Rhye!
I went and read up on some naval information, and found that Frigates are in fact ships that were considered too weak to stand in the line of battle!
They were intended as patrol boats really, meant to escort convoys and hunt down privateers. Apparently they were strong enough to act as the primary ship for really out of the way places, but beyond that... nothing special.
The 74 gun Ship of the Line was another story. This was the most popular ship in all navies during the time. It was a Third Rate warship (the smallest SoTL class) but was still significantly stronger than frigates of various types due to differences in construction and guns. These were the major ships, not frigates. In fact, frigates were actually rather rare compared to these bad boys. Having read Mahan, I can tell you of one major battle in which I recall a frigate entering the line, and I believe that was in the Carribbean, where the outnumbered Degrasse was desperately fleeing a British fleet and was forced to toss everything he had into the battle line. This was after the Battle of Yorktown (and FYI, he lost this one).
I would suggest that the Frigate be made slightly faster, significantly cheaper and weaker: 3(4).3.28 (ROF 1)
The Ship of the Line (the Nap War scenario has one) could be implemented as a 4(6).4.20 (ROF 2) or even just with the current Frigate stats.
It could upgrade into Cruisers, and the Frigates could become Destroyers (it seems unfair to allow anything to become a Dreadnought, considering).
Is this too extreme a change for this far into post-development? I really wish I had thought of even proposing this before, but it seems to be almost essential for historicity, considering how prevalent these ships were, and how underrepresented they are in this game. And considering how simple implementation would be! Just a quick add in and a transfer of animations from a pre-existing file!
I am sure that there is already a Civilopedia entry for them, but if not it would be the work of a moment to pen one.
Please at least consider this as a change! These boats were the primary ships for all Age of Sail fleets, and that they do not make it into the game over the Frigate is a crime!
EDIT: Here is the
link to the page on Wikipedia if you guys want to see for yourselves; I am not just spouting hot air on this one ;p
PS: Thanks for introducing me to that site Blas! I have been reading almost constantly since you first posted it (I think to contradict me haha) ;p