581

Don’t feel bad. I’ve been getting about an hour here and there to put in a day and trying to spread that out over several games I want to play. This sucks, I need a job with less overtime.

582

Small ships have too few cannon for my taste, but I’ve done Medium vs. Large and (to a lesser extent) Medium vs. Huge.

I’ve had good luck with it, when I could get my team to stay at a decent range, and also have some bigger ships with me. The most obvious advantage is that if anyone gets away, it’ll be you. You can also often chase down those who cut and run, while still having enough firepower to stand and fight towards the end of your range, where your DPS/toughness matches up nicely with bigger ships (although that is often mitigated, as opponents generally won’t shoot you first).

However, the main advantage is more subtle. When opposing lines form up, your speed lets you pull ahead of your own line, and effectively concentrate fire on the lead ship. This has a surprising synergy, as it tends to slow down their whole line, and force the lead ship to turn away – allowing your forces to concentrate even more cannon. Sometimes you can also cut in a bit (still at range!), and finish off damaged foes who attempt to pull away to recover, leading to a domino effect once your foes sense their doom.

I’m not sure how well this will keep playing out now though, as I saw players increasingly fielding Triton Interceptors, which combine speed (I’ve seen 35 knots!) with many cannon and tough hulls.

583

I need a job, period! :-)

584

They really need to let you target multiple foes at once and autofire. Sometimes trying to emply both broadsides in a fight is just a little too click festy…

Going to go hunting for a Mediator Cutter tonight.

585

Very well, I will oblige you with my tales. First, more aguardiente for my friend here. I lurked in the waters of Belize relieving fat British merchants from their cargo. All of a sudden I see a British jack appear off my port with wind at his back right on top of me. I am quickly forced to combat.

I set off at full sails, broad reach with my opponent at 600 yards. This was the best speed for my Mastercraft Packet. A less astute observer would have seen the scene and concluded I was running - Nothing could be further from the truth. I merely wanted to excite his blood and lead him into overconfidence.

(I forget what he sailed but it was an MC ship, probably a Xebec. It wasn’t a cutter but it was darn fast. He was a British privateer 38, I am a Spanish privateer, at the time 28.)

I peered back once the crew worked to extract every breath of wind - but she closed on us, and quickly. I loaded bar shot at slowed her at half speed. With the wind on her favour, she kept maneuvering to shoot out my stern. I traded volley after volley, holes in her sails for holes in my hull. I switched to star shot as it was more devastating at low range.

Now my opponent, Gideon, had suffered more sail damage but so had I. She closed parallel to my port and failed to grapple - I quickly switched to canister and after a volley boarded HER - we had equal numbers of crew now.

…after all the blood and fog settled there was one victor left to claim her ship and two new marks of commendation.

I too would look forward to more solo encounters - I fear having to fight off wolf packs in my little ship, which I cannot afford to replace.

586

Did raping and pillaging ensue soon thereafter? :-D

587

That must have been Gideon Angel. And he’s in a Sleek Corsair Xebec. I was raiding for Spain outside of Belize with Almirante Diaz, in a Stral frigate, and was in an MC Corsair Xebec myself. I’m speedy enough but he got away! Slippery fellow.

Got my Mystique Poleacre last night. Not sure how I feel about that ship. I’m a level 40 FT, but I focus more on combat support than trading, and I could get a much heftier ship. I just like experimenting and I love boarding actions. Traded in Fencing for Dirty Fighting and now I’m the Conan of The Caribbean (sans Belit, but I digress).

In theory, the Poleacre should be Grim’s dream ship. But man, the thing’s made out of papermache. It’s a very, very, specialized tool. It can sail fairly well in most directions (it’s got a hermaphrodite rig - a mix of lateen and square rigged sails), has remarkable accelleration and a huge crew. But the top speed isn’t great and the armor is just shabby - on a large ship that’s easy to hit this isn’t a good combination.

I’m thinking the only useful role this thing has would be for PvE farming. You can just race up to most ships and, with the proper fitting, smack into them and board right off or after a broadside of grapeshot. Don’t bother with using alot of ammo or patches and the time spent will only be slightly longer than if you traded broadsides for a while with less chance of losing the cargo or the prize.

You might find a specialized use for it in PvP with proper support. I can see using it to tie up a big SOL with the proper screening while getting there. A an extra round of grape or two, a hull patch and a “hold her together” later, and you’re aboard.

But by and large I like my nimble Raa Courier frigate the best. I can board with her, I can take some considerable punishment and dish it out too. And they’re manueverable and fast enough I can act as a destroyer escort analogue to our heavies. Saved our Almirante’s Defiant from a Mourdant (4th rate Ship of the Line) NPC the other day. Just slid between them and let loose with my repair, reloading and damage boosting specials and gunpowder. Survived the several close range broadsides the SOL fired before we sank her.

But I think I’m going to have to join the herd and get an MC Stral or something for general use and port battles. I so like to be a unique snowflake but with my FT skill set and this being the age of sail, best I fall in line for important actions.

588

I’ve been taking a look at the whining on POTBS forums. Privateers seem to have a role in a group (1 priv or freetrader and 5 Naval officers) and limited in port battles. It’s akin to needing one druid to snare the runners in everquest. I think I may get to 50, PVE farm cash and roll a warrior :)

589

I think the idea behind giving everyone so many slots is that the serious player will max out one of each class over time. Yet another reason I dropped pirate for National, more variety. As with any gaming forum take the “common wisdom” with a big grain of salt especially this early in the process. Privateers have a role on the OS, they’re great as upwind tacklers with Xebecs, and they’ve got loads of specials to disable ships.

Yes, in pure PvP most groups will go NO heavy and don’t need as many privateers to use “Sanctioned Piracy” in the Pirate red circles. But that only applies during that one phase of a port flip. After it goes pure PvP they don’t even really “need” privateers at all.

Privateers are best for solo players: they get more loot and are the ultimate PvE hunter, and can chose between NO and FT rewards when cashing in pennants or commendations (if they have the right skill).

NOs are best for PvPers in general as those Ships of The Line are critical in Port Battles but they can run around in Frigates or lighter ships on the OS and do most anything a Privateer can short of “Sanctioned Piracy.”

FTs are for people who get into the economic game or like being the support person. Provisions are really useful once you get to the upper end of the line and a purely combat specced FT (like Grim) is good at PvE and downwind tackling - with specials like Before The Wind and Deter Pursuit (slows an enemy ship). They can also save an ally’s bacon with “Rescue Me” which gives a friendly ship a +20% Battle movement buff for a few minutes. In theory that’s so a friendly can come rescue them but in practice I’ve seen it more often used to save a friendly that’s gotten a bad instance spawn and needs to run, fast.

590

Are there any British or French nationals from QT3 on Bonny, or are you all Spanish scoundrels? In 3 hours and 45 minutes, when the damn thing has finished updating, I’ll be arriving in the Caribbean with my sea chest and my silly name - well, once I figure out what it’ll be. Still trying to figure out which country to represent. It may end up being British because that’s what my wife chose and she wants us to team up. No choice then really, is there?!

591

I have a British Privateer on Bonny in his 20’s (Clayton Beckett), but I haven’t had time to play much lately. I’d probably be up for some flotilla action if you do see me on, though.

592

Feh. Too many Brits as it is. Spain needs bodies. So does France for that matter. But whatever you chose have fun out there. :)

593

I’ll go for Spanish eventually, but right now while I learn the ropes (and, more importantly, to please my wife who wants to group up with me) I’ve created a British National: name of Edmund Fishfinger. He looks like a twerp, so the name fits.

Level 3! Could be a while before I’m of much use to you Raife, but I’ll keep an eye out.

594

I’ve clearly missed my calling as a Naval Officer… everyone tells me the conventional wisdom is to get the Mediator Cutter at 12. But I snapped up a Van Hoorn Snow and I am loving it! It’s an absolute pig of a ship for a small vessel, slow, unmaneuverable… but its got guns pointing every which way and a nice solid hull. A perfect tank! Plus it has quite a large crew, which means I dont have to work very hard when I board.

Not sure what to progress to after the Van Hoorn but I am comfy enough in it that I bought some cheap fittings for it.

595

Even into the air and sea? You must have something against aquatic life and birds. ;-)

I’ll be on more often once I receive my new Alienware m15x laptop. My g/f finally felt my pain, having to struggle on her ancient rig (my rig’s still in Phoenix), so she’s springing for the m15x. Isn’t she swell? :-D

596

I loved the Van Hoorn. I actually stuck with it until 21 when I finally upgraded to a Postillionen Light Frigate, which took some getting used to. It’s all broadsides, where the Van Hoorn had good stern guns.

I’d look at either the Lexington or the Locust at 17 as possible upgrades. If you haven’t seen it, here’s a good level-based ship breakdown on the POTBS Wiki.

597

Ugh for some reason I thought the Hunting Party was Monday instead of Sunday and totally missed out. Sigh (won’t be around this weekend either).

— Alan

598

I’m picking up the game tomorrow, it’s finally arrived, and I’m thinking what side to join.

On the unofficial Aussie server I’m looking at there seem to be good guilds on each side, but of course, the brits are bigger.

I’m looking to do a lot of PVP, it doesn’t need to be meaningful (eg, the port battles) but I love to shoot people in the face, so I’m tending towards Pirate. But lots of people seem to think nationals have some nice interesting features. Thoughts?

599

I’ve already written a bit about this but in a nutshell, because of how the economy works and the need to coordinate different classes and keep or acquire ports permanently (which Pirates can’t do aside from their starting ports), Nationals are the way to go if you plan an extended stay. They have three classes, each of which can be specced in different ways, as well so there’s a reason to use your alt slots.

Pirates are very one-dimensional but they’re also the ultimate in terms of low-overhead gameplay. But because they don’t really need to worry about ports for personal reasons, because Pirate ports can’t be permanently lost, and they can just steal ships instead of worrying about making them there’s little need for cohesion. I’d bet at least half or more of any given population of Pirates doesn’t even care about winning or losing the strategic game. They just want to PvP lots and not be too dependant on PvE or economic game income or other players.

I may well make a Pirate alt on another server just so I have a low cost way of getting more personal practice with PvP and experimenting with different kinds of ships, builds and tactics.

But for the long term, most of the meaningful gameplay will probably come out of being a national. And if you chose a low pop faction the upside is much more of an opportunity to fight. The downside is you’ll probably find it harder to get the goods you need. If you pick a combatant class like Privateer or Naval Officer you won’t be able to (eventually, if you keep sinking enemy ships - which is the point) use the Auction Houses of other countries either to get rare items.

600

But the Pirates are still going to be getting more PVP more regularly, right? That’s what I’m looking for. Hmm. Torn!