So, ship combat - kind of rigged in favor of the enemies

[Boeroer]

It's a lot quicker and easier to get the items if you don't board. Boarding fights are repetitive and boring after a while as well. Ship fights at least are quick (most of the time) and give you the opportunity to gain a lot of XP and items you otherwise can't get (because the enemy crew's level is too high for boarding).

[Verde]

Ship combat isn't slow, boring, and repetitive? Turn. Shoot. Jibe. You do the exact same thing every time. At least in combat you face different enemies and can use different teammates. I mean come on Boeroer!

Edited October 31, 2018 by Verde

[Boeroer]

I didn't say that. 

 

Boarding fights are repetitive and boring after a while as well.

 

That implies that ship-to-ship fights are also boring and repetitive.

 

My point was that they are faster and you can get loot earlier (because char level plays no role in ship-to-ship combat).

 

So I think I don't have to come on anything.

Edited October 31, 2018 by Boeroer

[Mallard]

Perhaps the following change could be made:

 

- An enemy ship is gradually repaired as it travels the world map

 

- When an enemy ship flees, it spawns some distance from you

 

- When an enemy ship flees, it sets course to an appropriate port (Dunnage for Principi, Neketaka for VTC, RDC, Huana)

    - Upon reaching port, the enemy ship disappears from the map

    - After a suitable amount of time (several days?) the ship respawns at that port, fully repaired, and resumes its original route

[Archaven]

This is my feel on ship combat. I have no idea why but my chances to hit with cannon are high and occasionally I get misses. Not to mention the damage it dealt sometimes bad but also instead of hitting hull, it hit the deck or sail with chainshot.

 

On the other hand enemy that has -15 chance to hit me hit most of the time and dealt alot of damage!. Bear in mind I'm aware of the shop distance, what cannon im using, etc.

 

Enemy ships seems to have hidden or undocumented buffs in their to hit and damage. Just like the normal fight encounters, those enemies have very high ACC. You get easily hit even your DEF are over 90-100.

 

In other words Obsdian difficulty = AI cheating

Edited November 1, 2018 by Archaven

[Insidous]

This is my feel on ship combat. I have no idea why but my chances to hit with cannon are high and occasionally I get misses. Not to mention the damage it dealt sometimes bad but also instead of hitting hull, it hit the deck or sail with chainshot.

 

On the other hand enemy that has -15 chance to hit me hit most of the time and dealt alot of damage!. Bear in mind I'm aware of the shop distance, what cannon im using, etc.

 

Enemy ships seems to have hidden or undocumented buffs in their to hit and damage. Just like the normal fight encounters, those enemies have very high ACC. You get easily hit even your DEF are over 90-100.

 

In other words Obsdian difficulty = AI cheating

 

I am pretty sure they don't, even on potd. The only value affected by higher difficulty is a close to board damage multiplier, which I don't really consider part of ship combat.

Maybe their cannoneers have higher level, or you shoot while they move and they only when you stand?

 

Also keep in mind that every ship type has a hidden "Hittability" value (junk 70, galleon/dhow 60, voyager 55, sloop 50, longship 40)

[thelee]

 

This is my feel on ship combat. I have no idea why but my chances to hit with cannon are high and occasionally I get misses. Not to mention the damage it dealt sometimes bad but also instead of hitting hull, it hit the deck or sail with chainshot.

 

On the other hand enemy that has -15 chance to hit me hit most of the time and dealt alot of damage!. Bear in mind I'm aware of the shop distance, what cannon im using, etc.

 

Enemy ships seems to have hidden or undocumented buffs in their to hit and damage. Just like the normal fight encounters, those enemies have very high ACC. You get easily hit even your DEF are over 90-100.

 

In other words Obsdian difficulty = AI cheating

 

I am pretty sure they don't, even on potd. The only value affected by higher difficulty is a close to board damage multiplier, which I don't really consider part of ship combat.

Maybe their cannoneers have higher level, or you shoot while they move and they only when you stand?

 

Also keep in mind that every ship type has a hidden "Hittability" value (junk 70, galleon/dhow 60, voyager 55, sloop 50, longship 40)

 

 

I'm pretty sure this is also faulty memory at play. Gamers reasoning about probability tends to be very vulnerable to selective memory, because you don't take notice of all the times when you had 60% accuracy and hit or when the enemy had 15% accuracy and missed; you only remember the times where you miss three times in a row or the enemy his you twice in a row.

 

One of my ship-to-ship approaches was just to stick with the defiant, get some iron thunderers, and stay at 550-600 feet and just jibe back and forth firing at the ship, while sailing forward at full speed while waiting to recovery from the jibe's accuracy penalties. I can tell you from having knocked out literally every enemy ship this way that enemy accuracy on PotD is just fine and doesn't get any kind of insane boost.

Edited November 1, 2018 by thelee

[Boeroer]

Same strategy - just with double bronzers. But doesn't really matter. Sloop is enough to sink all ships on the map.

[Ophiuchus]

IMHO, there should be conditions that can force the AI to surrender... "hand me your triumph and never return to these waters" for the good-aligned Watchers.

Edited November 1, 2018 by Ophiuchus

[Verde]

Same strategy - just with double bronzers. But doesn't really matter. Sloop is enough to sink all ships on the map.

And that's one reason why ship combat is so dull and boring.

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

You don't even need to spend money... the two starting Hog Noses can do it. 

[rjshae]

I don't know about rigged, but the system makes absolutely no logical sense. If I take out the enemy sails, it still says the enemy ship is moving. I've had the ships pointed in opposite directions and yet they remain at the same range from each other. I guess they're circling each other? If I fire enough grapeshot to butcher the entire crew many times over, the enemy almost instantly recovers and keeps firing with the same efficacy. If I break contact then quickly re-engage, the enemy is completely repaired. It's getting silly.

Edited November 8, 2018 by rjshae

[thelee]

I don't know about rigged, but the system makes absolutely no logical sense. If I take out the enemy sails, it still says the enemy ship is moving. I've had the ships pointed in opposite directions and yet they remain at the same range from each other. I guess they're circling each other? If I fire enough grapeshot to butcher the entire crew many times over, the enemy almost instantly recovers and keeps firing with the same efficacy. If I break contact then quickly re-engage, the enemy is completely repaired. It's getting silly.

 

high-level ship combat is really borked, unfortunately. High-level enemy surgeons are so effective that even with a full set of grapeshot-firing cannons they can heal back their deckhands real fast. there's basically no reason to just cannonball away at that point.

 

there really needs to be a way to do more precision offense/defense; hoping to randomly take out their surgeon or hoping to randomly brace for impact when it would've been relevant is not great.

[abaris]

 

 

I am pretty sure they don't, even on potd. The only value affected by higher difficulty is a close to board damage multiplier, which I don't really consider part of ship combat.

Maybe their cannoneers have higher level, or you shoot while they move and they only when you stand?

 

Also keep in mind that every ship type has a hidden "Hittability" value (junk 70, galleon/dhow 60, voyager 55, sloop 50, longship 40)

 

 

That's not the real problem though it certainly seems to be the case. I got instances where the enemy ship flees, insta repairs and heals only to attack again at the very next moment. Obviously in full AI knowledge that you, the player, can't work magic to be at full strength again.