Rifling Cannons

[Fluffy Fishy]

Now players can build their own cannons might it be time to add the possibility for people to rifle their cannons at the expense of a lot of labour hours and perhaps some specialist drills as an extra expendable resource that you can craft to be able to produce rifled cannons, leaving them as an expensive nice to have.

With rifled cannons being invented in the late 15th century and appearing in their true form by the 16th century, and there are also quite a few examples from the Napoleonic period the history is perfectly acceptable, even if they were somewhat rare among most navies until the 19th century. There are examples of the British toying with them from 1772 although it sounds like neither the French, or British used them extensively, Venice certainly did, and continued rifling their guns from at least 1540 onwards, especially their bronze armaments constructed in the Arsenal shipyard.

When it comes to balance, I would suggest rifled cannons have longer range, and better accuracy and penetration, however they would be quite expensive in resources and time and and do slightly less damage to crew.

 

Edited July 2, 2017 by Fluffy Fishy

[akd]

"Somewhat rare" is quite the understatement.

[Teutonic]

My problem right now is that there is absolutely no reason to use mediums over longs.

Doesn't matter the price or stat difference, as long as the long cannons have more penetration, range, and accuracy it will always be better.

Someone with longs vs someone with mediums, the player with long cannons will always win.

So before we put in more cannons with longer range and penetration, that everyone would eventually use, better to balance the current set of guns.

[Rychu Karas]

agree with Teutonic, It doesnt mater how "rare" it was, for pvp will be MTH. I dont want to see pvp more expensive that its at the moment.

[Iroquois Confederacy]

51 minutes ago, Teutonic said:

My problem right now is that there is absolutely no reason to use mediums over longs.

Doesn't matter the price or stat difference, as long as the long cannons have more penetration, range, and accuracy it will always be better.

Someone with longs vs someone with mediums, the player with long cannons will always win.

So before we put in more cannons with longer range and penetration, that everyone would eventually use, better to balance the current set of guns.

I use mediums for a variety of small reasons that add up to a compelling case.

[Guest]

No.

[Powderhorn]

Came across this interesting article from the New York Times, July 1861.  http://www.nytimes.com/1861/07/12/news/history-rifled-cannon-discovery-breech-loading-gun-conical-projectiles-origin.html?pagewanted=all

 

Some interesting bits of history on the rifled cannon.  Interestingly, the "Napoleon" that saw large-scale use in the Civil War was an 1857 smoothbore.

The author points out that reloading rifled cannon (particularly at sea, I'd imagine) gets rapidly more difficult.  And as you tend tend to get more deflection from the movement of the ship than you get from using a smoothbore, it makes sense that smoothbore cannons were the order of the day until ironclads became an issue.

[Teutonic]

1 hour ago, Iroquois Confederacy said:

I use mediums for a variety of small reasons that add up to a compelling case.

I won't lie, I use mediums while I grind missions or npc ships.

But when it comes to any type of pvp, mediums have always been the inferior choice from my experience.

One, just one time I thought a medium cannon was "alright" has been in 1st rates and having 42 pd medium guns, everything else is longs because you need the penetration.

If your guns don't penetrate, you don't deal damage, if your guns are less accurate, less "hit," and if your guns have less range then the guy with longer range can still hit you while you get shot up without being able to return fire.

If it was my choice, I would do 2 things.

1. Nerf long cannon damage 

2. Buff medium cannon reload rate and damage

Unfortunately....i am willing to bet longs would still be the preferred gun choice.

 

Edited July 2, 2017 by Teutonic

[Iroquois Confederacy]

Maybe we don't play on the same server.  I am well known for PvPing.  And I just use little six pound mediums.