So I'm wondering if those with many functional ships find themselves "neglecting" their other ships? By that I mean they have a ship that works just fine, and is competitive enough to have a good, fun battle with, but because they have another, they don't take it out and use it. I'm asking as I would like to one day have a Tirpitz. However, I feel that once I have that, I'd no longer want to put my Baden on the water. Same goes with if I decide to make an Allied capital similar to the Baden, or same thing with a crusier that's different, I just don't use the other because one is "better" than the other.
In our group sometimes different folks will show up or regulars will bring a different ship. When only cruisers show up I try and bring my cruiser instead of the Bayern. Or if the only other capital ship is VDT I bring my Iboat.
While I'm building a new boat, and have a Battlecruiser hull sitting in the attic waiting for a rebuild, my first boat is still my workhorse. Before I started the build on my second boat, I spent almost two months replacing hardware, and bombproofing Texas' systems until she was as reliable as I could possibly make her. If I need her to come off the shelf and go into a battle, she can do so within an hour or less. It also helps that Texas is a short, maneuverable, proven gun platform. Idaho will hopefully be even more rugged and reliable. Alaska... we'll see. But when all else fails, Texas can carry the load. Before you build Tirpitz, or some other boat, make sure to get the kinks out of Bayern. make her a total troll of a ship. Bayerns are an excellent close combatant when they are running well. So, for a back-up boat they are an excellent choice. And, most importantly, NEVER disassemble or scavenge parts off of her. it may gather dust for a year or two, but don't let it become a situation where all of your other boats are out-of-action and you need Bayern *right now* and discover to your horror that you ripped out a third of her systems the year before, and now you can't make the battle.
I think builders fatigue is a big problem and has claimed new as well as old members. I think its better to stick with a ship, battle it, refine it and get good with it before moving on to another ship. It took me a few years to get really good with my ship and to have the systems running well enough to make it through a week of Nats. Once you get to that point then start another.... otherwise you end up with all ships on the bench and you are watching the battle from pond-side or worse on YouTube. Personally I don't see the benefit of having a bunch of marginally (not refined over years) 'functional' ships on the shelf that most likely will need significant work pond-side.. been there done that... very stressful.
In short, This a battling club , nobody builds a boat to drive 100++ miles to work on a boat OR go swimming at the start of a battle We can do those things in our bathtub
I bring more than one for several reasons. One, I can choose sides. Two, if one gets messed up and won't fight I can use another. Three, I can have an on hand loaner boat for someone else who is suffering from the above. Four, based on what ships other captains bring I can choose accordingly. If there's all big capital ships that are fast and well armed I probably won't have much fun with a WW1 predread. However if it's more mixed a predread is loads of fun if you sail it rite. As you see there's different things to be considered when looking at why to build a new ship. See of us just can't help it. We have to be building something.
I'm not saying building a ship one right after another, and not have a great running ship. I'm saying that after 3, 4, 5, 10 years of battling and refining a ship, you decide to make a new ship, battling and refining that one. The old ship is great, so you build a new one. Would you find yourself using the the new ship and leaving the old one at home to collect dust? Or even bringing it to the pond, but it just stays up on shore, or at least not battled? Yes, it would be a good spare boat, but how often would you actually, realistically bring it out and battle it? You have it there, but most likely wont need it because you have the new ship, that's now a few years old with all it's kinks worked out. So would you want to battle the old one?
I know what you mean. Back when I did Big Gun, I was a prolific builder, always looking for the next big project. Build, battle for a year or two to figure things out, then on to the next project. I never really got a chance to neglect old ships though, since I often sold them to new members or traded them for other ships. I certainly knew a few other builders who would build a new ship every year, and basically abandon their old ones. It wasn't great though - by spending insufficient time on each ship, they'd end up with an unreliable pile of junk. Then, instead of fixing it, they'd sell the old ship to a newbie then build a new ship and hope it would have fewer problems. It wasn't a great strategy for them, but I learned a lot about boatbuilding by helping newbies fixing their mistakes.
If the old ship and new ship were too similar, then I would probably only battle the old one if the new one had issues. Which does happen, even for reliable well-maintained ships. But, I'd be much more likely to battle the old one if it was significantly different than the new. For example, I recently built a Rivadavia class which has completely replaced my Baden (which was almost 10 years old). Both are 5.5 unit DNs that have the same general play style. I have no more combat need for the Baden (the Rivadavia fills the same role, but better) and it needs too much work to be a reliable spare. So I'm unlikely to ever use the Baden again. But that's only because I replaced it with a very similar ship. If the new ship was different enough, then I'd keep both. An example of this: I often find myself in situations where I would rather play a smaller ship. Sometimes an event is small enough that its difficult to balance the Rivadavia, or there are no DNs on the opposing side. Both of which lead to a much less enjoyable battle. I'm planning to eventually build a PDN to use in those cases. Rivadavia would still be my primary ship, even though it would be the older one. But the PDN wouldn't be neglected either. I expect that I'll use both of them at least once during most events. The difference is that they are different ships for different situations. Both of them fill roles that the other can't so I don't risk neglecting one for the other.
One thing I have seen is that you can have a lot of ships built, but all have issues of one sort or another. There is a premium of time and money to spend. Over the years a "template" was developed to handle "how too" build a ship. With the growth in technology and a greater push for performance one needs to dig deeper into your pockets for parts/maintenance. What use to work, won't any more. Or if it does, you will be at a performance disadvantage. I have always had a knack for taking someone else's junk and make it work. I enjoy doing that, but it's not for everyone. If you have kids or are relatively newly married (or not), wives will start squawking about the amount of time you spend on a ship. So you make a choice on what you want to run. With big gun years ago, it wasn't uncommon to have close to $1000 wrapped up in a ship. Once guy actually had over $3600 and it still needed about $1000 to finish it up! It's easy to get taken with downstream with things. Since my kids are out on their own I have more money to spend, but no place to work on things until the weather warms up. I always tell people, pick the ship you would like to build and be reasonable, put your time and efforts into that ship. Get it working as good as you can, then enjoy the ship. Once you have accomplished that, start on another ship: but maintain your first ship. You may decide you do not like that style of battling anymore and mothball the ship for a later time. You spread yourself out too thin and the hobby ceases to be fun and becomes a job. Seen too many people over the years get into that trap and eventually leave.