Where's... where's the fun?

[Olleus]

I genuinely don't understand how I like this game so little. It has everything I was looking for. I'm a big fan of the old Pirates! games, and of turn based battles. But this is so... dry. The attempt by the first mate to inject some humour and character just falls flat, and it's only taken a couple of hours of game play to become hugely irritating.

But the worse things are the battle. Firstly, what on earth is this magical armour that 16th century ship have? More importantly, the entire point of making a system turn based is to make it more thoughtful and tactical. But these battles fails because the mechanics are so wildly unpredictable. I know the min/max distance I can move next turn depends on how far I move this turn, but nowhere have I seen anything actually describing what the relationship is. Same as the tiles that say "you can only move here because of the wind". Worse than that, sometimes I want to move from one hex to another 5 away and there are a few different paths that I could take geometrically based on my initial orientation. Crucially, these paths would end with me facing in different directions, only one of them letting my cannons fire at my target. But the game decides which path is the one I'll take, and there's no way I've found to either predict which it'll be or change it. All of this, combined with movement speed being greater than range, means that the only tactics is a turn-by-turn attempt attempt to get my ship targeting their less-armoured side without a hint of long term thought or strategy. And having to do this a dozen times because it takes so many hits to do anything. Boarding is even more insanely random, with half the crew dying based on a single dice roll.

I'm genuinely perplexed how such an opaque and tactic-less battle system was made in 2023. It's like the devs haven't played any turn based game ever. The land battles in Sid Meier's reboot (literally 20 years old now) are just vastly better than the obtuse mess these ship battles are. In fact, this whole game feels like it was designed by people who had heard about video games from someone else, but never played one themselves.

[JOЯDΛИ]

It really is a bizarre combat system. Same thing happened to me, l expected the boarding to be a tug of war thing where I lose a few guys he loses a few guys, but boom there goes half my crew on one damn role. Very odd

EDIT: Also I was surprised and disappointed to find out after I ripped this dudes ship apart and captured it and made it my flagship, it was apparently 100% A-OK no hull or sail damage at all. Yet again old ass Sid Meier's Pirates had this covered, you captured a ship you beat to hell, now you have to repair it.

[teeray33]

As for predicting what path/orientation my ship will take, I get a white icon that lights up the cannon targeting area and range, so maybe that's a setting?
But, continuing the rant...
...if I board with one ship, how is it possible for my second ship--which is bigger with more crew--gets repelled FOUR turns in a row? Does he have enough crew to fight one of my ships AND repel boarders? And this has happened almost every time I try to board with my second ship.

[Legata Flavia]

Boarding and combat is done horribly wrong. I mean the base is there but its massive RNG right now. I have more crews, super morale, enemy is about to surrender and out of sudden they win? Like what the hell...

[Dukey]

Boarding and plundering towns as well are pretty weird imho...
When i board an enemy ship with multiple ships at the same time - or in the next round - it doesnt seem to recognise that i have now 400 or more men boarding from several directions. It will still only account for the initial boarding party, rendering the whole overwhelming pointless.
Same with Plundering.. Why on earth is only one ship doing the job even if i have 3 ships landed? I think it should be rewarded that there are several different crews looting the town and not just 1, at best even with higher chances of actually getting something out of it, i rarely go out of a town with actual good profit as even high chances of 80% success or more usually end up with losing either loot, ducats or both.

In reality: The convoy had just shredded the whole port defense into pieces and landed with 400 or more men. No garrison in the world would not notice from the get go that they are under attack. It's a bit ridiculous that i have to do a "sneaky sneak" mini game instead of an actual tactical fighting on the streets (even a minigame in that direction would be fine) with an actual chance of taking out the garrison and looting the whole port.

Especially when i have 3 more ships in reserve that are doing nothing after the sea fight has ended.. -> I could shoot over reinforcements as well...

Lots of potential lost here i believe.

[Red1Alpha]

I haven´t played the game yet, thinking about buying It. So I don´t have the whole picture of how the game mechanics work. BUT, from what I am reading and seeing, this Is based on RNG wargame (tabletop) mechanics and CRT tables of which I have played a lot.

So predicting Is quite out of the question because although you have defence values, attack values and movment values (basic wargame stats), you always depend on you´re dice roll, and In the case of combat, you´re CRT table. All In a basic fashion that can always be more In depth with more stats and modifiers (terrain, sea state, wind etc.).

The problem for some, Is that all this Is hidden under the hood In most digital wargame like games. Some stats might be visible, or In the form of health bars but most of the calculations and dice rolls, and over all results are simplified.

Sometimes the results are not fair, or unrealistic but that´s because of the RNG nature of the game, and a lot of wargames are based In this mechanic.

With all this said, these types of game mechanics are In need of very precise balancing to make them somewhat fair. So there Is a chance that more work should be put Into that aspect of the mechanics.

But you do have to understand how the game Is Intended to work and not judge It because you think It should work differently, or what you are use to playing (TBS), which also use RNG. Then add to It all the RPG elements It has In the form of bonus, upgrades, money, abilities etc.

Ahoy!

[teeray33]

Originally posted by RedOneAlpha:

I haven´t played the game yet, thinking about buying It. So I don´t have the whole picture of how the game mechanics work. BUT, from what I am reading and seeing, this Is based on RNG wargame (tabletop) mechanics and CRT tables of which I have played a lot.

So predicting Is quite out of the question because although you have defence values, attack values and movment values (basic wargame stats), you always depend on you´re dice roll, and In the case of combat, you´re CRT table. All In a basic fashion that can always be more In depth with more stats and modifiers (terrain, sea state, wind etc.).

The problem for some, Is that all this Is hidden under the hood In most digital wargame like games. Some stats might be visible, or In the form of health bars but most of the calculations and dice rolls, and over all results are simplified.

Sometimes the results are not fair, or unrealistic but that´s because of the RNG nature of the game, and a lot of wargames are based In this mechanic.

With all this said, these types of game mechanics are In need of very precise balancing to make them somewhat fair. So there Is a chance that more work should be put Into that aspect of the mechanics.

But you do have to understand how the game Is Intended to work and not judge It because you think It should work differently, or what you are use to playing (TBS), which also use RNG. Then add to It all the RPG elements It has In the form of bonus, upgrades, money, abilities etc.

Ahoy!

I understand what you're saying and agree with you, but unless I have picked up the most UNLUCKY dice in the world-I mean evil witch cast a "Spell of Bad Rolls, level 57" on them-- this isn't the problem. The combat game-play issues happen every single time, not occasionally.

[Red Rum]

the game has a lot of random aspects to it ,, i countered with a ton of saves,, if i dont like the out come i restart from last save ,, now i rule them ALL ,, i never lose battles ...ps. the game lets you save anywhere any time

[Wolfsun]

Originally posted by Olleus:

Where's... the fun?

How do you know this when you don't even own the game (there's no own the game icon present in the title line)?

[Legata Flavia]

Originally posted by Wolfsun:

Originally posted by Olleus:

Where's... the fun?

How do you know this when you don't even own the game (there's no own the game icon present in the title line)?

He dont have to own a game to know, that RNG isnt fun.

[Olleus]

Originally posted by Wolfsun:

Originally posted by Olleus:

Where's... the fun?

How do you know this when you don't even own the game (there's no own the game icon present in the title line)?

It's a little known fact, there are platforms other than steam...

[Oddible]

It is a Gaming Minds game, when Kalypso got a hold of Ascaron they sucked all the fun out of all the games. All the mechanics remain, just zero of the actual good gameplay. It is like, they have all the devs and the devs keep building games, but they don't have a single game designer in the lot. I blame Kalypso, game designers cost money and increase scope so remove them and you can turn out endless beige.

[Barticus]

It's the Moronic combat system. First of all I'm in the deep ocean and it shows that on the map. No matter where I fight.. it's always shallow with at least 3 blockages. Second The cannon system is childish and inane. Instead as you get bigger and longer ranged guns, You can't shoot stuff that's closer with any effect really. BS!!!! These aren't world war 2 battleships that are firing several miles.. The guns would work marvelously up to a maximum range.. pretty much perfectly with little if any reduced damage. Third the battle map is too small!!!!!! When You stuck in the cannon restriction range, even if you could stay on the edge of the tiny combat map You are usually way too close. And Fourth.. this is the biggest one... You have to move all you are going to move in one go each turn. I get that larger ships would turn slower but you should be able to move 1 hex at a time and modify your route as you move as well as placing. Sails could be backed intentionally in this time btw to increase turn speed. There is no auto calc, though I'm sure they'd make it so that was hugely skewed. Then there is boarding where 2 crew members suddenly are able to drive off 100 crew with double the moral, and 90% success rate. What child thought this system up? And who play tested it? How to ruin what could have been a great game? They definitely mastered that.

[Isaiah53six]

I do like this game even with the problems....for example I was in combat with a ship who didn't have any crew and still couldn't win by boarding it.... but the game still has some weird charm for me