Naval Battles: What could work better in the demo

[Fisherking]

The Naval battles seem to have a few issues I have not seen brought up.

There is no command for a turn about. This is important when ships have taken damage to only one side and turning the whole line back on its self is slow and cumbersome…not to mention masking fires and even the needless loss of ships.

The ships seem to have some path finding issues. I have seen the ships try limited maneuver to avoid striking but usually it is too little too late. Many of the collisions could be avoided if it were slightly better. Once they have collided the best thing to do is stop the ship and try to turn it. Sometimes they are fouled or stuck and one ship or the other has to sink to get underway.

Reclicking or double clicking the line ahead does not reposition ships in that formation. It usually results in chaos with ships going every which way. It usually straightens out when you give a group move in a particular direction but the movement arrow could start from some unexpected location and leading ships may turn around to go back, resulting in casualties or the loss of ships.

The attack ship order results in some strange positioning and is not very effective.

This is only meant as constructive criticism and not an attempt to trash a very enjoyable part of the game. It could just use a bit of fine tuning.


As skill lever improves players can avoid some of these pit falls but I also think that they should be pointed out to the developers.


What have the rest of you found?

[Beskar]

There is no command for a turn about. This is important when ships have taken damage to only one side and turning the whole line back on its self is slow and cumbersome…not to mention masking fires and even the needless loss of ships.

There is. The turn buttons on the UI.

[Dogfish]

I agree with a lot of that.

Also, I may just be missing something, but it would also seem that when you've moving a group the +/- on the sails button is inactive?

And I would've prefered if they would've made it realistic where you can't sail into the wind. They could've maybe done auto-tacking handled by the AI when the player moves the ships upwind.

[Fondor_Yards]

And I would've prefered if they would've made it realistic where you can't sail into the wind. They could've maybe done auto-tacking handled by the AI when the player moves the ships upwind.

They used to have that, but their testers said it was too confusing for new people to have their ships start moving in a different direction then they said.

[Fisherking]

There is. The turn buttons on the UI.

A Turn About Maneuver is one in which the entire fleet executes a 180° turn and proceeds in the opposite direction.


If each ship is turned individually they will reverse, that is true. But it is not the same as reversing the sailing order of the fleet.

The flagship still wants to lead and you have a jumbled mess. There are work-around but it is something that should be a quick smooth command that is easy to execute and not something that you have to do individually breaking out of a group and reforming.

I won’t say it isn’t in the game before I get the manual and read up on it, but it has not been anything I have been able to discover.

[Polemists]

Boarding...in my view could be quicker or better implemented.

As it stands, I click on a ship, my ship then takes the long route. Then when it pulls up, there are about 3 or 4 salvos before our ships ever actually get together to board.

I don't know about you, but 1-2 salvos is enough to make a ship consider surrender, so the fact you can fire once, twice or four times before actually getting to boarding seems silly to me. It may be realistic, but it eliminates boarding as any kind of viable option.

Just my two cents.

[Sir Beane]

Boarding...in my view could be quicker or better implemented.

As it stands, I click on a ship, my ship then takes the long route. Then when it pulls up, there are about 3 or 4 salvos before our ships ever actually get together to board.

I don't know about you, but 1-2 salvos is enough to make a ship consider surrender, so the fact you can fire once, twice or four times before actually getting to boarding seems silly to me. It may be realistic, but it eliminates boarding as any kind of viable option.

Just my two cents.

It's not even that realistic. Many ships wouldn't have risked a point blank barrage into a ship that close to it in case they blew it up, set it on fire, or dropped one of its masts onto themselves. If that many salvos could be fired before boarding then pirates would have had a much harder time of it. Hopefully it goes faster in the proper game .

[Polemists]

I hope so to,

Though judging by the screens I saw of the last superior tactics video, they still got a shot in edge wise.

Though that had to be by far the worse video of naval tactics I have ever seen.

"Today we are going to show you boarding"

*5-6 minutes of battle*

"Now I pull my ship around, over go the hooks"

"Now I rake a shot of grapeshot across his bow"

"and........Victory"

What happened to the boarding? :P

[bscssc]

Boarding action does take a long time, although it might help campaign balance. If capturing were easy, one could simply steal a large navy early on.
I agree that the ability to stop is ridiculous, and that reaches should make more of a difference. I would certainly be interested in mods that address those issues.

As for tactics, I've had success forming a line astern, turning off fire at will, sailing past the first French line, and manually having everyone open up on their admiral. He shouldn't be hiding 3 or 4 ships back, that coward.

[Fisherking]

The thing about boarding that bugs me is that you can’t send a second ship to help. It will not allow it.

You can disengage from the boarding action and send a different ship but it is complicated and takes time. Also ships have to be beam on to fight a boarding action, if they accidentally ram you can’t then order your ship to board…