Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Luckyowl]

I wonder what y'all think would be cooler? To engage in complicated ship combat where you have to buy or create cannon ball find gunpowder and men  to assign jobs on the diffrent part of the ship and you'll encounter pirates or being unfortunate to have to go against a civ armada. Or a simple boat combat where like final fantasy you have enemies spawn on your boat and you have to fight them. I prefer the complicated ship combat even if it takes 3 years to make. It would very cool to have the ability to be a pirate and it could be it's own guild with their hideouts being in  small islands that are no larger than 4 tiles.

[JakeSlayer]

I mean if there was a way to make it like a ASCII version of Blackwake that'd be AWESOME! But use like Balista, Catapaults and rams more than cannons i'd say. The version where they just spawn in would make more sense with the game engine as it is though. Just have a pre-made ship that everytime you encounter an enemy it spawns in with the enemies ship with some bridges connecting them and maybe like ropes to swing/jump between. Yeah that'd be cool. Add costal trade so island forts are more fesiable.

[KittyTac]

The complicated version seems to be more within the game's spirit, though. /shrug

[TeaAndRum]

Complicated! With stormy weather and sharks and stuff. Imagine having your own ship set alight by a lightning strike, then you begin the seemingly impossible goal of swimming through the strong currents, under which predators lurk, and taking over the enemy ship... and succeeding!

[Emperor Sheev]

I mean if there was a way to make it like a ASCII version of Blackwake that'd be AWESOME! But use like Balista, Catapaults and rams more than cannons i'd say. The version where they just spawn in would make more sense with the game engine as it is though. Just have a pre-made ship that everytime you encounter an enemy it spawns in with the enemies ship with some bridges connecting them and maybe like ropes to swing/jump between. Yeah that'd be cool. Add costal trade so island forts are more fesiable.

There were other ways to have ship to ship combat, like Greek fire (could be renamed to something else). Quicklime was also a common weapon of ancient naval warfare, and it's already in the game. I do still like your idea though.

[Blastbeard]

Don't forget ramming. Hitting a boat with another boat is a good way to sink at least 50% of the boats involved.

It's safe to assume gunpowder is off the table unless Toady throws medieval stasis out a window so we can forget about cannons. Ballista and catapults shouldn't be relied on to win a fight, because hitting a moving target from a moving platform is hard no matter your weapon of choice, and just keeps getting harder the slower your projectile is. Boarding actions are probably going to be the bread and butter for naval combat.

If the ship relies entirely on sails for propulsion, you have that to worry about too. I still have flashbacks to Sid Meier's Pirates due what a pain in the ass working with(or more often against) the wind could be. Oar are more reliable, and better lend themselves to ramming, but are labor intensive and cut into the amount of manpower you can dedicate to fighting. Also, rowers are rarely so by choice, typically slaves, but generally can't be relied on to do their job reliably without supervision, because at the least you need a drummer to keep them rowing in rhythm. At best they're an extra set of mouths to feed, at worst they're a second enemy boarding party you have to deal with.

Then we have the fantasy wild card to consider. Rock-dropping flying  beasts operating from carriers. Amphibious animal people conducting literal frogman operations. A dragon with a saddle and floaties acting as a living fireship. Wizards, just wizards. The sky is the limit.

Of course, you could always pass on all of that and go man mode by putting yourself on a raft and taking on an entire fleet by yourself. Results may vary but considering the average level of experience the playerbase has the outlook is positive. If we can depopulate entire cities on a regular basis, a few floaty boys shouldn't be that much harder.

So really, ship combat could be as complex as we want to make it.

[EternalCaveDragon]

As a fan and player of both From the Depths and Dwarf Fortress, I'm all in favor of complicated combat. Especially later down the line as fantastical options become more and more viable.

[snow dwarf]

Man. Honestly, if implemented, naval combat would probably become the best new thing for most players.