Sinking ships after capture...

[Niagara]

Greetings!

Recently I was involved in a small battle with some 1 st rates and smaller ships.

At the end we (The group nearest to the fleeing ships as the rest left to pursue another battle) was chasing a L'Ocean that managed to board one of our Victory's that sailed to close and to slow to avoid being grappled.

This L'Ocean was fitted for boarding actions with plenty of Marines to aid in the capture of our Victory.

Despite the rest of us being close we did not manage to separate or in any other way interfere to avoid the outcome. Now the L'Ocean player loots what he/she/it can and then sinks the Victory.

I see 2 problems with this scenario.

• The first being that you need to sink enemy ships to gain the Kill and the PvP marks.
• The second is that the entire sinking of a ship is instant and despite having several allies close by that could potentially try to save it, once you select sink ship it is irreversible.

Now, First off I can only congratulate the L'Ocean player for some smart thinking and strategy and he/she/it should get good rewards for that great move while outnumbered without the need to sink the ship.

But, Perhaps have a short timer on ships that are not sinking by itself to allow for players to try to rescue it.

To avoid farming for upgrades and PvP marks, Once a Player selects sink, the upgrade is there for looting in hold and the ship is placed in a semi usable state meaning to save it you need to transfer enough crew to repair any damage done in battle that would otherwise allow water to overfill the ship and a min crew to keep it afloat. Several ships could ofc send crew to do this task.

It would be unusable in that battle and after a lengthy timer try to sail away to safety or just man the pumps depending on the amount of crew...

This could also be used for surrendering ships to give a reason to surrender and to accept surrender.

If no one is close enough to try to save it or just don't care to save it then the ship would take in water and sink after a period of time?

Any timer should ofc be based on structural damage + set minimum. A undamaged ship that was just boarded should take longer to sink then one with loads of holes in it.

• Perhaps the enemy lights a fuse and tries to ignite the powder room to get a fireball... and damage any surrounding ships in the process.
• Or leave ships to lure players to try to save them to divide the enemy forces

 

[Chromey]

my hear goes out to you, i hope they add a timer to these 'sinking ' of ships. Damn shame you lost the ship like that.

[RedNeckMilkMan]

Boarding as a whole needs some serious reworks. It's basically a spreadsheet/ping simulator right now.