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Pickle - Quick overview... with guests


jodgi

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Some new ships have been introduced and we need to have a peek:

 

RYb0BuE.jpg

 

I decided to start with the Pickle since the SOL fever is running high these days.

 

0RhDyf7.jpg

 

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I think it looks ok, but that's it. Simple hull design with fairly fluffy rig. When I first started seeing these in the OW I thought the squarish looking sails were ugly, but inside the instances I thought they looked good. After having a long and hard look at the details, I think the ship, and the rig in particular, is very good looking. It's a tiny little one trying to look like it's square rigged elders.

The guns are standard little boat: Six (6 lbs) guns or (12 lbs) carronades each side. That gives you the choice of a broadside weight of 36 lbs up to 72 lbs with nades (Maybe 108 lbs with nade doubles?)  

I think it makes sense to compare the Pickle to the Cutter and the Privateer, but where does it place itself in specialty and overall abilities?

 

Ks4nbcol.jpg

 

You'll have to forgive my yellow speed trim, but I tried for hours to get my hands on a vanilla Privateer for comparison but found only silly blue planking and blue copper fitted Privs. I gave up and just ran my Pickle much like I would've for gameplay. Maybe the planking and copper on the priv cancels eachother out? I dunno... Note that I used the yellow speed mod on the Privateer also.

 

Anyway...

 

fKo13Q4l.jpg

 

The Pickle shares armor HP values with the Cutter and they're both better than the Privateer in that regard. The Privateer has around a knot higher top speed than the Pickle, but look:

 

Pickle:

lF4hAi8m.jpg

 

Privateer:

svWQwetm.jpg

 

The Pickle can claw it's way up against the wind better than the Privateer, and in my book that's the most important speed to have in those little ships. I thought a bit about how this could be and I've come up with a theory. Look at how the square sail bends around the mast going upwind:

2RdmGmC.jpg

EOm9Piq.jpg

The Privateer's sails doesn't have that feature. If the game visuals clues us in on the physics modeling; this may be clearer:

tDlJEdOl.png

The "mast bending" of the sail rotates the force vector Mr. Bernoulli is sucking on towards the bow and speed vector of the ship giving superior upwind performance.

The listed turning rate is almost equal among these three. We know the Cutter, with it's single mast and some sail fiddling can flip and turn faster than the two mast ships. However both the Privateer and the Pickle can be made to turn almost as fast. (Note: I could've been more aggressive with turning the sails to eek out even faster turn rate in the following demonstration:)

Did you notice the heel values from the speed images. The Pickle heels way less than any of the smaller ships. It is most likely modeled that way because it sits lower in the water:

q3JWyfx.jpg

I guess the increased and effective sail area makes up for the displacement and keeps the Pickle from being a dog. Shallow heel makes taking shots very comfortable compared to the others.

Armor HP is one thing, but planking/hull thickness is also modeled in Naval Action, at least it seems so to me. This is an area where the Pickle excels among it's peers. Judging from the visual representation the sides looks quite thick, relatively:

ANl5Wur.jpg

The Privateer does appear to have thinner sides:

nH2brJ3.jpg

Armor thickness helps to deflect balls thrown at you from sub-optimal angles so it is an indirect increase in side armor, it is further boosted if the captain knows what he is doing.

The Cutter's sides could be as thick, I can't say for sure, but here another factor comes into to equation. The Pickle is higher than it's rivals and has more protection along the entire railing. Both relative height and armor work together to protect the Pickle's crew. It is very hard to get decent grape shots at the crew from one of the lower rivals.

H3hBhmh.jpg

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The developers have stated that boarding action sustains a penalty when initiated from a low to a higher ship. I have no idea how significant those modifiers are when comparing between these three ships, I won't speculate more than I already have.

In summary:

Sheep gud, purdy and stronk!

I think this is the best of the small ships. It has that fantastic closehauled specialty, and shouldn't need to lose fights to any Cutter or Privateer. It is an extremely comfy gunplatform. Ok, so a Priv can manage to get away every now and then, apart from that everything is in the Pickle's favor.

My Pickle says: "I can bully everyone I can't outrun!"

waow, rood!

... but true.

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Nice overview.  One thing with the Pickle vs all the other small ships is that its guns are situated higher up.  At very close range (touching), this means that the smaller fore-and-aft vessels will have an advantage over the pickle.  I've had 4 gun Lynxes do more damage than me with 6 guns because of that.

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Look at how the square sail bends around the mast going upwind:

 

The "mast bending" of the sail rotates the force vector Mr. Bernoulli is sucking on towards the bow and speed vector of the ship giving superior upwind performance.

:P  No, that's just a mistake one of the artists made because they wanted to have sheets on the courses.

 

If your sail was 'bent' like that, then entire leading edge would be backwinded and the sail would collapse in on itself. It looks like a sail with just sheets and no tacks, and would be completely impossible to go upwind (or even on a beam reach) with it.

 

 

 

Pickle being faster upwind than Lynx/Priv is also completely counter-intuitive, with that sailplan.

 

Realistically I think that the cutter and Pickle should be quite a bit slower than Lynx/Priv. It's good balance as well, because you pay for the toughness. Cutter should be the best upwind performer.

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Interesting, thanks for that.

 

...they wanted to have sheets on the courses....

...It looks like a sail with just sheets and no tacks...

Could you explain these? I'm struggling even with Norwegian seamen's terms.

 

...If your sail was 'bent' like that, then entire leading edge would be backwinded and the sail would collapse in on itself...

Hehe, that does make perfect sense aerodynamically. I guess I add a dose of magic when it comes to sailing because of my lack of knowledge ;) I thought they'd figured out something clever. You know the Vikings made woolen sails that were smoother on the front than on the back? Pretty clever for guys that didn't go to university ;)

 

...Cutter should be the best upwind performer...

That would make sense for game balance too. The Cutter has nothing right now.

Lynx - rocket

Privateer - rocket with guns and crew

Pickle - Has it all

Cutter - a slight turning advantage

 

...the sail would collapse in on itself...

It kinda does that already, I'll go check the angles and graphic representation and then you can pull it apart.

Edited by jodgi
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Could you explain these? I'm struggling even with Norwegian seamen's terms.

The sheet is the rope you attach to the bottom corners of the sail, to keep the wind from blowing it forward. The tack is a shorter rope that attaches to the same corner, used to haul the corner of the sail up towards the bow, where it attaches to the rail. It makes the sail flatter, because a square sail needs to be as flat as possible to generate lift.

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CH:

OBmusBp.png

Looks like that lower port side of the sail should just start to collapse.

CH, closer look:

URiAOzU.jpg

A tiny few more degrees into the wind and the sail touches the mast:

QNK9rjo.png

I went right up into the wind where there still was decent speed, the entire foremast is in braking mode:

4V2yp0k.png

The aft section is just a weather vane:

DSAKRCa.png

Rocket Pickle confirmed!

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The sheet is the rope you attach to the bottom corners of the sail, to keep the wind from blowing it forward. The tack is a shorter rope that attaches to the same corner, used to haul the corner of the sail up towards the bow, where it attaches to the rail. It makes the sail flatter, because a square sail needs to be as flat as possible to generate lift.

Thanks, courses then?

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Thanks, courses then?

The lowest square sails (ie, a frigate's mainsail) are the courses. The ones that don't have a yard under them. Main course, fore course, etc.

 

Does the weird sail on Pickle even animate when it is backed? Honestly, it's a major step backwards in terms of visuals.

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