Is there any point to naval combat?

[Vaneglorious]

So...yeah. After 20 hours in Deadfire, from my experience the naval battles are not only extremely tedious, but also unnecessarily way too long. Why should I bother with cannons, four on each side, when they take such a long time to fire and they miss 60% of the time anyway? Or why bother with any option other than full sail spam till I can board and it's quick fight above deck? I found myself struggling against lesser ships with my fully packed 100% upgraded galleon...so why bother at all? By far the most efficient tactic is just to spam 1. full sail and then board. Using cannons and stuff takes very long and not even effective. Plus, it's not even real time like in AC: Black Flag, so why bother either way?

 

What are your experiences?

[Clerith]

Any point? Some extra loot, that's about it.

 

Ship combat is extremely simple once you understand it. There are two ideal ways to go about it - max speed forward and board, and 5x Double Bronzer guns for 80-120 damage per volley. If the enemy ship is in ideal cannon range and you have stopped, good cannoneers should have 100% hit chance.

 

The idea behind sinking is that it gives you much more exp, so you can get a maxed out crew at level 5 or something, and go sink those level 15+ ships for superior and legendary loot or that unique item you really want early, when your combat level is still very low.

[Musahaladin]

It's a minigame for those who enjoy it that can be skipped if you don't I guess. Early on it's easier to sink them than fight them, and it's a good source of income. But later on it tends to drag on so I would just rush and board them.

[AeonsLegend]

Cannons don't miss when you hold position after turning. go from 55% chance to hit to 100%. The game doesn't explain this.

[Boeroer]

For me there's no point besides the loot. If there wasn't loot I would skip the whole ship stuff entirely (I mean besides using it to sail around of course).

[CelticMutt]

Any point? Some extra loot, that's about it.

 

Ship combat is extremely simple once you understand it. There are two ideal ways to go about it - max speed forward and board, and 5x Double Bronzer guns for 80-120 damage per volley. If the enemy ship is in ideal cannon range and you have stopped, good cannoneers should have 100% hit chance.

 

The idea behind sinking is that it gives you much more exp, so you can get a maxed out crew at level 5 or something, and go sink those level 15+ ships for superior and legendary loot or that unique item you really want early, when your combat level is still very low.

I don't see the point to double bronzers.  Every time I tried to use them it failed.  Enemies always know what cannons you have (just like you know theirs), and so automatically know the narrow range of the DBs.  If you stay just out of max range then turn, the enemy never comes closer and you get accuracy penalties.  If you get within the range band then turn the enemy rushes you, and you're lucky if you can get even a single shot off, with accuracy penalties.

 

Royal bronzers or wormtongues are the way to go IMO.

[flamesium]

No it's pretty pointless because they introduced a skip to win button.

 

I found enemies seemed less inclined to charge if I didn't have a weak spot in cannon range which they could get inside of. Think I ended up with all long range cannons (I forget the name) on one side of the ship, and a mix of double bronzers and wormtongues on the other. Usually I would wreck their sails and crew from long range, then sink them at my leisure.

[mrmonocle]

@op

 

'xcept for draining your cash - no.

[Vaneglorious]

I see.

 

I want to also add that the enemy ships very frequently do raking hits on my ship with half of the same cannons I have. Kinda lame lol. I usually just rush to board and end it fast with my fists.

[AeonsLegend]

Thing I did was before I went to Neketaka I avoided most naval combat and while exploring Neketaka I accumulated such a vast amount of money that I was able to buy a junk with the best weapons before leaving. Naval combat was over in a few turns even vs experienced/heavily armed ships. Never needed to board either.

Edited June 3, 2018 by AeonsLegend

[baldurs_gate_2]

So...yeah. After 20 hours in Deadfire, from my experience the naval battles are not only extremely tedious, but also unnecessarily way too long. Why should I bother with cannons, four on each side, when they take such a long time to fire and they miss 60% of the time anyway? Or why bother with any option other than full sail spam till I can board and it's quick fight above deck? I found myself struggling against lesser ships with my fully packed 100% upgraded galleon...so why bother at all? By far the most efficient tactic is just to spam 1. full sail and then board. Using cannons and stuff takes very long and not even effective. Plus, it's not even real time like in AC: Black Flag, so why bother either way?

 

What are your experiences?

Loot + Bounty and some Experience are the reasons. I tried the ship battle once, but i don't like it so i just enter the enemy ship.

[dunehunter]

If both naval combat and onboarding has same amount of rewards I will choose naval combat. Now? 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 and kill everyone on enemy ship.

[KDubya]

Once your cannoneers get some experience firing from inside or outside your optimal range is not too bad. The key is to hold position after jibing.

 

I had a Junk with one wormtongue and four double bronzers per side and it sank things in two or three volleys. The time to jibe and hold matched the reload time so nothing was wasted.

 

Much easier than a ship battle when you are low level. Five guys shooting my Monk would drop him at the start until I got to 10+ or so.

[CelticMutt]

If both naval combat and onboarding has same amount of rewards I will choose naval combat. Now? 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 and kill everyone on enemy ship.

It's not quite the same amount of rewards.  You only get ship stuff like cannons or I think ship resources if you board.

[baldurs_gate_2]

Once your cannoneers get some experience firing from inside or outside your optimal range is not too bad. The key is to hold position after jibing.

 

I had a Junk with one wormtongue and four double bronzers per side and it sank things in two or three volleys. The time to jibe and hold matched the reload time so nothing was wasted.

 

Much easier than a ship battle when you are low level. Five guys shooting my Monk would drop him at the start until I got to 10+ or so.

With Deadlight / Dunnage and Neketaka quests you surely can reach level 13 - 14. A bit lower when you don't start with Level 4. So i don't do any ship battles until then.

[QuiteGoneJin]

I never quite seem to do it right, though ive only gotten to lvl 10 and restarted over and over (on purpose till this balance patch came). I tried the 4x wormtongue and got in range, seems to work half the time. Wouldnt mind getting a different range of guns on either side so i have one long range side to my ship and one really close, idk if thats a sound strat though, tbh I dont mind the ship combat so much. But whenever i see the choose your own adventure pages in this game my own imagination adds a lot of rp that doesnt really happen cause im a DnD nerd. PS my next session for my Drunken Dwarven Battlemaster is tonight, cant wait (pen and paper 5e I mean). 

[zendingo]

I've found the ship combat to be extremely easy once I understood what I was doing. You can do very well right at the beginning of the game with your starting ship if you buy 4 of the cannons with range up to 600 (I forget the name). Get the cheapest crew you can, preferably with 1 star in the skill you want them to use and no stars in other skills (so they can max out at 4 stars in that skill). You turn, fire, jibe, hold, fire, rinse and repeat. Your range is excellent so you can usually sink them before they have a chance to do much in return. This will work on all but the highest level enemy ships.

 

Later I bought the most expensive ship (junk) with 10 of the big damage guns (12-15 a hit - again I can't remember the name). Both the ship and guns are slower, so they work well together just like the faster ship with the faster long range guns. This setup 1-shots anything with 80 hull and 2-shots anything with 120 hull, but has lower range so you have to go full steam ahead at the beginning of combat to get into range, then turn and fire. It doesn't really matter if they try to charge you or shoot you since you just explode them before they can accomplish whatever it is they are trying to do.

Edited June 3, 2018 by zendingo

[AeonsLegend]

I've found the ship combat to be extremely easy once I understood what I was doing. You can do very well right at the beginning of the game with your starting ship if you buy 4 of the cannons with range up to 600 (I forget the name). Get the cheapest crew you can, preferably with 1 star in the skill you want them to use and no stars in other skills (so they can max out at 4 stars in that skill). You turn, fire, jibe, hold, fire, rinse and repeat. Your range is excellent so you can usually sink them before they have a chance to do much in return. This will work on all but the highest level enemy ships.

 

Later I bought the most expensive ship (junk) with 10 of the big damage guns (12-15 a hit - again I can't remember the name). Both the ship and guns are slower, so they work well together just like the faster ship with the faster long range guns. This setup 1-shots anything with 80 hull and 2-shots anything with 120 hull, but has lower range so you have to go full steam ahead at the beginning of combat to get into range, then turn and fire. It doesn't really matter if they try to charge you or shoot you since you just explode them before they can accomplish whatever it is they are trying to do.

Where did you get 12-15 damage guns? I couldn't find any guns better than 8-11 anywhere. And the best gun I had was Haefrics nose because of range and damage. The other ones were Royal Bronzer, but they have a range of 400.

[zendingo]

Where did you get 12-15 damage guns? I couldn't find any guns better than 8-11 anywhere. And the best gun I had was Haefrics nose because of range and damage. The other ones were Royal Bronzer, but they have a range of 400.

Ok I had to load up the game to look this up, but they are called double bronzers.

 

Range is 250-350, reload time 8 turns, damage 12-15.

 

I checked Neketaka and they sell them for 700 each.

[AeonsLegend]

 

Where did you get 12-15 damage guns? I couldn't find any guns better than 8-11 anywhere. And the best gun I had was Haefrics nose because of range and damage. The other ones were Royal Bronzer, but they have a range of 400.

Ok I had to load up the game to look this up, but they are called double bronzers.

 

Range is 250-350, reload time 8 turns, damage 12-15.

 

I checked Neketaka and they sell them for 700 each.

 

Ah yea, I do remember them, but I never got them because the range forces me to move forward 3 turns in a row in most fights before I can shoot effectively with them.Although with more experienced gunners 400 range should be sufficient. What's your experience? Your example works with the movement as well. Fire -> Jibe (3 turns) -> hold (1 turn) -> Fire (1 turn) -> Jibe (3 turns) -> hold (1 turn) (9 turns so guns are reloaded) -> Fire.

[zendingo]

Ah yea, I do remember them, but I never got them because the range forces me to move forward 3 turns in a row in most fights before I can shoot effectively with them.Although with more experienced gunners 400 range should be sufficient. What's your experience? Your example works with the movement as well. Fire -> Jibe (3 turns) -> hold (1 turn) -> Fire (1 turn) -> Jibe (3 turns) -> hold (1 turn) (9 turns so guns are reloaded) -> Fire.

 

I think they work great in conjunction with the slower ship so the timing of the reload lines up with the turn speed of the ship as you noted. The firepower can just be overwhelming. In this setup you might want to invest in hull and sails that give the most health (red dream hull/gulskin sails).