Wyrmtongue cannons don't set fires?

[andargor 1]

I've searched threads and reddit but can't find a definitive answer. I've fought three ships exclusively with wyrmtongues, no fires were ever set, even during 10 round fights.

Are wyrmtongues bugged?

[Boeroer 15,248]

I believe the fire ammo wasn't implemented properly. Doesn't work as you would think at all.

It could be that they would cause fire if they trigger a special effect on hit (like cannonballs can injure crew members, cause cargo loss, tosses somebody overboard etc.). Those special effects occur a lot more often with experienced cannoneers (master "4-star" trigger those events pretty often). So maybe Wyrmtongue and similar weapon will always cause fire events then (which are more severe than most others).

Edited January 16 by Boeroer

[andargor 1]

Yeah, I was using 3 and 4 star canonneers and... nothing. Unfortunate. Thanks.

[Helz 83]

I don't know the odds, but Wormtongue cannons do start fires. To test, I equipped 1 side of my ship with 4 wormtongues and 1 hullbreaker. In one fight, the first volley caused "loose cargo", the second started a deck fire AND a sail fire, the third caused flooding, and the last two did regular damage. All specials were caused by wormtongue cannons.

I use hullbreakers because they do twice as much damage and reload faster. The specials are effective because all crew comes topside to make repairs, exposing them to grape shot, but they complete the repairs before the wormtongues are ready to fire again. On a smaller ship, jibing and firing from the other side would work, but fewer cannons means its less likely RNG will work in your favor.

[andargor 1]

6 hours ago, Helz said:

I don't know the odds, but Wormtongue cannons do start fires. To test, I equipped 1 side of my ship with 4 wormtongues and 1 hullbreaker. In one fight, the first volley caused "loose cargo", the second started a deck fire AND a sail fire, the third caused flooding, and the last two did regular damage. All specials were caused by wormtongue cannons.

I use hullbreakers because they do twice as much damage and reload faster. The specials are effective because all crew comes topside to make repairs, exposing them to grape shot, but they complete the repairs before the wormtongues are ready to fire again. On a smaller ship, jibing and firing from the other side would work, but fewer cannons means its less likely RNG will work in your favor.

I get more fires with double bronzers, including double fires such as hull and sails. Fairly often too with 4 stars. Actually I get infinitely more fires than with wyrmtongues, since with them I got a total of... 0!

Also, just tried Magranite Firethrowers, and they set... 0 fires. Totally broken, and disappointing. I wanted to try a Firethrower Voyager that can dictate distance, no dice.

 

[thelee 1,910]

To clarify, they only set fires if an event is triggered. At 1 or less starts for a cannoneer, it's a 0% chance of an event. And it's not guaranteed, it is merely a heightened chance.

 

Fire ammo also has the unfortunate effect that you cannot aim it (despite what you pick in the firing menu); it targets randomly. It will avoid attacking things that will have no effect (whereas grapeshot will continue to re-damage sailors who are already damaged, to no effect).

Wyrmtongue is a bit of a garbage weapon, its main benefit is that it has no minimum range, but some of the basic cannons have a minimum range that is so low (150m) that it's not that much of an advantage for wyrmtongue to have 0 minimum range, especially since AI will frequently try to charge once you're below 100m. That being said,

16 hours ago, andargor said:

Also, just tried Magranite Firethrowers, and they set... 0 fires. Totally broken, and disappointing. I wanted to try a Firethrower Voyager that can dictate distance, no dice.

Magranite Firethrowers on the other hand are pretty OP. They have insane DPS. Put them on your basic ship or a voyager (ones that can turn around in 1 round) and just dance around 100m. Hold steady in between shots for super high accuracy. Even with 2star cannons, the frequency of events will be such that the AI on occasion won't be able to do much other than constantly try to shuffle crewmembers around.

For a slower ship (2-turn turn), you can still make use of them, you just have to stay further out around 125m or so to buy yourself time to react if the AI decides to close the distance. Fortunately having more cannon slots (3+) means all the more DPS. Holding in between each shot and having good cannoneers (3+ star) becomes more important.

Edited January 19 by thelee

[Boeroer 15,248]

Flamethrower is very nice if you have a Voyager: sail really close to the enemy, then jibe and present your lecker Achterwerk (aka stern) while you spit fire. If the enemy wants to close to boarding you can quickly sail farther away without any turn. Then stop and repeat. If the enemy hasn't cannons for very short range he's done.

In one playthrough I used this technique to sink all ships with no other upgrade than Palm Wind Sails and two long range cannons in the bow (for those enemies with short range weapons). 

[andargor 1]

That's precisely what I was wanting to try, but even with 4 star canonneers, I wasn't getting anything with Firethrowers.

I've been trying to mod the chance of a fire, but looking at the data and the docs, it doesn't seem to be possible. The closest I can get is removing all other events except the fire ones, so if it's an event, it will be a fire.

[thelee 1,910]

9 minutes ago, andargor said:

That's precisely what I was wanting to try, but even with 4 star canonneers, I wasn't getting anything with Firethrowers.

is this hyperbole here?

because i honestly find this perplexingly hard to believe, since i've used the magranite flamehtrowers to great effect in multiple runs

[andargor 1]

11 minutes ago, thelee said:

is this hyperbole here?

because i honestly find this perplexingly hard to believe, since i've used the magranite flamehtrowers to great effect in multiple runs

I wish. To reiterate, I seriously have not had any fires set by vanilla use of the Firethrowers or Wyrmtongues with 4 star cannoneers in multiple engagements, some lasting up to 12 rounds.