Jump to content
Game-Labs Forum

William Death

Members2
  • Posts

    751
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by William Death

  1. Currently: on testbed, marines upgrade is a hard % of your crew: 50% for the 6-7th rates 30% for the 4-5th rates Not Sure about 3rd-1st rates I don't like being forced to run a large % of my crew as marines, or be forced to run no marines at all. So here is my Proposal: Marines upgrade gives you an option to carry however many marines you want, up to a certain maximum % (same % per class system as what is used on Testbed now) of your crew. This is accomplished with a sliding bar tool, just like our crew levels work currently. Here are two examples: On Trincomalee, I want to carry 55 marines, so I select the marines upgrade and then use the sliding bar to choose exactly 55 marines. On Surprise, I want to carry 150 marines; well, I can't, because the hard cap of 30% marines is still in place for 4-5th rate ships. The most I can carry is 72 (30% of 240 crew) not counting the extra hammocks or crew space. I think this system will give a nice variety to the way we kit out our ships: some captains may favor more marines, some may favor fewer marines, some may still sail with no marines at all. Thoughts?
  2. Aye, the medium 42s on the bottom deck of a first rate with carronades on top is a nasty broadside. I put longs in the middle two decks and I can make my Vic do almost as much damage up close as a Santi that has all longs. Combine that with the Vic's turn rate and nice hull shape...I'll put her up against anything else in the PB. I also run the same setup on my Aggy as you do. Of course, yall hear me on TS kicking myself every time I forget I have the mediums on and then complain "why hasn't his mast fallen yet!?" Mediums are HORRIBLE for demasting...they just don't have the accuracy and pen you need for that. But get within hull smashing range and they do indeed make up for that. Also, last time I checked, a medium 18 does as much damage as a long 24 but does not have that same pen. Same thing with 24M/32L and 32M/42L. It might be the same with the smaller guns too, but I don't recall for sure. So to those people who complain that mediums are never used...that is not true, they have a purpose, but they are specialized indeed.
  3. A clanmate brought this up the other day, and it is a good point: how I can get medium 42pd cannons for my first rates? If you have to capture AI ships to get the medium cannons, because you can only craft long cannons and carronades (that was my understanding)...how will this work? Are we now able to capture AI first rates to steal their medium cannons for our own first rates? Or can we craft medium cannons? And before someone asks the question "Ewww, why would you want medium cannons on a first rate?" Well that is just the way I run them. I tried every loadout imaginable for first rates, and I have found what I consider to be the perfect first rate brawling loadout--and it includes medium cannons. As to special guns, the only ones I see being needed are swivel guns (upgrade you can put on any ship) and some special long chasers that ships can carry: Long 9/6/4pd Chase cannons: Role: Chase cannons for bow and stern guns. Can only be fitted there/cannot be used as broadside guns. Penetration - same as long gun. Distance - longer than long gun. Accuracy-extremely high. Damage-low Spinter damage - much less than long gun. Cost - 5x regular long gun because it is bronze and physically larger. Resource required - copper and iron (I don't think we have tin in the game..so iron will have to work in game). BP drop-available in the admiralty shop for 50 PvP marks. Reload: 2 seconds longer than equivalent long gun. Speed effect: gun is the same weight as a long cannon 1 class higher (ex: a long six chase cannon weighs as much as a regular long 9), so the ship is slightly slower because of it.
  4. YES! Myself and several others have made posts regarding a control mechanic being default, here is my general idea of how it would work: 1. Control is effective to 2000 meters and everyone has it. 2. Timer to leave is 5 minutes (that may be too long and a waste of time, so testing would be needed there) unless you are tagged. 3. All players have an option "enable enemy to leave." If you, and all the members of your team, have that option enabled, the enemy can leave battle any time he chooses to, regardless of what distance or timer he has. This is for the people who may want to do a friendly duel, or if you tag an LGV because he was AFK but all of a sudden came to life and is easily outrunning your Live Oak Constitution. It saves everyone some time sitting there waiting on the timer to go away. 4. For this to work, OW AND INSTANCE SPEEDS HAVE TO RELATE TO EACH OTHER. Currently, a tank build with extra planking fourth rate is only slightly slower in OW than a speed build fourth rate. It takes ages to catch up with them, and in some cases, OW speeds of ships that are fast in battle (like the P. Frigate) are too slow to use for hunting other ships. 5. Tag range in OW is exactly 2000 meters. Once you enter battle, you are under control till you run out of range and run out your timer. This would make it so that if you are fast enough to catch your enemy in open world, and manage to tag him reasonably well, you will have your prey unless he manages to out-fox you. But I still want to see bow chasers & stern chasers on available on all ships (at least 5th rates and up). Shoot, make it an upgrade you can buy out of the admiralty with the new system on testbed. At the very least, do as others have suggested here and arm the bridle ports on ships without bow chasers and give us a special aiming mode for them. It would require us to turn to one side or the other to fire our "bow chasers," every time we touch that rudder, we lose speed.
  5. I'm dissatisfied with the current system on testbed, but for a different reason: Besides the absolutely dumb stair-stepped grind they have in place for fourth rates and higher, I think the current system on testbed is ok. Just remove the need to grind the little frigates up to sail the big frigates and SOL's. Let us grind in the ship we want to play in, not some ship that the game forces us to use in order to unlock our desired ship. Something I may have misunderstood in your post: You said that experience gained on a ship in combat is lost if the ship is sunk. Maybe I misunderstood, but I don't think that method of xp will work out well. With ships being one durability if you lose it, and you lose all the slots you unlocked, I doubt many people will like that. Besides, it would make no sense to have to re-learn how to sail an Essex all over again because you got sunk. The replacement Essex you buy/craft/capture should be exactly the same to sail as the one you lost, so you don't need to learn how to turn her sharply or reload fast again. Instead, it would make more sense if you could have some of your knowledge on sailing frigates be applicable to other frigate class ships (as in, sailing a couple fourth or fifth rates and unlocking some slots on them gives you 1 or 2 knowledge slots on all other 4-5th rates. This would work via an xp pool for each class of ship, and would be limited to unlocking 3 slots on every ship in that class. After that, you have to grind the ship you want to use to get the rest of the slots open. I made a suggestion about this in more detail here: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/19868-a-different-take-on-leveling-up-ships/ As to nerfing upgrades...why? On PvP2, I have a Bellona that will sail at 13.7 knots without gold studdingsails. I have a Victory that can turn about as good as a non-modded Constitution. I don't see a problem here. If you bring a basic ship with no upgrades (or a really weird upgrade setup) why should you stand a chance against beating a reload fit ship I have spent a long time sailing and worked up to peak shooting performance? Maybe I have some mods on there (like the imp. magazine) that increases the risk of fire, so if you can keep my ship burning, I will steadily take damage from the fire. By the same token, if I fit my ship out for turning, then maybe you should consider demasting or chaining my sails to nerf the advantage I have there. Any time there is an upgrade selected, it fills a slot that you could be using for something else. So go ahead and fit out for speed, just don't complain when you can't kill that live oak tank build that de-sailed then demasted you. Upgrades must be chosen wisely, or they will hurt you more than help you. Lastly, making the upgrades cost more...I think it is ok like it is right now on testbed. The more "general" upgrades are available without paying marks for them; other ones cost marks. When I think about the standard upgrade loadout I run on PvP2 about half or better of the upgrades I use will have to be bought with marks. That seems ok to me. Speaking of upgrades, I want to see marines implemented as a slider bar so I'm not bogging down with 30% marines on my ship. On PvP2, I usually only run grey or green marines unless I am going full board-fit. So if I could select the exact number of marines I want on a ship, up to a certain limit, I'd really like that.
  6. Yes, what I proposed if you want to fully unlock Surprise you can: 1. Sail only the Surprise till you have gained the required xp (each ship requires a different amount of xp to fully unlock). OR 2. Sail any frigate class ship (4-5) rate and you will unlock slots on all the frigates up to a maximum of 3 on every ship (assuming you fill the xp pool I described in the OP). After that, if you want more slots on a frigate, you have to sail that EXACT ship to get the last two to open. So in this case you could sail in the Cerberus or the Constitution and some of your experience handling those ships will transfer to the Surprise; but to become a Surprise master, you have to sail it some to get those last two slots open. I see no need to sail the brig to know how to sail the frigates. You should have sailed one of the brigs when you were a First or Second Lieutenant with 120-150 men at your disposal. Same thing for the ships of the line: you don't need to learn how to sail a frigate to sail one of those, you should have sailed the frigates when you were a Captain with 350 crew. To learn a SOL, you need to sail the SOLs. But you are already paying your dues in those little ships by ranking up your captain's level. That is what it is there for. You only need the basic knowledge of brigs you get by ranking up to be able to sail in a frigate. If you want to know more about sailing a frigate, you need to spend time in frigates, not brigs. What the current system on testbed will do is require everybody to sail ships they don't like. What my proposed system (or even the current system on the live servers, for that matter) allows the guys ranking up in frigates to do is this: sail all the frigates they can get their hands on to test out each different one till they find one they like. Maybe they try a Belle, a Frigate, and an Essex and realize the Essex is their favorite of those and they would like to specialize in it. Well they already learned some frigate basics on the other ships, so they don't need to re-learn it on the Essex, therefore, they have 3 slots open. If they want to be really good in an Essex, they need to work in the Essex specifically. Not the Cutter, Brig, Snow, Renommee, Surprise, Frigate, Endymion, or any other ship. Basically what I'm trying to say here is that your character's rank is a reflection of your ability to grasp the basics of sailing and fighting the ships in the game. The ships you want to specialize in should require specific knowledge for that class of ships, not a class of ships below it (you should already have that knowledge because you are a higher-ranking captain who has already paid his dues in the little ships).
  7. While I'm not wholly convinced that a system of grinding slots open on ships is the best idea...if that is what the Devs want us to test, I'll test it. Here is what I have learned from a few hours aboard the ship Trincomalee on the testbed server and what I think should change. Here is how it currently works on testbed: I want to sail Trincomalee, I unlock 2 slots, then to unlock the third slot, I get a message that I need to unlock 4 slots on a Surprise. I unlock 2 on a Surprise and get a message that to unlock the third slot, I need to unlock 3 slots on a Renommee. I haven't unlocked anything on Reno yet, but it seems like it will just keep stair-stepping down to the cutter. What kind of stuff is this? Because I want to sail a Trinc effectively I have to learn how to sail a Renommee? And then what? Brig? NO! People will not do this. You can argue all day that you don't "have" to unlock all the slots. But if you want to be effective, yes you do HAVE to unlock all the slots on a ship. The current system favors those with hours and hours to grind up almost every ship in game. I don't like grinding, but as long as the grind you ask me to do is reasonable, and worth it, I'll grind. So If you want to make every ship a grind to "yeah, I'm a Rear Admiral on this ship," then ok...I don't like it but I'll do it for every ship I sail often. But don't make me grind up my ship xp level on ALMOST EVERY ship beneath me just to unlock the slots on the one ship I might use. Here is (what I think is) a better system, lets use the 4-5th rates for demonstration: Trincomalee is my desired ship, slots cost as follows: (these costs are quite reduced from what is on testbed to reduce the grind needed on each ship) 1: 1,000 xp 2: 2,000 xp 3: 6,000 xp 4: 10,000 xp 5: 25,000 xp So I grind her up to 25000 xp and I have a perfect 3/5 Trinc . But wait! I want to sail a Constitution into a port battle now. Do I have to grind up a bunch of xp on it to get some slots open? I mean, I know so much about the Trinc, I can't image a Connie is too terribly different? No! You don't have to re-learn the Connie, some of your experience on the Trinc will transfer nicely, but you'll still have to sail the Connie a while to get used to her particular points . Here is how it works: Frigates (4-5th) rate ships have an xp pool of 30,000 xp and any time you earn xp sailing ANY frigate, the pool fills some. So I gained 25k xp sailing my Trinc, that xp has gone into the pool. Here is how the pool works, each time a certain amount of xp is reached, a slot unlocks on all the frigates, whether you have sailed that particular ship or not. The pool will only unlock the first three slots: 1: 10,000 xp unlocks 1 slot on all frigates 2: 20,000 xp unlocks 2 slots on all frigates 3: 30,000 xp unlocks 3 slots on all frigates So for this example, I have earned 25k xp sailing the Trinc; which means 25k xp has gone into the pool, and I have unlocked 2 slots on every frigate by specializing in the Trinc. I'm also only 5k xp away from unlocking 3 slots on every frigate. After I earn that xp and reach 30k in the pool, 3 slots become open on all frigates, but I have to sail the particular frigate I am interested in to unlock the last two slots on it. This means that you can sail ANY frigate to gain ship xp that will transfer to other frigates. If you are just leveling up, you will have time to try out different frigates, till you find one you like, and you have not "wasted" any xp unlocking slots on a ship you don't plan on using. What do you think?
  8. But see, that is what we already do. Everyone sails the same frigates and lineships in open world fighting: Connie, Trinc, Surprise, Inger, Aggy, Bellona, Buc, Renom, and occasionally Indy/Endy. Nobody sails the Essex, Belle, Cerberus, or Pavel because they don't have bow chasers (ok, maybe Pavel for other reasons because its worse than Buc in almost every regard). I consider that quite broken when an entire group of wonderful ships are almost never sailed. They are simply inferior in any position for open world fighting/hunting/running. BTW, Buc is not the fastest hotshot lineship, actually. I have a Bellona that is faster (well, it would be if I had gold studding sails on it) than the fastest Buc, and it has bow chasers! 100% agree! I would love to see these ships get used for fighting, instead of decorative paint holders or dueling ships. It would add a lot of diversity to open world.
  9. Get ready, long post ahead, but it may be worth the read I hope To say that masts were not targeted on purpose, I don't think is right. USS Constitution demasted HMS Java quite severely in about 55 minutes (keep in mind, broadsides take way longer to reload in real life than in game). From the logbooks (found https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/u/uss-constitutions-battle-record0/uss-constitution-vs-hms-java-1812.html ): At 3 The Head of the enemies Bowsprit & Jib boom shot away by us At 3.5 Shot away the enemies foremast by the board At 3.15 Shot away The enemies Main Top mast just above the Cap At 3.40 Shot away Gafft and Spunker boom At 3.55 Shot his mizen mast nearly by the board That is just one example, it was fairly common, from what I have read, for a captain to tell his crew to aim for the mast of a ship if they were within range to hit it with a reasonable certainty. I do agree, there was no way for the cannons to be super-accurate like in game now, but some things have to be sacrificed for gameplay I think. I would also agree with what @Henry d'Esterre Darby said about the masts falling due to rigging damage. Chain shot could cut away enough shrouds to cause a mast to fall. Also, chain shot could snap a yard (that is already under stress by a sail), which is something not put in Naval Action. My suggestion would be this: 1. Fix the ridiculous mast thicknesses. Some ships (notably, certain 5th & 4 rates) have masts that cannot be penetrated by the caliber guns they carry outside of 100m, unless you have double charge. This needs a change, see next point: 2. Make it so that a standard round ball, fired out of an 18 pound cannon, can penetrate and demast all ships, but adjust HP to make it balance (number of shots varying by the ship [it will take only 6 or 7 direct hits to demast a Surprise, while taking about 15 to demast a Constitution, and about 26 to demast a Victory]). Smaller cannons, such as 12 pound cannons, can demast up to a third rate, 9 pounders up to a fourth rate, 6 pounders to a fifth rate. Furthermore, even if the shot you hit the mast with did not have the penetration to fully harm it (think a 9pd ball into a Bellona's mast), it will at least weaken it a little bit and you (hopefully) hit some rigging with it before it hit the mast (see next point). This would solve the issue of "I just fired a heavy iron ball into that wooden post and saw splinters fly off, yet I have done nothing," while still giving the skipper of a Bellona ample time to demast or sink the 12pdr frigate that is attempting to demast him. The numbers may need some tweaking, but I think it will work. 3. Make chainshot (or ball, just not as easily) able to demast if you hit enough rigging (would require rigging hitboxes). However, LIMIT the amount of chainshot that can be carried on a ship. Limit it to say....3 rounds per gun. That is six broadsides total: seems reasonable. The amount of chain needed per shrouds hitbox would have to be tweaked, and we certainly can't have a Surprise demasting a first rate by single-shotting chainshot into his shrouds...unless the first rate is carrying a full press of canvas... LIMIT the range of chainshot to about 150 meters. This will stop all of the "I'll just kite his sails at range the whole battle while the AI kills him." 4. If a player shoots 3 broadsides of chain into a ships rigging, and then swaps to shoot ball to the masts themselves, he can demast the ship easier because the rigging supporting the masts is weak. This means that the mast only needs to be weakened a smaller amount to knock it down (so maybe it reduces the number of shots per mast by 10-20%). 5. Introduce pressure damage to masts: if the opponent knows his masts are getting weak, he should reduce sails. To keep going with a full press of canvas on a weak mast is simply dumb. You can try it, but you may de-mast yourself in the process. If you are sailing with a full press of canvas, demasting will take less shots, whether you shoot ball to masts directly, or chain in shrouds. This will stop people from fighting at full sails all the time, and encourage the use of battle sails and other configurations. Sorry about the long post, but as a de-master myself (though no where near the best at it), I feel there is a need to balance it a bit to make it available to all who want to do it, but not super easy, or impossible in some cases. Also there should be other valid strategies to counter demasting, I think the method I proposed allows for the use of other methods to counter a demaster. If you come across a "master demaster" chances are, you will lose a mast, but you stand a chance of making him hurt too, if you can fight your ship well.
  10. I love my Cedar speed Pirate Refit Surprise! I even have a set of gold staysails on mine (along with copper and opti rudder). Super fast ship...Surprisingly fast . Though I don't sail her too often, she has nevertheless claimed the lives of several fourth rates and even made a couple third rates cry . I will admit to running fleet ships, usually a frigate and a snow (or some other smaller ship, sometimes two snows), but their main purpose is to serve as crew reserves in case the enemy decides to start graping. After all, AI rarely does anything useful in the fight but serve as a damage sponge or crew locker. Occasionally they will figure out how to shoot chain effectively or hit the hull enough to distract the enemy. I also agree, Surprise's masts are PAPER thin man. If your opponent knows how to demast one, and is good at it, you are in trouble if you slip up.
  11. You can place a gun anywhere it will fit (within reason) you like if your frigate is in good shape. All you need is a run of deck large enough to handle the recoil the gun will have and fasten your tackle to the ribs (or other significant timbers) in the bow of the ship. A place to put ball and powder is as simple as a wooden crate sitting next to the gun, no need to get fancy with it. The chaser would likely be served by the most experienced guncrew (there wouldn't be much else for them to do in the chase, besides make minute adjustments to the sails to eek out the most speed possible, and the rest of the crew can handle that), to give the highest probability of carrying away something critical from the enemy's rigging. A simple answer to the gunwales being too high is to simply cut open a hole. Sounds horrible, I know, but it is not unheard of. As long as you keep your gunport well above the waterline (if it is on the forecastle then you have no problems to worry about) and make sure that you properly reinforce the area around it with additional timbers to preserve the strength of the side. It should take a competent carpenter and his team about 4 or 5 hours at most to do so. An example from memory: the Confederate commerce raider Shenandoah sailed from England (IIRC) as a "trade ship," brought guns up from the hold, cut holes in the bulwarks and fitted guns. She then proceeded to sail to the whaling grounds and take prey. Twelve hundred pounds shifted (from pointing straight out to the side, to pointing forward, not far at all from where it originally was positioned), on one of these ships is not a big deal at all. It sounds like a heavy weight, but really it is just the equivalent weight of about 8 men moving forward to trim the sails. And I would wager that it takes a heck of a lot more than 8 (or 16, or 20) men to make a noticeable difference in the way one of these vessels (especially the frigates) handles. I don't have an issue with people escaping because I make a point to sail ships with bow chasers. I have speedy Bellonas and Ingermanlands that will run down almost any warship afloat, and I have a fast Surprise for hunting traders. My point of this post is that the ships without bow chasers rarely see use because they can't keep a fleeing enemy tagged reliably, and they are not good as support ships because other ships fill the role just as easily. Think about it, why would I use an Essex to support a fourth rate squadron when I can use a Trincomalee (more guns, bow chasers) or a Pirate Frigate (Essex's near sister, but with better turning, bow chasers, and only 200 side structure less), or even a Constitution (bigger, much more powerful, worse turn rate, much tougher, bow and stern chasers). Where these ships would shine, and be able to show their usefulness, would be if they could sail alone (as frigates often did) and effectively hunt targets. When was the last time you saw an experienced player in an Essex or Belle Poule doing something like that? Belle vs Frig is a fairly equal fight, the Belle can bounce shots, but the Frigate turns so well, it may be hard to get a good broadside landed. The main advantage of Belle, besides the armor and sloped sides, is the fact that 12pdrs take less crew to reload, and reload faster than the 18s on the Frig, especially if the Frig loses some crew. The Frigate has every other advantage: better turning, heavier broadside, bow chasers, and, if I remember correctly, a very similar sailing profile. Not denying the fact that Belle and Frigate can fight each other, that is not the problem, the problem is that if Belle needs to chase anything, it becomes quite hard to do. And if Frigate needs to run, she has a hard time doing that as well if the enemy is in a similarly-fast vessel with bow chasers. Hmm... personally, I don't think so, they would both be popular though if they both had chasers on each end (as I suggested, lets not forget the stern chasers on ships like Frig, PFrig, Trinc, Essex, etc.). They both have the similar sailing profile (again, this is from my memory here, I haven't sailed an equal build of each in a LONG time), and both have the same side structure and mast thickness. Frigate would still have the 18pdrs and the great turn rate. Belle would trade some firepower for a bit of armor and sloped sides. BR would have to be adjusted to make the ships have the same BR (currently Frig=170, Belle=180). This conveniently ignores the Pirate Frigate having more broadside than either, the same speed and specs as a Frigate and more crew to boot. Its only negative compared to the Frigate and Belle is the lack of stern chasers (Frigate lacks those too) and about 200 HP less (really not much) than the Frigate and Belle. LOL maybe because the DREAD PIRATE WILLIS is sailing her!
  12. Yes sir, sure have. Been on several boats, including commercial trawlers, a small sailboat, a couple schooners and various other small craft, though nothing quite like one of these beautiful sailing warships. How the ship pitches and rolls depends on the sea that is running and the way the sails (or lack thereof) are driving the ship. Set more sails on a reach and you increase the heel, set too few sails and your ship will try to roll her masts out (at least that is my understanding of it). Yes, the pitch (up and down) is felt more in the bow than the stern, but neither bow nor stern is significantly stable enough to turn a naval cannon into a rifle (one of the points of my post). From my observations, the sea state and the sails set--that would have the most impact on how the ship behaves. Some of the ships do, indeed, have a good quality, but that does not redeem them for lacking bow chasers. When was the last time you saw a solo 12pdr frigate sailing about? Twelve pound frigates were exceptionally common in this time period, and we only have two in game: one is so rare, nobody (who is lucky enough to own one) really takes it out [Santa Cecilia], the other is a great ship as well [Belle Poule], but lacks the bow chasers needed to be able to chase down and keep a fleeing target tagged. Not to mention, the Belle can be more or less replaced (for hunting) by the more powerful Frigate or Pirate Frigate, both of which have bow chasers. If you gave it bow chasers, I bet it would see a lot more use for hunting and OW PVP because it trades the turning of a Frigate for some thicker armor and curvier hull (good for bouncing shots while raking the sterns). What about the Cerberus makes it a good ship compared to Surprise or Renommee besides needing the least amount of crew and having the smallest BR of the 9pdr frigates? If it had bow chasers, maybe you'd see them being used as trader hunters because of the good sailing profile. The little unrated ships (schooners and fore-and-aft-rigged ships) are used in shallows for trader hunting, sure, and I suppose the narrow bow would make cannon mounting difficult, so perhaps they do not need bow chasers. I could go along with this, anything that gives the skippers of these wonderful frigates the ability to keep a fleeing target (and lets face it, most of our targets flee if they are in something smaller, and I've even had some flee when they out-classed my ship). At any rate, I'd like to see some kind of chasers on all the rated ships (frigates especially) so that they have a purpose for hunting. Ah, but that is the beauty of it, you don't *have* to put the chasers on the bow of your ship, but if you are chasing a fleeing target, you can move one or two of your broadside guns forward to bear on the enemy. And honestly not sure where the "ships would have had no use for bow chasers" comes about, it seems to me that if any ship pursues another, it would be good to have a bow chaser or two to harass his rigging in the hopes it may come down. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chase_gun A quick Google search came up with what I was after: "Bow chasers could be regular guns brought up from the gundeck and aimed through specially cut-out ports on either side of the bowsprit, or dedicated weapons..." There ya go, bow chasers could be regular guns brought up from the gundeck on pretty much any ship you wanted to.
  13. Why not give all ships bow and stern chasers? Currently there is a division of beautiful and fun-to-sail ships that are rarely (although a select few will use them) touched for open world PVP because they lack the ever-important bow chasers. Here is a list off the top of my head, I may be missing some: Essex, Belle Poule, Cerberus, Brig, NavyBrig, Mercury, Niagara, Lynx, Privateer, Cutter, Pavel Now, here are the ships without bow chasers that you do see used for open world PVP: Bucentaure, Renommee Why are these two ships used fairly often, and not all the others? I'd say it has to do with their speed (especially Renommee) and firepower (especially Bucentaure). Here is the logic behind giving all ships chasers: 1. ANY ship could have bow and stern chasers in real life. All you need to do is move a gun from your broadside battery. 2. Ships used their chasers to hopefully cut away some important rope or shatter a spar, crippling their opponent and giving them time to escape or catch the prey. 3. In game, running is so common, if you don't have a ship with bow chasers, it can be quite hard to keep an enemy ship tagged (especially if they took advantage of the almost non-existent speed difference in open world and they counter tag you [discussion for another thread though]). Furthermore, if you want to run, you had better have some stern chasers to whittle down your enemy's sails, or hope he gets a bad tag on you. 4. If all ships have at least 2 bow chasers (one for the fore and-aft rigged ships) and 2 stern chasers, then you can stand a fighting chance (up to your skill level to take advantage of that chance) to catch your prey, or escape your enemy. Now, another point: don't give accuracy bonuses to the stern guns. That is dumb, I have said it before, the stern is no more stable on a sailing vessel than the bow, if you don't believe me, watch how the ships in game wiggle their sterns around on the waves. Potential concerns: Some ships (especially the fifth rates), like ________ (Renommee), will be OP with chasers. To this, my response is: "If I catch your ____ in a speed built ship, then I have built my ship properly for the task I was doing with it." Some ships may need a rebalancing, sure, but I think it would be much better to see a plethora of fifth rates gracing the waters of Naval Action, rather than the standard six chasing ships: Trincomalee, Surprise, Frigate, Pirate Frigate, Renommee, Constitution (I guess Indefatigable and Endymion fit in here as well, but without being able to craft nice ones, its hard to find a place for them). What about ships with four chasers on one end? Will we reduce those cannons? NO! Leave them be, the Trinc keeps her lovely four bow chasers and gets two stern chasers in addition I say give it a shot and lets see if we can't have the Belle Poule turn into the poor man's Santa Cecilia, the Cerberus finally have a use, the Essex be the smaller and better-turning Constitution, and finally see the sixth and seventh rates represented a bit more in open world, at least in the shallows. Furthermore, the Bucentaure and Pavel would also finally have the bow chasers they deserve. What does everyone else think?
  14. For those who don't know, here is my playstyle: I will hunt PVP, whether I'm alone (as is often the case), with a small group, or with a large group, I will look for PVP. I have perfected my shipbuilding technique to give me a fleet of vessels suitable for this playstyle. When I'm alone, I sail a fast ship so I can catch the targets that run, and escape the target's I can't outgun. I usually run one or two AI to help me distract the enemy AI or even-up the fight for me, or just in some cases doing all the boring chaining work for me . When I'm in a group, I'm comfortable in any role, whether it be the fast tagger, the tough brawler, or the in-between support frigate. Now, I'll say this about the battle mechanics: 1. Tagging: tagging is difficult because open world speeds are EXTREMELY similar across most ships. I have a couple speedy (13+ knot) ships (Bellona and Ingermanland) that would easily catch a tough (read: live oak and slow) second or third rate in battle, but in open world, I have a hard time catching them. This needs to be fixed so that the ships fastest in battle, are also the ships fastest in open world. This will help to solve several problems, but most notably this one: Counter tag: if I'm fast enough to catch you in open world and you counter tag me, I'll still be catching you with good speed as the timer counts down to battle, not hovering at the very edge of the tag circle, slowly inching towards you [the way it is now]. 2. Running and chasing in combat: laser-guided stern cannons and drunk gunnery crews on the forecastle currently ensure escape if you know how to make an effective counter tag while upwind of your opponent. This should not be the case. Here is my proposal: give ALL ships bow and stern chasers (I have been planning to start another thread detailing this further). Why give all ships bow and stern chasers? Because any ship could mount them, all you need to do is move a broadside gun over. Its really not rocket science people. Do not favor one end of the ship having better gunnery crews--give the same accuracy at either end!--(people can say the stern is the most stable all they would like, it is simply not true: the bow has a pitch and yaw from waves and the stern is quite similar, often rolling just as much as the bow). 3. A new type of control perk is default and effective to 2000 yards. If you are inside 2000 yards, you cannot escape for 10 minutes, if you are outside 2000 yards, you can escape any time unless you are somehow tagged (or sinking/on fire), then you have an escape timer, similar to what is used now, except the timer is 5 minutes instead of 2. A second feature to this is the ability to "allow escape" if you want to allow your opponent to leave combat, you hit that button and he has no timer and no control perk applied to him, he can leave if he so chooses. If you are being chased and want to leave, you can turn on your "allow escape" button (won't do anything but notify your enemy he can leave if he wishes to), but unless your enemy toggles his as well, you cannot leave until you have outran the 2000 yard control perk, or spent 10 minutes inside 2000 yards without being tagged. 4. Battles open for how long? The best solution that I have heard, IMO, would be battles open for 5 minutes for anybody who was within the draw distance (sight distance) so if you are sailing together, you can fight together, but you can't just pop out of port and join a battle, that is not sailing together. In addition, the timer is 2 minutes open to the rest of the players (who were not in draw distance) this allows people who happened to be sailing by your battle the ability to jump in and fight, but still prevents people from jumping out of port and into combat. I don't like a forever-open battle because of the time compression in open world, people who were not even online in the game can jump on and hop into an open world PVP fight that they had nothing to do with starting...something about that bothers me. 5. Teleport to friendly port. In my opinion, this was one of the best features implemented to ROE, it ends the problem of people camping battle screens and logging out in battle for fear of the massive counter-gank. If you escaped the ship, you don't have to escape it 8 more times as you hop your way from one instance to another towards port. It was a great idea, but due to the current mechanics flaws I pointed out earlier with open world speed discrepancy and the ever-present counter-tag, it has become a "get out of jail free card" for almost anyone who wants to run. If you make it so that I can catch you in open world as well as I can catch you in battle, and give me a reasonable chance of keeping you in that battle, you are going to be caught. If I can't catch you in open world, or if you can out-sail or out-smart me, then you have nothing to fear. Now, I know how often that button is used for moving goods around, and that is unfortunate, but until some better method to end the battle screen camping is thought of, it seems to me to be the best strategy. 6. Signalling: it is a fine perk, If it keeps the fight open for 10 minutes to all friendlies to join in to even up the BR, up to 100 BR above the enemy's. GET RID OF THE RIDICULOUS AI FLEETS! WHY ARE THERE MULTIPLE FLEETS OF 25 SHIPS OF THE LINE SAILING ABOUT IF THERE IS NO HOSTILITY BEING RAISED!?! For goodness sake, limit the standard AI fleet patrols to something like 8 frigates or 2 SOL's and 3 frigates (that would be a more rare one) sailing about. Increasing the number of AI traders and sixth rates is fine, it gives the (almost) empty open world some sails for us to enjoy, and some targets for the low-level guys Just my $ .02 plus some change, not trying to offend anyone. EDIT: I see several of my sailing buddies have posted similar ideas: @koltes and @Duncan McFail. My ideas are quite similar on some points, but have some differences on others, I honestly think any adaption of these ideas would be better than the current system...
  15. NO! Building a ship is a process. There is NOTHING random about it. I've built several wooden boats myself, and if I want to build one extra tough (strong hull + build strength) then all I need to do is increase the number of frames (ribs) and increase the planking thickness and frame thickness (of course, the dimensions of the keel will have to be increased as well, and all measurements on the plans will have to take into account the increased size of the timbers used). There is nothing random about that. I guess if the boat is built by a shoddy shipwright (as in one who is not a level fifty crafter) than his "strong hull + build strength" may not be as sturdy as mine, but it certainly wouldn't come out as a "strong hull + rigging quality" ship. RNG does not apply to shipbuilding if the shipwright knows how to make a ship and is using the proper materials. If someone wants to point to certain ships of the same design with different handling characteristics, I'd wager that the ship that had a worse reputation as a sailor was probably stowed differently or canvassed differently. If plans are followed precisely, there is VERY LITTLE difference in one hull to the next.
  16. Patch sounds good, a wipe is fine with me, good to test with. Happy rank XP is not being wiped. One thing, what about outposts we have, will we keep those? Now, not to beg...but...before the wipe, can you please give out the Santa Cecilia BP to all players? Or at least give us a redeembable one to play with? You rarely hear of people who have and sail them regularly, and many of us on PVP2, even the old timers, haven't sailed one or even seen one in a long time. I'd absolutely love to get to sail one. I'll take mine Bermuda Cedar Speed Pirate Refit, please and thank you. GIVE ME A SANTA CECILIA! please
  17. Yeah, they changed the requirements when I was a flag captain, point is, currently anyone can obtain that first rate no real problem other than a time sink (just takes time and effort to get mats together and moved around [hard for casual players who don't want to spend hours sailing around looking for mats and delivering them to a crafter]). Lets say you grind and get the rank and mats to have a first rate, I, your friendly neighborhood pirate, can take that first rate from you no problem, because you have not spent time learning how to sail and fight properly. I see no problem with this system. You get your stuff, you get a ship, you don't know how to sail the ship, thats your problem. Is it hard for a dedicated player/pvper/fighter to make a first rate? No. I can make multiple first rates in a day with my stockpile of mats and labor contracts. If you don't have that stuff, and have to buy resources and build everything, it is almost a week's crafting hours for a first rate. People forget that because it is so easy to get materials with this system. I'm open to testing things, but adding in more and more grinding to this game is not the answer to any problem, it just widens the gulf between those who grind and those who don't.
  18. Problem with this statement: THIS IS A GAME!!!!!! People can, and should, be able to sail ANYTHING they want to, provided they have the rank and crew to man it (and even if they don't, and are dumb enough to sail a first rate with 200 crew, let them do it: its their game ). I can sail a first rate, I like sailing first rates, I have 7 or 8 of them at any given time: one for every outpost (except shallow water, and a spare). If you want to start limiting what class of ships people can sail "because that's how it was in real life," then lets go for a full-out realistic simulator where you have to wait 6 hours for the tide cycle to leave most any port, about an hour to weigh anchor and get all canvas set and steadied on the proper course, and then days upon days, or even weeks, of sailing in the ocean, never seeing a sail. That sounds like game-population-increasing levels of fun to me. In my opinion, if you spent time grinding rank up to get enough crew to sail a first rate, and spend enough time gathering materials to have one crafted, then you deserve a first rate. Too many people in this game cry about first rates being too common and there is no use for smaller ships. How about instead of making it harder than it is already to get a first rate, just change the mechanics of port battles to promote the use of smaller ships. Make some capture zones too shallow to float a first rate there, so if you want to cap it, you need to bring in fifth rates to go there and fight for it. There is your application of frigates in first rate battles. DONE. Just my $00.02
  19. This all sounds good, and I am looking forward to testing, but there are some things that need some further clarification, along with a few suggestions. Here is what I want to know: (apologies if a few of these are redundant) 1. What about the blueprints we have learned? I hope we keep them and don't have to re-learn the same ones. 2. What about the ships without blueprints? Santa Cecilia, Indefatigable, Endymion, Gunboat [super rare BP], and the other "rare" blueprint ships (Agamemnon, L' Ocean, Rattlesnake Heavy). I hope those blueprints are introduced and readily available through learning. If you want to make them more rare (especially the SC, Indy, and Endy), first make the BP's only available to level 50 crafters, second make the frigates take as much materials and labor hours to make as a second rate. Single durability would mean you need to choose between a building yourself nice frigate that has a few unique qualities, or a second rate for the same amount of investment. 3. What about upgrades that could be applied to any ship type, regardless of class (meaning the principle is the same whether you are sailing a frigate or a SOL)? Take "Light Carriages" for example: a gun carriage is the same design whether you are building a carriage for a 9pdr on a Surprise, or a 42pdr on a Victory, therefore, "Light Carriages" should be chosen when you are buying guns for the ship. Another example would be "Extra Hammocks" or "Rum Rations," because you can sling extra hammocks on your ship, or give your crew more rum, regardless of what ship you are in. 4. What about upgrades that should be automatically installed when you craft a ship? "Studdingsails" for example, are just extra sails, and once you learn how to sew the extra sails, you should be able to select them when you build a ship and have them automatically installed (requires extra cotton). Another example would be "Copper Plating": any shipwright with half a brain can nail copper plates onto the hull of any ship (should be automatically included in the crafting process, should you select it [requires copper ingots]). The same with "Extra Planking," "Reinforced Masts," "Turning Trim," etc. 5. How I see the "learnable skills" varying by ship type is with things like "Optimized Rudder-Bellona," meaning you have sailed a Bellona enough to know how to apply *just* the right amount of rudder to maximize your turn radius without losing speed. 6. How are we going to learn this "ship experience?" "Sailing the ship" is what I have read. What does that mean? If it is sailing in open world, then 99% of us are going to do exactly as @JobaSet mentioned in an earlier post and sail AFK due East at slow sails and move the mouse every 10 minutes: sitting at home, watching TV, I log in and bump mouse every few minutes, doing work online: ALT + TAB and check it once in a while, you see my point. If it is in combat, then tag a slow AI ship and just sail away in battle, repeat every 1.5 hours. Give it a few weeks and ARRRGGGHHH! I am a pro at sailing every ship. 7. Can you give everyone a few redeemable ships to make startup easier for those who have not stockpiled, or haven't played much? I have plenty of resources and should have no problem making 2 or 3 SOLs and some smaller ships within an hour if I want to, but not everyone stocks up like that (and others stock WAAAAYYYY more). 8. What about Ship Notes: Mid Grade Notes, Low Grade Notes, High Grade Notes? 9. If marines are an "upgrade," then once we learn this upgrade, please let us have a slider to determine how many marines we want to carry, I don't want to carry only 10% marines, but sometimes 20% is too much. It would be nice to just move a slider and choose to carry 75 marines on one ship, 143 on another, 18 on another, etc. 10. Can you tell us an exact date of the wipe before it happens? I want to enjoy my ships now, and break up all the ones that I don't sink the night before the patch. Sorry about the long post, but I think some further clarification is important.
  20. YES! I have noticed in many of the larger battles where we approach 30+ ships in battle that I will get massive graphics lag. Like others I used to think it was on my end (mainly because my graphics card is not the best in the world), but now I'm not so sure.... Anyways its kind of frustrating when you think you see friendly fire, but its really just the graphics catching up. Hope this can be resolved.
  21. It was my understanding...not sure exactly where I heard this (global chat maybe)...that someone said the bonuses with a nation or faction associated with it are better than the generic bonuses (pirate refit is faster than speed and has boarding perks to boot, Spanish hunter is better than mainsail force because it has more mainsail force and some turning and accuracy perks, French refit is more accurate than regional accuracy, has speed increase, etc...). I had just assumed this was the intended plans for the regions, have a few REALLY GOOD regions to fight over and some regions that were decent that can be spread throughout the nations, and have some regions that are no good at all. I disagree with Pirate Refit, Spanish Hunter, Strong Hull, etc. being broken or OP. My reasoning: now I can finally make ships that reach their historic speeds with builds that can actually fight (live oak Constitution will do 13.8 knots, just like the real one, a Bellona made out of mahogany can hit 12.5 knots and fulfill her role as a frigate killer/group first rate hunter, my live oak strong hull Victory is impenetrable outside of 600 or 700 yards by most guns, as she should be). To address each region individually would take too much time, and drift too far off topic for this conversation, but the Pirate Refit seems to catch the most hatred, mainly by people who are sailing regional speed ships and expect to have the fastest setup on the ocean. Sure, I can make a Constitution hit almost 15 knots when built Pirate Refit, but do you know how thin that armor is going to be? How few hitpoints she will have? Sure, if you allow yourself to be boarded by one, you're in trouble if you are not boarding fitted, but that is the same with any ship rigged for boarding. If you want to beat said Constitution, all you need is a reasonably well handled Trincomalee that is not of a ridiculously weak build; and a well handled sturdily built fourth rate should easily turn one of those cedar coffins into matchsticks in about 4 broadsides. PS: Regional Speed was never "faster on all points except downwind" than Pirate Refit. In fact, it was only ever faster close hauled, and only by a small amount. Here is a link to a comparison of two Surprises, one Regional Speed, one Pirate refit: As you can see, Regional Speed was .3 knots faster upwind than Pirate Refit.
  22. In a port battle the other day, an enemy captured one of our allie's wapens. He put crew on it but forgot to tell it to retreat, in the last few seconds of the battle, I got over to it and captured it (had only 2 crew on it). When I looked at it, it was exactly the same as the free one, exceptional mahogany planking strong hull. I could not break down the durability (wanted some parts, instead will use it in fleet I guess). Don't know what is going on here. This is odd.
  23. William  Death

    reload bug?

    I have seen this problem too, multiple times. I am not sure why it happens, but I seem to notice it more once I lose some crew and armor. Also reload seems to slow down too (all this is happening while I have a full amount of crew on gunnery, sailing off, etc.). It almost seems like the crew's morale gets a little low and they get discouraged and start to slow down. I didn't think that was a mechanic, but if it is I guess its alright...if that is not the reason then I am at a total loss . Now there IS another bug with the reload on the gunboat (possibly other ships but I haven't tested it). If you are running light carriages on the gunboat, and turn off one of your guns (I turned off the stern carronade), your reload on the bow gun will stop completely. Its almost as if there are too many men aboard the ship, boarding fills, sailing fills, gunnery fills and you have guys left over...so everyone stops to have a party I suppose. Now I don't run light carriages on the gunboat .
  24. I was sailing a new Victory I just built last night. Like you, I was experiencing about 6° of heel in small seas...seems a little bit excessive for a heavy first rate. I have not noticed whether the exceptional optimized ballast is working as it used to or not (I only use it on a Trincomalee, and I always run trimming expert when I sail that ship). I will say this about heel: depower to furl all your fore-and-aft sails and haul your square sails around to luff (be flat with the wind) and you will flatten right out in most ships. Don't forget to repower and set your square sails to draw again after you shoot. If you plan your broadsides right, this is all one fluid motion, from the depower, through the broadside, then repower and reposition. Some ships do seem to need more sail management than others. PS: That LO BS Strong Hull Victory is my favorite first rate build-If you put the right upgrades on it, you can beat ANY other first rate in a duel with that ship
  25. Let me know when you want to do that and we'll duke it out in our gunboats.
×
×
  • Create New...