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Update Patch 27 - Port Interface, New missions, Streamlined economy, Insurance, New currencies.: Alternatively use the sheet as explained here. _______________________________________________________________________ This game is no different than other games with moving and shooting pixels: Speed is life. I set out to document each ship's speed characteristics in detail in order to enable you players to make the most out of your given fighting vessel. Ships can have wildly varying speeds all depending on wood type and upgrades. The ships in this thread are made of oak or teak with no upgrades that affect speed, that means they represent the base speeds, with guns, of the ships we have in game. Things will change to most, if not all, ships still, so this is a work in progress. Not all ships are in yet but that will happen. The comparisons linked under each section are dynamically updated and you can highlight an individual profile by clicking on an item in the right hand list. If you wish to discuss the topic of speeds, it's best we continue the discussion here Thanks to: maturin for his work to make the speeds what they are today, balticsailor for his ships and work on some profiles and manuva, generaljake and Schutzengel for ships. Give it up for Game Labs who have made this ridiculously good game and made it available to us! Small ships Comparison of small ships. Medium ships Comparison of medium ships. Frigates Comparison of frigates. Ships of the Line (SOL) Comparison of SOLs.

Ahoy fellow Captains, I've been away for a while but recently come back in a more time-limited capacity. I see there's a few new ships and there have been a number of tweaks to previous ships, etc. For this reason I've knocked together a broad comparison of ships in Naval Action looking at some fundamental statistics for each ship. Here is a link to the actual comparison chart. And here is a link to the discussion on reddit, such that it is at present. For the sake of those of you who don't use reddit so much I'll copy my comments from the above post below the following (hopefully) embedded comparison chart: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ships of Naval Action Introduction I've spent some time away from the game and have recently picked it up again in more limited spare time. With a fair deal of recent updates and tweaks, I thought I'd knock together a quick graph comparing the ships of Naval Action and give a few comments on balance. I wrote a lot about the need to nerf the Rattlesnake after she was launched, together with a whole load of other folks, and am happy to see that her stats have been brought down a bit for the sake of balance. Please note: I'm not writing this because I necessarily want anything to change, I haven't played enough recently to know whether that is entirely necessary or not. However, I note that there is still an absence of decent documentation comparing the various ships in Naval Action quantitatively, and because I work a lot with quantitative data I find it quite fun to make graphs and analyses such as these! So yeah - I'm not writing this to complain or even suggest anything about balance - it's just here to help folks understand the variation in ships. Also, if someone does wish to make a point about balance or the merits of any ship, this may serve as the foundation for a discussion. Balance is notoriously difficult to discuss objectively because everyone has favourite ships, personal anecdotes, particular skills and tricks such that consensus is very hard to reach. Hence my intention with the graph above is primarily to illustrate the variation among ships for players and grant a decent overview and secondarily to give anobjective foundation for a potential discussion on balance. Naturally you can't present every variable of a ship in one graph so I have attempted to focus on the most relevant ones and portray them in an easily understandable way. Methods Before discussing the graph above, here's how the various qualities were measured/calculated (you can skip to the TL:DR of the methods section if you're not interested): Gunnery was calculated using two equally weighted factors; DPS and total damage per broadside. This was calculated using a loadout of medium cannons. For both of these factors, each ship had its value divided by that of the average of all ships, giving the fraction of the average that this ship scored. From these scores 1 was subtracted so that a ship with the same score as the average of all ships would have 0. The two scores (DPS and broadside damage) were then combined and divided by two producing the value you see on the Y axis in the graph above. This means that a ship with a score around -0.5, like the Snow, has 50% weaker guns than the average in Naval Action while a ship with a score nearer 1.0, like the Bucentaure has 100% more powerful guns than the average, i.e. double. Resilience was calculated in the same manner as Gunnery, above. However here the two equally weighted factors were armour thickness and structure. So a ship with a score of 0 along the X axis has a resilience equal to the average of all ships, while a a ship around 0.5, like the Bellona, is considered 50% more resilient. Speed is simply the maximum speed of the vessel and gives the colour of the markers in the graph. Blue is slow and Red is fast with a gradient in between. Best Point(s) is a measure of which point relative the wind a ship is at its fastest. Some ships have multiple points at which they can reach their maximum speed. The value of this parameter gives the shape of the markers in the chart. Circles are most common as most ships sail their fastest around point 135 (sailing at a broad reach). TL:DR: The X axis is resilience (a measure of how tough the ship is), the Y axis is gunnery (a measure of how strong the ship's guns are), the colour of the markers gives speed (check the chart top right) and the shape of the markers give the point relative the wind at which the ship sails its fastest. Limitations Naturally this set up leaves out a number of factors. Firstly, gunnery-wise, some ships are set up to carry heavier carronades than others - these details are missed when all ships use medium cannons. Connected to this is the issue of penetration; some ships can carry heavier guns with higher penetration scores, these subtleties are also not captured by the above graph. The presence or absence of bow chasers and stern chasers is not addressed. Nor is the crew complement required to fully work a broadside of guns. Etc. Basically, the gunnery score is a very straightforward measure of damage output capability and does not take into account many of the subtleties of naval combat (some of which I discuss in my gun guide - note that this guide contains slightly outdated statistics, but the principles therein remain true). Secondly, resilience-wise, all ships have their default values (which are later modified by wood type), which is worth remembering as this affects both structure, armour thickness and speed. Sail strength and mast thickness are not taken into account. Factors potentially important in combat such as the degree to which a ship heels, its dimensions, crew, gun positioning, etc. are also not taken into account. Also not that turning rate is not included in the analysis. Finally, in terms of best point(s), bear in mind that ships each have their own sailing profiles (most of which I have detailed in my ship guide - note that this guide may contain slightly outdated information in other respects). These differences in sailing qualities mean that two ships both being fastest at point 135 may yet have very different capabilities at other points. For example, the Constitution reaches maximum speed around point 135 but sails at 84% speed at point 90, while Le Gros Ventre reaches maximum speed also at point 135 yet sails at 96% speed at point 90. It is useful to be aware of these details as they allow slower ships to escape from certain faster ones by using their best point of sail (I have previously made a chart illustrating this; my escapomatrix). Unrated Vessels It is very clear that the Rattlesnake Heavy far outclasses all other unrated vessels in terms of resilience and gunnery. The extra guns per side (totaling 13 a broadside) really tell. Likewise, both her structure and armor thickness are higher than all other unrated vessels. Her DPS is in fact higher than the Cerberus, although this is due to both having 13 guns of different sizes. The 9-pounders of the Cerberus have a higher damage per broadside (and indeed penetration) while the faster reload of the 6-pounders aboard the Rattlesnake Heavy translate to a marginally higher DPS. The Rattlesnake remains the fastest square-rigged unrated vessel despite her top speed being strongly nerfed. TheLynx is the fastest unrated vessel but perform best at points 45 or 90. The only ship that performs best at point 45 alone, the Privateer, is here shown to be slightly more resilient than the Cutter and Yacht but clearly less resilient than the Pickle. All these ships have the same armament and hence score the same in terms of gunnery. The square-rigged unrated vessels have seen changes increasing their balance; the Niagara and Brig, both faster than the others, represent ships focusing more on gunnery and resilience, respectively. Similarly, the Snow compares in the way to the Navy Brig and Mercury, offering a focus on gunnery over their focus on resilience. The potentially most problematic unrated vessels are the Rattlesnake and Rattlesnake Heavy. The Rattlesnake being still very much faster than the other ships of her class (and indeed in possession of bow chasers) and the Rattlesnake Heavy being faster, more resilient and more heavily armed than all other comparable ships. Indeed it is difficult to see any drawbacks to her other than a potentially (and presumably) prohibitive cost. Frigates Unsurprisingly the Cerberus and Renommee group as light frigates, the former mostly due to its smaller size and crew capacity and the latter due to its massive tradeoff in favour of speed over resilience and gunnery. The Surprise is the only ship which excels at both point 90 and 135, but pays the price of this perk by being significantly weaker in terms of resilience and gunnery to the other frigates. Around the origin of the graph there is a cluster of fifth-rate frigates. The Essex, Frigate (and pirate version), Belle Poule and (tentatively) the Santa Cecilia all represent various points along a number of tradeoffs, chiefly between resilience, personified in the Belle Poule, and gunnery, personified in theSanta Cecilia. Naturally a number of subtleties also differentiate these ships such as the Essex's ability to carry far heavier carronades than the others. However I will not discuss these at great length here but instead just note on a good balance between these ships. The Trincomalee stands in a class of her own, however, being faster, stronger and more well-armed than any of the other frigates. It is very clear from her position in the graph above why she is so often the favourite of Captains in Naval Action. The Constitution represents the super-heavy frigate of the game. She is in fact more resilient than the 4th rate Ingermanland, yet not as well-armed. Slower than the other frigates, but still faster than ships of the line, it is clear from the graph above just how much more powerful she is to the other frigates. Ships of the Line The Indiaman, though not really a ship of the line, stands out in the graph above because of her slow speed (blue colour). Although her gunnery score is merely on par with a Renommee, it is worth noting that she is more resilient than a Trincomalee, even though she is far more fragile than even the weakest 4th rate ship of the line; theIngermanland. The Ingermanland has a slightly lower damage output than the other 4th rate; the Agamemnon, although bear in mind that she carries 32-pounders in her lower gundeck compared to the slightly smaller 24-pounders of the Agamemnon. The slightly higher penetration that this affords her is arguably not worth the much lower resilience and lesser speed compared to the Agamemnon. Besides being the clearly fastest of all ships of the line, the Agamemnon can even outpace the Constitution, Santa Cecilia, Frigate and Pirate Frigate. She can even catch Le Gros Ventre and the Indiaman (on her best line). The 3rd rate ships of the line are represented by the 3rd Rate and Bellona. Despite appearing very similar, these two ships have subtle differences. The Bellona has higher damage per broadside (and indeed penetration) on account of carrying 32 pounders in her lower gundeck while the 3rd Rate has higher DPS on account of carrying smaller 24-pounders. The Bellona is also more resilient than the 3rd Rate with significantly higher structure. Of the two 2nd rates, the Bucentaure trumps the St. Pavel in all respects. She is faster (and turns faster), has more and more powerful guns, and is more resilient. The three 1st rates are similar, yet L'ocean and Santisima Trinidad are both more heavily armed than the Victory, although it is worth mentioning that the Victory has 12-pounders on her uppermost battery compared to the 9-pounders of the others. However, the far increased firepower of L'Ocean andSantisima Trinidad ultimately come down to their much greater number of guns. In terms of resilience, the Victory andSantisima Trinidad are essentially equal, while L'Ocean has an edge on both in terms of structure. Speed-wise, the three of them are all slower than every other ship, with the Victory being the slowest of all. Conclusion The graph above is an attempt to visualize the variation in ships of Naval Action according to some key characteristics. While the statistics used in no way fully define each ship, they should give a good indication of their general strengths/weaknesses/role and provide sufficient objective foundation for Captains to find a ship that suits them as well as for potential discussion on ship balance. Personally, I feel there are a few instances where, sadly, one ship is simply a more powerful option (almost or completely across the board) compared to others. In other words, the only reason not to opt for these vessels would be price. Whether that is a good thing or not depends on your take on design. Personally I wouldn't mind seeing some form of trade-off adjusted or introduced to make their counterparts more viable or vice versa. These are: The Rattlesnake Heavy, which trumps all other square-rigged unrated vessels in all regards. The Trincomalee, which is superior to all other fifth-rate frigates in essentially all regards. The Agamemnon, which is far superior to the Ingermanland. The Bellona, which is simply better than the 3rd Rate. The Bucentaure, which beats the St. Pavel in every regard. What do you guys think? Best Regards to all my fellow Captains!

These photos are a comparison with a recent attack on Sant Iago (Brits attacking Spain) and Trafalgar itself (date of attack: 7-22-2016). Notice how the two British Lines, although angled slightly different, have the same general shapes and are working together the same way. Notice HMS Avenger is even in the same spot as the HMS Euryalus at the side of the HMS Victory herself at the head of the left line and also notice how HMCS Warrior (the head of the right line) is slightly ahead of the second ship in that line. Anyways, the Brits cut into the Spanish fleet and fought them ship to ship. A link to the actual battle (uploaded to youtube thanks to Brit Captain "John Swigglebottoms") is listed below.

It would be very handy to have a chart or a basic guide to each ship. I am never sure what I am getting into when I step aboard a new ship. How many guns? Is it fast or maneuverable? What are its basic strengths and weaknesses? I have found one chart but it really only told me how many guns each ship has, and I think it's safe to assume that larger ships will always have more guns. Beyond that, a guide would be very handy. Has anyone put one together? Fantastic sim, thanks Game Labs! -Neal