Ship "Leafs": Mo ships, less problems?

[that_wot_player]

Good evening, 

 

Just here to make a gentle suggestion on how to add more "tech tree" ships to a nation without making a more grindy experience or cluttering up the tech tree screen: National Leafs. 

 

Basically, when you fully research a ship and it goes elite, you can use all the extra, wasted XP you are now gaining for that ship into researching a 'non main line" ship, from now on "leaf ship". These leaf ships (as i imagine) can differ in many ways, including other ships that didn't make it but existed (USS New Hampshire or USS Pennsylvania), unique modifications or ships in a class (USS Mississippi with her 16x 5in/25 or Omaha's never realized AA rebuilds), or never built ships from that nation that didn't make the cut in game. These leaf ships can also deviate from the "national flavor" a bit by having characteristics of other nation's ships, like say USS Mississippi has a highly efficient German style secondary battery characteristics, or USS New Hampshire has her torpedo tubes. This would offer a wider variety of ships for people to research and acquire without forcing the ships into premium or coal/steel/event shenanigans, and more opportunities for players to find ships they like at a particular tier and nation. The leaf ships will not count towards research points, nor will they be removed then resetting a line. 

 

What would this look like? I imagined it as such: 

 How the leafs may look like in the tech tree screen (Yes i know my MS pain skills are terrible)

In the standard tech tree screen, after you elite a ship, a pullout tab or something similar will appear next to the ship, and when the tab is activated, the leaf ship will expand out of this tab. This system is to prevent too much clutter in this screen and make it overwhelming for new players to look at the ships in the tree and its branches. 

 How the leafs may appear in the modifications tab (colors denote optional placement)

These leaf ships can also appear in the modifications of a ship after she gains elite status. I'm not 100% on the placement or layout of the leafs in this screen, so I'll leave some options. The leafs will not appear until AFTER the ship has elite status, to prevent confusion in new players on the main line path. 

 

Any comments or questions about my suggestion are welcome. Thank you