@deathvessle Being unable to guess which ladder is or isn't down is not a fault of me nor was it because my information was inaccurate. My teammate could try boarding left ladder and see its raised, tell me that so I go right ladder, and find out they switched the ladders and now that one is raised.
In any battle you roll dice based on information available
That's not rolling a dice, that's making a plan based on logic. Rolling a dice means there's nothing you can do to increase your odds, having information to help you would increase your odds. For example if I know an enemy is Sword Blunder, meaning they are very close range, I can use that information to better prepare myself to fight. If I still lose that fight it wasn't because I was unlucky in a dice roll, I simply lost because I was beaten in combat even with my knowledge of their weapons. If they can swap their ladder in 3 seconds then there's physically no way any information is useful against a crew that knows how to swap their ladders. You would simply have to roll a dice every single time you try and board them with no information to help you. The only information that would help is if you deduce the crew is less experienced and don't swap their ladders. This is not the problem, as that kind of crew will never be an issue to beat in combat. The issue is crews that use the mechanic to swap their ladder to prevent boards. Not only does it mean they only have to guard one side, but it means 50% of boarding attempts are completely null simply because there isn't a ladder there. You don't even need to guard the ladder because they just cant get on. This goes against the idea of ''the point is to focus your attention on one ladder'' as half the time you don't need to focus any attention as they physically cannot board. Like at this point it'd be better just to only ever have one ladder, not 2 ladders they can swap. If there's only ever 1 ladder then you at least know its always gonna be there and you know where to go, not guess which side its on.
When you start a fight yes you have no information available, as such you are just guessing based on anything you can such as gauging the cosmetics on the boat, the positioning of the boat (Such as if they are anchored with sails down, or unanchored with sails up). It is after this point where in every other case you gain information you can use to your advantage. You cannot gain information of which side to board as that constantly swaps.
1 Ladder would mean its practically impossible to board from ladder, stick a blunderbuss on the ladder and they guard it fully, unless they miss, which would be a problem regardless of how many ladders there are. 1 Ladder gives a lot more room for Error which rewards bad play and means people don't learn from their mistakes. Nex said it really well, This concept is purely to help people who refuse to improve. You yourself said you lose 70% of fights, yet instead of learning from those interactions, you just want to make changes that make it so you cant lose in that way again. Its like if you die to a gun and say ''make guns have half ammo'' and your reasoning is you make up a fanfic where in Scenario 1 they miss 2 shots and are now out of ammo so you win, and Scenario 2 where they miss 2 shots but it doesn't matter, they have ammo and kill you. That is the EXACT same argument you are making. Instead of improving, you want to remove diversity of gameplay to make up for your own shortcomings.
I do think there are ways that raising a ladder could be implemented but it would have to be very minimal. For example it takes 3/4/5 seconds to raise it depending on ship type, then it only stays up for a set period of time, and if you want to keep it up for longer you have to just have someone keep holding it up. This would mean that its not as braindead as remove 1 ladder, you'd have to decide when you think its worth doing it, and it would provide the enemy some counterplay, as the ladder would fall back down eventually and require someone to raise it back up or keep it held up. This would mean the person in the water can use their tools such as blunderbombs or Guns to attack the person holding it.
As you currently describe it, there is no counterplay to their ladder being up, nothing you can do about it. Like look at other parts of the ship that can be altered, The Mast can be broken, the Anchor can be put down and broken, and the wheel can be broken. There's no counterplay for the other crew to break your ladder, forcing it down. Like what if there's a little wind up pully you interact that raises the ladder, this pulley can take damage from cannonballs like other parts of the boat. when the pully is broken it releases all of the ladder meaning the crew has to repair the pully and then wind it back up.
Again, I'm not saying this idea is flat out a bad thing, as i have said multiple times, it simply needs thought and detail put in for how it can work. You wont convince people if you give them minimal information on the concept and just look past all of the major issues people have with it.
Also you said you're closed to get good or learn to play. But in some ways these are real advice. yes you should ignore people who just write off what you say and trashtalk, but in some situations like this, it really is just a matter of you needing to learn better ways to deal with the game as it is rather than changing it. I suggested multiple ways at the bottom of my long post for you to improve your ship defence and guard your ladders more efficiently. This isn't me saying ''lol git gud learn to play'' this is me legitimately saying you need to learn how to defend yourself.
Deny your own limitations, deny others limitations.
Believe "get good"and "learn to play" is the solution to every thing.
Offer insults to skills and knowledge.
Offer no alternatives.
I know you didn't say this to me, but it stands the same.
- You do not have limitations, you simply refuse to improve. A limitation would be if you only had 1 hand and physically couldn't do the stuff everyone else can. Your limitation is your lack of commitment to learning in a game all about improving your skill.
- I do not believe get good and learn to play are solutions on their own, however they can often be the principle of which to describe how someone can get past an issue.
- I don't point out lack of skill or knowledge as insults, its addressing reasons you are unable to get over the issues you have in the game. If you lose 70% of fights and cant deal with boarders, this is solely due to a lack of skill or a lack of knowledge on how to deal with it. If it was purely do to imbalance then everyone would have the same issue, but clearly not everyone does. And its not just because we're tryhard pvpers, very few people have issues with the game, refuse to improve, and still stick with the game. Most people would just uninstall the game if they find it too hard and don't want to improve, you are very much in the minority in this scenario.
- I offered Alternatives in the Long post as well as this one
