Ally Assistance (Healing, Towing, Dragging)

[Chromey]

whatever add more meta in the game the better

[ThePandanator2]

Best and most realistic thing I could see would be saving the crew of a comrade ship and sailing them back to port after the battle. I'm not so sure what the benefits of this could be.

 

Could also see towing, but again, after the battle.

[Grim DeGrim]

I stand corrected... Well partially. This will depend...

During the battle of Trafalgar, the Spanish Admiral had his ship towed. Now.... Were they "in battle"? Maybe...

Captain Jugan, of the " The'mis," relates how he led the "Principe de Asturias " out of the battle in these words, reporting the incident to the senior French officer at Cadiz a day or two afterwards:

" At four o'clock firing had ceased in the centre and van. One ship in the rear was still fighting, and a signal from the Neptune to other ships to go and assist that vessel made me suspect that it was our admiral who was being hard pressed. In a little time, about a quarter to five o'clock, the smoke having entirely drifted off, I made out the Principe de Asturias, Admiral Gravina's flagship, dragging herself very slowly off to leeward, with all set that were left of her ragged sails. I at once headed for the Principe in response to her signals, and manoeuvred to pass close astern of her. I repeated the Neptune's signal to the Spanish flagship, and also reported that I believed that it was Admiral Villeneuve whose ship was still fighting. The reply was an order to take them in tow immediately. Their masts, they said, were threatening to come down every moment. I obeyed as soon as possible, and at that moment also all firing ceased. Several of our ships were now following the example of the Neptune and keeping close to the wind. Apparently they were waiting for Admiral Gravina to join, and towards them I accordingly towed the Spanish flagship."

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

Did any of those happen in real battles?

Maybe crew rescue?

All other actions were done after the battle, not in the middle of manoveuring and gunfire.

 

Actually the HMS "Captain" was towed away from the two spanish ships by the frigate NRP "Tritão" under Capitão-de-mar-e-guerra Campbell in Cape S. Vincent as she was in real danger of getting sunk along with the defeated ships. They were moving up and down with the waves in asynchronous motion ( in portuguese "à matroca" ) with the hulls crashing into each other dangerously. It was done as soon as the two spanish ships surrendered and the battle was still raging down the line.

 

 

Do we need this is the game ? Unsure. Actually it will be more useful for all ships to keep adding their guns to the battle.

IRL examples cannot be put to a game sometimes.

Tabletop rules are an entire different thing though, as  victory points in a single battle mimic RL more properly AND most of groups use follow up campaigns with previous battle results.

 

In NA ? Unsure.

Edited March 2, 2015 by Hethwill_Khan

[Destraex]

I have wanted this feature for a long time.

 

You should be able to (during testing) bring both ships to a full stop and use a repair kit on the ally. It takes longer than normal, and both ships must remain stationary until it has finished. 

Does your cutter carry hms victory masts?

[admin]

support role/hospital ship is being considered for the meta - gameplay. 

[Grim DeGrim]

support role/hospital ship is being considered for the meta - gameplay. 

 

There is something I did not anticipate:  Hospital ships.  I was going to recommend them, but I couldn't think of how to "operationalize" them in a PVP match.  Meaning, who would want to just hang around all battle in a hospital ship, waiting for someone to have need of them.

 

BUT!  Game Labs has a plan (possibly, as it is being considered).  If you need help with the idea, I have some thoughts that can tie into rankings / prestige (need to know more about the design to offer insightful ideas).

[Drake_Arden]

So i think that towing should be added to the game.

 

Pretty much it would be like a follow button but historically it is acurate. How i suggest it would work is that the faster ship would have to be the one towing because anything faster than it would obviously outrun it. then the slower ship would be able to easily follow the faster ship. this helps players that aree trying to navigate a huge fleet. What you could do to balance it is average the two ship's speeds so that a slower ship is not able to then go faster just because it is being pulled by a faster ship.