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Included in Build Ship Encounter Chances Correction

Armada

Armada

Sea Dog
Staff member
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Storm Modder
It looks like there's still a LOT of work to be done with encounter chances in the Build Mod, so this topic will keep track of exactly that. :dance
I did some work to try and balance things out a few patches ago, but I didn't cover every ship.

This was split off from a discussion started here, and Black Bart's reply continues below:

Nope ;)

I get lots of different pirate ships, but i think them Xebecs are still too common in general - this ain't the Mediterranean. They are good pirate ships though, and look good also.
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EDIT: You can use the following links to view online spreadsheets containing various information about all ships in the game.
List of ships and their stats
Encounter chances for all periods and nations
 
The Improved Xebec is supposed to be a quest-only ship, used in the Assassin storyline.
 
I play Nathan Hawk and there is like 50% chance of pirate ships being Improved Xebec lol.
I see them all the time.
 
In the standard storyline almost half of the pirate ships are xebecs until your ship gets past a certain size. The only time the Assassin's ship is seen is at Vanderdecken. In general they are far too common and I simply don't sail them anymore.
 
They do make quite good pirate ships though, and look nice. I certainly know i'm in trouble in the early game(when i just have a lugger) when i see a pirate has one, the square riggers i can just sail close to the wind to leave behind, not so the xebec, so it has a place, just maybe a too common one. We could improve the performance of some other none square-rigger pirate vessels maybe(the standard Sloop is very slow in comparison to other craft, especially compared to it's historical choice for speed+manuvrability reputation?) then reduce the chance of the Xebec's appearence in standard game?
 
sloops and schooners did use to be the pirate vessel of choice, and i always considered xebecs to be way too common. do keep in mind though that making too many ships rare will make all of them common, since they'd be equally rare.
 
Morgan Terror said:
sloops and schooners did use to be the pirate vessel of choice, and i always considered xebecs to be way too common. do keep in kind though that making too many ships rare will make all of them common, since they'd be equally rare.
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Aye, words of wisdom!
 
oh? and what about the lorcha, the steam frigates, the larger ships, and any ship outside of it's own time period? really though, i think the biggest anomaly left is those xebecs. that, and the fact that the santa maria is apparently still sailing around almost 200 years after it's construction date.
 
i haven't played in that era yet. the only point where i started seeing them was due to a bug, but i was referring to ships that should be rare in general, not that they should be rarer.
 
As I understand it the carrack had a pretty long career. It was common early on and slowly disappeared as the fluyt took over. It's faster than the fluyt with a tailwind but can't handle side winds well.

Play Blaze Devlin and it is all over the place, but by the time of Sea Hawk they are kinda rare.
 
see, that's the problem. it's not an ordinary carrack, but the santa maria, and i'm not sure if that was a carrack. i think it's a caravel, in fact. real carracks were much bigger from what i've heard, being upsized versions of caravels.
 
Hey is there anyway to make the ship you encounter whatever you want? Like I'd love to have a Black Pearl vs. Flying Dutchman battle and a Constitution vs. Victory battle. Is there anyway to mess with the code, so I will only encounter Flying Dutchmans or Victories?
william.gif
Or at least up the odds of encountering them?
 
I have no idea how to do that, but I'm sure it can be done, probably in the console.



According to this site Columbus's ship the Santa Maria was a Nao or Carrack. The Nina and Pinta were Caravels.


Rob Ossian's Pirate's Cove

click on the complete list of sailing vessels.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xebec

"..used almost exclusively in the Mediterranean Sea."

Almost....so i'm fine with them being in the game, they just need to be more rare AND other more typical 'pirate' vessels(Sloops in particular as a good comparitive vessel) of choice be given some kind of stat-boost to allow them to fill the role the fairly common pirate Xebec plays in our caribbean currently.

Hmmm i'm thinking out Luggers are a bit too 'good' also, a bit too speedy overall? I quite often start a game(adventurer level) with a Lugger that has upgrades to give me a max speed of 13knots approx, the sloop only has around 10knots currently. I'm not looking to make the Sloop go 20knots! ;) (knowing that around 13knots for these small fast vessels is about max), but maybe we could switch the stats around? or was the Lugger upgraded for some reason, maybe to help the player in the early encounters with pirates? It just seems a little weird that the current starting ship is maybe the best in its class(in terms of speed/cargo)? Doesn't give much incentive to 'upgrade' to other class 7 ships really.
 
hell no. i'm pretty sure all ships were run through the collective knowledge here before their stats were assigned. the stats all ships have now are historically correct. changing those stats now would ruin the whole point of giving them those stats. besides, not all pirates have to kick your ass, and schooners are a major threat to anything of moderate size and less.
 
This is just my opinion, but I think the Lugger is "too good" and for a reason.

When a player is first starting out with skills of 1 and a stock ship the other ships are too sluggish to be usable. A beginner doesn't have the skills yet to make a ship go at anywhere near its top speed and is easily run down by anyone that wants to. Start a game and get a different class 7 ship like the Trade Brig or Barque Longue and you will find yourself running into cliffs because it won't turn and averaging 2 knots at best.
 
Wikipedia says brigs were rare among Caribbean pirates.
I know I see a lot of brigs being used by pirates. Generally snow brigs.
Maybe brigs should be a little less common.
 
I have to say, I'm with Morgan on the stats changes. I think it's best to avoid messing with them, at least with handling stats.
Handling was dealt with using a fine-tooth comb in the Willemstad Builder's Trials project, which ensured historical accuracy and balancing as far as possible.
That was before I joined here, but I'm
On the other hand, stats such as hull strength, gun calibre, cargo capacity etc are more flexible. Those are the ones which should be adjusted if a ship is considered 'too good'.

As for pirate vessels, I'll see if I can sort them out. :whipa
From what I gather, we want far fewer xebecs, a few less brigs, and more sloops and schooners. Anything else?

Also, any specific suggestions for period corrections?
In terms of period start/end dates, here's the list for reference:

0: Early Explorers: 1500 - 1599
1: The Spanish Main: 1600 - 1679
2: Golden Age of Piracy: 1680 - 1739
3: Colonial Powers: 1740 - 1769
4: Revolutions: 1770 - 1789
5: The Corsican: 1790 - 1830
 
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