<Iskierka>
Actually I do recall in black flag ships didn't sink quite so easily; since it was singleplayer with a longer progression there was a significant capture mechanic and they'd tend to float a while below minimum health. If they got to like -25% or something the powder store would go up completely, and then they sink (probably the only realistic case for causing it, if unrealistic mechanism of triggering the store), but there could be
<Iskierka>
quite a few largely disabled ships left
<Iskierka>
they'd occasionally have fires spread to the store passively then go down by themselves, but they would last a little while
<Iskierka>
guess in this they want to sink them to clear the field
<Pinkbeast>
Mmm. In https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3553/close-action (which is what I really want a videogame of, although I appreciate no-one else does etc) struck ships are quite important not to have clear the field because of the way they can disrupt your formations
<Pinkbeast>
& often you get dismasted ships with significant firepower left which drift downwind like awkward speedbumps full of murder
<Iskierka>
that would be the counterargument to it, yes. You'd hope not with the new consoles but maybe they also need to do it to clear memory or rendering power
<Iskierka>
okay, that's a great quote and sounds fun
<Iskierka>
and mentioning it ... board games are quite good candidates for relatively easy to make video games, given the fairly rigid mechanics to replicate. So long as the rulebook is well written and you study it well.
<Pinkbeast>
Close Action is quite hard work but goes a very long way to make period tactics work (compare, say, Wooden Ships and Iron Men where the Allies can anchor at Trafalgar then obliterate the British as they close)
<Iskierka>
the pieces are cute too
<Iskierka>
And that's where video game adaptations get interesting - they can remove a lot of fiddly number crunching :p
<Pinkbeast>
I don't want a straight-up automation but a _Star Fleet Command_ style exercise that means we escape the limitations of the hex grid
<Pinkbeast>
hard work> especially, it's not the most social game since table talk is prohibited
<Iskierka>
... I presume that's since captains would not be able to communicate normally, and gives me a silly idea for an in-game chat where you're limited to what the ship could actually signal
<Iskierka>
then you could add on mechanics of whether they can see you properly and perhaps only get partial messages
<Pinkbeast>
We did look at the actual Popham signal book, but basically you need to know it by heart to get use out of it. In CA, you can write a short message (3-7 words depending on command ability) at the start of every turn to be read at the end, with one or two gotchas like that the name of any ship is one "word".
<Pinkbeast>
Ships on fire can't signal, but there's no way for the dun war-clouds to obscure signalling altogether (again, a computer implementation could do a lovely job with limited line of sight)
<Pinkbeast>
This again is part of making period tactics work - the line of battle isn't the best you could do with a unified command, but it's jolly good if we basically can't talk to each other
<Iskierka>
and would mean a meaningful replication of trafalgar could happen
<Pinkbeast>
Trafalgar works in CA, especially if Dumanoir can act freely rather than zooming off into the distance for ages
<Iskierka>
Hm, not actually looked closely at the rules - are there mechanics for the differences between all different ships in things like how trained the crew are?
<Iskierka>
Or is there just some buff for English ships versus their gun number?
<Pinkbeast>
Crew quality and morale is extremely important and is specified per-ship in scenarios
<Pinkbeast>
There's a set of suggested values per faction as well as a sort of fallback
<Pinkbeast>
Morale> not least because most ships are defeated when they strike, not by boarding or being ON FIRE
<Iskierka>
I can understand more casual games not using something so abstract, but that would seem more accurate to take the point when the crew mutinies to stop getting shot at
<Pinkbeast>
(Or loss of all crew sections, which technically is also striking but remaining morale doesn't affect)
<Pinkbeast>
The thing again a computer implementation might do well (or very badly) is situational modifiers to morale - about the only one in the boardgame is a dismasted ship being raked is more likely to surrender (above and beyond the normal chance from the damage received)
<Iskierka>
you've made me think about having a look at it since board games would be relatively straightforward to implement but I'd probably stick with the base game until it works, then can try adding to :p
<Pinkbeast>
A word of warning; the CA rules are distinctly unclear in places, and the two supplements fix up a number of broken rules in the base box set.
<Pinkbeast>
Also, gripe, the game uses d10s and a roll of 0 is 0 to be different to every other game on the planet
<Iskierka>
... alternateively, you're rolling a d10-1?
<Iskierka>
... confused when starting a new game. Title screen has welcome in 6 languages - but for some reason does not include the 7th that the game *is* in (Japanese)
<UmbralRaptor>
o_O
<UmbralRaptor>
(At the game. The lego pirates make sense)
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<Iskierka>
recent fun: David Cage writing a slavery allegory with robots. 100% going to be hugely offensive and not going to actually provide any choice or really make much sense
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<kmath>
<RC_Garrick> From the woman who told a nurse asking for a cost of living pay rise on national TV that "there's no magic money tr… https://t.co/qL10bm6NkZ