Better weapons for Windcutters

I believe that windcutters should have another weapon that the Arcanium arm. Or at least an ammo type to foul the sails and escape. They are for speed I understand, but you cant run with no sails.

Comments

  • edited January 2014
    No. Windcutters definitely don't need 'another weapon'. What are you going to give them? A ballista? Then they'll be incredibly strong.


    Ammo type - Could be neat, but again, you run into the problem that if you give the arm an ammo type worth a damn, cutters are too strong.

    image

  • It may be a fine line, Im more looking at defense. Im not saying let them damage the hull, or actualy damage the sails, just foul them
  • I think you're probably just overreacting to the fact that you just got sunk 10 minutes ago, when you probably could've easily prevented your death in some other way.

    image

  • Possible, but I have thought that since before I got sunk as well. The armaments are a joke on a cutter, and one of the first skills you get is a passive dodge of the war disks
  • Seafaring as a whole favours the defenders too much. The manoeuvrability of a cutter paired with those defensive skills is pretty damn hard to beat with an attentive captain.
  • Yes, even occupied with a couple friends in the cabin and poking my head out to a 75% sunken ship, I managed to escape without much fuss.
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  • JonathinJonathin Retired in a hole.
    edited January 2014
    Before you post an idea, you should at least have a basic idea of wtf you're talking about.

    • First, it's Arcanian Arm, not whatever you put.
    • Second, windcutters are built for maneuverability, not speed.
    • Third, seafaring is already geared toward defenders. All you have to do is not sail in a perfectly straight line and it's pretty hard to catch someone.
    • Fourth, you can run without sails. It's completely feasible. You won't outrun a strider or a galley on rowing alone, but you weren't going to do that with sails anyways.
    • And lastly, windcutters are already extremely useful in an engagement with 2+ ships
    Oh, a few more bullet points:
    • ship weapon accuracy is atrocious, so your one weapon while moving isn't going to make a difference unless you're really, really lucky.
    • cutters can tack into the wind better than a strider or a galley, use it to your advantage.
    • learn the subtleties with cloaking
    • learn to wavecall
    • hey, look, jink- it's a neat ability.
    • oh and whirlpool- you can use it defensively too.
    • shield, hullgird, sailsgird
    • I've been corrected on this point.
    In short, no. This is not necessary. 
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  • LiancaLianca Fire and Spice
    Can't dip wardiscs, but can use flares to fire at another ship to set fires!
    The sweltering heat of the forge spills out across the land as the rumbling voice of Phaestus booms, "I want you to know, the Garden reaction to that one is: What?"
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  • Knivek said:
    I believe that windcutters should have ... at least an ammo type to foul the sails and escape.
    I disagree with this bit. Cutters already have the manoeuverability advantage. And fleeing is boring. Giving them further advantages in fleeing is also boring.

    But!

    If you wanted to encourage more naval battles, it makes sense to be able to equip cutters with better weapons. Right now, there's no point trying to fight a strider if you're on a cutter, because you're at a huge firepower disadvantage. War discs suck. So your best option in a fight is almost always to flee. Which is boring. If cutters weren't at this huge weapons disadvantage, they might stand and fight more often, which is exciting.

    If you allowed cutters to use their weaponry slot for a ballista, they'd have access to the superior darts. Although this would come at the cost of being able to fire boarding decks, the great equaliser, which I suspect most people planning to engage in ship battles would prefer. If you gave cutters two weaponry slots, they could do both. But maybe that's not something that cutters should have access to. I don't know.

    Cutters do have their weaponry disadvantage for a reason. It's a tradeoff for their higher manoeuverability and lower cost. It depends whether people consider this restriction necessary, and to what extent people are willing to reduce the gap between cutters and striders.
    image
  • edited January 2014
    The lower cost tradeoff is detrimental to ship combat though.If striders and cutters were exchanged with the price, people would still use the cutter for fishing/trades (though the decent trades are usually done on every ship you can captain) but those with less money to spend on the ship could buy one and not get into the habit of running every time they see a different ship appear.

    That isn't really a change that can go in now without a lot of controversy though.
  • RuthRuth Singapore
    Cutters are immensely good at cutting ships off and using them as boarding ships, aside from flares + wardiscs.
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  • JonathinJonathin Retired in a hole.
    edited January 2014

    Kinilan said:

    If more guns = more better you can be damn sure I'd be out there with a galley. But that's not the case and it's not for a lack of funds. the extra weapons only help if you have the crew to man them. Plus galleys with Elite crew, fanatical morale and someone at helm doing emergencies, that is a galley with the best posible cnondistions, takes 30 seconds to turn 90 degrees makes them useless in a chase and the chase is the key part of seafaring because the end of the chase is the start of the boarding.

    In the end it comes down to crew, not weaponry, that wins a ship battle. you sail alone you die alone and no change in weaponry or ammo or price swapping will change that fact.
    not bolded: qft

    bolded: this, this, a thousand times this,

    eta: gdi, I punched my mouse to try and get a super-agree, but I only ended up hurting my ring finger a little.
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  • KresslackKresslack Florida, United States
    I liken ships to Achaea based on the following historic ships and their sizes:

    Windcutter - Schooner: a small, two-masted ship, generally used as a fishing vessel which is quick on the water.

    Strider - Frigate: A three-masted warship with some speed and maneuverability still. 

    War Galley - Man of War (Galleon): A slow, but powerful ship which trades off speed and maneuverability for attack power and durability. 

    Basically, you trade off speed and maneuverability as you go up from each class. If anyone can attest to how easy it is to survive on a Cutter if you are a competent Captain, it can be @Taurus


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