Boarding still doesn't work properly?

[kellorkleft]

I have been putting this game off for months, hoping by the time 1.0 is released the core gameplay would be ironed out, but I'm really disappointed to see that even after the game is out that attempting to board is just as janky and unresponsive as ever. The kindest I can say about it is a successfully initiating a boarding action feels like a total coin-flip.

No matter what I try, boarding simply doesn't seem to actually do anything most of the time unless the ship I'm attempting to board has slowed down to at least a near crawl. Otherwise, it doesn't matter if I have all three boarding conditions in the green, what ends up happening is you engage the boarding action but the two ships never actually begin to fight. They just remain stuck to each other and exchange point-blank barrages until a ship is neutralized or the faster of the two ships eventually breaks free.

This doesn't just make it so that it's theoretically possible to prevent basically every attempt made by the AI to ever board your vessel, where you can exploit the finicky requirements to keep the AI ship confused and unable to engage. It's also twice as frustrating being on the other end, trying to board an enemy ship more well-armed but all you end up doing is offering a free kill to it while your ship effectively sits there waiting for death.

Right now, it's just really hard to want to keep playing this game, even with how great everything else is. This feels like a really important part of the game, but it causes me to lose out more often than not for reasons that seem completely out of the player's control.

[the evil one]

If that happens put some sail up and steer 90% , a very slow ram, it's normally enough to start the boarding process . But not always
sometimes it won't allow you to change sails , which should mean the boarding has started but as you found that's not always the case

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

You have to turn into a ship that you are attempting to board unless you have a size advantage. Even then, it speeds things up. Having the indicators all green means ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ when the two ships have a huge gap between them. Human's lack the wings to fly, after all.

So, to summarize: The requirements to initiate boarding are that angle and distance be at least yellow. Having speed matched (green) is typically helpful but not always required. In order to complete boarding, distance and angle must both be yellow, all boarding hooks must be deployed, and both ships must be in direct contact with one another, Matching speed helps, but this should be done manually, just the same as the maneuvering portion of boarding.

[Oscar_God_Of_Gods]

The boarding in this game as so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ broken and its 2023 !!!!! Like fix it

[Oscar_God_Of_Gods]

just if you wondering boarding is even worse then before

[Sgt. Paulto]

boarding isnt broken y'all just don't know how to do it lmfao. Source: I board and capture ships allmost every engagement.

[Ev3rything]

I played through the American campaign and captured almost every ship worth getting. I ended with a bunch of 1-3rd rates, so the last 7 or so missions were comically easy. I actually love the boarding you just have to know how to do it. You can't have the ships touching or the angle will be red (I don't know why), but you need to have a small gap, then match speed and maintain that small gap and the other two indicators will be green. Then assuming you have a good broadside angle, Grappling lines will start being thrown. These lines are physical things not just visual. They can be used to slow down the enemy ship. Force them into a position where they need to turn upwind to escape your boarding action and it will almost always slow them down enough to start the boarding action.

[Pwnicus]

EIC Carronades are your friend. When gunnades become available in sufficient quantities those are great too, for their armor pen at range.
I used to think boarding was tricky, but like Ev3rythng said above, it's not if you pay attention. Capping that first 3rd rate early in either campaign, non-adaptive, really gets the old snowball rolling hard.

[the evil one]

Originally posted by Pwnicus:

EIC Carronades are your friend. When gunnades become available in sufficient quantities those are great too, for their armor pen at range.
I used to think boarding was tricky, but like Ev3rythng said above, it's not if you pay attention. Capping that first 3rd rate early in either campaign, non-adaptive, really gets the old snowball rolling hard.

Yep if you cap the Arrogante even in adaptive 80% of the challenge in that game is gone
Having a 3rd rate lets you cap at least 2 more in the next few battles up to 5-9 if it goes well
The rep you get from selling all the other ships you cap more than pays for the capped 3rds and the snowball is unstopable by then

[kstoddard]

I'm new to this game and the tutorial says you can send a boat to capture a ship that has struck. But I never see a button or anything to send a boat. What am I missing?

[Stridswombat]

Originally posted by kstoddard:

I'm new to this game and the tutorial says you can send a boat to capture a ship that has struck. But I never see a button or anything to send a boat. What am I missing?

If you click on the icon at the top of the ship tab at the bottom of the screen there's an option to deploy officers/crew/soldiers into rowboats from the ship in question. Keep in mind the ship needs to slow down first, so stop or set it to very low sail to get them to deploy.

[kstoddard]

Originally posted by Stridswombat:

Originally posted by kstoddard:

I'm new to this game and the tutorial says you can send a boat to capture a ship that has struck. But I never see a button or anything to send a boat. What am I missing?

If you click on the icon at the top of the ship tab at the bottom of the screen there's an option to deploy officers/crew/soldiers into rowboats from the ship in question. Keep in mind the ship needs to slow down first, so stop or set it to very low sail to get them to deploy.

Thanks!

[Stridswombat]

Originally posted by kstoddard:

Thanks!

Glad to help.

EDIT: And in case you don't know, you can also board the ship directly. To do this you need to select the ship you want to board as your target and click the little rope icon at the bottom to attempt to board when close. I think this should work on surrendered ships too, though it can be a bit iffy.

[Mattymul29]

Boarding it the simplest way to beat the game very easily (even on very hard difficulty).

Done right you should be able to capture the Arrogante and all 3 other 3rd rates in the next mission. from there you cant lose. If you are struggling to win 1 on 1 have a troopship deployed in the battle (yes this takes away a fighting ship slot) but allows you to reinforce your boarding ship with 320 infantry each row boat for a numbers advantage