Ship Purpose Flexibility

[Wicked Mouse]

Not sure whether this was suggested already or not, but I've been thinking about this for a while and just wanted to 'throw it out there'. So, sorry if this topic was already suggested by someone else.

 

I have mentioned before that the (French) term for removing guns to make room for cargo was called "En flûte", referring to the Dutch flute ship, where "en guerre" (French: "readied for war") would be the opposite. And with the current system in mind I thought about getting rid of the Trader's-type ships altogether (ships that just say Trader's now in variation the war ship) and introduce more flexibility. In order to carry a lot one NEEDS a particular ship with a lot of hold. But what if you could remove the cannons of a warship, like the snow, and instantly see the required crew go down for each deck that is cleared. Removing cannons allows for more storage space from the space they take, plus the shot and powder charges(?). Lowering the max crew (whether you have it because of your rank or not) will remove provisions and sleeping and further accommodation needed for crew, making room for more storage. So technically a snow that gets all cannons on the lower deck removed and crew lowered to like 60 or so, will have a cargo space for like 3200. This also makes fir wood type built 'war ships' a possible purpose again as they could be useful as cargo ship (speed). For war they are immediately scrapped.

 

This can maybe go together with the portholes on ships to be closed in open world (and in battle if no guns). So from a distance a snow with only cargo would look like ANY snow, until you come close® or attack it and see that the port holes aren't open(ed). Or when an NPC is flagged for having contraband perhaps.

 

To carry some extra cargo, one can decide to remove the lower deck's guns on his/her Constitution, lower the crew amount to make room for more cargo, but still keep the top deck armament for defensive fire or capture notorious trader ships. Trader ships that are purposely built for trade and never are able to have full armament. We still need to see those in the game, so this is also is maybe more a suggestion for when those are in as well. One could also choose to only remove a deck of guns, but keep the crew to have more for boarding? With the new system this could add extra flexibility, I would think.

 

Right now when you remove cannons, you only remove the barrel. This would mean you are still stuck with the carriages (hence they are included in ship construction). What about slightly more detail in outfitting ships and first add carriages to a deck (right click the layout and choose "Add small carriages (18)"; Error: insufficient number in storage. You buy more until you have 18 or more.), instead of adding them one by one. Then add the cannon barrels of the calibre you want to use (small = max 6pd?; medium = max 12pd?). This will separate ships construction from outfitting maybe. Someone specializing in building ships, while others in making cannons/carriages, etc.

 

Alternatively add "Extra Cargo Space" modules that can be slotted into the cannon slots?

Edited February 19, 2016 by Wicked Mouse

[DeRuyter]

I think a good example of this was during the War of 1812 on the Lakes both the US and British pressed merchant ships (usually schooners) into service as small warships. In game this would be the Lynx. Unfortunately IRL it didn't always work out well in terms of the sailing characteristics and armament capability of the ships.

 

Didn't the term "en flute" refer to warships converted to troop transports?

[Wicked Mouse]

Didn't the term "en flute" refer to warships converted to troop transports?

According to the wikipedia it talks about troops and ammunitions, yes.

Edited February 20, 2016 by Wicked Mouse

[NoShipSailsForever]

I actually thought about the same feature, also regarding the fact that the seperate "trader ships" would be removed, but a little else.

 

What I think would be nice would be:

 

Being able stack cannons in your warehouse (that would also make it easier to sell them if you have like 20 of them, as you can only sell them 1 by one atrm)

 

Make it kinda like you said with the amount of deck guns, so  that you can say "Hey, I want only...5 of  14 cannons on my lower and middle deck of my 3rd Rate and like 0 of 9 on the top deck."

While each cannon has a percentage X it reserves as OP mentioned space for needed crew, ammo etc. depending on the ship

and each ship has a maximum and minimum cargo capacity (let's say 10 to 20x the current amount of the war ships when it would have NO cannons mounted and e.g. 10% reserved which would be the value they have now).

 

I would go with a percentage for guns instead of a fixed value because it would probably totally kill the smaller ships in capacity when it is too huge or make big ships the best traders ever, if it would be too small.

The percentage would adjust with the total amount of guns of the ship so e.g. a 3rd Rate with it's 2 bow, 2 stern and 2x 37 side cannons (14+14+9)and the actual fix cargo value of 350 would the maybe go with

 

Minimum Cargo Capacity: 350 (all possible cannons are mounted)

Maximum Cargo Capacity: 3500 (wiith the above mentioned 10x more Cargo and not a single cannon mounted)

Cannons: 78 (2 Bow, 2 Stern, 2x9 Top Deck, 2x14 Middle Deck, 2x14 Lower Deck)

 

in the below linked google-spreadsheet anyone can calculate this the way i meant it. but remember: 100% Cannons = only minimum Cargo

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f5FEpmN-ffkUrdEsLXrf2_7c7v0NolWrIY7KXoFH0zE/edit?usp=sharing

Edited March 8, 2016 by NoShipSailsForever