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WAR GAMES

Helios

New Member
Yesterday's cross-continent trade run did not go as well as we (especially Krampus and I) would have liked. I slept over the events that led up to our ultimate demise at the hands of the zergfest that is FoE and have come to several realizations. The primary of which is that we are very inexperienced at defensive sea warfare (the second of which is that FoE isn't good at it even though it's all they do). The following are some items I realized yesterday.

1) We were not completely screwed until they bubbled me off of the wheel.
2) Our interception clippers need more practice.
3) Casters should not be on radar.
4) Our interception clippers ultimately slowed the trade ship down by slowing their clipper down.
5) I still have no idea why their line didn't break.

Once the fighting started, Krampus correctly asked everyone to purple up. However, we should not just attack any of them; being bubbled off of the wheel made me realize that only two people on the assaulting clipper matter: the person on the harpoon and the person on the wheel. Everyone else is just meat fodder, and should mostly be ignored. If we had gotten either one of them away from their post, they would have failed and Krampus would have more Gilda Stars right now.

We already knew this but frigid tracks stuns the person on the harpoon and renders them incapable of holding on to our boat. This is why casters like Darra should not be on the radar, but instead towards the back. I would like Darra to train someone (not dragon :p ) to use the radar, i.e., with what to call out and what not to call out. This will free her up to use frigid tracks and bubble effectively. We need more casters in order for this to be most effective, but we should get our current casters proficient at this.

In order to prevent future failures from happening, I will be hosting War Games soon (using my own fuel). I realize we hardly have 10 people on most of the time, so we will split ourselves into 2 small raids.

Defense:
Merchant ship crew: 1 person on radar (not a caster), me on the wheel, Darra, and Krym beside me to defend against the clipper with conq arrow, bubble, and frigid tracks. If we can spare it, a melee next to me waiting to take the wheel if I get bubbled/conqd.
Defense clipper: 1 person on the wheel, 1 person on harpoon.

Offense:
Attack clipper: 1 person on harpoon, 1 person on wheel, and if we can, 1 caster/ranged with some sort of ranged cc.

As we grow, I'd like to add to the offense team to make it more realistic. Ultimately, I'd prefer the offense team outnumber the defense by 2:1 at least, this will drive home the importance of evasion. The first of these may happen tonight, or at some point this weekend. I'll be prowling online to see how many people are on.
 
I approve and it should be priority to set this up and get people familiar with naval combat. Also turning the ship abruptly can break the rope. (That also takes time and cordination with the masts and what not.
 
Radar tutorial time!!

This is what it looks like!



All boats have the same icon and the colors are very similar, so I added the red and green circles to show the difference. The red ships have a bit of a glow effect to them that helps to distinguish them. The only other icon you will see (you can kind of see it beneath the nameplate in the second screenshot) is that for a dry dock.

The radar shows on your transparent mini map as well but you can not mouse over ships for detail on your mini map, so I normally keep the 'M' window open. If your job is the radar, you really have no need to be looking at the open ocean.

The second screenshot shows a boat's mouse over name plate.



The top left is the name of the ship and the top right is the type of ship. It is important to remember which one is which because of the trolls who name their Galleon "Rowboat." Merchant Ships and Galleons are both classified as "Boat" but can be distinguished by their HP, a Merc Ship has 42k and a Galleon has 52k.

Not everything needs to be reported, and not everything is cause for alarm. A full harbor in a safe/peace zone is not important. Single clippers that are following the trade routes are generally not important. You should still be scoping out these places to make sure there aren't potential trolls who may try to push us into the war zone, but not every boat needs to be reported. I do like to give out a general overview of what I see, so everyone has a good idea what's going on - but it doesn't have to be overly specific.

Things that are important: Red boats of any time in a contested zone. Red OR green boats that are heading straight towards us in a contested zone. Red OR green boats with paths that are erratic. Red OR green galleons that could easily push us aside. Clusters of clippers (which is what I saw before FoE raped us up the butthole the other night). Even a cluster of mixed red and green clippers is a fight we should avoid when carrying packs.

When a red boat comes into the radar, I mark it on the map before I announce it. If it's heading towards us or moving erratically, I also update the mark as it moves so that everyone knows where it is.

It's not rocket science, you just have to keep your focus on the map and make sure you're keeping everyone apprised of the situation!
 

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On another note (wanted to keep this separate from the radar post so it didn't get lost) I think that all boat captains and harpooners should run with their transparent maps on large during naval passage. It's difficult to judge where the mark from the radar is on the map when it's set to the small setting. The large setting will help everyone more accurately see where the marks for enemy ships are.

Really, probably not a bad idea for everyone to run that map and the highest size while we're out on the sea.
 
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