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Quick Idea : Beat the quarters

Seb

Seb

Privateer
Storm Modder
Hello all!

I'm just throwing a little idea again, what about a quick action icon, to give the player the possibility to beat the quarters?

Seeing a ship with permanently loaded guns, is quite unrealistic isn't it, and more over when there are no ennemy ships around,

So with this mod, the guns would stay unloaded until the player takes the decision to beat the quarter, he would selec the corresponding icon in the quick action menu, and then, and only then, the guns would load, he would have to wait for it, so he would have to adapt his strategy, his position and his action plan, calcute his exposition to the fire of ennemy ships during the loading time, think about a manner to be fully ready, before approaching the ennemy ships.
This could also be associated with a correspounding sound that would play during all the first loading time.
It might improve and change the game tactics in naval combat.

What do you think about it?
 
I think this would be an awesome idea, especially if the selectable ages mod is developed (would be very important for Napoleonic Era). I think there should be a slight delay between sighting a ship and being ready for battle in order to effectively simulate the ship being stripped down and the guns readied for action. If I had the coding know-how, I would definitely be all for having a go at making this, although seeing as I have none... <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dunno.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":shrug" border="0" alt="dunno.gif" />

However if someone were willing to maybe teach me the basics, I could go from there and see what I could come up with <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/readon.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":mm" border="0" alt="readon.gif" />
 
Sounds nice to me. However, gameplay-wise this means we would also need to have a disadvantage to doing this. Otherwise you would just beat to quarters as soon as you enter 3D sailing mode, which would just be another action by the player (which is annoying) and would do no good gameplay-wise. The reason why you WOULD beat to quarters is obviously: You want to be ready to fight? But what kind of disadvantage should this give? Slower manoeuvring? Higher chance of fires?

In any case I like the idea. The problem would be who could code it. Personally I have no idea how to do it, so I can't really help anyone else figuring it out either. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/modding.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":modding" border="0" alt="modding.gif" />
 
pieter makes a point. you might just as well ready the guns as soon as you enter sailing view. maybe manuevrability decreases because you have to prevent the ship from leaning too far over.
 
Also there'd need to be an "unbeat to quarters" option as well to unload the cannons again and get rid of the penalties for beating to quarters (whatever that penalties might be) or regaining the bonuses of not beating to quarters.
 
decreasing the manevrability during beating could be something good, because of the preparations, the reason could be easy to imagine, the crew wouldn't be ready to fully manever the ship, the time for each men to go on it's post, maybe we could associated with an ability, when this skill would be given, beating the quarters wouldn't slow manevers anymore?
 
I'm not sure if this is applicable, as I've been without my copy of PotC for a few months now and have been away from the Build mod, but have we implemented cannons exploding when fired like in AoP? If so, beating to quarters/clearing for action could reduce the chance of cannons exploding and replicate a crew's proper preparations of the guns for actions. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dunno.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":shrug" border="0" alt="dunno.gif" />
 
I would say that beating to quarters increases the amount of time it takes to set and strike sails, as the crew would be below working the guns.

And a staccato drumroll would be a perfect sound for this action.

Look at the code used for the firedrills, it could be similar to this.
 
The firedrill code would be close, but we'd still need to figure out how to set the cannons to be unloaded by default and to figure out how to mess around with the time of setting and striking sails. I think it should be possible to do this. If anybody is willing to give it a try, I'm sure the people with the code knowledge will try to assist. I will try to help in any case, provided that I can figure out how to. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wacko.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":wacko:" border="0" alt="wacko.gif" />

<!--quoteo(post=241276:date=Feb 26 2008, 01:03 AM:name=KaiserWilhelm)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (KaiserWilhelm @ Feb 26 2008, 01:03 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=241276"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->have we implemented cannons exploding when fired like in AoP?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Not when fired. Cannons can only explode because of enemy fire, not because of you blowing up your own cannons.
 
well, unless some dumbass stuffs it with a double load of gunchowder. i've got a beat to quarters drumbeat as mp3.
 
I was talking about currently in our PotC game; not about real life. Of course you can make your own cannon explode in real life. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wacko.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":wacko:" border="0" alt="wacko.gif" />
 
Prolonged use of a cannon will cause it to overheat and eventually explode. You could add a bit of code that gives an increased percentile chance to explode with each shot over a certain number to simulate this (possibly affected by cannon skill and caliber). Could make long battles quite interesting.

As for beating to quarters, how about having a chance of misfires instead of explosions? Old powder in the cannon could get wet and degrade, reducing the range and accuracy of the shot. Imagine positioning yourself for the perfect broadside, giving the order to fire and watching your cannon-balls roll out of their barrels into your passing wake with a pathetic muffled bang. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

It would also be cool to be able to double-shot the cannons, increasing explosion chance, decreasing range and accuracy but doubling damage.

Have no idea if any of this is possible though <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />
 
In theory a lot of this should be possible. The problem is the same as usual though: Somebody needs to code it in. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/modding.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":modding" border="0" alt="modding.gif" />
 
Aye.

And as for the code to slow the sails down... when you have a smaller crew, it takes longer to set and strike sail... so there must be a code somewhere.
 
That's always the problem :/ i would've tried to code it if i could but, all i'm able to have is... ideas :/ i'm sorry really not to be able to help in that way, i would've tried, really, i hope one day i'll be able to learn coding, there are some day's i'd wish i would be at least 3 years younger >__> i had more time with me when i was 17 grml
 
Not to worry; in the worst case we'll keep your idea in mind and do it when we happen to run into the right code. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/doff.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":doff" border="0" alt="doff.gif" />
 
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