Should I buy a ship?

[Parasol_Syndicate]

I'm far from an expert on this topic, but I found the Dhow to be right at he sweet spot between speed, cost, and acceptable offense. 

 

Buy once, cry once, then get upgradin'.

 

 

Don't put a menagerie in your Dhow, though. It looks ridiculous and cramped. 

[Casper]

If you shoot out their sails, then board you get decent xp and more loot. You definitely get more loot boarding though

Also, a Dhow with full speed upgrades will be in boarding range after 2-4 full sails. That's my goto at this point, ship combat does nothing for more me after the first playthrough.

 

If you want proof, my first playthrough I sank Bounty - Biakara and missed out on this item, which did not drop: https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Lance_of_the_Midwood_Stag

 

In a subsequent playthrough I boarded that bounty and looted the unique pike.

funny, figured that pike would float...

[jomoroon]

anyone know what ship triumphs do. I cant see any visual change when its toggled either way

[Jorian Drake]

A galleon is majestic and large, I played a lot of ship related games like the Port Royale series (avoid PR3 like hellfire) and would always pick a slow, but majestic galleon which can carry a lot more loot and crew over any other ship, any time, except if you offer a fantasy option of a flying ship or airship (I mean either fantasy magically flying ship, or actual airship)

[PangaeaACDC]

anyone know what ship triumphs do. I cant see any visual change when its toggled either way

 

They are visible on the actual ship. They are the small flags you see if moving the camera while the ship is docked in Neketaka, or if you move the camera up towards the sails somewhere while walking around on the ship deck. Don't have a screenshot of it handy, but on the Dhow for instance, they are on a rope from the front of the ship and diagonally towards a mast.

 

Nothing appears to change if you are in the ship UI and hit the toggle, though. Same as the ship name really.

[PangaeaACDC]

anyone know what ship triumphs do. I cant see any visual change when its toggled either way

 

A little addendum to the above, here is a screenshot with some triumphs on a Dhow.

 

[fgalkin]

Personally, I'd be uncomfortable manning something called "the junk".

Call it by the un-mangled "chuán,"  then

[ThacoBell]

 

Personally, I'd be uncomfortable manning something called "the junk".

Call it by the un-mangled "chuán,"  then

 

All the pirates of Deadfire will learn to fear my Junk!

[omgFIREBALLS]

 

anyone know what ship triumphs do. I cant see any visual change when its toggled either way

 

A little addendum to the above, here is a screenshot with some triumphs on a Dhow.

 

Triumps.jpg

 

Hahahaha. Okay, so you don't lose reputation for attacking ships. I tried to justify this with dead men tell no tales. However, this assumes that all the following keep perfectly quiet:

 

1) Every bounty hunter who asks you to sink a ship.

2) Your crew.

3) Your companions - some of whom are heavily biased towards factions.

 

And on top of all this, you are now PARADING THE TRIUMPHS IN THE DOCKS? Some people have asked if they could make all the factions unite. Perhaps they could - against the Watcher :D

[Casper]

 

 

anyone know what ship triumphs do. I cant see any visual change when its toggled either way

 

A little addendum to the above, here is a screenshot with some triumphs on a Dhow.

 

Triumps.jpg

 

Hahahaha. Okay, so you don't lose reputation for attacking ships. I tried to justify this with dead men tell no tales. However, this assumes that all the following keep perfectly quiet:

 

1) Every bounty hunter who asks you to sink a ship.

2) Your crew.

3) Your companions - some of whom are heavily biased towards factions.

 

And on top of all this, you are now PARADING THE TRIUMPHS IN THE DOCKS? Some people have asked if they could make all the factions unite. Perhaps they could - against the Watcher :D

 

iirc, those are legitimate bounties... meaning that it's perfectly legal to attack said ships if you're a legitimate privateer (which in most cases you are, working as an agent for figures in authority, in some cases with official documents even saying so).

 

if anyone threw a hissy-fit over your actions, they'd likely be seen as supporting criminal activity. though, that doesn't explain any of the other ships you might sink that aren't bounties.

[Arranvin]

 

 

Thanks for that random reddit thread, my in game experience doesn't agree. If there is reduced loot it is obscenely minimal. The Crew exp on the other hand is much much higher if you sink. Like twice the exp. Also once you have a real ship with a real crew, it is actually faster to sink.

 

 

 

If you shoot out their sails, then board you get decent xp and more loot. You definitely get more loot boarding though

 

Also, a Dhow with full speed upgrades will be in boarding range after 2-4 full sails. That's my goto at this point, ship combat does nothing for more me after the first playthrough.

 

If you want proof, my first playthrough I sank Bounty - Biakara and missed out on this item, which did not drop: https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Lance_of_the_Midwood_Stag

 

In a subsequent playthrough I boarded that bounty and looted the unique pike.

I have that Pike and have done ship-to-ship combat for all ships so far except one early game, so must have got that from loot while sinking the ship.

 

Can see you would get more weapons and armour loot from boarding, but maybe less food and such items? At some point I'm sure people will do a side-by-side comparison. But you do get more XP and levels from sinking them, which is quite handy too.

 

The loot is really a non-factor though, so people should do what they prefer. I happen to prefer the ship-to-ship combat, and I see others prefer boarding. It's great that both options are viable.

 

I haven't boarded a merchant ship so not sure what loot you get then, but I've sunk quite a few, and you get heaps upon heaps of cannonballs, medical supplies and the like. 40-50 cannonballs is not rare. Doesn't cost a lot either ofc, but it's nice to get them for 'free'. Just wish they didn't overflow, causing me to lose so many.

I can confirm that it's possible to get the pike through ship to ship combat as I did so last night! I haven't done any boarding fights yet as until last night my party was only level 5 and there were 3 of us (mindstalker, xoti, serafen) plus random Port Maje crew versus 13 enemies at a time! I guess they don't warn against the 'did everything wrong' background for nothing Now that we've hit level 6 and have Tekehu and Maia I may try testing boarding versus ship combat and comparing the loot.

[CAlmond]

 

Attached is a picture of the Stomper going down, and another where the enemy got badly hurt by random events, and never got back into it after that. My guess is that it's kind of a Crit effect, so with well over 100 chances, this will happen more frequently. (And a slight advantage with the Dhow is that the enemy has a lower hit-chance against you than if you have a Junk, 60% base vs 70% base chance).

 

 

The best crit effect that ever occurred to me was when my cannons hit their ammo stores and I think their ship exploded because it was instawin for me. At that point in time I had maybe 20 hull left, they still had like 80ish.

[Messier-31]

Should I buy a ship?

 

Edited May 22, 2018 by Messier-31

[FlintlockJazz]

 

So is it better to go for a Junk, Dhow or a Galleon if I want to upgrade  from the starter ship and actually win in ship combat?

 

Depends what you want I suppose. The Dhow is faster, so it's easier to manoeuvre in combat if something special happens, like the enemy trying to escape. Largely this isn't an issue though, so then it's down to 2-turn jibes (180-degree turn) vs 3-turns with the galleon and junk. If you want combat to be over with as quick as possible, the junk is probably the best ship, as it has 5 cannons on each side. The galleon has 4 and the dhow 3.

 

The Galleon has the superior hull with 120-base health, while the dhow and junk is equal with 80 base health (more with upgrades).

 

The attached picture from another thread should help greatly

 

POE2-Ship_stats.png

PS: The base hit chance for the sloop (starting ship) is 50%. This is the enemy's chance to hit you, before other modifiers like crew ranks and distance.

 

Thank you! It doesn't show all the ship stats when buying them so this is handy to have.

[PangaeaACDC]

 

 

anyone know what ship triumphs do. I cant see any visual change when its toggled either way

 

A little addendum to the above, here is a screenshot with some triumphs on a Dhow.

 

Triumps.jpg

 

Hahahaha. Okay, so you don't lose reputation for attacking ships. I tried to justify this with dead men tell no tales. However, this assumes that all the following keep perfectly quiet:

 

1) Every bounty hunter who asks you to sink a ship.

2) Your crew.

3) Your companions - some of whom are heavily biased towards factions.

 

And on top of all this, you are now PARADING THE TRIUMPHS IN THE DOCKS? Some people have asked if they could make all the factions unite. Perhaps they could - against the Watcher :D

 

 

Being the only ship afloat could be an indicator too!

[omgFIREBALLS]

...obviously that's because I took care of the **** sinking ships indiscriminately. That's where I got the triumphs from too. I was just hanging them to dry.

 

P.S. Can always blame the Floating Hangman.

[FlintlockJazz]

Obviously you weren't committing acts of piracy. No no, proactive salvaging! You just keep coming across these flaming ships and, as the conscientious Watcher you go to rescue the cargo and crew. Unfortunately the crew always seem to fall into the sea with barrels full of rocks tied to their feet, but you know they wouldn't want their cargo to fall into the ocean but sold at a good port.

[PangaeaACDC]

Just an honest mistake. Eder was smoking a bit too close to the cannons, you see. Repeatedly. Accidents happen.

 

[KDubya]

Is there any way to decrease the time for a jibe?

 

Is there any way to maneuver to get to a 'crossing the T' position other than getting the enemy to turn away or towards you?

 

Does higher skill cannoneers reduce the reloading time?

 

I had a situation once where I shot out their sails and they turned to run leaving me with raking shots at my leisure with no chance of their moving or retaliation. Whenever I try and turn across them I just get raked myself. Makes shooting out their sails meaningless as they can still shoot you and trying to maintain a long range doesn't work well as when you jibe you switch sides for their guns as well as yours; no way to stay on their short ranged side and jibe where you shoot with both and they only can respond with one.

 

Trying to see if I can better set up a firing rhythm then:

1. fire port
2. jibe
3. jibe
4. jibe
5. half sail - to reduce firing penalties
6. fire starboard
7. jibe
8. jibe
9. jibe
10. half sail
11. fire and so on.

Works for a Junk or a Galleon with nine turns for reloading which is plenty for double bronzers.

 

A Dhow would get me:

1. fire port
2. jibe
3. jibe
4. half sail
5. fire starboard 
6. jibe
7. jibe
8. half sail
9. fire and so on

Gets me seven turns between firing which is one short of double bronzers. 

[PangaeaACDC]

Is there any way to decrease the time for a jibe?

 

Is there any way to maneuver to get to a 'crossing the T' position other than getting the enemy to turn away or towards you?

 

Does higher skill cannoneers reduce the reloading time?

 

Don't think it matters a jot, unfortunately. And maybe it's best that way. It's a big boat, so it makes sense they are slower to turn around than a dingy, and skill only gets you so far.

 

 

Why keep jibing back and forth like that, though? And for that matter, why double bronzers?

 

May as well stick with iron thunderers or royal bronzers and fire more frequently. Okay, admittedly with a fully-equipped junk with double bronzers you can probably just fire, jibe, fire -> win. But the distance "goldy locks" zone is more narrow on the double bronzers, and it's kinda nice to mostly be able to just turn around and fire from the start without needing to close distance.

 

Honestly, I'm very pleased with the Iron Thunderer cannons. Pretty good damage, great range (200-500m) and reloads in only 4 turns. If I were to upgrade, I'd probably go for the Imperial Long Gun instead. Better damage, not too bad reload speed, and fits better with Fire -> Jibe -> Stop -> Fire.

 

If I were to go for close distance instead, the Royal Bronzer looks like a fine choice.

 

This gets into min-max area, and I don't really like that. However, by comparing:

Iron Thunderer x2 (4 turns each) = 12-18 dmg

Double Bronzer x1 (8 turns each) = 12-15 dmg

 

...without the need to close to 250-350m first.

 

Wish we could buy a pack of Haeferic's Nose. That is one hell of a gun.

[Parasol_Syndicate]

Does higher skill cannoneers reduce the reloading time?

Don't think it matters a jot, unfortunately. And maybe it's best that way. It's a big boat, so it makes sense they are slower to turn around than a dingy, and skill only gets you so far.

 

 

Why keep jibing back and forth like that, though? And for that matter, why double bronzers?

 

May as well stick with iron thunderers or royal bronzers and fire more frequently. Okay, admittedly with a fully-equipped junk with double bronzers you can probably just fire, jibe, fire -> win. But the distance "goldy locks" zone is more narrow on the double bronzers, and it's kinda nice to mostly be able to just turn around and fire from the start without needing to close distance.

 

Honestly, I'm very pleased with the Iron Thunderer cannons. Pretty good damage, great range (200-500m) and reloads in only 4 turns. If I were to upgrade, I'd probably go for the Imperial Long Gun instead. Better damage, not too bad reload speed, and fits better with Fire -> Jibe -> Stop -> Fire.

 

If I were to go for close distance instead, the Royal Bronzer looks like a fine choice.

 

This gets into min-max area, and I don't really like that. However, by comparing:

Iron Thunderer x2 (4 turns each) = 12-18 dmg

Double Bronzer x1 (8 turns each) = 12-15 dmg

 

...without the need to close to 250-350m first.

 

Wish we could buy a pack of Haeferic's Nose. That is one hell of a gun.

 

 

Agreed on all accounts. All it took was some calculations in my head to see that sustained fire from the Thunderers was... if not optimal, very deadly. 

Considering that random hits can remove crew or hit the magazine, it behooves you to be firing all the time. I never even had time to jibe. 

 

And yes, I would pay a most immodest fee for more Haeferic guns.

[rhugga]

I'm level 12, and have yet to learn the ship-to-ship combat system. I usually avoid other ships, and when confronted just board directyl. However it costs so much to do so, in terms of repair and injury, so I'm thinking maybe the ship combat is a better way.

 

My question: I'm unsure if I need to invest in a bigger ship, or if it's enough to simple upgrade my own? I have 50.000 money, and some of the ships cost all of that.

 

Will my own small ship do just fine, or is it expected to get a bigger one at some point?

 

I have yet to lose a ship battle.

 

At the start, check the range or your weapons and his and adjust accordingly. Get within your maximum range. Fire, jibe, fire, jibe, fire. You'll win most battles this way.

[Big-Ben]

I bought the biggest boat available and it's rather comical how much more efficient it is at some things but worse at others (This goes without saying.). Early on I think it's safe to say your original ship is a good bet for a lot of things. But once you start leaking resources out of all your orifices because you have so much I don't see any reason not to upgrade. What you upgrade to is certainly your deal but I'm certainly not complaining about the biggest ship. Yes it takes more resources to manage but the trade off is that you can take on more threats.

 

Really it's up to you.

[KDubya]

 

Is there any way to decrease the time for a jibe?

 

Is there any way to maneuver to get to a 'crossing the T' position other than getting the enemy to turn away or towards you?

 

Does higher skill cannoneers reduce the reloading time?

 

Don't think it matters a jot, unfortunately. And maybe it's best that way. It's a big boat, so it makes sense they are slower to turn around than a dingy, and skill only gets you so far.

 

 

Why keep jibing back and forth like that, though? And for that matter, why double bronzers?

 

May as well stick with iron thunderers or royal bronzers and fire more frequently. Okay, admittedly with a fully-equipped junk with double bronzers you can probably just fire, jibe, fire -> win. But the distance "goldy locks" zone is more narrow on the double bronzers, and it's kinda nice to mostly be able to just turn around and fire from the start without needing to close distance.

 

Honestly, I'm very pleased with the Iron Thunderer cannons. Pretty good damage, great range (200-500m) and reloads in only 4 turns. If I were to upgrade, I'd probably go for the Imperial Long Gun instead. Better damage, not too bad reload speed, and fits better with Fire -> Jibe -> Stop -> Fire.

 

If I were to go for close distance instead, the Royal Bronzer looks like a fine choice.

 

This gets into min-max area, and I don't really like that. However, by comparing:

Iron Thunderer x2 (4 turns each) = 12-18 dmg

Double Bronzer x1 (8 turns each) = 12-15 dmg

 

...without the need to close to 250-350m first.

 

Wish we could buy a pack of Haeferic's Nose. That is one hell of a gun.

 

 

Jibing back and forth gets you to fire one side and then the other. Double bronzers might have a small range band but they hit harder than anything else and match well with the slow jibe speed of a Junk and Galleon.

 

With the 3 turn jibe taking 8 turns to reload lets you fire as fast as you turn. Anything that reloaded faster would be wasted unless you never jibed and just fired from one side but why do that?

 

With a two turn jibe like the Dhow you'd have seven turns between firing so you'd need to use something other than double bronzers or waste a turn in there.

[Casper]

my first character used the galleon, both broadsides had 2 batteries of royal bronze and wyrmstongue, the wyrmstongue's range was 0-400m and the bronze 150-400m, those royal bronze cannons do what... 8-11 damage with 4 rounds reload (iirc), and the wyrms did 6-9 with a chance to light stuff on fire, with a 5 round reload (also iirc). served me just fine. with blackwood hull, and storm... was it stormchaser sails? storm-whatever sails. had no issues.