Suggestion; gunports and spyglass, please vote on poll!

[kirefla91]

Greetings, I realize this has probably been suggested in the past, but I’d like to throw in my cents on the matter.

I believe we need implement a spyglass when we’re on the world map, perhaps one that you purchase for gold, this would be both sensible and reasonable considering the state of navigation at the present time (I adore how we can’t see ourselves on the map). To have a spyglass might also add somewhat to the immersion of the game, and certainly ease the navigation, at least a little bit- After all.. You might spot land from a greater distance if you have such a thing, and if you spot land you can work out a rough estimate of where you are.

The second thing I’d like to suggest is the ability to open and close the gunports on our ship, this might not appear as a big deal, but it does have an element of pure awesome to it, there you are- Sailing up alongside a trader or enemy- And suddenly you open your gunports and the cannons slide out- The showman in me can’t help but adore such a thought. Such a suggestion would not be purely for show however, one could add a small increase to speed from traveling with them closed, after all- Cannons slid out of the ship will cause more drag resistance against the wind, and therefore slow you down in comparison to the other guy.

So yes, these are my two suggestions, and why I'd like to see them added. Please vote on the poll.

Edited February 25, 2016 by kirefla91

[PL_Harpoon]

The spyglass thing is pretty obvious and anything that adds more control over your ship is a solid "yes" on my part, but how would closed gunports make your ship sail faster? I imagine they exist to prevent guns from being exposed to salt water during travels. I would like to see them closed in OW or in trader ships. Or the ship could gain water if open gunports are below water level (or at beam reach with high waves).

[kirefla91]

The spyglass thing is pretty obvious and anything that adds more control over your ship is a solid "yes" on my part, but how would closed gunports make your ship sail faster? I imagine they exist to prevent guns from being exposed to salt water during travels. I would like to see them closed in OW or in trader ships. Or the ship could gain water if open gunports are below water level (or at beam reach with high waves).

If you have the gunports open and the guns pushed out of the ship, then this will work against the wind,- as in create more resistance against the wind you're sailing, not by a lot I grant you, but it'd certainly be somewhat present, hence why I suggest a -small- increase to speed from having them closed. I agree though, the primary purpose is likely to prevent the guns to being exposed to too much salt water, and well- Keep the water out in general, but I still think it'd be a nice little thing to see in the game.

[Hethwill]

Can you please add a fourth option to both of the questions ? Thank you.

 

- Yes but do not agree it is essential.

[Malachi]

No to gunport lids. Not all ports had a lid (for example, on La Renommée just the 3 or 4 ports towards the stern and the 1 or 2 towards the head had would have had one). This would look rather akward and confuse most players - prolly resulting in a lot of bug reports

Edited February 25, 2016 by Malachi

[kirefla91]

Can you please add a fourth option to both of the questions ? Thank you.

 

- Yes but do not agree it is essential.

Added the options, but I don't see how they're needed, I mean.. No suggestion is really -essential- is it?

 

 

No to gunport lids. Not all ports had a lid (for example, on La Renommée just the 3 or 4 ports towards the stern and the 1 or 2 towards the head had would have had one). This would look rather akward and confuse most players - prolly resulting in a lot of bug reports

Fair enough, doesn't seem like a reasonable reason to not have the ability to adjust them though, I mean.. Doesn't most ships have gunports with lids and all? And logically speaking, shouldn't they have lids? Seems like they might easily be unseaworthy with such a shortage, but hey, that might just be me! 

[Aetrion]

Opening and closing gunports I guess would come down to the same issue as having the guns animated when running in and out, as far as I understand it it eats into system resources in a way that isn't practical right now. 

 

I suppose if all you can do is run the guns in and close the ports the game can still handle all the guns as a single entity, so maybe it's more possible than having the individual guns recoil when fired.

[Hethwill]

Thank you.

[PL_Harpoon]

If you have the gunports open and the guns pushed out of the ship, then this will work against the wind,- as in create more resistance against the wind you're sailing, not by a lot I grant you, but it'd certainly be somewhat present, hence why I suggest a -small- increase to speed from having them closed. I agree though, the primary purpose is likely to prevent the guns to being exposed to too much salt water, and well- Keep the water out in general, but I still think it'd be a nice little thing to see in the game.

 

I don't know about this. If you stick your hand out of a driving car it's not producing enough drag to slow it down. Even if everyone on a bus would do it. And ships sail at much slower speeds, so the drag would be even smaller.

 

Edit: spelling.

Edited February 25, 2016 by PL_Harpoon

[Natan]

I agree to both of these ideas. But would like to add some suggestions. 1st I think both the battle and the OW spyglass should be purchased with gold or crafted with different levels of quality. 2nd I would like to see the OW spyglass reveal information from farther away. Currently you have to get close to ports to see their name. It would he convenient to be able to use a spyglass to see what that port in the distance is. This would allow better navigation through hostile waters at a distance from the coast line sailors. As well as save time navigating. I also love how we don't appear an the map! As for the gunboats. This would be a cool feature that allows more immersion. I'm all for the speed boost. But if people disagree with that, maybe make it a small bonus protection for crews? Less holes in a ship for grape shot. Just my two cents. Maybe add 5 seconds to the reload timer. This would allow more options, and even better combat tactics.

This last part is off topic but please don't change the map system. I love that we are not on the map!

[kirefla91]

I don't know about this. If you stick your hand out of a driving car it's not producing enough drag to slow it down. Even if everyone on a bus would do it. And ships sail at much slower speeds, so the drag would be even smaller.

 

Edit: spelling.

Perhaps so, but the guns are both larger and longer than a hand, at least so if you use long guns like I tend to, but of course! You might very well be right, it's just my cents really.

[Foidewall]

I would like the gunports to open automaticly when entering battle, but be closed in open world.

[Macjimm]

Spyglass would be great ... But with some type of national identifier (static flag, paint, colour) on ships. The national identification could be used for determining friend or foe of a ship and it could be seen with the UI off.

Gun ports are okay open or closed. Not important. At least not until the bouyancy is fixed.

[Aetrion]

I would like the gunports to open automaticly when entering battle, but be closed in open world.

 

That actually makes perfect sense.

[Rychu Karas]

spyglass is one of the MTH tools, I hole its a only mater of time when devs add it.

Gun ports it would be nice to have it. It gives us immersion of the tall ships: ]

[PL_Harpoon]

That actually makes perfect sense.

And it shouldn't hit performance at all. Also, as I said in my first post here, trader ships should also have these ports closed.

[kirefla91]

I agree to both of these ideas. But would like to add some suggestions. 1st I think both the battle and the OW spyglass should be purchased with gold or crafted with different levels of quality. 2nd I would like to see the OW spyglass reveal information from farther away. Currently you have to get close to ports to see their name. It would he convenient to be able to use a spyglass to see what that port in the distance is. This would allow better navigation through hostile waters at a distance from the coast line sailors. As well as save time navigating. I also love how we don't appear an the map! As for the gunboats. This would be a cool feature that allows more immersion. I'm all for the speed boost. But if people disagree with that, maybe make it a small bonus protection for crews? Less holes in a ship for grape shot. Just my two cents. Maybe add 5 seconds to the reload timer. This would allow more options, and even better combat tactics.

This last part is off topic but please don't change the map system. I love that we are not on the map!

I agree completely with you in regards to the spyglass, I'd love it if it was something that was crafted, or acquired from the shop or something of the sort, so that some are better than others- Perhaps giving more information than other ones depending on how good the quality of it is. I think this would add more to the game. 

[Macjimm]

It seems reasonable to have a cost for a spyglasses and even provide improved levels of quality for more gold.  

 

But please, please, don't limit spy glass quality to XP or rank.  

 

It would be most unfortunate to be forced to grind our way through hours of combat for the sole purpose of obtaining a spyglass when all we ever to aspire to be is a trader or an explorer, sailing a small ship.  It is fine to limit the larger ships to players who have ranked up, but a decent spyglass should be accessible to anyone who can afford it.  They should not be the special property of the elite higher level players.  

 

A spyglass should also be part of the loot of a captured vessel if the defeated player had one on board.

[surfimp]

I would like to see the OW use the same camera control as the battle instances. I.e. I shouldn't have to right click and drag in OW to move my camera around my ship, whereas in battle I can just move the mouse.

 

Also I think the spyglass in OW is absolutely essential, and I'd like to see it implemented along with removing the ability to click on distant ships and have all the information about the ship / fleet displayed.

 

Instead, I would like that national flags be displayed in the OW (currently they are not) and you'd have to use your spyglass to identify ship type and nationality... and you'd only get the captain's name once you were at hailing distance. This would really add quite a bit to the drama and tension of seeing other ships - are they friend or foe? - and would be much more realistic and interesting.

 

Trade ships look ridiculous sailing around with the gunports open and no guns on deck. At least they should have the gunports closed, for sure.

 

I don't think the spyglass should be something that has to be earned, it would be a basic piece of essential navigation equipment for ships of this time.

Edited February 26, 2016 by surfimp

[Rigge1988]

Spyglass, yes please!

 

I was actually thinking about gun ports today. And I was thinking that they should be closed normally and as soon as you hit the attack button they flung open.

Would be a cool detail just for the sake of visual effect.

[ObiQuiet]

Gunports:  Open and closed could be used to signal a vessel's intentions - hostile or friendly.  (See Sam Willis, Fighting at Sea in the Eighteenth Century).  Not that it matters practially in the game we have today, but some additional ways of determining whom you are looking at in the OW can be imagined.

 

Spyglass:  All for it in the OW. Should be able to tell which port from further away, and tell more about a distant ship.  Would be neat if the closer the ship, the more you could tell.  At first, size and course.  When closer, nationality and trader/warship.   When even closer, captain's name and damage state.

 

To make up for the perception limitations of the game screen, it would be OK with me if the spyglass told me the ships heading (not bearing) relative to mine and whether the distance was increasing or not.

 

One difficulty with a spyglass in OW would be keeping it centered on a ship that is approaching from ahead at a narrow angle -- I can barely manage to catch those with a mouse click now.

[eriks]

If you have the gunports open and the guns pushed out of the ship, then this will work against the wind,- as in create more resistance against the wind you're sailing, not by a lot I grant you, but it'd certainly be somewhat present, hence why I suggest a -small- increase to speed from having them closed. I agree though, the primary purpose is likely to prevent the guns to being exposed to too much salt water, and well- Keep the water out in general, but I still think it'd be a nice little thing to see in the game.

 

The amount of drag of the guns sticking out of the gunports is basically zero compared to the amount of drag of the rigging and sails.

 

Besides, closing the ports would only make you faster upwind.

 

Now if we regularly start having battles in heavy seas then you will want to keep the ports closed on the bottom deck to help prevent swamping.

[Aetrion]

The doors on the ports weren't on the ship to reduce drag, they were on the ship because given sufficiently high waves being able to close the ports kept out a lot of water.

Edited February 29, 2016 by Aetrion

[eriks]

The ports weren't on the ship to reduce drag, they were on the ship because given sufficiently high waves being able to close the holes kept out a lot of water.

 

 

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_%28ship%29

[The MetaBaron]

gun ports should be opened by deck and in stormy weather you should take water on if you have the lower ones open, to the point where in some conditions and with some ships it would be dangerous to have them open.