How to stern rake consistently?

[Sang Noir]

When I stern rake sometimes I get really high numbers of crew and when I do the same I don't hit any crew at all. I have been playing around with distance (100m, 250m, locked) and finding a good angle. But it seems like I can't grape well consistently. What are the influencing factors on proper stern raking and how can I keep a consistent streak?

[admin]

17 hours ago, Jean de la Rochelle said:

When I stern rake sometimes I get really high numbers of crew and when I do the same I don't hit any crew at all. I have been playing around with distance (100m, 250m, locked) and finding a good angle. But it seems like I can't grape well consistently. What are the influencing factors on proper stern raking and how can I keep a consistent streak?

This is an old image (crew colliders are slightly wider now). But it can help understanding how to increase raking damage.

Crew (green box) goes from stern to bow. On each deck and on the star and port sides.

• To maximize damage you need to
  • time your practice timing the broadside start and your speed. For example if you look at the image - if your shots all fly into green boxes on the left - you will deliver more damage. 
  • watch the angle of target and your guns
  • TLDR Basically shoot where guns are, parallel to enemy deck 

Its not simple and still would feel random (due to pitching and rolling). 
 

[jodgi]

Against bots or players?

A half decent player won't hand you good rakes and even fighting bots turn and burn enough to make consistent good rakes pretty hard.

[Sang Noir]

Against a player. It seems like my hits vary a lot even though I have identical positions. Is there an optimal distance? Do I need to be higher or lower? In the tutorial it said not to angle too much so I try to keep it as flat as possible, is there a visual cue? Like aiming at the horizon or so?

Edited July 7, 2018 by Jean de la Rochelle

[Christendom]

inside of 250.  closer with carros.  

some like to use locked sector and just fire as you cross the stern.  I find this is best if you are stern raking them quickly.  I like to use 100 meters focus and get a nice flat angle on the stern and lead the shot slightly.  I think my best rake was like 310 crew or something on a 1st rate.  The type of ship you go up against does matter also.

[Havelock]

Use single shot, slow down before youre going to pass the enemy ship. Hitting 3-4 good shots does more consistent dmg, the slowdown helps you with sterncamping and you need to reload less cannons (this also allows you to put full crew into sailing which reduces youre reaction time).

Full broadside rake is only viable if the enemy doesnt turn away at all.

[Liq]

 

[Nelsons Barrel]

Point is, be close and aim for the gun decks (the lower the deck the more crew it has)

[Sang Noir]

omg, 400 crew in rake? Ouch. ☠️

Liq, in your rakes you aim the cursor either perfectly at the level of the horizon (200 crew) or lower (400 crew).

So it seems to be somewhere in between distance, timing and angle, whereas timing in the pass is important for the individual cannons to have the right angle.

9 hours ago, Nelsons Barrel said:

aim for the gun decks (the lower the deck the more crew it has)

That makes sense. I always tried to aim slightly higher, I'll try that.

9 hours ago, Havelock said:

this also allows you to put full crew into sailing which reduces youre reaction time

I didn't know that. If my sailing crew is full I turn faster?

[Liq]

5 minutes ago, Jean de la Rochelle said:

Liq, in your rakes you aim the cursor either perfectly at the level of the horizon (200 crew) or lower (400 crew).

basically you want the shots to go through as far through the ship's interior as possible, while hitting the gundecks.

I'm not sure whether on bigger ships (eg. Santisima) the lower part of the ship has more crew "hitboxes" as the heavy 42 pdr. require more reloadcrew to operate. Would make sense though.

[Sang Noir]

1 hour ago, Liq said:

basically you want the shots to go through as far through the ship's interior as possible, while hitting the gundecks.

So you want to put your aim at the front of the ship rather than at the stern to make the grape pass through the entire ship. In your 200crew rake the aim is at locked and in the 400 crew it is at unlocked. What's the difference between locked and unlocked?

[Liq]

4 minutes ago, Jean de la Rochelle said:

What's the difference between locked and unlocked?

unlocked makes your guns converge to a spot, whereas locked fires them all at a 90° angle to the ship

locked is good when the ship isn't turning and you got a clear shot

unlocked cna be handy when the ship is turning, to get more shots in

[Havelock]

15 hours ago, Jean de la Rochelle said:

I didn't know that. If my sailing crew is full I turn faster?

 

Turn rate doesnt improve, but you can work your sails faster. Decreasing/increasing sails and turning yards will both help you keeping a better position. On battle sails, even your turn rate, yard turn rate and sail resistance improves.

[Macjimm]

Excellent responses.  Wish there were more similar informative threads similar to this.  Perhaps we could pin this.