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Capping allowed BR rating for each ship rate in a PB


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Over the last year and a half since the game offically released portbattles have suggnificantly changed; stragetgies have been used and left to fall by the wayside, many odd builds have been tried, and the meta ship/lineup has changed at least a dozen times, yet there is always a meta. In the begining it was the Wasa. Cheap to build and easy to crew for captains ranking up after the wipe, they formed the backbone of the early port battle fleets. Now the meta has become the heavy build Bucentaur, almost so exclusivly that most large port battle fleets comprise almost soly of them with the occasional small circle capping Le Requin, and while this may be excelent from a RVR standpoint, it goes against one of Naval Actions core concepts--representation of combat in the Golden Age of Fighting Sail. Below is how I suggest that the meta of a single ship could be broken, and more imersion and authentisity brought to the game.

 

The core concept for my suggestion is simple, for deep water port battles cap the BR on each ship rating, going from 1st rates to 6/7th rates. 

For example the rating BR limits for a 20,000 BR pprt would look somthing as follows:
Max allowed BR of first rates is 3,500: This would allow for the bringing of some combinations of three of either the Santisima Trinidad or L'Ocean and a smaller Victory. This potential for four top-of-the-line ships would reflect how in two of the largest battles during the age Naval Action represents (Battle of Cape St. Vincient {1797} and the Battle of Trafalgar {1805} ) first rates made up less than a fourth of either sides fleets.

Max allowed BR of second rates is: 5,250: Like the first rates this number represents the lower numbers of second rates compared to the next rating down.

Max allowed BR of third rates is: 7,500: This cap would allow for at max eight of the 550 BR ships, four of the 500 BR ships, and four of the 400 BR ships. As with the previous caps, this one represents its ratings historical numbers in combat. The majority of most lines-or-battle were comprised of third rate ships. For example at Trafalgar seventeen of the total 27 that stood in the British line were third rates, while twenty-nine of the thirty-three in Spanish-Franco line were also of the same rating. 

Max BR for fourth rates is: 1,360: Even less common than the first rate, the fourth rate still held a place in the line even up to Trafalgar, where HMS Africa, a 64-gun ship of the Inflexible class, sailed alongside the Spanish-Franco line for some time, echanging murdurous cannonade with multiple enemy vessels. Two other 64-gun ships sailed in the British line during the engagement.

Max BR for fifth rates is: 1,890: Fifth rates, while almost never standing in the line themselves, were very common in support roles during engagments, hurassing damaged vessels, and providing scouting--the eyes of the fleet.

Max BR for sixth and seventh rates is 500: These ships werent as common IRL but the Requin is a circle capping staple of almost all port battle fleets. 

 



 

I understand that within the game there are so many ships of the line, so the core of a port battle fleet will never be as varied as it was in history, but I think that caping the BR for each calss allowed into a PB would bring a lot of new variation and historical (to some extent) authentisity.

 

 

 

 

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