Boarding + 'Determined Defender' suggestion

[Percival Merewether]

While I personally like determined defender I know there are people out there who are unhappy with it in it's current form, this is mostly related to larger ships were 30% of 1000 crew is too much.

I'd like to propose the following:

• Make it impossible to board a vessel with determined defender only if you have less crew than your opponent, - if you have 324 men and he has 323; then you can board.
• Make it impossible to board when in any kind of shock (crew, rigging, reload, fire)
• Make boarding impossible when sinking.
• Make sinking, force disengage (Cannot win a 5 minute long boarding action if your ship was 10 seconds from going down).

What do you guys think, am I being unreasonable?

[Capt Jubal Early]

I still think it should be based off of a deeper moral system.

A demoralised ship regardless of the crew wouldn't be determined defenders.
Kill the moral like the Surprise demasting the Acheron (a much bigger vessel) then board the buggers.

Already suggested idea revolving this before in the determined defender feedback but the threat was locked.

[admin]

31 minutes ago, Percival Merewether said:

 

• Make boarding impossible when sinking.
• Make sinking, force disengage (Cannot win a 5 minute long boarding action if your ship was 10 seconds from going down).

 

thats a feature. Boarding from a sinking ship gives great feeling if you are able to pull it off and is actually described in my favorite childhood book on Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini.

[z4ys]

26 minutes ago, admin said:

thats a feature. Boarding from a sinking ship gives great feeling if you are able to pull it off and is actually described in my favorite childhood book on Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini.

Indeed one of my best and fav NA moments.

Edited April 19, 2018 by z4ys

[Spitfire83]

I so nearly boarded someone last night while desperately  sinking but as I was pulling his ship my boarding prep dropped due to all crew going to survival it was almost a amazing moment..lol but yea determined defender in its current form is pretty crap nth either 10-15 % crew or as original post if you have superior crew even by 1..

[Spitfire83]

1 minute ago, rediii said:

you can deactivate survival to board someone

I know but by the time I figured out what had happened and me throwing my hand at keyboard and mashing some buttons he had regained speed...

[Gorgons]

Currenly im not the biggest fan of determined defender because it makes it damn hard to actually use boarding in a pvp fight. if you are using a 3 rate for hunting or fighting it would be extremely hard to decrew a buc down to below 500 crew without taking massive amounts of damage.

where i could see an implementation of perk called determined Attacker or Boarder, that simply neutralizes the effect of determined defender being a good idea. since being boarding fittet results in less crew on guns and sails (marines), lowering the combat abilities a bit with slower cannon reload and sail turn speed.

This would lock a perk for boarding which means that you make the decision of going for boarding as a strategy

[Tomasso il Fortunato]

1 hour ago, Gorgons said:

if you are using a 3 rate for hunting or fighting it would be extremely hard to decrew a buc down to below 500 crew without taking massive amounts of damage.

If you and your friend are determinate to capture a buc you can do it . Two 3th rate can do great thinks if they know how to play .

[Capt Jubal Early]

With the emphasis on decisive results from action in combat.

 Boarding is lack luster in current meta and bloody well boring.

[Capt Jubal Early]

I had some thoughts on other ways to balance this.

Make it so the effects of determined defender are only applied or "on" when the defending ship has men in boarding.

So in practice this would make it not a passive perk but a active one. Captains would have to actively prepare to repel boarders by having to reach a certain amount of prep for the ability to take effect. Say 40prep (random number). 

Thoughts?



 

[HachiRoku]

Determined defender is a great mod to avoid skill less rageboarders. Personally I don't use it because its a waste of a slot that is to passive. The main issue with it is that 30% crew advantage and rum makes this very hard to board sometimes. There needs to be morale in battles anyway from reload shocks, rig shocks and crew shocks. Why not make it a 20% morale advantage BUT rum only restores crew without morale! Morale should play a bit of a role in battles but not to much because low crew morale and player morale would be a pain. If a ship gets high on morale maybe the crew could load 1 or 2% faster, Turn yards fasters, swap between sail and guns faster etc. Small things like this make for great immersion. 

Edited May 4, 2018 by HachiRoku

[Teutonic]

I like the thought that Rigging Shock, Reload Shock, and Crew Shock would put a Dent into your Overall Morale count if you get into a Boarding Action.

Thinking on it more, it seems silly we don't have this.

What would you suggest for the numbers?
I would say any Shock on the ship would lower the Morale by 5 (if we assume a Ship starts with 100 Morale).

EDIT: @HachiRoku add tags so the Admin doesn't lock the thread

Edited May 4, 2018 by Teutonic

[HachiRoku]

Just now, Teutonic said:

I like the thought that Rigging Shock, Reload Shock, and Crew Shock would put a Dent into your Overall Morale count if you get into a Boarding Action.

Thinking on it more, it seems silly we don't have this.

What would you suggest for the numbers?
I would say any Shock on the ship would lower the Morale by 5 (if we assume a Ship starts with 100 Morale).

I have been thinking but getting the numbers right would be very hard to do. 5 Morale might be ok but it might be to much over 1 hour. 

[Teutonic]

Possible then it should be capped then either in terms of how many times a ship is affected, or the lowest morale can go?

[HachiRoku]

1 minute ago, Teutonic said:

Possible then it should be capped then either in terms of how many times a ship is affected, or the lowest morale can go?

Well it already goes down with crew but rum getting moral back is the issue. Maybe rum should only restore 50% of the moral compared to crew. I would say with shocks there is no need for caps because unless you're fir fir you will not be shocked that often. 

[Capn Rocko]

I would much rather see this than the 30% crew thing. After x amount of shocks, boarding should be possible. The sailors can only scream so much before they loose all hope 😆

On a side note... isn't it spelled "Morale"? 

[HachiRoku]

2 minutes ago, Capn Rocko said:

I would much rather see this than the 30% crew thing. After x amount of shocks, boarding should be possible. The sailors can only scream so much before they loose all hope 😆

On a side note... isn't it spelled "Morale"? 

it is  

[Christendom]

Frankly it's absurd that I can physically demast a ship and kill 100 crew and STILL not be able to board it because I'm in a smaller ship.  

I hate determined defender with every fiber of my being.  Ruins most aspect of PVP and PBs for me.

[Havelock]

I think if we change DD so you only need to have more crew to board it would be fine. I havent been in a single boarding action since its reintroduction and agree that 30% is too much.

[p i t]

DEATH TO DETERMINED DEFENDER!!!

 

or make it a cant be chain boarded perk.. that would be so kewl

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

[Urchin]

Not all of us have sub 100 Pings (mine is 350) - So keep that in mind when asking for changes to DD.  Or change the (arcadish) boarding mini game so it's not a win/loss based on last second clicks. 

And if you think ping isn't a factor play the game through a distant server via a VPN, look forward to your comments.

 

Edited May 4, 2018 by William Wade

[Sir Texas Sir]

1 minute ago, Coraline Vodka said:

Easy fix, must have boarding prepped for DD to work. You won't get boarded but your crew will be come more vulnerable

I like this that means your ready for the defense or attack and it's not just auto.  Was just in a fight early and while we all had DD no one could board cause while I had 30 more crew than one ship it wasn't 30%.  So I couldn't board a Herc or Prince (the prince had less crew than me) and they couldn't board me.  Even though we where all sitting still next to each other while they pound me with cannons.  No one was moving and that is just stupid I should be able to pull one of them even if I had same or more crew if we are sitting at zero knts. Though it worked for me cause I didn't want them to cap my purple Niagara lol

[Guest]

Im not sure how, but a crew shock x2 could trigger a "Brace" type of effect for 15 sec unless modified by skill/upgrade. That seems like an appropriate result in battle. Crew in shock...cant do anything for a few seconds. During this time, there is 30% less crew available (example) if boarded. Just a thought. It would certainly change boarding as crew protection would gain significant importance.. Just food for thought. o7 all

Edited May 5, 2018 by Guest

[GreasyMnky]

How about determined defender only effective if you have boarding prep up to 50+?