Reboot little ships grind - How do they perform?

[jodgi]

Soon we're all back in little ships, how are you planning your grind?

This is how the little ones perform relative to eachother right now: (Though, I'm pretty shure that'll change soon as per admin's "data change request" topic.)

All ships are close to equally fitted for speed, except the Yacht which you could bump up 5% to compare it on equal footing.

As for me...

I plan on going Yacht > Pickle > Mercury and up.

Maybe crafting will be fun to test? But then I'll have to zoom around, probably for hours, looking for this and that and spend, probably hours again, hauling stuff back home. I keep my mind tentatively open...

Cya on the flipside!

[Archie_75]

yes its what I thought.

You can keep the brigs. Get the most xp with a yacht or cutter and rank and then the merc.

[DazednConfused]

or Niagara?

[GrapeShot]

Might want to capture a Trader Brig to haul cargo. No guns, but it seems generally fast enough to get away. How does its speed look in the chart?

[jodgi]

Might want to capture a Trader Brig to haul cargo. No guns, but it seems generally fast enough to get away. How does its speed look in the chart?

Hmm... I have no love for the Brigs so I haven't done those. Maybe I should do one?

I wouldn't expect to run away from anything in a Brig, tho... When they start to model the weight of the cargo all bets are off anyway.

[edit]

I just went and did it.

A yellow speed fitted brig can outrun the little ones downwind. Go without speed mods and the margin starts to shrink to less than +1 knot. You just have to avoid letting them battlespawn on top of you.

An unmodded Belle won't catch your speedmodded Brig, and since that's one of the few without forward chasers it's pretty much that ship and a Snow you can comfortably escape. Well, nobody sails a cerb, so...

Edited August 26, 2015 by jodgi

[GrapeShot]

Interesting -- I sailed a Trader Brig (with some green speed mods I think) through hostile territory and my impression was you could run from most enemies in it. Cargo weight would change the equation, and enemies would take more of an interest in you as well.

 

I do look forward to seeing what armed traders they introduce.

Edited August 27, 2015 by GrapeShot

[maturin]

Is that a speedmodded Merc and a vanilla BP?

[Prater]

Yes, the chart for the Merc is with a speed mod. Merc top unmodded speed is like 15.9 or something like that.

[Booyaah]

I'll probably just try and grape/capture a Mercury in my yacht with marines when I get up to the JLT rank.  Yacht is a lot better than Lynx for combat IMO. 4 cannons > 6 cannons.  

 

I've sailed around in the OW in the Basic Lynx so much doing logistics, that I have gotten kind of tired of its looks.  The yacht is so much sexier.  Plus I'll probably sail with some friends in a little piranha fleet

[maturin]

It was a crime to make a Baltimore clipper the starter vessel. Now everyone thinks it's banal.

[jodgi]

It was a crime to make a Baltimore clipper the starter vessel. Now everyone thinks it's banal.

Aaaahahahahahaha! I can literally see the pain, borne from love, in your words, priceless!

I think new guys are better off with a cutter as a starter vessel, then they can dream of the specialized speedy Lynx they hope to capture or afford during the first days of play.

Edited August 27, 2015 by jodgi

[Siegfried]

My plan is farming NPCs > Save money for Pickle with 12 pounders carronades > PvE farming to reach Lieutenant > Sell Pickle and buy Mercury with the same 12 pounder carronades > When M&C buy Renomee or Belle Poule undercrewed > When Belle Poule would be well crewed will be my Grind Over > Go in a Yatch speed buffed to explore new changes in game world geography.

 

Maybe then I will some PvP IF demast is more difficult and people don't board me to boring me.

 

This plan may be changed for new ships or rank mechanics of course.

[admin]

Aaaahahahahahaha! I can literally see the pain, borne from love, in your words, priceless!

I think new guys are better off with a cutter as a starter vessel, then they can dream of the specialized speedy Lynx they hope to capture or afford during the first days of play.

 

Probably agree with that.

Lynx should be more a privateer and not a starter ship. Some time ago we had a white basic schooner with 2 guns per side. 

 

This patch everyone will start with a yacht that will be added as a redeemable. 

[akd]

A good starter vessel would be cutter with 8 cannon. Maybe call it a Revenue Cutter (basically a coast guard vessel), and change name of current cutter to to Naval Cutter. Very fitting place for a Navy career to start.

Dissapointed to see the increasing "militarization" of the yacht, which was never intended to be a combat vessel. I think she would be more unique as a very sweet-sailing ship, but with little cargo space and poor combat capabilities (less crew, maybe 4 pdrs only). It is arguably better than both lynx and cutter, which will be somewhat unfair after release.

[Siegfried]

I think that Privateer don't worth be in game. Paint the privateer in white and rename to Linx. The Pickle can make the roll of actual Privateer. Or maintain Linx and Privateer but with the same name Linx for both with a 6 gunned version named heavy Linx or Cougar for example, with the negative effect of less speed and/or only 4 pounders. More guns is less pounder because the weight or you sunk more ship in the water.

 

And if a ship has more guns she needs more crew. For example 8 guns Linx 40 crew, Yatch, Cutter, Privateer and Pickle with 12 guns ships 55 crew. Privateer and Linx (and maybe yatch) only 4 pounders guns and the others 6 pounders carrying the crew for a gun complement if 4 pounders needs more or less than 6 pounders.

 

I only thought about gameplay, not historical guns.

[maturin]

Probably agree with that.

Lynx should be more a privateer and not a starter ship. Some time ago we had a white basic schooner with 2 guns per side. 

Hmmn... the thing is, having only 4 guns per broadside already creates a lot of frustration for the new player. If we are going to have ships with even weaker armament, we are going to need much weaker merchant vessels to hunt as well. Tiny galeases, feluccas, barca-longas, galliots, collier brigs, etc.* Otherwise you just make the problem worse. A mitigating factor would be to add a bunch of swivel guns, or 3-pounders.

 

Best to make to make an 8-gun cutter the starter ship. A lugger (chasee-maree) would be another excellent starting vessel.

 

 

 

I think that Privateer don't worth be in game. Paint the privateer in white and rename to Linx. The Pickle can make the roll of actual Privateer.

That could work.

 

 

*I hope that at some point we do get a wide variety of small non-combat merchant craft, even if they aren't modeled to the same standards as our current ships. There's an enormous amount of regional flavor to be had there, much different from every ship we have so far.

[Siegfried]

Anyway I think the system of put cannons in ships is placeholder now. The correct way is buy every cannon or pair of them. Raise their price for new players can add cannons as they earn gold. It can be adjust because the new player and less rank you pay more for cannons. For make affordable put cannons in new ships with more guns you can buy a batch with lower price for batch. Batch bigger, price per gun lower.

 

This way the same ship models can be different armed. You are limited by rank not only the crew, guns too. As a Admiralty law like the crew, more rank, more guns you are allowed to mount in every ship you have.

[maturin]

The ability to partially arm a gundeck is also critical for merchant ships. No merchantmen the size of the in-game brig would be unarmed. A few pairs of 4-pdrs or carronades would always be present.

[Siegfried]

Actual traders are placeholder too I guess.

[Spork]

Probably agree with that.

Lynx should be more a privateer and not a starter ship. Some time ago we had a white basic schooner with 2 guns per side. 

 

This patch everyone will start with a yacht that will be added as a redeemable. 

 

I am in full support of starting with the yacht this patch. It may be my current favorite vessel.

 

 

Jodgi I know it's a pain but would it be possible to see the graphs on all vessels in game by class in an unmodded state? That is as purchased with no mods that affect speed at all.

Edited August 29, 2015 by Spork

[jodgi]

I don't have the data. Some ships come with perm speedmods, some come with planking or reinforced masts which affect speed.

I did one run with my trinc without guns to try to get close to basic values.

Then I gave up, for now.

[maturin]

Can't you just look at the color of the speedmod (ie, Yellow, +5%) and solve for the vanilla stats?

[jodgi]

Can't you just look at the color of the speedmod (ie, Yellow, +5%) and solve for the vanilla stats?

Yes, that's quick and easy:

But It has proven difficult for me to find ships that don't have stacked speedmods or mods that adversely affect speed.

Maybe I should do like this until I can present true vanilla/basic values?

[Spork]

If you have a neut character I'd be more than willing to search ports for various ships for you that come without speed affecting mods, then sell them to your neut at 1 gold per for testing purposes.

[jodgi]

Something along those lines could work. I'm just a filthy casual, so I'm not sure I have the time to level up a neutral char just for this purpose.

Let's chew on it for the time being, I'll leave my line open