Scotty1

My thoughts on making more ships have roles in large fleet and PR actions would be to change the aiming system to allow a clearer view of the cannons convergence to target, making the convergence selectable with the mouse wheel to make tighter or more open by scrolling up or down when aiming, and change the armor from being simply 4 sides to being zones along the forecastle and sides. An example being the Vicotry or Santisma, the planking sections between each knee having its own localized armor rating and damaged based on vertical height above the keel, so defeat or leaks below the water line, at it, or above allowed flooding based on heel, and penetration threw it with followup shots to damage cannons, crew, and the opposite side of armor based on trajectory and angle of attack while incorporating interior ricochet or deflection with decks and internal structure. To make frigates and other non SoL viable allow more cannon angle forward and rearward, so a straight sided trinc or connie for example could swing guns to a greater angle than SoL, smaller cannons and different cannon types could have more swing based on historical canon carriage sizes since smaller ones would be less crammed into the hull. this would allow greater angle of attack and would let them utilize maneuvering into battle formations to counter line tactics in interesting ways. Letting them dart into formations and concentrate their shot on small sections of a SoL they could have great impact. Rounded side hull ships like a Belle Poule would be a little less able to angle tight due to the forward and rearward angle of the gun ports due to the curvature of the hull but still better than the large guns of a SoL. Here is a poorly rendered example. The blue ships being frigates or 4th rates firing in a neat formation against SoLs, the puple ship being a curved hull ship like a Belle, showing the max spread as well as tight spread and them targeting as a group a small section of a SoL concentrating dmg to great effect whereas the front SoL could not concentrate his shot enough to have them all hit the frigates on the right, but could go wide enough to partially hit two of them, though the dmg is widely spread among its sections. Here is am example of a squad of frigates using their speed to dart ahead of their friendly line and maneuvering to target shots on the Bow and front most section of a SoL then maneuvering away staying out of the firing angles of the enemy Here is a possible move after the first broadside where the maneuver back around and dart between the friendly line to fire more broadsides partway through the enemy line and break through separating them firing both broadsides to the bow and a stern rake, each frigate doing good damage to a weak section of a SoL If leak models changed to make speed and tack to wind effect the flooding rate, and repairs could be localized to sections or you could select which sections to concentrate on it would make it more dynamic and historic. if the lead ship had to slow down to reduce the rate of flooding as their bow was damaged, their whole line would have to slow as well. The french used this tactic frequently, damaging the rigging of a lead ship so the whole line had to slow allowing for a leeward escape or advantage to be utilized. Yes I know the sectional damage modeling and coding will take a lot of time, but changing the aiming system and ships fire angles is a lot easier. baby steps that could lead to groups wanting a squadron of something other than the biggest ship they can enter with though if they can focus fire rigging/masts/sails/bow/sterns in the meantime while we wait for compacted HP and sectional damage/armor

IGN Scotty, currently Brit Master and commander rank, transfer, lvl 32 crafter with blueprints looking to go pirate