Henry d'Esterre Darby

And that's a great point right there I hadn't thought of Maturin. +1 That said, for playability, the Devs allow rotation even at a standstill (the fluff being that you're using anchors or towing the head around with boats). This wouldn't be done in real life except in dire circumstances, but there is a bow to playability there at the moment.

I agree with all of this. If you see the game controls more as "I'm the Captain, bring the ship about!" and less as "Hey, let me take the wheel and bring her about myself", having to reverse rudder during a tack is an unnecessary control input. As the Captain, I say "come 2 points starboard" to the helmsman, he and the sailing master handle the detail work of making that happen. It shouldn't be as it is now "Ready about, helms alee, we're backing, helmsman you infernal lubber, reverse that rudder!"

The 9th is overplayed, the 7th is where it's at in my opinion.

Glad to have you with us!

Privateers and merchants will likely earn money by hauling cargo or taking prizes, respectively. Naval Officers will earn reputation (and a little money), but the reputation will be far more important to use to get another ship when you lose yours. The Devs will likely create mechanics to ensure the merchantman has a good reason to strike to a Frigate who has caught them instead of fighting it out to the death. Similarly the privateer. In reality, the merchantman didn't do well by firing his meager 24lb broadside at a 44 gun Frigate. He convoyed, hired armed ships as escorts, or entreated a friendly Naval vessel to accompany him for a while (usually as part of a convoy with the ship ordered to escort it). Similarly, a Privateer didn't profit from going toe to toe with a superior vessel, he ran like smoke and oakum and struck if the fight got too rough. A Naval Captain fought what he thought he could beat, ran from what he couldn't, and struck in the face of insurmountable odds. Unless ordered directly to sink or take a particular vessel a prize, that was their job. And if they failed, they faced a Court Martial to see if they could have done it better. If it was felt that they shirked their duty or were negligent, they were convicted and turned out of the service. In game, you'd likely lose your nice third rate for a negligent failure and be sent down into a corvette or even a brig. Damage is the "currency" right now to force people to play the different ships. It most assuredly won't play much factor in advancement in the Open World once the game is live.

True as far as it goes, but you also have to count the surface area of the rudder into the equation. If the Victory has enough rudder to overcome the added mass, drag, etc, she may indeed be able to turn far better than expected. She'll probably bleed speed like a stuck pig in a hard turn, but she may be able to rotate fairly well.

Aren't there mathematical equations that could, given surface area of the rudder, mass, hull shape, etc. tell you at a certain speed, just how fast the ship could rotate? I'm not sure, it's more of a question of curiosity. When you look at some of the modern simulation software, it seems to me that this could be calculated fairly accurately given known dimensions. I do agree, however, that some ships, especially the fore/aft rigs, don't tack as easily as they should.

This is something that would likely be better served by using a personal MP3 program (iTunes, WinAmp, what have you) while playing the game. Getting rights to the music, etc. and reinventing the wheel should, in my opinion, be very low on the priority list.

Thanks Hetman - I think a single, solid mast is a very common misconception. As long as the lower mast is intact, and you have spares, it's trivial to sway up a new top mast, t'gallant mast, or royal mast when one is shot away, or is carried away by the sail (the sail breaks it off due to there being too much wind). Even if the lower mast has been damaged, you could still cap it at a lower height (assuming the break is above the deck), and once again, use spares to put up top and t'gallant masts, and still put some reasonable sail up (though, of course, not nearly as much as if you had a complete lower mast).

Fire bombs and heated balls were used by fixed fortress positions - a man of war, especially during battle, went "cold", the galley fires were put out, and most sources of ignition other than slow match were doused and stowed - you do not want any kind of flame, which you'd need to heat balls, when you're slinging powder around a ship that has cannon balls impacting it - turning over the stove or forge would be disastrous. During the period we're operating under, most ships that attempted to use grenadoes or other newfangled munitions usually did more damage to themselves than to anyone else when the grenades or fire they were playing with got loose on their own ship instead of the enemy's. I would like to see fire, I don't think it should be fought solely with a "Repair" - while you could add a Repair type to put it out instantly, Survival Mode should attempt to fight it with the same success it fights sinking. They had fire hoses and pumps on board, and while the stream often couldn't reach the royals, it could be used to fight fires somewhat effectively. We've mentioned fire ships (brulots) a few times - they're useful in a port battle, but weren't generally used for moving fleet actions. You don't need a yacht equivalent to counter it, you just get out the way or try to sink her.

Welcome Mazarredo! I know your English is far better than my Spanish. Stay constructive and respectful, which is very different than trying to communicate in a language you're not familiar with, and no one will take offense. I value directness, I do not value disrespect, and your first post is excellent.

In real life, stealing wind is quite easy and highly effective. I have done it to other boats while racing Lasers and a Catalina 25', I have seen it done to great effect during the America's Cup. In game, it is not turned on due to the potential for griefing.

I think fuse has a generally known time/length factor (I know it does today, but I think it also did during the period we're discussing). In general, each different type of fuse had a known burn rate, you can cut it to a certain time. It won't be accurate to the millisecond, but I believe it's pretty close to the second during that period.

Bear in mind that this phenomenon is not restricted to the sea, but can be found throughout the world. The effect is, in fact, enhanced over land due to vegetation, hills, and other more serious obstacles.

Very well stated Admin. Thank you for the in-depth review of the various mechanics that were tried and that you have planned.

Do you have a hardware or software firewall? Make sure you're not blocking needed ports after a short bit. Past that, try running PingPlotter and constantly pinging someplace like google.com to see if perhaps you're dropping a lot of packets. The cable modem from my provider drops all packets for 300ms every four seconds over the wireless, makes playing games impossible if I'm connected to it.

Everything above the mainmasts were generally repairable with spares carried on board. The lower masts themselves may have been more difficult, but then I don't think they were lost as often either. Even if they were, they likely could have a top mast and t'gallant mast fitted at the uppermost end of the "stump" as long as they were solid below the break. You wouldn't be able to fly as much canvas, but you could make a pretty good go at it.

It's not about the enemy, it's about a friendly intentionally using the mechanic to screw your own team over - a griefer. Imagine someone sticking like glue to your windward side so as to make sure you can't make it to the fight in formation. Since it's not easily detectable to ensure griefers don't abuse the mechanic, they've decided not to implement it.

Friendly Fire must stay on - it's important to be able to use enemy ships to shield each other. Damage done to Friendlies should definitely subtract from your damage total for the match - it infact should take you below zero if you didn't do enough damage to offset it and force a backwards move away from your next ship.

K or J I think? If not, H.

You understand that chain, by cutting stays and shrouds, put the mast in danger due to removing its support correct? If you cut all (or even a fair number) of the windward shrouds on a mast, and it has sails on it, it's coming down.

I believe that's the specific number of ordnance that contacted that part. So the first entry is 10 chainshot "penetrated", nine of them hit the sails, and one hit the mast.

thats definitely worth testing. Thanks for the heads up!

hehe, much of that kind of stuff was packed up and put down into the hold if an action was imminent.