[Yet another map: Naval Action map]

@Felix Victor Thank you for bringing us this essential tool. Your map is really a great help.

[Seasoned Woods poll]

If we could get a complete revamp of the damage model, where ship Hitpoints are not the deciding factor in a ship sinking, thus losing, then this idea of seasoned woods could be viable. As things stand now though, it's as others have said, the addition of seasoned woods is just widening the gap between low quality and high quality ships. Where high quality ships with their thicker sides and higher damage absorption (not to mention skill books and upgrades) stand a much better chance of winning in an, otherwise, balanced engagement.

Some thoughts on this revamp:

- Change structure to be the tankiest part of a ship, with a drastically increased amount of hitpoints. As ships fight battles, and take heavy damage, the structure reduces and is unable to be repaired to maximum value. Creating a kind of "durability". This makes structure important long-term, where, only ships that have seen many battles, or several very difficult battles, will have a reduced structure (invisible to the enemy) and are at risk of sinking, if subjected to more heavy broadsides. Here, seasoned woods could have their day in the sun, increasing overall durability and longevity of a ship.

- Armor is less important to tanking damage, and more about preserving crew and internal equipment. As armor is reduced, the crew begin taking heavier losses from unchecked cannon fire, and cannons become much more likely to be disabled in a fight. As well, systems like the pumps and rudder are much more likely to be instantly disabled by a well grouped broadside or raking fire. Think of armor simply as the planking and structure around the gundecks. While it is not rendered in game, repeated battering may eventually knock away entire sections of planking around gunports, exposing crew to grape shot.

- Damage: The deciding factor of a battle is the availability of cannons and men to fight them, as well as damage to critical systems (i.e. Masts, Pumps w/ heavy flodding). Upper masts (especially top-gallants and royals) could be made more fragile, while reducing effective range of chain-shot. Flooding from waterline hits and damage to structure could be more likely; while the flood rate would be reduced, but require more crew assigned to Survival to keep flooding in check. The key here would be, as long as there is a pump, and there is crew to man it, the flooding could be kept to a minimum for a prolonged engagement, but the reduced gun crews would be felt.

- Repairs: With the ability of a ship to sustain larger amounts of gunfire without sinking directly, the repair system can be updated to a reduced "tankiness". Instead of recovering a ship to perfect fighting trim, it could simply be a patch up. Some cannons are uprighted (a % of total cannons lost), holes in the armor patched. Crew repair would be a percentage of overall losses. Sail/Rigging repair would be limited (less mast replacement). Personally, I would like to see the entire repair system revamped as well. However, with the current system, simply reducing the effectiveness of repairs would be a good start, especially in the article of mast and cannon replacement. The trade off is a ship that stays in the fight much longer without the need for extensive repairs, if at a much reduced combat efficiency.

The goal of this system would be to increase the survivability of ships, without increasing their overall fighting ability and making 1vs1 battles take ages. Instead, a good fighting captain could still defeat an enemy in short order, by disabling them, reducing their armor, crew, and cannon, then boarding them. Boarding actions would then be the order of the day, if you truly wanted to silence a ship.

I'm sure there are some factors that I'm not considering here, but this is just a rough outline.

[Patch 30: Combat and boarding feedback]

1 hour ago, admin said:

We found this to be not true. 
The damaged sail retains a good amount of driving power even if teared completely. (in game this parameter is set at 30%) 
Not only that. Rig itself with NO SAILS and/or hull with no rig has a lot of driving power and leeway power that it alone can move the ship to the side in very strong wind (but without direction of course). 

Right o. Can you comment on this one?

1 hour ago, Rook said:

- Introduce press-and-hold function to the "Single-fire"/"Range" button (Spacebar). Press-and-hold would function similar to the Fire button. While the Spacebar is held your guns will start to fire a normal volley, releasing the spacebar will cease fire. Good for "fire as they bare", while retaining the normal fire button for other circumstances.

Any hope for additional gunnery controls?

o7

[Patch 30: Combat and boarding feedback]

Suggestions.

Damage model:

 - Minor increase for armor values of some ships, especially Light frigates, to bring balance to the Force (Hint: Not the Hercules/Requin)

 - Crank up structure survivability across the board. 

Goal: Ships can survive (not sink) for longer periods of time and continue fighting. However, the loss of armor will result in higher crew casualties and more cannons knocked out. Could double this up with a tweak to crew casualty rate (soften the rate a little to account for changes). Shift importance to the ship's crew and cannons, over the ship's "hitpoints".

 

Additional (but probably more of wish list)

Cannons/Gunnery:

- Very minor reductions to accuracy of all cannons and shot-types. If possible, additional reduction to the accuracy of chain-shot for long guns.

- Introduce press-and-hold function to the "Single-fire"/"Range" button (Spacebar). Press-and-hold would function similar to the Fire button. While the Spacebar is held your guns will start to fire a normal volley, releasing the spacebar will cease fire. Good for "fire as they bare", while retaining the normal fire button for other circumstances.

• As an aside: Introducing this could allow for additional rates of fire. Normal "Fire" could be a more rapid volley, while "Fire as they bare" could have a slightly reduced, or "normal" fire rate. 

Repairs:

 - Hull repair  = armor repair only (moderate speed) (( Fills in large gaps in planking to provide some cover/protection, but not much. ))

• If cannon replacement remains part of this repair, suggest to make it a % of the cannons lossed. Say, 50% of the lost cannons can be put back in action. To prevent excessive cannonball sponge.

 - Sail repair = In-battle: Each sail is removed individually, causing an initial reduction in speed (obviously with less reduction if the sail was already heavily damaged), before being replaced by a fresh sail. The speed of repair could be a decent rate, not faster than it is now, but each damaged sail must be replaced. 

• Decrease accuracy of chain-shot.
• Progressively more damage per hit as the sails become damaged. A healthy sail won't be as affected by the hole a 9pdr makes, but a sail with a hole is more likely to split as its integrity is compromised. Would be nice if, eventually, sails tear completely and become useless tatters that still have to be removed and replaced.

 

Boarding:

Instead of rounds, boarding combat is a constant action. 

Player who grapples is the Attacker, player who is grappled is the Defender. During combat, damage is performed at a constant rate dependent upon stats and modifiers. Boarding combat can be lengthy and is determined, chiefly, by crew morale. If not prepared, boarding combat is winnable but might be extremely costly for an attacker/rage-boarder.

Major stats: Crew size, Crew Morale, Attacker, Defender

Minor stats: Ship size, Marines, Weapons?, Training/Books

During boarding you can devote more or less crew to certain roles: More sword and pike, more muskets/sharpshooters(capped by number of muskets on ship), more gunners for cannons (capped by maximum cannon crew), more crew to rigging (capped at max. rigging crew). Crew shift time is used for this mechanic.

Roles: All roles are affected by modifiers (Morale, ship size, etc.) 

Sword and Pike = Primary combat. Crew and morale damage is determined mostly by the balance of attacker vs defenders melee infantry. If these forces are balanced, standard damage will be applied. Any imbalance will quickly start to erode the morale and fighting strength of the opposing side causing a cascade effect. If you only have enough crew for one job, this is where they should be sent, otherwise the ship will be overrun and captured.

Muskets/Sharpshooters = Secondary combat. Captain can focus their fire on opposing sharpshooters, gunners, melee, or rigging (risk hitting friendlies with melee and rigging). Musket kills are crew losses more than morale hits, but will eventually affect the final outcome of the battle if they are left unchecked. 

Gunners = Tertiary combat, player controlled broadsides. Able to "Stop reload" for different sides of the ship to limit max crew and focus them on the boarding action.

Rigging = Grappling/Minor combat. In order to START a disengage, you must outmatch your opponent's rigging crew by (enter reasonable # here)%. Think of this as upper Yardsmen tying the ships together vs crew working to free the ship.

 

 

 

 

[Work in progress]

Another beautiful ship. Well done.

[TESTBED - Port User Interface Feedback.]

I like the new UI scheme, and it's feeling pretty good. I do have some feedback, though it may have been mentioned, or it may already be taken care of:

 - Custom configurations:

• Add window transparency slider, either global sliders for border UI and windows, or just for windows (Open world and port).
• Add two options for Open world UI: Standard and compact.
• Perhaps ui and font scaling options? Currently, there is a lot of scrolling and clicking...  Especially in windows like the Warehouse and Crafting recipes.

 - Cargo:

• Pressing H opens the cargo hold window, but inside that window are tabs for your warehouse (if in port), main ship, and any fleet ships. Clicking on one of these tabs opens those storage menus in a new window. Pressing H again closes all open cargo menus?
• Cont. While in the Cargo menu, if you mouse over a storage tab, such as a fleet ship, the tooltip reads out ship details: Upgrades, cargo hold info (current/max weight), etc. So that we can easily identify which ship we're putting stuff in. Some ships will be faster than others, and we may want to prioritize items.
• Currently, the issue is that it takes too many clicks to reach another cargo hold. Especially on open world. I know it seems trivial, but, if you spend enough time out there, it starts to feel tedious.

  - Blueprint Menu:

• Instead of drop down filters, give us buttons: Search | All - Cannons - Consumables - Manufacture - etc. (Alphabetical is best...) Clicking a button filters the list. I know this doesn't work for all windows, but it would be nice..
• If you need room: Add a search button, a small magnifying glass icon, that opens a text box, with the cursor ready; to replace the search box at the bottom.
• OR, remove the "All blueprints" button, reorganize the window so that a "Craft" button is always available and combine all crafting/collecting options to one window, similar to the "All Blueprints" window.

 -  Misc: I'm sure yall are still working on this UI... just making sure this gets out there.

• To reduce window clutter: When resizing windows, reduce the width required before multiple columns appear. And, perhaps, slightly reduce the height of rows.
• When dragging an item, use the small graphical icon. Similar to dragging cannons from a ship. Reduces clutter.
• When an item is greyed out, and unavailable, it would be nice to have a tooltip or something that explains why. 
• When purchasing a building: add mouse-over tooltip information for the workshop, shipyard, and forge. I know it seems self-explanatory, but a new player needs information! 
• Perhaps change Forge to Cannon Forge.
• I might be mistaken, but Alphabetical listing is preferred. Especially in places like drop-down menus.
• Clicking buttons will open AND close the window. Ex. when checking the holds of ships in dock, from the "Your Navy" window.

 

Alrighty, that list is getting long. Thanks for your hard work! And for letting us try it out before release.

[Patch 26. Spanish Frigate Diana, BR rebalance - Diana is a timed reward.]

6 hours ago, AeRoTR said:

I would say increase grappling time, instant grapple and pull is so silly.

This is a very elegant, and simple, solution. As well, currently mass and momentum seem to be misrepresented in grappling. Not to mention the strange spinning of ships being grappled.

[Retag griefing]

- deleted -

[Little things you'd like to see]

Increase spotting range of vessels in open world. Perhaps even more spotting range the larger/taller your ship is.

[Enemy crew numbers on ships in battle - why should we know?]

This is a great idea. However, I think it might need to be part of a larger rework. As others have said, whether I like it or not, this game is currently a balance between realism and arcade gameplay. A fairly decent balance, but leaning more toward arcade than realism in some very key areas, for whats been proposed in this thread. Especially the lack of accurate visual indicators of damage.

That's not to say we couldn't do with a rework of the ships stats display in battle. While there isn't necessarily a problem with the current setup, it is a silent driver behind gameplay. Watch a few port battles and you'll hear callouts to focus fire on a specific ship because it's weak. Get in a few close runs with a hunter squadron, and you'll see them play the damage indicators. It makes me wonder how different combat would be if you couldn't read out the exact disposition of the enemy's ship. Would it be more, or less, interesting?

[Mega Patch 10.0]

Damn good patch. All bugs aside, I'm really enjoying it. Well done gents.

[Naval Action - Magic moments]

That's a good story @Notz

[Information on the forthcoming patch to live servers.]

The latest news on forthcoming patch: I am excited. 

 

That is all.

[Naval Action - Magic moments]

Shortly after Open-World launched there were only (mostly) small bands of players sailing around. The Trincomalee and Constitution were the most popular ships on the sea, with smart players running speed built Trincomalees so they could run down any enemy ship they found, while the Constitutions would come up afterwards and join the fight in-progress. The name of the game was wind, positioning, and time. And skill.

These were great times. Open world PVP battles between Frigates. Long, drawn out chases. Fear of being jumped, drove preparation, and situational awareness, to avoid being jumped. There were no guarantees. Even sailing with others, you might happen upon a larger group. That kind of sailing was exciting. Even if it often came down to endless stretches of water, without a sail on the horizon, except for A.I. ships, it was the assurance that players were out there. Hunting.

Once such occasion did occur, when three of us went sailing across the northern coast of Cuba. Hunting A.I. ships and exploring really. Half way around the northern side, we happened upon a lone wolf, a US Captain in a Constitution. Thinking he was easy prey, we gave chase. Drove us right over a rogue shoal in the middle of the sea. No land in sight for miles.... We kept thinking he had done it on purpose. He knew exactly where that shoal was and took us over it just to try and lose us. 

One ship turned into three. Then it was a fight for our lives. Or rather, a chase for our lives. It took hours. No ship sunk for hours... Then, in the end, two of us were lost, while the last barely made it back to a friendly port.

This was one heck of an experience. There was an intensity to it, an excitement that very few games are capable of eliciting. Even without chaotic combat, it was exciting. Even being outmatched, and surely doomed to sink, it was exciting. And one of my "Magical Moments".