Boarding?

[CajunNavy]

Hi guys,

I don't know if it is just me or what, but boarding has suddenly become extremely difficult.  I am finding it very difficult to board that includes the enemy being able to avoid my boarding them through: 1) the speed of the target seems increased, 2) it is most difficult to line up on the target, 3) the time it takes to actually start boarding allows the target to put my ship in shock, 4) the enemy can break off the boarding in the middle of the fight. The last one is the strangest.

This seems to be a recent issue. Has something with boarding been changed?

Thanks for this wonderful game!

[pandakraut]

Recent patches have made some changes to boarding. Kill rates seem to slow down faster than before is all I've really noticed though.

You've always been able to break off boarding by hitting the button again. Maybe the AI is actually doing this sometimes now?

[CajunNavy]

Thank you sir!  I didn't know about being able to break off boarding.  Could the changes have anything to do with boarding becoming very hard otherwise?

[pandakraut]

AI scaling was turned back on so it's possible you're just fighting better experienced and equipped crews.

[CajunNavy]

Yes, in those quick, fast, slippery and agile 74's. LOL!

 

Thank you for the replies. 😀

[doublebuck]

The same button you use to board is also the button you use to break off boarding the only thing I will mention is you may have to press that button a few times for it to work.

[CajunNavy]

Well I have tried Objects in Motion 6 times now and have been unable to board either 3rd rate.  I have two Diana's, two Dedaigneuse's, one Hermionie and one Cerberus. Two have two perks and two have one.  They are armed with carronades  - 24, 18, and 12's. Only the Cerberus has it's original guns. My last (and final attempt LOL) just turned me off from the game.  Twice I started boarding and it was broken off by the AI, and the AI was able to capture both Diana's by hitting them twice with broadsides to get them in shock then the AI boarded me!

My ships have to endure at least two broadsides before anything at all happens.  The 3rd rates, 64 & 74 are almost impossible for a frigate to catch. Add the other forces and this is a game breaker. I am all for a challenging game, but not for an impossible one.  Since the first release I have not had this much trouble just STARTING a boarding action.  If AI scaling is this rough I will wait some before coming back.  I have no desire to restart a Campaign on easy.

Thank you to all developers for this game!! 😀

Cajun

Edited February 12, 2020 by CajunNavy
Spelling! LOL

[pandakraut]

@CajunNavy Can you confirm what you mean by boarding was broken off by the AI? The ships grappled together, pulled even, the crossed swords show up above both ships and men start to die(not from cannon or musket fire), and then the melee suddenly stops and the ships move apart?

[sterner]

Can you please provide more details. AI knows nothing about how to disengage. But if a ship has a bigger mass and speed, it can break ropes. Probably you had to try to stop AI ship, for example, put your ship in front of her path. We don't have ramming yet so nothing critical can happen. Or maybe just burn the ship.

[CajunNavy]

1 hour ago, pandakraut said:

@CajunNavy Can you confirm what you mean by boarding was broken off by the AI? The ships grappled together, pulled even, the crossed swords show up above both ships and men start to die(not from cannon or musket fire), and then the melee suddenly stops and the ships move apart?

Yes, both vessels were grappled together and taking casualties.  The fighting will cease and the AI ship will sail away.

Also, when grappled together and with the boarding signal showing, the AI ship will suddenly dart away.

[sterner]

Another fix probably changed your approach, before ai quite often tried to hit sails in most of cases instead of aiming hull.

[Rygoat]

I've seen this happen a few times about a week and a half to two weeks ago.  But it only happened after a ship surrendered after boarding.  The surrendered ai ship would just break off boarding before I could transfer prize crew and continue to drift forward, probably on 25% sails.

I haven't had this happen after boarding tweaks.

[CajunNavy]

32 minutes ago, sterner said:

Can you please provide more details. AI knows nothing about how to disengage. But if a ship has a bigger mass and speed, it can break ropes. Probably you had to try to stop AI ship, for example, put your ship in front of her path. We don't have ramming yet so nothing critical can happen. Or maybe just burn the ship.

Hi,

The AI seems to be able to disengage after fighting has started.  I have seen it multiple times in "Objects".  The AI ship will also seem to suddenly be able to outmaneuver and accelerate much better than my ships as we get close to boarding.

I have stopped the target ship with a big frigate, and have had a big frigate on each side.  Before I can board, the 74 will disable one, capture the other and then sail away from the blocker.

[sterner]

There are fixes in the latest patch related to start and stop boarding. But they fixed things mentioned by Rygoat. We are going to balance large ships, to decrease their maneuvering.

[CajunNavy]

36 minutes ago, sterner said:

There are fixes in the latest patch related to start and stop boarding. But they fixed things mentioned by Rygoat. We are going to balance large ships, to decrease their maneuvering.

That's why we love you guys!  You listen.

[Robert Sistrunk]

I just downloaded the game and played the naval tutorial twice. The second go round I set my gunners to fire grapeshot as it closed for boarding. seemed to work well for me.

[CAPT E.]

In the British campaign, the darn French ships are very fast and, therefore, quite difficult to board.  I go after them with a couple of ships; one to block and one to board.  Even then, the French ships often escape from my grasp like squirming weasels.

The French 68s and 74s are another matter.  Still quite fast relatively, and if they hit you with a full broadside while you are alongside, your boarding crew can be disabled by the shock.  Then the French have a better chance of squirming away.  I've been working on ship upgrades to increase speed...and capturing some of the fast French ships, of course.

I've never actually fought sailing ships, so I can't say how realistic are the game mechanics for boarding, but they don't seem completely unrealistic either.  Boarding a fighting ship should be tough and very bloody.  Also, I've managed to squirm away when the French had me grappled, so the game mechanics can be used to advantage, as well.

[Sturm561]

Boarding is a learned skill...the more you do, the better you become.  I have run into battles where the other ship pulls away from the grappling hooks, however the ship I tried to board was both bigger and faster so I had to wear it down a bit first.  I accept the enemy breaking away because I know I have done the same thing when a better ship tries to board me.  I go to full sail and make a sharp turn away and I can break away successfully more often than not.  Another trick used by both me and the AI is do a quick stop and the ship who is trying to board goes charging past breaking the grappling hooks.  I never sent in a bug report for this because I figured the AI wasn't doing anything different than what I can/will do to evade a boarding.

[Bonden]

Hi, I bought this excellent game recently and I did not find the answer to my question neither in the wiki nor on YouTube : what do mean the 3 small icons which appear when boarding above the "HMS Pheonix" small icon above the tool bar (and their colors) ? 

[pandakraut]

They are indicators to let you know how close you are to being able to board. Left to right: matching speeds, distance between ships, angle between ships. If all 3 are green then the grapples will probably be able to pull the enemy ship in and allow boarding to start.

[RAMJB]

1 hour ago, pandakraut said:

They are indicators to let you know how close you are to being able to board. Left to right: matching speeds, distance between ships, angle between ships. If all 3 are green then the grapples will probably be able to pull the enemy ship in and allow boarding to start.

You don't need them to be green. One green, two on yellow usually will cause a boarding. Those icons actually represent more the ability of the given ship to hook up the target ship with boarding hooks and drag it closer for a boarding action than anything else. All green means they're going to have a field day dragging it close. As long as nothing is red, the less green you have the slower the process will be. 
All yellow means it's mostly a stalemate, the boarder won't be able to force it closer, but the target won't get free of the hooking ropes. One red without at least one green, or more than one red without any green means the target ship will break the hook lines if they get deployed, and move away.

Note that in either of those cases if the ships actually reach a position for a boarding (because their own issued movement orders, or else, like another ship pushing one of them into position), the boarding will happen anyway. I've had succesful boardings triggered even with two red meters because of that.

At least that's how it works according to my observation.

Edited March 29, 2020 by RAMJB

[pandakraut]

Agreed, the indicators are guidelines not definitive conditions.