Release Notes 2017-8-10 tlopo-rc-v1.4.3

[LesPaulObsession]

I'd just like to point out that 1600 damage per explosive is actually a pretty low number for explosives. Also, Battle Royale and the like are meant to be incredibly damaging. I've literally never sunk to any of these ships. Actually I haven't sunk at all, when I'm behind the wheel (Totally not using this opportunity to humblebrag, nope, no sir)! I've messed up a few times, and sometimes they do random stuff that shouldn't be possible yeah, Take Cover has saved my life a couple times, but with all these ships the problem isn't how much damage they do. It's other various issues.

All the normal explosive ships (Corsair, Juggernaut and Cerberus) are incredibly easy to take down safely. It's called "keep your distance". If you're a good captain, who has figured out their sailing style, you can get close as long as you don't let them aim their broadsides at you. Battle Royale? Just keep her from aiming her broadsides at you like everything else.

The problems lie in ships spawning on top of you, and ships teleporting around or doing crazy spins when the server lags. When sailing works the way it's supposed to, these ships will be much less of a problem. Well, to skilled sailors. Against everyone else they will be a nightmare because their broadsides are supposed to lock on like ours do!

They were always like this, and that was fun. There's a reason back in POTCO captains would instruct their crews to not even shoot at corsairs. There also weren't quite so many back then - TLOPO needs to tone down the Corsair and Juggernaut spawn rates. (Juggernauts have been insane lately!)



No no no please no more health buffing. The SOTL Warships as they are - they are already too much health! It's terribly boring. Smarter AI, higher speeds and better turning radius are much better ideas.

E: Waiting for these next patch notes with bated breath...

I consider myself a decent captain, I'm not saying make them do round shot damage, but 36k per broadside is ridiculous. Literally nothing can survive that. All I'm asking is to bring the damage down a bit, so that we can actually survive a broadside if something happens. Bear in mind, it's not always the captain's fault if you're hit by these broadsides. I was being followed by a fleet of 7 light sloops (players by the way. I was not happy) last night, and they kept sailing in front of me and stopping me completely. You try to avoid 1, and there are 4 more in either direction. Avoiding explosive broadsides isn't just as easy as "meh, don't feel like getting hit by one, so I won't". Janky ship spawns, and rude, inconsiderate players also play a HUGE role in all of that. All I want, is the bring the explosives down to a more manageable level. Not a total nerf. Just enough for me to think "alright, time to get out of here, because I can't survive being hit by a stone right now" after being hit by a broadside. Like I said, back in POTCO, I had a clean record with sailing after upgrades were added. My ship never sank. I'm doing nothing different now, than I did then, which leads me to believe the ships are hitting harder than they used to, which is fine, as long as I have a chance to react to it.

 

[Sky Kiwi]

My ship never sank. I'm doing nothing different now, than I did then, which leads me to believe the ships are hitting harder than they used to, which is fine, as long as I have a chance to react to it.

No, it's because TLOPO sailing is extremely different.

In POTCO, enemy ships had locking broadsides. You could counter this by stopping, or turning, etc. In TLOPO enemies have "shotgun broadsides" - the same kind of "cannon spray" we get when we fire with nothing to aim at.

Additionally, these ships are always janky. The servers are lagging behind (this is a worst case scenario, but see this thread), and nothing is as smooth as it was in POTCO.

The truth is TLOPO sailing is kind of abysmal compared to POTCO sailing. We're getting there, and the developers are doing a great job, but there's a few strides to go.

In some cases it's easier this way, but in many cases it's a lot worse because everything is significantly less predictable.

I am certain it's not the explosives damage. I've done a lot of math on damage lately lol, and explosives are 12x the damage of round shot. That sounds accurate, it was definitely always over 10x. Pretty sure enemies were all meant to have level 1 of whatever cannon types they had. I will, however, admit that I might be biased because I actually like it this way.

***

As for that player interruption thing, that's actually a pretty big concern. But to be fair these players could probably have sank anyone even if they were fighting a warship that only fired round shots. I hope you reported that occurrence.

As for "janky ship spawns", I mentioned that earlier. Like I said, it's not their strength, it's everything else that's wrong making it harder.

Edit: Geez it's hard to find videos of people getting hit by explosives in POTCO. I was expecting someone to have posted at least something. I guess shadowplay and such wasn't a thing back then...

 

[Molly McQuinty]

overall my memory of potco had some quirks as well, it wasnt always what we chose to glowingly remember however,server crashes, district resets and bugs included. the reality here is it can vary from too easy to circle and sink even warships to having a smaller ship get a good lucky maxed out random attack. random spawns on or near, and player actions can have radical effects and fatal consequences . i personally prefer the challenge to work for it, not just sinking ai but trying to second guess the mob fleets. many aspects like rams still dont fully work in game and just fully upgrading a ship if you use it any way but head on aggressive makes a huge difference. seen a type 6 copperhead tank 2 tally ho broadsides while 1 shotting a juggernaut and 3 shot sinking the tally...sounds just as op as the ai explosives to me, and they are and should be feared and respected for that reason. i suspect full effect implementation will find ai far too easy and full skilled players on fully upgraded ships to be a op match for sea battle in general. however like everything its a learning curve for us all and perspectives may differ. keep up the great effort devs and staff each update we work thru the quirks and the experience just keeps improving.

 

[Ornery Will]

I was being followed by a fleet of 7 light sloops (players by the way. I was not happy) last night, and they kept sailing in front of me and stopping me completely. You try to avoid 1, and there are 4 more in either direction.

This is a very large problem - collision mechanics. It occurs in the open water, around islands, and in fights / sink fests.

• Larger ships should quickly push smaller ships out of the way, quickly for large differences in size, more slowly for smaller differences.. Collisions with non-enemy ships should not cause damage to either party. Collisions with enemy ships should cause a small amount to each. This can be adjusted (with a bunch of programming) by the relative size, angle of strike, speed, etc. It sure would make the combat more realistic.
• Fishing boats should just get pushed out ot the way with no damage to anyone, no loss of speed for the non-fishing ships. Also importantly, fishing boats should spawn just inside (island side) of the ?too close" line to keep them out of fights.

There are other collision issues, but these two are my pet peeves. Ramming Speed should not be needed to move boats out of the way, or to do some damage. Fishing boats are great, but should never cause a problem for regular ships or AI ships. (I still remember a very short period on POTCO when you could sink fishing boats by running over them.)

 

[Crashalot]

I was being followed by a fleet of 7 light sloops (players by the way. I was not happy) last night, and they kept sailing in front of me and stopping me completely. You try to avoid 1, and there are 4 more in either direction.

This is a very large problem - collision mechanics. It occurs in the open water, around islands, and in fights / sink fests.

• Larger ships should quickly push smaller ships out of the way, quickly for large differences in size, more slowly for smaller differences.. Collisions with non-enemy ships should not cause damage to either party. Collisions with enemy ships should cause a small amount to each. This can be adjusted (with a bunch of programming) by the relative size, angle of strike, speed, etc. It sure would make the combat more realistic.
• Fishing boats should just get pushed out ot the way with no damage to anyone, no loss of speed for the non-fishing ships. Also importantly, fishing boats should spawn just inside (island side) of the ?too close" line to keep them out of fights.

There are other collision issues, but these two are my pet peeves. Ramming Speed should not be needed to move boats out of the way, or to do some damage. Fishing boats are great, but should never cause a problem for regular ships or AI ships. (I still remember a very short period on POTCO when you could sink fishing boats by running over them.)

The pirate ships should be able to sail and weave in and out of each other, just like the enemy ships do.

 

[Ornery Will]

The pirate ships should be able to sail and weave in and out of each other, just like the enemy ships do.

No. We should strive for at least SOME realism in ship combat. There are a lot of problems with ship combat, and this one is a large issue, at least in my mind. I will post a list of some of the major ones in another entry here later when I have more time. In the meantime, I hope no one wants to see our ships sailing through each other. What would be next? Flying ships? Submarines and guided missiles?

 

[LesPaulObsession]

No. We should strive for at least SOME realism in ship combat. There are a lot of problems with ship combat, and this one is a large issue, at least in my mind. I will post a list of some of the major ones in another entry here later when I have more time. In the meantime, I hope no one wants to see our ships sailing through each other. What would be next? Flying ships? Submarines and guided missiles?

Have you been pinned inside a fleet of ships captained by players yet? Better yet, when a ship with explosive broadsides is after you? I want them to remove collisions with player ships in SvE until this issue has a better resolution. When a fleet of SEVEN light sloops follow me around the map, and consistently box me in while fighting MY warships and hunters, and making me take gargantuan amounts of damage, then I want collisions removed. It makes sense, and at the moment is the only way to combat this issue. Even great captains struggle with this issue, because there's quite literally nothing you can do, but pray to the TLOPO gods, you aren't sank.

 

[LesPaulObsession]

Have you been pinned inside a fleet of ships captained by players yet? Better yet, when a ship with explosive broadsides is after you? I want them to remove collisions with player ships in SvE until this issue has a better resolution. When a fleet of SEVEN light sloops follow me around the map, and consistently box me in while fighting MY warships and hunters, and making me take gargantuan amounts of damage, then I want collisions removed. It makes sense, and at the moment is the only way to combat this issue. Even great captains struggle with this issue, because there's quite literally nothing you can do, but pray to the TLOPO gods, you aren't sank.

 

[Ornery Will]

I don't think you understand what I am advocating. Imagine a small dinghy in the water, sitting in front of a large warship, say a destroyer. What happens when the destroyer bumps the dinghy? The dinghy is moved aside, and the destroyer moves on its way. You are NOT hemmed in. More realistic collision mechanics would remove your problem.

 

[LesPaulObsession]

I don't think you understand what I am advocating. Imagine a small dinghy in the water, sitting in front of a large warship, say a destroyer. What happens when the destroyer bumps the dinghy? The dinghy is moved aside, and the destroyer moves on its way. You are NOT hemmed in. More realistic collision mechanics would remove your problem.

As that is a fair point, and would be nice, I'm not sure TLOPO is able to do it. As it is, there's quite a lot of "desync" if you will, with ships. Showing up in different places for captains, players. Implying that the game isn't quite sure really where the players are. If that were fixed, it might be more plausible, but even that solution is a little flawed, as collisions from careless players, causing issues still

 

[Sky Kiwi]

As that is a fair point, and would be nice, I'm not sure TLOPO is able to do it. As it is, there's quite a lot of "desync" if you will, with ships. Showing up in different places for captains, players. Implying that the game isn't quite sure really where the players are. If that were fixed, it might be more plausible, but even that solution is a little flawed, as collisions from careless players, causing issues still

Even if TLOPO was on par with more modern quality games it would be very hard to accomplish this without it feeling very "janky".