Sky Kiwi
Pirate Master
Hi! Many of you know me as that guy who went too far when figuring out what ship he wanted.
Well, you wouldn't be wrong.
Often the results I hear from my gathered data are that people are shocked at how the middle three ships (Skull and Bones, Fortune Hunter, and Firestorm) have much lower damage than people expected. Especially Skull and Bones.
While we compare ship stats, please refer to the wiki page on Tier IV-VI hulls.
My suggestion to Skull and Bones is simple. Increase the fury chance. Let's compare the current Copperhead to the current Skull and Bones:
Armour: 180% vs 165% - 15% in Copperhead's favour.
Speed: 90% vs 100% - 10% in Skull and Bones' favour.
Turning: 100% vs 110% - 10% in Skull and Bones' favour.
Cargo: Even.
So far it seems pretty close cut. Until we see this:
Broadside Avg Damage: 265% vs 150% - 115% in Copperhead's favour.
That's a whopping difference. Now it's worth noting that Copperhead's higher damage is unreliable, which is what gives it the risk vs reward approach. Copperhead can (and often will) result in no increased damage, a major flaw. So how about we consider something more reliable?
Storm Chaser vs Skull and Bones:
Broadside Avg Damage: 190% vs 150% - 40% in Storm Chaser's favour.
People often think Skull and Bones and Storm Chaser share similar damage (plenty even think Skull and Bones is stronger). This isn't an unreasonable consideration, as Fury is often considered the strongest cannonball type (though the best gunners know that's because volleys of three). Many people know Skull and Bones will be weaker, but I've noticed when I tell them exactly how much weaker it is they get surprised.
So with all that said, my suggestion is to boost the Skull and Bones broadside chance to 65%. Conveniently, because of the math (see the earlier link again), every 1% chance raises average damage by 1%, making this math easy. This would raise the Skull and Bones broadsides to 165% (might even want to go as high as 70%). The most notable factor here is closing the gap between S&B and Storm Chaser's broadside strength.
Now on to the ships that really need a buff. The firebrand lovers.
Due to Firebrand's measly modifier of 1.25x damage right now, the firebrand firing fire-ships boast a measly 3.75% damage increase for every 15% chance (looking at you there Fortune Hunter). An impressively unimpressive 112.25% (Fortune Hunter) and 115% (Firestorm) average damage for a max upgrade hull.
Considering the effort players put into these ships, and what they could have gained by spending in other trees, this is just depressing.
With the mention of the measly 1.25x damage mult, firebrand ammo is basically useless right now compared to fury. The only merit it has is it uses a different ammunition - which will become somewhat irrelevant when cannon rams exist. Even when the burning effect functions, firebrand is very weak. The burning effect does not stack, and according to the wiki it deals "about 30 damage for every 2 or 3 seconds". We can average that out to "about" 12 damage per second. A round shot, when fully decked out, deals around 830 damage. 415 against armour. That means firebrand's burning effect deals the same amount of damage as a round shot in 35 - 49 seconds (rounded). That is a pathetic number. So we can effectively call firebrand's burning effect useless - even if it did work (which it doesn't!)
My suggestion is to boost Firebrand to a total of 1.4x (maybe even 1.5x) times the damage of round shot (for reference, fury does 2x, thunderbolt does 3x). Ideally, it should do about 1.25x damage immediately, and the extra 0.15 damage should be applied over time. This should stack. Every single firebrand cannonball should do a total of 1.4x damage, even if part of that is over time.
How I envision this working, is if we imagine the firebrand applies 200 burning damage, the enemy ship should take 200 damage over, say, 90 seconds. However, if the ship has already taken 50 damage (and therefore has 150 to go), and it gets hit with another firebrand, the 90 second timer should reset, and the total damage over 90 seconds should be increased to 350.
Being that I've added it to games myself, I am aware that - unfortunately - stacking DoT in this fashion is a bit of a pain to implement. However, I think this would have a very interesting effect in SvS. It would become a repair crew's weakness. If a ship is essentially invincible because the crew is too proficient at repairing, its attackers could switch to firebrand. Over time, the 90-second damage over time debuff would stack to the point where it starts to negate the repair effort of the ship's crew, and eventually even outpacing it. Note that this would only happen in the case of extremely prolonged fights, as if you are capable of sinking them with raw impact damage, it would be much faster to do so.
But it's not all SvS buffs - since we're raising the damage from 1.25 to 1.4-1.5, we'll see an overall increase of damage from it (while still being significantly weaker than fury).
Buffing firebrand like so will naturally buff both the firebrand hulls, so now let's take a look at how it effects those.
Now, Fortune Hunter is a material gathering ship. That is oriented to a large crew, which will always be doing the buck of your damage. With that said, I don't actually suggest any changes to the Fortune Hunter itself - the firebrand buff will be all it needs. Fortune Hunter should absolutely have much weaker broadsides than anything else. And it will, with a new average damage of (0.55 * 1) + (0.45 * 1.4) = 118%, or 122.5% with 1.5x damage Firebrand.
Then there's the Firestorm, the least popular hull out there. Not only is it expensive relative to the other hulls, but there's almost no point in getting it. It yields a miserable 4% more stat improvements than Storm Chaser (120% turn, 114% speed vs 110% turn, 120% speed), but an average broadside damage so low in comparison (115% vs 190%) Storm Chaser doesn't even believe it's firing any special ammo at all!
So I suggest a buff for the Firestorm that, while it sounds incredibly powerful, actually isn't.
Improve the broadside chance to 100% (33% from each level, 34% from the last).
First of all, everyone has always wanted a ship that fires 100% special broadsides. And Firebrand looks awesome. You know this would be the coolest thing ever.
But when you do the math, with a 1.4x multiplier it results in 140% damage. 1.5x would be 150%. With 100% firebrand chance, it would deal the same damage as the average damage of Skull and Bones as it is right now. And remember, we're buffing Skull and Bones, so Firestorm is still the second weakest broadside!
If the burning effect gets implemented, the Firestorm's broadside would be 125% immediately, with an extra 15% over 90 seconds. Really not as strong as it sounds, is it?
But it would be so cool. It would also have a major benefit of allowing captains to forsake putting points in round shot, while still getting the maximum damage output.
However, even if you don't buff firebrand, I still recommend giving Firestorm 100% special broadside chance. It would only result in 125% damage - half the improvement Skull and Bones gets!
TL;DR: S&B and the Firebrand ships have lackluster broadsides. Also, Firebrand itself is lackluster. And give Firestorm 100% special chance - it's not as overpowered as it sounds (still pretty weak, without a buffed firebrand).
Well, you wouldn't be wrong.
Often the results I hear from my gathered data are that people are shocked at how the middle three ships (Skull and Bones, Fortune Hunter, and Firestorm) have much lower damage than people expected. Especially Skull and Bones.
While we compare ship stats, please refer to the wiki page on Tier IV-VI hulls.
My suggestion to Skull and Bones is simple. Increase the fury chance. Let's compare the current Copperhead to the current Skull and Bones:
Armour: 180% vs 165% - 15% in Copperhead's favour.
Speed: 90% vs 100% - 10% in Skull and Bones' favour.
Turning: 100% vs 110% - 10% in Skull and Bones' favour.
Cargo: Even.
So far it seems pretty close cut. Until we see this:
Broadside Avg Damage: 265% vs 150% - 115% in Copperhead's favour.
That's a whopping difference. Now it's worth noting that Copperhead's higher damage is unreliable, which is what gives it the risk vs reward approach. Copperhead can (and often will) result in no increased damage, a major flaw. So how about we consider something more reliable?
Storm Chaser vs Skull and Bones:
Broadside Avg Damage: 190% vs 150% - 40% in Storm Chaser's favour.
People often think Skull and Bones and Storm Chaser share similar damage (plenty even think Skull and Bones is stronger). This isn't an unreasonable consideration, as Fury is often considered the strongest cannonball type (though the best gunners know that's because volleys of three). Many people know Skull and Bones will be weaker, but I've noticed when I tell them exactly how much weaker it is they get surprised.
So with all that said, my suggestion is to boost the Skull and Bones broadside chance to 65%. Conveniently, because of the math (see the earlier link again), every 1% chance raises average damage by 1%, making this math easy. This would raise the Skull and Bones broadsides to 165% (might even want to go as high as 70%). The most notable factor here is closing the gap between S&B and Storm Chaser's broadside strength.
Now on to the ships that really need a buff. The firebrand lovers.
Due to Firebrand's measly modifier of 1.25x damage right now, the firebrand firing fire-ships boast a measly 3.75% damage increase for every 15% chance (looking at you there Fortune Hunter). An impressively unimpressive 112.25% (Fortune Hunter) and 115% (Firestorm) average damage for a max upgrade hull.
Considering the effort players put into these ships, and what they could have gained by spending in other trees, this is just depressing.
With the mention of the measly 1.25x damage mult, firebrand ammo is basically useless right now compared to fury. The only merit it has is it uses a different ammunition - which will become somewhat irrelevant when cannon rams exist. Even when the burning effect functions, firebrand is very weak. The burning effect does not stack, and according to the wiki it deals "about 30 damage for every 2 or 3 seconds". We can average that out to "about" 12 damage per second. A round shot, when fully decked out, deals around 830 damage. 415 against armour. That means firebrand's burning effect deals the same amount of damage as a round shot in 35 - 49 seconds (rounded). That is a pathetic number. So we can effectively call firebrand's burning effect useless - even if it did work (which it doesn't!)
My suggestion is to boost Firebrand to a total of 1.4x (maybe even 1.5x) times the damage of round shot (for reference, fury does 2x, thunderbolt does 3x). Ideally, it should do about 1.25x damage immediately, and the extra 0.15 damage should be applied over time. This should stack. Every single firebrand cannonball should do a total of 1.4x damage, even if part of that is over time.
How I envision this working, is if we imagine the firebrand applies 200 burning damage, the enemy ship should take 200 damage over, say, 90 seconds. However, if the ship has already taken 50 damage (and therefore has 150 to go), and it gets hit with another firebrand, the 90 second timer should reset, and the total damage over 90 seconds should be increased to 350.
Being that I've added it to games myself, I am aware that - unfortunately - stacking DoT in this fashion is a bit of a pain to implement. However, I think this would have a very interesting effect in SvS. It would become a repair crew's weakness. If a ship is essentially invincible because the crew is too proficient at repairing, its attackers could switch to firebrand. Over time, the 90-second damage over time debuff would stack to the point where it starts to negate the repair effort of the ship's crew, and eventually even outpacing it. Note that this would only happen in the case of extremely prolonged fights, as if you are capable of sinking them with raw impact damage, it would be much faster to do so.
But it's not all SvS buffs - since we're raising the damage from 1.25 to 1.4-1.5, we'll see an overall increase of damage from it (while still being significantly weaker than fury).
Buffing firebrand like so will naturally buff both the firebrand hulls, so now let's take a look at how it effects those.
Now, Fortune Hunter is a material gathering ship. That is oriented to a large crew, which will always be doing the buck of your damage. With that said, I don't actually suggest any changes to the Fortune Hunter itself - the firebrand buff will be all it needs. Fortune Hunter should absolutely have much weaker broadsides than anything else. And it will, with a new average damage of (0.55 * 1) + (0.45 * 1.4) = 118%, or 122.5% with 1.5x damage Firebrand.
Then there's the Firestorm, the least popular hull out there. Not only is it expensive relative to the other hulls, but there's almost no point in getting it. It yields a miserable 4% more stat improvements than Storm Chaser (120% turn, 114% speed vs 110% turn, 120% speed), but an average broadside damage so low in comparison (115% vs 190%) Storm Chaser doesn't even believe it's firing any special ammo at all!
So I suggest a buff for the Firestorm that, while it sounds incredibly powerful, actually isn't.
Improve the broadside chance to 100% (33% from each level, 34% from the last).
First of all, everyone has always wanted a ship that fires 100% special broadsides. And Firebrand looks awesome. You know this would be the coolest thing ever.
But when you do the math, with a 1.4x multiplier it results in 140% damage. 1.5x would be 150%. With 100% firebrand chance, it would deal the same damage as the average damage of Skull and Bones as it is right now. And remember, we're buffing Skull and Bones, so Firestorm is still the second weakest broadside!
If the burning effect gets implemented, the Firestorm's broadside would be 125% immediately, with an extra 15% over 90 seconds. Really not as strong as it sounds, is it?
But it would be so cool. It would also have a major benefit of allowing captains to forsake putting points in round shot, while still getting the maximum damage output.
However, even if you don't buff firebrand, I still recommend giving Firestorm 100% special broadside chance. It would only result in 125% damage - half the improvement Skull and Bones gets!
TL;DR: S&B and the Firebrand ships have lackluster broadsides. Also, Firebrand itself is lackluster. And give Firestorm 100% special chance - it's not as overpowered as it sounds (still pretty weak, without a buffed firebrand).