Fleet issues and suggestion

[Random]

I went into a mission sailing my Surprise and having a Brig in my fleet. We had one Essex to fight and I figured that I'll have the Brig put a couple of broadsides into the Essex and then escape. But then it happened to me again... My suicidal fleet ship attempted to board the enemy and lost. This time, however, I explicitly told it to follow me as soon as the battle started. The fleet map/fleet interface acknowledged my command, but as I passed the enemy ship on its port side and turned hard to starboard, I saw my Brig lower its sails and come in on Essex's starboard side to initiate boarding. That's issue number one; why did it not follow me as instructed?

Issue number 2 has already been voiced several times: why did the AI trade a slightly damaged Essex for a Brig when it won the boarding?

Issue number 3 is where did the rest of AI crew go since only 110 of them went to the Brig and none were left on the Essex?

Issue number 4 is why could I not retrieve whatever the Brig had in its hold? The interface told me that it had 22.9 something of something on board, but there was nothing displayed in the window (both of us were at a complete stop when I searched it).

Issue number 5 is me getting double the PvE marks and gold. It appears that the system treated the battle as me having defeated both the Essex and the Brig, while I only really fought my own Brig since the Essex just sat there with 0 crew after taking over my Brig. This can probably be exploited in many different ways such as figuring out a way to have large AI ships board a small fleet ship for a much easier fight and quick PvE marks/gold/loot rewards...

Now on to my humble suggestion:

We have several perks that are geared towards helping individual players in combat. We also have fleet perks that do not give any bonuses to individual players, but instead allow them to add AI ships to their fleet. This is a great feature for traders as that allows them to transport more cargo in one trip. AI, however, is pretty dumb. On top of that, controls that we are given are severely limited. If I have three trader ships in my fleet and I tell them to escape, they will all go in the same direction; there is no way for me to tell them to split up other than to have one or two of them follow me. See above regarding my hesitation to tell AI to follow me from now on... What if by expanding fleet commands we opened up a whole new way of playing? What if we had not just skilled individual players, but also skilled fleet commanders? I would suggest adding options to tell AI to keep it's distance or to close in (for long gus vs carronades loadout), to use different ammunition instead of just "demast", and to be able to set course for each fleet ship similar to the way protractor works on the map. Add a wheel that players have on their screen to the fleet/map screen and have it show the direction of each fleet ship as it is selected. Add to that wheel a control tab that player can drag to set the course for that ship. I think that this will greatly increase capabilities to command a fleet in battle, while still being fairly difficult to master and time consuming in battle. 

 

 

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

8 minutes ago, Drunken Spelunking said:

it had 22.9 something of something on board, but there was nothing displayed in the window

weight/mass of the cannons

 

8 minutes ago, Drunken Spelunking said:

I tell them to escape, they will all go in the same direction

they try to escape using their best wind. Different models will escape to different directions.

[Random]

13 minutes ago, The Red Duke said:

weight/mass of the cannons

 

they try to escape using their best wind. Different models will escape to different directions.

I know that, but that's not always the best route to take for them... Say I have three traders lynxs, they can all go in a different direction and have a good chance of escaping, but there's no way to make them do so right now. 

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

15 minutes ago, Drunken Spelunking said:

I know that, but that's not always the best route to take for them... Say I have three traders lynxs, they can all go in a different direction and have a good chance of escaping, but there's no way to make them do so right now. 

Yeah, I get you They are simple landlubber shopkeepers.