Ship Specialization

[Edward_Teach]

There is an additional setup that could be used in addition to whatever ship abilities/specialization/upgrades, hopefully not difficult to implement. All fleets could have 3 settings:
Coward = a chance to run away
Brave = everything stays the same
Reckless = an increase in attack attributes and in danger points

Instead of that how about the Morale of your crew?
Dissatisfied
Satisfied
Happy
Very Happy
And Elite?

[R0nnie]

There is an additional setup that could be used in addition to whatever ship abilities/specialization/upgrades, hopefully not difficult to implement. All fleets could have 3 settings:
Coward = a chance to run away
Brave = everything stays the same
Reckless = an increase in attack attributes and in danger points

Instead of that how about the Morale of your crew?
Dissatisfied
Satisfied
Happy
Very Happy
And Elite?

Yeah...morale seems to be a great idea....maybe morale will be determined by the win% of the fleet in PvP battles the ship's in...?

[Edward_Teach]

There is an additional setup that could be used in addition to whatever ship abilities/specialization/upgrades, hopefully not difficult to implement. All fleets could have 3 settings:
Coward = a chance to run away
Brave = everything stays the same
Reckless = an increase in attack attributes and in danger points

Instead of that how about the Morale of your crew?
Dissatisfied
Satisfied
Happy
Very Happy
And Elite?

Yeah...morale seems to be a great idea....maybe morale will be determined by the win% of the fleet in PvP battles the ship's in...?

I like that idea but what about buying a round of rum for your crew at the local tavern? that can increase morale to!

[R0nnie]

yeah but it seems to be a temporary measure...and so will be equivalent to bless and DoW cards...but the win% thing will be long lasting ....

[Edward_Teach]

There is an additional setup that could be used in addition to whatever ship abilities/specialization/upgrades, hopefully not difficult to implement. All fleets could have 3 settings:
Coward = a chance to run away
Brave = everything stays the same
Reckless = an increase in attack attributes and in danger points

Instead of that how about the Morale of your crew?
Dissatisfied
Satisfied
Happy
Very Happy
And Elite?

I forgat to add Veteran and Crack (crack is a measurement of a class of sailor)

[Hawk]

There is an additional setup that could be used in addition to whatever ship abilities/specialization/upgrades, hopefully not difficult to implement. All fleets could have 3 settings:
Coward = a chance to run away
Brave = everything stays the same
Reckless = an increase in attack attributes and in danger points

Very good idea in my opinion

Instead of that how about the Morale of your crew?
Dissatisfied
Satisfied
Happy
Very Happy
And Elite?

Moral is not so much ship specialization although it would be a realist game mechanic. I do not want to see it play that large a role though. Also moral should drop with each battle unless you are a Pirate

Well abilities would be the main way to make ships unique, especially if every ship had a few to choose from. The crew experience is a great idea, I just think that having extra attributes should be limited. Maybe once the crew gets enough experience then the ship can be leveled above 10 for a sum of gold. And for each level above 10 the ship get a single (special) attribute that can level a stat above the max

As for the "Even more special" I think Black Sparrow had a great idea. Every player, (or at least pirates) could be able to choose a ship and make it their main ship. Once chosen, a flagship gets several bonuses and an ability that is only available to that ship if it is a flagship. There could also be a flagship ability that differs depending on if you are a pirate, merchant, or noble.

Wow what a great idea!! ... ok.. jk

[Captain Jack]

Bump

[Spastic]

Well here it is.......dont really know if it is doable


1. Gages
More on this in the next post
- Leeward Gage - Your fleet retreats Downwind (the only way the leave a battle, if successful there is no fame or gold lost or gained, attacker cant use this)
- Windward Gage - Your fleet gains a small speed boost and attacks like a normal battle

2. Set the way fleets attack
Able to be changed in the fleet page and on the page you go to after clicking assault

How Ships Fire Cannons
- The French Tactic - Aim at the rigging and disable the ship rather than trying to sink it (This was the french navy's tactic)
- Dutch Tactic - Aim cannons at the hull, higher % chance to sink the ships and slight more damage (A Dutchman was the first documented person too use this deliberately)
- British Tactic - Raking fire, Fire cannon at the bow/stern, Lower accuracy but higher damage (A highly effect tactic used in the battle of trafalgar by Admiral Nelson)



- Frontal Assault - Your opponent automatically gets to attack first, your crew is would rather die than lose to the enemy, fearless in the face blah blah blah......( I dont really understand how crew affect battles...increases crews affect on battle somehow)
- Assault the Stern - This must be used to use the british tactic, you takes less damage from enemy cannons
Hit and Run - set x amount of ships to 'sink' before you flee e.g. sink the first 3 ships in opponents fleet then escape the battle( can only be used by attacker, small chance of a miscommunication due to the limitations of the time[i am assuming that they are using flag signals] your fleet wont flee until the set amount of ships have been sunk)


3. Set what ammunition to use and when to use it Example 1 use Explosive Shots when 'in range' Example 2 use grapeshot when third ship is at 50% 'health'
- Round Shot - a normal shot
- Double Shot - Fires two shots from the same cannon resulting in more damage but less accuracy
- Chain Shot - Damages rigging, makes it easier for a ship to escape
- Grapeshot - Kills some crew members but does less damage to ships
- Heated Shot - Heat an iron shot til its red hot, chance to set fire to enemy's ship which does X amount of damage before the affect ships attack role
- Explosive shot - Shot explodes on impact, high damage, low accuracy and cant be used for the british tactic as they wont "go through" the ships they will explode when they hit the ship

To simulate range certain ammunition can alone be used after certain rounds and so you cant use the same ammunition all the time
rounds in this case are not for each ship battle but from the first ship vs ship battle in a detailed report

Round shot - no restriction
Double shot - round 15
Chain shot - round 5
Grapeshot- round 4
heated shot - round 7
explosive shot - round 8

it would work best if you could create several configurations and pick which one you want to use when you in the screen after you clicked assault. If you used instant you would use a pre-set 'attack' config and if you get attacked the system would use a pre-set defence config.

i think my dont idea will work......but i tried to include some realism. Any feed back would be nice

[Captain dungeness]

Nice Spastic, I like how thought out your suggestion is. I absolutely agree on a basic level that combat is only a numbers game and I would love to see player ability rewarded in combat. As it is now my only choices are which attribute points and those can't be changed ever (also my choices are made meaningless if I'm fighting with or against a 60-point ship).

I also agree there are AT LEAST 3 huge choices you can make going into battle:
1) What part of the ship to target.
2) Which direction to attack from (relative to the wind direction and more likely to be successful if you have the faster ship).
3) What ammunition to use (somewhat depends on what part of the ship you are aiming at).

I would like to know if Captain Jack is planning on adding more depth to the combat system. Now that I think about it I'm guessing Captain Jack will say 'Of course they will be adding more to combat- after a few other important updates the team is working on' I would really like to see gold bars and banks before combat changes (But that's just like, my opinion, man).

In addition to ship-type-abilities it would be great to see certain ship-types that are better at certain tactics: like all Sloops take less damage when Raking the enemy because they are nice and fast but all Sloops take too more damage doing a Broadside attack because they are built fast, not as sturdy.

Tactics and battle choices sound complex but if you give them a flash-cool-graphics interface that shows you your choices it would make the game more exciting to play, especially for newcomers. Fighting a combat now simply results in a numbers report. If, instead, you get a diagram with cool looking dotted-line tactical sailing paths it would sell the theme better to the players and make it feel less text-based and more Piratey. I could try sketching up what I'm imagining if it sounds like you are considering this sort of thing.

-Captain D

[Spastic]

Firstly i would like to clear up some things
the dutch tactic is the idea where ship fire on the downward roll to hit so they would hit the hull of the opposing ship(tactic used by the dutch and english) the reason its called the dutch tactic is because i got mixed up with the line of battle tactic which was used by a dutch admiral first.

Windward/Leeward Gage
Windward/Leeward gage are now separate from how you attack(this is different to how you fire your cannons) .

The reason why windward gage can only be used by the attack is because you need to have windward gage to attack.

Holding the weather, or windward, gage conferred several important tactical advantages. The admiral holding the weather gage held the tactical initiative, able to accept battle by bearing down on his opponent or to refuse it, by remaining upwind. The fleet with the lee gage could avoid battle by withdrawing to leeward, but could not force action.

if you ship is faster then the opponents you get an advantage on windward/leeward gage depending if you attacking or defending. If neither ship is faster then the person with leeward gage gets the advantage. If you have the advantage on the leeward gage doesnt mean that you will successfully flee the battle. You may have to disable the opponents ship or slow it down before you can successfully retreat. If you have advantage with the windward gage you gain a small advantage at how you attack the ship

Ship Specialisation
Pirate Ships - Sloops and Brigantines have an advantage at assaulting the stern and the British tactic

War Ships - Sols, L Frigate, F Galleon, Frigate, War Galleon, Brig of War, Brig, MoW - advantage is based on attributes
If a War Ship has more points in sails then Cannons the ship will be better at the French tactic. If they have equal points the same thing happens with copper plating and round shot. If they are equal the player gets to choose.

Trade Ships - Howker, Fluyt, Galleon, Large Fluyt, Merchantman, Trade Galleon and Large Merchantman are better at the French tactic

This doesnt mean that your ship cant use a tactic it doesnt specialise in, it just has a slight advantage at that specific tactic. More specifics later
Attribute Effects on Tactics

The Success of how you attack depends on your ship attributes
Frontal assault - Iron Scantling
Assault the Stern - Copper Plating, sails and speed of ship also help
Hit and Run - Sails and speed of ships

The success of the attack determines how much of a bonus you get from each tactic e.g. when assaulting the stern how many cannons miss

I appreciate all feedback
More later....