ORIGINAL: Numdydar
Does the below mean that Allied ships that are overdue to withdraw can withdraw from ANY port now versus having to go to a specific port? I never understood why a ship had to sail to a special location to withdraw. Just allow it to be taken OOT from whatever port is happens to be in. Like the Navy really cared that the ship was in OZ or Pearl when they needed it elsewhere?
Allow overdue ship groups to withdraw from ship in base hex rather than move ashore
Navy: "We need you for DDay so sail to Pearl ASAP."
Capt: " I'll just sail directly to England around South Africia"
Navy: "No we have to have you sail to Pearl before we can send you there."
Capt: "But we are currently docked in Darwin!!"
Navy: "Sail to Pearl of be relieved of command."
Pretty silly no?
The list of valid withdrawal ports is quite extensive. Furthermore it is not nationality specific. By making it easier to withdraw ships than was the original design intention, it in fact fudges history.
Besides the historical angle, to just allow ship withdrawal with no conditions to be met, would allow players to "cheat". The devs have always been quite clear on this point; the ship withdrawal mechanism is not to provide a means for saving a too damaged ship or magically getting it out of harm's way.
Here is a good exposition of the intent from Don Bowen on 32 Oct 2009.
"The original concept of ship withdrawal required that the ship first be moved off map. This was to prevent any exploits where a player might avoid risks of enemy action between the base and the map. However this caused players some problems and it was decided (over my objections) to allow ships to be withdrawn from a few select on-map bases. Karachi is the base in the Indian Ocean.
It continues to be a problem for players and we will be loosening this even more in the next patch. Ships will be able to be withdrawn from any port in the historical "off to Atlantic" regions - US/Canadian West Coast, South Australia and Perth, and Ceylon/Western India. Port size restrictions will be used to ensure withdrawal only from a major base, and that base can not be under enemy threat. The ship itself may not be withdrawn from on-map if it is so badly damaged that it could not reasonable make the trip to an off map port The intent is to emulate the historical ports from which ships departed the theatre, but no block use of withdrawal as a way of escaping enemy action or imminent sinking."
Alfred
