DeRuyter

NP We can just call the whole thing the "steering mechanism". History part: The wheel that the ship has on it now was taken from the HMS Java after the battle.

She stood off to repair the damage to her rigging mostly sail control lines like braces that had been shot away or damaged when the ships got entangled. Her wheel not her rudder. They steered using tiller ropes below deck for the rest of the battle. Had her rudder been shot away the outcome of the battle may well have been different.

Once again I'll say it - this game needs variable wind and sea states with the direction you are going. Capsized by bracing the yards - well my first question would be what was the wind conditions and how much sail were they carrying. Something like @Seraphic Radiance suggestion with 3-4 different wind states (leaving out the really light conditions). Good reason to shorten sail. Plus damage for carrying too much sail - I read accounts of ships getting caught because a top mast carried away (ie; USS Essex). Also it was much easier to maneuver with the courses furled - as @maturin noted you can sustain mast damage sailing backwards at full sail (because of the way the courses are rigged this is problematic). Now that you have sail area to hull ratios modeled in order to get the most out of it bring in variable winds - this will further differentiate ships even within the same rate. US ships were notoriously over canvased for example. There's your capsize risk - carrying too much sail for the conditions. Lastly please add ship drafts - I know hard to code but it would be a nice feature.

That would be a good way of doing it for UG:N. Lots of DLC potential there as well.

Back on the US SOL topic - Wasn't the issue with the USS North Carolina the armament. Wasn't she actually put in ordinary for a few years before being fitted out and then given columbiads which aren't even in the game, so technically she is out of the timeline? Not against US SOL - Just that there are earlier 74s which would be better suited to get in game, settging aside the argument that some nations (Dutch) are severely underrepresented. BTW @maturin Don't forget Indefatigable had the assistance of HMS Amazon, the weather and the less than laser accuracy of the French gunnery.

Actually it is the opposite - heavier seas hinder your turning. In those weather conditions square riggers would wear rather than tack due to the chance of rigging damage or failing to make the tack or both. We would need rigging damage from the weather implemented because you'd more likely see sections of the masts carried off before the ship came close to a capsize.

There were good reasons ships did not normally go into battle under full sail. Battle sails were the easiest sails to trim when most of your crew was on the guns being one of them. @Hodo suggestion is a good one. Add in weather effects and you'd have another reason not to sail around at full sails depending on the ship ofc. Heeling would have a more detrimental effect on shooting when at full sail. I am for limited repairs.

As the wars went on and the French lost veterans Napoleon came to rely much more on artillery in particular after the Russian campaign. Guns and trained artillerymen were far easier to come by than horses and trained cavalrymen. I think if you look at the ratio of guns to men in the 1813 campaign it is higher than in previous campaigns (maybe except Russia). Can't remember the source for this off the top of my head though.

This series is also used as the source material for many of the ships listed on the Three Decks website.

You may well be correct but some of those other eras may be too esoteric at least from a business perspective, whilst Napoleonics would be more marketable from a global perspective. I'd love to see The War of 1812 but that could be sold as DLC for Ultimate General: Napoleon.

This reminds me of Sea Trials battles with mixed fleets - the smaller frigates did exactly that - sailed to cover the rear of the line or to try and flank the enemy line, etc. Fights in ST were like PB without circles or forts. Now all we need to ensure mixed fleets would be real shallows and ship drafts..... But hey let's give the BR limits a go.

It should be on the ship in game IMO.

I read somewhere that there are no plans or documentation on the original figurehead. I could be wrong, there are a number of ships in game that don't have figureheads.

I think this quote bears repeating. IMO not every nation needs or should have every class of ship in the game. The USN in the time period was known for frigates and commerce raiders. Initially this was a strategic choice and only later as the navy grew did you see even 74s. As the OP mentioned the USS Wasp or USS Frolic would be good additions for the US - ship-sloops. The Dutch ships were limited in size because of geography. etc. There should be some national flavor to ships but when you can build or capture most ships in the game there really isn't a reason to shoehorn in an uncommon design just to have a 1st rate, etc.

@drwalker54Nice photos of the Niagara btw. I had planned a trip to sail on her this summer but had to cancel. I do have some photos form OPSail 2000 in NYC. I was sailing on the Kalmar Nyckel and I had my camera up in the fighting top and got some nice shots of Niagara. There have been other suggestions to have camera views on the QD, FC, in the tops and on the masthead. Not necessarily views from the captains location but certainly crew and lookout views.

@Quineloe Right but you can scroll out and the camera view from the deck is limited. Looking at this a different way you might have a separate game mode like sim battles in WT which is cockpit only with no map or markers. Admin replied that a more extensive deck view camera system might work in a future single player game.

He did request it as an optional view in the OP and several other times.

Let me help him a bit and put it this way: You could have a ship first appear in spyglass as sails only then as it gets closer you see the hull and even closer you see the flags and ID tag. This is what happened when the lookout in the masthead spotted a ship that was far away. "On deck there sail ho!", "where away", "2 points to starboard". Then the officers on deck get there telescopes, etc. I like your suggestion but given the way ships are rendered I am not sure they could increase the spotting distance. Less detail until the ship is closer would be great though and using the spyplass would increase this distance.

@Fluffy Fishy I voted for Pluton as she was captured at Trafalgar so has some history, but more importantly she has the 24 pdrs on the UGD. I think this is important for gameplay reasons, she can compete with Bellona and has a better chance to fight against 2nd rates, or 80 gun 3rd rates.

I wish the devs good luck with the project. It would be interesting to see the eastern tribes in this game as well.

Shame there is no love for the anything in the poll but the line ships. I can't argue with ppl that say we need more 74s in game though. Looking back to the OP it does say 3 gaps in the line up to fill so I am hopeful for one ship of each class eventually. Being mindful of @admin reminder that they have delivered more than the promised ships already and how much work goes into making the 3d models, I would certainly buy a modestly priced ship pack DLC if that would help get more ships in game. We have many ships to choose from and they all actually sailed unlike some games that have so many vehicles they put in some that never left the drawing board, but players buy the premium versions anyway. Thanks to @Barberouge for all the work with the ships and polls!

Yeah it really should be one choice in each category or rate of ship.

Thanks @Surcouf. Yes I took a picture of him as he was walking down the dock to a special VIP event with other captains.

Surcouf: Was the gentleman second from left the captain for the voyage to the US? He looks familiar to me because I have a picture of the captain from 2015 in his 18th century uniform.

Actually admin responded in another thread that there will be no server merge in the near future.