This is quite the necro, but oh well, maybe someone will see it.
I just downloaded this mod and I love it! I've been getting interested in ships lately, and I love the addition of merchantmen, pirates, and some vessels to bridge the huge gap between frigates/ironclads and modern destroyers.
Couple of things, though:
-Some new ships, like the Ironclad Battleship, lack combat or death animations. They just sit there in combat.
-There's virtually no difference in the money you make on trade missions based on the distance and size of the target city, so it's most profitable to just spam trade ships and send them to the nearest foreign city; there's no point in sending them across the world. Though maybe there's nothing to be done about this.
-The Dreadnought model has a shadow underneath it that's several times the size of the model itself.
-Model sizes are all over the place. For example, the Ironclad Battleship is much smaller than the Ironclad Frigate, and the little Assault Ship pirate boats dwarf an Iowa-class battleship.
Changes I can do myself:
-Ironclad Frigates and Battleships require Oil. But you can't get Oil until Combustion, by which time you can just build Dreadnoughts, meaning that you can never actually get those ironclads at all. I changed them to require Coal instead. Ditto for Pre-Dreadnoughts and the other classes of that era.
-Pre-Dreadnoughts, Early Destroyers, and Early Cruisers require Assembly Line, while their replacements require Combustion. It's very easy to research Combustion before Assembly Line, though, completely skipping them.
-Icebreakers are more powerful than Ironclad Battleships, despite being totally unarmed. The later merchantmen, like the container ship, also pack an outsized punch.
-The Sensor Destroyer is available very early, only needing Rocketry and Oil, and is nearly as powerful as a battleship despite its mostly anti-air and anti-sub armament.
-The Stealth Destroyer is an invincible god of naval warfare and is far, far more powerful than the real Zumwalts. But it can't protect stacks of carriers and transports from non-stealthy ships, since they can't see it.
-Cruisers can all detect and kill subs, even though cruisers almost never carried sonar and depth charges. Especially not early cruisers of the 1890's. Seems a bit odd that such cruisers can intercept aircraft, too.
-Caravels come out with Compass now, which is a bit early. The Carrack still requires Optics, though, and there's still no medieval warship.
-It might just be my taste, but I'll add the ability to receive Intercept promotions for some of the late Industrial Era and Modern Era ships.
-Ironclad warships should perhaps get a general bonus against wooden ships rather than just a defensive bonus.
-Merchantmen should be able to get the Navigation promotions. Well-trained sailors are good in both war and peace, and an experienced merchant marine should be able to reach the markets more quickly.
Things that would be nice to see but which won't be added because this has been dormant for five years:
-Some kind of naval Wonder or two.
-Modern naval buildings, like container ports or something. Harbors today are far larger and more productive than the ones being built in Roman times, and some new buildings would reflect that.
-A distinction between Carriers and Supercarriers, which could require Advanced Flight and would have extra speed and carrying capacity but extra cost as well. They could use the current model for Carriers, while Carriers would get some WWII-era model.
-A dedicated medieval warship. Caravels can't pillage or blockade, as they're just exploration ships. This would also let the Koreans swap their useless Hwacha for a Kobukson UU.
-Perhaps some future warships, like Destroyers, Cruisers, and Battleships armed with railguns and capable of ranged attacks and the ability to shell improvements.
