Posts:2504 Joined: July 1st, 2014, 12:20 am
Location: New Zealand
Contact:Website
One thing for Keisser and Tristan Alting to think on, I have never used and never will use Springsharp.
You may hate doing things the hard way, but actually doing research and reading about the types of ship you want to draw will pay off with better drawings.
Do not rely on Springsharp, it is a very flawed program. If Springsharp says it is ok, then it is probably wrong. You have about a 50/50 chance of Springsharp giving you the right answers.
Posts:2504 Joined: July 1st, 2014, 12:20 am
Location: New Zealand
Contact:Website
But that is the biggest problem, you do not have the experience to know when it is right and when it is not. So you will end up with ship drawings like the one in this thread.
If you use 'real life' ships to base your drawings on and do not overload them with guns and torpedoes ( a real newbie error), you will end up with decent drawings. Everybody here will tell you to learn by drawing real ships, because that is what Shipbucket is about. Drawing some real life ships and making a good job of them will get you lots of Brownie points. If you want to watch the "Promotion" thread (like you wrote) you will need to have made a considerable addition to the Shipbucket Archives before you would have any chance of getting any level of promotion.
Springsharp is notoriously unreliable for simming destroyers and any warships under cruiser size.
It is a tool and a guide but it is not a naval architecture simulator. It contains many flaws and oversights which we've only come to realise digging deep into it over the years.
As to experience, it takes lots of practice. I've been using SS for 12 years now (even dabbled in the original Springstyle Excel-based version you youngsters won't have even heard of!), but I've never used it as a basis for any AU work here (other than Wesworld related stuff).
_________________ Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft
Yep, SpringSharp considers 90% of destroyers and other small vessels totally cramped and poor seabots (even original Fletcher). Though it is good for calculating CA and especially BB/BC/CV. I calculated a HMS Dreadnought there (just for lulz) and the result was accurate enough.
_________________ «A sea is not a barrier, a sea is a road, and those who try to use the sea as an instrument of isolation soon realize their foe has already put the sea into his own service.». - Alfred Thayer Mahan.
Posts:2504 Joined: July 1st, 2014, 12:20 am
Location: New Zealand
Contact:Website
The problem is that we all know of HMS Hoods problems, but you sim Hood in Springsharp and it says it is a wonderful design. It is one of the flaws, that you cannot tell SS that the original design was for a 32,000 or 36,000 ton ship which because of all the extra armour became a 42,000 ton ship. So, SS, can't allow for the extra hull stresses which Hoods hull was put under. The same goes for any BB/BC that has been rebuilt. You can not show in SS the problems the Italians had with fitting the Pugliese system to the rebuilt BB's while the new build Littorio's had no problem with the underwater protection. What worked on one did not work on the other. All of that sort of knowledge only comes with reading and studying the various ships right down to peering at little black and white photos.
You young guys have a marvellous tool with the internet. So much of the information I have struggled to find in the print era (I am that old), is now at the touch of a few keys. Use it well. Especially use the resources that are offered by the older members in a forum like this. As we die off, all the experience we have goes with us. Get as much of that experience off us as you can.
_________________ «A sea is not a barrier, a sea is a road, and those who try to use the sea as an instrument of isolation soon realize their foe has already put the sea into his own service.». - Alfred Thayer Mahan.