Paper Ships
As we have previously mentioned, World of Warships features many so-called “paper ships” — ships that were never built, existing only as plans and sketches. A lot of these exotic projects lend variety to the game’s design processes, and also help sustain balance in the nations’ tech trees. Among them is the USS Montana — the only American battleship capable of offering a challenge to the well-known Yamato. Though in reality this steel giant was never constructed, in World of Warships these two rivals will be able to meet and fight for the first time!
First StepsToday we’re going to talk about the difficulties of bringing paper ships to life. In order to create a model that looks authentic, the artists and game designers need more than just one sketch — theoretical drawings, plans of the decks and platforms, armament schemes, the general arrangement of machines, cellars, ship mechanisms, devices and equipment — are all necessary. In fact, poring over all the available material is the first and most labour-intensive part of designing a paper ship. We put ourselves in the shoes of the original designers and consider the characteristics that were introduced in the construction of these ships: how did engineering develop during that time? What vessels came before the paper ship? What kinds of materials were used and what technologies were applied? Using all available information, we design the layouts of the modules, including the power plant, armament, armor, artillery cellar, hangars with aircraft catapults, boats and much more.
Along with this, the mass load is determined. Mass load is the combined weight of all the parts that comprise the vessel. A ship structure consists of a fixed and variable weight: fixed weight is the weight of the hull, weapons, armor, machinery, electrical equipment, and other necessary devices — the variable weight includes fuel, ammunition, crew, and other freight.
At each stage of layout, the overall displacement of the ship is checked, as well as its margin of stability. After all, if all the stuff on a ship weighs too much, then you may have to sacrifice armor, or install a smaller power plant. If most of the important modules simply cannot fit into the body — or on the contrary, there’s lots of free space — you have to go back to modifying the dimensions of the ship’s body, increasing or decreasing its length, width, draft and height.
Thus, by using a method of successive approximations, a balanced ship is created. It’s no exaggeration to say that the techniques used to design paper ships are exactly the same as the process for real ships.
The Design ProcessThough the techniques used to design a paper ship are well established, we can encounter many pitfalls during the process. For example, someone may bring up a lack of engine power. In order to ensure the ship in question can raise enough speed for its class, we must choose a power plant capable of supplying the necessary power. To do this, you need to explore all the available information on propulsion systems that were installed similar ships, taking into consideration all those that could have existed during the selected period of history. As an example, let’s have a look at project G-15, the Japanese Super Taiho, which was the successor to the Taiho, the most advanced aircraft carrier of the Imperial Navy.
According to all the sketches and drawings, the air group of project G-15 included more than a hundred aircraft. However, after we did our own calculations, we concluded that the total number simply could not fit inside the ship as we were planning it — we would have had to significantly increase the size of the housing, which in turn would affect the speed and seaworthiness of the ship. So, if we wanted the carrier to develop the desired speed, we would have to increase the required number of propellers up to six (which would “inflate” the size of the ship), or alternatively, look for a new power plant with more power per shaft.
We solved the problem with the help of historical consultants who found material that Japanese engineers had tried to use to develop a new kind of power plant. But, due to the lack of resources coupled with a difficult economic situation during the war, the power plant never saw final production. Fortunately, we don’t have that problem! The new power plant fit the body like a glove, enlarged slightly to accommodate the hangars, and could attain 240,000 horsepower, which radically changed the situation.
Schematic of aircraft hangar layouts in Super Taiho The Three LexingtonsAnother difficulty in designing paper ships is incorporating external limitations that must also be taken into account. For example, when you are expanding the ship’s body, you cannot ignore the size of the docks; indeed, all American ships were built with the Panama Canal in mind.
One of the most interesting representatives of aircraft carriers was the Lexington class; a series of heavy aircraft carriers from the United States Navy during the 1920s. According to the results of the Washington Treaty in 1922, leading countries such as Japan, USA, Britain, France and Italy imposed restrictions on the construction of new linear and capital ships, the displacement of which exceeds 35,000 tons.
As a result, unfinished ships had to be disassembled, including six battle cruisers of the Lexington class. As it was provided in the contract, displacement of carriers was limited by 27,000 tons, “except for two aircraft carriers, which can have a displacement up to 33,000 tons, and for the construction body of battleships and battle cruisers can be used, which upon contract were to be disassembled.” As a result, two unfinished cruisers of the same type were completed in five years.
Eventually, the project turned out pretty ambiguous. On one hand, new ships had good anti-torpedo protection, large cellars for air-bombs, and powerful lifts for aircraft. On the other hand, the aircraft carrier was a half-knot slower than if it was built from scratch. Its hangars and fuel tanks were significantly smaller and the runway lacked width due to the shape of the body. In addition, the transformation from cruisers didn’t cost any less than building a completely new aircraft.
Our task was to design a third, unproduced aircraft carrier of the Lexington class. According to the plan, it had to be based on an unfit-to-launch cruiser of the same class. That was the CL-4 Ranger, the sixth in a series of unfinished cruisers, which in our game will bear the flag of the United States.
This decision allowed us to expand the body, keeping the same length as in original Lexington. In this case, we took into account all the external factors, such as limiting the width of the Panama Canal and a loss of speed due to increased water resistance. We have managed to place an enlarged hangar, expanded flight deck, and change the location of the guns.
As on Lexington and Saratoga, cellars were placed far enough away from the guns to make it quite difficult to supply ammunition and gunpowder to them. In our design, the cellars are located directly under the guns. Another major change was a new layout for engine and boiler rooms. We even managed to fix a number of layout problems in the original Lexington by redistributing the load mass.
The main difficulty in designing “paper ships” is that we need to re-create the most authentic, viable ship based only on publicly available sketches and on previously unexplored historical materials. Often on these projects, the internal arrangement of major vehicle modules was not taken into account, such as engine and boiler rooms, or the cellars. When we encounter that, we have to carefully review and, in fact, re-design the interior layout of the ship.
When working on the Japanese cruiser Tengu (1941), placing the power plant was necessary to change the location of the gun turrets in the extremities of the hull. In order to provide heavy extremities with buoyancy we gave it a bit more of a complete form. In addition, the cruiser had to have triple-gun turrets, which in reality weren’t built. Unfortunately, their drawings and sketches were never found, and because of that, we had to design them based on other Japanese turrets of the same period.
After receiving all the necessary calculations and layouts from the technical department, the artists and game designers start putting together this magnificent puzzle. Through a set of drawings, diagrams, plans, and possibly photos, little by little they re-create the look of a steel giant which otherwise never got a chance to see the water.