How are people winning ship bounties on POTD? I am getting a flogging

[Teclis23]

Like the title says

 

Im playing on POTD and not using any figurines. I am resisting using figurines after they got the nerf.

 

I am getting beaten really easy on these boat fights how are you guys winning them?

 

Im getting focus fired with firearms bad

 

edit.....

 

Ahh i just figured out that some of the enemies on these bouties have like 13 AR

 

My weapons are hardly doing anything at all to them

Edited August 4, 2018 by Teclis23

[Boeroer]

You need more levels for boarding fights - or you need to shoot them to clump before you board. You can also just shoot the ship to pieces. You will still get the loot and the bounty.

[Teclis23]

You need more levels for boarding fights - or you need to shoot them to clump before you board. You can also just shoot the ship to pieces. You will still get the loot and the bounty.

Before the Figurines got nerfed I just summoned a wall of summons to act as a buffer then i had my casters buff and debuff

 

Cant do that anymore and man this is really really hard....

[anathanielh]

When you enter a ship battle you will notice a little number in the lower right on the enemy side. That is their crew number.

 

A ship will have crew in addition to its defenders. Crew can be injured, forcing them out of the fight if you decide to board, but defenders always stay. Your ship has the same thing, with your crew being able to get injured and your companions being defenders.

 

This means that before you board you should always whip out the grapeshot and try to weaken the enemy crew. That could be the difference between fighting 24 people and 12 people in some cases. You can see why those numbers would screw you on PotD, especially with the limited area you’re in during ship battles.

[pstone]

However fighting 24 people is quite fun. If you keep all companions and sidekicks up to date and well equipped, those fights can be won. However the DR is a bit high. I usually leave fighters for last due to high DR and regeneration ability. Use my main char with invisibility to get to the squishies (mages, priests, crew) and keep everyone else in my killzone (circle of protection, friendly chilil fog, paladin aura). Summoned Wurms (by Pellengina=pal/chanter) to focus crew and ranged. Also i give everyione 2 sets of weapons (including crush) to make sure i don't have to hit the highest AR... (learned that the hard way vs. steel construct)

Edited August 4, 2018 by pstone

[Insolentius]

... or you need to shoot them to clump before you board.

Did they actually fix that? Does the damage one deals to the enemy ship during the ship combat phase transfer over to the boarding phase (injuries to their crew members etc.)?

[anathanielh]

 

... or you need to shoot them to clump before you board.

Did they actually fix that? Does the damage one deals to the enemy ship during the ship combat phase transfer over to the boarding phase (injuries to their crew members etc.)?

Injuring enemy crew keeps them from fighting in battles. The ship’s defenders (mercenaries and proper fighters) will still be present.

[1TTFFSSE]

Ship boarding is fun but if you board (PotD)

-it favors a melee heavy party with no "squishies"

-you have to use grape shot  from your cannons ideally to injure their above deck crew before you board

-if you recruit all the companions and not just your main five and constantly upgrade their levels and give them proper builds and ai conditions it is also easy. 

[Teclis23]

Yeah right. Sounds like i got to:

 

- give my companions that arent in my party equipment? level them up and set AI

- Damage the crew with my cannons and then board?

 

This game is insanely fun by the way I havent had this much fun playing a game in years

Edited August 4, 2018 by Teclis23

[anathanielh]

Yeah right. Sounds like i got to:

 

- give my companions that arent in my party equipment? level them up and set AI

- Damage the crew with my cannons and then board?

 

This game is insanely fun by the way I havent had this much fun playing a game in years

I’ve never had to give my unused companions n sidekicks equipment, but adding them to your party to level them up every few hours is a good idea because they will have access to more skills and have higher hp. Edited August 4, 2018 by anathanielh

[Clawdius_Talonious]

I feel the need to point out that, even if you don't feel like gathering companions and sidekicks, you can hire adventurers to supplement your allies in these battles. On characters where I flesh out my actual party with adventurers I feel far more viable far earlier than on characters where I just take what I can find. You can make really well built allies by hiring adventurers, and pure chanters summons can really tip battles in your favor. The right synergies make certain multiclass builds extremely viable, and you can have as many as you want (although you only bring a handful of allies with you into ship battles and it's randomized. I'd personally rather they let me define boarding/defense parties in the ship HUD, maybe displaying all the potential party members and letting you highhlight which ones are most effective in battle so you don't have to just level everyone and keep everyone as well equipped as you possibly can).

 

The problem, in my experience, with ship battles is that it's hard to tell just which ship battles will let you bring a bunch of allies into the fight and which battles are just your party vs the enemy. I'm at a loss to explain why sometimes I get allies who aren't in my immediate party and sometimes I don't. Balance reasons I know, but given that you're e.g. fighting fire giants and if you lose then presumably your entire ship is going to be scuttled, it always seems super weird when everyone else on my ship says they'll be belowdecks drinking to my good health instead of contributing to the fight.

Edited August 4, 2018 by Clawdius_Talonious

[Teclis23]

Yeah you make a really good point here.

 

So the game randomly picks a mix of companions/ sidekicks and crew to help you fight on the deck with ship battles.

 

Are you saying that i can hire high level adventurers then dismiss them from my party and they will appear on deck in the ship battles?

 

If that is the case i would probably be better of with killing of eder, pallegina, serafen ect. This way i wont have them showing up and will have the high level adventurers on deck instead.

 

Anyone try this?

[Teclis23]

However fighting 24 people is quite fun. If you keep all companions and sidekicks up to date and well equipped, those fights can be won. However the DR is a bit high. I usually leave fighters for last due to high DR and regeneration ability. Use my main char with invisibility to get to the squishies (mages, priests, crew) and keep everyone else in my killzone (circle of protection, friendly chilil fog, paladin aura). Summoned Wurms (by Pellengina=pal/chanter) to focus crew and ranged. Also i give everyione 2 sets of weapons (including crush) to make sure i don't have to hit the highest AR... (learned that the hard way vs. steel construct)

And what is friendly chillfog? How do you do this doesnt it hit eveyone not just enemies?

[Clawdius_Talonious]

I mean, I haven't excluded the companions and sidekicks by not taking them or killing them off. That said, I am relatively certain that once you have the... I want to say 8? Once you have 8 allies the game can bring into battle if you only have those 8 or however many then the game will bring them in reliably. In theory you could make 8 adventurers 1 level below you who were all Chanters and they would all bring in their highest level summons almost as soon as the battle started.

 

The way experience works, though, it seems to just give you a lump sum and bring up the bottom line with a predetermined number. This means you can have 8 or 16 party members to choose from and they'll all get the same amount of XP from quests they aren't around to benefit from directly. That second hand XP might change, but if it does it's a subtle effect compared to "who do you have in your party when you turn in the quest" which has a more pronounced effect on how much XP they receive from quests. I've got a level 20 character whose allies aren't all level 19, so they could definitely hire a bunch of level 19 adventurers and presumably get all their companions and sidekicks killed and then everyone will be at least level 19. Since the highest level adventurers you can hire is always going to be 1 level under the PC and the bottom line of XP distributed among your crew seems to lag behind by more like 2-3 levels compared to your PC you could potentially see some short term benefits from murdering your other allies and hiring on some bloodthirsty adventurers.

 

The main thing is just to go to a tavern regularly, and swap out your crew in the tavern dialog, so you can level everyone up and double check their equipment to make sure they're using the best stuff you have laying around for them. If you haven't leveled an ally since they were level 6 they'll basically stay level 6 until you do, and then if they're pulled onto ship combat they're practically dead weight.

[KDubya]

Sinking the ship is still the easiest way, max double bronzers for the win!

[anathanielh]

Yeah you make a really good point here.

 

So the game randomly picks a mix of companions/ sidekicks and crew to help you fight on the deck with ship battles.

 

Are you saying that i can hire high level adventurers then dismiss them from my party and they will appear on deck in the ship battles?

 

If that is the case i would probably be better of with killing of eder, pallegina, serafen ect. This way i wont have them showing up and will have the high level adventurers on deck instead.

 

Anyone try this?

As far as I know, the game has always had all my crew and companions in ship battles. His crew may have been injured and not been able to fight, but companions/sidekicks basically show up no matter what, even if they’re knocked out during previous ship battles. (I never hired adventurers so maybe once you have too many companions it starts selecting them?)

I also wouldn’t kill off the companions (unless you’re RPing) because they gain levels while not in your party anyway. Just go to a tavern and swap them into your party to level them up and proceed to ignore them after that.

[baldurs_gate_2]

Like the title says

 

Im playing on POTD and not using any figurines. I am resisting using figurines after they got the nerf.

 

I am getting beaten really easy on these boat fights how are you guys winning them?

 

Im getting focus fired with firearms bad

 

edit.....

 

Ahh i just figured out that some of the enemies on these bouties have like 13 AR

 

My weapons are hardly doing anything at all to them

At least level 14 when you do it solo. Ignore the red, trading company and frynngard (or how this guys name is xd), there are two fighters with 12x deflection on the ship. Focus on crookspur slavers, they are not so hard and give good loot.

[Karkarov]

Uh you could always just play the ship combat mini game and sink them?  You realize all you lose by doing that is a little extra coin and such?  All the major loot such as Kapana Tanga will always be there regardless.  Also pay attention to the enemy ship in general, some captains and crew may also be higher level than yours too.

Glad to see obsidian is finally punishing people in some way for completely ignoring the entire ship combat game.

[anathanielh]

Uh you could always just play the ship combat mini game and sink them? You realize all you lose by doing that is a little extra coin and such? All the major loot such as Kapana Tanga will always be there regardless. Also pay attention to the enemy ship in general, some captains and crew may also be higher level than yours too.

 

Glad to see obsidian is finally punishing people in some way for completely ignoring the entire ship combat game.

I don’t think Obsidian is punishig anybody, but I do believe the just letting your ship duke it out with the other is faster than boarding.

[Karkarov]

 

Uh you could always just play the ship combat mini game and sink them? You realize all you lose by doing that is a little extra coin and such? All the major loot such as Kapana Tanga will always be there regardless. Also pay attention to the enemy ship in general, some captains and crew may also be higher level than yours too.

 

Glad to see obsidian is finally punishing people in some way for completely ignoring the entire ship combat game.

I don’t think Obsidian is punishig anybody, but I do believe the just letting your ship duke it out with the other is faster than boarding.

Always has been once you get a decent ship, with good guns, and good cannoneer's/gunners.  I sank the Deck of Many things yesterday just to see how hard it would be, took me roughly 2 minutes.

[M4xw0lf]

 

Always has been once you get a decent ship, with good guns, and good cannoneer's/gunners.  I sank the Deck of Many things yesterday just to see how hard it would be, took me roughly 2 minutes.

 

One broadside of double bronzers + one broadside of long guns.

[jww]

Early on with the starter ship and the four iron thunderers you can get cheap from doing the shipwright's quest in Neketaka, I've found that to be startlingly effective -- way more effective than the wyrmtongues I used through most of my playthroughs, and cheaper too. I would still switch to double bronzers after upgrading to a junk, due to the slow jibe speed, but with the starter ship and the iron thunderers, I was able to easily take down fully armed galleons with captains of a higher level than me.

 

Also, you can hit the space bar to continue when there are no options to select (it's safe, because when there are options to select, space bar won't do anything), and that can really increase ship combat speed. Basically space space space jibe space space space hold position space space space fire, repeat. If you manage to injure an opponent or cause a negative status on the first volley, you might set up a repeating pattern where the enemy never even fires.

Edited August 4, 2018 by jww

[Guest]

 

You need more levels for boarding fights - or you need to shoot them to clump before you board. You can also just shoot the ship to pieces. You will still get the loot and the bounty.

Before the Figurines got nerfed I just summoned a wall of summons to act as a buffer then i had my casters buff and debuff

 

Cant do that anymore and man this is really really hard....

The Story of How Figurines Came to be Nerfed

[Teclis23]

Im not a fan of the turn based ship combat so im going to try and avoid it. Its alot more fun fighting normaly.

[Gromnir]

Im not a fan of the turn based ship combat so im going to try and avoid it. Its alot more fun fighting normaly.

 

the thing is, potd actual makes the ship bounties your best early leveling option as 'posed to an insurmountable obstacle.  the turn-based ship combat does not appear to be affected by potd… 'least it weren't pre 2.0.  can do a substantial number o' bounties with the defiant sans any serious upgrades.  with a dhow and imperial long guns salvaged from shipwrecks at 0 cost to the player, you are able to overcome all but the most difficult adversaries and complete most bounties and acquire more than a few pieces o' superb gear all at whatever level you is after leaving port maje.  player level is not a concern in ship-to-ship combats, so do as much ship combat as soon as you get a ship is a practical way to level quick and acquire fancy gear. pre 2.0 we typical depopulate the deadfire waters o' any ships save merchants and the black isle bastards before we bother doing any quests.  

 

ship boarding efforts is, from our pov, a waste o' the best leveling option in the game.

 

HA! Good Fun!