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Let's talk about nerfing ship battles

AuthorMessage
Ensign
Oct 27, 2012
4
I've managed to advance quite a lot in CR, making it to Haunted Skyway, and realizing that I had to upgrade my ship yet again.

After barely scooping together enough for a Bison Galleon, I had to work even harder to get ship parts for it. I thought I actually stand a chance against the haunted ships (the first main quest), but I was wrong. Here is what REALLY annoyed me to no end (in fact, I have not finished it yet. It's just too annoying)

1. The enemy ships' dodge rate. It doesn't matter if I have 63 accuracy (or having Cpt. Gunn's guns either). The enemy ships simply dodge WAY too much. Sometimes it's so bad that I end up missing twice or three in a row with some spells. And the long cooldowns don't help cool me down (oh, and it's called "Cool Ranch" because it's supposed to cool you down after experiencing the short world of Valencia). It's especially common to miss right after they heal themselves, and sometimes it seems you can only hit the enemy ship when it wants you to hit it.

2. The enemies have a VERY high accuracy. The only time enemies miss a lot is when your ship is nearly destroyed. Besides that, they don't really miss that much more (unless you're lucky and they miss at the first broadside, but then they heal themselves). When I still had my Royal Navy skiff, I used the same spell on the Wild Bunch ships (Laughing Man) that they had and theirs hit a LOT more than mine did.

3. Another enemy ship joins from a distance. Although this doesn't always happen, sometimes an enemy ship will randomly decide to join the battle if its course is near you (and for some reason sometimes they ignore me). It's extremely frustrating to be trying to destroy the last enemy ship and another one joins and you have to flee or be destroyed.

4. They despawn. Sometimes it's a good thing to happen; you can lead an enemy that has joined far from his course to despawn. Other times, however, it annoys you to no end. For me they LOVE to despawn right when I'm about to kill them. Please, KI, remove the despawning or make enemies unable to despawn when they are almost dead.

5. It's boring to fight them. ESPECIALLY A LOT OF THEM IN A SINGLE SITTING. Cannons should do a lot more damage IMO, and ship combat simply needs a lot more excitement to it. I've put off these kinds of quests for a later date because I'm too bored to continue playing.

Do any of you scallywags out there agree with me? Do any of you have some ideas to fix these things? Please comment.

Meanwhile, I'll share my suggestions in a few words because I'm running out of characters.

1. Reduce the dodge rate by 5 every time it dodges
2. Reduce chance to hit if you are moving. Atm there isn't much of a reason to move in a naval battle
3. Decrease the aggression of fellow enemy ships that cannot target you.
4. Remove or increase the distance an enemy ship can travel before despawning.
5. Have more excitement (cannons can damage crew members) or something.

Smart Oliver Kidd lvl 34

Lieutenant
Jun 16, 2009
133
I have found some of these things frusturating too. The despawning especially annoys me, but it also would be nice if it was less tedious to fight multipule ships.

Community Leader
Are you fully equipping your ship? Most of our damage comes from the horn and figurehead, not the cannons. Armor too will help you withstand those attacks longer.

Some sails will increase your accuracy and/or dodge for a few seconds, or decrease the accuracy or dodge of the enemies. Since they only last a few seconds, it takes some practice to get the timing down. My favorite sails will either increase my accuracy or decrease enemy dodge; use that when your horn or figurehead have just a second or two left to go, then follow with the improved attack while the sail boost is still active.

To reduce the chances of getting hit by more than one ship at a time, try to target one on the edge of a group instead of diving into the middle where they can surround you. Don't back away unless you have to, for instance if your health drops into the yellow and they're trying to board you. The further they chase you, the more likely they'll hit the end of their range and 'ghost out' and leave the fight.

You could also look for help by going to a more crowded realm and teaming up with others attacking the same kind of ships that you need. It's a lot easier to sink them when you pull one of their own tricks and outnumber your target.

Chatroom Moderator - Pieces of Eight Radio
Ensign
Oct 27, 2012
4
Sierra Starsong on Dec 10, 2012 wrote:
Are you fully equipping your ship? Most of our damage comes from the horn and figurehead, not the cannons. Armor too will help you withstand those attacks longer.

Some sails will increase your accuracy and/or dodge for a few seconds, or decrease the accuracy or dodge of the enemies. Since they only last a few seconds, it takes some practice to get the timing down. My favorite sails will either increase my accuracy or decrease enemy dodge; use that when your horn or figurehead have just a second or two left to go, then follow with the improved attack while the sail boost is still active.

To reduce the chances of getting hit by more than one ship at a time, try to target one on the edge of a group instead of diving into the middle where they can surround you. Don't back away unless you have to, for instance if your health drops into the yellow and they're trying to board you. The further they chase you, the more likely they'll hit the end of their range and 'ghost out' and leave the fight.

You could also look for help by going to a more crowded realm and teaming up with others attacking the same kind of ships that you need. It's a lot easier to sink them when you pull one of their own tricks and outnumber your target.
At the moment I am in Mooshu now, but I cannot fully equip my ship with sails because the nautical lvl required to buy them for the skiff is too high (although it will be updated soon).

The sails for me don't make a very big difference. I used Old Man Winter on my Bison Galleon and the results still feel very random or cheap.

Even when I do target the edge of a group of ships, sometimes one breaks off from the group and joins me (sometimes when I'm close to them, sometimes when I'm far from them. It feels totally random on whether or not they join). Backing away doesn't always help; sometimes the despawned enemy ship respawns itself almost instantly after it despawns. And not to mention you can run into another enemy ship or creatures running backwards.

Doing it with someone else immediately makes it boring and one-sided to do a ship quest. It does help with getting the stuff, but the drop rates are atrocious, and that cannot be fixed by players. I'd rather prefer a challenging but fun naval quest that isn't frustrating instead of easy collection quests for a ton of xp.

Smart Oliver Kidd lvl 42

Petty Officer
Dec 22, 2010
50
I've said it before, but some ship battles are simply too difficult or too tedious to do alone unless you have crown ships with crown gear. Then they become easy.

KI needs to fix this.

Community Leader
Thomas Stormweaver on Dec 11, 2012 wrote:
I've said it before, but some ship battles are simply too difficult or too tedious to do alone unless you have crown ships with crown gear. Then they become easy.

KI needs to fix this.
I stopped buying the crownshop ship gear since it wasnt tradeable (yet) (got some on my first 2 pirates, then stopped).

I have been able to beat any of the ships i've been required to with gold purchased ships, and ship gear/drops.

Granted some can be tedious/take longer, but they arent too difficult to beat.
When its tedious I ask for my friends help to speed things up, but I always make sure I could have achieved the task myself before doing asking for help.

What I think is the issue for some, is the idea that the ships given to you in the game will suffice.
I cannot side with that line of reasoning, thats why they give us so many more options.
Thats why they sell other options, and why ship battles drop so much free ship equipment, my shared bank is chock full of great ship equipment. I dont think I will ever have to spend a crown on ship equipment again even if they never change the crown stuff to be tradeable. Its just not necessary.

Dr Zeppers (aka Silent Sam Stern)
Piratey parodies I like to make.
I be a crazy pirate for goodness sake!
Artist & Admin of Skull Island TV
Ensign
Aug 23, 2009
3
I'm stuck in Haunted Skyway also, with the Ghost Ships. I was so happy after defeating Capt Blood because I thought I'd get to go to the mines or something and progress, but they saddled me with 2 more Ghost Ship quests - 12 Ghost Ships + "collect wooden planks from Ghost Ships." I'm on a frustrating 6 ships and no drops, plus like you said just to defeat 1 ship is like pulling teeth.

I just feel this was a bit much to lay on us after giving us Ghost Ship quests at the beginning of Haunted Skyway. I thought I was done with them. After defeating Captain Blood I thought, "Surely they wouldn't do this to us again" but they did.

I enjoyed Cool Ranch up until now. Now I'm sick to death of it - bored sick.

Bosun
Sep 08, 2008
388
I would like to beg to differ about the crowns part.

Up until nautical level 44, I never ever had a single problem fighting ships with regular in game ships bought from the different points in the game.

All I did was upgrade my ship (buy a new one) when I was able to, and farm a little bit on those enemy ships in the vicinity for better ship parts. The only problem I ever had fighting enemy ships is when another enemy ship decided to join in on the fight.