Not so historical captins/ships

[Bismarck83]

I honestly think we should not do so historical on the ships, yes it does need to be balanced to a point, but the missions, the objective was not historical at all. If we wanted to be very historical and to a pin point of accuracy, then there was only one victory, one Constitution and one santi. (yes there are sister ships but it seems they are not in the game)

 

Giving players the ability to change up the cannons, change the ship name or even changing the color of their sails would benefit the players playing.

 
We are just captains of our own making, not truly following in the foot steps of the captains of the past. I think we should be able to put any type of cannon on any type of ship at the cost of weight/size/power and speed

 

Take a lynx for this matter, lets say the max cannons it can hold is 8 - 4 pounders being equal to 15BR. the weight would be perfectly aligned. It has nice speed, turning and able to quickly escape.  now I want to take all the cannons off and put a single (random number here) 24 pounder on still adding up to 15BR being its max BR. the weight would not be balanced so it would be slow, a lot longer to reload but still a type of single shot gun boat. yes this would not be historical at all it allows for more options for the player to truly customize the boat.

 

Even if the cannons do not appeal to anyone here, simply giving the player the ability to change the sail color/flag or ship name would change a lot of peoples minds about being so historical on the ships allowing you to get the Constitution and simply 32 × long 24 pounders or 24 × 42 pounder carronades and rename it the USS United states.

It is just an Idea here. Hope you like the simple idea

Forgot to also add, as for renaming of ships, it will still have the name but added in name (Victory Class) (insert name here)

 

Edited December 10, 2015 by Bismarck83

[CaptLouis]

Couldn't disagree more! I'm not at all interested in the one off, special ships with some mass appeal from one particular action, but more in the prototypical designs that spawned large classes or a revolution in ship building. Customising, quirky but popular ships is exactly the opposite of how I'd like to see it go.

 

And while I'm at it, we need way more classes of sloops of war than anything else, plus many more varieties of light frigates. 3rd rate plus, great, but not the be all and end all.

[Oliver H. Perry]

No thank you, this is supposed to be an Age of Sail game, which celebrates the awesomeness that was naval combat in that era.  One didn't just slam a far larger cannon onto a deck - there were many things that went into constructing a deck/side that could accept a certain size/weight of cannon.  There had to be enough room to work it, the deck had to be strong enough to hold it up without letting it fall through, the tackle had to have anchors built strong enough to deal with the recoil.  I don't want a game where people are sailing around with lime green sails and hot pink hulls, firing 4 32lb carronades off of a Lynx.  It's ridiculous and there are a number of other unrealistic games out there that can slake your thirst for weird, a-historical combat with vehicles that do not even remotely resemble real age of sail ships.  This game is to celebrate the reality - as much as possible without sacrificing good gameplay and fun.  Let the guys that want flame throwers and weird hybrids play something else. 

[TheNinjaViking]

I think a Lynx would break if you tried to fire a 24 pounder from it

[maturin]

On the other hand, we should absolutely have partial gundecks.

 

You could remove most of Cerberus' gundeck 9-pounders and have an instant merchant ship. And a trader's brig should at least have a pair of light guns.

 

Moreover, I have absolutely no problem with the idea of installing a crafted permanent module to Lynx that lets you mount a single 18-pounder, as long as there logical drawbacks for doing so. Basically you've turned your armed privateer into a less-versatile gunboat. This is a case-by-case sort of deal, though.

 

 

I really don't know why the OP had to word his feature requests in such a disparaging way, though;

[AKPyrate]

I do like the idea of naming ships.  It's a topic that's come up many times and I'm all for it, along with saying that it's a specific class of vessel.  I would also be supportive of choosing different historical paint schemes, whether just a half dozen options for each class, or the ability to pick a pattern and the colors that go in each area, such as gunports.  I would like all the colors to be historically accurate; no day glow orange hulls please!  Sails, I would prefer to remain white, though I could be persuaded to allow trading vessels to use tan bark colors.  They really weren't used for larger ships.  I also like the idea of being able to convert/downgrade vessels in to trading vessels.  Yes, more customization would be nice, but I also want to keep it historical.  As mentioned by many above, a 24 lb cannon on Lynx is laughable.  Let her have her 4 or 6 lb cannons, maybe up to 12 lb carronades, but the ship itself cannot support huge guns.  Even if the decks could be made to support the enormous weight, the recoil from firing to windward would likely send the cannon through the lee rail, and take a large chunk of the windward side with it.

 

In short, I'd prefer customization possibilities, but within the scope of history.  Also, I agree with CaptLouis that we need many more varied smaller vessels.  With enough different vessels, customization would become less necessary, although I would still support it as mentioned above.  Making a ship personal can add to the game.  Even historically, boats were often painted to the captain's preferences.  Heck, the USS Constitution was once painted white!

[_Masterviolin]

I think perhaps hull coloring, sail coloring, ect would certainly break the immersion of historical accuracy and true age of sail naval combat. I can't imagine myself looking at an opposing line of ships in a fleet action and looking at multi-color sails, blue and black hulls, ect. Though I think perhaps nation-specific hull coloring could potentially be an interesting thing to research and add to the game, customization to that level seems a bit too high.

 

I think that the previous system of cannon assignment worked fine. It allowed for customization between different types of naval artillery with some variance in size of gun. If I'm making a choice between ships, I would prefer to do so based on that ship's potential weight in armament, speed/maneuverability values and crew size- not being forced to choose a ship based upon its cannon type. I would appreciate sailing the beautiful HMS/USS Essex ,a ship I've known well since childhood after my parents bought me a book of her plans for my 7th birthday without being forced to deal with cannonades. 

 

Implementing more features on how cannon assignment to ships effects the ship's performance would be welcome, but I think that forcing captains into being trapped with a certain cannon type on their ships may be too restrictive- though I recognize that it implements more historical accuracy. 

 

Also, I don't know about you guys, but in terms of customization, wouldn't it be amazing to be able to name your ships; like a sub-text below your ship's type in port view or battle view, ect when initially crafting/purchasing the ship. 

 

Edit: For some reason, my middle paragraph was half gone! Silly me.

Edited December 11, 2015 by _Masterviolin

[Destraex]

Completely disagree. This game is one of the few that shows promise in the historical wargame of tall ships arena. It's brave doing this because there will always be people chipping away at the edges wanting superheroes added. There are more than enough historical ships to keep the devs and players going for many years.

Keep the feel right. No need to stifle variety. More than enough exists in real historical context. 

[AKPyrate]

I think perhaps hull coloring, sail coloring, ect would certainly break the immersion of historical accuracy and true age of sail naval combat. I can't imagine myself looking at an opposing line of ships in a fleet action and looking at multi-color sails, blue and black hulls, ect. Though I think perhaps nation-specific hull coloring could potentially be an interesting thing to research and add to the game, customization to that level seems a bit too high.

 

Sail coloring could break the immersion, unless done well (such as tan bark options for traders or other small craft).  However, hull colors could be extremely varied and change over time.  Just look at what we think of as the Nelson Chequer vs. the new research about her real colors at Trafalgar:

http://www.hms-victory.com/restoration-log/hms-victory-repainted-battle-trafalgar-colours

 

A small discussion of the USS Constitution's colors throughout the years:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/7/p/15507/734695.aspx

 

A primer to some of the more common coloring schemes of the era:

http://www.larsonweb.com/Transfer/Miniatures/Sail/NAPSHIPS.htm

[_Masterviolin]

Sail coloring could break the immersion, unless done well (such as tan bark options for traders or other small craft).  However, hull colors could be extremely varied and change over time.  Just look at what we think of as the Nelson Chequer vs. the new research about her real colors at Trafalgar:

http://www.hms-victory.com/restoration-log/hms-victory-repainted-battle-trafalgar-colours

 

A small discussion of the USS Constitution's colors throughout the years:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/7/p/15507/734695.aspx

 

A primer to some of the more common coloring schemes of the era:

http://www.larsonweb.com/Transfer/Miniatures/Sail/NAPSHIPS.htm

I do recognize that historically, coloring of hulls per nation/ship varied incredibly, and that it may be difficult to single out a hull paint scheme that accurately depicts that nation's most commonly associated hull decor.

 

But I still think this would be an entertaining implementation with some good research, ect as demonstrated by Mr. AKPyrate above- though It would be difficult to get used to a Connie in English colours or a Trincomalee in Spanish red and black. Its definitely a topic up to considerable debate and variety.

 

Also, I had no idea they were re-painting the Vic. Pretty good stuff!

[maturin]

Constitution was in "English" colors for the first part of her service life. Or rather, she was painted and varnished like many other European frigates.

[AKPyrate]

For the HMS Victory, here are a few shots of the old vs. new paint:

 

 

 

 

And apparently before 1922 when she went in to drydock, she was actually painted black and white like the rest of the world at the time

 

[Bonden]

Customizing ships with historical names (available in navy lists), color schemes and 'worn out' aspect would be great as it would allow to diversify the ships without much modelling effort and keeping reasonable historical accuracy

[AKPyrate]

Customizing ships with historical names (available in navy lists), color schemes and 'worn out' aspect would be great as it would allow to diversify the ships without much modelling effort and keeping reasonable historical accuracy

 

Personally, I wouldn't want to limit names to historic naval vessels (though having a list of options/default historical names would be great).  Let the players be a bit creative and personalize the ships.  I would approve of course of filtering out inappropriate names and not allowing symbols (though maybe allow cyrillic script?), and have a way for people to report inappropriate names.  However, if I want to name a vessel after my own boat, kids, wife, a historical boat not on the list, etc., I think it would add to the customization feel for players without any major drawbacks in immersion.