Storm caused fleet scatterings

[GrapeShot]

From the Classical era to as recent as Typhoon Cobra striking Halsey's 3rd fleet dduring WWII, storms have caused armadas, fleets or squadrons to be scattered in their aftermath. The devs of Naval Actiion have said that merchants will be able to hire escorts, and we know that factions/guilds will eventually sail squadrons or fleets as they compete with each other.

I propose that sailors in the open world of NA face the same problem as Age of Sails mariners faced with ships sailing together becoming separated due to inclemenet weather. I'll throw out some ideas and hopefully we can do a bit of brain-storming (no pun intended).

Storm Events

I suggest that on the global map there be periodic 'storm events' that would have a specific center, strength and radius of effect. Once a storm effect occured, any escort or fleet would check to see if it had scattered. The strength of the storm, coupled with the ships' nearness to the center, would influence the chances of a scattering happening.  

Escorts, Fleets and Squadrons

There are 3 main types of ships groupings: escorts, fleets and Squadrons. They would be affected differently.

Escorts have been mentioned by the devs and should be easy to deal with. Merchants will be able to hire them and, at the moment of contact, they will appear to assist the merchant. I propose that, upon a storm causing them to scatter, they simply do not appear to assist the merchant.

Fleets are what I'm calling large scale clan/faction gatherings of ships to either relocate to a new port or, more likely, to attack a rival faction. Upon a storm scattering they should be split into 2 or more groups and relocated some distance from each other on the global map. The distance should be far enough that it will be difficult for them to recombine their fleet using TS or some other comms.   

Squadrons are what I consider to be similar to WOT's platoons -- a means for a couple of friends to play with each other for a night. Since it would be an annoyance for friends playing for a relatively  short time, squadrons should either not be scattered or should only be split by a small distance so they can rejoin.

These are just some preliminary thoughts of mine. I do think that storm caused fleet scatterings would add some Verisimilitude to the game. Sort of a 'critical hit' for global movedment. I would be interested in any opinions or other ideas about ship scatterings.

[Sir Darric Vandhelm]

Sounds perfectly reasonable, as it happened during the Armarda with ships turning up all around the British coast.

How this actually translates in game terms could be highly unbalancing or just plane frustrating. Just having escorts not turn up would not be fair, particulary as this service will cost hard earned (we assume) money. Also do you expect both fleets/groups to be dispersed?

I'm not currently in the alpha but this seems like this will, after watching the fan videos, add a lot of additional manuover time to an already lengthy phase.

[GrapeShot]

Too great a frequency of storms would be nothing but annoying after a while. They would need to be carefully balanced to happen often enough so that people would have to factor them into their calculations, but not so often that you couldn't sail 2 miles without getting hit by one. One thing that might be done is having seasons -- say the 4th week in every month is winter for example -- so that people could plan to sail in more calm weather.

 

Merchants losing escorts is just part of the cost of doing business. Just like the merchant might run into a large raiding force, perhaps they would lose an escort or two. Bad luck is going to happen -- just as long as it is infrequent enough so thast it doesn't seem like it is always happening.

 

i think scattering's most interesting effect would be on large scale guild/clan operations. No plan survives contact with the enemy, and carefully laid invasion plans can be thrown into chaos by a large storm. TS would certainly get a work out on both sides as they tried to reasseble their fleets and recover from the dispersal of their forces.

[5KnuckleChuckle]

Interesting idea Grapeshot. Over the years I have had to do a fair bit of research on ships and people of the time and one thing that strikes you is the sheer number of ships that sank and people who died during this time from hurricanes and other strong weather events. I would even push it a step further and say that not only can ships be scattered by something like a hurricane but also experience crew loss, damage or be completely destroyed.