Mast shots and tactics For everyone who has been demasted.

[Reki]

The problem is that cannons are too accurate, if you can get one ranging shot into the area of the masts at range then the full broadside will land in the same spot.  

 

I beleive that cannons should have a greater shot dispersion at range leading to far fewer mast shots landing on target at range. I believe there should be a greater loss of accuracy at the outer limit of our cannon range and not the current unity of accuracy that lies within the entire range of the current cannon shot ballistics.

 

 

The above decreased reduction in distance dispersion of cannon, combined with a slight increase of mast armor when getting hit at range, would allow for masts to still fall at range with lots of shots but as the range decreases would also allow masts to fall with greater probobility as combat ranges decrease which would be more in line with combat. 

Actually it isn't solution.

First of all, lets make clear two things. First one is that when ships going parallel course demasting with accurate aiming mast directly its fantastic. In this case your hits on mast on 95% is randomed. Truth is that will it be more or less dispersed shots, it still be random with full broadside shooting, so we can't talk about dispersion, unless it will be so large, that some balls will miss whole ship figure completely.

Second one is that making aim shot, which actually is more dangerous in demasting case, inaccurate its nonsence   It should be accurate, because it loose any point, if not.

[Ghroznak]

Been reading through the comments here with regards to demasting.

 

Seems everyone is missing a crucial factor in all of this.

 

The game is not about 10 vs 10 deathmatch battles inside an enclosed arena.

 

Perhaps demasting is an issue in these 'no escape' arena battles where you will, at some point, be forced to start trading shots with your enemy (unless you have a fast ship and get lucky with the wind directions to not get forced off map).

 

The question I want to raise, as a food for thought; should we really focus on changing the demasting to accomodate to the arena battles, knowing that arena battles like we have in the current alpha build is not going to be the way the will be played in the future (and release) ???

[Grim DeGrim]

In relation to rates? Yes. Why? These large ships will not be used for pleasure cruise. If indications are correct, they will be expensive to maintain and rare. So even though it might not be an arena battle, the uses of these vessels will be in instances that effectively will be equivalent to that.

It is less about escape ability & more to do with the mechanics of demast being powerfully skewed to the point where it is 90% foregone conclusion that a 1st rate will be demanded at long range by ball.

[Rramsha]

I'm with Grim on this....

I don't think people have an issue with the closer range de-masting as it is a valid tactic. It's just the initial long range mast sniping fire at at max distances where the problem would lay, even in open world. Long range shots should be aimed at hulls since aiming and hitting a mast at range would be a waste. This tactic is not a waste in game as you are almost always assured a mast coming down if you range the shot right. People will try this in open world also if it works. The reason ships closed distance in real life is because you couldn't accurately hit anything, but in the game you can.

Again this seems to be an issue more with the ships of the line than the smaller stuff.

[Grim DeGrim]

I would request this thread be moved to sea trials with an adjusted heading - to have it in the area for dev consideration.

For the record: I am pro-demast. I think it is a great mechanic to have ingame, only that is requires balance.

[Megiddo]

I'd like to see when masts go over they drag the ship in that direction... for a few seconds.  The mast should stick around for a few seconds too.

 

Of course the higher the mast that falls the less of the drag (i.e. full masts drag a lot, top masts far else if any).

[lyn]

usualy when i get close to an enemy some times with double i knock that front mast off usualy if i get demasted i just try to make my boat in to pretty much a swivle and keep trying to sink em

[Totoche]

I did read most of the post in this post!
But never did I read about history!
During the Napoleonic wars period and even before the French navy had has tactic to shoot high at the mast when the ships guns could reach them. When the ship was rolling in the waves and the guns at their highest point.
But the English navy had the opposite tactic and did shoot at the hull not to sink the enemy vessel but to damage it and kill crews, demoralize them force them to surrender.
And how did win most of the battles big or little, from the big battle of forty or more ships to the battles of two frigates in a duel of ten minutes to battles of 3 days? The British!
Because guns where devastating but ships where made of wood and wood floats so are difficult or near impossible to sink. Secondly in any navy a captured ship his valued ship because it is one more ship for the navy of your country and one less for the country of your opponent. In the battle of the Nile, an example, the British did capture the French fleet and everyone in the British fleet was not happy at all because this was a great loss of money for each member of the crew especially so the captain's.
A last point mast are massive at the deck and more fine higher up so in many naval paintings of the period you see many top mast shot of but less so main masts, in the game this should be reproduced by giving a defensive value to each mast depending to his diameter. But also that how lower the mast how bigger the rigging.

I hope this helps a little this debate?!

 

Also do not forget that in some cases if a ship lost part  of  a mast it could hit the water dragging the ship behind it in the direction of the falling mast/rigging/sails until the rigging of this mast was cut!

[ajffighter86]

Well it definitely takes more than 110 damage. I saw that in my shot log and thought, 'steel mast'? It never fell

 

I'd like to see chain shot that has a chance to actually catch the canvas and rip downward in sails, instead of just punching holes in them. Or chain shot with a chance to cut the ropes of the rigging, leaving a sail flapping in the wind like a towel on a clothes line.

 

I'm not really impressed with the destructive power of chain at the moment. I guess that's why so few people use it, but it is a completely useful ammo type for small ships that want to do more to help sink those line-ships, other than scratch paint with their 6lb'ers. Maybe you can't dent their armor, but you can help slow them down so someone else can.

[AKPyrate]

I'd like to see falling masts create drag and slow down a ship for a bit as well, and once they're "cut away", it would be nice to have the spars floating around for a while longer.  I do like that masts can fall from different parts of the mast, so you're left with a stump mast or no mast at all.  Having not been dismasted yet, I don't know how the lack of a mast affects your sailing abilities beyond loss of speed, but when I was recently playing pvp and left the enemy Surprise with nothing but a mizzen mast and sprits'l, he was still able to fall off the wind from close hauled to a broad reach.  That would be extremely difficult in real life with only a mizzen.  More likely, he'd be pointing into the wind like a wind vane and making some small stern way; essentially a sitting duck.