Not a Bug Moving One 32lb Carronade Changes All 18lb Long Guns

[Mere_Mortal]

Sorry for the dodgy title, it’s hard to explain in one simple sentence. Here’s an example...

Ship 1 has 32lb carronade
Ship 2 has 18lb long guns

Ship 2 has “better” guns because the carronade is equal to a long gun half of its weight, being 16lb in this case.

If ship 2 were to have 16lb long guns then moving one carronade will not change them (it will be installed as a 16lb long gun), while attempting to move a heavier gun is blocked. It only happens if a downgrade occurs and in this case, because the gun being moved is regarded as being weaker then it is allowed. As such, moving just one carronade from ship 1 will change all of the long guns on ship 2 to carronade. This obviously exploits the requirement to actually buy them, and since a carronade is about half-the-price-again of a long gun then there is a bit of a difference when it comes to ships which are able to use 32-pounders (if it’s 100-un then we’re looking at around 100k difference, not that 100k is much money if somebody has a 1st-Rate). It also effectively allows for switching the guns at sea without having to visit a shipyard.

The same applies if a 16lb long gun is moved to a ship with 32lb carronade - it will become a carronade.

I don’t think it should be permitted to swap guns over at all if the ships are using different types.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Multiple calibres on the same ship doesn't work.
So when transferring between different calibres, you will never get better cannons than you already had.
Not quite correct, of course, but at least not a cheat.
The alternative would be disallowing it altogether, but that would render the cannon transfer virtually useless.

If I recall, there is a warning about this in the interface you'll know in advance that will happen.
That gives the choice to the player.

 

[Mere_Mortal]

It’s fine if the guns are the same type, but the problem is if the guns are equal or weaker. I mean, why spend that extra money if I can just convert long guns into carronade without spending anything at all? Not that money is really a big issue, but then again on maximum difficulty it could be. Maybe disallowing different guns to be moved would be too much, but not changing the type might be a good idea because sometimes people might not even want their guns to change to carronade, so they simply don’t bother to replace a gun they lost until they either find a spare long gun or reach a shipyard (applies vice-versa, too).

If I recall, there is a warning about this in the interface you'll know in advance that will happen.

Actually, there is no warning at all to suggest that guns will change type. Calibre, yes... but not the type. Granted, changing it could impact upon functionality and the ease of replacing lost guns, but what’s really the point in the carronade costing more if we can convert long guns for free?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Calibre and type go together.

The way it is supposed to work is that if you transfer a cannon to your own ship that is not the same, then:
- If the cannon you're transferring is "better", then you keep the type that you already had
- If the cannon you're transferring is "worse", then ALL your guns are downgraded

 

[Mere_Mortal]

Alright, well I suppose it isn’t a bug if it’s working as intended. I just don’t agree with how it works is all.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

The idea is that you can choose to downgrade through a cannon transfer, but not upgrade.
That is the only way weer could think of to have that feature without it being an exploit.
Only alternative I can think of is to not have that feature at all.