Forthcoming patch with new perks and other changes.

[Dekillos]

3) Cannonball damage to crew

Some things are found unexpectedly and due to bug on our internal version we have set all crew casualties from cannonballs to min 1 crew per ball. 

• As a result every broadside started to matter (A LOT).
• Many engagements end in just 4-5 broadsides and 2 rakes (like USS Constitution vs Java).
• And majority of engagements end in with a white flag; crew willing to fight = 0.

 

It was very good when we have strong armor and ships  was difficult to penetrate(good time). Now armor is too weak and we can see "insta" kills with focus fire. Because now 4-6 ships can shoot one target and easily penetrate. With double charge perk even heavy ships can lost all crew very fast with focus fire.

 

And if i dont have guns on upper deck and dont have crew on it, why i should lose crew when i receive "hull" in upper deck

Т.е концепция - сложно пробить, но если пробил то нанес много повреждений была бы интересна, но мы ушли далеко уже от неё.

Edited July 26, 2016 by Dekillos

[qw569😳]

to reallocate perks a temporary reset button is added (costs 3 officer levels)

 

У меня есть полностью прокаченный офицер. После боя я получаю офицерский опыт.

Зачем мне этот опыт, если им нельзя воспользоваться? 

Было бы замечательно, чтобы этот опыт накапливался и его можно было тратить для прокачки следующего офицера или для прокачки умений после сброса.

[Red Jack Walker]

With this then we should have a percentage of the crew that would come back into the fight if you are intending to account for injured, routed, and scared people. Additionally, I would just say routed and fearful can be a bit abstract on how you model it....a more experienced crew with good leadership would be much more resistant to fear effects and probably quicker to recover from an initial shock. 

Crew is going to become a key-factor in instances and hope to see implemented a new mechanic capable to restore some crew members during a battle (a sort of "crew repair), just to properly simulate the possibility for some light injured or routed sailors to join the fight again. However I'm really happy with the new changes and eager to test them .

[admin]

If the broadsides become so devastating to crew we are going to need something to counter it.

Im thinking of surgeon officers that could recover some of the wounded crew after a battle. Also maybe that surgeon doesnt recover the crew right after the click but instead needs some time to do his work (2-3 days at sea and less time when you are docked)

if test bed shows awesomeness - crew costs and after battle recovery will be reconsidered of course.

[SoulPYTHON]

Is the wood type going to effect the splinter factor of the wood for crew damage ?

[Siegfried]

Had you thinking about deactivate autoskipper? Make all manual sail position will be more interesting in chasing and manouvering battles. More skill, more posibilities of win.

 

Studding sails and extra stay sails upgrades will work fine now? And do you include that upgrades in the crafting list?

 

I don't like that perk for avoid the enemy to exit from battle in 500 meters. Or for all people or for nobody, but not a perk. Is some kind of magic when the officer can create a force field avoiding jump to hiperspace or something like that?

 

Keep the good work!

[Baptiste Gallouédec]

With this new crew damages settings and the actual double charge/shots perks, you will be able to go back to the super resiliant hulls you introduced some time ago before you tunned it down. I hope so at least, i like the idea.

 

Acceleration, leeway : yes !

[Bulwyf]

Given you are now implementing acceleration/deceleration curves based on mass/friction and hull shape can we lose the ridiculous drop sails feature when intercepted?

 

It has never made sense for a ship which is tagged and trying to flee to drop all its sails when tagged and  dragged into combat. Now that acceleration is a factor it makes even less sense for that to happen.

 

Secondly I would hope that the simplistic idea that a ships mass adversely affects its top speed is not going to be a factor in that calculation. Ships had a best speed at a certain ballast and for merchants that was generally their loaded condition rather than their unloaded condition. Loaded they became stiffer and could generate more power, unloaded they tended to heel and spill wind.

 

As an example, an American fishing schooner sailing from the Grand Banks, (don't quote me on that Grand Banks but it was in that area ) made an average speed of 15.68 knots on its return voyage full loaded which was a record and an impressive turn of speed at any time, the more so since that was the average.

 

Top speed generated was a complex thing with many factors to consider, so I hope the solution you come up with takes more than just mass and water resistance into account.

 

Also to clarify, the control perk as I read it would seem to be a double edged sword, your opponents cant escape but neither can you, is that the case?

Edited July 28, 2016 by Bulwyf

[Forlorn Hope]

I think your work in the area of crew behavior is important. It would seem to me that, you could use your dev knowledge from your other game, Gettysburg. In that game units are affected by how close Generals are, how tired they get, retreat or protect them them, they get back morale and strength. Good stuff, thanks.

 

Has there ever been any discussion on the ability to share OP's with clan, friends or some group type? Sort of like the clan warehouse... 

[Jesters-Ink]

Interesting additions to test, but like a few, I'm a little worried about the new 1 shot 1 crew mechanic.

I don't believe it is realistic (I might be wrong) I also don't know if it will enhance the game or hinder it.

I am stuck away from game for another 4 weeks, so have no way of testing.

Im betting there will be some overwhelming feedback one way or the other.

I like the sound or the rest of the updates though, subject to testing of course.

Good stuff.

[Destraex]

The new wind and hull form system sounds really amazing!

Not sure about the whole holding people in battle thing... perhaps that should be a hard and fast mechanic rather than a perk.

[Ronald Speirs]

Personally i dont think we should make the range restriction a perk, it should just be implement equal across the board, we dont want to go down the lines like POTBS and have to many elements relying on magic and other crap, by making it an equal playing field it will limit outcry while giving everyone the same opportunity, also with the tagging circle it should only be a tagging mechanic for ship placement but once in battle instance they are at a locked distance (1500 yards example) and weather its a set range to escape or escape points that you need to get to.

We have a nice ship combat setup its just the mechanics around it that let it down, need to fix the way PvP is conducted atm, defensive tagging to being the tagger and purposely running or staying max range and tagging for the full battle timer, the 500 meter battle lock is a start but these need to be a standard feature so players are not at great disadvantages.

We also need to create an active discussion and working out a better economic and ship construction system, RnG, ship and module quality needs to be removed, we want players to interact with each other and create supply and demand, we need to have manufacturing in construction buildings (blacksmith, logging camp, lumber mill, textile mills etc) we need to help tie thia game together with it content as its lacks any real structure other then ship combat when u can find it that works well, hopefully we can help discuss better ways of bring greater player activity and sustainability.

[Nash]

why do we have people complain about "magic" and lock people at 500m range here?

if you are 500m from each other and you can hit escape the battle that is magic not the way around. 500m is less than your radar range as well

[BungeeLemming]

maxim - when you track each point of dmge on a single crewmember. woudlnt it be "easy" to save all the lesser injured crewmembers and have them healed up after the battle on the OS?

As you write: scars, splinter injuries. They can be deadly. But they can be survived either.

 

I pledge for a surgeon functionality which recoveres crew on the OS. Not magically to 100% but those, who are injured up to a certain degree.

[karotte]

[...]

If you position your ship right you can avoid this. If enemy makes mistakes you can finish the battle and get him surrender in just 3-5 broadsides. But thats if you can position yourself properly. 

First proper shot in also counts as it can be decisive. So just rushing in without thinking (especially for gankers in faster weaker ships) can be immediately devastating

I think this is already part of the game, due to the leak machanic every skilled captian can sink a weaker ship with only one broadside... that is already devastating. I am loking forward to the Testserver, maybe this becomes a gamechanger and we all have to rethink our style to play.

Karotte

[fox2run]

I like the upredictable results in crew kills as is.... Raking a stern with cannonades makes sence and is great fun too - many things can go wrong... The reward is many deaths - in the new system it wouldnt really matter where to place the ship... one ball is one dead... A good game has aspects of both luck and skills.... Ive heard plp cheering when a single rake kills like 50 crew... and the opposite when nothing happens.... 

 

One of the most boring aspect in this game is the Brace-command in boarding mini-game that autokills one each time used. I find it worrisome, that you want more of that and less of the other stuff.

Edited July 27, 2016 by fox2run

[Sire Trinkof]

I like the upredictable results in crew kills as is.... Raking a stern with cannonades makes sence and is great fun too - many things can go wrong... The reward is many deaths - in the new system it wouldnt really matter where to place the ship... one ball is one dead... A good game has aspects of both luck and skills.... Ive heard plp cheering when a single rake kills like 50 crew... and the opposite when nothing happens....

One of the most boring aspect in this game is the Brace-command in boarding mini-game that autokills one each time used. I find it worrisome, that you want more of that and less of the other stuff.

Adminnsaid this will not be automatic kills... And no one said raking will be less useful, I suspect it will be better

Anyway, really excited, anything putting the crew in front in combat is good for me. Once we will start to see player surrendering due to crew loss rather than sinking ships, I guess a lot of us are going to be very happy!

Edited July 27, 2016 by Sire Trinkof

[Tyrdael]

I am looking forward to that, it may take gunnery in terms of efficiency a notch to boarding again. If i understood that correctly, only penetrating hits will influence your crew in any way.

 

Imho this will give the crew the importance, it deserves instead of being a mere number at the bottom left of the screen.

 

But SoulPYTHONs question is more interesting to me: may the wood type the ship is made of have influence on that in terms of generating splinters?

 

 

I like the upredictable results in crew kills as is.... Raking a stern with cannonades makes sence and is great fun too - many things can go wrong... The reward is many deaths - in the new system it wouldnt really matter where to place the ship... one ball is one dead... A good game has aspects of both luck and skills.... Ive heard plp cheering when a single rake kills like 50 crew... and the opposite when nothing happens.... 

 

One of the most boring aspect in this game is the Brace-command in boarding mini-game that autokills one each time used. I find it worrisome, that you want more of that and less of the other stuff.

 

There is no autokill. IF a shot penetrates, it will affect the crew IF it hits --> wounded, morale drop, scared, dead, unwilling to fight.

 

turboedit: morale drop/fear/wounded were not considered imho, yet.

Edited July 27, 2016 by Tyrdael

[Aphilas]

1) New perks

1 perk we wanted to give an advance warning about. This perk could be controversial so we wanted to give you a heads up. 

 

Control. It does not allow exit to YOU and ALL enemy targets within 500 meters of you while you are alive. (meters subject to change - lets start from 500m)

A lot of you requested distance based exit timers and voila we can get you them as option through perks. 

 

There are multiple issues that this perk will cause - for example this perk + Rattlesnake can keep, for example, a 1st rate in combat for forever for greefing purpose - tag and just tail him for an hour in the battle. After battle is over repeat.

Secondly, again with fast agile ships like Rattlesnakes being used as ships that hold enemy in combat for large ships to catch up/get away in small group combat. At the moment Rattles already do this, but they are forced to present their broadsides now and then as well as maneuver to land the shots which decreases their speed as well as presents possible opportunities for opposing side to shoot it. With the perk all the Rattle will have to do is to sit infront/tail (depending on situation/where enemy doesn't have cannons) with 0 risk and 0 skill involved. Just upping/lowering sails to keep at correct distance.

[fox2run]

Maybe its just the one ball - one kille I do not like. It seems so much like the Brace... Really a boring aspect somehow. Beter with a bit of random in it. War is random. Cannonballs are random. As in real life....

 

Instead of one kill it could be like 2, 0, 5, 0, 0, 3, 10, 4, 1, 3, 0, 0, 2. - something like that. Better for the gamers heart I think.

[William Livingston Alden]

when a broadside matters then a deviaton and ballastic from the cannonballs to the target is a must on long range, including the ship movement.

at the moment the cannonballs are flying like laserguided missiles and dont consider the movement of the ship. it is easy to demast a ship on longe range (500 yards) or to leak them (250 yards).

for example consti against consti or lower class ship.

 

and you should also consider that broadside battles where allways done on short range (pistol shot - 30 yards or less), because only 24 pounders (plus) where effective over 100 yards to break trough 4 and a half feet of oak wood planks.

 

that shows again that the DEVS dont think to an end when implementing new features.

[Yngvarr]

Raking a stern with cannonades makes sence and is great fun too - many things can go wrong... The reward is many deaths - in the new system it wouldnt really matter where to place the ship... one ball is one dead.

 

I believe that once the stern armor is destroyed, Long Cannons would actually be more effective at inflicting damage to cannons and wounds/ kills to crew.

Sure, a Carronade has a large projectile, but it's also rather slow in comparison to Long Guns.

Long Guns mean a smaller projectile, with a higher muzzle velocity, translating in an amount of kinetic energy that is higher, and will be retained longer.

This in turn means (theoretically) higher penetration, and a higher chance the cannonball will travel more distance internally along the length axis of the ship.

[Kanay]

Still no changes to officer total xp needed to be fully leveled up or the limited 10 life's that plague the pvp with surrender meta ? around 35K xp needs to be made putting higher ranked players in favorable position compared to lower level ones not able to grind easily xp doing fleet missions in SOL's or simply not having a level high enough to get 35K xp cumulated, higher ranked players having the upper hand on lower ranked ones, any changes on this to make it more fair for all ? 

 

Still no way to leave my officer at dock when i don't need it while using a trader ship for example ? 

 

Still not multiple officers possible, one dedicated to traders, one for small ships, one for frigates one for sol's for example ?

 

Still nothing for defensive tag plague that ruins pvp, players using def tag will spawn way further than the 500m and while they are slower in OW or in battle session they are still able to nullify your speed advantage and escape easily then hide or logout in the end result screen, simple fix : make the one pressing the attack button locked 10 minutes in the battle with no way to escape during those 10 first minutes, as long as there is still enemies inside the battle of course, if all enemies leave player can leave before the 10mn, faster ships will be able to regain the speed and advantage they had in OW that is nullified with the def tag broken mechanic and spawn distances in the battle session compared to OW distances .

 

 

Impatient to test the new acceleration in game, looks like a game changer to me, will take probably some time to get used to it but seems like a very interesting change, especially with extra sails upgrades that might be essential in battles now, hopefully we will be able to craft those in next patch , the optimized ballast that is under the speed category for upgrades might actually have also an effect on ships speed providing less friction on water etc ...

 

Bit worried about crew loss and potentially too shortened battles but need to see and test this, speaking of testing what is needed to test the new ships like some moderators and many players not being beta testers i see get in game already ? Santa Cecilia , rattlesnake heavy for example ?  

 

Waiting impatiently for this new content, looks like some things will change quite a bit the physiognomy of the sailing in battles and we will have to learn new things for every type of ships, this diversity can only be more interesting and i'm looking forward to it, hope patch come very soon.

 

Thanks

[Mike Hawk]

(Traders issues)

 

Dear Developers

 

Should we expect any changes on the following core issues:

 

1. Speed of traders and weight of their cargo

2. Possibility to make evasive tag for traders

3. Possibility of immediate dropping cargo by traders

4. Immune from boarding due to Determined defender

5. Quantity of cities to hide for a trader

6. Fleets of traders, I mean defensive advantage of them

7. BR failure when attacking a trader covered by Santi

8. Recognizing a flag and name in open world

9. Sitting "in the window" after the battle

10. Using national chat in the open world and in the battle

 

Sorry, we pirates loosing game interest. They are faster. They know where we are. They can call support. They can tag us on maximum distance and then use 1 min escape. They can drop 3200 tons in one second. They use cheap fleets to demast us. They have immunitet from boarding. They have plenty of towns to hide. They sit in the window after.

 

If the God or Devs love traders, can you simply give us a periscope, dive engines and some survival stuff. We don't even need a torpedoes if it seems unbalanced to You.

 

Regards,

Mike

[admin]

There are multiple issues that this perk will cause - for example this perk + Rattlesnake can keep, for example, a 1st rate in combat for forever for greefing purpose - tag and just tail him for an hour in the battle. After battle is over repeat.

 

 

 

We considered that. Rattlesnake can already keep the 1st rate in combat forever by just making 1 shot every 2 min from its bow guns from any gun distance. 

I think this is already part of the game, due to the leak machanic every skilled captian can sink a weaker ship with only one broadside... that is already devastating. I am loking forward to the Testserver, maybe this becomes a gamechanger and we all have to rethink our style to play.

Karotte

this is a bug or bad tuning (it is getting reduced this patch as well) because a 1st rate should never sink from 1 broadside.