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Ship Battle Improvements

AuthorMessage
Gunner's Mate
Jan 27, 2011
222
Ok so I touched on this in a separate post in the PvP section where it was being debated whether or not Ship PvP should be implemented, and no this isn't related to PvP at all but rather to the Combat System for Ships in general.

When I was little, I remember playing a game called Pirates of the Caribbean: Online. In that game you were able to recruit other players onto your crew, where you would go out into the sea and combat the enemy as a team. What was unique about this system was the fact that you can repair the ship and fire the cannons while the Captain steers and uses the Ship's abilities. If you haven't caught on yet: yes, I'm saying this needs to be implemented into Pirate101 (no worries POTCO died and shut down years ago) in order to spice up Ship Combat and promote teamwork in ALL aspects of the Spiral.

How would this work? Something like this:

First, there would be a queu at any Dock in the Spiral to join another player's Crew within that specific World they're in. Players can have up to a max of 8 Crew-mates (8 Cannons on each side, one for each player in case all hands are needed and because there's no telling which side the Captain will engage on).

Cannons fired by players do the same damage as the Captain's Ship's auto-damage, however, unlike with the Ship, players are able to aim the Cannons and make skill-shots against the enemy Ship. Players will also have a separate leveling system under Cannoneer (sounds familiar from the Companion Talents eh?) where they can unlock 4 different slots. These slots are where players can manually select which Cannoneer Powers to equip (in other words: what kind of Cannonballs to use). Some of these Powers could be Fire Bomb, Ice Shard, Thunder Shock, but my favorite part is Grapple, where you can grab an enemy Ship and pull it towards you (slowly of course). However, these Grapple lines can be severed by the enemy, so the more that are shot the better. Likewise, players can sever enemy lines.

Still working out more details in regards to the different types of Cannonballs and what their effects would be, so that will probably be an additional post latched onto this one.

The other part I want to bring up is Keel Haulin (Ship Repairs). When the game first came out, players could repair their Captain's ship in the midst of battle and promote longevity. It has since been removed, hopefully just for a rework, but I say it should it re-implemented. This gives players another important task to do besides simply firing Cannons. There will also be a separate leveling system where the higher your level in Keel Haulin, the faster and more proficient you are at repairing the ship. Also, there will be some breeches that require you to be a certain level in Keel Haulin to fix them, that way players are encouraged to not only blast the enemy into smithereens but to keep their ship in top-shape as well.

Cannoneering and Keel Haulin will both be classified as Professions, just like how Crafting is.

More To Come

Gunner's Mate
Jan 27, 2011
222
Continued

I gave you the general idea, now here are some more details:

Different Cannonballs will do different forms of damage, for example:
Fire - small hit, DoT
Ice - large hit, slows enemy ship (useful for keeping Grapple lines in place)
Storm - large DoT (no base hit)
Regular - normal hit
Grappling Hooks - no damage, they keep the enemy ship within range for the Captain to board (more Hooks, the better since enemies can sever the lines)

To add to this, different types of enemy Ships will be resistant to some Cannonballs but more weak to others. Ghostly Ships could be weak to Fire but resistant to Ice, Cool Ranch Ships could be weak to Ice but resistant to Fire, Armada Ships could be weak to Regular but resistant to Storm, etc etc. These are just simple ideas that can be expanded upon.

Now, what about experience? How does it distribute?

Cannoneers and Keel Haulers will have separate experience bars (found on the Character page). As such, if you're firing Cannons you'll gain experience per enemy ship destroyed and Keel Haulers will gain experience based off of how many repairs were done and what level those breeches were. What makes this system different from the Captain, is only the Captain gains Nautical experience, but only the crew gains experience based on whatever task they chose to complete. This way, the Crew is being rewarded solely for their jobs while the Captain is being rewarded solely for his. What about main/side quests that give Nautical experience? Of course those would go to everyone, no matter what your role was (considering you completed it as a group). I'm speaking about just flat out ship battles, not quests (which like I just said remain the same way they've always worked).

Last note: Keel Haulers heal the ship by a small amount every time they fix a breech and Cannoneers aid in damaging the enemy ship (as well as utilizing crowd control effects to keep the enemy ship from running or to make the Captain's life easier).

That's all for now.