Phase 2 Sailing changes - Cannon Placement

[HighwaymanEd 11]

One of the things that I love about the game is the creativity that the building system unleashes, but at the same time, it can get a little out of control...

Looking around on the PVP servers, the sailing ships that we have resemble more of the Ironclads of the 19th century with all of the Walls, ramps and ceilings adorning them, and they're bristling with 2 or 3 stories of rear and forward-facing cannons, and this needs to be curtailed. Cannons should be mountable on Gunports, and gunports only, or introduce a block and tackle type building block that would prevent them from being placed anywhere except on a Ship deck, a Floor block, or a stone ceiling (to allow for use on forts).

Fighting a battle with another ship has almost nothing to do with manoeuvring skills, tactical use of the winds and bringing guns to bear, it's all about running at or away from your foe with a Frankenstein's monster of a sailing vessel belching cannonballs from its bow... It's also an easy exploit to get around the ship slowing down when the gunports are opened (still not quite sure why that is).

Edited September 4, 2019 by HighwaymanEd

[Geminia_Sierra 20]

It is amusing to see the "ironclad" style ships running around. some look really cool. They're just not right though...

I agree on the "wall of guns" being ridiculous.  

I disagree on the gun ports only mounting, unless they make more types of gun ports. For example, sailing ships of the time could have forward and aft gun ports depending on the size of the ship. Some guns would just fire over the side rails of the ships.  

Building on a schooner, I liked that I could build a deck almost flush with the stern taff rail (the part with the fancy scrollwork). This would allow for a couple of cannons to be placed there as stern chasers (something often done on RL ships of the time).  However, as I built on a Brigantine,  The lay out of the decking and the angle of the back planks made building a flush deck difficult. 

I agree that ship battles with the "wall of guns" is terrible. It is, however, seemingly needed because SotD don't care about the wind. So, the tactical thing to do is build all the guns aft and forward, drive at an SotD shoot, pass, and kite them along shooting while keeping with the wind. Until the SotD are forced to maneuver with the wind like a player has to, this will probably never change how ships are built.