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This guide is aimed at new players who are done with the small ships missions. When you get good at capturing bot Le Gros Ventres it is one of the most time-efficient ways of getting xp, money and combat marks. Ventres are everywhere and you don't need expensive ships, friends, fleet ships or other elaborate schemes to get going. Buy the cheapest square rigger in port, medium guns, crew and nothing else to start.

Hello, in the pvp battle shown below that took place today i captured a Wappen von Hamburg by boarding it. After i put crew on it and told it to sail away, my clanmate told me that he wanted to switch to it in the ongoing battle, so i told it to stop, sailed to it, took the crew away again and sailed away. My clanmate then told me he couldnt access the ship, i tried to make it available for all, but couldnt do that. I then sailed to the wappen again and tried to take it back myself, but couldnt access it either. I then reported this as a bug. During the battle, none other got near the ship again and noone captured it again. After the battle was over, neither i myself nor any other member of my nation who participated in the battle got the ship. I expect the ship back, since i didnt intend to sink it, which it didnt. Thanks.

We can't capture the ships, but at least allow us to remove cannons for later use or sale from AI combat ships we successfully board. It's not going to make anyone rich but it would provide a bit of income to pay for the crew and ship damage we sustain in combat.

What do you do with prisoners? There does not appear to be a way to send them off map. I would not like to have a situation where they reactivate (armed no less) while in captivity, thus posing a huge problem for me.

About 10 times now I can not Board/Cap a ship. I Prep, Sails, Armor, Grape and then attain speed. I have even come to a complete Stop and still I cant get the "G" command to board. My last battle I was in an Indefatigable trying to cap a Traders Big. Any help please...I'm getting really sick of this. Also it happens to me in PVE and in PVP.

hey guys... i finished my second campain. After last patch, i can capture all weapons from my enemies! Can anybody tell me, when will i capture weapons from enemy units? After a melee attack, after a charge with cav., if the enemies are routet, if they surrender? what should i do for capture weapons? Sorry for my bad english! Sepp Stuart

Here are some suggestions that in my opinion could improve game play in some areas. At least, if technically possible some of these should be tested/assessed. SHIP NON-PERMANENT UPGRADES _______________________________ The easy way to address the non permanent upgrades would be to look at reality. If I have 2 ships, I most likely will have a set a amenities in each and they will not appear at the docks magically for availability in an upgrade window before I set sail. It's a convenience that is not possible in the real world unless the ships are moored next to each other. You can't just move all upgrades out of a boat in one place, teleport 400 miles away and voila! all the upgrades are still here ready to be used in another boat. Granted the teleportation is needed to help game play otherwise we would all get old and senile traveling for days between areas on the map. (reduce the map so everything can happen in real time?). In short, make the non permanent upgrade that are in one boat, only transferable to another boat in the same port. If you want to move them to another port they have to travel by boat in the hold or be sent by delivery system in free towns. BATTLES WITH ONE DURABILITY SHIPS _________________________________ The ideas below pertain only to battle end game and not to boarding mechanics. At this time boarding is the only way to capture a ship in PVP. I would propose an additional way to capture a ship during battle: I again take inspiration from real world for guidance. I don't think that captains would let ships sink so easily whether on the defending or attacking side. The loss of life alone, including their own would be enough incentive for the losing captain to make an effort toward the survival of the ship. For the winner, the prize is one of the incentives for getting in the fight. The ship can be taken and added to your own war effort, the crew taken as press gang, etc... Also I don't think that wooden ships sank that easily as they do in the game. I understand that we need to have a clear "win" or "loose" status for game play clarity. However this create a loss of opportunity in other areas. Once the majority of the crew has been dedicated to keeping the boat afloat and can no longer fight... Once the pumps can't overcome the water coming in and repair kits have been used... Once the main mast is down after repair kit has been used... (insert more instances of unrecoverable loss here) I would think it's time to cry uncle and maybe, once this level of damage is achieved (when water line is high enough that cannons are inoperable for instance but boat is still afloat?), the white flag should come up automatically in the game, declaring a "stranded status" as the damaged ship is no longer maneuverable, no longer in the fight, and is not as much to be boarded as it is to be rescued. At this point the winning side would have a certain time limit to board the ship before it sinks, assign crew to it, use repair kits of its own to prevent it from sinking, etc... If they fail to get to the stranded boat in time, it is doomed and sinks with all hands. The losing captains loses boat, crew and officer. If they get to it in time, on the losing side, part of automating this end game process gives the vanquished captain the choice to surrender this one durability boat as well as surrender his crew to replace the lost crew of the winning captain in exchange for keeping the life of his officer. If he refuses he basically refuses to be rescued and sinks with all hands, looses the boat, crew and one officer's life. So choices, are surrender and you keep your officer's life or sink and loose all but deny the winner from taking the boat and crew. This is not a boarding battle, it is essentially a rescue. This potentially would make ships themselves stay longer in the game and change hands in a more diversified way as battles go on. Ship would still sink regularly when they are not salvaged in time or when captains refuse to surrender. You might loose you ship and capture it back at a later date which is an incentive to not let it sink in the first place. Some ships might become famous for having been captured many times and survive many battles which brings up the next topic: SHIP PAINT AND CUSTOM NAME __________________________ Once ships have more chances to survive battles and becoming famous it would be nice to give them personality by allowing custom ship names that stay with the boat once christened as well as making custom paint readily available at ports to give them distinctive character. Paint is not something special in the world of ships. Maybe gold leafing or special custom figureheads could be rare items but not paint. Making "rare" ships has also the unwelcome side effect of captains avoiding combat to preserve the custom paint of their "special" ship. This behavior alone degrades the quality of PVP on the server. DEALING WITH CAPTURED SHIPS ___________________________ As much as I like to teleport a captured ship it should not be possible to cross the entire map at the click of a button. You capture a ship, you deal with it. When a ship is captured, the victorious captain must assign crew to it after emergency repairs have allowed the ship to stay afloat, then it can be added to the FLEET and sailed back by the regular open world sea ways. If the captain already has a full fleet (2 slots as of now) provision should be made in the game mechanics for towing the captured ship without fully crewing it and of course taxing the open world speed accordingly. ​There should also be an option in the event of multiple ships captured, to allow the victorious captain to either to pass the control of the captured ship to a clan's mate or group mate. __________________________________________ Thanks for reading this far, please critique, comment, improve etc... -T

Dear Devs, while I'm at it right now, this is just an not necessary suggestion: I would like to ask you one thing: "Permanent Upgrade" are permanent right? So, if we take that as given, shoudn't any ship that you "capture" by another player still have the permanent upgrades installed? Shoudn't this be true especially by first rate ships? Where you only have one durability? E.g: if a ship gets boarded, the crew shoud be able to "throw away" the normal upgrades sothat the enemy can not achieve them. But permanent upgrades are solid, not easy to be removed from the crew. It would take time for them (normally) to destroy a mast or something else. So I would like to ask especially for a first rate ship, which gets borded, that the permanent upgrades stay inside the ship sothat the new holder can decide if he wants to keep them or to replace them. Thank you for your time and best regards, Twig

It is becoming very apparent with the current Development Poll that diplomacy and (more importantly) piracy war by far the mot popular aspect of the game that the community at large feels needs to be addressed. While on somewhat of a tangent, I believe that the current "Surrender" and "Capture" mechanics are somewhat lacking, and proper implementation could very well assist in starting to separate pirates and nationals in gameplay- both long and short-term. The Surrender Mechanic Now I've only ever resorted to using the Surrender button once (When it comes down to it, I prefer to go out in a figurative blaze of glory, or a more literal blaze caused by a shot in the magazine). I was in a basic cutter, carrying nothing. I think I lost a durability. I'm not sure if my opponent receive anything, be it gold, XP, or otherwise. Now I believe Surrender should be a viable option, however it should have some different possible outcomes. PotBS, when a player surrendered, the player who was surrendering was given an option of how much of their cargo they would surrender (I found this rather amusing, imagining the banter between captains: "Stop shooting! We surrender! Please don't sink me!...But I'm only giving you 25 percent of my cargo!). This was somewhat viable, as the attacker would most likely receive more booty than they would had they simply sunk the ship (if they intended to capture it, there was little incentive to accept a surrender). However, I feel the choice of mercy should not go to the attacker, not the one surrendering. A player can offer to surrender, and when they do, the attacker would be given a list of options on how to handle the surrender A: Ignore the Surrender ("Damnation seize my soul if I give you quarter, or take any from you!") B: Accept the Surrender; commandeer(plunder) goods/repair kits/modules. Surrendering player is allowed to leave, no durability lost. C: Accept the Surrender; Commandeer Ship. Player is effectively "Sunk", loses one durability. Player loses all goods, modules, etc. The Attacker takes the ship as though they had boarded it. D: Accept Surrender; show mercy. Surrendering player is allowed to leave with everything in tact; no cargo or durability lost. The last 3 options could have further implications should a sort of reputation system be implemented: showing mercy would garner a large amount of good reputation. Now, I'm not one to sing PotBS's praises. Like, ever. However what I did find interesting/amusing, was that when someone offered a surrender, the Attacker could accept the surrender, receive the loot from it, and be able to go back on their word and still sink the player. This was something that seemed like the most piratey: "Ok, we accept your surrender, you can go...Lolz, I lied" Now, as much as I loved the piratiness of it, I seriously believe this is not how it should be implemented here. It is far too susceptible to grief and trolling. The Capture Mechanic: "Send to Admiralty" The ability to "capture" and "take command" of a ship is reserved solely for pirates. Captured ships have one durability, and retain all the characteristics and permanent modules of the ship that was captured. - 1/2 way there, When a ship is captured, the quality of the ship and permanent modules are all degraded. Pirates can use resources to "craft" an extra durability for a captured ship (obviously the resources needed to be equal to what is needed to have build a ship of equal quality from scratch, then adjusted based on how much durability is to be added. Example: if ship A, of Fine quality needs 50 planks to be built with 5 durability, then crafting 1 durability for it once it is captured requires only 10 planks. refilling durability in this manner can only be done by pirates. Similarly, pirates can use resources to upgrade the quality of ships and modules The reasoning behind this is simple: the pirates need to be weened off of mass producing ships the same way that the Nations build ships. At first, pirates would still be able to produce all ships. However this mechanic would allow them an alternate means of acquiring ships, thus pulling them away from the shipyard and out to sea to plunder, where they belong. While pirates should eventually have limitations on what ships they can build, pirates should have the ability to capture any and all ships. NOTE: I do not think pirates should "want" to sail large lineships, however until mechanics change that shift pirate gameplay focus to smaller ships, they should not be limited in the ships they can command. Nationals send captured ships to Admiralty- The Nations' only option for acquiring new ships should be through production and trade. They should not be able to commandeer other ships. Any ships they capture should be sent to the Admiralty, at which point the player will receive one (or be given a choice) of a number of possible rewards, all based on the quality, size, rank, etc. of the ship captured. Such rewards could be - 1/2 there, As of Patch 9.7, all NPC ships are sent to admiralty. Reputation Resources Sums of Gold Medium-High Grade Modules (Only temporary? Only permanent?) Ship Tokens: tokens to be traded for a free ship of medium-high quality. (Example: 5 tokens gets you a Privateer, 500 gets you a Victory). Tokens can vary in grade: Token of Service- to be traded for rank 7-6 vessels (given for capture of ships of similar rank), Token of Valor- to be traded for Rank 2-1 ships. Now why this difference? Because there needs to be some give-and-take here; there needs to start being some differences between pirates and Nationals that don't simply limit one or the other. Instead this will place some level on restriction on both, while providing some sort of trade-off. A pirate can easily capture any ship, but that ship would end up being of a lesser quality due to it being captured. Pirates can still field exceptional ships, but they must do so via upgrading captured ones. Whereas Nationals would have the ability to purchase high grade ships with Tokens, essentially for free, but would have to capture a large number of ships of the same quality to be able to do so. ~Cheers

Hi all i was just wondering what the port capture records are for each of the servers. Currently i only know the US PVP 2 server which has resently been set at 8 ports in 1 day by the french. but i do wonder what records the other servers hold and what country holds them and if the PVP 2 server currently holds the Naval action record or if we are in 2nd or 3rd place. call it a nice way to have a Raivaly between servers & nations on each server.

So I have run into a possible bug. I have made about 6-8 ships (trader vessals to be exact) surrender and about of those 6-8, two of them were available for me in the post-battle menu (after I choose "Leave Battle") to right click and send to port. Then other 6 or so were not available in the same context. I don't know if this is a bug or what, but after the two that I could send to port I kept trying the same thing. Yet it didn't happen after them. Does anyone else know what's going on? I have dropped the crew count for all off the ships in this situation to 2 or fewer and then I can visually see the white flag. However I don't know why I can't just leave battle and take the ships with me. I mean it even says in the Scoreboard while in-battle "Captured" yet the game doesn't seem to recognize them as such. Maybe something is buggy with the code? I don't know. Thanks for any help give.

I have already submitted a ticket on this issue but was curious if anyone else has had the same issue recently. So me and a fellow friend took on a single Privateer. We got him to surrender and I went up and took the capture of the ship (slowed enemy ship down as I did, hit X i think it was to capture ect). (The circle went all the way around and finished capturing.) Once Captured, I left the battle only to see the after action report without any loot nor Vessel captured. It was too bad cause we spent a good amount of time on that and I was going to take control and have it be my new flag ship lol. Next time I guess! Let me know if anyone else has had this issue.

I would like to see more battle options for when ships are successfully boarded. All dependant on a suitable amount of crew available to carry out the task, condition of the ship captured and physically reducing your current battle crew appropriately. Scuttle You remove boarding party and prisoners and sink the enemy ship with a ball through the hull. Full damage xp as if sunk with cannon fire and possible future gain from prisoners. Head bounty etc. Secure Prize An absolute minimum number of your crew on the prize to guard the subdued crew. No crew available for fighting or sailing duties. Probably basic repair to remain afloat. (In effect what we have now) Secure and sail prize away Larger prize crew, large enough to man the sails and guard prisoners. You give the prize crew a heading to sail away from battle on. Your national flag flies over the captured ships flag as ai sail to the horizon while you continue the fight and probably guard your prize as it escapes. When prize reaches a reasonable distance from the fight a message "Prize has escaped" pops up and you can disengage knowing you have done enough to gain the prize even though enemy ships are still present. Secure and man for combat. Only if captured ship has a minimum of damage(20% ?). You decide to add the prize to the combat group as an ai. you have to be able to crew it sufficiently to keep a fighting crew both on your own and the captured vessel. It acts as a hired combat vessel. Secure and exchange. You decide to move your entire crew into the new ship and leave a prize crew behind on your own.(What we have now if you 'X' capture during battle). You choose one of the above options for the ship you are moving from. *Scuttle, Secure Prize, Secure and Sail prize away, or Secure and man for combat(Your own ship becomes the ai). * Why would you scuttle and exchange I hear you ask. If your own ship was unable to survive but transferring your crew officers etc into a less damaged ship to continue the fight or flee, whilst guaranteeing the enemy could not capture your own ship. this is why you might contemplate the scuttle order.