short-ranged torpedoes is useful practice for setting up hammer-and-anvil attacks with real DDs.