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what sea battle settings you prefer?

S

Symban

Powder Monkey
wanted to ask what settings other players prefer. I have been playing a career with below settings;

Hardcore, Corsair, exp rate normal
Dynamic Battles, realistic reload (GoF), realistic cannon damage(GoF), realistic wind(GoF), realistic spyglass (GoF) (and ship information shown on sea battle turned Off).

But after my last battle against a bounty hunter fleet I decided to change it. Battle summary was;

My Fleet (3 ships): (lvl 26, all sea skills are 100, all sea talents accessed thanks to officers and books - also mu companions have master gunner perk) All ships have max upgrades and max crew (I mean white max, not red)
Nightmare (4th rank) 44 32lbs Culverins
Heavy Battle Corvette (4th rank) 32 32lbs culverins
Sea Dog (4th rank) 24 20lbs culverins

Bounty Fleet (6 ships):
Heavy Battle Frigate 54 32lbs cannons
3* 4th rank ships with 30 guns
5th rank fast brig 22 guns
6th rank 16 guns

After 40 mins fight where mainly knipples, bombs and cannonballs were used, situation was like that;
I sank 6th grade ship
boarded and sank fast brig
boarded and captured heavy battle frigate

and all ships had their;
-sails around %20-%40
-less than 10 guns left yet to fall (some with 0 guns, some with 5~)
-no hull below 50% (moist had hulls over 80%)
-crew around %60 of the initial

And battle was over as noone had any guns left enough to damage, sails to catch/chase. This did not feel right. Even if the guns did not fall that fast powder and ammo would run off before sinking anyone. With my current settings sea fights are a matter of boarding only and protecting your sails. (meaning lower the sails and wait for the enemy get closer, wind be on your side). Yet from that battle I would expect some ships to sink, some risk sinking and barely making it.

So I decided to begin a new career with;
NO hardcore (playing pirate this time, so no churches to save), Corsair, exp rate min, Tactical Battles, CoaS reload, Coas Cannon Damage, realistic wind(GoF), realistic spyglass (GoF) (and ship information shown on sea battle turned Off).

Will compare the difference after a while. What are your preferred settings and how does your sea battles go ?
 
Well i have been waiting to actually play age of pirates for at least a half a year now first waiting for GOF 1.2 and now waiting for modernknights period mod so i havent really reached the point of having a fleet of ships,but that thing about ships loosing all their cannons i dont like one bit... i played on in between seting for damage and tactical battles captain dificulty medium rate exp
 
I always play with these settings:
no Hardcore (because of some CTDs), Corsair difficulty, normal xp gaining rate, dynamic battles, GoF! reloading times, CoAS or inbetween damage and realisting wind, spyglass, weights.

About damage and reloading times:
If you have a full seadogs crew, your guns will reload much more realistically than with the GoF! setting which isn't at all slow, while having a full seadogs crew with GoF! settings will make your 32lbs culverins reload in 5 seconds!
If you have realistic cannon damage, you'll always run out of ammo so, never play with this setting.
Then again, CoAS default makes the game SO much easier which ruins the fun. (I sunk 3-4 ships with a 6th rate once!)
So I suggest playing with CoAS reloading times and Inbetween damage.

P.S. Any difference noticed with tactical battles? Is it more realistic with high wind?
 
Hi superkid, here is the first impression;
I fought against a galf schooner with my 16gun lugger type ship. I had slightly better speed and better reload times than him (my 4lbs cannons vs his 16 lbs culverins). I had 2 officers navigator and cannonner (both rank 1 with single skills)

It was amazing. In my long play in dynamic + GoF reload times I never skipped firing cannons when they could, because they reload so fast that it is pointless trying to aim or waiting for a better angle. I would get a new shot with this angle anyway (every few seconds firing).
Also in dynamic my ships used to turn (also enemy) ridicilously fast so much that we could spin around ourselves and fire non stop volleys (I mean seriously these are SHIPs not racing cars). Also sails opening/closing so fast that I can see enemy cannons firing / gathering my sails / enemy knipples passing after sails gathers missing them / opening back right after. It should not be that fast for a 200 man ship.

In my tactical - CoaS reload - CoaS damage battle against that schooner it was tactical ! It was not about the stats only (accuracy, cannons, cannon caliber, manuever).
When I ordered sails to gather it would gather in 15 seconds slowly, when I wanted to manuever it would take some 10 seconds with half sails to turn a 90degree, when I fire guns I would need to wait for some 30 seconds for next one. Also my ship was slow, so I could not run around enemy ship avoiding its side banks.
Damage was really hurting ! In my other game I would move my ship next to enemy bank-to-bank, and fire volleys knowing that they wont kill more than 2-3 men at all and no damage to hulls anyway. In this new game I endured a full bank hit and lost over 20 men and my hull felt it, and I knew I could not keep it for another 3-4 rounds. I had to avoid enemy bank, bait him to fire at a hard angle first, then move in while he is reloading and fire my bank facing his. Hardest part is that I had to plan this ahead as I can not do it instantly anymore.

I kept my fire most my shots until I had a clear sight with no waves shaking my ship (something I never needed to do before).

I strongly suggest tactical settings and CoaS reload. For damage it is upto your style, but knowing that enemy bank will really hurt you was making a tactical difference. I hunbly recommend GoF Mods to keep this info in mind and tweek settings to make GoF settings for cannons more tactical (so that we would have reason to keep fire, avoid fire and plan our moves ahead).
 
Ahoy bloody pirates!
I always play with these settings:
Corsair, Pirate(nation), no Hardcore, Impossible difficulty, normal exp. rate, tactical battles, realistic reloading, CoAS damage, CoAS wind, realistic weights and costs, surrender ON.
 
what are your experiences on surrender. I turned that off because the description itself says that ships will surrender too easily but after reading some of the posts here it doesent seem that bad plus its much more historical then every ship fighting till its last man and bit of wood...
 
jokash said:
what are your experiences on surrender. I turned that off because the description itself says that ships will surrender too easily but after reading some of the posts here it doesent seem that bad plus its much more historical then every ship fighting till its last man and bit of wood...
Click to expand...

The ships will not surrender too often!
From my experience I know that ships surrender mostly when their crew is too small.
 
After some time of gameplay, I've loved tactical battles, CoAS reload and CoAS cannon damage! It feels so realistic (especially the turning rate).
About surrendering, if you set it to ocassional, it's quite realistic as well! Since the enemy will surrender only if the crew is too low (which means you killed it with grape shots to avoid losing sailors) or if the hull is low (which means you want to sink the ship, not board it). So in my opinion surrendering is working normally.
 
Well the reason behind the RTBL was to reduce the prospect of sinking ships so easily, but also reducing how quickly you could board a ship. So i have taken into account what you have said, and for this i have increased slight the RTBL settings to allow for more damage to crew, hull and sails. Also because this is from the patch i'm working on it also has the new prices for the more important goods like shot types, food, rum etc and all other goods prices reduced (only for realistic prices, not the coas default). Happy testing and look forward to what you think. getting along side another will be nasty but not as bad as the stock settings, but much more noticable now. Round shot has been upped a little so you should see damage to hull, sail and crew more now. Grape shot will be deversating to your crew if you get to close but again not as bad as the stock settings. Knipple shot will damage the hull of a ship a little more and damage sails quicker, but more importantly kill crew more easily aswell.

Update:
Bellow is a new update, this increase a little more the RTBL settings and makes bombs a little more destructive. After testing the previous settings out i thourght the hull damage ratio could be increased a little more so this update increases the level of damage the shot types have on the ship.

Round shot:
More for getting off some good shots from distance, will damage the sails and kill crew but will damage the hull more than anything.

Knipple shot:
Designed to do maximum damage to sails, but it is also deadly to crew and will damage the ships hull. However it will damage the sails more than anything.

Grape shot:
Designed to kill crew, it has very little effect on the hull or sails but for crew its not pritty, so getting up close and personal with a more inferior ship is a no no.

Bombs:
Not historically correct which is why in RTBL they was never really given much interest apart from reducing there effects. This update see's the bombs been put back into action and take the lead in causing maximum damage to the ships hull. But it will also damage your sails and kill your crew just as easily, so be extra carefull when moving close along side a enemy ship and alway's take note of what shot type they have loaded. A broadside from bombs will certainly change your mind of staying close to the enemy ship(s).

Of cause the stock settings will be higher than RTBL, but this should give you a more interesting gameplay and bring in more tactical dissions. Also in this update is the cannon changes, this is a simple cannon/culverine health upgrade. Now the guns will last for longer periods of time so this and the RTBL settings should be much more balanced now and you should be able to sink ships easier now and still; have shot types and pounder to spare afterwards.
 
Well i just had a lot of fun in my Bounty with 4Ibs cannons mounted against a Lugger (not sure of calubire because i have realistic spyglass on. The battle started with the Lugger having the upper hand due to the weather gage, because this is a new game i rigged my sails and waited for the wind to change direction for the the AI to get done and move into a position where i had the weather gage on my side.

Sure enough the AI was dumb and soon i had the weather gage on my side, but i lowered my sails to give chace to the Lugger (which was faster than me) but as i started to move towards her the Lugger turned to take advantage of the weather gage and hold it against me (this AI showing its not so dumb after all). So i rigged my sails and waited yet again, the Lugger remained close enough to turn back and take the advantage of the weather gage but to shock it the wind changed direction slightly and i moved in for what i hopped would be the kill. As i got closer the Lugger began firing bombs at me, these was having huge effects on my crew of which i lost 15 just trying to get close to her.

But to my shock the Lugger turned and sailed away with me giving chace to her, eventually i gave up and turned thinking i would get the distance up to the Lugger faster so i could continue my mission of delivering cargo to Port Of Spain. But as i turned the Lugger turned, with round shot loaded i got to find out that not only was i slower than the Lugger i was out classed with fire power as the Lugger had the advantage of a higher calibure (most likely 8Ibs cannons).

But to my horror just coming out of the fog was a Spanish Ketch, so i tried to get out of there but the Lugger wasn't going to give up. I loaded chain shot and as soion as the Lugger came within range i began firing broadside after broadside of chain shot into her rigging. The problem was my skills been so low (this is a new game) and the Lugger been so much faster than me, that the shots was having little effect. By now i was almost out of gun powder, playing as a merchant i only had 100 units of powder so with the Lugger and now Ketch firing on me i was in deep trouble. The Lugger on her own had taken my crew from 82 down to 46 and was getting off the odd shot that would do damage to my hull which was now almost half damaged.

This was with all realistic settings on, yes i lost my ship and game over. The Lugger boarded me first and i won but then the Ketch which was even faster due to the Lugger's sails been so badly damaged managed to board. I was killed because i had no crew left after the boarding fight with the Lugger.

So with the new RTBL changes the game is more tactical for the shot types, give them a try out. You might think its more balanced now and like it, i know i do.

http://www.mediafire.com/?rn75kktnl2clbg2
 
I know, i alway's play with tactical settings. I don't like the arcade feel to dynamic, it takes the fun away from the battles.
 
Well because i'm trying to make a very stable version during naval battles (since thats where the game is more likely to crash) i spend most of my time fighting other ships and i have had many great battles, some that looked to be easy wins and some that looked like they will be challenging and from time to time i get proved wrong.

With Dynamic sailing on (which i have never used at all) i looks like its so easy to take advantage of any given situation and be able to get out of range of any seriously deadly braodsides, with taxtical mode selected its not so easy to get your timing correct. And the AI could so easily turn to bring the other broadside to bare.

Lets take a battle earlier i had, my ship a class 6 Brig (my character is rank 4 with the skill increase bar set to the far left, so very little experience been gained). I attack a Spanish ship which turned out to be a Light Galleon (also class 6, with 20 guns mounted). So my 16 guns vs their 20, however i had 16, 12Ibs cannons mounted so i figured i have the speed and calibure advantage in less they have culverines. I slowly close the game, i'm still out of range to shoot my chase guns. But the Galleon who's stern is to me fires a shot off, this automatically makes me think culverines, and judging the distance at which the Galleon was able to fire from, i would say they was perhaps 8Ibs. This means they have the calibure advantage in damage ratio for every shot that hit, while i had the reload advantage and my cannons can take more damage before falling out.

So i figured i would use the speed to my advantage and close in on the Galleon, fire a few broadside of grape shot into the stern and then come about and hit the Galleon from the side (if she began to try and turn). With the more agile ship i hit the Galleon's stern with 3 broadsides before loading bombs and going for a damage to shot ratio, the Galleon came about bringing her guns to bare but i had managed to get some distance away before she was able to fire making most shots miss. I quickly swooped in for another broadsides and got 3 direct hits on her left side, i then moved around to her stern where i came about to fire a broadside into there aswell.

With no information to go on about crew size, calibure mounted or shot type been fired i wasn't sure when to close for boarding, i knew the Galleon could carry well over 200 crew which wasanything from some 108 crew more than me to 208 crew more than me. Which is why i went for grapeshot and then bombs, after all the Galleon has the advantage on range so i couldn't really sit back and wait for her to run out of powder or guns. After a few more broadsides i decided to close for boarding but the wind changed direction so now i couldn't quickly move to avoid her turning to bring any guns to bare because the wind was right behind me andit was only 2.6 knots.

As i feared the Galleon began to turn, so i rigged my sails to try and keep as far distance away from her as possible. She fired bombs killed aklot more crew than i had hopped, and then she turned to fire the other broadside killing yet more crew and then she set sail to try and run from me. I had lost 17 crew in that double broadside, i wasn't to happy about that so i closed and started to fire broadside after broadside into her stern before closing to board. (in the new changes i have beefed up the amount of sailors you fight in boarding battles, so this was going to be fun). I boarded and luckily was able to get a few lone sailors and kill them one by one before moving to help my crew out.

The ship was mine, so i took her as a prize and sailed to Base Terre where i put the Galleon to dry dock after selling the Gold and other goods onboard and of cause getting both her and my Brig fixed up. After that battle from 92 crew i had 29 crew remaining, a few more losses and i wouldn't have had enough crew to cover the minimum crew needed for the Galleon. Had this battle been with dynamic mode it would have been crap, and i most likely wouldn't have even bothered attacking.
 
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