Instructing the gun crews to concentrate on a specific side

[Destraex]

Historically guns fired faster and a lot of crews did not carry enough crew to man both sides at once.

So nominating a side to concentrate on would be good.

[maturin]

A ship's full complement was always enough to fight both sides.

 

Nonetheless, many ships didn't have a full complement, or the men lacked the experience to be of use. Fighting both sides was disorienting, chaotic and a challenge for leadership. The officers may not always have been up to the task.

 

Certainly a merchant ship would never have been able to man all its guns, provided it carried a full broadside.

 

As a realistic limitation, it would be a very powerful tool of balance in the hands of the devs.

[Destraex]

Perhaps I just got this from the battle of the nile where french crews were missing a fair compliment that was out foraging for food and water.

[admin]

crew management (when added) will take care of that

lower crew already gives some penalties to reload. it will be much better (hopefully) in the future.

[maturin]

I think that this feature will be most valuable as a response to damage.

 

In battle, fighting both sides of the ship is the most difficult and organizationally complex task that a crew has. So it stands to reason that once you start taking serious fire, this effort will fall apart quickest.

 

In the current build, we lose a lot of guns. We should be able to command the crew to concentrate on one side or the other, which would counteract that gun-loss. In that case it would be in the attacker's best interest to sneak around and engage the other broadside, causing confusion as the crews try to get reorganized.

 

Edit: Low crew levels is also the main difference between naval and merchant vessels. An Indiamen may not have enough trained men to load both broadsides simultaneously. The little pirate sloop with 150 men packed in it will take advantage of that.

[Johny Reb]

Perhaps I just got this from the battle of the nile where french crews were missing a fair compliment that was out foraging for food and water.

well if you have read much nautical fiction then you have seen this scenario numerous times. Its all over the Aubrey/Maturin novels.

[Otakar]

How does actual sailing work when you are constantly going from sailing commands to gunnery commands while in battle? For example if your crew on port just fired and you give a command to bring her up to close haul to gain distance and better firing position will the crew manning the guns that just fired be reloading while the starboard gunners man the sails?

[maturin]

In action there would be a certain number of hands dedicated to trimming the sails, while the vast majority occupied themselves entirely with gunnery.

 

If a mast actually came down, or if the ship needed to tack in sub-optimum conditions, hands would probably be called from the guns.

[Otakar]

So maybe not 'call' them, but in such conditions of tacking or jibing maneuvering etc, the free hands who arent loading possibly automatically help with sails.

I havent played the game because im not a tester so i dont know exactly, there are "sailing" and "gunnery" commands correct? But in a battle with say a cutter vs a sloop the cutter would want to use its sailing abilities to maneuver and youd constantly be switching between the commands. Now is there a penalty to gun reloading to constantly be switching from "sailing" to "gunnery"?

You understand my concern? Its along the same lines as guns on one side not doing anything. Also, only so many men can load one cannon at a time.

From my sailing exoeriences on working ships, you are constantly on the move doing something and helping your comrades. Obviously a cannon crew on the lower decks arent going to run up to trim sone sails but the deck gunners would constantly be on the move

[BungeeLemming]

As maturin said there are always crewman to handle the sails. So we always have a specific maneuverability.

Thats what we have in gunnery mode. Good weapon reload but only basic sailing abilities.

 

If we switch to sailing we get a penalty to the reloading. But speed and turning is buffed. Sounds legid since more hands can trim and watch the yards constantly.

 

Third we have survival. We order the crew to plug leaks, pump water, repair fast. But our maneuverability and speed is reduced. It feels even worse than in gunnery. reload is horrific.

 

We are also unable to switch at will. There is a timer wich prevents us from immediately switching the crewfocus.

We click on a focus we want and the timer is running, when its done the crew is a stations. If you decide to switch to another position while the timer runs its restarted.

 

thats basically it right now.

No control over fighting a specific side for example.

[Otakar]

Hmm... that actually sounds prettpy neat. I gueas id have to play to see how it works.

It works well?

[Mirones]

yes it works well and is simple to find on the interface no problem just some trimming here and there in the data and its fine