Ideally this option should be comparable to spamming full speed until you can board. I'm going to assume that is Obsidian's ambition so I'll hold back on the nerdrage for now. ;p

 

I loaded an old save and took a voyager with a badass crew to challenge Fyrgist. Here's the prediction for using the charge option (which turned out to be correct, too):

19-38 Hull

6-19 Sails

1-3 Crew

 

But the average of 10 "manual" (full speed spam) charges is:

9.9 Hull

3.8 Sails

0.6 Crew

 

As you can see, the averages are below the predicted minimums. It might be the change didn't apply to my old save so I'll test again on a pure beta playthrough. But I'd still like to see the science of others.

 

I should also point out that charging with voyagers is generally painless because you close the distance so fast that most ships only get to fire once, and they have big time problems hitting you. Misses are more common than hits.

 

And you know, just my own attitude here, but as long as there's guaranteed crew damage I'm not pressing the charge button. Ship damage is much easier to recover from, unless you just wanna sail to port in which case they're all easy.

I stripped my ship of upgrades and reassigned crew duties so that everyone was perfectly incompetent at their job and the charge prediction was the same. Still not on a save that started in 1.2 though.

 

Edit: Also the same when I stripped the ship and reduced the crew to surgeon, cook and three slackers in the resting crew. Without minimum crew you automatically lose battles because you can't maneuver the ship. Apparently two healthcare professionals could manage it just fine though.

Edited June 28, 20187 yr by omgFIREBALLS

1.2.0 generated Watcher

 

Voyager vs. Rafiq the Red Beard (Dhow)

 

We were both four star captains which I think explains the variance I saw in the encounters, since we were evenly matched for wind advantage. That's how it works, right? Anyway...

 

Charge prediction:

18-36 Hull

6-18 Sails

1-2 Crew

 

I did three automatic charges and hull/sails were within that range but crew was actually 3, 3, 2. Perhaps more importantly, the charge prediction was unchanged even as I messed the ship up by unequipping upgrades and giving everyone bad jobs. Stormwind Sails were removed and the change in speed should certainly be reflected in the auto charge prediction. I'm not sure if the helmsman generally affects your chance to get hit or just with turn/jibe actions, but I went from expert helmsman to no helmsman in the process, which also didn't affect anything.

 

Results of 10 manual charges (hull/sails/crew) with optimized ship:

1: Didn't fire
2: 14/0/0 (1 hit)
3: 9/0/0 (1 hit - might have misread but only one cannonball hit and it did hull damage)
4: 14/0/0 (1 hit - he acted strangely here, first broadsided me then just kept moving forward, except given he had his side turned to me that action did nothing)
5: 36/0/0 (3 hits - same weird behavior here)
6: Didn't fire
7: Didn't fire
8: Fired but missed all three
9: Didn't fire
10: 14/0/0 (1 hit)

 

For the record, on the "Didn't fire" charges the exchange was that he didn't immediately turn to broadside but moved towards me before. When he was finally in position to do so I was very close and it seemed he didn't want to take the shot anymore but just turned to face me. On the attempts where he got shots off he turned for a broadside as his first action.

 

On no manual charge attempt did he get to fire at me twice, which would be required to do even the low end of damage in the prediction. He has three cannons and the maximum hull damage one ever did was 14. To do 18+ two cannons would have to hit the hull, which means the third could damage sail or crew but not both.

 

I can't say I've noticed any change from live, really.

Edited June 29, 20187 yr by omgFIREBALLS