Boarded ships are useless

[Corona Lisa]

Hello,

boarded ships are useless, except 1st and maybe 2nd rates. They only have 1 durability and that means you cant use upgrades for them. So they are much weaker than ships with  regular upgrades. This is a pity, since boarding a ship should feel rewarding and useful. Imagine being a true pirate and only use ships which you have boarded. It would be great, its true.

We can make it great, with one simple change:

The boarded ship will keep the upgrades which the former owner used, transformed into permanent upgrades.

Like this:

Lets say this ship was boarded. It has just 1 durability, but I can still use it with full efficiency, since the guy I boarded has used these upgrades.

If I dont want specific upgrades like Marines for example, I can still remove them and get a regular upgrade slot back.

 

What do you think?

[Liq]

good idea but with the current durability system that would lead to people letting their upgrade-equipped ship get captured on purpose / let it surrender --> Ship/Upgrade duplication, Build 1 PB aggie, equip it with upgrades, let it surrender, reclaim it (by someone else), profit.
 

[shaeberle84]

Good idea!

6 minutes ago, Liquicity said:

good idea but with the current durability system that would lead to people letting their upgrade-equipped ship get captured on purpose / let it surrender --> Ship/Upgrade duplication, Build 1 PB aggie, equip it with upgrades, let it surrender, reclaim it (by someone else), profit.
 

I dont see the point. Having 5 1 dura ships is basically the same as having 1 5 dura ships with the same upgrades. Sure you can split your best ships with your teammates, but at the end of the day, the nation/coalition will not be able to field MORE durabilites, but only BETTER durabilites. WIN WIN.

To prevent Upgrade duplication, these could also have durabilities, say 10.

Edited February 8, 2017 by shaeberle84

[z4ys]

Make mods cheap, a default thing that you can buy in every port or drop them.

I never used captured ships of the same reasons you mentioned above. Furthermore when you want to survive in a pvp environment you can't rely just on your skill when everyone brings shiny stuff. Who wants to bring a knife to a gun fight even when you are the best knife fighter ;-)

The game has some parts that aren't fun. And getting hands on mods is one of them.

Personally I would like to buy mods how we do with cannons.(all mods are reduced to just one tier)

Edited February 8, 2017 by z4ys

[Pada]

The permanent upgrades should stay. For the normal slots I always use green upgrades on boarded ships.

[Ravern]

A good idea If all ships are 1 dura and the only way to remove upgrades from a captured ship is to destroy them.

[Liq]

1 hour ago, shaeberle84 said:

Good idea!

I dont see the point. Having 5 1 dura ships is basically the same as having 1 5 dura ships with the same upgrades. Sure you can split your best ships with your teammates, but at the end of the day, the nation/coalition will not be able to field MORE durabilites, but only BETTER durabilites. WIN WIN.

To prevent Upgrade duplication, these could also have durabilities, say 10.

my main concern was the upgrade duplication, say 5 exceptional upgrades on 1 ship, 5x4 mid grade notes, so 20 notes

If you want to equip 5 PB ships, you'd need 100 notes, but with that suggestion, only 20 (of course the ships will only be 1 dura, but still)

[Captiva]

1 hour ago, z4ys said:

Make mods cheap, a default thing that you can buy in every port or drop them.

I lean toward x4ys' idea, with the following addition; remember when the Developers mentioned that in the future all ships would be of Exceptional build? The reason being, who would build a bad ship?

I believe the Developers thought's regarding the quality of ships should also apply to certain mods such as, Pellew's Sights and Rum Rations. You either have Pellew's SIghts or you don't. Who would put inferior Pellew's Sights aboard their ship? The same goes for Rum Rations and Extra Hammocks - you have them or you don't.

Where I would keep quality a factor is in the use of Marines and similar mods such as Carpenter teams (I would actually like to see the term, quality, exchanged for the term, quantity, with these mods). In short, with Marines and Carpenter Teams, a player not only has them or he doesn't, but he is also choosing the amount of these men to carry on board,  

Edited February 8, 2017 by Captiva

[Taranis]

I agree with the OP.  Captured ships are largely worthless, given the alternatives - which incidentally goes against historical values.  Oh how many ships were captured and re-purposed?  Captured ships were historically prized and often put to invaluable use (eg: Endymion, Surprise, Renomee,....) 

If devs make all ships 1 dura, then upgrades also need to be addressed: cost, craftability, rarity, etc....  as well as whether they should convey with the ship if it is captured, or whether some type of upgrades might magically stay with the captain

[elite92]

1 dura ships, remove upgrades and modules and officer perks, let us craft our unique ship in term of speed , manouvrability, firepower, cargo, ecc.

every ship in the game should be unique, im tired of battles 25v25 all same ship, same wood, same s...t.

[James Cornelius]

I agree with this. It does not create "more" upgrades. An upgrade has the same durability as whatever ship it is on at that time - if the ship is lost, so is the upgrade.

 

If you have a 5 dur frigate with upgrades on it, your upgrades have 5 dur. If the frigate is captured, then it and the upgrades on it have 4 dur - and the one captured has 1 dur...same with the upgrades. My making them permanent to the captured ship, it prevents spawning "free" upgrades that would multiply.

 

A compromise, of course, could be to make it just the upgrades that are already permanent, but as I said, I think the OP's suggestion is a good one.

[Liq]

It might not create more upgrades, but splits the upgrade 'duras' into several ones which you can use at the same time, that's the problem

[jodgi]

4 hours ago, JonSnowLetsGo said:

What do you think?

Very interesting.

But as you can see from other comments there are some immediate issues. Notice that those issues are rooted in the economy. The struggle between a meaningful economy and fun PVP is so difficult I'm having a hard time detaching myself and laughing it off.

I wouldn't bitch and moan if we were to try a full-on 1 dura system. At least then we would know if it works for NA or makes it into a PVE grind-machine like EVE. 

[z4ys]

5 minutes ago, jodgi said:

Notice that those issues are rooted in the economy.

I don't think mods are a big part in our economy (most mods can't even be crafted). Because of that I don't think It would hurt many people when mods aren't part of the crafting system anymore. 

[jodgi]

5 minutes ago, z4ys said:

I don't think mods are a big part in our economy (most mods can't even be crafted). Because of that I don't think It would hurt many people when mods aren't part of the crafting system anymore. 

For our part it's the upgrades that has consumed the most eco "gameplay" hours. Gold in the old days and now silver and notes, that is the most limited resource.

Just so you know where I'm at: I care nothing for the eco bit. I want to pew-pew ships as much as I can with as little downtime as possible.

[Sir Texas Sir]

I kinda want to see how the new ships are going to be as they are planned to not have perm slots as you build that into the ship when you craft it and you only get 3 temp slots.   I think that will fix a lot of these issues, but I have all ways wonder why can I cap a 1 dura 1st rate and I don't get to keep the mods on that ship.   I can kinda get the multi dura ships, but give the mods dura so if you loos the ship you loose the dura.  This way folks will use all there dura on the ships until the last one.  Many people wil just break up there one dura ship instead of using it any more. I take my mods off mine and put them into fleet ships when I use them or I just break them up for the mats.

[Celtiberofrog]

I think it could be a good idea if any "boarded ship" status would convert their existing "regular upgrades" to "permanent upgrades" (not removable), That boarded ship might become a very nice loot but still with low durability penalty.