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[Kogan Loloklam]

We can upgrade our ship weapons in addition to ourselves.

As for all ballista, the central ship weapons only shoot to the sides, and we can't cram more than 2 siege engines in each side. So we could have 2 catapult per side, 2 ballista per side, or 2 either catapult or ballista on mounts in the middle. Either way, we are capped to being able to fire only 2 shots per turn out of the side. So what do we put there?

Light Catapults deal 4d6 damage. They have a range increment of 150. They have a minimum range of 100. They harm everything in the square they hit. This means if it hits a crewmember, it STILL also damages an enemy ship. It takes 2 crew to operate.
Ballista deal 3d8 damage. They have a range increment of 120. They have a 19-20 critical. They are about the BAB, as they function like a Giant Crossbow. They require 1 crew to operate.

We cannot physically pack more weapons in and still use them, the lost weight for the heavier firepower isn't so bad. The only reason we should have Ballista instead of all catapults anyway, besides crew requirements to operate them, is because the higher precision of the ballista could easily be critical to the ability to take down the propulsion of an attacking or retreating enemy. This is most important when we are doing our best to run away or to catch up. This is why we should have lighter, more accurate chasers instead of going heavy firepower all the way.

[mainiac]

Catapults take at least 5 turns to fire, ballista take 3 but ballista do half damage against hulls.  This is why I said that ballista is the best choice if we focus on shooting sails.  3d8/3 > 4d6/5.  Rigging has 60 hp and no hardness so we can expect to take out a section of rigging in 5 shots.  If we jibe after the first two shots to fire the other two guns then jibe again to bring the original guns to bear then we can fire all the ships guns at full speed, albeit at the cost of losing a touch of speed.  This adds up to being able to quickly dismast an opponent while they are still trying to close on us.  Then we are free to do things like sail up in front of them and rake them with bows until they surrender or board them from the most advantageous angle.

[Tidal]

How feasible is a retractable mast for a ship of this size? With enough effort (or an engine in this case), I'm sure we would be able to get it down in a timely manner. Our sails would be one of the ship's main weak points. With an engine, we can retract the sails to negate this. The mast would sink into a small section of hull, then the booms (or equivalents for a ship of this size) would align with slots in the deck (perpendicular to the retracted mast. These could then be covered by wooden panels to cover them up when not in use. If we keep them pre-rigged and covered when not in use, think of the fun when we suddenly sprout sails. Personally, I don't have much experience with huge sailing ships, but it would work fine for a smaller one.

[Criptfeind]

The time it takes a catapult to aim is measured in turns Kogan. Which means unless our ship and the ship we are attacking are both staying still or moving exactly in tandem it will be almost impossible to hit them.

[mainiac]

No... just no.  That's just not going to work.  Taking down the mast of even a really small boat takes careful planning and isn't something I like to do on any but the calmest waters.  Taking down the mast of a Caravel on the ocean?  And then trying to raise it again without anywhere to stand but the deck of the boat?

If you don't want your sails unfurled, there's a solution... furl your sails.  But I don't think we want that.  Our ships advantage is speed and maneuverability, we should keep the sails unfurled so we can keep our distance and erode the enemy maneuverability.

[Tidal]

They would, of course, be made to retract. Not just a detachable mast. I see it as more versatility. It leaves our masts wide open to attack. Any Genre Savvy sailor would love to have immunity to chain shot. Besides, if we're in a battle, we will not need to be quiet. We can just use our propellers. If we need to escape, we can speed up, and raise the mast using engine power. The sails can be unfurled from the deck as they rise.

[Kogan Loloklam]

Where do you get this from?
The information I have from the SRD:

To fire the catapult, the crew chief makes a special check against DC 15 using only his base attack bonus, Intelligence modifier, range increment penalty, line of sight, and successive shots (from a table). This is the "Fire" Action.
Loading requires a DC 10 Strength Check to wench the arm down, then a DC 15 Profession check to Latch the Arm, then a DC 15 Profession Check to load the ammunition. It then takes 2 1 round actions to aim. Heavy catapults need a bit higher strength check and have wenches so up to 2 others can "aid other" in the strength check.

I BELIEVE that you can do all these checks in one round. The aiming you can. That is why it says a "crew" of #. The Crew is how many people to aim it in 1 round. Assuming you can do all the loading actions in 1 round, that means a crew of 3 can fire a light catapult every 2 turns. A crew of 2 every 3 turns. Assuming that you cannot do the checks in sequence to get it all one turn to load, it would take 5 turns to fire the catapult with a crew of 2.
There are some obvious tricks to "share" a extra hand and get higher rates of fire out of them for fewer people.

A Ballista requires 1 full round action to load, 2 for small characters. This means a medium sized person can fire it every 2 rounds. I don't see where 3 came from, unless we are setting the Kobold on it?
So where do your guy's figures come from?

Also Mainiac, as Edio pointed out, there are some other methods of locomotion that Ballista aren't as good at dealing with. This is why we have a little diversity.

[mainiac]

I never saw or heard of a retractable mast in my life.  The idea sounds very dangerous to me and I'm not even sure what you are suggesting.  Would it telescope or what?  And if you don't want a sail making a huge target, there is an easy solution; furl or lower the saill.  If you do that properly, you can redeploy the sail in a manner of seconds.  Many sail configurations can be rigged to deploy by pulling a single length of rope and can be deployed during very strong winds.

Speaking of sails... those three masts of ours seem a bit crowded.  Not sure what good the foremast does so close to the mainmast, especially if we have a traditional Caravel rigging which has sails jutting out in front.

As for the siege engines, we are getting them from the stormwrack supplement.

[Tidal]

I never saw or heard of a retractable mast in my life.  The idea sounds very dangerous to me and I'm not even sure what you are suggesting.  Would it telescope or what?  And if you don't want a sail making a huge target, there is an easy solution; furl or lower the saill.  If you do that properly, you can redeploy the sail in a manner of seconds.  Many sail configurations can be rigged to deploy by pulling a single length of rope and can be deployed during very strong winds.

As for the siege engines, we are getting them from the stormwrack supplement.

Yes, like a telescopic mast. It's not the sail I'm worried about. That's just canvas. I don't know how you think it's dangerous at all.

[Criptfeind]

I am reading from my StormWrack book. Where it says that it can fire a average of one shot per six rounds. With five actions (Two to pull back the arm, one to load the shot, two to aim) I had assumed it could not be done at the same time. Also when you think about it it does not make a ton of sense to be able to do it all at once. How will you load when the arm is up? How do you pull the arm down and latch it (or as in stormwrack finish pulling it down) at the same time? How do you aim well all that is going on?

[mainiac]

I never saw or heard of a retractable mast in my life.  The idea sounds very dangerous to me and I'm not even sure what you are suggesting.  Would it telescope or what?  And if you don't want a sail making a huge target, there is an easy solution; furl or lower the saill.  If you do that properly, you can redeploy the sail in a manner of seconds.  Many sail configurations can be rigged to deploy by pulling a single length of rope and can be deployed during very strong winds.

As for the siege engines, we are getting them from the stormwrack supplement.

Yes, like a telescopic mast. It's not the sail I'm worried about. That's just canvas. I don't know how you think it's dangerous at all.

Do a little experiment for me.  Take a yardstick.  Firmly attach one end of it to a desk and hang most of the yardstick out over empty space.  Now see how easy it is to break or dislodge the yardstick by pushing on it's end.  Now apply that same principle to a 40 foot long mast...  and you want to make that mast hollow.

Now consider the sheering effects at the base of the mass.  Normally a solid mast will distribute the torque somewhat along the length of the slot that the mast fits in.  However you are proposing making it hollow at the base which means not only will you have two different sheering stress points, but there will be room for them to yield.  Making the base solid but the bottom half hollow just shifts the problem upward, creating a stress point at where ever the mast first goes hollow.

Such a mast WILL break.  And it will do so sooner rather then later.  And it's going to break low, close to the keel of the ship, then go tearing through the ships cabins as it collapses.  Hollow masts have a place.  That place is on small modern racing boats, where there isn't much concern of breakage.  But putting a hollow mast on a 20 yard ship that based on 15th century principles strikes me as suicidal.

[Zako]

Indeed, using a hollow mast for telescopic action will break a LOT faster than a normal solid one. It's a bad idea and wouldn't work. I understand the concern you have, but you have to remember this: They will most likely NOT have chainshot because there is NO GUNPOWDER. Chainshot is fired out of a cannon, and since there is no cannons, that means no chainshot. The only real ways that they have are magic, which is capable of everything, and a catapult shot, which is extremely unlikely. What we have to keep a distance from, is creatures that are bigger than the ship which can break the mast in their hands/claws/whatever, and I think that these monsters are probably few and far between.

And I'll man one of those ballista's, I am a medium size after all so I should be able to fire in reasonably good time.

[Tidal]

Maybe I could operate one by myself, then help pull back another with my tail. Hmm...

[Zako]

I don't think they are that close, are they?

[Criptfeind]

No. They are not. But yeah. Edio is the only one who can really operate one of the suckers. Anyone else will take a -4 on their attack roll.

So. The option is... Take the -4 or have someone cast enlarge person or just have one ballista.

Also, where is Edio's sheet? It is not in the second post.