Boarding, lets talk about Boarding!

[felelo]

   Lets talk about Boarding! Should they be in third person somewhat like in Mount and Blade? In "battle mode" like in Total War? Just a menu, like the "resolve battle" from Total War?

 

   I think that third person would be awesome, but its risky, it would hardly turn out good, it would need to be really well made!

 

   We got to remember that not always the ships would be side by side, sometimes they would launch smaller vessels carrying the crew to attack the enemy ship. I'm interested in being able to control this smaller longboats also!

 

   Boarding should have a lot to do with crew managing, "how many men will I send?" "these, tired from my last battle? Or those, that stayed in the ship?" "wich officer will be leading them, Tom that is really smart but has low morale with the crew, or Bob, that dumbass loved by all my men?"

 

[marecek05]

The third person would be fun, but I would hope that the devs would focus on other aspects of the game more.

 

Some basic strategic interface, like send that many men here and here commanded by him might be more enjoyable (something basic only however)...

 

...for now...

[Black Bart]

hopefully they dont make it 3 person.. would take to much in a big fleet battle.. you are the cpt on the ship and do tactics when boarding and such.. so hopefully a command screen and the auto.. 

[Chustler]

I think with a dev team this size, it will have to be simple, and menu based. I have always imagined that a really fun way to play it would be something like Company of Heroes on ships, with a good cover system and overhead sort of view. I think if we are realistic though, it will have to be a more beefed up version of the Rock Paper Scissors we have now.

Boarding will be a big part of this game, and if we look at POTBS and it's absolutely horrid boarding mechanics, we can at least see what not to do... Doing boarding in a deep but simple way could make this game something special.

[Steelfury]

I think we could have a bit more advanced version of what it is currently, I'm thinking something like the combat system in crusader kings 2 except manually controlled; have 3 portions to command (2 flanks and 1 center) with similar options to current i.e. fire, defend, attack but with the added option of the flanks supporting the center or the center supporting one of the flanks i.e. you pick a target for each flank and center (with the exception that your left flank can't engage their left and right can't engage their right). This would mean that you could for example choose to focus on the center with both flanks, however their flanks would stay relatively intact, and your flanks may begin to weaken if they choose to continue to engage your flanks with theirs, leaving your center isolated etc.. It would need a bit of work, but I think you could for example even have flank reinforcements i.e. an order for one flank to beef up the numbers on a weakened one, replacing an attack move for that round. Potentially this could even allow for larger ships to have more than 3 flanks, and smaller ships to only have 2 or even 1.

[mirror452]

The Company Of Heroes on ships thing does sound amazing though... I also imagined it like that.

[Munro]

Personally I think it should be a more passive experience where the player input is mostly in preparation (bringing marines, ordnance and armaments and appointing officers to lead boarding parties).

 

What's most important is that the outcomes are more realistic than an absolute extreme of both sides fighting until everyone on one side is dead. Transferring your flag to the captured ship should carry a massive debuff for the first few minutes and then a considerable one until the end of the fight, because your crew is taking command of an unfamiliar ship with unfamiliar quirks and qualities and an unknown damage status.

[RAMJB]

What we have now is more than good enough for the game needs. This is a naval game, not some strange weird real-time-tactics game.

I'd like to see more options for boarding, though, and a stronger influence of the commands on the result. Right now having less sailors than the enemy (even by a minuscle percentage) almost guarantees you'll win no matter the commands used.

But I'm sure it'll get tinkered with down the line .

[Vasco]

I'd go for either third-person or TW-style battle mode, but in keeping with whatever way the developers decide to implement avatars.

 

It's a real immersion killer watching numbers on a spreadsheet rather than seeing a full crew in action, whether it be as part of it or observing your crew and marines swarming the enemy decks.

[Daveev66]

Personally I would prefer a simple command based system for boarding. How many groups of men and marines to send, how many to hold in reserve, tactics to use. Given some crew quality modifiers this should give a reasonably historical result with turning into a whole new mini game.

[Steelfury]

Just to illustrate my thoughts on this:

[Naxos]

Would tend to a very basic model or Steel´s above, which offers more possibilites.

I truly love mount and blade, a blast of a game, but its a first person slasher and implementing this would move this game on a wrong path, too much tunnel vision and too arcade

 

If I want fps I simply play another game

[Taki1980]

Personally I would prefer a simple command based system for boarding. How many groups of men and marines to send, how many to hold in reserve, tactics to use. Given some crew quality modifiers this should give a reasonably historical result with turning into a whole new mini game.

 

I would like to see a deep tactics Text Based Style. Like you give a Command and enemy does and then you get a Textline wich says what happens and the Results. Like those Indie Game RPG Neoscavanger. Lets do the Deep Tactics and lets imagine how this looked on Board. That will give us the Ability to bring up those Boarding Protection Nets, Hand out Pistols, Shoot Broadsides while Boarding, Use Swivel Guns, put Snipers in the Rigg etc.

 

No Visual Boarding please but deep Tactic Options, Moral System etc.

 

Thats what i would prefer.

[BlouBulle]

I want it simple but in depth, like steels idea:

 

When boarding hooks are on you can assign your crew to:

1) Try and remove the hooks

2) Board the enemy

3) Brace for boarding party

4) Fire weapons if they have any

5) Scuttle your ship, if the enemies ship is sinking getting into your boats and sinking yourself will leave them in a bad situation as long as a friendly ship can pick you up.

6) Keep the portion of the crew on the guns (slloooow reload or only that portion of the ship fires).

 

I like the idea of LCR but a small ship may take up only the center of a bigger 1 so it should depend on the smaller boat as to were left center and right are.

 

Also we need an animation, for a start smoke that attaches itself between the ships at the points of boarding and maybe a few random ropes with hooks flying around.

[Miekael]

I really like Steelfury's idea.  I have played a couple of games now where boarding just kept the simple rock, paper, scissors approach, while it works for the game it still lacks in any variety leaving it always somewhat uninteresting.  Now with Naval action, in the open world, boarding will have a more prominent role and instead of just falling back to the roshambo method, I think the devs should try to at least expand upon it with more depth.

[Thc420Vato]

It should be like in men of war, but with swords and stuff.

[Max Thundercroc]

So would/could a ship be boarded from both sides. I've read reports of ships getting mast tangled and three or four ships smashed together from boarding or close combat. For instance the victory and santi at Trafalgar. This would allow two constitution's to take a 1st rate or two brigs to take a frigate. I think this should be added and I think steels system would be easy to use in a more complicated case like this also. Although boardings usually ended in a chaotic melee so tactics could possibly break down as you go.

[Max Thundercroc]

So would/could a ship be boarded from both sides. I've read reports of ships getting mast tangled and three or four ships smashed together from boarding or close combat. For instance the victory and santi at Trafalgar. This would allow two constitution's to take a 1st rate or two brigs to take a frigate. I think this should be added and I think steels system would be easy to use in a more complicated case like this also. Although boardings usually ended in a chaotic melee so tactics could possibly break down as you go.

[Seaman Stains]

I like the idea of a more tactical boarding (as opposed to a simple "they have more crew than you, you lose" or rock, paper, scissors [lizard, Spock] concept). The fact that you have crew members as well as a company of marines should help you win a boarding battle. Also, if you choose to arm your vessel with swivel cannon and rigging sharpshooters (done before setting off on your voyage), that should also give you a slight advantage over another vessel's mob of sailors. The number of boardings each member of the boarding party has participated in should also be a factor. 

 

Essentially, you can choose (before you depart port) that you might be interested in boarding any vessel you battle with, or simply to sink them. If you wish to participate in boarding, you would load swivel cannon on your vessel, hire a troop of mercenary marines (with some even having sharpshooting from rigging as a specific skillset). This might also be an option if you wish to prevent being boarded, to have a strong anti-boarding defence.

 

I don't think the devs should go for first or third person graphics, as it's too much work, and could be a strain on some player's machines. But simply an algorythm that comes into play if you board a vessel, or if they board you. You have 120 crew, 6 swivel guns mounted before your departure, a platoon of mercenary marines with 3 specialist sharpshooters, and 36 of your crew have participated in three boardings, 12 have participated in two boardings etc etc. As a Captain, you have been in charge during 6 boardings, and have 3 years experience. All this would give you a "boarding score" of "x", whereby your opponent has a "boarding score" of "y". If X>Y, and all other factors such as Captain's experience are taken into consideration, you win the boarding battle. Your losses during this battle will be consistant with your boarding "algorythm" score.

 

Now comes the problem of what to do with the surviving enemy crew. Do we throw them to the sharks, make them walk the plank, keelhaul them for fun? or threaten to toss them to the sharks unless they join your crew. You can't keep them all on the prize vessel (which you must adequately repair, crew and provision to get them to a safe harbour to become part of your personal fleet) as they will mutiny against your skeleton crew and return the vessel to its previous owners. So you lose some of your best crew and your first mate to crew this prize back to port with you following closely behind. Your crew then reunites when you return to port, keep the enemy crew you can trust, release others, or even ransom them back to their owners.

 

Is this thinking too much into it? Will it be too hard to "code" or to make this a reality in the game?

 

I really think you should be able to increase your chances of winning a boarding battle by making these choices and purchases before you set sail, and also having requisite experience in attack and/or defence of boarding parties. I don't like the simple "rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock" boarding battle.

[felelo]

 They've updated the boarding system a little... now you have three options each round: Attack, Defend and Fire!

 

 Its already comming to form!

[Destraex]

[Windy]

Maybe in time, something like this may appear...

 

 

 

 

Or something like this...

 

[Destraex]

Where are those shots from?

[nebsif]

Guess I'll stick this here http://i.imgur.com/13VbhWW.jpg

Isnt Fire > Defense? He had only ~15 guys more at start (I took a beating from bellona)

[MATANZA]

Devs already said that there won't be any avatar combat. But I'd like to see some other mechanics than rock-paper-scissors. Some more complex, GUI based minigame (attack there, defend here) with nice scenes of boarding going on ships (like in Total War) would be fine.