Suggestion:Instead of changing the ships, How about changing the seaports?
There have been a few problems with seaports since the latest updates.
-Difficulty entering and exiting them with ironships.
-Difficult to use large ships
-Trains obstruct all land access
-Large swing angle to load flatbeds.
The goal is to give different types of logi their own locations around the depot rather than having them overlap all around the one building.
Having all docks parallel to the coast rather than perpendicular means ships only have to move forward and do not need to reverse. This design also allows for large ships to temporarily dock to easily retrieve supplies from the depot.
This suggestion circles on one main thing. Depot Connectors.
Depot Connectors
Each connector consists of 3 parts.
-Small shippable loading pad
-Stationary crane
-A building to provide a link to the depot
Connectors can spawn all emplaced weapons,storage,vehicle crates,ship/rocket parts, and concrete mixers.
Some Connectors can spawn naval ships(if they are next to Seaports)
No Connectors can spawn land vehicles, or pull crates directly.
This restriction is to prevent land logi from disrupting naval and train too much, and to make sure the depot is still the focus point.
You can however pull crates into shipping containers from connectors.
The connecting building has the same interface as the depot and allows for refreshing and modifying stockpiles. The connector building needs to be working to access the depot.
What about trains?
Trains get a new train depot! It can be placed just out of town in its own location away from other logi so they don't disrupt anyone.
The train station is the depot connector building for the two pads in the picture.
Rather than the normal connector pads, these also allow for vehicle spawning. So during early war before trains are teched they can be used for flatbeds and vehicle retrieval. Keep in mind a train station still can not pull crates by hand. Into Shipping containers only!
Customized Ports.
With depot connectors we can see customized ports instead of the same generic one copy/pasted across the map.
Some examples
-Depot connectors in all of the small ports on the river of Callum’s keep.
-Depot connectors on the piers of Therizo
Naval Depot Connectors
Connectors can be used to service ships at depots close to the water, but not seaports.These would give depot access to ships without the need for a flatbed or mobile crane, but would not spawn naval ships.
Some areas where Naval Depots could be placed.
-Gallows(Westgate)
-Bone haft(Farranic Cost)
-Treasury(Clahstra)
-Arcadia(Fishermans Row)
I think this would improve logi game play by preventing and removing a lot of the troubles the ironship changes introduced while making everything more accessible for everyone.