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Ship combat questions

When you fight another ship... how do you fire at him exactly.

Like normally on a real ship there would be a guy to aim them higher or lower and adjust the horizontal angle abit (not sure of this).

Anyways i have played 2 pirate type games so far. World Of Pirates and Voyage Century.

In World of Pirates you simply push a button for either side of you ship to fire... this made for fast combat (twitch based fighting) the ships also moved fairly fast in that game... you could zig zag quickly to shoot at opponents runnign form you and to shoot with both sides of cannons aswell.

In that game there was only one kind of cannon and it was just #ships in your fleet and the # of cannons on each ship which lead to damage calculations.

In voyage century the combat zones are instanced (like potbs). You select the enemy ship you wish to fight and you steer you ship in to fight depending on the type of cannons you use... high angle or high range or something in between. You also have different types of cannon balls ect... You can try to wound all their sailors and board them, you can take out their sails and use high angle or long distance cannons where they cannot hit you back ect. They also have mines and special skills like ramming ect to make things interesting.

 

I watched some youtube vidoes of this game but it was still not very clear... all the footage was of ships directly beside eachother and stuff. I could not tell how you actually fight in pvp from the videos.

 

So i need clearification

Comments

  • KoolaiderKoolaider Member Posts: 450

    http://www.burningsea.com/features.php

    This is about as good of an answer as I could get. It seems that there are many factors involved in combat and that it may actually take some skill and not just point and click.

  • stickmstickm Member Posts: 219

    I already read that... to me that means nothing... you can spin stuff many ways to make it sound good. I thought this game was in beta shouldn't people already know what the combat is like?

  • kjm2006kjm2006 Member Posts: 90
    Originally posted by stickm


    I already read that... to me that means nothing... you can spin stuff many ways to make it sound good. I thought this game was in beta shouldn't people already know what the combat is like?
    It is in closed beta right now, so no one in the beta is allowed to talk about it . So you will just have to listen to what the devs have to say.

    POTBS username:yohorumrunner
    Guild:St George Squadron

  • isildurisildur Lead Designer, PotBSMember Posts: 84
    Cannon fire is handled at the battery level.  Each gun deck is a battery of cannons, divided into the port and starboard batteries.  You can fire each battery individually, or fire them all at once.  You choose the aim point of your guns by choosing the type of ammo you load into your guns.  Chain and bar shot are aimed at the rigging and masts of ships; grape, canister and langridge are aimed at the decks; round shot is aimed at the hull.



    You fire by selecting an enemy and clicking on a gun battery on the combat interface, or using the 'fire all' command (default mapped to the spacebar) to fire any battery that can hit the target.



    There's no dodging of shots; cannonballs move much faster than ships can turn, and your gunners are assumed to be able to do basic gunnery activities like leading the target.



    Every ship has its own unique complement of guns.  Our smaller ships have a handful of 3lb cannons, while the larger ships have decks full of 36lb monsters.  The reload rate of those larger guns means that you need to be certain you're taking the right shot before you fire, because it may be quite a while before you can fire that deck's guns again.



    Smaller and more maneuverable ships can fight with both port and starboard guns, but the larger warships have to concentrate on one side of the ship at a time, as they're just not maneuverable enough to turn their other broadside to face a target before their guns reload.



    Damage is directional; if you take too much damage on the port side of your ship, you'll need to turn to present your starboard side or risk taking hits that penetrate your armor and damage the structure of your ship.  Take too much structure damage, and you sink.  Your bow and stern facings are weaker, so you want to avoid letting enemies take shots at those arcs; even a ship of the line can be taken down by concentrated fire from smaller ships on its bow or stern.



    Any other specifics you'd like to know about?
  • stickmstickm Member Posts: 219

    K, so what ive gathered:

    -the ammo determines what part of their ship your cannons will hit

    -to target someoen you select their ship and click some kinda fire thing.

     

    Im wondering about the no doging of shots thing. do the cannons have firing angles and min and max distances? like 80 deg or 90 deg or something. How do you know if you can shoot at someone, does it just tell you when you try to fire? or can you fire but miss because hes not within range.

    What im interested in is the complexity of ship battle and how much player skill can come into play.

  • aristoculousaristoculous Member Posts: 159
    Originally posted by stickm


    K, so what ive gathered:
    -the ammo determines what part of their ship your cannons will hit
    -to target someoen you select their ship and click some kinda fire thing.
     
    Im wondering about the no doging of shots thing. do the cannons have firing angles and min and max distances? like 80 deg or 90 deg or something. How do you know if you can shoot at someone, does it just tell you when you try to fire? or can you fire but miss because hes not within range.
    What im interested in is the complexity of ship battle and how much player skill can come into play.
    I think you are looking for a Naval Sim :P.



    There are plenty videos you can find for Potbs with developers comentary in regards to naval battles. Try E3 2006 or E3 2005, goggle  them.
  • isildurisildur Lead Designer, PotBSMember Posts: 84
    Player skill is focused on maneuver and position.  You can have a bigger, badder ship and still lose if you're stupid.



    Your guns have firing arcs and range.  If you can't possibly hit a target, you can't fire the guns -- whether as a result of the target being beyond your range or outside your arcs.  Arcs and range are displayed on the minimap, and your current status relative to your target is indicated on your target UI (so you can see at a glance whether a target is out of range, out of arc, or blocked by another ship).
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