COAS CMV 3.2, Thoughts during Gameplay

[HundertzehnGustav]

So, as i am playing along, i think the following things...
1)
I am an englishman, and am joining a battle between englishmen and Pirates.
Should i neot be getting "reputation" for joining the battle? And additionally, should i not gain reputation with the englishmen when i sink/board/burn/massacer a Pirate ship in that engagement? (tough enemy ship, much renown and vice/versa)

2)
i have played CMV for two months now, and still have no real clue on what i want to do with my pirate life.
what i really would love to do is get me a pirate settlement (bar+govnor+small fort+shipwright+store+pirate chicks) under my own flag.
being sent around on business bores me to deth.
Found my own nation sort of, have my own faction and do my own politics with the other nations on the map.

 

[Luke159]

Things like that might be made possible when POTC build mod is finished and work on COAS is in full swing but as the modding team stands right now we lack coders and experience so what we are doing to putting what we do know together and trying to improve the feel of the game as best we can, but i do like your idea's and hope they could be implemented one day.

 

[HundertzehnGustav]

oh, they are just Random ideas at the Moment - without a "message" to anyone, with nothing attached (concepts, requests, bitching&moaning) or similar. :gday

Just a Notepad for scrabbling down impressions as i dive in this game :nk
putting down ideas other people can pick up or ignore
build upon or declare them stupid.

There is more, but i found some tools,
and i might be able to address some of my "problems",
some of my improvement ideas on my own (textures and graphical stuff).

And hopefully other people feel encouraged to put down their own findings, or refine on the quite basic ideas i put forth.

 

[HundertzehnGustav]

Point of Sail -
i wish i could configure (upgrade) that factor
I found a "bellona" type red SOTL , wonderful model, awesome firepower, i can live with most of the SOTL drawbacks -

but i wish i could get my sailors to set more fore-and-aft sails so i can sail at a better angle against the wind.
wind direction + lack of turning ability has become a very limiting factor in recent battles, and i find myself slapped in the face by smaller ships of enemy nations.

if i could just "take away" the square sails (medium sail setting= only fore and aft sails?) i think i would fare better and get more out of my SOTL. getting the "sail against the wind" factor form currently 1.39 to something like 2.00, that would be awesome already.
A SOTL will never be a schooner for a thousand reasons, but with specialized sail settings or a upgrade, things would improve on the manoevrability front.

 

[HundertzehnGustav]

I wish i could have two kinds of cannon on any ship that has more than one deck above waterline

i would buy 20pounders (cannons?) for the lower deck, and put 10 of them on a broadside.
then buy 8pounders (culverlines?) too, and add 5 of them on each broadside but on the upper deck,
The lighter guns could be a(automatically)n be assigned the upper deck slots (gunfire effects)

i would need 3 commands
-------------------------------------------------
[enter/cannonlight/load]
-load light cannons with (cannon/shrapnel/antisail/exploding)

[enter/cannonheavy/load]
-load heavy cannons with (cannon/shrapnel/antisail/exploding)

-fire light cannon only

as is now, by default, fire cannon is on one mouse button, move on the other.
the fire light cannons button could by default be assigned to space bar

as is now, hitting 1-4 is load the cannons with X ammo.
5-8 could be used for the light cannons

-every ship needs rework
-probably a whole lot of backstage coding involved?!!
-how does AI handle such an option???
+added combat realism
+more flexible use of medium and big ships


-----------------------------------------
flash thought
and then add a third type of cannon:
36 pound culverlines for the bow and tail emplacements, since they do not need to be used as often as the 20 pounders of the main batteries but need to reach far out during a chase situation.
ok, i better stop now ^^

-edit for details "more than one deck"

 

[HundertzehnGustav]

So now i had a lil fight with a bunch of spaniards...
and they carried quite a variety of goods.
useable goods atm= food, rum, medecine, sail clothing and planks.

but i have a voyage of at least 3 weeks in front of me, and my hold holds things like vegetables, cows, clothes, hemp linen, silk, cotton,, tea, fruit, paprika, chilis, leather , pitch... even a bunch of dyes.

idea: use at sea and near shore what ever is in your hold to make your life better, and increase moral.
similar to usiing food, the use of "vegetables; paprika; fruit; livestock" increases food quality, and morale.
similar to medecine, "soap; vinegar" can increase ship defense (health?) - vinegar+water mix are used to clean the decks and quarters

similar to "double rations of rum", a new command could be added:
- when at sea, the captain can declare a day (sunday) for the crew to mend their clothing. Silk, leather, wool, cotton, linen etc are then used by the crew to fix and renew their clothing and improve motivation.
(if moral = above "good", use different (better) textures for sailors?)

when near shore and far away from a friendly port, there can be a new command used similar to "drop anchor here" --> "mend ship here."
-captain goes ashore and is presented with a dialog box:
a)let the carpenter and crew fix ship.
b)sail on

if choosing a), the crew will unload the cannons, the cargo and other materials to shore, and use:
tools; pitch, sail clothing; planks; all wood types; -->to repair the hull
silk; cotton; linen; in the hold to repair their ship best they can.--> to repair the sails

the worse the repair, the more material is needed.
the amount repaired is defined by the amount of damage vs the amount of material at disposition
masts lost can not be recovered (too complex a task to be done ashore without proper facilities)
hull repair can be maximal if enough materials available.
the more damage, the more time will pass, up to 1 week (?)

when the user clicks "mend ship", the player will find himself on the beach and the user will presented with a new dialog box:
"sir, we were able to repair X percent of the hull and Y percent of the sails. these repairs have taken the duration of Z days."
"amount of materials used:
--hemp
--pitch
--sailclothing
--sandalwood
--...
--tools"

clicking "ok" will take the player back to sea, camera outside the ship.

GUI screen proposition:

that way, i can keep my ship afloat and my sailors in goos condition without penetrating enemy ports or spending money to a crew... what do they do with money in the middle of the ocean anyway... no brothels, no pubs...

 

[HundertzehnGustav]

More tradeships...
all of these ships east indiaman, fleut, pinnacxe, are litterally loaded with numbers of cannons i cannot believe to be true.
Numbers and Facts aside, i personally would not AT ALL mind a few duplicates of ships such as the big fleuts, the pinnass-of-war with less cannons both in 3D and config.

from both sides, this makes perfect sense. at the moment using the trading capacities of the game is awkward - warships all around make it difficult to put together a convoy with dedicated Warships for escort and big cargo haulers worth escorting.
I am either forced to use a large Warship (corvette and more) to escort a bunch of Cargo brigs and the occasional fleut, ,,,wich still carry a large amount of cannons...
or to remove the cannons from the tradeships alltogether, wich makes their 3D models completely ridiculous.

Variants of ships with less cannons (and less crew) for trading/self defense would be the optimal solution methinks.
How difficult would such an undertaking be? keeping the maximum caliber, but removing 1/3 or 1/2 the cannons per broadside...