Frustration with Cannoneers

Yea I have had similar problems. I am really surprised at how young the minds of some of the players are hear. Figured we would all be a bit old by now since the game died a while back and has not been advertised at all. Did not imagine new players showing up. My biggest problem when sailing with a crew is getting people to repair. I have had a few runs where I needed the ship repaired so I pulled away from all combat and just ran the hunters and warships on a wild goose chase with none of he guns facing them. I asked my crew to repair and no one would do it. After a few minutes not giving them a shooting angle while telling them to repair I had a few people tell me to shut up and they started to leave the ship and crew. It was ridiculous. Had six people onboard none would repair and when I asked them to and pulled out of the fighting they decided they would just give up all the loot and leave the ship. I have had a ton of instances like this as well. It is crazy how common they are. Really all it takes to have a good run is to have one or two proactive repairmen that will watch the ships health and take action when things get sketchy. Improves the whole run. Maybe the game needs to add some sort of experience and leveling system for repairing. That way there will be more motivation to do it. Maybe even keep a crew tally of how much damage they did to ships on the cannon and how much ship HP and armor they have repaired. Then at the end of the run distribute the wealth based on that members value. Ship owner should still get the majority. But if we make it a competition between the crew mates onboard to get a higher score based off of damage and repairs with an emphasis on repairs because if they do not happen the ships sinks, maybe the crew will work at things better and work harder. People will learn things if it will boost there ranking at the end of a run or give them a little more loot.
 
Unrelated to the topic of this thread but I've been noticing more often than not when I try to do mat runs, no hunters appear when I get the double crossbones flag on my ship. So, I just sing the eitc and navy ships till I get flagged for warships, then warships show up, but no hunters. This is been happening for a while, since before this last update. Is there something im doing wrong or is it an internal game problem?
 
For the life of me, I don't understand not repairing when aboard a ship. When hunters come we sink the hunter and then repair till the next hunter shows up. It is the polite thing to do when someone is letting us board their ship. After our ship is full I try to make sure the ship is fully repaired before we dock also.
 
While I do wish people would learn simple deflection shooting, I believe the captain should look at the gunners as bonus damage that isn't necessary. You should be able to take on a Battle Royale and a Scorned Siren with minimal damage by yourself. The gunnery crew is just there to add on some more hits here and there and repair you any damage you may take from stray chaser-cannon fire.

I know gunners can do an absurd amount of damage if they're all good, but you shouldn't rely on other players to do anything, but the bare minimum. Set your standards low that way they can't disappoint you. I guess that was the whole point of your rant, that it sucks you can't rely on them so this response is pointless.
 
A big part of this could be due to the damage reduction I described in my cannon/broadside strengths post.

In simple, if you are more than 5 levels under the enemy ship level, you take 2% less damage for every level they are above (your level + 5). Against hunters/warships this can result in massive damage reductions for lower level players. Note that this is strictly notoriety level - cannon level does not play a part in this calculation. A level 10 player will deal 90% reduced damage against an average Warship, though I'm not sure what the minimum damage multiplier is. Also I don't know if this applies to regular ships yet.

Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, while it may look like your crew is missing entirely, they're probably hitting a lot more than you're seeing.

But more important than any of this, if you're sailing in a way that lets the enemy hit you because your crew "didn't sink it fast enough", you're sailing wrong. AI ships are very predictable, and you can stay out of their broadsides while still letting your crew shoot them - even going in for a broadside when you can - indefinitely. In a standard open sea ship battle vs AI (I say standard because not cluster sailing and no special circumstances) you should be able to complete even a long fight without taking a single shot. Of course nobody is perfect and you'll take some grazes every now and again, and sometimes the server lags teleporting ships around (most notably with hunters/warships) which can mess stuff up, but you should be able to get out of these situations 99% of the time anyway.

As for regular ships (non-hunter/warship), there is zero excuse to getting hit by one you engaged intentionally.
 
When ships jump and jerk all over the seas it's tough to know where to aim alot of times . Public .... Public .... Public ( Open to all of whom ever of what ever sorts ) Ever go to a Public Restroom ? I rest my case !!! lol I'm a sail Ripper and Lead the ship by Compass distance ( Meaning I aim by where that ship Is on the compass not how I perceive It from a bad cannon angle ) But I must say I do Love that POP UP telling you you're noticed that blocks the cannon aimming for 4 , 5 , 6 seconds !! I always Love a Captain that tries to Run over the Ship you're tying to hit , The closer you get the tougher the aim angle is , I've been In hundreds If not thousands of Boss Battles / Pearl , Never could under stand the Captain jerking the ship to and fro and back and forth and which ever way ......... Crew tends to miss 90 % with that startegy ! .....:jar:
 
SkKiwi said:
But more important than any of this, if you're sailing in a way that lets the enemy hit you because your crew "didn't sink it fast enough", you're sailing wrong. AI ships are very predictable, and you can stay out of their broadsides while still letting your crew shoot them - even going in for a broadside when you can...
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I 100% agree with this sentiment. A little mini rant here, I cannot stand captains who think the most efficient way to engage bounty hunters and warships is to spin at a standstill so their gunners can keep on target without switching sides. It's infuriating because you know at any moment, that Battle Royale's broadsides might finally decide to not explode on its own hull and sink you instantly. Nor can I get behind gunners who demand you stop engaging an enemy ship properly because they can't aim. You can aim just fine! Four other people are doing it and they're on guns that are further back so their firing arch is less than yours!

I've actually met solo captains who are in awe that I can fight enemy ships effectively and quickly without taking damage. I'll run into people who ask if they can sail my ship and they fight enemies by spinning counter to the opposing ship's circling and firing broadsides with each spin!

Summary: I can't stand players who promote or engage in 'bad' ship combat. Sitting still in the water and spinning with or against the enemy ship instead of circling with them. In the end though it doesn't really matter, anybody can sail their ships how they want, and hey! If nobody wants to learn to sail properly it just makes my average skill look better.

Cheers all!
 
ThermodynamicJar said:
I 100% agree with this sentiment. A little mini rant here, I cannot stand captains who think the most efficient way to engage bounty hunters and warships is to spin at a standstill so their gunners can keep on target without switching sides. It's infuriating because you know at any moment, that Battle Royale's broadsides might finally decide to not explode on its own hull and sink you instantly. Nor can I get behind gunners who demand you stop engaging an enemy ship properly because they can't aim. You can aim just fine! Four other people are doing it and they're on guns that are further back so their firing arch is less than yours!

I've actually met solo captains who are in awe that I can fight enemy ships effectively and quickly without taking damage. I'll run into people who ask if they can sail my ship and they fight enemies by spinning counter to the opposing ship's circling and firing broadsides with each spin!

Summary: I can't stand players who promote or engage in 'bad' ship combat. Sitting still in the water and spinning with or against the enemy ship instead of circling with them. In the end though it doesn't really matter, anybody can sail their ships how they want, and hey! If nobody wants to learn to sail properly it just makes my average skill look better.

Cheers all!
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Oh man, story time.

I once joined a public crew with a good 8-10 people on it, and they received warship status right after I joined. Along comes Tally-Ho, and instead of circling with them keeping it behind us our captain faces the other direction and forces a 10 minute broadside battle. Now it's important to note that the captain was a newer player being given the wheel by a friend (I believe they knew each other in real life). With this in mind, I'm trying to teach her where to sit, which direction to go, and how to predict the enemy ship. However, her circle of friends (probably about half the crew) are all yelling at me that "it's fine and you just need to repair". Of course, all the repair spots are taken because we're taking ridiculous damage the whole time.

Eventually Tally-Ho sinks, and everyone takes a superior attitude of "since she sank and we didn't, that means we were doing it right". Along comes another Tally-Ho and the very same thing happens.

Of course by this point you're all imagining how this story is going to end, and you're probably right. Our third warship, well, you can guess which one we get - I'll give you a hint: death by explosives. As soon as I see her I point out that we can NOT sail the same way for Royale the same way we were for Tally, as it's impossible to out-repair Royale's damage.
At this point the ship is slightly damaged - probably about 90% integrity remaining - and our captain enters her death-circle with Royale. I'm sure each and everyone one of you knows how that went down - within moments our ship's material make-up was more explosions than it was wood, and we died so spectacularly I'm surprised we sank at all instead of getting blasted into the air.

As we all respawn in jail, the ship's owner and her circle of friends starts absolutely ripping into the entire crew because "nobody was repairing". In confusion I, oh so foolishly, state "you know you can't out-repair Royale's damage, right?" and next thing I know I have all of them yelling at me about how stupid I am. Then they start berating me for trying to instruct someone how to pilot, as "she was sailing just fine".

The sad part is I can't even blame the captain. You're new to sailing and you have 5 people telling you to sail one way, and a single random player telling you that's a bad idea - you're probably going to stick with the majority vote. I wonder how she's doing now.

Moral of the story? An entire group of players believed you could win any sailing engagement as long as you were repairing constantly. So they sailed with that in mind, allowing the ship to get hit constantly. Even with evidence to the contrary - ie losing 90% total health in one second - they refused to acknowledge that you need to focus on dodging more than repairing.

I had to rant about this somewhere.
 
Oh my gosh don't even get me started on group dynamics of friends and people they don't know. (Seriously don't, I'm not some kinda psychologist I have no clue what I'm talking about!) HOWEVER! I do know from experience that people often get defensive for their friends when an outsider tries to give them advice. I loathe this behavior.

Pointing out that somebody is doing something inefficiently is not the same as saying: "OMG U SUCK JUST UNINSTALL YOU NOOBLET NUGGET!" as much as immediate reactions to said point may suggest otherwise. I don't wanna rag on my new theoretical player here who doesn't know how to sail, because like you said in your story it's hard to understand what you're doing wrong when one random is trying to correct you and all of your friends say you're doing it fine and shouldn't listen to that random. Something something social behavior and then you perceive what that random is saying as attacks against you personally instead of genuine suggestions to help you get better.

I'm now gonna show how divided my mind is. I know from personal experience with my real life friends that when somebody is getting into a new game, the last thing you want to do is tell them everything they're doing wrong. It's a surefire way to get them to toss down the controller or alt-f4 that crap and walk away. It can be hella frustrating to only hear that you're doing things poorly. On the other hand, if you're constantly giving compliments and saying how well that person is doing it won't let them get better at the game, and I've had friends get angry at me for not being honest with them. I've now opted for the friendly "You'll get the hang of it!" Uh... where am I going with this? Oh yeah! Find the balance between pointing out every flaw and ignoring every flaw. That way you're not off putting, but you also help them figure out where they're going wrong.

I will say I absolutely love that the crew of players in your story were in denial that they did anything wrong even after being just about 100 to 0'd by one broadside. So afraid to acknowledge mistakes!
 
I park my Ship , Tag they Enemy ship , Rip the sails off then use broadsides .... No Damage .......... Except the little the Sloops and Galleons do with their Unseen FRONT Cannons hiting me at a TEE angle ! lol ......... :jar:
 
ThunderStorms said:
I park my Ship , Tag they Enemy ship , Rip the sails off then use broadsides .... No Damage .......... Except the little the Sloops and Galleons do with their Unseen FRONT Cannons hiting me at a TEE angle ! lol ......... :jar:
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One of the more recent patches replaced the enemy upper-deck cannon system to give them a magical omni-directional cannon. I'm not sure if it applies to all enemy ships, but definitely all the War tier ships (not Navy Warships, I mean like War Frigates, etc).

These cannons aim directly at your current position, with a high-arc long air-time cannonball. This means they are very easy to dodge - basically by just "not standing still". However, this of course forces us to never stand still.

Certain enemy ships have explosive omnicannons. Behemoths, Scorned Siren, Red Dervish, and Tally-Ho are the notable ones. Can't remember who else does.

Other ships have upper deck cannons that shoot in volleys. Most noticeably is the ships that shoot Firebrand in volleys of 3.

...

...Sometimes I read my own posts and think, wow, I really just know too much about sailing in POTCO/TLOPO, don't I?
 
Sky Kiwi said:
One of the more recent patches replaced the enemy upper-deck cannon system to give them a magical omni-directional cannon. I'm not sure if it applies to all enemy ships, but definitely all the War tier ships (not Navy Warships, I mean like War Frigates, etc).

These cannons aim directly at your current position, with a high-arc long air-time cannonball. This means they are very easy to dodge - basically by just "not standing still". However, this of course forces us to never stand still.

Certain enemy ships have explosive omnicannons. Behemoths, Scorned Siren, Red Dervish, and Tally-Ho are the notable ones. Can't remember who else does.

Other ships have upper deck cannons that shoot in volleys. Most noticeably is the ships that shoot Firebrand in volleys of 3.

...

...Sometimes I read my own posts and think, wow, I really just know too much about sailing in POTCO/TLOPO, don't I?
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Like the Sloops and Galleons having FRONT cannons ya mean ???? LOL ! Never seen such a thing til TLOPO , POTCO they never had Front cannons !!! lol Bug or maheim !
 
As far as the side switching is concerned, it's a two pronged issue.

1) sometimes, the compass bugs out and doesn't show other ships, possibly because it's stuck in "land mode", or other glitches.

2) With exception of open fire and take cover, there is no indication in the chat window that such has happened. If someone is manning a port side cannon and you fire the starboard broadsides, they wouldn't be able to tell.

Of course, they should be able to tell based on how the ship is turning, but not all the information we want/need is present. This is one of the main reasons why I like the forward facing guns on the frigate, time needed to change sides isn't as much as others, but their range of movement caps out at near perpendicular to the ship.
 
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