Suggesting that the naval solution will apply directly to space is almost always wrong.I'd be OK with that, although I'd suggest that the current maximum size be increased some.
I agree, but its somewhere to start. Its one reason I tend to have only frigates carriers and cruisers in the early to mid game and try and call a ship type by its function.
The problem there is that this tends to lead to giant mothball fleets which then get brought out in wartime. IRL, you have other issues, like providing crew. I've suggested a model which takes this into account in the past, with crew flowing out of the pool as well as in.
Yes, you may have a giant fleet but its probably using old tech, think how fast your sensor range changes especially early game. The USN still maintain a fleet reserve and I was surprised how big relatively the RN reserve was in the 1960s. I guess a partial solution would be to increase the cost of reactivating the ship so that after 15 years or so its a lot cheaper to build a new one, but quicker to reactivate an old one. For example HMS Bulwark was being considered for reactivation during the Falklands conflict and work may have actually started, it would have been very expensive, but many years quicker than building a new carrier. (Can you tell the Bulwark book by K.V. Burns and Mike Critchley is one I haven't got!) Limiting the crew is certainly one way of countering this. Rescuing your life pods would suddenly be very good practice! However look at the size of the WW1 and 2 RN which was the upper limit for a population which reached approximately 48 million in 1940-45, when they were decommissioning the old battleships to free up crew for escorts, one reason the Royal Sovereign was lent to the USSR. But it was still an awful lot of ships!
Just use PDCs. They require no maintenance at all. But the payoff is 5-10 years, typically, getting shorter as your ships get more expensive for a given size. I did the math on this a few months back.
Yes I think though it would become much more prevalent.
That sounds really interesting. Do you have titles?
Really? I was not aware of this. I do seem to recall D.K. Brown mentioning that they could change engines quite easily (maybe even at sea) but not that they had done so. But even so, gas turbines are a lot easier to change than most other engines. You couldn't do that with steam.
For titles look at
https://www.navybooks.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=Neil+McCart. There are other authors, I am currently reading the one on the Loch class frigates. If you look on Amazon you will find many more titles but some are very expensive, try ebay you get bargains sometimes.
No, you couldn't do that with steam.
Edit: From Harrier Carriers Vol 1. HMS Invincible by Neil McCart. 80 miles SW Lands End Engine room staff began to change starboard main gear box. Completed 15th April.
18th June Engine room staff began to replace a Gas Turbine main engine (3 tons) at sea. Appears completed by 25th June. Self maintenance period 25th June to ? self maintenance period (still at sea) assisted by repair ship Stena Inspector and Cable ship Iris (this appears to be an assisted self maintenance). Back on station 1st July.I usually SM the removed components back into the stockpile during refit. I'd like to get the minerals back during scrapping, although things like living quarters seem like they'd be built into the ship and not very modular.
Yes, that's what I did in my last game with components such as weapons, sensors, shields and engines etc, but not crew spaces, bridge and engineering etc. It was a hassle though to work out the minerals that should have been returned from the refitted ships when systems were replaced. Currently they just disappear into thin air (and I really needed the uridium and galicite).
Just to throw some more ideas around perhaps the planetary maintenance system could be overhauled completely. Just for example:
A warship with sufficient maintenance supplies could perform self maintenance in orbit of any planet but for only a 6 to 12 month reduction of the maintenance clock. This would allow extended frontier patrols, but probably require additional maintenance supplies and probably a minimum number of crew.
Fleet Anchorage (orbiting structure? Think Addu Atoll) reduce maintenance clock increase by 50%, but needs little or no population. Could handle large number of warships, 250,000 tons?
Naval Base (orbiting structure + ground facilities? 2 million tons, Think Scapa Flow) would stop maintenance clock for 250,000 tons of warships (expandable to Naval Dockyard) have 2-3 slips for the refit/repair (not construction) of warships, could be pre-fabbed as PDCs, but not moved once emplaced. Requires dedicated population of 1 million. Would have to appear in Shipyards tab to refit ships.
Naval Dockyard (orbiting structure + ground facilities? 5 million tons. Large expensive facilities) would stop maintenance clock for 500,000 tons of warships (expandable?) have 5 slips for the refit/repair (not construction) of warships, could be pre-fabbed as PDCs, but not moved once emplaced (think Singapore, Devonport or Portsmouth). Requires dedicated population of 3 million. Would have to appear in Shipyards tab.
You would be able to build multiple facilities at a single planet. You could also have the last two produce maintenance supplies if you want.
To put this in some sort of context the UK had the following Naval bases/Dockyards in WW2: HMNB Devonport, HMNB Portsmouth, HMNB Clyde, (Faslane), HMNB Rosyth, HMNB Chatham, Woolwich Dockyard, Deptford Dockyard, Queenstown, Portland Dockyard, Scapa Flow, Pembroke Dockyard, Sheerness Dockyard, Simon's Town Dockyard, Malta H.M. Dockyard, Trincomalee Dockyard. This is not an exhaustive list and of course ignores all the many supporting facilities such as air bases and ordnance depots etc as well as Dominion bases.
Ian