Would like to join, if I may

[Laertes]

Um... hi. I've always been bad at introductions, so please forgive me.

My name is Ernst. I'm a Londoner of New Zealand / South African / German ancestry (with a few more in there as you go more distantly into the past). I'm an experienced GM. I trained as a physicist, worked in finance, and am now unemployed.

I'm a fairly decent cartographer, if it matters.

I found Springsharp through the Hearts of Iron 3 boards, and through it, you guys. This thing looks *exactly* like what I'd like to do, it really does. My black little accountant's heart is pulsating with joy.

Do you need more players? If not, do you need semi-autonomous naval engineering consultancy firms or similar?

[Guinness]

Welcome! We can always use players.

That said, we're in the middle of a quiet resorting of sorts, so I can't say today exactly which nations will be open when we turn the page from 1919 to 1920. I should be able to know for sure in about a week.

Until that time, feel free to have a look around, and if you are eager and would like to play with springsharp a bit, have a look at our shipbuilding rules and guidelines and feel free to post some speculative ships. Maybe if you'd like the play the part of a naval architecture consultant for the time being, you might propose a ship or two to specific navies you think might need the design or the inspiration?

Also feel free to PM the mods (myself and Maddox are the active mods at this time) if you have questions. I hope to be able to PM you an updated list of availabilities in no more than 5 or 6 days.

[Laertes]

I've been playing with Springsharp for about a week now, I think I've gotten the hang of it (although my Recoil values are always too high, but that probably comes of top-heavy overgunned designs).

As for posting stuff, what's the current tech level? I assume New Swiss, French, etc. naval technology is somewhat in advance of OTL, but since there seems to be no equivalent to the Washington Treaty / London Treaty / Cleito Treaty, the drive towards CVs and CAs might not occur.

(Unless players act like little munchkins, which they inevitably will.)

I'm overwhelmed by the amount of data right now. I might need to take a while to let it sink in.

[Guinness]

As for posting stuff, what's the current tech level? I assume New Swiss, French, etc. naval technology is somewhat in advance of OTL, but since there seems to be no equivalent to the Washington Treaty / London Treaty / Cleito Treaty, the drive towards CVs and CAs might not occur.

In the rules you'll find a tech tree for naval tech and one for army/airforce tech. Every nation will have accomplished a different set of techs on the tree. The most industrialized nations are generally the leaders in tech as well, which should be no surprise.

There is no comprehensive arms control treaty in the Nverse, though many nations have signed the Richmond Treaty which limits only the size of warships. You can find that in the treaties section.

I'm overwhelmed by the amount of data right now. I might need to take a while to let it sink in.

That's normal. A few days to get up to speed is normal to be sure.

[Laertes]

In the rules you'll find a tech tree for naval tech and one for army/airforce tech. Every nation will have accomplished a different set of techs on the tree. The most industrialized nations are generally the leaders in tech as well, which should be no surprise.

There is no comprehensive arms control treaty in the Nverse, though many nations have signed the Richmond Treaty which limits only the size of warships. You can find that in the treaties section.

Thank you.

[snip]

Welcome! If you want some help with springsharp, I am more then happy to lend my experience, however limited it may be compared to some of the members here.

[miketr]

The Iberian Crusaders are always looking for new victi....  I mean new nations to have relations with.

;)

Welcome to the game!  Feel free to ask questions.

As Guinness said we are in a low right now.  We had medium / small war fought in Africa and a large one is being fought in China so this is sucking some of the air out of the game right now.  Now my own thought is this is a good time for a new person looking to join.  As you can get up to speed without any real time pressure.

Again welcome.

Michael

[snip]

victims...im close to you...and im tiny...(starts loading mines onto ships)

[Borys]

As for posting stuff, what's the current tech level? I assume New Swiss, French, etc. naval technology is somewhat in advance of OTL, but since there seems to be no equivalent to the Washington Treaty / London Treaty / Cleito Treaty, the drive towards CVs and CAs might not occur.
(Unless players act like little munchkins, which they inevitably will.)

Yes, players are munckins :)
And yes - there is no Washington Treaty. There was an attempt at one, but it was  boycotted by several major nations.
However, economics should cap battleships at around 45K tonnes.
Borys

[Logi]

Well certain players anyways ;)

But you joined in at a ripe time, lots of time for you to catch up and get accustomed to the sim, it's been going a lot slower, courtesy of moi and the Chinese War of Unification.

I've been playing with Springsharp for about a week now, I think I've gotten the hang of it (although my Recoil values are always too high, but that probably comes of top-heavy overgunned designs).

Remedy with tinkering with the beam and Bc values. But I note, careful about the space constraints of a ship, something SS doesn't always address. ;)

As for posting stuff, what's the current tech level? I assume New Swiss, French, etc. naval technology is somewhat in advance of OTL, but since there seems to be no equivalent to the Washington Treaty / London Treaty / Cleito Treaty, the drive towards CVs and CAs might not occur.

As for the leaders of tech, the line is something blurred due to technological trading that is widespread within the N-Verse. The leaders do not lead by much, the rest tail somewhat closely behind, but there are a few nations that are very backwards in terms of technology.

As for the naval inclinations. I find the world split into European and Pacific fleets. The European is geared towards very large ships, heavy firepower, armor, low speed. The Pacific generally runs in a sort of battlecruiser world with the occasionally overgrown cruiser through in.

Anyways, welcome! ;)

[Laertes]

Welcome! If you want some help with springsharp, I am more then happy to lend my experience, however limited it may be compared to some of the members here.

I'm learning a lot from simming historical ships, and developing my own - entirely irrational - likes and dislikes. For some reason, I've become very fond of the RN-style raised forecastle, rather than the flush hull which SS seems to prefer.

The Iberian Crusaders are always looking for new victi....  I mean new nations to have relations with.

The cruellest fate for a warship is to die in the breaker's yard. If I build a navy, I want to use it. As the Navy say, all we ask for is a willing foe and sea room.

Welcome to the game!  Feel free to ask questions.

As Guinness said we are in a low right now.  We had medium / small war fought in Africa and a large one is being fought in China so this is sucking some of the air out of the game right now.  Now my own thought is this is a good time for a new person looking to join.  As you can get up to speed without any real time pressure.

Yeah, it seems to be that way. I was wondering if I should be cheeky and ask to poach Gran Colombia, but that might be a little too much like jumping in at the deep end.

Regarding the China war, given that this is a Naval sim, surely a land war can be hand-waved. "There are several years of war. Millions die. The richer country wins. The end. Let's skip to the part where fleet actions are involved." Or am I missing out on something?

victims...im close to you...and im tiny...(starts loading mines onto ships)

Assymmetrical warfare is something to be admired on land, but at sea, one should be chivalrous.

Yes, players are munckins :)

Ahoj! You're preaching to the choir. I'm so used to forcing players to be at least slightly fluffy, that when I'm not GMming, I end up being absurdly non-optimal. Most of my Springsharp designs have freeboards divisible by 7 feet, for instance, because there's nothing worse than a ship not evenly divisible into decks.

And yes - there is no Washington Treaty. There was an attempt at one, but it was  boycotted by several major nations.
However, economics should cap battleships at around 45K tonnes.

I wasn't planning on building 1920-tech SHBBs (fun though the idea is...). I've always had a soft spot for treaty cruisers - those ridiculously overpowered CAs, carefully minmaxed to get them under the tonnage threshold - and am slightly disappointed that, absurd as they were, they aren't playing a part in the N-verse.

Also, IMHO, historically the Washington Treaty, and especially the later London treaty, were massively important in redirecting people into CV research. Without it, the whole carrier vs battleship aspect of the pacific war may not have occurred, and we might have battlewagons to this day.

But you joined in at a ripe time, lots of time for you to catch up and get accustomed to the sim, it's been going a lot slower, courtesy of moi and the Chinese War of Unification.

China has one of those every century or so, don't they? Just like Spain has a civil war every century in OTL.

Remedy with tinkering with the beam and Bc values. But I note, careful about the space constraints of a ship, something SS doesn't always address.

Stuff grows to fill the space available, as Parkinson might have said had he been an engineer and not a bureaucrat. I tend to put in 80-200 tons misc to anything CA or bigger, and avoid "cramped" space, just because I don't want to be designing to the simulation rather than the world the simulation is attempting to simulate.

I don't know if that last sentence made sense.

As for the leaders of tech, the line is something blurred due to technological trading that is widespread within the N-Verse. The leaders do not lead by much, the rest tail somewhat closely behind, but there are a few nations that are very backwards in terms of technology.

So if I jump in with 1920-style stuff, I won't be laughed out of court?

I'm looking through what the fleets here have, incidentally, and *christ*, the N-verse has a high average speed. Or is that a misperception?

As for the naval inclinations. I find the world split into European and Pacific fleets. The European is geared towards very large ships, heavy firepower, armor, low speed. The Pacific generally runs in a sort of battlecruiser world with the occasionally overgrown cruiser through in.

Pacific sounds a lot more fun, then.

Anyways, welcome!

Thank you.

[Guinness]

Lots of inline quotes. I'll try to hit some high points:

China War: This has already settled down to be the Nverse equivalent of the World War 1, at least a lot of us see it that way. Most Nverse wars last only 6 months, and we haven't really had trench warfare on a large scale until now. So it's somewhat important, I think, for the development of our timeline in the future. It is a naval sim, but there are lots of Army enthusiasts here too. Also, unlike Wesworld, we do sim battles and whole wars instead of simply scripting them, though I hope to get the Chinese war under control in the future by at least partially scripting it just to keep things moving.

Available nations: GC might certainly end up being among the choices, but most of the time we prefer to start new players in something smaller* at least until they've cut their teeth on the ruleset and Nverse history, etc. You did arrive at a good time in this regard, as we're already working on reseeding players as it were.

Tech and ship conventions: We have somewhat delayed the rise of the aircraft as a weapon of war, due to it's lack of exercise. However, both of 1919's wars have seen significant use of aircraft, so I expect that aircraft development will now logically pick up in the Nverse. It is in anticipation of that that we're recasting the rules for aircraft acquisition and maintenance starting in 1920. There is an aircraft carrier tech which governs when a flat decked carrier can be developed, etc. As far as speed is concerned: without the Royal Navy around to drive so much convention in our universe, many prevailing ship attributes are somewhat different here. Some types tend to be slower than expected, some faster. Also, unlike OTL 1920, "cruisers" are all over the map, including some very large, very fast "light battlecruisers", which several of us have tinkered with. I personally am quite looking forward to some of those concepts being tested in (simulated) battle.

*Says the guy who once started out in one of the Nverse's 5 biggest industrial powers before downgrading later.

[snip]

Assymmetrical warfare is something to be admired on land, but at sea, one should be chivalrous.

When one has a navy limited to 5 surface units over 500 tons, one needs as many force multipliers as possible.

[Logi]

China has one of those every century or so, don't they? Just like Spain has a civil war every century in OTL.

No, OTL it had a continuous civil war for a whole century. Chinese Civil Wars don't come often, but when it happens, it is very very bloody. The OTL Civil War was longer due to the relative power and number of factions involved.

So if I jump in with 1920-style stuff I won't be laughed out of court?

Depends on what you are bring up, but should not.

I'm looking through what the fleets here have, incidentally, and *christ*, the N-verse has a high average speed. Or is that a misperception?

You are probably looking at Pacific ships.

[snip]

I think by the end of this war, Ireland's population will have died at least once. My army has already been killed several times over!