Naval Combat: A possible way for it to work well

[Desertfox]

Preface- As we all know naval combat is a letdown in the BF2 engine, and needs vast improvement. There are problems such as dieing when the ship moves, and difficulty getting to a gunner position because of the movement of the boat. I have a potential fix for this that I believe has not been suggested.

1. - Make carriers (not all ships) static

2. - Like Tanks/APC's, if you spawn on the ship, you are instantly in a position.

3. - You cannot leave position on ship unless ship is destroyed or you bail(E) (bailing puts you in water)

4. - Pressing E next to ship gets you in if spot are available (Usually you will spawn in however)

Conclusion- So that's my possible solution to the lack of naval battles in FH2. I would like to have the opinions of all, especially the devs. Please keep comments sensible, so Flippy doesn't begin cutting of heads again.

[Torenico]

Why ships statics when you can make them movable, theres a movable already in FH2...

[VonMudra]

There's already gun boats, life boats, and u-boots in FH2 mate

[Desertfox]

Why ships statics when you can make them movable, theres a movable already in FH2...

only carriers static ROP please

There's already gun boats, life boats, and u-boots in FH2 mate

last time I was on a boat there were problems

[VonMudra]

When I tested them, they worked fine...

Also, static ships would make for rather boring combat, everyone would know exactly where everyone is. 

[Desertfox]

When I tested them, they worked fine...

Also, static ships would make for rather boring combat, everyone would know exactly where everyone is. 

As I said above, only carriers would be static read the original post please

[Torenico]

And what it changes? Static Carriers would do nothing but every single enemy airplane flying over it.

[VonMudra]

Bingo.  I'd just point my guns up at the right angle and shell the hell out of the big static hulk.

[HappyFunBall]

Actually reading this I had a sudden thought:

          Why not make all ships bigger than a Torpedo Boat statics.


Each fleet would be deployed, beyond the sight of the other, but within range.

Assuming we can eliminate pixel aiming, and we take away binoculars, the only way to target the enemy ships would be with reconnaissance planes. (Ideally you can only fire the capital guns if you have a target, but the evil BF2 engine would probably not allow this.)

This gives a strong incentive to both fly and shoot down reconnaissance planes. It allows the big ships to actually engage one another, which (lets be honest) they really couldn't do when they moved around in FH0.7.

Naturally both would get fighters dive bombers and torpedo bombers from their carriers, so long as the carrier is there. There could also be torpedo boats as well to give players variety. And there would be a lot of variety:

• Man the big guns on the capital ships and target the enemy vessels as they come up.
• Man the AA guns to shoot down enemy bombers and reconnaissance.
• Man the secondary guns to destroy those pesky torpedo boats.
• Fly one of the many different planes.
• Tail gun on some of the planes.
• Captain a torpedo boat, or man its machine gun.

This would also work for beach assaults. Place the enemy fleet just out of sight of the beach, give the attackers landing craft, the defenders might have beach guns and planes of there own, depending on the scenario.

All in all, I don't think any of the big ships would actually have to move for a naval map to be fun.

[Desertfox]

And what it changes? Static Carriers would do nothing but every single enemy airplane flying over it.

That's why you have pilots also. Plus, the other ships as well as the carrier have AA, not really as simple as made out to be unless you are claiming that Airplanes are overpowered in comparison to Anti Aircraft

[VonMudra]

The problem is that the whole point of naval combat is MOVEMENT.  You have to be able to move your carrier and hide it from the enemy while your own planes go out to find your enemies carrier.  Battleships have to move into positions, destroyers have to screen and picket the outskirts, you don't just park your navy in some place and sit there.  It would just look and play STUPIDLY.

[Desertfox]

The problem is that the whole point of naval combat is MOVEMENT.  You have to be able to move your carrier and hide it from the enemy while your own planes go out to find your enemies carrier.  Battleships have to move into positions, destroyers have to screen and picket the outskirts, you don't just park your navy in some place and sit there.  It would just look and play STUPIDLY.

I know this already, my post was from a game standpoint. For the most part, I wouldn't have bothered posting this if it was known 100% that naval ships worked the way that we'd all want them to.

[azreal]

IF...FH2 were to take naval warfare into account, all the ideas you listed would probably be SOP for ships.

[HappyFunBall]

The problem is that the whole point of naval combat is MOVEMENT.  You have to be able to move your carrier and hide it from the enemy while your own planes go out to find your enemies carrier.  Battleships have to move into positions, destroyers have to screen and picket the outskirts, you don't just park your navy in some place and sit there.  It would just look and play STUPIDLY.

Don't be so quick to dismiss my idea.

First of all moving the ships did not contribute that much. Finding the enemy ships was never that challenging. Removing that element would not take that much away from the game.

Secondly, by taking away movement, we can add a great deal. The fleets can be much bigger. Which is more fun. The ships can shoot at each other in a much more realistic way. Rather than the unrealistic way they did before. Even when they did engage only the players in gun position could actually shoot (and then only if the captain of the boat actually lined up his ship to allow the other guns to point at the enemy!) My suggestion would allow anyone in a gun position to engage any ship that was targeted.

Since the planes never had much trouble finding the ships, the air to ship engagements would not change much.

I still think my idea has merit.

[Mazz]

What if the ships were static but had random respawn areas? Or maybe 20 predetermined spots randomly sorted? I think its a decent idea in that it turns ship fights into an artillery-like duel, but would require a different system of spotting and firing so you don't immediately get to zero in on a good spot and have to work it a little. 

It would require an extremely large map but could make for some interesting gameplay, revolving around aircraft warfare from scouts to carrier based aircraft as the main player aspect besides the AA and ship gunners.