The Conquest. Part 1. PORT BATTLE Mechanics

[Koltes]

The Conquest. Part 1. PORT BATTLE Mechanics

This is a Part 1 of The Conquest mechanics that covers the Port Battle and what happens inside the battle. Please refer to Part 2. Attack on the Region for more information on how Port Battles are set and what happens prior the battle .

The conquest has been an on going topic in discussions ever since OW was introduced. As a community we have had lots of ideas and yet to see proper conquest and raiding mechanics implemented. The Port Battle is also a part of the conquest and therefore needs to be discussed and attended to before the release of the game.
Frankly I refuse to believe that we should settle on the current PB mechanic.With such a beautiful land added to the port battles it feels such a waste not to be finished properly.
I believe with all my heart that we can do A LOT better than the current PB mechanic and more so this will not require lots of re-coding. Just reorganizing what we already have. I have written pretty much a complete series of chapters that form the Conquest part of the game. I will start today with what happens in the Port Battle as a small yet important part of the conquest.

The quintessence of a primary objective during any historical naval attacks on a city was a destruction and following capture of the fort that would open access to the city itself.

 

 This means that:

•       Circles are removed and replaced by Landing Zones
•       Circle Capture points are removed and replaced with Fort Capture points

 

 

The FORT is the main objective in the Port Battle. It has Cannon battery and Garrison defenders. In order to win the battle attackers must seize the fort within the battle time limit. If the fort has not been captured or all attackers died, the defenders win.

In order to capture the Fort attackers must anchor inside any landing zone and start transferring the troops to the land. Number of troops on both sides represent that side’s Health Points.
Landing of troops is done in rounds (much like the boarding rounds). After each round specific number of troops is transferred to the land. The number of troops transferred per round is 10 per any given ship. If there are 4 ships that doing the landing then each round attackers will transfer 40 troops to the land.

If the ship that does the landing has been fired upon and received damage the transfer of troops is interrupted for 3 rounds. Because all landing zones have to be in the close proximity to the fort for the infantry to reach the battle the fort cannon fire will interrupt any landing as long as its cannon battery is still operational. Defending fleet may also damage enemy ships during the landing and interrupt troops transfer. This is why it is imperative to destroy fort’s battery before landing and ensure that the defenders are not capable of interfering, thus promotes active fighting on both sides. As the fort becomes a main target any one side can’t simply abandon the battle or kite the enemy fleet.

Ships that do the landing must have at least one Infantry skill knowledge installed in one of the slots. Each Infantry upgrade has 50 infantry troops. The Infantry upgrade is stackable which means that any one ship can carry up to 250 Infantry

Fort Capture is done in 15 second rounds. Beginning of each round shows how many troops were transferred by the landing ships and how many died on both sides. The fort Garrison has 1000 troops that need to be killed in order to successfully capture the fort. This number represents Fort’s Health Points.

 

 

The attacking troops HP is the number of troops transferred to land.
Each side deals maximum of 25 damage points each round unless this number is more than 10% of the side’s HP. In this case the side causing damage that is equal to 10% of its own HP.
The more ships participate in simultaneous landing the faster they will land required number of troops for the capture and therefore less infantry will be killed during the process.
 

Below is the table showing example of battle rounds based on landing done by 4 ships (40 infantry land each round).

 

Note: on the 30^th round the attackers landed enough troops to capture the fort. From this point ships can stop the landing and eventually fort will be taken. It will take total of 47 rounds to take a fort providing that at least 4 ships were involved in landing and there was no interruption caused by the enemy.

It is possible to capture the fort by landing one ship at the time, however the loses will be much greater to a point that attackers might risk to run out of troops and losing the battle.

It is imperative for the defenders to try and interrupt the landing especially in its early stage causing 3 round delays, thus increasing fort capture time and troops loss on the attacker’s side.
 

In overall this Port Battle mechanic much better employs beautiful land and fort defenses in the Port Battles. It promotes both sides to engage in furious fighting, while greatly diversifies fleet tactics and strategies.

 
 

Edited June 27, 2017 by koltes

[balticsailor]

I have to say i like the general idea, i noticed one importened thing though, you tie the troops to shipknowledge i think this can't work as long as we have the current op skillbooks, since it will take a way alot of fighting power from the attacking side. I would say it is better to have the troops in the hold of the ship or maybe have spezial landing ships, like a Indiaman with a refit(landig boats) or something.

In other thing is that loping shoots in the sails from max distance shoudn't halt the landing or the defender will only kits the landing sites as long as the can.

[Sir Texas Sir]

31 minutes ago, balticsailor said:

I have to say i like the general idea, i noticed one importened thing though, you tie the troops to shipknowledge i think this can't work as long as we have the current op skillbooks, since it will take a way alot of fighting power from the attacking side. I would say it is better to have the troops in the hold of the ship or maybe have spezial landing ships, like a Indiaman with a refit(landig boats) or something.

In other thing is that loping shoots in the sails from max distance shoudn't halt the landing or the defender will only kits the landing sites as long as the can.

That is exactly the point of a troop ship, you give up fire power for the troops.  Just like folks that make full board builds.  They are weak in the brawl until they can board.  It's a trade off.

 

@koltes I like the concept, but I would keep the two out side circles as cap circles, but call them Blockaid circles.  You have to control them before you can do the landing party.  The landing party has to be the "A" circle.   That way there is multi ways to win, but the blockaid circles only gives you a slight gain in control points for the battle.  The two ways to win for sure is kill them all and landing party at the port.  This will give small nations more of a chance and as we all know attacks should be hard and defense should be easier to hold than they are.  Right now attackers can control the two outer circles and win.  Ports could be blocked aided for months if not a year or more before they ran out of supplies back than.

[Koltes]

3 minutes ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

That is exactly the point of a troop ship, you give up fire power for the troops.  Just like folks that make full board builds.  They are weak in the brawl until they can board.  It's a trade off.

 

@koltes I like the concept, but I would keep the two out side circles as cap circles, but call them Blockaid circles.  You have to control them before you can do the landing party.  The landing party has to be the "A" circle.   That way there is multi ways to win, but the blockaid circles only gives you a slight gain in control points for the battle.  The two ways to win for sure is kill them all and landing party at the port.  This will give small nations more of a chance and as we all know attacks should be hard and defense should be easier to hold than they are.  Right now attackers can control the two outer circles and win.  Ports could be blocked aided for months if not a year or more before they ran out of supplies back than.

I have Part 2 for Port Battle that has actual screening Battle as part of the PB mechanic and circles are there as part of that fight in the open waters, but this happens in different battle PRIOR the port battle

 

Edited June 24, 2017 by koltes

[monk33y]

I really like this idea but I think there is another level of conflict that could be added. 

Currently we have a three circle system, this idea could be incorporated into the landing zone idea, imagine your idea with the diagram, extend the image right. Add three extra capture circles out at sea (like we currently have), adjust the points generated for holding a circle so that any attacking fleet is required to hold two or more circles. 

Having points in the at sea "combat" circles say for every 100 capture points above your enemy's total you gain a 10% disembark buff (spending up the ability to disembark). 

**example** for every 100 capture points for the attacker gains a 10% disembark sped buff. For every 100 capture points for the defender the towers and forts have there base Hp buffed by 10%. (While forts are alive, once forts are destroyed the combat circles give -10% to the disembark rate)

This would enable the defender to control 2 of 3 combat circles and be able to slow down the disembarking rate of soldiers by increasing the base Hp of the towers/ports, as in original post towers/forts must be destroyed before landing can take place. The combat circles must stay effective during the entire fight.

**note. The combat circles would be required to be far enough away from the landing zones so that defensive fire is impossible.

this addition to your suggestion would force port battles fleets to be more diverse, adding to better gameplay. The attacker must then ineffect fight at sea to gain the combat circles (landing buff) then actually land troops to win.

this addition to the original idea still promotes brawling and line formation at sea fighting for the combat areas to control 

Edited June 24, 2017 by monk33y

[el_mariachi]

2 hours ago, koltes said:

Ships that do the landing must have at least one Infantry skill knowledge installed in one of the slots.

You don't need this inf. skill simply because we already have marines in game. Mostly there were no "infantry" on board, except some rare huge naval invasions, and all the foot job have usually being made by marines.

[Koltes]

10 minutes ago, el_mariachi said:

You don't need this inf. skill simply because we already have marines in game. Mostly there were no "infantry" on board, except some rare huge naval invasions, and all the foot job have usually being made by marines.

You cant stuck marines and carry more than one, while you should be able to carry all 5 Infantry if you want to go dedicated Landing fit. Lets not screw up Marines by trying to marry them up with totally different mechanic and "boarding" game. Simply adding another skill knowledge is much much easier and safer. Its easier to fine tune it too adjusting to one mechanics rather than trying to find balance between two completely different concepts.

[Lord Vicious]

The solution exist since ever and is pb based on BR points, wich will remove the "mono" fleet of same kind system,   and will launch the game into a more deep "compose your fleet" system where certain clans /nation will prefer less but big ships and other many but smaller or combinations

 

Like eve online where a frigate new player is useful even at start as "tackler" a  new player in a cerberus will be welcome to join even a firstrate pb  becouse all he steal is 100 point/9000

it will be also more historical accurate since mono firstrate fleet never existed.

 

is 3 year we asking to try this

Edited June 24, 2017 by Lord Vicious

[Fellvred]

1 hour ago, Lord Vicious said:

The solution exist since ever and is pb based on BR points, wich will remove the "mono" fleet of same kind system,   and will launch the game into a more deep "compose your fleet" system where certain clans /nation will prefer less but big ships and other many but smaller or combinations

 

Like eve online where a frigate new player is useful even at start as "tackler" a  new player in a cerberus will be welcome to join even a firstrate pb  becouse all he steal is 100 point/9000

it will be also more historical accurate since mono firstrate fleet never existed.

 

is 3 year we asking to try this

Completely agree, could even have an increased 'cost' in BR if too many ships of one kind are taken to the battle?. This also opens up the possibilities for different types of raids and port attacks depending on the importance of ports - 3k for smaller ports, 9k for region capitals etc. Balance BR around port battles rather than 1v1 combat.

 

Although I like the general idea of having different types of battles (with landings etc) I think the original kind could certainly be improved first.

[Snoopy]

BR capped PBs would also help the new guys without CMs

[Koltes]

14 hours ago, Lord Vicious said:

The solution exist

....

since ever and is pb based on BR points, wich will remove the "mono" fleet of same kind system,   and will launch the game into a more deep "compose your fleet" system where certain clans /nation will prefer less but big ships and other many but smaller or combinations

 

Like eve online where a frigate new player is useful even at start as "tackler" a  new player in a cerberus will be welcome to join even a firstrate pb  becouse all he steal is 100 point/9000

it will be also more historical accurate since mono firstrate fleet never existed.

 

is 3 year we asking to try this

Solution to what? My post is a design of what happens inside the port battle. BR limit participation only affects WHAT you bring and HOW you use them. While I agree with you on BR concept limitation concept in overal it wont change chasing circles gameplay in PB. People will just bring fewer but stronger ships limiting paricipation slots for players. 

The proposed PB mechanic once fine tuned can have secondary objectives added later and worked on further and thats where smaller ships of different setups and purpose could be added as natural requirement rather thank limitation.

Even with this PB design you should see that defenders should bring 2-3 fast ships to reach landing zones faster and interrupt landing while main fleet is catching up

[Hawkwood]

On 25.6.2017 at 0:42 AM, koltes said:

Solution to what? My post is a design of what happens inside the port battle. BR limit participation only affects WHAT you bring and HOW you use them. While I agree with you on BR concept limitation concept in overal it wont change chasing circles gameplay in PB. People will just bring fewer but stronger ships limiting paricipation slots for players. 

The proposed PB mechanic once fine tuned can have secondary objectives added later and worked on further and thats where smaller ships of different setups and purpose could be added as natural requirement rather thank limitation.

Even with this PB design you should see that defenders should bring 2-3 fast ships to reach landing zones faster and interrupt landing while main fleet is catching up

Why should attacker rush to landing site? He can just sail ahead to landing zone with bigger ships,shoot his way through, and deploy the infantry when the "landing boat" is safe.

Interrupting the landing by damaging a "landing ship" --dislike. Imagine the single shots on that ship while boarding/landing, and each time interrupt? This is almost the same like "kiting" ?

Even if the possibilty is given, right now, to join the Port battle with smaller ship, nobody is doing this.Firepower matters i suppose.

Edited August 6, 2017 by Cortez

[Skully]

I was leaning towards no more PBs, but this suggestion is too good to pass up.

I would like to see troops craftable though to add both an economical and logistical part to it.

 

[Jester Jake Jackson]

Fight on seas and fight on lands,

Fight with pike and cannon,

Move your transports with all hands,

To the coasts they land on.