Combat Excruciatingly Inaccurate Broadsides

Mr. Chamberlain

Mr. Chamberlain

Pirate Apprentice
TL;DR - Pls fix broadsides :(

Doing solo mat runs in my T4 copperhead ship is so much fun. Even better when the %5 odds are in your favor and you're one-hit KOing Hunters. But one thing I have noticed during my multiple runs are how ridiculously inaccurate the broadsides can be. I wish I could make a video to show you guys exactly what I mean but it is definitely the most frustrating thing I have been dealing with thus far.

Sometimes Vengeance or the Cutter Shark will be right next to me and I fire and the cannonballs either LITERALLY shoot a 90 degree angle behind me, a 90 degree angle in front of me, or so low to the water that it all ends in a splash with 0 damage done. I've even fired at a Tally-Ho that was BEHIND me and every shot fired directly in front of me.

Another eye-twitch moment, which was by far the funniest garr I have EVER seen on this game is firing a right-side broadside and those cannonballs shoot to the far left side of the ship as if I fired a left-side broadside or vice-versa. What's worse is when all you need to do to sink a Killyaded or the Dervish is unleash one single broadside or just nail it with one more hit yet you miss 2 and sometimes 3 complete broadsides in a row when the angle of your ship to theirs is 100% within range.

I know what some of you are thinking.. "Well man why don't you get some crew?" My answer to that is simple. Sometimes I like to sit back with some Godsmack, Disturbed or some Alice in Chains blaring from the speakers and just do my own thing without worrying about crewing people, loot-leechers or the like. I'm in my own little world just sinking ships and enjoying the game.

Now as frustrating as the broadsides can be I usually just laugh it off and try again but this past run I did almost made me have a stroke. SO I thought I'd make a post about it to not only address it but see if anyone else is suffering like I do because misery loves company and seeing other people suffering from the same issues make me feel better.
 
I've noticed the enemy broadsides never fail to find their mark and NEVER shoot out the opposite side, out the rear (we have a name for that one, not suitable for family audiences...), off some bizarre angle, right next to the target ship (in the water, in an attempt to intimidate by splashing water in their faces), or in slow motion.
I've even had a few that went straight up in the air, like 4th of July fireworks! And of course, who can forget those that seemingly didn't even fire, only to be revealed by their splash, directly under your ship once you sail forward.
Yes, it can be concluded that the devs have their work cut out for them.
Let's hope they are up to the challenge and can eventually master this unknown and vexing bit of code for these so-called broadsides...
 
Crashalot said:
I've noticed the enemy broadsides never fail to find their mark and NEVER shoot out the opposite side, out the rear (we have a name for that one, not suitable for family audiences...), off some bizarre angle, right next to the target ship (in the water, in an attempt to intimidate by splashing water in their faces), or in slow motion.
I've even had a few that went straight up in the air, like 4th of July fireworks! And of course, who can forget those that seemingly didn't even fire, only to be revealed by their splash, directly under your ship once you sail forward.
Yes, it can be concluded that the devs have their work cut out for them.
Let's hope they are up to the challenge and can eventually master this unknown and vexing bit of code for these so-called broadsides...
Click to expand...

I LOL'd at that 4th of July part. Haven't seen that one yet but I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for it lol.

But yeah the devs got a lot going on for sure. I hope at some point they focus their work on fixing the current issues and fully restoring the original game so that it runs as it was intended to rather than spent too much time on brand new never-before-seen content. But, regardless, I appreciate all the work they've done thus far and hell... just being able to log in to a childhood favorite game again is enough for me. They have my full support.

But it would be nice if those broadsides were fixed. <_<
 
I am with you on fixing sailing before adding new content. So much of main story line involves sailing and it becomes disheartening when that happens or when porting you get the dc and can't collect stuff.
 
I think there used to be broadside aiming helpers on the mini map but I could be mistaken about that.

But it's mostly a latency issue where the calculated aim does not match the position of the enemy vessel or simply not detecting it.

I prefer the war brig since it has the buck shot effect when it fails to acquire the target. Handy for tagging I might add.
 
Hernandez said:
I think there used to be broadside aiming helpers on the mini map but I could be mistaken about that.

But it's mostly a latency issue where the calculated aim does not match the position of the enemy vessel or simply not detecting it.

I prefer the war brig since it has the buck shot effect when it fails to acquire the target. Handy for tagging I might add.
Click to expand...
Yes, the scatter shot feature of War Brigs and sloops is awesome! If done properly, an entire mat party can be tagged with 1 or 2 blasts!
 
I don't seem to experience the broadside problems that bad, but I have most certainly had a couple 90° ones.

For me it's not that big of a deal, mostly because I have upgraded taskmaster to 5.

Can't wait for cannon rams to work so I can find one that upgrades taskmaster.
 
I don't seem to experience the broadside problems that bad, but I have most certainly had a couple 90° ones.

For me it's not that big of a deal, mostly because I have upgraded taskmaster to 5.

Can't wait for cannon rams to work so I can find one that upgrades taskmaster.
 
I recall a few times where this happened, tho this specific time was the most memorable, i remember being pretty parallel with a kingfisher, in my sloop. and i fired off a broadside at it. it looked like all of the cannonballs would hit. they did! BUT they didn't hit the kingfisher that was right next to me. no, they hit the ironwall that was half the ocean away (far enough) on the other side of the kingfisher. At this time i came to the realization of what just happened... my broadside had been fired and went directly over the kingfisher (how exactly, i am unsure). i then proceeded to stop the ship. and begin rolling on the floor laughing, literally. to be honest. Im not even mad, that was incredibly funny, and yes my ship sank while i was on the ground but im still not mad, it was worth it for a laugh that good.
 
The broadsides are supposed to target the nearest enemy ship on that side. But what appears to be happening is the broadsides are not locking onto the correct target or not updating as other targets get closer.

One fix that might help is Target Tabbing. While likely out of the realm of Pirates Online, other MMOs have the option where pressing a key would cycle through nearby targets. If its possible, this would address most of the issues the broadsides seem to be having. The game would still attempt to auto-target the nearest enemy but a press of the key would cycle to the next enemy etc.

Just food for thought.
 
Broadsides are not that inaccurate, if you know how to use them correctly. Note here:
https://piratesforums.co/threads/afk-loot-running.22768/#post-309873
I almost always get a good hit in, because the other ship isn't moving.

When both ships are maneuvering, that is when it gets difficult. As you sail, the broadsides will lock to on ships as you get near them. Sometimes, it will forget to switch targets, even though the targeted ship has moved from outside that broadside's range of fire. When you press the button to fire a broadside, it notes the other ship's position and heading, and aims for where that ship will be, in the time it takes the broadsides to reach it on its current heading, and aims for there. This is the big reason why it can sometimes shoot inside you, or way far away, if you have hunters, as it locked the heading/speed in when the hunter was in it's high speed chase mode, so it was calculating it's future position based on the hunter keeping its high speed during the broadsides entire travel time.

They generally miss, because of turning, which change's the other ship's heading, which means he will be in a different spot then predicted when you gave the order to fire, because his heading has changed. This generally requires some clever driving to lead the other boat into the shot, in spite of its turning.

The scattershot broadside, is what happens when your broadsides do not have a target locked in when you tell them to fire.
 
Thomas Sailskull said:
Broadsides are not that inaccurate, if you know how to use them correctly. Note here:
https://piratesforums.co/threads/afk-loot-running.22768/#post-309873
I almost always get a good hit in, because the other ship isn't moving.

When both ships are maneuvering, that is when it gets difficult. As you sail, the broadsides will lock to on ships as you get near them. Sometimes, it will forget to switch targets, even though the targeted ship has moved from outside that broadside's range of fire. When you press the button to fire a broadside, it notes the other ship's position and heading, and aims for where that ship will be, in the time it takes the broadsides to reach it on its current heading, and aims for there. This is the big reason why it can sometimes shoot inside you, or way far away, if you have hunters, as it locked the heading/speed in when the hunter was in it's high speed chase mode, so it was calculating it's future position based on the hunter keeping its high speed during the broadsides entire travel time.

They generally miss, because of turning, which change's the other ship's heading, which means he will be in a different spot then predicted when you gave the order to fire, because his heading has changed. This generally requires some clever driving to lead the other boat into the shot, in spite of its turning.

The scattershot broadside, is what happens when your broadsides do not have a target locked in when you tell them to fire.
Click to expand...

The broadsides are supposed to be accurate all the time tho, regardless if the enemy ships are moving or not.
http://piratesonline.wikia.com/wiki/Broadside
And the scattershot happens to me even if the broadside is on direct course for the enemy ship.
 
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