The Ship combat thread

[Culack]

I think that for a game built around island hopping, with a pirateish pacific islander feal the ship to ship combat is very lacking. There are plenty of ship based games that have compabt and could have been emulated, from Sid's Pirates to Age of Sail. The fact that ship combat, while not something that should be a major component of the game, should not take up too much time but should require more than a few keyboard strokes and hoping for luck of the digital dice. Most of the time I don't even bother with the combat, I just charge and board the shop as NOTHING else I do (killing the sails to bombarding the ship with grapeshot) seems to ever actually affect boarding parties.

[Michael_Galt]

Honestly, I found that just closing to board was ultimately the best tactic.  I would just keep on moving directly at them until I got to closing distance and then board.  Mind you, I did spend most of my time just sailing around exploring and getting sailing experience doing that (and finding stuff) and also building up my party before I ever started engaging in the ship combat.  Just getting to them and boarding always resulted in pretty minimal damage, since they would only have a couple of opportunities to fire their cannons before I got to them.  That meant less damage to my ship and fewer injuries to my crew.  I MANUALLY closed that distance, didn't do the automatic closing.  I got plenty of treasure from boarding and defeating them, and decent experience for the crew.  Might have got more had I tried ship battles... but did that a few times and it was just too long and drawn out.  And even if you win that, you just used lots of ammunition, and probably have to do repairs.  When you just get close and board them, you usually end up getting more naval supplies than you actually used to attack them, as opposed to vice versa.  Plus, why would you want to risk losing all that loot?? 

[Karkarov]

Also uh long term once you have a crew of expert or better cannoners/gunners, and a lot of money...  Get yourself a junk and a full compliment of Double Bronzers.

 

You thought ship combat was slow?  With that ship, my gunners, and those cannons I typically win every ship encounter in 5-6 moves.  I just close to "near" 350, 400-450 is close enough.  Do my turn to port or starboard if needed, do a hold order, fire all guns with normal cannonballs once, jibe, hold when done, fire all guns on the opposite side with normal cannonballs again.  I probably just won right there.

I fought one galleon with 135 HP once and I had to use a third salvo, but that was the only time.  Two would have been enough but two shots hit the sails :/.

[Wodehouse_44]

Also uh long term once you have a crew of expert or better cannoners/gunners, and a lot of money...  Get yourself a junk and a full compliment of Double Bronzers.

 

You thought ship combat was slow?  With that ship, my gunners, and those cannons I typically win every ship encounter in 5-6 moves.  I just close to "near" 350, 400-450 is close enough.  Do my turn to port or starboard if needed, do a hold order, fire all guns with normal cannonballs once, jibe, hold when done, fire all guns on the opposite side with normal cannonballs again.  I probably just won right there.

 

I fought one galleon with 135 HP once and I had to use a third salvo, but that was the only time.  Two would have been enough but two shots hit the sails :/.

I prefer the wyrmtongue canons, because they start fires.

[The Sharmat]

How does one maneuver so you're facing the opposite set of guns on an enemy ship? A number of times I've entered combat, noticed the enemy ships starboard guns are all long range and their port guns are all short range I want to maneuver such that I'm facing their port guns but no amount of jibing, turning, or speeding ahead does it. I'm always facing their starboard side. Am I missing something obvious?

[ShivaX]

The only problem I have with ship combat is that there is no lateral movement.

 

Example:  You're port to port against an enemy ship and they have no sails.  

 

There is no way to pull ahead of them and get around to their bow or stern.  Going forward doesn't change the range, so your options are just to exchange fire.  It feels wonky.  I get that it would be more complex if they tried to deal with it, but it would also be a lot more satisfying and interesting.  Taking out the other ship's sails and pulling astern of them should be a viable option as they sit dead in the water.  As it is, taking out sails is mostly meaningless.  As long as they have their port or starboard to you, it's meaningless.

[Karkarov]

I prefer the wyrmtongue canons, because they start fires.

Fair enough, I prefer the Double Bronzers cause I can sink any ship in the game in 2-3 volleys whether I cause a special effect or not.

 

I actually found one ship (I think it is a Magran worshiper one) that had what I feel may be the best gun in the game.  Some sort of fire cannon that only did two less damage than a double bronzer, but reloaded in 4 rounds.  It also had an optimum range of 0-400, meaning your enemy can never be so close you are out of optimum range. 

 

I don't know if you can actually get one for yourself though :/.  There is one gun arguably better though, good old Haefric's Nose.  200-600 meter range, equal damage to a double, 4 round reload.  That's a gun!

[kenelis]

For those who have completed the game, is ship combat a requirement, i.e. there will be story elements that require you to win a ship battle?

 

Basically I want to know if it's necessary to level up the crew / upgrade the ship / improve my ship battle knowledge, or if I can just skip this altogether and finish the game in the Defiant. I only care about the on-foot part of the game.

[M4xw0lf]

I have to say, ship combat is growing on me after a few tries. I up(/side)graded to a Voyager for best exploration speed, and the faster speed and the forward facing cannons reduce the combat rounds quite a bit (since I always go for boarding).

[Aotrs Commander]

I started enjoying the first ship combat, until I had crippled the enemy ship and wgile trying to clear the decks, my crew missed about ten times in a row and I ended up being sunk by the enemy ship.

 

One reload later (and getting more than the basic crew), and reading this thread, I managed much better and it was fun again.

 

Two issues, though - how the merry heck do you maneouvre around an enemy ship? If the enemy ship has one gun one one side and two on the other, how (can you - and if not, whay not?) sail around to that side? Or can you move cannons around with the "report to.." order and thus render it pointless?

 

Second - is there any point trying to clear the enemy ship's above deck crew, particularly? Shooting down the sails is a given, but I've been trying to clear the decks - with and eye to taking a prize ship or swapping ships or whatever. Doesn't apper to work (even when I boarded it, I didn't get the ship). Is there an actual point  to doing that, or do you get the same loot/XP if you sink it as you do if you board it (regardless of how many dudes you wound hurting the above-deck crew)?

[daven]

I've been playing about 10 hours and still haven't even had a ship battle..? Every ship just seems to be a merchant.

[Selky]

I'm glad that spamming 1 and boarding is a viable tactic, having to fight properly would get old really fast.

[Starwars]

I kinda like the ship-combat but it feels very... barebones in a way and not extremely satisfying. It feels like a solid foundation but there's not much depth to be had in it I think. Like someone said, if there were more movement, if there were a wind mechanic, if enemies could choose to surrender, or if there like special events that could happen where you make use of your companions or crew (don't mind the events where the hull is leaking or whatever)... then it'd feel a bit more dynamic.

It feels a bit stale to me which is a shame.

 

I hope the entire seafaring system gets some love in patches. I love the idea of it and, like I said, it's a nice foundation. But I hope they will maybe introduce more special events while out on the high seas, maybe toughen up the resource management aspect (or have an option to have like "Hardcore" sailing difficult or something). It feels like it could be a great thing on its own but right now it is too easy to manage it so it becomes sort of pointless aside from the "feel" of it all. I mean, ever since I got my ship my crew morale went up very quickly and for the whole game, it's been sitting at 80+ easily.

 

So yeah, I hope there will be improvements and additions to it in the future.

 

EDIT: Something they succeeded with, at least in terms of how I play the game, is the pacing of how often I get into ship combat though. For me, it's never happened enough that I just get tired of it, it always feels kinda fresh when I get into it which is nice. Though I don't really go on a bounty spree, I could see it becoming old fast if you do a whole slew of ship bounties after one another.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Starwars

[E.RedMark]

Ugh..I'm with that about ship combat . BUT..you can just 'CHARGE!' which what I do ! 

 

- hate the stupid english-italian accent

- hate the inclusion of unknown words that you constanly have to hover to see what the NPC is talking about

 

can't agree there . I like it and it make the game unique . And they even bothered to give us a translation! How many time anyone bother to do that ! (ex: elfish fish stuff for exemple !) 

[Darsi]

 

I prefer the wyrmtongue canons, because they start fires.

Fair enough, I prefer the Double Bronzers cause I can sink any ship in the game in 2-3 volleys whether I cause a special effect or not.

 

I actually found one ship (I think it is a Magran worshiper one) that had what I feel may be the best gun in the game.  Some sort of fire cannon that only did two less damage than a double bronzer, but reloaded in 4 rounds.  It also had an optimum range of 0-400, meaning your enemy can never be so close you are out of optimum range. 

 

I don't know if you can actually get one for yourself though :/.  There is one gun arguably better though, good old Haefric's Nose.  200-600 meter range, equal damage to a double, 4 round reload.  That's a gun!

 

Wyrmtongue cannons are the fire cannons that have 0-400 range, they're pretty awesome.

[Glurak]

Mh i have zero problems with the ship fights and they dont  need much time to be done when you playing them right.   

 

for the made up words: I like them. They getting me more in this fantasy world with his own rules, history and and and. More immersive

[tela2k]

For those who have completed the game, is ship combat a requirement, i.e. there will be story elements that require you to win a ship battle?

 

Basically I want to know if it's necessary to level up the crew / upgrade the ship / improve my ship battle knowledge, or if I can just skip this altogether and finish the game in the Defiant. I only care about the on-foot part of the game.

 

Since I can't find the spoiler tag I'll just answer this in short:

Safest thing is to upgrade your ship and crew, there's a part that's a bit like ME2 if you've played that one.

[Elerond]

Ship to ship combat is fun minigame and it is quite simple and easy. Only thing in which I am bit disapointed is fact that when you have junk with best upgrades, then boarding enemy ships is usually most effective way to go, as it usually takes 4-5 turns to get boarding range , which is same time is it takes to shoot one salvo of cannonballs, although full broadside of Double Bronzers usually sink enemy ship too.

[CarrO]

I like it except for two things:

 

-boarding is always better since it gives you more loot

 

-so many enemy ships, even high level ones with 4 star captains, are missing guns and crew.

 

I fought this one named pirate (not principi) that had a big ship (80+ hull) and dropped a lot of amazing loot, but only had 2 cannons out of 3 on one side of the ship and only 1 cannon on the other side. He was also missing 5-6 crew members so I was able to take him down easily with The Defiant starting ship. Shouldn't be possible tbh

[Ineth]

I too haven't found the ship-to-ship combat very satisfying so far.

 

So now I tend to just keep clicking "full speed ahead" until I can board the other ship, and then fight it out using normal party combat. My ship sustains little to no damage this way.

 

 

• Hold position for a turn then fire your guns.

 

Why hold for a turn?

[Elerond]

 

 

• Hold position for a turn then fire your guns.

Why hold for a turn?

It increases accuracy of your cannons

[kozzy]

Hell no, I love the ship stuff. I think many people who dislike it just need to learn it properly. At first I wasn't huge on it but now I love it. I love winning a battle when you are the underdog, such a good feeling.

Edited May 15, 2018 by kozzy

[tinysalamander]

I happen to think mini-games in RPGs is a mistake, tbh. It's kinda nice when you like it (but then again if I wanted a different kind of game I'd play another game instead) and damn horrible when you don't.

[Yonjuro]

I happen to think mini-games in RPGs is a mistake, tbh. It's kinda nice when you like it (but then again if I wanted a different kind of game I'd play another game instead) and damn horrible when you don't.

 

 Fair enough, but you always have the option to board the other ship and then you're back in the game as usual.

[SonicMage117]

I'm pondering writting a negative review of this game just due to how bad ship to ship combat is. It feels so badly implemented and out of place in game like this.

 

I had fights where I would chase the enemy ship for 10 turns or more, trying to hit it, missing, going left, going right, and then after 15minutes instead of trying to sink them, they board you and you are 4v20 and die in 2 seconds...like who thought this system through, who though this would be fun?

 

This game so far is miles belowed PoE. Right now I'd almost call it a bad game.

 

Some other irks:

- hate the narrator

- hate the stupid english-italian accent

- hate the inclusion of unknown words that you constanly have to hover to see what the NPC is talking about

- hate the rations ship system

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the closest thing to a rpg with perfext ship-combat/crew mechnics integration is Sunless Sea. Obsidian could have taken a few nods from this and flawlessly intertwined it but no, they wanted to be innovative I guess. The result is a naval system that is just as unfocused and unbalanced as everything else in the game. Edited May 15, 2018 by SonicMage117