Ship Construction and Upkeep

[P3D]

WARSHIP CONSTRUCTION

To lay down a warship from scratch, an empty slipway or drydock long enough to hold your warship is required. An oversized slipway can be used if so desired. Also, one must be in possession of all the required technology to build the vessel at the time it is laid down. This is especially true for machinery equipment, as it is placed in the hull relatively early. Leaving the engineering space empty for later installation would require dismantling the higher part of the hull, removing the armored plates, and riveting the hull together again. Which is basically a complete rebuild. The same is true for large caliber guns and gun mounts. Although they are installed relatively late on the warship, they are long lead time items. A large caliber gun usually took several months to build. Also, any change in the guns and gun mountings usually cause further redesigns and would add to the cost of the ship.

Ship cost in $ equals SS2 GBP cost x10

Ships purchased from abroad cost 25% more to maintain and refit/repair, due to the foreign fittings and machinery. Exception is if the relevant technology was adapted by the country (e.g. Japan and the Kongou) .

The financial construction cost of a ship must be paid when either when the ship is laid down, or at the rate BP is spent on the ship.

Building of a ship takes up a considerable part of nations heavy industrial capacity. 1BP equals 1000t of light displacement, thus a ship of 20000t displacement requires 20BP to build.
Work advances on a warship at the maximum rate of 1,000 tons a month. To get 6,000 tons of material into a warship in half a year, a nation will need 6 BP for that one warship. Once a warship is 40-50% complete the warship is launched. One month is needed to clear up the slipway before another warship could be started on that same slipway. Once the warship is launched it is undergoing fitting out till the warship is ready to start its shakedown cruise. Note no time on a ships production lost during launching.

A ship usually takes 9 plus its BP cost in months to build. Small ships, up to 500t, take six months to finish.

Ship building time
Table 1.1
30,001 to 50,000t - 40 months to 59 months
10,001 to 30,000t - 20 months to 39 months
2,501 to 10,000t - 13 months to 19 months
501 to 2,500t - 10 months to 12 months
Up to 500t - 6 months

Shake down time = 3 months

Ship construction can also be expedited, reducing build time by 1/3, but at the expense of other ships, and problems associated with the hasty construction.

UPKEEP

Wartime/readyness:The ships' is ready to leave port on a short notice, and spends a lot of time on patrols and exercise.
Upkeep is 5% its construction cost per half year, paid in $ (no BP cost associated with upkeep)
Active: The ship is on the active fleet list, but spends most of its time in harbor, taking part only in the occasional patrol or exercise. Upkeep 2.5% construction cost per half year
Reserve: The ship is staying in a protected anchorage, its equipment is conserved, with a minimal maintenance to preserve its state. is 0.5% its construction cost per half year


OVERHAUL
To mainitain combat effectiveness, every ten years the ship has to go through a checkup. This costs 10% of SS value, and requeries 3 months in Dry Dock for ships 6000 tonnes light or smaller. Larger vessels need to be drydocked for 6 months. This restores ship to "as good as new" status.

REPAIRING DAMAGE

During battles, ship sustain damage, detailed by the moderators, which affect their combat capability, survivability and endurance. Damage is expressed in BP and $ cost needed for repair, the latter might be given as a percentage, but the BP cost for repair is zero unless mentioned.

Repair cost and repair time is the same percentage of the build time and build cost as the damage.
If battle damage is over 50%, the repair also count as a refit. Any ship damaged more than 30% can be refitted during repair assuming a similar 50% damage.
E.g. a 15000t battleship has suffered a damage of 50% and 2BP. Repair cost is $7.5 and 2BP, repair time is 1 year.
A 6000t cruiser suffered 40% damage. Repair would cost $2.4, and take 6 months, but the Admiralty decides to refit it instead, for $3, which would take 7.5 months.

SCRAPPING

At some point in time the time has come to just scrap a ship, perhaps its so old and out dated its not worth rebuilding. Perhaps its so badly damaged its not work repairing. In any event a ship can be scrapped at any port at 4 times the build rate, this costs no industrial capacity to do. If you wish to save parts for future use talk to the moderator about your design to figure out exactly what can be saved.

After a ship has been scrapped the scrapping nation receives 15% of the ships cost in BP and money.

[P3D]

Cheap patrol ships/AMC/troop transports/CVE/etc. built to merchant standards.

The ships costs 1/4th of the total SS price to build. The Springsharp indicated weight of non-VTE machinery, armament and armor is to be paid from BP. Plus $ at rate of 1$ per 1000 tonnes of machinery, armament and armour.

So, if a 1000 tons merchant hull has 200 tons of armor, weapons and turbines included, the 200 tons (in this case 20%) of the indicated pricetag has to be paid from the military budget BP and $,
PLUS the 1/4$ of the Springsharp indicated pricetag for the ship.

Restrictions on merchant based warships.
No Torpedo bulkheads.
Armor not thicker than 1".
Single screw propelled.
Guns not larger than 6"
Hull strenght 1.0 or higher.

Exceptions and/or strange idea's have to be discussed by the moderators. No SS files of these oddballs can be posted in fleet sections before approval.
Expect generally inferior performance in combat situations in comparison to warships.



Passenger liner capacity

To determine the passenger capacity of a liner, a specific miscellaneous weight must be set aside like in the following example:

17500tons of misc weight is:
8.50t / 1st class cabin passenger .........800 passengers = 6800tons
4.25t / 2nd class cabin passenger.........1000 passengers = 4250tons
1.75t / Steerage passenger......................2200 passengers = 3850tons
Total passengers.......................................4000 passengers = 14900tons
Cargo = 1500tons
Extras inc wireless & more seaboats = 1000tons
or
16000tons = 8000soldiers
1000tons = cargo
400tons = more seaboats and Wireless

.

[P3D]

Riverboat construction

Small gunboats - up to 200t displacement - for inland lakes and rivers can be constructed without any dedicated infrastructure. Their BP cost is halved to reflect construction using local material (wood).

For larger vessels, a level 0 harbor and slipway must be built on the river/lake.

[P3D]

The international standard for foreign trades is $. Whatever currency it signifies. BP is considered the limit of heavy building capacity of a nation, thus cannot be traded.

Old ships can be sold for pure $ or bartered. You cannot trade raw Build Points, You have to exchange a finished product for another finished product, no shipping of structural steel plates overseas that are even made to the wrong specifications, has nonstandard thickness, and generally unknown quality.
Finished products are complete ships, rails, artillery ammunition, or some ship component like guns, machinery and armor plates.

The Nation who ordered the ship provides the money required to lay the ship down, plus whatever profits the money-hungry shipyards and navies insist on.

To keep it simple, the profit goes directly into the military budget of the builder nation.

[Borys]

KEPT FOR REFERRENCE UNTIL NEW RULE HAMMERED OUT

REFIT AND RECONSTRUCTION
The combat ability of any ship degrades and time and technology advances. A refit is needed every 10 years (starting from commissioning/end of previous refit). This covers all modifications to keep a ship up-to-date (e.g. increasing gun elevation). But in needs a drydock to check the hull and repair accumulated underwater damage.
Installing new major changes that does not require moving bulkheads could be done at no extra coast at refit/repair, but must be paid separately (new turrets, new engines, new armor, installing fire control etc).

Refit cost only money (No BP), 20% of ship cost. Any new compoents must be paid separately.
If not done during a refit, installing major component cost is 5% the ship price plus any additional component cost.

Refitting time is 3 months below 500t, 6 months below 6000t, 12 months over 6000t and 18 months over 33000t.

Machinery must be replaced after 32 years if a vessel is kept longer in commission (i.e. during third refit).

If moving bulkheads and changing the hull is necessary, the cost is 25% in $ and 10% in BP of the original ship, plus the cost of the new components. Reconstruction time is 25% of the original ship plus 1 month for each 1000t of equipment installed - or the refit time, whichever is longer.

Refitting with Fire Control: $0.5 (and the 5% cost unless done during a refit) or $0.25 for destroyers. Ships built with FC does not have this extra cost.

Ship component production cost
1000t costs 1BP regardless of component type
Armor steel: 1000t armor cost $1 (unchanged)
Guns, Machinery, complete gun mounts (turrets, gun+armor+hoists etc.), functional misc. weight: 1000t cost $2 (unchanged)
Shipbuilding 'general steel': 1000t cost $0.5.

Transition from the previous 15-year rule
Ships commissioned in 1897 and earlier (that were soon due to refit by the old rules) must undergo a refit ASAP, otherwise their combat ability would be affected.