Posting anonymously. I wanted to share some thoughts but don't really care to have a name attached to my post in this particular instance.
For context, I used to be an active (and reasonably competitive) SvS player, and I have always enjoyed sailing alone, I find there's something quite therapeutic to it. With the latest update I have essentially stopped sailing all together.
I've been sitting on this topic and thinking about it for quite a while, and debated posting myself, but now that it's being discussed I figured I would anonymously share my thoughts.
I'll start with my experience in SvS. As someone who enjoyed sailing copperheads in SvS, it really is a shame to see the copper nerfed. While I do understand some people thought it was necessary, I don't really share that opinion. IMO, dodging broadsides was something of an art that few were any good at, and it feels like that's been completely taken away. Using your abilities, you could easily dodge broadsides, and take cover was essentially a way to prevent one hit sinking if a broadside was accurately fired at you. I've tried partaking in SvS once since the update was released and frankly just didn't have a good time. It felt like it was simpler to just sit next to an opponent's ship and rely on having a bigger crew than them to sink them. Even before the copper update, the ships that you were never able to sink were always the skull sloops with a full, competent crew, that never stayed put and were always somewhere where you couldn't broadside them (ex: behind). The only time copper broadsides ever really one hit sink was if you sat next to one, and didn't use your take cover, or were running away and got locked on at a ridiculous distance. I feel like if you find yourself in the first situation, then you probably need to re-evaluate why you were in that position to begin with. With the second, I do agree something has to change, but I don't think nerfing coppers is the way to do it. I say this as someone that hates people that run, I would prefer to sink and have a fight than just run. But something does need to change for players that do enjoy racking up long kill streaks.
As far as PvE sailing, I really do miss the copperhead the way it was even more. Sailing a copper for mat runs just simply isn't viable anymore, it's faster to just use a storm chaser or a skull and bones. Players boarding public ships are attracted to "30/30 and 7/12" like a mosquito to a black light. With the new loot update this may change, but as someone that has always sailed copperheads for mat runs, it is incredibly difficult to find a crew to sail with you if you aren't sailing a fortune hunter. Finding guildmates is not always easy or possible, and as far as I know, the lookout does not yet work. Some of us just enjoy going at it alone. With that said, you can't really sail copperheads alone anymore, and I really do regret that. It takes too long, and does too little damage if your one explosive misses for any reason (some of which may not be the players fault), you may as well be shooting a water gun at the NPC's.
Copperheads are supposed to be high risk, high reward, and in the current state it doesn't seem worth it. If the initial game was meant to be 15% explosive chance, then so be it. Sometimes that means water gun broadsides with no explosives, and sometimes that should mean a lot of damage. I'm waiting to change all my ships around to see if anything will change first, but I'm going to be forced to abandon copperheads if the status quo remains. I just don't see copperhead as a viable ship for anything anymore.
With all that said, I would like to make an alternate suggestion: limit the range of broadsides that have locked onto a target. In SvS, most of the problems and complaints I have had (and heard of from people that do svs more than I do) with copperheads have always been because of the absurd range you can get on people running, and being instant sunk from behind as a result of it. Limiting the range of broadsides in ALL scenarios, such as when you are firing at an empty ocean, could be a viable solution to all this. This wouldn't change the core mechanics of explosive percentage, but does mean that SvS ships cannot be one hit sunk unless they are sitting in a silly position.
As a closer, I just want to re-iterate that these are my thoughts and my thoughts alone. I'm normally pretty open to changes made, but this one hit really close to home. I feel like just putting information & opinions out there can't do any harm, so I hope that this will be read and thought about.
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