I really dislike ship-to-ship combat

[PatrioticChief]

I think it is a lot better now that the information on what you are doing and what happened after you did it is clear. I still don't think they will have captured that base building magic that RPG seem to so consistently struggle with but I think it will be a lot more fun than Caed Nau ended up being. 

Edited April 2, 2018 by PatrioticChief

[Cheston]

This is way better!

 

Even more clarity w.r.t how your crew's skill levels affect things would be good. If it takes two turns to jibe, or I gain the wind advantage, having a better idea of why would be fun. Same goes for when out of combat- knowing what a good surgeon or cook is affecting would be great.

 

I still don't totally "get" what the Captain level means. Can you hover over it?

 

Holding position to get a cannon accuracy advantage is neat- adds a cool dynamic where you try to guess which turn you should hunker down on when the opposing ship is holding/loses the wind.

 

It still feels like it takes a bit too long to close on a ship if you just want to board. (I almost always want to board, it's very fun!)

 

I miss being able to detonate every other ship's powder stores at a glance, but I'll survive.

 

Bug: I didn't get any loot after boarding the ship with the Vithrak captain. :feelsbadman:

Edited April 2, 2018 by Cheston

[Wormerine]

Even more clarity w.r.t how your crew's skill levels affect things would be good. If it takes two turns to jibe, or I gain the wind advantage, having a better idea of why would be fun. Same goes for when out of combat- knowing what a good surgeon or cook is affecting would be great.

 

Yes, better feedback in no. 1 priority: what each order does exactly, what chances enemy has to hit me right now, how will my next move influence my aim, evasion damage potential.

 

Cook decreases amount of food consumed - in previous beta it would show it when hovered over food counter (amount of food consumed per day - cook bonus). Surgeons are supposed to decrease heal time.

 

Deckhands seem to influence top speed - in first battle I did, I moved at half maximum speed (I think it was around 36 fullsail, and 18 half sail) but once they levelled up the ship moved in full speed. Experienced cannoneers increase aim (by how much?). I assumed that long turn/jibe time is tied to helmsman level however this tweet by Josh suggest that it might be a feature of the ship:

https://mobile.twitter.com/jesawyer/status/979788920282992640

 

So you can have smaller, weaker but potentially faster and manouverable ships, or more sluggish ones with a greater firepower. I have no idea if it’s possible to accelerate manouvers with high level helmsman.

 

I still don't totally "get" what the Captain level means. Can you hover over it?

 

Captain level dictates how many orders per round a player can make. At least that’s how it was before. With movement not being restricted on round basis, rounds lost much of their meaning. If the system is still in, that would mean potential free moves taken by higher level captain but not much else. In addition to that, captain level is supposed to dictate chances of gaining “advantage” at the start of each round. 50-50roll if captains are the same level, and favouring higher level captains if they are not but by how much - I don’t know. Again, happy to see the “advantage” indicator, but a little more feedback would make it better - seeing roll being made and chances of it.

 

I miss being able to detonate every other ship's powder stores at a glance, but I'll survive.

 

Bug: I didn't get any loot after boarding the ship with the Vithrak captain. :feelsbadman:

Ha! But other special events are much more common. A big fan of those! Not much of an issue with full crew, but on vessels with less spare manpower those could be interesting.

 

Vithrak ship boarding was already bugged in previous build. Reported it and still no fix! Disgrace.

[dbn]

I would like to see a surrender button and/or the ability to exit the game when you know you're going to die. No sails and you're perpendicular to the enemy ship = a long and prolonged death.

[PatrioticChief]

I would like to see a surrender button and/or the ability to exit the game when you know you're going to die. No sails and you're perpendicular to the enemy ship = a long and prolonged death.

 

Good idea. Anyways, still fairly stoked for ships. I think it's a great idea and the execution seems pretty solid so far. 

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

I would like to see a surrender button and/or the ability to exit the game when you know you're going to die. No sails and you're perpendicular to the enemy ship = a long and prolonged death.

 

 

You can repair your sails, use the Report function. This needs to be made clearer in the UI,.

[Boeroer]

I want a surrender button for the enemy ship...

Exiting the game is fairly easy, even if nothing else reacts: alt+tab to desktop, right click on Deadfire, shut down.

[Wormerine]

I want a surrender button for the enemy ship...

Exiting the game is fairly easy, even if nothing else reacts: alt+tab to desktop, right click on Deadfire, shut down.

With beta 4 I find alt-tabbing really difficult. The game seems to hijack my screen and really doesn’t like to let go... which is an issue when I try to document bugs or it crashes.

 

It would be nice if enemies would surrender if they pretty much lost and have no hope of escaping.

 

I am super excited that the cannon ammo will be a thing for the final release. To be honest I am fairly satisfied with where the ship2ship combat will be at. It’s not FTL by any means, but it’s not a core of the game. Dabbling in ship combat while traveling around should be a fun addition. My biggest request for 1.0 is transparency of mechanics. I was thinking of starting a thread, describing in detail what each manouvers does and how it influecses defences and aim, but I cannot figure it out. Accuracy tends to jump between 0-100% and I really can’t figure out what are exact reasons.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

I want a surrender button for the enemy ship...

 

Exiting the game is fairly easy, even if nothing else reacts: alt+tab to desktop, right click on Deadfire, shut down.

 

 

Pet peeve but it bothers me how often the ships sink. Sawyer said in the stream Friday that ship hull health is higher now but a morale element might help too; ship crews were far more likely to surrender until the ship was exploded.

[M4xw0lf]

Only thing I ever do is sailing straight at the opponent ship and board it, which takes WAY too long.

[Wormerine]

Only thing I ever do is sailing straight at the opponent ship and board it, which takes WAY too long.

With more experience deckhands as well? At the start you move at half of maximum speed, due to inexperienced deckhands. 

 

Naturally, if you make it too easy to do boarding, it kinda looses a point of sea combat/boarding. Hopefully, there will be ships and ship upgrades which will make boarding easier/quicker for those who will want to specialise (aka. skip sea combat) in boarding.

[M4xw0lf]

I haven't taken the time so far to tinker with the crew - more or less the only way to do so right now is via console commands, right? Or are there enough ship encounters in the beta?

Edited April 8, 2018 by M4xw0lf

[PatrioticChief]

 

I want a surrender button for the enemy ship...

Exiting the game is fairly easy, even if nothing else reacts: alt+tab to desktop, right click on Deadfire, shut down.

With beta 4 I find alt-tabbing really difficult. The game seems to hijack my screen and really doesn’t like to let go... which is an issue when I try to document bugs or it crashes.

 

It would be nice if enemies would surrender if they pretty much lost and have no hope of escaping.

 

I am super excited that the cannon ammo will be a thing for the final release. To be honest I am fairly satisfied with where the ship2ship combat will be at. It’s not FTL by any means, but it’s not a core of the game. Dabbling in ship combat while traveling around should be a fun addition. My biggest request for 1.0 is transparency of mechanics. I was thinking of starting a thread, describing in detail what each manouvers does and how it influecses defences and aim, but I cannot figure it out. Accuracy tends to jump between 0-100% and I really can’t figure out what are exact reasons.

 

 

I have noticed this exact issue! It's weird because I had no issue with it in beta 3. Good for pointing that out. Maybe even make your own thread about it? I'd be interested in the explanation. 

[ShakotanSolari]

 My biggest request for 1.0 is transparency of mechanics. I was thinking of starting a thread, describing in detail what each manouvers does and how it influecses defences and aim, but I cannot figure it out. Accuracy tends to jump between 0-100% and I really can’t figure out what are exact reasons.

Agreed, I think my biggest issue with the ship combat system (and some other areas of gameplay) is the lack of transparency. Even after plenty of messing about it's still unclear exactly how some things are effected.

[Wormerine]

I haven't taken the time so far to tinker with the crew - more or less the only way to do so right now is via console commands, right? Or are there enough ship encounters in the beta?

It seems that XP gain for crew has been drastically increased in beta 4. Usually I am able to gain level after one ship2ship battle, and am able to use full speed on later encounters. At least it happened during my both playthoughs. Your milage can vary. 

 

I don't think there are any additonal ship items in beta (certainly no other ships). I know it was possible to spawn other cannon types via console commands, I don't think any of the items were found. 

 

I have noticed this exact issue! It's weird because I had no issue with it in beta 3. Good for pointing that out. Maybe even make your own thread about it? I'd be interested in the explanation. 

I am no data miner, and I have been trying to figure out mechanics via gameplay only. As there is no way to see ship's stats (evasion, accuracy bonus etc.) so it has been confusing. Certainly things are not consistent, which leads me to think that it might be tied to positioning and movement between both ships. For example, I have achieved some impressive 100% to hit after making a full-sail move in parellel to enemy ship. I believe it happened after he did a move in the same direction as well. It is possible that stats such as accuracy are tied to movement in relation to each other (you move sideways the same direction - good accuracy, enemy moves towards/away from you and you make a stop move - good accuracy etc.) But I wasn't able to confirm it. I lost my enthusiasm after learning that there are further changes being made to ship2ship combat, which means whatever is uncovered now will be probably out of date by release. Probably its simply better to wait for working tooltips.

[Lamppost in Winter]

From latest stream: you'll be able to immediately choose to rush to board the enemy ship in ship duels instead of doing it manually. You'll still take damage and crew injuries.

[malchiorita]

I just hope it wont be too much of a money sink to skip that tedious minigame and just go for the dock combat... I'm surprised they decided to implement such a predictably boring thing.

[Gfted1]

When you defeat another ship, do you just get some randomized loot, or do you get the entire ship that may be an upgrade to whatever your current ship is? Also, if it "sinks" do you get nothing?

[Ganrich]

When you defeat another ship, do you just get some randomized loot, or do you get the entire ship that may be an upgrade to whatever your current ship is? Also, if it "sinks" do you get nothing?

In the beta you get loot. In the full game they likely will do the same. It could really throw off the game's economy if they gave you a ship to sell everytime.

 

There may be some BOSS ships that you can take, but are the really big fights. Like an Alpine Dragon equivalent.

 

That's my guess anyway.

[mrmonocle]

josh said they've included the option to instantly rush the enemy ship to initiate the deck combat. You will still suffer the damage as if you were closing in normally, but at least you can do it in one click.

Edited April 26, 2018 by mrmonocle

[AndreaColombo]

^ frankly, best option ever. I like actual combat in this game, but ship combat was tedious. I’ll take the damage and kick some arse, then use the loot to repair my ship.

[Ganrich]

I realize it wouldve been costly, but I wish they would have created an open sea map and 4-5 maps with shoreline or rocky areas. These maps would change depending on where the encounter occurs. If in the middle of the ocean it loads open ocean, but if close to islands it would be a shoreline or some craggy areas. Then just let the ship combat use the RtwP system. Something more along the lines of Sid Meier's Pirates once combat starts.

 

They could have given us an ability to that lets us board enemy's when the ships are close, and had a few scenarios where we are up against more than one enemy. Son on and so forth.

 

I dont hate the ship combat, but I could see it being like Oblivion Gates in TES IV Oblivion and become incredibly tedious after a few.

[PneumaticFire]

I think it's fun until it gets repetitive.

 

Perhaps a solution would be to only have the ship-to-ship text encounters for high level ships/crews, almost like boss fights, or the occasional scripted interaction in other parts of the game. This way it would emphasise the importance of the battle.

 

Then your low to mid tier ships are instant board.

[PneumaticFire]

*double post*

Edited April 29, 2018 by PneumaticFire