Another mechanic for repairs

[Koltes]

Want to know everyone's opinion on this new mechanic.

Hull repair:
1. It's impossible to perform Structure repairs in battle while you still have enemy players present, so when your ship is loosing structure in battle there is no return. When you pop that Hull repair only the armor is fixed. There is no way to fix your structure because it's been so badly damaged you just can't plug all these holes during the battle;
2. You have 2 Hull repairs in any given battle and you have to apply it to either side of the ship. There is no timer between using the repairs and you can apply both Hull repairs to
fix the armor on both side simultaneously or apply both on one side only; 
3. Amount of armor fixed is depending on the amount of damage it received. More damage was done to the armor more penalty applies. So when armor was dropped zero only 5% of it will be fixed no matter the upgrades. If the armor have taken only half damage then its possible to fully repair it. Bottom line  - more damage was done to the armor, less you will be able to fix. 

Rig repairs:
1. Rig mechanic is changed. You are no longer repair rigs in battle, but you carry extra sets that you can REPLACE during the battle. You would have 1 extra by default;
2. Other sets are permanent mods that either give you 1 or 2 extra on top of your default one (3 sets max in total);
3. These sets can be changed back and forth, but they cannot be repaired during the battle;
4. Same as rigs you can fix your sets in battle instance when there are no more players left or when you get out in the OW.

For example you have 1 extra set of sails on your ship (no extra mods). Your sails were damaged to 85%. You are making a call to replace with the new set. You are back to 100%. This second set been shred to pieces and is now 55%. You are making a call to replace this set back with your 1st sails set. After finishing it your sails are 85% (the condition of the fist sails set).
After the battle you can repair all your sails sets and get them back to 100% either in battle after there are no enemies left of in the OW.

I don't really have much issues with how Rum works apart from calling it Rum and not First Aid or Field Surgery
Please lets discuss

[William Death]

Again I suggest we just go back to 1/1 of each and be done with it.

And go back to the "tank" of repairs like we used to have. Say you can carry 10 repairs in the "repair gas tank." You can fill these up in any port for a few reals. If you want to carry extra repairs,  you can carry crafted "repair kits" in your hold. Just like we used to.

Simple, effective, focuses on skill.

And it doesn't require you to participate in the "engaging player driven economy" that is essentially price gouging on repairs, which hurts primarily new/learning players who aren't in with clans that already truck around thousands of repairs to every outpost before operations. 

 

And I don't see anything in your suggestion about mast repairs. Now I'm not a fan of regrowing masts (its unrealistic and annoying). I feel like if you get demasted, you should stay demasted. But many people feel the need to have some kind of mast repair available. Enough that admin has said in the past that mast repairs will probably stay. (I think he even said multiple repairs would stay, but I hope he might change his mind on that).

So I suggest (again) that we compromise with having only 1 hull repair and 1 rig repair (that also repairs masts). So you get one chance to regrow a mast and recover from your mistake.

 

 

I like the idea of individual sets of sails (furthermore, if you have a set of light canvas for speed and heavy canvas for a little damage and fire resistance), with the option to replace only certain sails in a set, so if you get damaged topsails and courses, but your topgallants are OK, you can just replace the damaged ones.

I also like the idea of getting to select where my repair goes. I don't care about my bow and stern HP. I don't care about the missing 10% on my right side. I want the missing 60% on my left side repaired! 

But all that, and what you propose, is quite a bit of work to implement I'd imagine. I doubt we'll see that in NA. Maybe NA2 .

 

I would offer caution regarding the structural limitations you suggest. (I'm assuming we're speaking of the center bar as the ship's structure). Structure goes FAST when you get a good rake. Like 3-4 rakes and he's at 20% and has crew permanently in survival, masts are ready to fall over, and sides are laughably easy to damage.

We can argue all day the merits of the new combat model that was implemented this year. I do not like it one bit, the old one was so much better. It was much more balanced, and had much more focus on the skill of a player, less about if you have enough cannons of large enough caliber to to just spam broadsides till you win. But arguing about the merits of the new combat model is pointless. Devs have said its here to stay.

So if you limit repairs to only "armor" (I'm assuming you mean the side HP bars), then all that has to be done is core out enough of your structure that you begin to lose significant amounts of thickness, making your side HP drop very easily. So it'll shift the focus away from angling, smashing broadsides, and the occasional rake; to more of a focus of raking ships to death. I'm not sure if thats a good shift in combat strategy or not. On the one hand, proper raking takes more skill than the average noob has, which means skill is rewarded, which is good. But on the other hand, fights where all we care about is getting stern rakes is maybe not the most enjoyable thing either. 

Its a fine balance. And as much as I dislike the current combat model, at least it somewhat rewards both careful positioning and proper raking. It doesn't reward careful positioning as much as it should though. Battles feel way too much like "point the first rate guns at the target and watch it be deleted." Where before it took skill to delete someone using your first rate. 

 

Anyways, the combat model and the repair model are intimately connected. Dramatically changing one without changing the other can be tricky. And I don't think the changes you propose would work well with the current model. Maybe with the older combat model it would. 

[HachiRoku]

I disagree with rum being no issue. Maybe its best if one stern rake ends a battle. Rum just like repairs doesn't scale well in combat. Take a 1st rate 1v1 as an example. Lets say you are in a victory and you want to disable and board an ocean. You rake 400 crew from that ocean and the ocean has 700 crew. Victory has 800 and we know that 800v700 is not a guaranteed win so we need to rake again. By the time you have fought for the wind advantage to line up a second rake 12 min have passed and you are back to step one almost. Rum is not good. 

As for repairs go ideally it should be 1/1 like William said. 

Players should be forced to think tactically again and think very carefully about their next move. The problem with your hull proposal is that it doesn't change that much. People will only disengage sooner and kite just like they do now to repair. Running of to repair is not always a bad thing but currently you can do it so often that players are just risking to much. We have all seen 1st rates being surrounded and almost sank in port battles only to get away with a bit of luck only to return at the end of the PB with an almost full ship. A disabled ships should stay disabled and have no 2nd chance. Sure you will die eventually because structure always takes damage.

I am a simple man so I prefer simple solutions. We all know that 1/1 repairs worked. We had it almost 2 years an nobady complained. Why risk trying something we don't know for sure will work if we have a sollution that is proven to work. There is not a single thread with a player proposing more that 1/1 repairs before multi reps were added please. It was a terrible idea that has added nothing to the game other than problems.

I sometimes have the feeling the devs are to stubborn to change it back and if they did they wouldn't do it properly to prove their point. The idea that you can design a combat model that makes a 10v1 possible with "skill" is delusional. There is a fundamental difference between skill based and equipment based games. The more skill based a game is, the less upgrades the player has. 

I am playing F1 2019 right now. If you join a lobby against the max rank players in the game you will have 100% the same car as they do. All they have is different liveries. That is skill based. Esports drivers are 1-2 seconds a lap faster than me because they are better. Not because they have more bonuses. Maybe Naval action is not supposed to be skill based but this is what the steam page says.

"Naval Action is a hardcore, realistic, and beautifully detailed naval combat sandbox immersing players into the experience of the most beautiful period of naval history - when sailing ships ruled the seas." 

Except for the game looking nice for the most part, nothing is true. Its not hardcore, realistic and is definitely not a sandbox game. 

 

[Severus Snape]

1 Cycle of Hull/Rig/Rum please.   Lose this absurd meta and make ships cheaper.  

[Guest]

Yeah I agree with the other guys above. 1 cycle for rig/hull was the best repair system we've had so far. 

[Papillon]

7 hours ago, EliteDelta said:

Yeah I agree with the other guys above. 1 cycle for rig/hull was the best repair system we've had so far. 

Also agree fervently.

[AeRoTR]

Who would not agree on 1/1/1 in each battle instance ? Let the skill shine, not the repair meta, not laser printing new ships out of about to sunk ones