Question about repairing ships

Vortigon

Are ships expensive to buy? and if I lose a ship in battle is it completely destroyed so that I have to start from scratch again? or is there a way to repair etc?

wucks

There was a figure put on the most powerful ship of the line (i think it was 1 million+ doubloons worth of materials) but it's largely irrelevant untill we know for certain how easy money is to get hold of. It's probably fair to say that you won't be running out and buying the most powerful ships every day after running a quest or two though.

Ships have durability points, each time you're sunk you lose a point. The early/newbie ships will have lots and losing one point shouldn't be that big a deal; as you progress ships will have less points. If you run out of durability your ship will be dead.

Vortigon

Sounds like a good system, thanks for the information   Strange to me that the larger ships have less durability points than smaller ships. 

 

Do you know if the durability points can be altered or replenished? or are they a set amount that will decrease with no opportunity to replenish them?

 

drgumby13

Better ships/end game ships have less durability points because the devs dont want the end game to be SoL(Ship of the Line) vs SOL. You can have a total of 4 ships so losing ur best ship shouldnt be a big deal since u have 3 other ships and your constantly obtaining materials to build ships.

 

 And durability points are a set amount. You can not replenish them.

RickSaada

 

 

Originally posted by drgumby13


Better ships/end game ships have less durability points because the devs dont want the end game to be SoL(Ship of the Line) vs SOL. You can have a total of 4 ships so losing ur best ship shouldnt be a big deal since u have 3 other ships and your constantly obtaining materials to build ships.
 
 And durability points are a set amount. You can not replenish them.

This isn't quite right anymore.  At one point you couldn't add durability, but they started with more.  Now it's different.  I double checked with our lead designer and he said:

 

 

 

You can add durability to an existing ship.
This requires a deed that is the exact same deed used to create the ship (so pirates have to use ‘capture’ deeds, and if you’re sailing a civilian ship, you have to use a ‘civilian’ deed).
This adds the durability value of the deed to the existing ship.
There is no upper limit on how much durability you can put on a ship.

 

 Which really doesn't save you any money over buying a new ship, but it means you don't have to be sailing around nervously on your last durability point and wait until you lose it to get the new ship.  You can do that in port more convienently and be ready to go.

Also, you aren't "constantly getting materials for new ships."  Building a ship is a rather large undertaking, and will require the combined efforts of multiple players to do.  You may choose to play the economic game and contribute towards shipbuilding or making repair consumables, or whatever, or just buy them on the AH.  But it's not like you find a ship pieces lying around and then fit them together. 

Rick Saada - FLS Dev & EPFBM

 

 

0over0

Originally posted by RickSaada


 
  But it's not like you find a ship pieces lying around and then fit them together. 

Rick Saada - FLS Dev & EPFBM
 
 

 

 How unrealistic! I found part of a bumper the other day, and now I only need 3 more car pieces to be able to build a whole car!

Note: The above is an example of sarcastic humor--though you may or may not find it funny.

Lobotomist

In my oppinion FLS guys tried and tried diferent solutions , and finaly came up with most balanced one. Which is the one Rick above mentioned.

Perhaps it makes the game more fun, but to me it is a major letdown.

Your ship may be damaged in combat instance, but when you exit it will be miraculosly repaired, and crew will be in full numbers and healthy. But if you lose durability , you need to purchase the whole ship again (deed - which is the same). Meaning that if you have most expensive ship , repairing it costs as expensive as the ship itself.

Now , i understand that it is gameplay wise a best choice. But it is fast moving away from historic naval game - to naval wow ride.

But let see how it pans out on the end.

Vortigon

I don't see why I shouldn't be able to repair my ship to full after each battle??

RickSaada

Originally posted by Vortigon


I don't see why I shouldn't be able to repair my ship to full after each battle??

Well, in naval history it was often a serious issue to repair ships at sea, particularly if a mainmast was destroyed in battle. The effects of jury-rigged parts of the ship on later battles could often be decisive.  But the problem with this in a game is that it opens up serious griefing issues.   The chances of having another fight shortly after the first is much higher in a game than in a "real" world situation where ships often had weeks or months at sea without seeing land or another ship.  Having your ship repair automatically between battles helps that a lot. It kind of symbolizes the work the crews *could* have done if they'd had the kind of time between battles they might really have had.  On the flip side, having to periodically replace the whole ship balances out the "free" repairs you get along the way.  Most ships have multiple durability points, so you won't be doing it every time you are defeated, either.  And in the smaller and faster ships it's often possible to outrun pursuers. 

In the end it's a compromise because this is a game, and we're trying to balance realism and fun. 

Rick Saada - FLS Dev & EPFBM

Lobotomist

Originally posted by RickSaada


 
Originally posted by Vortigon


I don't see why I shouldn't be able to repair my ship to full after each battle??

Well, in naval history it was often a serious issue to repair ships at sea, particularly if a mainmast was destroyed in battle. The effects of jury-rigged parts of the ship on later battles could often be decisive.  But the problem with this in a game is that it opens up serious griefing issues.   The chances of having another fight shortly after the first is much higher in a game than in a "real" world situation where ships often had weeks or months at sea without seeing land or another ship.  Having your ship repair automatically between battles helps that a lot. It kind of symbolizes the work the crews *could* have done if they'd had the kind of time between battles they might really have had.  On the flip side, having to periodically replace the whole ship balances out the "free" repairs you get along the way.  Most ships have multiple durability points, so you won't be doing it every time you are defeated, either.  And in the smaller and faster ships it's often possible to outrun pursuers. 

 

In the end it's a compromise because this is a game, and we're trying to balance realism and fun. 

Rick Saada - FLS Dev & EPFBM

Gameplay should come first. And I am sure you guys tried every single posibility and came with one that is most fun and balanced

But for me the it sounds strange. You say to repair durability you need to buy a new deed to a ship ? It basically means you need to buy a new ship.

But let say you have the top of the line ship. That is very hard to make , needs lot of crafting resources for making it...and can take weeks to be finished.

What , if you have such ship with one durability left ?

You surely will not want to sail it anymore , because you need to wait a week or more for new ship deed.

And what if you have real exotic ship , not many people make ? The same ...

 

Vortigon

yes the above poster is kind of what I was thinking about....surely it should be cheaper to repair a ship than cost the same as a new ship? that would seem more logical to me and doesn't effect the fun / realism balance.

I don't mean insta-repair at sea...I mean after a battle I am down to the last durability point or last few...I would of liked the option to head into port, leave my ship for a set amount of time, and pay for the repairs to bring the ship back up to maximum duarbility.

Perhaps with the option of paying for some of the repairs with a combination of materials and cash.  The price of course would depend on how many repairs were needed to get that ship back to full durability.

-So basically I don't quite understand why we don't have the option of repairing the durability level of our ship for a price less than the cost of a new ship, or am I missing something? which is quite possible I'm a bit tired lol

Kooboo

Originally posted by Vortigon

I don't mean insta-repair at sea...I mean after a battle I am down to the last durability point or last few..


durability level of our ship for a price less than the cost of a new ship, or am I missing something? which is quite possible I'm a bit tired lol

Imagine this in that way:

(the numbers and dura points are out of finger now for example only)

Let's say it's cheap and has lots of dura, because its newb ship who make many stupid mistakes and could lose many ships.

So You pay 1000 for ship with 5 dura points. You can imagine you just purchased 5 exact ships. As long you are not being sink (or lost boarding) you still use the first ship, you repair it many times on sea because of reasons described above. But when the ship is completely destroyed (or captured), you just lose it. Main character survives, goes to port on one of his four remaining ships and keeps sailing.

The durability in PotBS isnt condition of ship. It's kind of old school "lives" the ship has left. You lose once - You lose one life.