2 min battle timer

[Fengist]

I'm sure this has been brought up before but I'm bringing it up again as it really pisses me off.

Situation, you're in a privateer, they're in a trader's cutter.  Battle starts.  You have the perk where you start with the guns loaded, but your tag isn't that great (they were running for a fort).  You start, fire... sails down to 98.  You turn, chase them.  Now here's where the bullshit starts.

When the timer gets down to 1 minute you HAVE to tag them. But you have no chasers so you have to turn broadside and stop chasing.  If you miss, you have to turn a full 180 degrees and try with another broadside.  If you hit, you can turn, build up speed and chase them again.  This whole process of spinning around like a damned carousel has just cost you one minute. Yes, it takes that long even with optimized rudder.  Ok, so NOW you get to chase them for a WHOLE MINUTE before you have to repeat this process.

Even if you pound their sails down (like I just did in a battle) to 75% and you MISS on both broadsides... they get away.

Your ship is faster than they are, you've beat their sails down but you're FORCED to turn broadsides and FORCED to do something that resembles damage.

I say... BULLSHIT.

TWO MINUTES?  

It should be a MINIMUM of 5 minutes.

Either that or add a fore/aft rigged ship with chasers.  

You did that silent speed nerf so now it's damned near impossible to catch some traders. Combine that with the 2 minute timer and any ship without chasers is useless trying to catch a trader, assuming they can even catch them OW in the first place.

Edited March 10, 2017 by Fengist

[maturin]

Get yourself the Control perk. The enemy can't leave the battle so long as you are within 800 (ish?) yards.

[Fengist]

32 minutes ago, maturin said:

Get yourself the Control perk. The enemy can't leave the battle so long as you are within 800 (ish?) yards.

Yea, I had that, it's real nice.  Here's the problem.  With that silent nerf to ship speeds, it's nearly impossible to catch any shallow water trader OW anyway.  I have a snow totally rigged for speed and still have tbrigs outrun me.  So, I had to swap control out for the light ship perk to even have a chance of catching up to them.  I don't have enough points on my officer to have both.

And there's other issues... like the requirement to do damage.  You can hit them all day long, but if your shots bounce or 0 damage is done... they get away. I had a tbrig a few weeks ago pulled a trick on me.  I was shooting him with chain.  He turned 180 degrees, got right beside me and dropped sails.  I broadsided point blank with chain, 0 damage.  30+ sec's to reload ball... he escaped.

Again... bullshit.

With the low server pop I can spend hours trying to find a trader. Pisses me right off after spending all that time to only have a 2 minute window where I have no choice but to damage them.

Edited March 10, 2017 by Fengist

[maturin]

Don't sail a slow vessel like a snow and expect to catch things.

 

[Fengist]

15 minutes ago, maturin said:

Don't sail a slow vessel like a snow and expect to catch things.

 

First, I think you're misjudging the Snow.  Second, that would leave only one other shallow water ship to chase square rigged traders with, the Rattle.  ALL of the others would suffer the same issue I just described above... catch them and you get a WHOLE TWO MINUTES to do damage or they're gone. Doesn't matter if you're faster than they are or not.  And that STILL doesn't solve the issue trying to catch a tlynx or tcutter.  You can't do that in a square rigger and if you DO catch them in a fore/aft rigged ship, you're still doing that 2 minute dance trying to hit them.  And god forbid they should repair sails.

Edited March 10, 2017 by Fengist

[maturin]

25 minutes ago, Fengist said:

First, I think you're misjudging the Snow.  Second, that would leave only one other shallow water ship to chase square rigged traders with, the Rattle.  ALL of the others would suffer the same issue I just described above... catch them and you get a WHOLE TWO MINUTES to do damage or they're gone. Doesn't matter if you're faster than they are or not.  And that STILL doesn't solve the issue trying to catch a tlynx or tcutter.  You can't do that in a square rigger and if you DO catch them in a fore/aft rigged ship, you're still doing that 2 minute dance trying to hit them.  And god forbid they should repair sails.

If you can't catch a square rigged trader without bow chasers, you still haven't learned how to properly set up an OW tag. You need to start your battle within the zone of control.

Tbrigs and Tsnows are utterly helpless against anything slightly faster than them on the OW. Use Mercury or Niagara.

I agree that the aggressive exit timers make it extremely hard to catch a Cutter or Lynx. Even bow chasers often don't help you there. Here's hoping we get Prince de Neufchatel soon.

[Fengist]

27 minutes ago, maturin said:

If you can't catch a square rigged trader without bow chasers, you still haven't learned how to properly set up an OW tag. You need to start your battle within the zone of control.

Tbrigs and Tsnows are utterly helpless against anything slightly faster than them on the OW. Use Mercury or Niagara.

I agree that the aggressive exit timers make it extremely hard to catch a Cutter or Lynx. Even bow chasers often don't help you there. Here's hoping we get Prince de Neufchatel soon.

If the trader knows what he's doing, he'll def tag you long before you get to where you can get a decent tag.  Doesn't matter if YOU can set up an OW tag or not, it matters if THEY can. If it's a tbrig, he'll just keep chaining you with those super accurate stern chasers while you throw rocks at him or do the dance. If's a tcutter or tlynx, he'll def tag you a mile away and laugh while you do the dance.

And nobody but a noob, or someone who really knows the tsnow's advantage would even be in one.

I'm talking about vs players here, not tagging stupid AI.  

And you obviously haven't been in the shallows chasing these guys since the speed nerf.   I'm talking Bermuda wood, pirate refit, exceptional copper plates, exceptional speed trim, officer perks, on a tbrig.  Come up here in your Niagra some time and try to catch some of these uber Admirals in their tbrigs.  Since that nerf, they've gotten so cocky, they'll aim straight for you trying to tag you so they get a free trip home.  They know you can't catch them.  And seeing a Mercury or a Niagra or god forbid a Picke... they'll laugh.  Heavy Rattle? LOL. No, just no.

Edited March 10, 2017 by Fengist