Ship Repair

@wraith-04 said in Ship Repair:

So ever since the beginning of the game, many players have wanted a ship repair system, simply because when your ship is riddled with holes, it looks like swiss cheese and you can't really appreciate your paint job. It would be as easy as going to see the shipwright and maybe paying a small fee for a full repair (visually) of your ship, you'd still have to have your holes patched. I was for that idea, even if it was only a small change.

I'm not against the idea of shipwrights being able to clean any cosmetic battle damage, simply because this is a matter of personal preference; some players want the clean look of a brand new ship, while others (myself included) see battle damage as a mark of pride. Experienced players know to beware any ships that look like Swiss cheese, because they've faced many intense battles and survived them all.

But ever since the update that added critical ship damage that has become truly important. When your hull gets battered, the holes get bigger, and putting a plank over that is only a quick fix, once that falls off, it's still a large hole and it's gonna pour onto your ship a lot faster. If you've been on a server for a while and you have quite a few holes patched up, you're gonna be at a huge disadvantage against a ship with no holes because each hit you make is gonna punch a small to medium sized hole and widen it hit by hit, whereas their cannonballs only need to hit you once and you've got large holes popping open instantly.

This is inaccurate. Once you've repaired a hole, that hole is completely repaired. Subsequent damage will not "re-open" that area's previous damage. In other words, if you repair a level 3 hole, another cannonball to the same location will only create a level 2 hole.

If you started playing SoT before the anniversary update, you'll remember that you could see the cosmetic damage behind the board (I don't know how else to describe it beyond calling it a "wood crater") when you repaired a hole, but Rare removed this when they added advanced ship damage- perhaps that's the source of your impression that hulls get more vulnerable over time?

@wraith-04 said in Ship Repair:

@limbicfanatic No it's not an impression, it's empirical evidence. The smallest hole is only a trickle, and when patched takes only a small amount of time. But when a hole is widened as much as it can be, it only requires one hit to knock off the board and it's still the largest hole and thus water floods in extremely fast and it takes a long time to repair. I proved this to my brother earlier today against a skelly sloop. When the board gets knocked off, the hole is the same size, it doesn't revert to being a level one hole that only trickles water in. If your hull has several of these large holes, simply patched with planks, the second you take a hit to any of those spots and the plank falls off, you're sinking much more quickly.

Huh, that's contrary to my own experiences. Fortunately, we can use the scientific method to figure out who's right

The easiest way to test this would be to sail to a inactive fort, use cannons to create a level 3 hole, patch it, then either shoot a single cannonball to that location or ram something. If damage is reset, either action should generate a level 1 (trickle) or level 2 (default) hole, but if damage is persistent it'll reopen the level 3 hole.

I don't have the means to log in right now; can you (or another helpful pirate) upload a video or something demonstrating what happens? I'm perfectly willing to admit that I was wrong and you were right if you upload evidence.