Ok finished the testing the ships with maxed out stats, and i can reveal some interesting resaults.
1. It will cost alot more to upgrade the hull strength on any ship at Bermuda. That was a given anyway since ship hp was increased for all ships.
2. You can sink almost all class 6 ships like the Sloop and similar in one to two broadsides from a MOW with maxed out character and perks.
3. A MOW with the same maxed out character and perks was sunk with 7 broadsides.
So everyone understand how i'm conducting these tests, i have maxed out a charater using the cheats, he has every perk available which in a normal game without cheating is not possible. I'm using a Battle MOW with 100, 42Ibs cannons mounted, you can upgrade to 48Ibs which will obviously increase the destructive power of the MOW's broadsides. I'm using an officer to control the ship(s) i'm testing on and then parking right next to them, under a normal game you would not sink a MOW with 7 broadsides but instead it would take around 10 to 13 close broadsides, i'm yet to test it out under normal game conditions without any perks though. When attacking at distance you will not do as much damage, that is obvious since not all shots with hit there target and those that do will not be as effective.
Testing with a Sloop with no cheats been used i found myself a Cutter to attack but the weather was far from ideal with heavy waves most shots missed even when close enough to deal heavy blows, its like the waves wait for your guns to load and then block you from hitting the AI ships. :slap
However i did decide to rig my sails and sit and wait for the weather to pick up, once the sea was calmer i began firing broadsides at the Cutter but with low skills i was lucky to hit the sails let alone the ships hull. So to counter this i started moving in very close and firing broadsides at the ships hull. I noticed the Cutter had lost 5 of its 12, 12Ibs cannons. I'm not sure how quickly they was destroyed but i did see one explode which is why i checked it out with the spy glass. The Cutter only had 69 crew onboard while me in the Sloop with 123 crew ment i was not at risk of been boarded and was the reason i started going in so close, had the Cutter and myself had similar crew amounts i would have kept my distance because the last thing i wanted was to be boarded since that is not what i'm testing.
I gather about 8 to 9 of my combined shots hit there target (thats from every broadside) the Cutter had lost around 13% of its hp, i boarded in the end and took a better look. It was not as bad as it looked however it was still enough, this means it will make the pirate nation a little harder to play as at the start. And if your like me then it will increasingly get harder as your skills increase and the AI ships you encounter get better with more ships in the fleet.
So far i'm impressed with how well its going but i'm no where near finished. I want this to be 100% finished before its released and if that means it takes me weeks then so be it, but unlike the RTBL there will not be a single version released till its finished. I will post back when i have something worth posting.
Even if I'm on a ship-of-the-line, with 40+ cannons more than the small brig I'm hunting down..
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