Realism Mod for Naval Aspect

[PureHydro]

I get that the game is mainstreamed to apeal to a larger audience. That is why I am referring this to modders and those who would enjoy a more rewarding experience. I know I am not alone on this. The Naval aspect feels way too arcade like, which is its intention. Dont get me wrong I know what game this is. However it can be so much better IMHO.

Things I would like to see in a future realism mod:

-Less random ships, alot less. In RL during the time period the site of another ship on the high seas was a rare thing indeed. This game as it is now seems like the seas are overly crowded. Highly unrealistic.

-Gun reload times are way too fast. Typically it took guns anywhere from 5 to even 10 min to reload. Obviously this is way too long for a game, but I feel even 2 min reload times would feel alot more realistic. Upgrading crew abilities will lessen this time.

-Guns do too much damage from any distance. Since the guns take 2 min to reload you would not just shoot as soon as they reload. You would wait for that money shot up close, or even perform a brilliant maneurver to rake the bow or stern of a larger ship. Rendering it useless for that next volley. Since there are 2 min before the next volley, firing the swivel and or muskets would fill in this gap. These are the kind of tactics that are key to any real naval battle of that period. I feel this is lost in the current state.

-The weather gauge is non existant. Any sailor of the period know that having the wind on your back and the enemy down wind is a definite advantage and something a captain should always strive for. Speed is paramount when performing maneuvers. To come down on an enemy with the wind behind you while he is caught tacking against the wind is a beutiful site. You can turn starboard to fire a volley at extreme angle from the port guns, then quickly turn port to line up the starboard unfired guns for that up close money shot. This is a RL tactic that should be utilized in the game. Also be so awesome when performed right. Since guns reload so fast there is no reason to turn your ship to fire the other guns what so ever.

-Damage should be based on the side that the ships are being hit from. So hammering a ship starboard side rendering the guns useless. Creates strategy to keep that side of the ship facing you. Since the port side is next to new, fighting that side of the ship would be suicide. Another RL tactic. If you have the weather guage this is easy to do. Forces the enemy to turn away from you to bear its better side. Also if your port side is messed up and guns are down, then your only hope would be to face your starboard side. Hence the weather guage comes into effect again as is that much more important to have that wind behind you.

-Turning with no forward momemtum or speed. This is ridiculous, you cant turn a ship unless it is moving forward. This is why ships dont face islands or rocks, they need that room infront to turn or the ship would strike land and take damage. I know its a game and not RL, so minimal turning would be fine. Like the slowest possible movement. To have faster turning you need more speed. Upgrading crew will result in better turning.

-spyglass shows too much info. All it should show is the nations colors (flag) and how low the hull is in the water. This tells you two things, which country there are from and if they have a full hold or empty. You have no idea whats in the hold until you capture the ship. Could be rum could be food, could be gold or could be something totally useless.

-free aim before firing guns. I would much rather prefer to do without this free aim ability that is way too easy to use. Rather than using free aim, get to know your ship and its angles. Line up the side and just eyeball those shots. Fire on the uproll of a swell to hit sails, or fire on the downroll to hit more the hull. This is also a RL tactic on firing guns. Since guns take 2 min to reload, you would take great concern to know your ship and not miss. Also since there is no free aim ability it relieves the right click on the mouse open. Now think of this. Right click fires the starboard guns. Left click fires the port guns. Now you can look in one direction while a ship approaches the other. You can fire that side without even looking, but remember that only one side can be reloaded at once. So planning is nessesary since it take 2 min to reload. Firing both broadsides at once was highly unrecomended in RL since it would most likely result in tearing the ship apart. In the game it should cause some minor damage instead. Kinda like those rogue waves.

-Ships sinking way too fast. I would really like to see ships take at least 5 min to sink. Depending on the damage and if any munitions were exploded. A slow sinking ship creates a dynamic battle groung of obstacles. Alot like a reef would. Think of the possible situations that could arise from 3 or 4 ships sinking slowly. You can force the enemy to run into one if he needs to turn around to face the unfired guns etc... So many cool things can happen.

Im just hashing out some ideas here that I think would improve this aspect of the game. Im only considering the Naval aspect. As for the land battles/boarding and pistol use. Im fine with all that except that the pistols should take longer to reload, and with multiple pistols should take even longer. Its not that hard to run away from a fight, reload 4 pistols then jump back in. During a boarding action you wouldnt really reload your pistols, hence the purpose of multiple pistols. Once they out you sword the hell out of them. Tell me what you think. I know I will get all sorts of trolls and haters but I dont care. This is for the people that would like a much more realistic and rewarding exerience from naval combat. I dont know about you guys, but for me its get very boring free aiming devastating broadsides over and over and dont even get me started on the never missing swivel gun. Like the guy firing that thing is a cyborg or something, never misses even at full speed and crazy swells.

[Banjooie]

Okay, so you accidentaly stop paying attention and your ship runs onto the beach.

...Congratulations, you now need to, what, fast travel? Like, what is it you want people to do if you DO screw that up?

Also, if guns seriously take two minutes to reload, how long would ship battles physically take you? Do you really want to spend half an hour every single time you see a ship?

[BridgetFisher]

Id like if it if the ships took 40-70 minutes to leave port, more realism such as wind changes that can leave a ship dead in the water for hours. this would make the game more realistic.

[Trythar]

I thought the name of this game was Assassins Creed, not pirate simulator 2014.....

[em_t_hed]

you wanna have to tic tac (tacking) into the wind during a battle?

nevermind gun reloads... lets talk positioning to even get to use the given weapons... limited movement due to real sailing physics... taking others wind...

you must be some kind of naval god to want this...

[Will-043]

Actually a deck gun is pretty much a big flintlock barrel wise, with a gunlock (or a linstock) instead of a flint and striker, can be reloaded and fired in a little over a minute...
also, the ship rams would disable or sink a ship in one hit half the time, whilst locking your ship in place allowing the enemy to board your ship off the bow, what you are describing (forgive me for not reading it all, I'm on my way out in a minute) doesn't seem like it would mesh with the current game due to the generally arcadey nature of assassins creed (more realistic loading times wouldn't really hurt it though) but is basically what people have been saying for years, we need a good pirate game, even if AC4 suffices for a lot of people... I personally like it the way it is but I wouldn't argue with a game that allowed for more realism...

Edit: You should see if you can get a hold of the old Pirates of the Caribbean RPG from about 2005, it had a lot more in depth ship upgrading and such with buying a ship with a bigger hold and larger guns (rather than these ones are gold and therefore somehow better) and a lot of trading etc. who cares about the undead skeletons running around :P
Unfortunately it just wasn't that much fun as a whole other than the ships...

[Swelly]

I would also like boat maintenance mini games!!

Like swab the deck or sand the deck or how about a keep your crew members happy mini and if u fail you lose the ship.

Video games are for fun...

I would rather have the entire AI reworked and having stealth actually work.

[Nathaniel Flint]

Would be already enough if the ship combat was like in AC3.

Where Chainshots actually destroyed an enemys ship sail, making it unable to move instead of "stunning" them.

Srsly, "stunning" a ship... What kind of 25 hours per day CoD playin idiot had that idea?!

And where the direction the Wind comes from actually mattered...

[Matty]

I like some of these ideas ^_^ I don't see why people are being grumpy about it either xD The whole point of a mod is you can choose to add it to the game or not, don't like it don't get it aha (if it was ever made that is).

[Wenchbane]

iirc there was a game a while back, about 2003 which had features similar to this. I think it was Sea Dogs 2 but then got renamed to a cheap POTC rip off, Was a good game though had a lot of features similar to this and was modded to pure awesomeness.

The only thing it lacks in camparison to AC4 is the graphics (It looks similar to Mount and Blade) but the gameplay is still amazing.

[Archangel138]

You want realism, go jump in a real boat.

[BridgetFisher]

I want DLC that lets me scrape barnacles off the ship, that adds a scurvy meter telling people how much scurvy they have.

[Cai]

Statistically, historians say pirates had the lowest rate of scurvy due to all of the tropical island fruit they were eating, where as scurvy was more commonly found among merchant and naval ships.

[BlitzNexus]

Omg this idea is amazing! Let's also make it so your crew will die if you don't go out and salvage food for them! Let's also make it so if you die your save is deleted and the game locks you out! :D

[Borderless Windowed]

if you want a Naval war game try out Naval Action on steam

[Coldzero]

What you describe sounds quite boring.....