I've just had a most peculiar (and frustrating) sea battle, which has lead me to wonder, what conditions determine, what makes an enemy ship give up and abandon/flee the battle.
I'm perfectly aware, that you modders have done a tremendous work on the AI of the enemy ships. And with so many factors to take into account, when determining the behaviour of a ship, it's actually surprising, that the ships behave so well, as they do. I don't think, this was a bug, but some condition must have gone haywire in this particular case. And it has made me wonder, what makes an enemy ship keep up the fight, and what makes it abandon the battle.
The sea battle went like this:
One day I was attacked by four pirate ship on the open sea (a meeting with a rag-tag band). It was the open sea, but near an island, which I could see at first, but lost sight of later. I've forgotten which island (possibly Barbados).
The pirate ships were all of a lower tier than mine, but I can't say exactly what type of ships, they were. I'm captain of a single English galleon (tier 6), and I think, the four pirate ships were all tier 7.
At first we were all shooting away each other and two other coastal ships a distance away (I'm only enemies with the pirates, so the coastal ships were neutral to me). The four pirate ships were all from the same rag-tag band. Two of them attacked the two coastal ships, but then decided, those two ships were not worth it and returned to the battle with me.
I tried to outlast the pirates, because they early on broke one of my masts, and my galleon was not particularly fast in the first place. I'm also only at level 18 and don't have many perks for sailing. So I was not fast enough to flee, but had more cannons and tried to bombard them, as much as I could.
I number the ships in the order, I got rid of them.
Ship 1 lost all its masts, and I was running out of cannonballs, so I managed to board it and take all of the cargo. The ship turned out to be so damaged, that it sank, even though I had made a civilised approach to the captain.
By that time my own ship was badly damaged too, and I hadn't gained all that many cannonballs from ship 1, so I decided to flee and wear my pursuers down with chainshots.
The pursuit lasted during the night. I and the three remaining pirate ships shot at each other. I used chainshots, and I think my enemies did too. So even though I damaged their sails, my own were also so damaged, that I could never outsail them.
Ship 2 was a bark of some kind. It was the fastest ship for a significant part of the night, but at some point it turned around and sailed away from the battle. I didn't see it again.
The next day I was so lucky to remove the masts of ship 3 and board it. By then I was out of cannonballs and chainshots and used the grapeshots, I had gained from ship 1. My own hull was also down to 10%, so I was mostly staying afloat because of the "emergency repairs"-perk. Again I didn't gain many cannonballs from this ship. And I sank it, because crew and captain fought to the end.
Ship 4 would not give up. Already when I boarded ship 3, it stayed close, but shot very little at me, while I peppered both it and ship 3 with grapeshots.
After the succesful boarding of ship 3 I shot at ship 4 with all, I had.
But ship 4 (a sloop) behaved strangely. It only occasionally shot at me. This leads me to believe, it had almost completly run out of shots of any kind and only had enough to load one arc of cannons, so it had to turn the relevant arc of cannons in my direction to be able to fire at me. I got into the same situation only a short while later, when I had used all my cannonballs, chainshots and grapeshots and had to reload frequently to get the last shots of any kind into an arc of cannons.
But I still couldn't get rid of ship 4. I tried to escape - no use, the ship was faster than me and kept pursuing me, and with no shots of any kind left, I couldn't damage it further. If I stroke all sails and just waited for it, it too stroke all sails and stayed put. And if I tried to reach it to board it, it just sailed out of my reach.
It was a complete no-win-situation. I couldn't escape or board the ship. And it wouldn't leave me alone, but wouldn't board me either. The crew of that ship had somehow kept a high morale, even when I did my best to mow them down with grapeshots (my crew had good morale). And I know, it still had more than 10 cannons and about 40% hull and sails left.
I even tried to manouver around it in the hope, that I could get it to empty the last arcs of cannons with some kind of shots in it and make it go away, when it ran out of shots. But I was not so lucky.
By that time I had no idea, where I was, and if there was an island nearby, where I could get help from other ships or forts. I had been following the wind both during the night and the next day - first north and then south. First later I discovered, that I had to own a sextant to be able to see my position on the map during battle.
Eventually after four days of pursuit (I put the time on x 20 and did something else to get an end to the battle with no luck) I gave up and closed the game.
---
To make thing even more mysterious I've just encountered another rag-tag band of four pirate ships of tier 7 - an English bark, a jackass bark, a sloop and a fourth ship of a type, I've forgotten. And they gave up fairly quicky. I simply stayed on a north course and shot cannonballs at them (I've bought even more of those after the above battle, now have an officer with the "fast reload"-perk and have the "long shot"-perk myself). And at some point they just turned around and sailed away.
What made those four give up? And what on earth went into the one that just kept pursuing me?
I'm perfectly aware, that you modders have done a tremendous work on the AI of the enemy ships. And with so many factors to take into account, when determining the behaviour of a ship, it's actually surprising, that the ships behave so well, as they do. I don't think, this was a bug, but some condition must have gone haywire in this particular case. And it has made me wonder, what makes an enemy ship keep up the fight, and what makes it abandon the battle.
The sea battle went like this:
One day I was attacked by four pirate ship on the open sea (a meeting with a rag-tag band). It was the open sea, but near an island, which I could see at first, but lost sight of later. I've forgotten which island (possibly Barbados).
The pirate ships were all of a lower tier than mine, but I can't say exactly what type of ships, they were. I'm captain of a single English galleon (tier 6), and I think, the four pirate ships were all tier 7.
At first we were all shooting away each other and two other coastal ships a distance away (I'm only enemies with the pirates, so the coastal ships were neutral to me). The four pirate ships were all from the same rag-tag band. Two of them attacked the two coastal ships, but then decided, those two ships were not worth it and returned to the battle with me.
I tried to outlast the pirates, because they early on broke one of my masts, and my galleon was not particularly fast in the first place. I'm also only at level 18 and don't have many perks for sailing. So I was not fast enough to flee, but had more cannons and tried to bombard them, as much as I could.
I number the ships in the order, I got rid of them.
Ship 1 lost all its masts, and I was running out of cannonballs, so I managed to board it and take all of the cargo. The ship turned out to be so damaged, that it sank, even though I had made a civilised approach to the captain.
By that time my own ship was badly damaged too, and I hadn't gained all that many cannonballs from ship 1, so I decided to flee and wear my pursuers down with chainshots.
The pursuit lasted during the night. I and the three remaining pirate ships shot at each other. I used chainshots, and I think my enemies did too. So even though I damaged their sails, my own were also so damaged, that I could never outsail them.
Ship 2 was a bark of some kind. It was the fastest ship for a significant part of the night, but at some point it turned around and sailed away from the battle. I didn't see it again.
The next day I was so lucky to remove the masts of ship 3 and board it. By then I was out of cannonballs and chainshots and used the grapeshots, I had gained from ship 1. My own hull was also down to 10%, so I was mostly staying afloat because of the "emergency repairs"-perk. Again I didn't gain many cannonballs from this ship. And I sank it, because crew and captain fought to the end.
Ship 4 would not give up. Already when I boarded ship 3, it stayed close, but shot very little at me, while I peppered both it and ship 3 with grapeshots.
After the succesful boarding of ship 3 I shot at ship 4 with all, I had.
But ship 4 (a sloop) behaved strangely. It only occasionally shot at me. This leads me to believe, it had almost completly run out of shots of any kind and only had enough to load one arc of cannons, so it had to turn the relevant arc of cannons in my direction to be able to fire at me. I got into the same situation only a short while later, when I had used all my cannonballs, chainshots and grapeshots and had to reload frequently to get the last shots of any kind into an arc of cannons.
But I still couldn't get rid of ship 4. I tried to escape - no use, the ship was faster than me and kept pursuing me, and with no shots of any kind left, I couldn't damage it further. If I stroke all sails and just waited for it, it too stroke all sails and stayed put. And if I tried to reach it to board it, it just sailed out of my reach.
It was a complete no-win-situation. I couldn't escape or board the ship. And it wouldn't leave me alone, but wouldn't board me either. The crew of that ship had somehow kept a high morale, even when I did my best to mow them down with grapeshots (my crew had good morale). And I know, it still had more than 10 cannons and about 40% hull and sails left.
I even tried to manouver around it in the hope, that I could get it to empty the last arcs of cannons with some kind of shots in it and make it go away, when it ran out of shots. But I was not so lucky.
By that time I had no idea, where I was, and if there was an island nearby, where I could get help from other ships or forts. I had been following the wind both during the night and the next day - first north and then south. First later I discovered, that I had to own a sextant to be able to see my position on the map during battle.
Eventually after four days of pursuit (I put the time on x 20 and did something else to get an end to the battle with no luck) I gave up and closed the game.
---
To make thing even more mysterious I've just encountered another rag-tag band of four pirate ships of tier 7 - an English bark, a jackass bark, a sloop and a fourth ship of a type, I've forgotten. And they gave up fairly quicky. I simply stayed on a north course and shot cannonballs at them (I've bought even more of those after the above battle, now have an officer with the "fast reload"-perk and have the "long shot"-perk myself). And at some point they just turned around and sailed away.
What made those four give up? And what on earth went into the one that just kept pursuing me?
