New Damage is Way Too Punishing

  • Snazzbox
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    I’ve come to this problem a time or two before, but today I was at Shipwreck Bay and nearly got sunk by a single skeleton on a cannon. The first cannonball took 2-3 spokes out of my wheel, put a hole in my boat, and dropped my anchor. I spent the next 10 minutes (I was playing solo) trying to repair my boat while also trying to get to safety as the initial attack put me in a position to be continually barraged by the same f$&!ing skeleton without any hope of escape. My anchor kept dropping and I had to keep repairing and bailing, which made it exceedingly difficult to get anywhere or make any headway to find cover or leave. Eventually I did manage to get behind a rock, but I thought to myself that one skeleton on an island should NOT be capable of nearly sinking a sloop by itself. The ship damage was just way too much and doubled up seemingly whenever it could. And it seemed like 80% of the cannonball impacts were dropping my anchor which is just ridiculous. Please fix, Rare!

    Oh and the cover I got behind was at the small island on Shipwreck Bay where I meant to dig up a treasure. I fixed everything and was ready to jump ashore when another player somehow got aboard my ship and killed me after all that. Good to see that players are still out there making the game less fun for others! 👍🏼😉

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  • Schwammlgott
    Champion

    @snazzbox first thing you have to listen to, when you hear cannonshots, is if the anchor is going down...stay at the wheel and when you hear ot going down turn around and grab it, so it doesn't fall down and stop you...

    That was the first thing I learned since the new ship damage...

    Just get out of range so you can fix your ship...

  • QuietRobot
    Champion
    Insider
    Founder

    For me they should remove the anchor hit, for that there are no special cannonballs?

  • I V4POR I
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    I don't exactly think its the ship damage thats the issue so much as the accuracy of the skeletons being able to repeatedly hit the same spot over and over.

    That happens to me when approaching the forts now, almost all shots hit the anchor to the point where its laughable BUT most forts have a spot to approach with minimal fire against you so be aware of where the cannons are on islands and make note. We never sail around the north east side of shipwreck bay because of his range, crooks hollow has the cannon over the waterfall, etc.

  • Duke of Spire
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    I bet you'll remember to stay away from the North side of Shipwreck in the future!😂

  • Snazzbox
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    @schwammlgott Good call, thanks!

    I should have done that, but like I said, my wheel was shot to hell, too, so even if I caught it, I wouldn’t have been able to turn fast enough to get to safety and avoid more cannonballs.

    I will try to listen for that sound in the future, though!

  • Snazzbox
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    @vapor1080 Actually on Shipwreck Bay, I was on the west side. In retrospect, I should’ve just used the rowboat whenever i needed to get closer. Oh well.

  • I V4POR I
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    @snazzbox lol i always get my east west mixed up but yea, the north west side is correct :)

  • xPIQUANTx
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @vapor1080 thinking rare would rather not accommodate solo play, and damage is a result of that.
    Playing with random is toxic and if a child hops on they get a quick education . This game should be a adult only game.
    Do not expect rare to accommodate solo play, game Is designed for solo play to be the most difficult.

  • Luci6396
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    @snazzbox the damage is amazing for pvp, but i agree skelly cannoneers seem to mess me up crazy and they almost always get the anchor haha. idk if its possible but would be nice if ai shots only made holes no extra damages. if a player does it then i feel like they used skill and aim, when a computer does it i feel not so great about it haha.

    as for the last part.. i mean pirates gona pirate. no accounting for that other than sail with a crew for safety.

  • Goedecke Michel
    Marauder

    @Snazzbox To be honest, it is not very hard to know that Shipwreck bay is armed in the north, so coming from the south is the way to go. There is nothing to fix.

  • tomboi123
    Marauder
    Insider

    @snazzbox worst thing is that the cannon ball doesn’t even have to hit the anchor to drop it, many occasions it’ll hit the side of the boat and done no damage to the anchor but still dropped it

  • Luci6396
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    @goedecke-michel I dont think the location is the point of the problem. the complaint is just that any skelly whether he be on an island or a skelly ship or a fort tower is almost guaranteed to hit your anchor and as a solo bolo its gona be more annoying than challenging. being aware of skelly cannon locations can help mitigate this but i still see it as a vexing flaw like op.

  • ViperishEmu2992
    Marauder

    The new damage is pretty rough. Especially irritating is that cannonballs don't even have to necessarily hit something to break it. Just close to the Ship is good enough.

    Solo just got a whole lot harder. It was already "expert mode", now it's "nightmare mode".

    Try escaping from the Volcano's of the DR sometime. LOL. Not!

    The new damage is great fun in Arena with full crewed Galleons btw. But far less so Solo-ing in Adventure Mode.

  • Goedecke Michel
    Marauder

    @revanjstone I'm sure we're learning to master that.

  • DreadPirate9200
    Master
    Insider

    Only got yourself to blame, dont drop anchor.

    If you left it up and raised your sails. (not all the way)

    You would have floated out of harms way while you where repairing.

    NEVER DROP ANCHOR!! unless club-halling the ship :)

  • m1sterpunch
    Master
    Insider

    They only need to fix the short respawn time of those cannon skellies. You could easily dash off your boat, kill the skelly and get back to the ship in time to fix it. Or fire back. If he can hit you, you can hit him.

    Or like others said, remember what side is guarded. Part of the progression in this game is skill, the other is knowing the map (what side of islands cannons are on, what side of outposts the docks are, etc) and will come with time.

  • Okwui
    Ship Mate

    @snazzbox For the west side, the best thing to do is approach from the SSE or SE and come in close. Then you can slowly approach the W side between the island and the rocks and get beneath the cannon's firing arc. Then you can rotate the boat and exit the way you came in.

    If you need to get out quickly, the minute you hear the cannon fire, shift direction. The cannonballs aren't guided, so what they're aiming for won't be where the cannonball hits if you move out of the way. I call it "going Neo" - especially when coming into a fort. No guarantee, but lowers the chances of getting hit and can minimize the damage when you do.

  • KevinInNYC
    Marauder
    Insider

    @viperishemu2992 I've only played Arena twice, but the first time I got super lucky. I manned a cannon that was lined up right on the mast of the ship two berths over. I just loaded and fired three times, and down their mast came. Looks cool as hell. For this I went all the way to Level 3 in Sea Dogs, even though I am a PvP redshirt.

    I also vote for nerfing those skelly cannons. Not even the dead can shoot like that.

  • fluidsc
    Master
    Insider

    Reported this a million-billion times before. I don't play on a sloop, at all... but I did test it, and do know that the skeletons hit the smallest ship more than they hit the largest ship with cannon-fire.

    I assume that Rare uses a radius around the ship for the skeleton to shoot at... I also assume that the radius on the sloop is just a lot smaller than the radius around the galleon. The "error rate" the skeletons have with their cannon shots should be the same for both though. The same size circle should exist around the sloop that exists around the brigandine that exists around the galleon. Why would skeleton cannon accuracy increase with a smaller target?

    I honestly chalk this up to a bad design call that just needs to be changed. Kind of like relying on aiming rocks out of a volcano rather than relying on random hits from the rocks.

    Just a bad design decision...

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