I also think there could be ships that generate resources or that support populatio
I expect a naval reworking like it happens in AOE-4. At least a bit more viability and less clumsy ship handling.
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It is that originally AoE 4 was not going to have naval maps, it was later in the development, that they decided to put them at the request of the council of prosâŠ
When we sink a ship loaded with crew or passengers, I think we should receive the experience of the units you annihilate when destroying the ship. I think you currently only receive experience from the ship itself, but you donât receive experience in case the units inside it die.
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Somethings i would like to see in aoe3 naval combat.
- Firstly would be to replace the current sinking animation with something similar to what we had in the legacy version as the old version looks much better on that aspect.
- Maybe make ships a bit cheaper and add a rock paper scisors dynamic like in aoe4.
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Absolutely yes on the rock paper scissors counter system. There should be a proper tag system for naval.
Light ships/boats (covers exploration ships/standard canoes) are strongest against fishing and Fireships (essentially all âutilityâ ships). Countered by Warships.) Generally the fastest but too weak for ship to ship batte.
Warships (Galleons, Frigates, Battleships etc) - Hard counter against Light ships/boats and soft counter to anything in their range. Countered by Fireships. The ships designed for ship to ship battle.
Bombardment Ships (Monitors etc) - hard counter to buildings and soft counter to anything they can hit long range. Countered by anything close-range. A utility ship - cannot defend itself sufficiently (except in very few cases) and mainly used for coastal attack.
Fireships. Strongest against slowest ships (Hard counter against Warship and Bombardment types) and soft counter to anything in âmeleeâ range. Countered by anything that can hit it before itâs too late but Light Ships have a bonus against them. Another utility ship with an effective but niche role.
Civilian ships (fishing ships) - countered by anything, though Light Ships have a bonus against them so they are naturally better for quick, raiding attacks. Not a lot to say about eco vessels - just watery settlers.
With this way the lighter military vessels are used to scout, raid and use their speed to attack utility ships whilst avoiding to much damage. The medium to heavy warships having the role of the damage dealers/tanks that can easily deal with light ships. Fireships can deal with these warships easily when used in number or distracted with other shops but weak to light vessels kiting them. Bombardment ships can technically be used against anything but specialise in coastal attacks whilst being weak to anything close.
Also, Fireships should be available to every civ (whether in Caravel/canoe/show form). Historically just about everyone could acquire a vessel and stuff it full of explosives or highly flammable material. Fireships throughout history were pretty much a counter to warships clumped together, if they could get close enough, plus it gives weaker naval civs an extra tool to deal with a strong naval.
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Iâm not a huge fan of the sea but if you want to do this to beat Japan at sea you have failed. New mechanics new bugs I assure you.
100% agree on that, specially on the fireship department.
We could also put caravels with light ship boat tag I guess. Only issue maybe that could come out is how would they balance the native civs.
That is a really nice system you have put together.
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Thank you. Yep, Caravels, Fune and all similar tier early military vessels, along with standard native canoes would be tagged as âLight Vesselsâ
Yes, balance is a tricky one. I guess a small element of balancing could be that native civs either get âmedium-powerâ Fire Canoes or âhigh-powerâ Fire Ships (purchased or captured European ships) depending on how overpowered/underpowered they are. Same could be applied to Euro/NAs/Asian/African civs too - small Fire Boats (fishing vessel/dinghy models) or larger Fire Ships (using Caravel, Fune, Galley, etc models) depending on how op that civ may be.
Regarding the overall topic of Melee in the naval sense, maybe all military ships (even using the Tag system mentioned) have a Melee button in their UI like with land units, but call it Close Quarters. When a ship engages another in Close Quarters/melee it gets in melee range and fires muskets, grenades or arrows if native as well as its standard attack. Every naval unit could have an additional health bar, representing itâs crew (or morale if you want) which is only effected in Close Quarters attack. If this extra health bar (letâs call it Crew Health) depletes, the ship becomes âemptyâ or neutral. Clicking on the ship with one of yours allows you to capture it straight away.
With this method you cover a much sought after feature - ship boarding as well as offer another tactic - close in on the enemy and engage at Close Quarters with a slightly abstract and fairly simple way.
Do you gamble and send a ship straight to âmeleeâ hoping that close range musketeers and grenades will sweep the deck of the enemy ship so you can capture it? Or do you attack at range and sink it? If you have a few ships it may well be worth attacking in Close Quarters together though you might make a good opportunity for an enemy Fireship counter attack.
The Dutch and Ottoman villagers changed their appearance, I think that consequently the fishing boats could also change their appearance.
Thatâs exactly what Iâm suggesting. There could also be a few exceptions for ships like Galleys that would ram instead, and some weaker boats without a ranged attack such as dinghies or bull boats.
The best way to animate this would be with grappling hooks being flung at the other ship. It would get across the melee aspect and would make sense with the snaring component that melee brings. It would also look good even for ships that donât have a crew. Basically, the stuff in the image below.
My proposal would avoid having a separate âmelee healthâ bar and just link everything to regular health. Above a certain amount of health (would vary by ship type), a ship would be completely immune to capture. Once the ship becomes too damaged, each melee attack would have a small chance of simply capturing the ship. Yes, it would be a little RNG, but even a lucky hit will only ever gain a mostly damaged ship for you. The various pirate ships like Privateers and Wokou Junks could have a higher chance of capturing enemy ships, and a higher damage threshold for when they can capture them.
Overall, water gameplay is lacking and melee could actually make it fun. It would help with constructing a counter system for water to make it less about just who has more ships. It would also let you snare fleeing enemies and have a high risk, high reward method to capture ships. And it could make fighting a little more realistic with small ships like canoes relying on swarming close and boarding instead of shooting a million fire arrows.
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I would like to suggest about introducing another ship type or naval mechanic to the game. How about adding the âBlockshipâ to the game as a trainable unit or make it possible where boats can be scuttled?
Blockships were apparently ships that were deliberately sunk to prevent a river, channel or canal from being used. And It seems that these types of ships have been used in pretty much any timeline in history. (Blockship - Wikipedia)
In either case for whether only a certain boat can use this ability or if every boat can use it (except for the Fire Ship), the sunken ship will turn into an obstruction in the water when choosing to click on the âScuttleâ button option and will remain there until it is destroyed. By introducing Blockships to the game the player will have the ability to delay an attack and give themselves some time to prepare for the coming assault.
Some limitations could also be implemented for the use of the Blockship, where it can only be scuttled close to shorelines or sections of the water that would be deemed as âshallow waterâ in order to avoid exploitation.
I couldnât find an image that showed a scuttled 18th century warship, so I will use this image of a boat known as the âSS Reginaldâ as an example, which was used as a Blockship during WW1.
That sounds more annoying than fun. And it only makes sense in shallow water.
Blocking could be achieved with a âstand groundâ or âanchorâ stance that fixes your ship in place. A command like that would also be useful for keeping ships from wandering and getting led into building fire.
Scuttling would only be useful if there was a capture mechanic and you had a ship that was about to be captured, but that can be done by just deleting it.
The Blockship could be made so that it can only be scuttled when close to shorelines or sections of the water that could be deemed as âshallow waterâ, therefore it will have some limitations in its use. Perhaps this might be too complex to implement but if this is possible then why not.