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Trading and protection


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I am a trader and I love this game. My ships have been ganked many times with only one option for me. Having a trade ship with cannons is just not logical. Why fight a battle way out of your league with your precious cargo at stake?!

I like the naval battle aspect too, now here comes my question: Is it possible to have your trade ship flee the scene and than take over your battle ship and fight a spectacular fight to show that traders are no doormats? I mean, that your trade ship is in the clear and and whether you win or lose the battle, you can continue your trade after the battle.

Follow-up question is can you switch controls in mid fight when you have too?

Having a friend to protect you always is not doable unless that friend is your slave and has nothing else to do :P

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1 minute ago, rediii said:

If this is still planned you can take your battleship next patch and let your traders be controlled as fleetships because you can use their hold next patch

That would be a good start, but doesn't fully answer it. Is that in a patch somewhere?

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Just now, rediii said:

Yes but sadly i think there is nothing else possible at the moment. If you leave with your tradeship and your fleetship can't leave yet he will just surrender. I don't know if it is planned that you change ships midfight.

"You can now use the hold of your fleetships"

Good news, but my battle ship is more worth than my trade ship.

Okay, in that case I stick to my best option and flee the scene. It's not like any of you is capable of hitting my speed fitted Lynx anyway :)

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Good questions. I've found the LGV is a trade ship that is good at running away from most raiders, but when cornered it can still put up a good fight. You should stock it with boarding mods and green or blue marines if you have them - I've boarded a few aggressive raiders at the last minute and saved muself from capture - make sure you are boarding prepped. Of course mods are all about to go bye-bye with the next patch so we will have to develop new trade ship tactics, but thats the fun part of the game. I don't bother with fleets - they tend to get in the way when you need them. If you are successful at capping a raider you have the option of taking command of the raider or staying on the trader and continuing on to port, but can't sail both ships at the moment.

Edited by Strake
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I remember when I first started I got ganked a lot as a trader.  It will help if you ask folks safe place to trade and keep to those routs.  Watch your wind.  Watch the other ships around you.  Don't let yourself get in bad wind.  Don't hug the coast if your doing a long haul.  Learn to navigate for those long hauls.  If you hear folks call out Pirates or other nations stay away from those areas.   

With the new content you can be in your war ship and let your traders escape as you fight to protect them and your goods.  

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On 3/17/2017 at 8:01 AM, Strake said:

Good questions. I've found the LGV is a trade ship that is good at running away from most raiders, but when cornered it can still put up a good fight. You should stock it with boarding mods and green or blue marines if you have them - I've boarded a few aggressive raiders at the last minute and saved muself from capture - make sure you are boarding prepped. Of course mods are all about to go bye-bye with the next patch so we will have to develop new trade ship tactics, but thats the fun part of the game. I don't bother with fleets - they tend to get in the way when you need them. If you are successful at capping a raider you have the option of taking command of the raider or staying on the trader and continuing on to port, but can't sail both ships at the moment.

Fleets for traders are always useful as you can use them to intercept the raider and slow him down a little. Sometimes a few seconds makes all the difference. A future patch is supposed to permit the use of the cargo space of the fleet ships you have with you (So you can be in a warship and still have that LGV with you fully loaded with goods).

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I haven't tried it meself, but I have seen an opponent do it in a fight: He had a frigate rate (Surprise, IIRC) and two fleet ships of the same rate. When I had battered his own ship enough, he ordered one of the fleet ships to stop, went alongside with his own ship and switched over, essentially by boarding it. His own ship then became an AI.

I think this is using the mechanism you use for taking over ships that surrendered, where the game offers you an [X] when stopped alongside an undefended ship.

So, in your case, if you have enough distance at the start of the battle instance, you could execute that maneuver, and then tell your trading-vessel-turned-AI to escape. I think.

Edited by Kpt Lautenschlaeger
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9 hours ago, Kpt Lautenschlaeger said:

I haven't tried it meself, but I have seen an opponent do it in a fight: He had a frigate rate (Surprise, IIRC) and two fleet ships of the same rate. When I had battered his own ship enough, he ordered one of the fleet ships to stop, went alongside with his own ship and switched over, essentially by boarding it. His own ship then became an AI.

I think this is using the mechanism you use for taking over ships that surrendered, where the game offers you an [X] when alongside and stopped an undefended ship.

So, in your case, if you have enough distance at the start of the battle instance, you could execute that maneuver, and then tell your trading-vessel-turned-AI to escape. I think.

You are correct though doing it after shots are fired can get really tricky. Basically you, and the AI you have ordered to stop so that you can transfer command, are sitting ducks until the transfer is complete.

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2 minutes ago, Kpt Lautenschlaeger said:

That is true. So if you intend to pull this off, I imagine you would want to counter-tag the player chasing you from as far away as feasible, so you have time for the boat switch.

As soon as it is evident that he will catch you in the Open World, no matter what you do.

Yes. That is the only situation I've ever made such a switch. I was sailing a trader with goods and had a combat fleet ship. The first thing I did was order my AI combat ship to stop and sailed over and made the crew switch. If the patches ever make it off the test server, that tactic may become unnecessary as you will be able to sail a combat ship with a fleeted trader which has cargo in its hold.

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10 minutes ago, Farrago said:

Yes. That is the only situation I've ever made such a switch. I was sailing a trader with goods and had a combat fleet ship. The first thing I did was order my AI combat ship to stop and sailed over and made the crew switch. If the patches ever make it off the test server, that tactic may become unnecessary as you will be able to sail a combat ship with a fleeted trader which has cargo in its hold.

With having a battle ship in the lead, trade ship as fleet, attackers may think twice about attacking you. But when he attacks you, you have triple the epic experience: You have a profitable trade, chance to cap an attacking ship, and have an epic battle at hand. After all you don't let a battle ship escort your precious cargo when he can't pack a punch :)

 

This game has so much potential. It's almost scoring for open goal. It's win win :)

 

But switching ships mid-battle should be made as easy as clicking the tab-button. That would be awesome.

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Sometimes its worth considering to fight the oponent right from the start instead of running away from him and eventualy having to fight him with 30% of your sails gone and no sail repair left. They usualy won't expect it and their ships will probably be speed fitted and cedar wood if they are realy out to hunt traders.

If they start going for your sails, and you start going for their hull there is a chance at one point the guy will have to change tactics to avoid getting sunk. I think many battles have been lost that could have been won if they would fight from the start instead of running away and having to fight with a massive handicap in the end.

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  • 2 months later...
On 3/23/2017 at 5:36 AM, The Spud said:

Sometimes its worth considering to fight the oponent right from the start instead of running away from him and eventualy having to fight him with 30% of your sails gone and no sail repair left. They usualy won't expect it and their ships will probably be speed fitted and cedar wood if they are realy out to hunt traders.

If they start going for your sails, and you start going for their hull there is a chance at one point the guy will have to change tactics to avoid getting sunk. I think many battles have been lost that could have been won if they would fight from the start instead of running away and having to fight with a massive handicap in the end.

One of my best moves to do when out numner is simple.  Turn and go right through the middle of the chasing group.  Specially if they are a bunch of slow bad turning ships.  They will loose to much wind trying to turn and get after me it normally gives me enough head start to get away.  I will load chain before I do it and hit sails as i pass them to slow them down.   Though with the current repairs and such I think this might be a bit harder to do.  Will see if I get caught in a bad spot.  Either way I make them run for it and spread them out.  Had one group spread out enough I was able to kill there fastest ship/tagger and than escape before the big guys caught up.

Though the hulls vs sails have won us many a fights.  We still have like 60% sails while they are sinking and we just need to pop a repair and back into the fight while they are down numbers and dropping like flies.

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1 minute ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

One of my best moves to do when out numner is simple.  Turn and go right through the middle of the chasing group.  Specially if they are a bunch of slow bad turning ships.  They will loose to much wind trying to turn and get after me it normally gives me enough head start to get away.  I will load chain before I do it and hit sails as i pass them to slow them down.   Though with the current repairs and such I think this might be a bit harder to do.  Will see if I get caught in a bad spot.  Either way I make them run for it and spread them out.  Had one group spread out enough I was able to kill there fastest ship/tagger and than escape before the big guys caught up.

Though the hulls vs sails have won us many a fights.  We still have like 60% sails while they are sinking and we just need to pop a repair and back into the fight while they are down numbers and dropping like flies.

Its just the beauty of this game, matches can be won in so many different ways. One manouver on the right time can just flip the balance in your favour. Its sometimes just being creative with what you have.

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