Ever since I noticed the large crashed ships I have wanted something bigger then the galleon. Even in the maiden voyage, the destroyed ship you can climb on is not a galleon. This leaves me a bit heartbroken after every update. Recently in a discussion with some crew mates we came up with an interesting idea. Two large ships that are the same size. They are practically the same ship, but with different purposes. The first I want to talk about is the Man of War.
Man of War
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Four masts making this the fastest ship with the wind and the slowest against it
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Everything takes a decent time longer then the galleon making teamwork much more vital
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Larger crew. (My suggestion is five or six players.)
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Designed for ship to ship combat. (Large amount of cannon balls and a decent planks, but extremely low food storage space.)
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Two gun decks. (My thoughts are possibly having the supply deck between them.)
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Open and close able gun ports. (If the gun ports are open they would count as holes in the ship)
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Weakness to boarding crews.
The Man Of War would like to stay at range of other ships. It's top deck guns are the only ones that can angle. At close range it would be vulnerable to boarding and have to use it's lower deck guns. The gun ports would provide some visibility, but not much. Also they would provide risk of letting water in the sinking vessel. For this reason the ship should spawn with it's gun ports closed. The Man Of war should have a low food storage so boarding crews have the healing advantage.
The vessel should have plenty of decorative barrels in the lower decks for boarding crews to take cover behind. The Man Of war should have a terrifying presence to see on the seas, but an experienced crew could take them down. My thoughts are that sloops are the best to fight them in without boarding. As the small target would be hard for the lower guns to hit and impossible for the top deck guns at close range.
Although boarding would pit a two versus five or six would not be ideal. The sloop could launch fire or chain the masts. Crippling the large vessel and punching lots of holes would still be an effective means of destroying it. Another idea is to have fire spread faster on the lower decks of the larger ship. This makes the crew of the Man of War have to focus more on the flames giving boarding parties the chance to pick them off. Another advantage a boarding party could use is the time it takes for the crippled ship to recover. Dropping their anchor and destroying the capstan would heavily increase the amount of time a boarding party has to invade and dwindle down the crew's food. With larger ships come more areas for potential holes. This makes a gunpowder barrel far more deadly. The point is The Man Of War is good at ranged naval combat, but it's weakness is being boarded.**Trading Vessel** -
Same speed and turning as the Man Of War.
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Each action takes the same amount of time as the Man of War
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Same crew limit
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Less cannons
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Lots of food and planks, but far less cannon ball storage
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Two stoves and two water barrels.
I have been playing around with ideas for this vessel. At first my thought was that it should be very deceptive. That is should pretty much seem like a Man Of War from the outside. This might make the person attacking them use the Boarding strategy against them. Why the crippling tactics would still prove effective draining this crew of their food would proof to be a draining task. The vessel would strive on it's ability to stay afloat. Lots of planks and lots of food would help the crew keep their heads above the water, but the low cannon ball storage would be it's weakness. Every cannon ball counts. Crews would have to take a gamble either get close and board or stay at range and possibly get shredded by cannon fire. The issue is the crates found on islands that give extra storage space. Although they are lost when sunk they would enable a Treasure ship to carry a lot more cannonballs. To effectively bridge the gap in it's weakness.
More recently I have though of another idea for the vessel. Still a four masted behemoth, but maybe two or possibly three decks. It would be longer rather then taller and look more like a Brigantine then a Galleon. The vessel would have a couple cannons on each side. Maybe three or four. They would be spread out along the deck though. It's advantage would be trying to get shots flying over it instead of hitting it. The vessel would still carry lots of wood and food. Having only a couple decks makes the ship quicker to sink without a crew repairing.**Potential bonus**One of the main issues is finding a good crew. Why the in game system does work it enables trolls. Far to many times have I had to solo a galleon for a couple of voyages before I get a crew. Then of course they lock me in the brig and try to torment me or sink the ship. With a larger crew comes the greater chance of one of them being a troll. So then what would be the point of tempting fate instead of just solo slooping? My answer to this is some bonuses for what the larger ship is built for. For example The Trading ship is meant to be used for completing voyages earning a lot of treasure and of course the pride of sailing a large ship. My thoughts are granting a bonus to the emissary system when the ship earns bonus points to rank up faster. The exception being Reaper's Bones. Or possibly even when that ship is in a alliance it gives the other alliance members a full cut as if they were crew mates. That would make aligning yourself up with them just as valuable as sinking them. Now for the Man of War. I have thought about something like earning for gold for pvp. I thought about the Reaper's Bones emissary. Maybe on top of that they gain a bit extra gold from turning in stolen treasure? If there are bonuses added in for the crews I think people looking to grind would choose larger ships. This in turn puts more people into finding a crew for a while. Making chances of finding people who wish to work together much higher.
