So I bought Ramming Galley...

[George Catcher 367]

Just wanna share my experience of this brand new RAMMING GALLEY. But if you ask to describe it simple, I would tell this.

It named a Galley. It has Schooner's size and sturdiness. It has Sloop's speed.

But first - buying one.

1) - How to buy it?

I mean it might sound simple, just get gold, go to the shop and buy one right? But even this was a challenge for me.

Gold is heavy.

22K gold weight 1600 pounds, while my pathfinder can carry just 390. There is a way, of course, if we drop everything on the ground then pick all up, we will pick all no matter how heavy is that, but... isn't this exploit usage? If yes - then dev's made this ship buyable for ppl lvl-100+ with all stats in weight. If it should work this way then why we have weight stat anyway, if we can carry any weight?

Oh and... well if you play company, then some pal can just give you a ride to the shop. If you play solo - then it should be one way ship, which will be scuttled on arrival. Simple Sloop with 22K gold onboard have 70% loaded weight, and ride 4 KNOTS if it calm. It slower than any damned ship, so if any will aggro - then you and your gold is done.

And some stairs needed, to be able to get out of ship. Because with 22K gold you can't jump.

One more thing. I live in Tundra. And I have my Tundra freeport. But this ship seller have "Tropic" island and it's +30C (+86F) in there. When I departure and sail 100 meter away - Tundra is back and it's 0C (32F).

This is WEIRD.

2) - Customisation.

It's premade. It has no decks, planks, walls, ceilings, etc. The only old stuff there is one ladder, couple of doors, 2 medium speed sails, and cannons. Any other part made from huge blocks. Like top back part of ship. Low back part of the ship, etc. There were a lot of those parts and this is REALLY confusing, because in battles - they receive damage, and you need to repair them, and you just don't know what parts do you have, how many etc.

You can replace sails, and put some stuff inside, like boxes, grille, mess table etc. YOU CAN NOT REPLACE CANNONS. So basic cannons + leveling = all we've got.

Ship goes with 200% quality. And with all sails and cannons - it shows it carry 0 weight. Max weight in the beginning is 9000 (like Schooner). It has 14 crew capacity but with 2 sails, 20 cannons your crew should consist of 22 ppl. So you'll have to spend some points to x-tra beds.

Painting made really RAW and RUDE. You can paint just whole block with just one color. No stripes. No double and triple color scheme. Some block can not be painted fully, and you able to paint just part of it. So your ship will be just one color with some parts unpainted.

 

After I changed 2 mid speed sails to 1 large and 1 small one - I've got invisible part of large sail on lower deck. It doesn't show up, but block the way.

Oh and lower deck have so low ceilings so large storage box just go through in and visible from top deck.

Also you can not attach anything to your ship. Meaning - no rope ladders outside and to the crownests. No wallhooks with lanterns.

3) - Speed.

When I was sailing this - I had a feeling like I drive WERY SLOW Schooner. It runs from 8 to 10 knots downwind. And changing sails from 2 mid speed sails to 1 large and 1 small speed sails, didn't make any difference. Here new game mechanic comes in.

You press SHIFT+Q by default and oars released. You press it again and you got +4 knots for 20 sec. Then goes on cooldown for 30 sec and you can repeat this. It means in long term you've got +1.6 knots to you max speed. This is way slow anyway. 

Sometimes you press SHIFT+Q and it sais: "Oars released" but animation shows that there are no oars yet. Or there are just some from one side of the ship. But you can press SHIFT+Q again and ship will have boosted speed. Even if there is no animation for that.

4) - Ramming.

I play PVE. Ramming doesn't affect damned ships. I saw a video where guy rammed enemy's Galleon. He landed 3K damage to enemy's planks, and received 4K to himself for impact.

5) - Repairs.

Because there are blocks - you need repair them with special patches you create in smithy. One repair procedure lasts for 5 second and heals part of the ship for 1K. You can not hit you hammer and then run to another damaged part. You need to repair each block one by one, waiting 5 seconds every time. 

If you apply patch to part that damaged for 4995/5000 - it'll heal for just 5 points and one patch will be consumed. So it's best to wait until block is damaged for at least 1K to avoid wasting resources.

And yeah. You can not put patches in to resources box. You need to brings them with you. 10 patches (10K damage) weight 35 pounds. For me biggest problem was - I couldn't figure out how many parts I have, and how severely they damaged. When my ship started do drown - I had to run through the hold with water, and guess which part should I repair first. There is no leaking signs anymore.

6) - Few other issues I found.

It doesn't turn when you move backwards.

Sometimes you can anchor but anchor sign doesn't show up.

Overall - I couldn't figure out how to use it in PVE. Brig is just faster, more durable, can be maintained fast during the battle. It's cheaper and provides a lot of room for customization. Ramming galley - slow, impossible to repair in battle, hard to maintain, no customization, standard cannons, low HP. The only advantage it has - is boost speed for +4 knots, but... I doubt it covers all bad about this ship. So if you play PVE - don't waste your gold. I mean you buy it if you just wanna check this out.

The only thing I really like - this is just first REAL ship in a game. It looks cool (I mean if there was rigging it could be way cooler). And there is NO WAY players will turn it to this:

Edited December 13, 2020 by George Catcher

[Gindorf 111]

Great reveiw, had really wondered if it was usable vs damned. (Not that i expected to be)

Would love to hear from PvPers on how this ship is useful in pvp.

I simply no longer think they have any fucking clue and are just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks.

[MesCaLiN 36]

I can sum it up with one word: crap

 

Ok, it got potencial so: half-baked crap

 

As usual...

 

More downsides:

Crew won´t repair it when docked, even when u put the repair kits in their inventory.

If u put other sails on it u ll need regular ressources to repair these. Repair kits won´t work.

Oh and this ship got stamina...can we level it? Guess...

 

Sometimes i wonder if the devs play their own game. Some might say: early access. Sure, BUT why does this totally useless ship costs 22k?

If they need data, make it cheap so a lot of ppl will buy it! Instead it´s the 2nd most expensive ship.

It's impudence to throw this half-finished nonsense on the market for 22.000 gold!

[jmurph 9]

It's really symptomatic of adding underdeveloped new features without addressing existing systems. The concept of more ship designs is a good one. The implementation is poor. Hopefully, it will improve in time. Where they could have really focused is adding more customization to components. Letting players tweak sail wind angle/top speed/weight/etc. without needing BPs that are just absolutely better. Get a good modular system going where you can modify the frame for acceleration/maneuver/durability/weight/etc.

Heck, separating sails and masts would be a nice step. Larger masts can mount more/different sails, but smaller masts/sails are much quicker to adjust. In battle, masts and sails as separate areas also make different weapons useful (see chainshot). Aim those flaming arrows at the sails! Lighter craft should also be able to navigate shallows/have reduced problems with reef/rock/ etc. NPC Crew should also have more customization in terms of accuracy, reload speed, etc.