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[milo christiansen]

As for what the stuff involves, mostly just figuring out numbers, running the many dice rolls needed to see how hard it is, how the engineers do, various aspects of the design, and any advancement of the engineers working on it.

If I had hard numbers on how the dice rolls are run for a design I could make a design calculator for you. That way you list what rolls you want, what category they are, what engineers are assigned, and what category bonuses they have (plus anything else needed). The program then calculates how everything went and spits out degrees of success (or failure) for each roll and how engineer skill is affected. Ideally engineers and facilities (and what bonuses they provide) would be tracked in a simple database so you need to enter a minimum of information for each design calculation. This could also track production, etc...

Almost as good would be if you provided me with general information about how everything is calculated, and I make it so that the whole system is driven by scripted dice rolls so you can plug the actual numbers in later (with minimal fuss and bother).

I promise not to use any inside info to help get better game results

[somemildmanneredidiot]

The problem that I have with airships is that all it would really take is for one solid hit with a HE artillery round to wreck the structure of the balloon. Plus the explosion has a decent chance to hit the fuel cells, which means that in a best case scenario, they are now leaking with their surroundings fairly damaged so that patching them would be particularly difficult.

I know that at least some airships had a bunch of smaller balloons inside the outer shell, which could probably help with that.

That would be the fuel cells I mentioned. Apparently they are more properly called gas cells. The more you know.

@milo: That makes sense. Honestly, I'm less concerned with them blowing up and more concerned with structural damage. They're a big target with no cover able to be seen from kilometers around, so a solid hit to it could lead to all sorts of things collapsing.

@Rain problem: So what I'm hearing is that we either need to streamline the outer most layer such that the water slides off, or make a really big umbrella.

[Slick]

One thing we could try is doing what the Hindenburg intended to have double gas cells (an inner hydrogen cell protected by an outer helium cell) the intended use of it was to same on helium but I suppose it might increase durability:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg-class_airship

[milo christiansen]

I thought the problem was that they already were a really big umbrella

Honestly heavier than air planes are far better for a great many reasons, so I submit that we should use zeppelins while we have them, but not waste any time trying to design new ones. Save the effort for making some good planes.

[Amperzand]

To be clear, there really isn't a lot of helium, and it's not terribly easy to extract.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

True 

Works for me. We might want to redesign the gondola to allow for aircraft deployment from the airships, but that's a project for a different turn.

Plus there's still a question of whether or not to spend one of our upcoming turns doing nothing but building improvement and production. I've mentioned it before, but presuming 9 teams make 4x300pp factory lines each, that will provide us with 10,800pp which would about triple our current production (for a total of 18,100 pp after the factories this turn are built with 3,900pp of that specified for specific arms). I honestly believe that could win us the war right there. And if it doesn't, we'll have such a strong production base that anything we would want to make from then on, we could field an army's worth within one production phase.

@Helium Scarcity: Which is part of the hesitation about the airships. If we're able to use them in minimal risk situations, it shouldn't matter, but the chances of that in war time are a bit slim.

[Slick]

Well if we get the tech we could make this:         
http://marchofwar.wikia.com/wiki/Flying_Fortress

But seriously an Airship wouldn't be amiss in the beginnings of a proper air force.

[Amperzand]

Additionally, airships really are quite durable. WW1 had some scary HE artillery, but they still were only really able to down zeppelins with incendiary machine gun fire. The things flew at a very high altitude, and really didn't care about a lot of little holes or the occasional small explosion from a high-velocity AA shell. They ended up using modified Vickers guns firing 11mm incendiary rounds, mounted on fighters, to shoot them down, and they were still considered durable and generally difficult targets.

More appropriately for the topic of artillery vulnerability, there were lighter than air craft used in the war that flew considerably closer to the ground: Barrage Balloons, and Observation Balloons. Barrage Balloons acted as a form of air defense, with many wires leading from the balloon to the ground in order to foul enemy aircraft, while Observation Balloons went to a higher altitude and simply watched the battlefield for information gathering.

Both were apparently quite difficult to bring down, despite being priority targets for the enemy's air power.

[Aseaheru]

 Interestingly, while they where working on the 11mm Vickers, there was work being done on an intermediate cartage firing man-portable machinegun that ticks all the boxes for Assault Rifle. However, the Vickers where finished first and noone decided to submit it as an infantry arm. They then went on to design the BAR, which we know how that turned out...

 The main issue with that roll calculator is that after the first set of rolls for a thing, there are then a whole bunch more for the various aspects of the design, which have a roll that is determined by the first set. And as I dont always know exactly what aspects are the ones listed(in particular, determining that for naval gubbins without making you guys design each turret, every engine(as opposed to just modular and modern ones), each magazine, and so on independently), well, it gets difficult.

[milo christiansen]

The main issue with that roll calculator is that after the first set of rolls for a thing, there are then a whole bunch more for the various aspects of the design, which have a roll that is determined by the first set. And as I dont always know exactly what aspects are the ones listed(in particular, determining that for naval gubbins without making you guys design each turret, every engine(as opposed to just modular and modern ones), each magazine, and so on independently), well, it gets difficult.

Well, write down a basic procedure (just write what you do for two or three designs) and I will see what I can do about automating at least the basics of it. If I can come up with something that helps even a little I can always keep adding features until it does most everything... In anycase I think I'll write something that tracks engineers and production, if not for you to use, then for me

[somemildmanneredidiot]

I acknowledge that my knowledge about airships has been biased and that they are apparently much more suited for a military role than expected.

Now it's just a matter of seeing where we are after we get our results.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

As we're on the topic, is there anything we can do to help you out on your end? What can we do to make your job easier and things flow smoother on your end in general?

[Aseaheru]

 Not really, the main requirements at this point is time and trying to communicate with some people.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

So I actually read the OP now.

Presuming that the purchasing actions listed are still allowed, would we be able to get data on who our trade partners are and what they might have on the market currently?

The Oligarchy of Logmen apparently produced a solid warship some 7 years ago. If the Monarchy also remembers about purchasing from other countries, they might attempt to bypass our naval blockade and bombardment by obtaining a fleet from elsewhere, though they would need to actually get to someone with a fleet to sell, negotiate, deliver the payment, and then crew the fleet to bring them back to this conflict. So they might manage it, but I think it would take enough time that we'd be able to deal with it.

[milo christiansen]

I have an interesting idea: Global events.

Some turns ago (before the war started) some news was posted detailing a few events in the larger world, I think it would be cool if a few events related to the larger world could affect the game. For example a large (off map) neutral country could sponsor a tech fair. Then both sides could send engineers for a chance at gaining some experience or a piece of technology (basically a bonus to any design we make that uses the associated principle). What each side got from the fair would be based on what engineers we sent. Tech would be announced ahead of time, and would go to the side with the best delegation (in that particular specialization)...

For maximum impact events could hit at a time where both sides really don't have engineers to spare, thereby requiring some hard decisions (and injecting a bit of drama). Just as good would be during some kind of lull... Assuming the idea isn't totally stupid that is.