What is the point of upgrading ports?

[Creeper Loco]

I upgraded my port and I couldnt create a new fleet from it.

[Lakel]

As is, port levels 1, 2, and 4 do nothing but increase your bases passive spotting range, to a lesser degree than the airfield. Port level 3 adds the ability for the port to re-arm your ships, level 5 is needed to release ships, and I am unsure if you are allowed to order new ships from there.

[boris.glevrk]

You are not. New ships can only be acquired from home port. The port upgrade is indeed only useful for rearm and release.

[Steeltrap]

From the Manual, page 53:

Home Ports: are the only locations where friendly ships may be recruited and new resources arrive.

Be nice if that were included somewhere in the Campaign Summary as a significant proportion of players seem never to read the manual. I don't meant that latter as a criticism, simply an observation.

[andyadams]

What about recruiting released ships that are being repaired, do you have to do that back at home base as well?

[Steeltrap]

Originally posted by andyadams:

What about recruiting released ships that are being repaired, do you have to do that back at home base as well?

I expect the restriction is absolute, so no, you couldn't.

If you want to repair a ship elsewhere, you'd have to leave it still counting against your command points so it wouldn't need to be recruited. I figure in that case you'd get it at the port in which it's being repaired.

Which makes me think if you had managed for some crazy reason to upgrade Port Moresby to level 5 and released ships there you could recruit them again at the home port immediately if they didn't need repairs.

Instant teleport! Not that anyone's going to get PM to Lvl 5 at 100 oil and engineers per week.

[A-Train]

I think seaplanes should be added to ports, with number supported and size related to the port's rating.

Level 2 should be able to replenish SS and DD. Level 3 CL, Level 4 CA, and Level 5 BB and CV.

Repair ability should also be tied in (largest ship type indicated):

Level 1: 2 single-engine seaplanes - Moderate damage repair for SS and DDs.
Level 2: 4 single-engine seaplanes - Heavy damage repair for SS and DD (small drydock)
Level 3: 4 seaplanes (multi-engine) - Critical damage repair for CL (medium drydock)
Level 4: 6 seaplanes (multi-engine) - Critical damage repair for CA (large drydock)
Level 5: 8 seaplanes (multi-engine) - Critical damage repair for BB & CVs (largest drydock)

Destroyed compartments would require a ship to be released for a period of time for it to sail to a "Home" country (Australia, Japan, USA [Pearl Harbor or San Francisco]) then return - depending on the size and number of destroyed compartments/systems.

[JAKeller]

I realize this discussion is a bit old, but I've always argued that ports should have an intrinsic MTB value based on the port size. (All nations in WWII had them) After all, it's those local patrol boats that represent spotting in the first place. What this should do is that if an enemy ship is within the port range of a location, there is a probability (small but non-zero) that one of your ships would take some damage from those intrinsic local patrol torpedo boats. It'd be a way to include such tiny boats into WOTS without directly modeling them, and would provide an incentive to steer clear of the port spotting range of locations unless you're serious about invasion or bombardment.

[japp_02]

Upgrade your airfields, not your ports. You will need plane coverage to make a good campaign. The game will now reward you with 3 CPs per port level, but those are peanuts.
The only time I upgrade ports is if I really need to defend a location against enemy troops, every upgrade gives me +20% defense bonus, or if a port is very well placed to rearm ships (then I upgrade to level 3). Other than that it's not worth upgrading ports, also because you must launch all your new created fleets from your homebase.

This is true for the vanilla game, with major mods it may be totally different.