if WWII was a game. were the U boats a balanced factor?

his mind is blank in regards to USEFUL information (for the most part), but if you want a debate focused on something that is not the topic , to have him lambaste you in regards to a comment he is using out of context, use comparisons that only fit his ideas, or talk about you being in love with your mother, he's prolly up for it!

wait who said that? *looks around*

Anyway I am all for disrupting trade, nothing like hurting the enemy in their bank accounts! I like the idea of having a harassing fleet that does hit and run tactics.

I must agree with Multianna on this that it will depend on the game. This if for the simple reason that races will develop a certain doctrine regarding fleet load outs. By this I mean fleets centered around Battleships and fleets centeared around carriers and/or something else not yet discovered. Space being HUGE, it is utterly possible that a race will have evolved similarly to us and based their fleet around Battleships with effective fighter cover. Given the distance in space to travel from one fleet to another(interfleet combat) fighters/bombers would be sitting ducks for quite some time before reaching an enemy fleet. It would seem that Battleships would have an edge here, but it all depends on what the devs make the make to be.

As for Bismarck being a Battlecruiser, this is wrong. It was a Super-battleship. It was bigger more heavily armored and faster then a standard battleship( with maybe a small exception to it deck armor). The Hood and Prince of Wales, the ships it fought originally were Battlecruisers. Battleships are Firepower, armor, speed. Battlecruisers are firepower, speed, armor. The Bismarck was revolutionary because it had all three. If you had to rate it it might be something like a 9 fore firepower, 9 for speed, and 8 for armor( or some similar ratings for the ship).

The only thing that could destroy it were in fact airplanes. This is why we humans favor airpower over raw power. At WWII it was thought that Battleships would lead and Carriers would support( anti-air and some support for land based units). When outdated bombers could destroy the most advanced and deadly Battleship ever constructed, it was the end to a Battleship lead combined fleet and the dawn of the carrier as a fleet flagship. In space that may change, who knows.

One indicator would be if the devs allow for Carriers(CV) and Light Carriers(LCV). LCVs are purely for a support role. If they have those, then it would seem that it is possible for a battleship centered fleet. I know that the way I play homeworld is all about the BBs and BCs. I think it is the complex mod that takes off ship cap and puts in an officer and crew pool. That option allows for a player to tailor a carrirer fleet or a BB fleet. I just go with a BB fleet since hte fighters in Homeworld are so weak. I stock my fleet with great anti-fighter coverage and send out my BBs and BCs.

I guess the questions are; how deadly will the devs make fighters, what level of anti-fighter tech will there be, and how well are the two balanced?

The Cloaks of ships shouldnt be short at all they should be availible for the whole game to be used. Only when they engage in combat should they decloak ofra small period of time.
- The disadvantage to cloaking, should be that it cannot be use to phase jump. ie they can only use they when traveling and out of combat.
- A tech could later be used to allow ships to cloak during phased jump space.
- When cloaked ships should travel a bit slower.
- A tech could be researched to allow limited operation during combat.
- The simple reason for non-function during combat would be energy output, weapons(sp) or cloak, choose.
- Also, there would of course be a radar of sorts availible to ships like destroyers and such. Initially the radar is limited, after research it becomes more effective. If the level of the radar is higher then the level of hte cloak, then detection becomes possible.

????

charge. re-charge.

it was so short lived though...

one thing that i did in sots

Advanced cloak + assimilation plague= easy planet capture the ai rarely every implemented anti-cloak

i think the following rules should be enforced

1: weapons can only be fired when cloak is offline
2:cloak can be indefinate but they disengage on the rule 1 and the following:
- they get too close to a enemy ship as they cannot pass through even a
cloaked ship
-(optional) certain planet/asteroid belts could radiate something
disrupting cloak but also advanced sensors
(making a more traditional stealth functional as a fair-trade for stealth players)
- Phase jumping (the required energy would be to great-possible upgrade to nullify this rule

there should be 3 ways to detect cloak:

1: bumping into the ships (read rule 2:1)
2: advanced sensors (sort of half and half to option 3 and basic sensors but still a big enough boost to be a prefrence to basic)
3:anti-cloak sensors (sensors specifically to counter cloaking but have a reduced radius with normal sensors to make them a counter balance advance sensors)