How to bring Naval Warfare to eRepublik

Day 836, 09:17 • Published in USA Australia • by Aeros

Its rather sad that such a critical part of war is missing from eRepublik. While wars are almost always won on Land, it is on the high seas that a the difference between a regional and global power is defined. In Real Life, the British Empire was a mighty maritime powerhouse that dominated global trade a politics through its control of the worlds waterways. During World War II, the Allies dominated the oceans, and this made all the difference between the Germans being able to take the British Isles, and the Japanese being able to sustain and defend their Asian Empire. Yet, this critical facet of war is missing from eRepublik. This article will lay out how a possible Naval Warfare Module could be implemented into existing modules.


SHIP CONSTRUNCTION

Warships can be constructed by Naval Engineering companies, with purchasing following the same method as Hospitals and Defense systems, with the Congress voting on a purchase order of the item. The quality of the warship dictates how many personnel can crew it, and thus increase its power (explained later). In addition to purchasing the ship, the Congress also includes the name of the ship in the proposal. Once approved, the Ship will become a type of “corporation” using the company module where the crew joins in a similar manner as they sign up for jobs. (The reason for this explained later)

Q1 Warship: The Corvette



This is the smallest warship, usually used for coastal patrols. Maximum crew of 20 citizens, and possesses 20,000 hitpoints

Q2 Warship: The Frigate



The second smallest warship, used for escorting larger warships. Maximum crew of 40 and possesses 40,000 hitpoints



Q3 Warship: The Destroyer



Your basic warship designed. Used for escorting larger ships or independent operations. Maximum crew of 60 and possesses 60,000 hit points.


Q4 Warship: The Cruiser



Advanced combat ship, used for fleet or independent operations. Maximum crew of 80, possesses 80,000 hit points.



Q5 Warship: The Battleship


Proposed design of the USS Emerick the Great

Largest ship design. Has enough missiles to incinerate a small country. Maximum crew of 100, and possesses 100,000 hit points.


CREWING THE SHIPS

Ships function similar to corporations; in that the President is the “owner” and can set the number of job openings based on strength. Citizens then apply to crew the ship while it remains "in port". Once a Naval battle is declared, they will be able to participate. You could also allow for the appointment of Captains for each ship, in which case the ship would start with a base crew of 1, and each captain can set the number of "job" openings.


WATER REGIONS

Regions on the oceans are not owned by any country, though they serve as bridge points to other land regions. Before a country like the United States can cross the ocean and attack the coast of France for example, they must first occupy the water territory between the two countries. Occupation is done with warships, and can be launched against any water territory on the globe, regardless of location.

When the President wants to occupy a water region, he declares an attack, and picks the ships he wishes to use. An alert is then sent to every country in the world that appears as “President of United States has ordered fleet to occupy X territory”. When the order is given, the ships selected by the President are committed to the territory, and individual citizens are permitted to join it to crew the vessels. To find a ship to crew, they would click on the alert icon, and the list of ships commited is displayed. Signing up is done in a similar manner as picking a job. After the ships are committed, a 24 hour timer is initiated, and this time is spent for the country to crew the fleet, and permit opposing nations to commit their own fleets. If at the end of the 24 hours, no other nation has contested the water territory with their own navies, the territory is automatically claimed by the attacking country and they can then declare land attacks against any land region bordering the water region. If another country contests the occupation of the water territory with their own fleet, Naval combat commences over another 24 hour period after the initial set up time expires.

*EDIT* Just to emphasis a key point here. As you can strike any water region on the planet, this will allow any country with a water border to attack another province with a water border. Take Indonesia as an example. They only border Malaysia, Australia, Thailand and the Philippines right now. However, under this system, they would be able to send a fleet to the Mediterranean Sea, and if they win the Naval Battle there, can then launch an invasion of Italy. For this reason, Naval Battles should have their own unique initiative rules independent of Land Battles.

NAVAL COMBAT



Naval Combat functions similar to regular combat, in that citizens fight with their own strength and weapons. What is different however, is that only those citizens who joined a ship during the set up phase can participate, and only so long as their ship remains afloat. Fighting is launched from a Fight button, located on your ships status page, which also includes the citizens crewing the vessel and the number of hit points remaining (Just like your corporation page). Just like in real life, a ship can only fight if it has enough crew. Generally, this number should be about half capacity, so a Q1 ship can fight with 10 citizens, a Q2 with 20, and so on. If not enough people are crewing a vessel, the President will not be able to commit the ship to the battle . As consequence, citizens should make sure they have enough people on their boat beforehand. This will go towards the social aspect of the game (invite your friends).

Actual combat functions on a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 status. Q1 Ships are targeted first, then Q2, then Q3 and so on. Every 20,000 points of damage done in the battle will sink a Q1 ship. After all the Q1 ships are gone, every 40,000 points of damage will sink the Q2’s, and so on up the line. If your ship is sunk in the course of the battle, you will be unable to continue participating. This will force countries to diversify their fleets to avoid the ships carrying 100 citizens being targeted first as an example. I’m sure some inventive ship mixtures will result, and the country able to get the best ratio for them will win. In addition to inventive ship mixtures, if a country pushes hard enough, they could sink every enemy vessel well before the 24 hours runs up. This will also go to the Social aspect of the game. The winning country will be the one who can get their citizens online when the battle starts. As this is very open to abuse by bots, naval warfare should institute much more stringent Captcha and Recaptcha then normal fighting. If 24 hours passes without one side retreating or being wiped out, the country with the most ships remaining will be awarded the water territory. At any point in time, a President can order his ships to retreat.

ALLIED PARTICIPATION

If more then one country shows up to the big show, the President of each countries fleet will designate a particular nation as their target. They will also pick which country to support in the battle (the attacker or the defender). Unlike in land battles, Naval battles can occur outside of a declared war. If the US wanted to invade France, they would declare war, and then commit the fleet, so that the two timers are counting simultaneously. France or its allies would then commit their own fleets to contest the occupation of the water territory. Each country would then stack its fleet into either the attacking or defending fleet.


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