I think when it comes to naval units, it would be wise to model off current existing navies of the world. Of course, for it to have any purpose, the same problems that drive the military to design ships with particular characteristics or tactics they chose to employ would need to be present in PS2 (if they aren't already).
One of those that I think is the most important for the success of naval warfare, in the form that most of us are imagining it as, is ample travel (or sailing time) between continents (if Smedley's seamless continents idea is ever introduced). For the lone ship, it would introduce the threat of getting solo'd by a bomber or running into an enemy fleet, which encourages people that want to 'main' naval warfare to enlist in an outfit who can guarantee fleets with which they can travel, or at the very least, simply encourage more teamwork (which is good). This is different from infantry, armor and air in that they can still accomplish remarkable things as a single unit, but you hardly ever you hear of a single naval unit (apart from submarines) accomplish amazing feats on their own. It means that even if you're in the biggest, most badass ship you can possibly own, your chances of making it to the other continent in one piece are slim at best, unless you also bring along your fleet of support ships, like a
carrier battle group .
Another issue that's been raised is "Why don't you just fly a buncha dudes over in a Galaxy?" There's already been numerous reasons proposed why having a naval presence is beneficial for ground troops when trying to gain a foothold of hostile territory (eg. a carrier could essentially become a mobile base off the coast of enemy territory, sending in wave after wave of vehicles and infantry). Also, a 'fix' for the issue of Galaxies rendering naval units obsolete has been posted in the
other thread.
Originally Posted by Neurotoxin
I feel like there could be additional limitations... expand the boundaries and add a few captureable ports, make boats the key for water transition. They could either extend the energy radius for the empire (think of Protoss nexus crystals) and maybe smaller aircraft only have 30 seconds of battery outside the massive energy radius of a broadcast ship.
The Galaxy is probably immune to these effects, and a Galaxy can even be fitted with a smaller energy radius module to help friendly aircraft get further from the ships. Land-friendly watercraft may or may not have the same energy limitations.
The energy broadcast areas would reflect areas that the server should focus on more. Where there is empty water with no nearby energy, the chances of seeing or having to render anything there is greatly reduced, so the server can essentially ignore those dead-zones aside from processing weather patterns in those areas.
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Pretty cool idea, imo.