As noted in the title, I have GOF 2.0 installed. I'm playing on the Captain difficulty setting which I believe is the 5th of 10.
I've noticed that whenever I get into a ship battle, cannons just destroy crew. The rest of the ship usually remains intact until long after the crew has been reduced to a single man. This is true of round shot, explosive shot, and even chain shot. I've found the best tactic (at least early on, I've only played 10-ish hours and have only taken about 15 ships) is to keep grape shot loaded, take whatever hits are necessary to close into range, unload a broadside, and board the enemy.
I'm wondering if this is intended as part of the realism modifications or if I have some setting set wrong or if it's just bugged. It seems like it must be extremely difficult to maintain even a half-decent skill level on your crew when you lose half of it in every single fight. Even if I get into a fight where they end up running away at the end because they have a faster ship, they still destroy my crew level before my chain shot can even touch their sails to slow them down.
I'm mainly asking since all the other games with Age of Sail era naval combat I've played (Pirates!, PotBS, Empire/Napoleon: Total War, etc.), my main tactic was to use a fast ship to dodge out of range of the broadsides while using chain shot to slow them down. Once sufficiently slowed, I'd close in staying out of broadside arcs firing grape shot until I felt safe to board and/or they surrendered. I honestly don't know anything about historical Age of Sail combat and whether the way it is in GOF2.07 is more accurate and thus intended or if I'm doing something wrong.
Am I just too low level and have too low a Defense skill to keep my crew alive? Will a higher Defense skill stop my crew from being destroyed when I get a high level ship and am fighting a similarly high level ship with tons of big cannons? Is it just that the difficulty setting being that high results in very high crew damage while the hull and sails don't take that much?
NB: It's perfectly okay if this is intended. I don't really have a problem with it. It's just different from what I'm used to and I want to confirm that I'm not just bugged or something.
I've noticed that whenever I get into a ship battle, cannons just destroy crew. The rest of the ship usually remains intact until long after the crew has been reduced to a single man. This is true of round shot, explosive shot, and even chain shot. I've found the best tactic (at least early on, I've only played 10-ish hours and have only taken about 15 ships) is to keep grape shot loaded, take whatever hits are necessary to close into range, unload a broadside, and board the enemy.
I'm wondering if this is intended as part of the realism modifications or if I have some setting set wrong or if it's just bugged. It seems like it must be extremely difficult to maintain even a half-decent skill level on your crew when you lose half of it in every single fight. Even if I get into a fight where they end up running away at the end because they have a faster ship, they still destroy my crew level before my chain shot can even touch their sails to slow them down.
I'm mainly asking since all the other games with Age of Sail era naval combat I've played (Pirates!, PotBS, Empire/Napoleon: Total War, etc.), my main tactic was to use a fast ship to dodge out of range of the broadsides while using chain shot to slow them down. Once sufficiently slowed, I'd close in staying out of broadside arcs firing grape shot until I felt safe to board and/or they surrendered. I honestly don't know anything about historical Age of Sail combat and whether the way it is in GOF2.07 is more accurate and thus intended or if I'm doing something wrong.
Am I just too low level and have too low a Defense skill to keep my crew alive? Will a higher Defense skill stop my crew from being destroyed when I get a high level ship and am fighting a similarly high level ship with tons of big cannons? Is it just that the difficulty setting being that high results in very high crew damage while the hull and sails don't take that much?
NB: It's perfectly okay if this is intended. I don't really have a problem with it. It's just different from what I'm used to and I want to confirm that I'm not just bugged or something.
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