Ship Additions and Modifications

  • I think there are excellent opportunities for modifications and additions of newer ships into the game. Max crew size should match the number of cannons on each side.

    • Brigantine would then have a total of 6 cannons, or 3 on each side. The Brigantine is under powered in its current state IMO. The Sloop and Galleon are well balanced in this regard. To match crew vs cannons, a Sloop should really have 2 cannons on each side.
      Additional ships:
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    1. Gunboat/Launch/Catboat
      Solo vessel with a single mast and no crow's nest. There would be a lone cannon at the bow of the ship. Perhaps another off the stern. This would make for some excellent new gameplay mechanics. It would be the fastest ship against the wind with excellent maneuverability and acceleration. It would be the least visible to other ships with its lower profile. Due to its size, there would be no space for a rowboat, but to counter this, the vessel can be more easily brought ashore. There would be limited cargo space below deck akin to the Sloop's covered aft half deck.
    1. Frigate/Ship of the Line/Man of War
      5 crewmen and 10 cannons. Either have all cannons on the topside, or 2-3 topside and 2-3 below deck. The cannons below decks could have slightly less visibility when firing, but provide more defense to those on cannons. This ship may include a bridge, which may protect the helmsman, but decreases visibility. These ships would have poor maneuverability and speed, but would be unmatched in terms of firepower.
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  • I honestly don't think a Ship of the Line would be suitable for this game, ever.
    Just a few guns and a handful of crewmembers could never do such grand ships justice.

    What I would want to se in the category of a "Man O' War" is a frigate, which would be much more suited to SoT's simplified and scaled down world and still maintain its magnificence.

  • I stopped reading after you said the galleon and SLOOP are balanced well. Are you kidding me, we must be playing two different games. The sloop is the least balanced out of the two and to be honest having three cannons on each side of the brig is going to make it OP.

  • @crazed-corsair These would certainly be sized according to max crew. Agreed on the second point. The names of the ship types is not as important as the concept itself. The ship could just as easily be called a Man of War, Ship of the Line, Flagship, Frigate etc.

  • @bababooey A sloop can easily outmatch a galleon if piloted properly. I never use Brigantines because of the cannon/crew mismatch. It really boils down to the quality of your crew. The only balance I was referring to was crew size vs cannons. We're not playing two different games. You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but don't belittle a random idea because you didn't understand the context of the balance I was referring to. If you didn't read the whole topic, why even respond? Have some constructive criticism instead.

  • @actionijackson3
    Lol I guess we will agree to disagree. The sloop is the slowest of the ships, as it rightfully should be, one sail vs two vs 3. I have watched or rather been on the sloop as that’s pretty much all I use and have watched galleons and brigs sail up on us with no trouble and ram us even with our one sail in the wind etc the fact is the sloop is slower and you can try and do all the maneuvering you want, eventually they’ll catch you. Than you have two cannons vs 4 vs 8, then 1 or two vs three or four crew wise. I don’t care how good the two of you might be or even you by yourself, I think it’s a no brainer that the sloop can’t match the brig or galleon. I will give you one thing though a sloop with two pirates might and it’s a big might be able to take out a galleon of 4 guys who are completely new(done it once), but even that now is rare given the meg, free roaming skeleton ships, kraken, all the other people now just wanting to attack everyone. I think you get the picture.

  • @bababooey A 1 man sloop can take out a galleon, brig, kraken, skeleton ship, albeit with a varying degree of difficulty. A 2 man sloop can sink a galleon with proper tactics and teamwork. If you play alone then you’ll certainly have a more difficult time battling a brig/galleon. A sloop is the slowest, but way more maneuverable than the others and can fit through passages much easier than any other ship thereby increasing the odds if there are obstacles in the vicinity.

  • @crazed-corsair Have you seen the man-of-war 3d model @ShootHere4EXP put together? That thing is beautiful and I would love to have it in the game. It looks grand in SoT kind of way!

    @bababooey @actionIjackson3 The sloop is balanced well. The only issue is with the current bug with sailing into the wind that makes you faster if you square the sails. The sloop is the fastest into the wind but most people put the sail to the side allowing brigs who square their sails to catch up. If that bug gets fixed it will in a good spot again.

    The only other adjustment I think it would need would be faster acceleration. IDK why the brig has faster acceleration than the sloop. Faster top speed makes sense because it has more sails but I would think an object with less mass would have faster acceleration. The brig should be right in the middle of the galleon and sloop in every way.

    I also wouldn't be opposed to making all ships have cannon numbers on each side that match crew size. Not really sure why the numbers are inconsistent. They should either remove 1 on each side from the galleon (which no one is going to want) or add 1 on each side to the brigantine and sloop, IMO.

  • @xcalypt0x @actionIjackson3
    I still disagree with you action, having played since day 1 the sloop isn’t the best balanced out of three ships and by no means the fastest the sloop can easily be overtaken by the brig and even the galleon can catch it too. I get the whole obstacles thing and maneuvering etc, but the majority of the time your in open seas and while they have added rocks etc, it goes back to what I was saying before they’ll eventually catch you and I don’t know about you, but I don’t prefer to sail around for an hour or more playing cat and mouse and hope that they will give up. As for the skeleton ships there easy and you can’t compare them to a player controlled brig or galleon they play completely different and like the meg just anchor and you can easily take her out, but those two weren't a part of the topic, it’s about what ship type is or isn’t balanced and the brig is fine the way it is. Now, @xCALYPT0x idea of adding three to each side of the brig, BUT also two on each side of the sloop isn’t bad, however adding a cannon on each side of the sloop isn’t going to balance it out and all of a sudden make it a more balanced match for the sloop vs brig and galleon.

  • @bababooey You can disagree all you want, but that's pretty much all you're doing. I've been on a 2 man crew and have taken out 2 galleons at once who were allied with each other. We came back for more, and almost sunk them both again. You do seem interested in this discussion as you continue to come back for more after claiming that you stopped reading. My OP was not meant to be about balance, although you did take a snippet and turn it into a discussion of one. It was simply new ships and ship additions. I imagine you surely disagree.

  • @actionijackson3 We can't really base any changes off of single encounters like this. There are too many variables in each one. Skill level/experience of the players on each ship, interference from a 3rd party (meg, kraken), etc. It's all anecdotal.

    Before any changes are made the devs would have to take a hard look at their telemetry (if they are tracking anything like this) and see how often each ship type prevails against the others. If there was one ship type that consistently came out on top of or below the others then some tuning would need to be done.

  • @xcalypt0x Agreed. Only Rare knows the numbers on balance. The example was definitely anecdotal. However, @bababooey seems to think a sloop has no chance against a larger ship.

  • I want a catboat so bad

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