chain shot doesn't actually affect npc ship speed

[Eric Sailcutter]

This is intentional, not a bug.

Apparently all the wrong things about demasted ships is intensional, I also checked on hunters and SOTL and found that they are unchanged since their introduction and that hunters are not slowed at all yet SOTL are stopped dead. The apparent intentional coding should be changed so that when demasted:

1. regular npc ships stop following; (also the range that they deaggro at should be extended, they stop following at way too short a range when they do have masts)
2. hunters slow
3. SOTL follow but slowly

Maybe these things are not bugs in your sense but the original poster is right that the behavior of ships is wrong and should be fixed. The intentional coding is blatantly in error from a potco recreation standpoint, perhaps you are happy with it but I bet many are not.

 

[Bart Gunshot]

A lot of the ship tracking, aggro, etc is different from POTCO. It's probably not very easy to get it exact either. There may even be legitimate reasons for the hunters to super speed or "rubberbanding" towards you when spawning, changing a tracking target, or trying to catch up to you. Generally it seems that TLOPO hunters move faster than POTCO ones, however POTCO did have similar behaviors: Rubberbanding towards you, still moving when sails knocked down, etc. Personally, I'd have to do more research on TLOPO with actually knocking down sails, but from these videos it seems accurate enough from my own experience.

This video shows around 7:40 and onward removing most of the sails on a few hunters.

This video shows a bounty hunter switching its target to a ship with a non-hunter level bounty, this doesn't ever happen in TLOPO. However the movements somewhat mimic TLOPO in someways. Perhaps a bit slower in some cases, this does show some degree of rubberbanding though it seems.

Knocking sails down on nearly every ship.

Just leaving these here as reference for further discussion. I don't know enough if this is how TLOPO hunters behave as no one ever focuses on sails anymore. From my experience there are some differences (to be expected) but nothing blatant.

 

[ThunderStorms]

I rip sails off of ships prior to using broadsides , As long as my ship Is stationary they don't move . If I move they may try to move but doubt they have a speed of 2 ! lol The galleons out run the Sloops and War ships which I think Is a funny Tlopo bug. I've seen Hunters roaming the oceans slowly with no sails or just the aft sail ! Seemed funny the first time I saw one sail past me slowly with just a Aft sail ! lol I do know sails on Skeleton ships take the same damage whether It's a Phantom or an Omen !

 

[Truecrash]

Apparently all the wrong things about demasted ships is intensional, I also checked on hunters and SOTL and found that they are unchanged since their introduction and that hunters are not slowed at all yet SOTL are stopped dead. The apparent intentional coding should be changed so that when demasted:

1. regular npc ships stop following; (also the range that they deaggro at should be extended, they stop following at way too short a range when they do have masts)
2. hunters slow
3. SOTL follow but slowly

Maybe these things are not bugs in your sense but the original poster is right that the behavior of ships is wrong and should be fixed. The intentional coding is blatantly in error from a potco recreation standpoint, perhaps you are happy with it but I bet many are not.

We have no intentions to change the above. The behavior you describe is not an error, and was done for a reason. Should we ever look into changing the AI of ships, we'll revisit these points and see if it's necessary.

should be changed so that when demasted:

1. regular npc ships stop following;

Hopped into game real quick and can confirm this already happens.

It's probably not very easy to get it exact either.

In many cases it's impossible to get something exact, something I'm painfully aware of from working on ship repairs.

Regardless, thanks for your research Bart, it's always appreciated! Some of the points you mentioned (see: Hunters not swapping targets) are definitely bugs, and we're hoping to fix them down the line.

---

Either way, the original post was about the speed of ships when destroying all their masts, and I just came here to let the OP know that it's not a bug. If there's any bugs unrelated to what the OP mentioned, we'd appreciate you pirates submitting reports in separate threads or through the game/website.

 

[squintz]

A lot of the ship tracking, aggro, etc is different from POTCO. It's probably not very easy to get it exact either. There may even be legitimate reasons for the hunters to super speed or "rubberbanding" towards you when spawning, changing a tracking target, or trying to catch up to you. Generally it seems that TLOPO hunters move faster than POTCO ones, however POTCO did have similar behaviors: Rubberbanding towards you, still moving when sails knocked down, etc. Personally, I'd have to do more research on TLOPO with actually knocking down sails, but from these videos it seems accurate enough from my own experience.

This video shows around 7:40 and onward removing most of the sails on a few hunters.

This video shows a bounty hunter switching its target to a ship with a non-hunter level bounty, this doesn't ever happen in TLOPO. However the movements somewhat mimic TLOPO in someways. Perhaps a bit slower in some cases, this does show some degree of rubberbanding though it seems.

Knocking sails down on nearly every ship.

Just leaving these here as reference for further discussion. I don't know enough if this is how TLOPO hunters behave as no one ever focuses on sails anymore. From my experience there are some differences (to be expected) but nothing blatant.

Well, basically I believe people stopped targeting sails when the ships didn't react even semi normal. But its a game, and not trying to be a perfect sea battle simulator. Also, it occurred to me technically that perhaps we can't have demasted ships laying about as that might make respawning more difficult. I don't know tlopo NPC/nspc time to live issues, so that also could be a factor allowing for some movement. I think some of ship movement is game mechanic for other game mechanic consistency.

Or whatever floats their boat.

 

[squintz]

NPC ship speed does lower when you damage sails, but some ship types such as hunters will continue moving even with no sails -- this is intentional.

Yea, I'm thinking too reality compared to game play continuity.

 

[Eric Sailcutter]

We have no intentions to change the above. The behavior you describe is not an error, and was done for a reason. Should we ever look into changing the AI of ships, we'll revisit these points and see if it's necessary.



Hopped into game real quick and can confirm this already happens.



In many cases it's impossible to get something exact, something I'm painfully aware of from working on ship repairs.

Regardless, thanks for your research Bart, it's always appreciated! Some of the points you mentioned (see: Hunters not swapping targets) are definitely bugs, and we're hoping to fix them down the line.

---

Either way, the original post was about the speed of ships when destroying all their masts, and I just came here to let the OP know that it's not a bug. If there's any bugs unrelated to what the OP mentioned, we'd appreciate you pirates submitting reports in separate threads or through the game/website.

After you destroy all the masts on a regular npc ship and note that it has stopped try moving to either close on it or leave it in the dust and you will see it come to life and follow and/or circle as though it’s masts were intact.

 

[StarfireRose77]

Ok so you say it is intentional that hunters will continue to move with no sails. Can you fill us in on what the purpose in that is? In POTCO sometimes we would shoot the sails off a hunter so we would only get the bounty from the bigger ships and vise versa if we wanted more hunters to come and we would shoot the sails off the bigger ships. This way you have to sink the ships so you can't get a certain kind of bounty like we use to do.

 

[Truecrash]

Ok so you say it is intentional that hunters will continue to move with no sails. Can you fill us in on what the purpose in that is? In POTCO sometimes we would shoot the sails off a hunter so we would only get the bounty from the bigger ships and vise versa if we wanted more hunters to come and we would shoot the sails off the bigger ships. This way you have to sink the ships so you can't get a certain kind of bounty like we use to do.

Please refer to my response here:

To be honest, I'm not sure why it was done exactly, I'd have to ask around. If I had to guess, it's so hunters can't just be crippled and farmed too easily.

 

[Eric Sailcutter]

Ok so you say it is intentional that hunters will continue to move with no sails. Can you fill us in on what the purpose in that is? In POTCO sometimes we would shoot the sails off a hunter so we would only get the bounty from the bigger ships and vise versa if we wanted more hunters to come and we would shoot the sails off the bigger ships. This way you have to sink the ships so you can't get a certain kind of bounty like we use to do.

Hunters are/were supposed to move without sails but at a slower speed. My complaint is more that their speed is not reduced as it should be, I’m not suggesting that they become immobile as regular npc ships should be but aren’t exactly and SOTL are but shouldn’t be, lol. Clearly the developers got the sailing working in a reasonably serviceable fashion and then moved on to more pressing land issues which is fine as far as I’m concerned but I do feel it’s wrong to say sailing is as it should be. Of course there are lots of things in sailing that are either wrong, different or both and some things that are different I prefer as tlopo has them while others I wish were as they were in potco. None of the issues I speak of are critical for a decent sailing experience but demasted ship movements are one thing that should eventually be revisited, they are not consistent with any obvious reasoning, Truecrash’s statements not withstanding.