(Redirected from
Merchant Ship)
This is a Ship Deed. The type of ship is circled. This ship is a
Scout Ship.
We recommend that you first master the basics of sailing before considering Ship Types and Specifications.
Ship Types and Specifications (Understanding Sailing) is part of the guide: Understanding Sailing. This guide contains the following topics:
Ship Types
To check a ship's type, simply look at its Ship Deed. The type will be located near the top of the Deed. Also, the Deed itself is a different color for each type of ship:
As you would assume, different types of ships will sail differently.
Scout Ship
Ship types give the game more variety and work better for different styles of play. If you play all ship types the same way, you will not sail as effectively as players who take the strengths and weaknesses of their ship type into account.
This is a typical wind diagram for a
Scout Ship; although, keep in mind that every ship has different percentages. The wind direction is represented by the red arrow and by the
Wind Indicator ring. The percentages refer to
Max Speed. (Need more info on the
Sailing Terminology?)
Scout Ships, rather than Warships or Merchant Ships, are easier for new players to play. New players will find Scout Ships easier to play, but harder to master than other types of ships.
General Qualities
Scout Ships have the following general qualities:
- Maneuverable—their speed is only slightly affected by turning (lower Turning Decel). As a result, they are capable of extended and complicated maneuvers.
- Quick—compared to other ship types, they have a higher Acceleration value.
- Less Armor—while Scout Ships often can take more damage to their sails, their Armor and Hull Integrity is generally less than that of Warships.
- Easy to play—Scout Ships can often outmaneuver opponents without much effort.
- Difficult to master—to successfully play as a Scout Ship players must take full advantage of the ship's maneuverability to beat similar ranked and skilled Warships. With less Armor, Scout Ships need to maneuver out of their opponent's firing arcs during an attack or they will be sunk pretty quickly.
- Good for Boarding—because of their speed, Scout Ships are proficient at catching and Boarding ships; although, keep in mind that Scout Ships have a lower Crew value than Warships
- Able to escape most fights—because of their speedy nature, Scout Ships are able to run away from most fights.
Warship
This is a typical wind diagram for a
Warship; although, keep in mind that every ship has different percentages. The wind direction is represented by the red arrow and by the
Wind Indicator ring. The percentages refer to
Max Speed. (Need more info on the
Sailing Terminology?)
We generally recommend Warships for higher level players because they are harder to play than Scout Ships. In a Warship, every turn slows you down and so every move counts. The actual sailing is designed for more experienced players.
Qualities
In general, Warships have the following qualities:
- Not Maneuverable—their speed is certainly affected by turning (higher Turning Decel value). As a result, they are basically incapable of extended and complicated maneuvers. While they can technically perform such maneuvers, Warships attempting complicated maneuvers will have a dramatically a slower speed and turning rate.
- Slow—Warships have a lower Acceleration Value, which makes them slow getting up to Max Speed.
- Maintaining speed—Warships have a lower Turning Decel value, and so Warship captains need to plan out their maneuvers carefully. When Warships maintain a high speed, they are much easier to maneuver. Of course maintaining the speed of Warship requires a good sailor.
- Hard to Sink—the Armor, Hull, and Damage Reduction values of Warships are generally higher than those of Scout Ships. Also, when a ship loses guns in a battle, this is related to the percentage of Armor that ship has left—hence, Warships will lose guns at a slower rate than Scout Ships. All of this means that Warships can take more of a beating.
- Higher Crew—having a higher Crew value has several benefits, but basically a higher Crew value helps in Boarding as well as guarding against crew effects (skills opponents can use to diminish your crew).
- More firepower—Warships have firepower that is at least equivalent to the firepower of Scout Ships. Higher levels of Warships have more firepower.
- Hard to play—because their maneuvering is difficult to master, Warships are easily out maneuvered, and they may feel sluggish.
- Not as hard to master—once you learn how to play, you are much closer to mastering the Warship. This is because of the high amount of armor that Warships have. A Warship can generally take a good deal of damage, so offer tit for tat and Warships will outlast their opponents.
Merchant Ship
As their name suggests, Merchant Ships are designed for players interested in the economy. The biggest benefit Merchant Ships have over other ships is their Capacity value. When hauling goods across the Caribbean, you may be willing forsake defenses for fewer trips across the Open Sea.
Qualities
In general, Merchant Ships have the following qualities:
Understanding Ship Deed Specifications
This diagram shows how we
calculate degrees. The
Close Haul angle varies from 30 – 50° depending on the ship. We use a half-circle (0 – 180°) instead of a full circle (0 – 360°); e.g., perpendicular to the wind is always 90°.
The wind direction is represented by the red arrow and by the
Wind Indicator ring. (Need more info on the
Sailing Terminology?)
Specs of a
Dolphyn Ketch. The section that pertains to
sailing is circled.
After you understand the differences in ship types, you will want to understand the specific sailing specifications on every Ship Deed. Some specifications are self-explanatory, like Max Speed (this is fastest your ship can sail), but others like Best Point (the best angle to point your ship)are a little more confusing.
Specs
- Max Speed—essentially, this is the fastest a ship can sail without class bonuses, Outfitting, skills, etc. (all of which can make your ship exceed this Max Speed). The ship will not sail this speed at all times.
- Acceleration—how quickly a ship can reach its max speed. The higher a ship's acceleration, the faster the ship will feel. Ships with high acceleration can turn more and make more mistakes in combat. (See the Speed and Acceleration page for a more thorough description.)
- Deceleration—essentially, the rate at which the ship can slow down: the speed a ship loses when it turns or lowers its sails.
- Turning (Slow)—this is the maximum rate at which the ship can turn when traveling at a slow speed (4 knots). The rate is in degrees per second.
- Turning (Fast)—this is the maximum rate at which the ship can turn when traveling at its Max Speed. The rate is in degrees per second.
- Turning Accel—this refers to how quickly the ship can reach its maximum turning rate.
- Turning Decel—ships are slowed by turning. The Turning Decel is an indicator of the minimum a ship is slowed by turning.
- Best Point—basically, this is a degree on a circle. (See the diagram to the right for more information.) In order for a ship to reach its max speed, it must be pointed at this angle.
Understanding Hidden Specifications
There are numerous specifications that determine how a ship sails, and most of these specs are hidden—not shown on the Ship Deed. Essentially, the Ship Deed lists a variety of specs that you can use to choose between ships, but remember that there are hidden specs.
Maneuverability
A lot of a ship's maneuverability comes from these hidden values. Some of the hidden values have too subtle of a difference for us to display in a way that would make sense to players. Ship selection would be very difficult, if the Ship Deed listed the entire 50 or so values that make up a ship's maneuverability.
- Speed—while there is one value for speed on the Ship Deed (Max Speed), there are in total at least a dozen values for speed.
- Accel and Decel—while the Ship Deed lists one value for Acceleration and Deceleration respectively, there are more values hidden.
- Best Point—the Ship Deed only lists the best angle at which to face your ship, but there are different percentages of Max Speed for every angle.
- Turning—the Ship Deed lists four values for turning, yet there are at least a dozen values for turning.
Two values that you can see that are especially important to use are Turning (Slow) and Deceleration.
Turning
Here is a fairly detailed description of how Turning works. To calculate how fast a ship turns, we apply its Turning Accel value when the ship first starts turning. Next we look at the ship's current speed; if the ship is traveling between 0 and 4 knots, we essentially draw a line from the Turning (Stopped) to Turning (Slow) rates and choose the value on that line that corresponds with the current speed.
But if the ship is sailing between 4 knots and its Max Speed, we draw a line from the Turning (Slow) to Turning (Fast) rates and choose the corresponding value on that line.
Remember that the Turning (Slow) rate is the base, and so you always want to keep your ship above 4 knots. Turn rates are shown on the Ship Deed in degrees per second.
Deceleration values determine how much speed a ship loses whenever it turns or lowers its sails. The more a ship turns, the more it decelerates. Ships slow down a lot after they've been turning a bit, but their speed returns to normal after awhile.
Compare a ship's Deceleration and Acceleration values, because those values play against each other. If a ship decelerates quickly, you will want it to accelerate quickly.
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