FailKnight

This was thanks to the Equipment Mod by Mako. https://github.com/makotech222/UAASMods

Thanks to the Equipment Mod, I had acces to this readout of the naval gun stats and I have a couple of questions about some of them: "ID": "4 pdr Woolwich Gun", "crew": 2.0, "groundBatterySize": 3.0, "horizontalTurnMax": 25.0, "navalBatterySize": 1.0, "reloadTime": 80.0, "threat": 235.0, "type": "Cannon", "verticalTurnMax": 10.0, "verticalTurnMin": -5.0, "weight": 2.0, "goldPrice": 60, "Ballistics": { "verticalSpread": 0.7, "radius": 0.04, "mass": 3.5, "horizontalSpread": 2.6, "gravity": 1.0, "distance": 950.0, "baseY": 0.0, "armorPiercing": {lots of stuff} } crew: Fairly obvious that this is the required crew to man the gun, but I wonder, is this an all or nothing number or more a gradient? e.g. a gun has crew 10, if I only have 9 crew available for it, does it cease functioning immediately or has it simply got reduced performance? groundBatterySize & navalBatterySize: the only ones I'm really clueless about. Since the naval one is always 1.0 and the ground one varies between 1.0 and 3.0, with smaller guns having the higher value I suspect it perhaps has to do with model size? threat: I am assuming this is for the AI to help in choosing its targets based on equipment, but I want to be sure. goldPrice: Quite obviously the price of the gun, but I wonder how it is adapted to each campaign, since I recall vastly different prices between British and US campaigns even with the same economic skills. mass: Looks to be the damage number that is reported on the details screen, but how does this mass interact with (over)penetration to determine actual damage to planking and/or hull? armorPiercing: This seem to be datapoints for certain % of the guns range, with tangents describing the incoming or outgoing function line, but these tangents currently seem to imply linear progression between all points, though I do see a tangentmode modifier, so I assume it is possible to go for exponential and other forms as well?

On the second point: This looks like an Endymion-class 5th Rate, in which case your facing, which has 22" thick planking on its sides and 17" on the bow, meaning 6pdr armstrongs are going to bounce at a third of their range and 12pdr might be able to penetrate slightly up till half range. The Endymions also have some of the highest hp planking too, about 45% more than the dedaigneuse-class or Hermione-class 5th Rates, which I am guessing based on the picture are your own 5th Rates. Angle of fire also seems to have an influence on penetration, so it could be your chosen angle worsened your damage.

the v0.6.37 Beta on steam has reduced turn rates across the board, though I haven't had time to really play around with the new stats yet, so perhaps that will help the small ships a bit, though since they too are les turnable it could be only a minor change to the end result.

I've been doing some research to get some nice historical info as flavour for a ship guide, and I've noticed that several classes in-game are seemingly named for singular ships instead of the actual class they belonged to. For example the Dedaigneuse 5th Rates seem to refer to the French frigate Dédaigneuse, which was of the Coquille-class. There are several others as well such as the Cerberus-class which seems to be the Coventry-class or the Diana-class which is likely the Artois-class and the Hermione-class which is probably the Hortense-class. What is the reason for not using the more historical names here?

Bellona is the better third rate it seems, though it seems they feature only once for each campaign for now. Its third deck mounts 28 guns up to weight 28, so 32pdr Long Borgards can be placed here as well as 42pdr Woolwich and other 32pdr's. Its second deck of again 28 guns is capped at weight 19 or 20, so 24pdr Woolwich, 18pdr iron guns or 32pdr congreve or 42pdr caronne can go here. The upper deck is 22 guns of max weight 8, so some 9pdr brass guns or 18pdr carronades are the heaviest to be placed there. Its total weight limit is 2200, with a hull of 2500, sails of 3000, 8200 planking, being 28" on the sides, 22" on the bow and 11" at the stern. Optimal crew is 675, but it can go to 980. Its turns and acceleration are slightly worse than an Ardent class, but in the speed department it is fairly close to matching the Ardent, though that worsens of course if you load both to capacity. All in all it is a meaner version of the Ardent.

I am trying to make a list of all ship classes currently in game (or at least the campaigns), but since I didn't keep meticulous records during my own campaigns and am also composing overviews for all the naval guns I would like to ask all you guys for aid. Currently, of the top of my head, I have bought/captured/fought the following: 3rd Rate Bellona class 3rd Rate Ardent class 5th Rate Diana class 5th Rate Hermione class 5th Rate Dedaigneuse class 5th Rate Unity class (Which is suprisingly weak compared to other 5th Rates) 6th Rate Cerberus class 6th Rate Porcupine class 6th Rate Sloop of War 7th Rate Brig 7th Rate Sloop 7th Rate Snow 7th Rate Armed Sloop Unrated cutter Unrated merchant ship (1000 weight) Unrated merchant ship (1200 weight) Unrated merchant ship (390 weight) and I vaguely remember another 5th Rate of a different class, but I cannot recall its class name, so perhaps I have at sea too long. Have you found any other ships, or do you just want to discuss a certain class? Leave a message!

Allright, reload rates seem fixed across the board, but there are still a couple of prices that seem a bit off. Based on an Easy/Easy British campaign with max stats for discount etc. the 32pdr Woolwich costs 338, compared to to the Woolwich 24pdr costing 394 and the 42pdr costing 717. The 42pdr Armstrong costs 406 compared to the 32pdr's 424 and the 24pdr's 394. The Blomefield 18pdr costs 211 compared to the 12pdr's 237 and the 24pdr's 315. Other than that the 32pdr French Re-Borded costs 315, roughly comparable to the same poundage Borgard (312) and very much on the low end price wise for the 32pdr guns, while the 42 pdr French Re-Bored costs 1095, making it the most expensive gun I have found and thus the most expensive of the 42pdr guns.

Upon closer inspection it does seem to be due to the total weight exceeding the limits, I forgot to use an otherwise empty vessel for my comparisons. They are an option when I empty them of some crew.

On Hermione class 5th rates and Porcupine class 6th rates I can mount the 18pdr EIC pattern carronade and the 9pdr woolwich, both weight 8, on the upper deck, but on the Dedaigneuse class 5th rate and the 7th rate brig I can only mount up to weight 7, so those two guns can't be equipped here. This has made my attempts to match each gun to an Armstrong equivalent based on where you can mount it quite difficult, since these seem to be the only two guns that can sometimes be placed on a deck where the heaviest Armstrong mountable is a 6pdr, but not always. All other guns have shown a much more consistent match with an Armstrong poundage. Besides this, it would be nice to be able to see the max weight a deck can support on the buy screen or the details screen.

Attached is an overview of reload times for all the naval guns I have manged to get my hands on in finished British and United States campaigns. Often times the reload times spike for at least one gun in the series, but these spikes are also not consistent with a single poundage. Something similar is going on with the prices, but since my campaigns are on varying difficulty levels I can't fully compare them yet. Since I am by no means an expert on naval guns I must ask, are these reload discrepancies intended or are they errors?