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William Death

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Everything posted by William Death

  1. Have a “friend” of another nation take some junk ships in fleet, manage crew in OW down to like 5 crew each. Privateer boards them = ez win. Even better, have the friend capture the AI first rates in a battle, and put them in fleet (because I think you can do this but they won’t leave battle with you). Privateer sinks the fleetships. Might even work if the “friend” is in your nation. Because even friendly kills show in combat news....
  2. No, no, no. It doesn't quite work like that. Two related points were brought up: Hull speed: 1.34 * sqrt (waterline length in feet) this is the general form of the equation that gives the theoretical "maximum" speed that a displacement hull can reach (all sailing vessels barring a few modern designs are displacement hulls). The 1.34 is a general constant, it can vary a bit from ship to ship but generally gives a rough idea. Whether or not you reach this speed is dependent on how much horsepower you provide. Give enough sail area and you're guaranteed to reach that speed...assuming your rigging holds and you don't capsize from all that canvas . Now, before you think this is any sort of hard and fast rule...plug in some numbers....just about anything over 110 feet WL and you're looking at 14kn+. We know, from historical records, some ships went faster than the general hull speed formula allows for their waterline length (the replica Lynx [WL 72'] logged over 15kn sailing downwind with a furled foretopsail [sourced via their Instagram]...yet the formula says their hull speed is only 11.37 kn). Conversely, some ships never reach their hull speed: hull speed of Constitution, by the general formula, is 17.73kn....she was quick but not that quick. So really, its not a rule; more like a guideline. Give enough power and you'll exceed hull speed (even to the point where the vessel attempts to plane off), but that is not efficient use of power (it is funny though). Ballast: it doesn't work the way you think it works. You have to get the ship within an acceptable waterline range or you risk being dangerously unstable/unable to carry a full press of canvas. Ships carried rock ballast if they sailed "empty" and threw it overboard when they loaded cargo (there are literally islands made of ballast rocks near some of the old American seaports that exported a lot of goods). Dumping supplies/cannons/water to gain speed was a last ditch effort to escape a pursuing enemy because at that point you have no other options. This is why cargo weight slowing you down is a silly 'feature.' You don't intentionally set sail without being ballasted properly. What we should have instead, is a repair kit box that you fill in any port with 10 repairs. If you want more you can carry them in your hold for a speed penalty. Then whatever you add in your cargo hold gives a small speed nerf. An Indiaman with a full hold of Textile Machinery should be only a few percent slower than one "empty" (remember that means loaded with ballast to an acceptable waterline). That should please both the "sacrifice is balance!" and "realism is balance!" groups. But again, balancing speeds is easy. First: reduce the gap between fir/fir and lo/wo. Wood type doesn't affect speed that much IRL and its bad for the game too. Second: diminishing returns for mod stacking-->best mod is 100% effective, second best is 80%, next is 70%, 50%, etc. Unpopular opinion: the game was better when there was only 4% difference between fir and live oak and we only had 2 speed mods and 2 sail force mods. (all but the sail force mods were craftable, too). On topic: carronades vs longs for Requin: Going to shallows? Carronades because almost everyone is running them there. Also, at the ranges you're going to usually be trying to hit those little ships at...you'll be in prime carro range. Hunting alone somewhere? Either...but consider longs because you'll always have the option to disengage using chain at ranges where carros wouldn't *quite* be as effective. Also long 9s can demast larger ships slightly easier than 32 carros. But @HachiRoku is correct...the recent (over the past year or so) patches really reduced the viability of fighting at range. I fought a decent player sailing a carro Hercules with my Surprise (long 9s and 18pd carros). At a range where his carros wouldn't pen my hull, he could simply turn a tiny bit and bounce my long 9s. No point in trying to do anything with that. If I'd had 32 carros he would have wrecked me up close because his broadside is still more powerful than Surprise's.
  3. We don't talk about that evening. Just because I underestimated the toughness of LGV masts and was too embarrassed to run when I should have. I'll never live it down. Oh the humanity! Oh the horror! Pls no talk about it. But nice job @Rabman finding a treasure fleet like that. Still astonished that they couldn't get their AI to chain you as they worked masts and hull...anyways... MOAR SALT!
  4. Once you've got all 5 slots unlocked, the XP becomes useless. Would be nice if it went to something useful. Either conversion rate for Doubloons or extra Reals...or flags...permits....something. +1
  5. I was scrolling through some old screenshots the other day, and I remember some of the old storm battles we had. Even after they removed the rough seas map, we still had storm maps with medium seas and heavy, driving rain and thick fog too. I haven’t come across instances like that lately. Have they removed/toned them down or am I just lucky to always get the milder storm maps? #bringbackstorms But yeah, if storm battles were more intense, then I could see where hiding in the fog could be a viable strategy as long as the minimap or freecam can’t circumvent it.
  6. No. If nights were actually dark, allowing us the ability to turn off stern lights in OW would be neat and useful. But really nighttime NA is not that dark...especially if you adjust your monitor settings properly.... Besides this, nobody I’ve ever spoken with complained that they had to use the minimap to find and keep a fleeing enemy tagged. You just look for the bright white sails and look with the spyglass or freecam to check the flag if you’re unsure. So so it sounds like a neat, immersive gameplay improvement ... but all it will do is frustrate new players and have no effect on veterans who know all the tricks.
  7. Where would you suggest, then? PvP zone with all its lovely gank-encouraging mechanics? No thanks. Someone should really come up with good suggestions for PvP zones. Wait...they already did! But localization and translation is much more important than the declining quality of PvP ........*facepalm* Maybe I should cruise around the map, hoping to find a lone warship or two? Been there, tried that. Hours of empty seas. Sorry but with ~100 players online that kind of PvP hunting doesn’t work. All these brilliant EU crowd of PvP1 pros (and some deluded US time zone players) attempting to tell US time zone players how to play is truly the funniest part of this thread. Seriously...you have two places to get PvP in our time zone: PvP zones (crap RoE) or safezones (equally frustrating). Make no mistake, we’d rather fight in normal OW engagements against a willing enemy...but when population is low and all the targets (including rear admirals with 1000hrs+ in game) are in their safe zone grinding AI....well you go where the players are.
  8. Yeah the slope has a lot to do with it, not just increased thickness because of the geometry. Combination of both. Fir bounces because you get enough angle. Same with live oak (just you need less angle). Think about deflecting a bullet with a piece of thin mild steel plate—you need lots of angle. Now think of a piece of steel 25% thicker...it’ll bounce at less of an angle because it is stronger and can absorb more of the energy. The bullet can’t just punch through it or move enough metal around to embed...some energy is transferred into deforming (denting) the plate while the rest stays with the projectile, which is forced to change direction. Now think about instead of a piece of soft mild steel, we use a tougher grade of steel. What about aluminum plate? What about a piece of plastic sheet? Every time you change the “toughness” of the material...the angle or thickness you need to bounce changes as well. An angled wooden hull works similarly...just with splinters added. Now, in game I’m not sure how the damage model calculates it...but I feel that is one part of combat that it does well at modeling. A large ship, even fir, bounces small shot well because it’s still pretty thick. Add an angle and it’ll bounce larger shot. But no amount of angle will make a fir 6th rate bounce a charged 42pd long at 100m. (An angle where it will bounce on the sides effectively becomes a bow or stern rake) And that models real life physics well. You can’t stop a large caliber round point blank with a sheet of plywood, even angled. Gain range or add thickness and you can. EDIT: Yes, horizontal and vertical angles matter in game. This is why a ship with tumblehome is easier to bounce with than those without. Also why heeling matters for bouncing. One of the weak spots of the LO/WO Cartagena L’Ocean are the sides above the tumblehome. But don’t tell anyone, it’s a secret. 😁
  9. Nah. Last week I took a teak/wo Buc to grind up a shallow port. I took 200 hull reps. Repaired 3x in battle and 2 reps in OW. After all that, I had about 80-90 reps left. Just enough to go back to port safely, but instead I got a resupply from a friend since we thought we had some action coming up. Oh, and a proper LO/WO first rate with carpenter mods? ~25-30+ hull reps per use. Figure another 30-40 to repair to a reasonable state in OW after a battle. You burn through them FAST. And on frigates: My teak Endy takes 12 hull reps per use, IIRC. So 72 hull repairs is 6 uses. That amounts to 2-3 good brawls, or a number of smaller engagements. Still does ~14kn+ on the card. Lots of players say I take to many repairs....I say they take too little. If I need to run away from the gank squad, I can delete repairs and pick up speed. I'd rather do that than lose a good ship because I ran out of reps, or maybe have to turn down a good fight because I'm out of repairs. But if running with a light repair loadout works for you, don't let me discourage you. I just stated what works for me, 100% of the time. Guaranteed not to be the first in a group to run out of repairs (there is always that one guy with 3x of each repair who has to go back to port after a battle or two).
  10. You can repair as often as you like in battle, you're only limited by the 12 minute cooldown timer between repairs. (and however many repairs you carry in your hold) EX: Repair hull, 12 minutes later you may repair hull again or sails. Then 12 minutes after that, you can repair again if you wish. Crew (rum repair) runs on an independent (24? minutes? something like that) timer. As to how much you should carry, a good rule of thumb is almost as much rum as your crew count (so for a ship with 240 crew, maybe carry 200 rum). For hull and sails, your best option is to look in battle and see how many repairs you use per cycle (there will be two numbers in the corner of the repair buttons, one tells you how much you have on board and the other number tells you how much it takes per use). Then, whatever that number is (say, 10x hull repairs to perform one hull repair in battle), multiply it by 3 (minimum) or 5 (recommended); that is how much to take. So you might take between 30 and 50 hull repairs in that ship, which amounts to 3-5 uses of in-battle repairs. OW repairs don't seem as efficient, so cautiously repair a little damage at a time till you feel comfortable. If it tells me I need to spend 30 hull repairs to get to 100% health, I might only spend 12 and get to maybe 80% health. Try to repair in battle when you can. This thread may help you, there is a neat tool there that helps you calculate how much you need based on ship type and upgrades. Once you play a variety of ships and upgrades, you get a feel for what you should take. Basically, the more HP the ship has, the more repairs you need per use. The more repair mods you carry, the more repairs you need per use. In general: Rates: Hull/Rig/Rum 7th: 20/20/40 6th: 30/30/120 5th: 50/50/200 (small) 5th: 70/70/280 (large) 4th: 90/90/350 (light build) 4th: 120/110/400 (heavy build) 3rd: 125/115/500 (light build) 3rd: 160/140/550 (heavy build) 2nd: 180/150/750 1st: 200/160/900 (normal loadout) 1st: 280/190/1100 (hostility grind loadout) With some ships you can get away with carrying more or less repairs, the above are just some guidelines you might use. If you're not already doing it, choose the carpenter perk for your captain perks, its pretty much mandatory and is one of the very best perks you can choose.
  11. Shhh keep yer voice down, I've got most players convinced by now that I'm some carebear noob that can only sail fir boats and gank. I've got an image to keep up and I can't do that if you imply that I might be half decent on occasion! LOL Back in the old days, on another server, under another name, I had a little bit of a reputation built up. And yeah, sometimes my reputation would prevent players from engaging the scary pirate. But other times I'd find eager captains in purpose-built ships just to run me down and try their hand at sinking me. It balanced out. Thats the thing about having a reputation in NA: half the players want to run away and the other half want to send you to the bottom. Joking aside, I really, really disliked the removal of names in OW. I attempt to follow, as a general guideline, a "sustainable farming" technique. Basically if the guy is less than Master and Commander rank, he gets demasted and left adrift (or I don't even bother tagging if I know what rank he is in OW) unless he starts the smack talk, then all bets are off. Now, with names and ranks removed from OW, I can't tell if the guy I'm tagging is someone who I can mercilessly sink and have a clear conscience about, or a new player who is just trying to figure the game out and deserves a break. Maybe that element of uncertainty counts as "immersion" for some, but for me (and many others) its a major annoyance. I think removing names in battle would just make the game less enjoyable for most of us. Why complicate one of parts of NA combat model that works perfectly well? Perhaps instead, have an option to turn names off if you like the more immersive gameplay? Just accept the tribunals when you green on green me because you can't tell whether I'm friend or foe.
  12. Nope. Officer: "Hey, isn't that ship we're shooting at the same one we've been sailing with for the past 4 days, Captain?" You: "Err....I dunno....hard to tell, just keep shooting till he sinks and ask questions later." Fog of war can be nice, but I don't think it needs to be like this.
  13. +1 I think all ships should have bow and stern chasers, because its really not hard to move a broadside gun. Or, if weight is a concern, add a 4lb long gun which isn't very heavy at all. I even made a topic about it ages ago, but most of the responses to the negative were based on "its not historical" and "you can't just put a cannon wherever you want." To the first, "historical accuracy" complaint, I point at the various accounts detailing crews moving a broadside cannon to aim further forward or behind to serve as a chaser, whether or not the ship had chasers (but if you look, a large portion of plans I've seen included bridle ports that could be armed with small forward facing guns). To the second "putting a cannon wherever you want," I urge the consideration of weight. Lets say a long 4lb cannon, with carriage, weighs about 1200 pounds (maybe a little more or less, different websites seem to have different numbers). Sounds like a lot of weight...but is it really? Thats about 10 120lb sailors. You mean to tell me the foredeck of a frigate can't hold 10 sailors? Go sell that to someone who hasn't been on a wooden boat before. And regarding tackle for controlling recoil: a competent carpenter and his team should be able to knock together a suitably sturdy set of posts to withstand the modest recoil of a small cannon. I mean...when you've got 5+ inches of oak ribs and planks making up the sides of the ship it surely won't take much more reinforcing to allow you to place some eyebolts for cannon tackle. So...yes. Give all ships bow and stern chasers. It is downright frustrating when sailing a Pavel or Bucentaure, you look at the massive open deckspace at the bow and think "Nope, no way I could have some guns here, carry on!" Or thinking about the Essex which barely sees any use because it lacks the chasers needed for hunting and is outclassed by other ships when considering it for a support role.
  14. Port Battle: Marsh Harbor Pirates vs. United States, Pirates win. Commanders: Pirates: Christendom United States: Sir Texas Sir ("Suicidal Tendencies") Summary: A small squadron of VCO frigates and friends sailed to Charleston on Wednesday evening, looking for a fight. Upon waiting outside the United States Capital for a few minutes, watching their fleet of 1st-5th rates sail around aimlessly; we issued a challenge: fight, or lose Marsh Harbor. Fifteen minutes passed. Despite the multitude of clans and players available, the Americans refused to meet the challenge. Therefore, with calculated efficiency, we sailed the dread fleet to Marsh Harbor and raised hostility Thursday evening, and set the PB for Friday Evening. Throughout all these times we could have been challenged by the US fleet, but we were never engaged. The port battle Pirate fleet consisted of some regulars from VCO, RDMP, and ORCA, along with some new recruits as well. We saw some veteran names on the US side, as well as a large number of new players. Our fleet's mortar brigs took out the enemy's strongholds ashore with outstanding efficiency, and the battle quickly evolved into an out-and-out brawl. Our ships with carronades and marines made short work of several the enemy's ships. Despite our attempts to give up the circles, the battle was still won on points before we could sink more. Overall, good fight US, o7.
  15. This....this is great. I'm a fan of "what you see is what you get," which means whatever you tag and whatever is immediately nearby is what you get to fight. But, I also recognized that when I'm sailing with a large group, all it takes is one ship to be slightly off course and he won't make it into the battle that started literally right next to him. And thats not fair to that player. Your suggested mechanic would still let that player get into the fight, but his punishment for being off-course is that he won't make it into the actual fighting inside for a bit of time. And anyone sailing more than a horizon away would simply end up joining so far back that they don't even get to fire a shot in the fight. I like it. +1
  16. Its definitely a part of it. But I think the biggest part of them being OP is that they are just plain better. Looking at the 5th & 6th rate class as a whole, and not any particular stat, Hercules has THE BEST combination of speed, agility, thickness, hull shape, massive cannon loadout, mast toughness (I say this one carefully, as the masts aren't thick or sturdy, just hard to hit because they're so tiny),...the list goes on. To put it in comparison, 1v1 given similar skill a teak/wo Hercules is always going to be better than a teak/wo Surprise, I think. You can even stretch that to this: an average player in a teak/wo Niagara vs an average player in a fir/sab Hercules....Hercules still has a strong chance. I think, if the ship was more balanced then having instant teak/wo or lo/wo rolling around would be less of an issue.
  17. To be fair, other ships can use hugging tactics too. Also don't forget there are things you, as a skipper, can do to counter hugging tactics. And if/when you land a broadside into Hercules, it hurts. But, I do agree with you, Hercules is exceptionally good at hugging tactics because of the hull shape and size and the masts being so hard to hit.
  18. Could be interesting....but I think the appeal for some who bought the DLC was an easy way to get a good ship without having to craft it with woods that might be hard for them to get if they don't have a lot of playtime. I don't necessarily think the prevalence of DLC ships is bad thing....(after all, it does increase PvP)...I just think that the prevalence of DLC ships combined with them being OP makes them bad for the game.
  19. I like @pit's idea, with one condition: (also, it seems several others in this thread are thinking along the same lines) Crafted ships, by default, have a selectable refit OR a 4th slot. You pick one or the other when you're crafting it. RNG decides if you get another refit or another slot (although I really, really don't like RNG in crafting because it makes no sense from any historical perspective and just feels silly...but it seems like its gonna stick around this time so.....) DLC redeemed ships are default 3/5 with the small RNG chance (like they currently have) to be 4/5 or 5/5 + bonus. There. No nerfs to DLC, only buffs to regular crafted ships; so there can be no disgruntled players complaining that their purchase got nerfed. Regarding whether Hercules is OP vs other frigates? Yeah. Yeah it is. Stats might not seem that way, but it beats the stuffing out of Surprise, Cerberus, or Renommee. I'd even say she gives Belle Poule and the other 12pd frigates a run for their money. She's got a short, low hull that is hard to land hull hits on and provides EZ hugging options; better handling characteristics; super fast with four bow chasers; masts that are slim and hard to hit; etc. I really don't think you find a serious opponent for Hercules (assuming roughly equal captain skill) until you get to the 18pd+ frigates like Frigate, Pirate Frigate, Trinco, Endy/Diana/Indy. This isn't to say Hercules can't be beaten by smaller ships, just that when you see a Hercules sunk by a small frigate or 6th rate, chances are the Herc was either captained by a noob or was some throw-away patrol zone build. But don't mistake that for balance. I can sink a noob in a First Rate with a Connie, but does that mean Connie=First Rate? (yes, obviously, Live Oak is hurr durr tough )
  20. That’s odd with the missions. In Mortimer, there are several 7th and 6th rate kill missions. I would hope that all capitals would have low level missions for new players. Also, starting them off in a brig like the one they sail in tutorial might be a good idea... give them maybe 4 brigs they can redeem as needed while they figure out how to play. Add in a suggestion that they choose lo/wo for their PvE grinding brigs....
  21. 12pdr Mini-Connie incoming? Could be slick. Or what about stretching her to a razeed 2nd rate? (whatever happened to the razee'd Pavel project?) Of course, both of those options take valuable development time and throw any sense of historical accuracy out the window...but either could make for a nice ship.
  22. I have a hard time picking just one, so here are 4: Diana, one of my favorite frigates. Beautiful ship, handles nicely, and has proven to be quite capable: Endymion, my all-time favorite frigate. Probably my favorite overall, if I could only pick one ship. Endymion has probably netted me more marks than any other ship I've sailed. The one in the screenshot below served me faithfully from June 2017 till January 2018, when she gave her last moments of flotation to get my crew aboard the ship we'd captured. May she find solace and rest beneath the waves. Victory (this one has a paint applied), a very close second to the title of favorite first rate. She's agile and bouncy, with good firepower to boot (as good as L'Ocean after the carronade buff). Although often underestimated by enemies, Victory has proven time and again to be an effective ship in the right hands. Santisima, my favorite first rate (but only a little bit more so than Victory). Santisima's firepower is unrivaled. With good handling characteristics and respectable toughness, Santisima is a tough ship to beat. Both of these Santisimas in the image have paints applied--front and center is my old pink Santisima, veteran of countless duels. Some other ships I wanted to put on the list, but didn't because this post is long enough as it is: Constitution -- (preferably with Sicily Paint) I used to dislike Constitution, but with the various changes over the years, I've grown to enjoy the firepower and thickness of Constitution. She suffers somewhat in speed and agility, compared to smaller frigates, but I think the other benefits make up for that. Surprise -- formerly my favorite frigate. I still enjoy sailing her, but a 5/5 is required to be usable. I have to have two mast mods plus a ton of speed mods just to be able to fight ships my own class without losing a mast in 5 hits (the speed mods allow me to escape from everything that can demast me--which is still basically every frigate). Even still, Surprise is a fun ship to sail. Easily able to fight above her weight class, assuming you can keep your masts where they're supposed to be. Bellona -- I've always liked Bellona. Good speed, firepower, and agility makes for a great SOL experience. Santa Cecilia -- Though I only enjoyed one for a short time (and a borrowed one with a conditional agreement not to leave port with it), it truly is a beautiful ship that was a joy to sail. Too bad you never see them out and about.
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