Sails status before it affects speed/maneuvrability

[AngryPanCake]

Hello salty dogs,

I just got into my first battle against an AI opponent, we both sailed cutters. At the end of the fight, I ended up with a bunch of questions in my head:

1- How much damage to the sails before we see a significant decrease in speed/maneuverability? I reduced the opponent's sails to 51% and he was still neck and neck with me as far as speed and was still turning on a dime!

2- The health bars (port and starboard, bow and stern), when the side one was depleted I started having a leak. Do the bow/stern ones also give you a leak if depleted?

3- AI accuracy is quite...hmmm...accurate! does it get more accurate the higher up we go?

4- As far as ammo is concerned, do you guys usually switch back and forth between chain and round shot? or do you just stick to round shots until you are ready to board and then use grape/canister?

 

 

[van der Clam]

2 hours ago, AngryPanCake said:

Hello salty dogs,

I just got into my first battle against an AI opponent, we both sailed cutters. At the end of the fight, I ended up with a bunch of questions in my head:

1- How much damage to the sails before we see a significant decrease in speed/maneuverability? I reduced the opponent's sails to 51% and he was still neck and neck with me as far as speed and was still turning on a dime! For light ships, it seems there is no definitive percentage when speed slows them unless you dismast them. As you rank up in ships, you should see a noticeable speed difference around 70% for frigates, and around 80% for SoLs. Or so it seems.

2- The health bars (port and starboard, bow and stern), when the side one was depleted I started having a leak. Do the bow/stern ones also give you a leak if depleted? Bow does at 0 health, stern does not.

3- AI accuracy is quite...hmmm...accurate! does it get more accurate the higher up we go? All AI are more accurate than any player can get even with perks and upgrades. AI also will always be able to fire at the most extreme angles that players cannot achieve.

4- As far as ammo is concerned, do you guys usually switch back and forth between chain and round shot? or do you just stick to round shots until you are ready to board and then use grape/canister? I personally fire chain only if I need them to slow because I wouldn't otherwise be able to catch them. Chain accuracy will be changing in the next patch, making it less accurate at greater the distance. Use ball if you are trying to tag them to keep them in battle. Sometimes, I will fire ball on a stern raking at the masts rather than firing at the stern, in an attempt at dismasting. Other times, if the enemy way out crews me, I'd fire at the stern. When your officer has enough points, you can also choose Double Ball and Double Charge, giving you more options. Use Double Ball only up close; Double Charge helps pen deeper.

 

 

 

[Hethwill]

Regarding Sails each canvas area is a unique entity. There's a point where one of the areas is so damaged, visually it will show in tatters and it will take no more damage.

So 100% is the sum of all different canvas %% and not a one value.

For the cutter you have 5 canvas areas, each with its own use in the wind.

Practice chaining different areas so you affect particular sailing attitudes - example in the cutter, the triangular ones up front is what pulls the ship into the wind and across it, so if you focus them you will cripple that particular capacity.

 

[AngryPanCake]

Thank you guys for the explanations.

Another question: I was looking at youtube tutorials, in particular the one from Jaheil about basic gunnery. However, I still did not understand the role of the little red horizontal bar (crosshair?).

Does it only affect gun elevation?

Do the balls go wherever the white demarcating area is, regardless of the crosshair position or does it actually work like an actual crosshair?

Edit:

One more thing, as far as the English language is concerned, on land a canon is called canon. The same canon mounted on a ship is called a gun...Just me being OCD!

Edited February 21, 2017 by AngryPanCake