Enemies visible damage Yes or No (Health Bars)?

[Mirones]

well you can see it allready by just looking at how the enmy ship sits in the water

[Sir. Cunningham]

well you can see it allready by just looking at how the enmy ship sits in the water

 

Hmm...AFAIK that only shows you wether there have been any serious leaks or not. As far as I can tell there's no way of judging how damaged the ship's outer planking is without the healthbar. Only way to alleviate this would be to add a detailed damage model.

[Comandante Gómez]

NO!

[Mirones]

Hmm...AFAIK that only shows you wether there have been any serious leaks or not. As far as I can tell there's no way of judging how damaged the ship's outer planking is without the healthbar. Only way to alleviate this would be to add a detailed damage model.

yes the hundreds of holes that got punched in to the side wich are clearly visible to me says absolutly nothing about the state of the enemy ship

note an old screenshot from an far outdated patch when i had to play on low grafic on my old PC

[Sir. Cunningham]

yes the hundreds of holes that got punched in to the side wich are clearly visible to me says absolutly nothing about the state of the enemy ship

note an old screenshot from an far outdated patch when i had to play on low grafic on my old PC

 

But are these at all visible from afar? 

[Mirones]

yes

[Johny Reb]

yes. except that the picture shown is one on its last legs in which the bottom deck is already underwater which is a much better indicator of the state of the ship then the holes but they do as well give an indication how much its been hit but not much else.

 

You can see these shot holes at all ranges.

[D. Federico de Gravina y N]

yes the hundreds of holes that got punched in to the side wich are clearly visible to me says absolutly nothing about the state of the enemy ship

note an old screenshot from an far outdated patch when i had to play on low grafic on my old PC

 

Sorry for the off-topic, but in this situaion?? the ship can fire the bottom deck guns??

[BungeeLemming]

I dont know how old that screenshot is but right now we cannot fire from decks wich are under the waterline.

That either beeing forced by the press of sails or because you take a lot of water.

note that we cannot visibly close the gunports but devs said this is some kind of automatic wich is just not grafically represented.

[Mirones]

Sorry for the off-topic, but in this situaion?? the ship can fire the bottom deck guns??

how about looking at the nice litle Red crosses for a change 

[AmericanSailor98]

My opinion is i think we shouldn't see it at all, it makes it realistic and more exciting in my view. 

[Bixol]

I feel the indicator as it is now is good

it gives you good information on how much damage the enemy ship suffered, but not in too much detail.

maybe the indication for sails could be in status as "good" or "bad" and so on, instead of exact % number, same maybe for crew, or at least give it a span like 20-30 crew, like an estimate in stead of correct number

Removing it would add lot of difficulty becasue the damage shown on ships is not detailed enough to undestand how damaged the ship is

[admin]

It will be possible to switch it off. We plan a tiered UI through Ctlr H (currently it switches everything) in the future it will switch off some less important parts.

 

But we know from game development experience that hitting enemy for 40% of its side structure with a well placed doubleshotted broadside and seeing that bar fall for "massive damage" gives immense psychological pleasure to some players. Without that bar its harder to achieve.

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

It will be possible to switch it off. We plan a tiered UI through Ctlr H (currently it switches everything) in the future it will switch off some less important parts.

 

But we know from game development experience that hitting enemy for 40% of its side structure with a well placed doubles hotted broadside and seeing that bar fall for "massive damage" gives immense psychological pleasure to some players. Without that bar its harder to achieve.

 

I know it certainly gives me the warm fuzzies.  

[avec]

About the time limit issue. I know it is not the right place but since it has become a topic here I might aswell contribute.

 

We are a combination of players who wants longer battles, shorter battles and the possibility to end game if the players agree. This we cannot change. All of us will have more time every now and then and other days just a short gaming session before training, bed or whatever.

 

One solution could be to offer different kind of battles for the player to choose from, like

1. Play time limited game (i.e. 15 min, 20, 30 or whatever)
2. Play non time limited game

I am certain both options would be used and I am almost certain all users would like to be able to choose based on their RL schedule. What I like about games like WOT is the possibility to plan ahead and quit when it suits you. The other day I tought a fast battle in Naval Action would be an options. It was not and I almost did not make a meeting at work...that was not cool. Note to self "do not play NA before work". 

[Marquiz]

 

But we know from game development experience that hitting enemy for 40% of its side structure with a well placed doubleshotted broadside and seeing that bar fall for "massive damage" gives immense psychological pleasure to some players. Without that bar its harder to achieve.

Yes!

Developers know that game should be fun for more player. Not every player is super realisitc fan. Damage on ship isnt easy to notice in early stages, of fight especialy from distant view.  IMO for better encourage new players to game Health bars should be leave as it is. There was be an option to switch it off as, Admin posted.

 

A few points:

 

(i) In real life you have crew and officers to give feedback. You also do not have to aim the guns yourself. You can keep looking through the spyglass and analysing the enemy ship.

In game this does not always happen because of the chaos at some shorter ranges

(ii) Damage is often hard to see and the damage models not detailed enough to show through the spyglass how bad below the waterline, or even the end or side of the ship is damaged.

I agree.

[BlouBulle]

Instead of a healthbar why don't we have a basic meter that just tells us if the enemy is listing, how many shots he is firing (how many cannons are still working) and if his fire rate is normal (in survival or sailing) or faster (in battle mode).

[Crankey]

Some great points above.

 

Historically there were several ways to see how damaged an opponent was. (If the detail can be incorporated in the game, then perhaps visual GUI aides would not be needed, or could be reduced.

 

Inevitably, fleeing the battlefield or surrendering were probably the 2 most prevalent occurrences. Ingame atm, surrendering doesnt exist except to log out of a battle, and fleeing outside of a pvp circle with no intention of returning, there is no way to force a ship to reach a point where it automatically strikes... should there be ?  even if lack of activity on your opponents part, allows you to recover and renew aggression or flee.

 

Tattered sails, missings mast sections. Mast sections trainling over the side, acting as anchor and dangerous to fire through until cut away.

 

Stove in section of bulwarks/stern glass windows, guns upended and not returning fire.

 

Technical difficulties becoming aparent due to steerage damage, taking on water etc,

 

Blood ! blood flowing out of gunports, occasional supine casualty figures visible.

 

Rate of fire, sail drill effect, repair crews all acting slower and slower as casualty levels increase.

 

MORALE !!!! so far pretty ignored, but in my opinion should very much effect all aspects of a ships behaviour along with its striking its colours, I have no idea how this could be represented visually aside from striking (Surrendering), after sufficient damage or casualties etc are caused. Lack of friendly ships nearby, increase in enemy ships nearby, quality of officers etc etc.

 

Lots to consider on the OP's subject

[gautrek]

My opinion is i think we shouldn't see it at all, it makes it realistic and more exciting in my view. 

 I can't be 100% sure here and am prepared to take a wild guess .

 

But are you a Yank mate?

 

Because I don't think its quite clear enough for some to be sure

[SerrialKiller]

No because it is not realistic. You kniw when an ship is gooing down or not.

[Black Dynamite]

I think have enemy ship info off but when you look through the spyglass it shows things like crew count, sails percentage, and maybe armor too. Would be a nice balance i think.

[Magnum]

I'm with Johnny on this one but for totally different reasons. His argument is that "too much realism will make the game boring"

 

Well I'm quite of a realism nerd. I like my simulators to feel like that, and not being overly dumbed down. But is all down to a single thing: in real life with a good stare at an enemy ship you would have access to instant information that a game (even such a wonderfully looking and detailed one as this) will never relay just by graphical detail. Not only that, your officers will probably also be taking a peek and commenting on the status of the enemy ship. On top of that the captain won't be bothered with taking the helm, which can distract him from looking at the enemy ship, nor with operating the sails, as he has a crew that does that for him upon his orders. A captain would be focused on fighting, not on sailing his ship hence he could focus his attention on things relevant to the fight. We won't have that luxury on this game.

 

snip lots of other good stuff ...

 

I am 100% with Ramjbjb on this ... if realism is what you want the action between USS Constitution and HMS Java STARTED at 9:00 AM.

 

It ENDED at 5:25 PM when HMS Java prudently struck her colors to avoid a devastating rake from USS Constitution.

 

If our actions took many many hours to complete - I could allow for the time to to really carefully scan the enemy for visual damage - our fights are concentrated down to an hour at most with many over in 15 min.

 

I voted yes keep the damage indicator - I would also be OK with it being a toggle on/off so those who don't want it can just turn it off.

 

In fact most of the features should be toggle on/off so you can play the way you want.

[Ghroznak]

 

Tattered sails [in from what I've seen]

Lying low in the water [in also]

Listing [Not observed yet]

Broken and shattered masts [No seen in a video yet]

Hull damage, shot and splintered holes [in]

 

With other clues, poor or slow turn rates [clear rudder damage]

low broadside weight [gun station damage].

Coming in late here but just wanted to add some info.

Watch one of Sidestrafes videos on youtube. His mast is shot off in a battle, so broken masts are definitely in.

I've also seen listing from repeated doubleshots to the prow of ships. The 'fall' over on the side and stay low on that side afterwards. Most likely from holes and leaks being punched in from those double shots.

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

Coming in late here but just wanted to add some info.

Watch one of Sidestrafes videos on youtube. His mast is shot off in a battle, so broken masts are definitely in.

I've also seen listing from repeated doubleshots to the prow of ships. The 'fall' over on the side and stay low on that side afterwards. Most likely from holes and leaks being punched in from those double shots.

 

There's a "settling" action that causes a lurch right now.  Admin indicated it's something they may need to smooth out a bit.

[samba_liten]

I voted no.

 

I think the visual indicators we have now work very well to let you know how badly hurt the enemy is. However, there could be more;

• Broken cannon (would be cool if they could break loose and roam the decks, creating huge risks for the crew and the ship)
• Stove in gun ports
• Dead crew
• Broken rigging
• Broken booms, etc (as opposed to simply a broken mast - perhaps a useful indicator as to how close your mast is to going by the board).
• Sails falling (creating a major fire hazard, and/or drag, also possibly masking some of the guns)
• I'm sure there's more...