Repair timers need attention

[Jean Ribault]

Repair in port to save expense, hull repairs should be for emergencies and revenge fleets.

[Skully]

3 hours ago, Slamz said:

How much effort was he putting into keeping up with the wounded?

Finishing off wounded people is just part of the meta. (So is running them out of repairs and balancing number carried vs weight based slowdown.)

He can't finish off the wounded. He hits you a couple of times (either sail or hull) and you fall back behind the other 2 ships. Once your repair timer is up, you repair and take point again.

Ultimately you might run out of repairs, but he'll sooner as you are only using it 1:3.

[Kanay]

1 sail and 1 hull repair only will be nice, also no rum making killed/disabled crew come back to life like zombies... oh and I almost forgot: no more magic for disabled guns recovered when repairing ... you work hard on a ship, disable some guns to see them pop back in fully functional later... if guns are disabled they need to stay disabled no matter what...

[kovah]

1 hour ago, Peter Goldman said:

Also we don't have an option to "move" guns. Imagine you lost all stern / bow chasers on your ship, but you still got all guns on sides... Now we can repair them so that's not that huge problem, but if we won't be able to do so? There is no such mechanic of "moving" guns.

How many zombie crew would it take to move a 12-pound cannon that weighs 1,745kg (3,847lbs)?  Or a 24-pounder @ 2,970kg (6,548lbs)?

Anyway, I'm on the less repairs/longer timers/no zombie crew side of the fence.  

[edit] just for comparison sake a 1995 Honda Civic weighs in at 1,143kg (2520lbs) 

Edited July 23, 2017 by kovah

[kovah]

22 minutes ago, Peter Goldman said:

Cannons are on wheels, aren't they?

They're on carriages which were designed to allow the cannons to handle recoil and then be "easily" pushed back into place.  Not for movement around the decks.  That typically required them being lifted off the carriage.

Quote

"Ship and garrison cannon were not moved around on their carriages. If the gun had to be taken any distance, it was dismounted and chained under a sling wagon or on a "block carriage," the big wheels of which easily rolled over difficult terrain." [source]

Even the field cannons used in the Civil War which were considerably smaller than their ship based cousins needed horses, mules or horse drawn carriages to move around.  So, yes, to answer your question they most certainly were on wheels.  But no, they were never moved around the ship.

 

 

[Hethwill]

1 hour ago, Peter Goldman said:

Cannons are on wheels, aren't they?

Traverse training of cannons is not as smooth as we have it. Vertical had pre determined elevation wooden angles.

A lot to be said about that in relation to our own "swivel" type of aiming in game

[Iroquois Confederacy]

You'd see a lot of the long range shooting dwindle with "chunked" increments.  Not necessarily a bad thing.

[Farrago]

If I'm not mistaken, repairs currently repair a fixed amount of HP/Armor with every use. Is this true?

If so having them instead repair a percentage such as 50% of the damage would go a long way towards making them less ridiculous. (Or each subsequent repair would restore less tho this would be more complicated programming.) Either way, a ship's health would constantly be degraded no matter how many repairs they have.

[Quineloe]

IMO it should simply never be possible to repair damage with repairs beyond 80%.  If you fire off a sail repair at 75%, you get 5%. The End.

This would pretty much solve the "repair back to undamaged ship while in combat" situation and I don't see how it would be detrimental.

Edited July 23, 2017 by Quineloe

[Slamz]

19 hours ago, Skully said:

He can't finish off the wounded. He hits you a couple of times (either sail or hull) and you fall back behind the other 2 ships. Once your repair timer is up, you repair and take point again.

Times I've seen it, they were so intent on running away that they made no attempt to finish anyone off.

I don't think "3v1 repair rotation" is a serious problem worth changing the entire strategy of the game over.

[Captain Lust]

Yeah, repair cooldown timer needs a drastic increase... this mechanic is garbage either way, 1 repair per battle was way better. Masts get glued back together, completely wasted hulls and destroyed cannons fixed entirely back up and crew men raised from the dead by the hundreds... can't get any more arcady. 1 small repair for hull was good and realistic ( holes stuffed / closed with spare planks ) as was repair sails for a limited amount once ( patched holes too ) and i can also see a small % of the max crew being "fixed" once per battle ( stopped bleeding etc. ) but the current mechanic is garbage... even if i lose the fight i can just kiss the magic sail repair fairy and fix my sails while running in a fast ship until the battle is over... battles are long enough and it is easy enough to get away - no need to make it even more so...

[Captain Lust]

On 22.7.2017 at 8:02 AM, EliteDelta said:

Right now a 1v2 or 1v3 is nearly impossible, because the damaged ships can drop back and repair, while the solo person is forced to always fight a healthy ship. This happened to me yesterday (1v3) in nearly even ships, and it meant unless I could force them to use up all their repairs, there would be no way for me to win.

Just another scenario that proves the mechanic is garbage...

[Captain Lust]

On 22.7.2017 at 8:07 PM, Quineloe said:

I also think repair kits are far too expensive right now.  5k to repair a fifth rate once? That's really a lot of money that's being removed from the game just for repairing something you already have

That's actually a good thing... inflation and all you know? Remember how we use to shoot with gold nuggets instead of cannon balls pre wipe? Also gives noobs something to make money with...

[Vllad]

On ‎7‎/‎22‎/‎2017 at 10:12 AM, koltes said:

And it goes on and on. Is that not a problem?

Not it isn't. In the one durability world repairs makes you earn that kill. Plus it evens the field between lesser and greater ships/captains.

I see you get a lot of kills Koltes so I assume you are a pretty good pvper. Really good pvpers aren't really who I want dictating how repairs should be done. I think your average captains have more valid opinions in this case. I don't disagree maybe a tweek (rum while in boarding) or two is needed but how repairs work today is one of the better changes they have made. I think there current systems does the following.

**Balance the difficulty of 1 dura ships

**Balance the difference between ship and captain skill

**The weight and speed impact makes captains decide just how much they will carry

**Introduces additional tactics to be employed in battle (NA is already deprived of depth in this area)

**Gives Captains additional choices in combat other than "shoot here" and again increases the depth of the battle

**Provides some relief on your player with limited play time

**Helps balance out some of the difficulty for players who are heavy mission runners (missions will damn near kill you as it is)

PVP should be very long or very short not something in between.  Very short means you need replaceable mechanics but NA decided to go in another direction. Very long PVP means people have options even if out gunned or just out played. No single thing should decide a fight, it should be a combination of things if people are going to feel the constant sting of loses.

Even your best players should have difficulty killing your below average player otherwise you aren't going to have many players around playing your game.

I hope the developers don't listen to people who are calling for changes on repairs. They finally got that piece right. If you are going to make the game difficult you need to balance that out with a solid repair mechanic.  

 

 

Edited July 24, 2017 by Vllad

[Slamz]

3 minutes ago, Vllad said:

If you are going to make the game difficult you need to balance that out with a solid repair mechanic.  

That's basically my feeling as well. The current repair mechanic goes very well with the current ship cost and durability (1).

Mostly what I see is it creates increased survivability and cushions mistakes. You're caught in a gank but thanks to 3 sail repairs you're able to finally get away. Or you're fighting it out, armor repairs saving you from that one mistake of getting too close to the guy with carronades, who is saved from his mistake by being able to sail rep late in the battle and run for it.

You can't make it be a brutal fight to the death with few repairs and also 1 durability expensive ships.

If we roll back how repairs work then we must also roll back to multiple durability throw-away ships which I feel is a whole different discussion. As I recall, 5 durability did not make anyone braver, they complained about ship loss just the same, and the lower repairs mostly just made battles shorter with less chance for a back-and-forth.

 

[Farrago]

If the battle lasts for what seems like forever because of repairs, that would indicate -- I think -- a good matchup. Rarely have I seen a one sided battle where the weaker side just keeps repairing indefinitely without attempting escape. (The one exception being port battle screeners determined to delay until death.)

Wouldnt we feel better about long battles which result in a draw if we went back to getting gold and XP from damage dealt, not just sinking your opponent. Nothing is as frustrating as fighting long and hard and getting the "No Rewards" message. Seriously who cares if a few players use all those hours to farm their alt?

Edited July 24, 2017 by Farrago

[Quineloe]

12 hours ago, Captain Lust said:

That's actually a good thing... inflation and all you know? Remember how we use to shoot with gold nuggets instead of cannon balls pre wipe? Also gives noobs something to make money with...

Inflation is a result of people hoarding their assets, not sinking in PVP, because PVP rewards so incredibly poorly. First Rate PB like 50 exp per player on average? What?

[Hethwill]

2 hours ago, Mrgoldstein said:

I agree with koltes here, multiple repairs is way too easy, not only in pvp where people alternate positions, but also against ai it is really easy the way it is now..ooh i got hurt badly lemme just run away and repair,oh im done lets fight again, and again and again..

Make repairs more heavy. Make them count. The present mechanic is okay, it is just masts and canvas sheet are too lightweight in game, same as panks and frames...