Another Plug for Hotshot

[CrustyJohnson]

I know it's been discussed on the forums; but it's been a while and I'm bored so I decided to flesh out an idea of how I think it could work well for the game. Also, before people start complaining about it's historical validity...hotshot furnaces were used on some ships...some of the ships that we have in the game, even.

Historical Precedence

USS Constitution had a furnace for hotshot and the settlement known as "Negro Fort" in Florida was destroyed n 1817, the only Negro Fort in North America was obliterated when a heated shot (heated in a boat galley) landed in the Fort's powder magazine", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heated_shot)

 

How it Could Work and Be Balanced

The Hotshot furnace would be an expensive and fairly rare module. Also, loading and firing hotshot in battle would carry with it many risk to balance out its rewards:

- Loading it should take ~2x the crew and ~4x the time as the cannon normally would

- While loading and prepared to fire, ship runs risk of being set ablaze, especially due to: jarring maneuvers, kinetic impacts with land or ships,  excessive heeling or rocking, and crew shock

- The broadside used should be forced to go into a cooldown period, maybe one full normal reload cycle

- The damage done should be minimal and the penetration values should be halved or more, as hot metal would be more malleable (forcing players to expose themselves to great risk for a close, penetrating shot and also protecting large ships from being harassed by small ones.

 

Why Would Anyone Use it?

- A penetrating broadside would nearly guarantee a strong fire be ignited

- It would be a great counter to people using repairs (also, maybe stopping a repair early should be implemented, in order to control a fire or stop leaks, forcing players to waste their repairs or risk the blaze increasing)

- it could cause havoc in a well formed line during a PB

 

Why Would It Be Good for the Game

- Implements a new layer of strategy and encourages team work

- Provides a counter to captains who run around with seemingly unlimited repairs

- MORE EXPLOSIONS!!!

 

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

Very rare exception.

The same example of use of hot shot could be given when the french navy tried... with devastating results for the ship in the test  

Other than that Fires in game are not "dangerous" in the way they barely affect normal functions of the ship.