Good evening everybody.
Although we have several ships under construction, the idea was brought up that we should design our own ship that could have been built in the 1700's. One thing led to another, and we decided that modifying existing plans from the eighteenth century would make a very interesting project.
We have a naval architect in training (that would be me) who will be modifying the vessel in these plans over the coming weeks:
After that it will become a candidate for modeling and use in the game.
Now we move on to the important part:
If you had this ship built for your character, what would you want to see?
Bigger guns?
The ability to sail better upwind? (Towards the wind)
The ability to hide in shallow areas where larger ships can't reach you?
The ability to go faster with light breezes? Or with tons of wind?
Anything else?
Remember that I can't modify the hull to have all of those traits. Bigger guns mean a slower hull, for example, and ships that sail upwind well generally are too deep to enter shallow areas. What do you think you will value the most?
Remember that I'll be doing two versions of the hull at most. With that said, I need help deciding which ones to make!
I think a ship that does not draw as much water as a frigate or a corvette would make sense, to penetrate rivers and navigate shoals. If combined with more guns in comparison to similar classes and a rigging for cruising rather then racing it could make the perfect pirate/smuggler vessel (Something like Edward Teach used). "Outrun everything she cannot outgun and outgun everything she cannot outrun" Something like a post steam destroyer/gunboat hybrid. Could also come in handy in amphibious operations.
*pre-steam. Sorry
God I love the idea of this game! Makes me wish I´d be born 200 years ago :) as a navy officer and history geek you truly let my dreams become reality, I love you guys!
I can definitely give it a shoal draft and increase the armament, but that will make it slower and unable to run away from most vessels going upwind. It should still be relatively fast sailing downwind, however.
The problems with "Outrun everything she cannot outgun and outgun everything she cannot outrun" in a vessel that is that small is that larger vessels were much faster in bad weather, and that a large vessel with similar lines will be faster than the smaller vessel. The two solutions are to make it so fast at the sacrifice of a reduced armament it can outsail almost anything,or give it a shoal draft so it can hide where larger ships can't reach.
I could give it a shoal draft and reduce armament as well- then you'd really have something that could fly downwind.
If we're talking about shoal drafts, then we also definitely have to create our game world so that water depth makes a difference. In PotC, ship's draft is a complete non-issue, so we do NOT want to be replicating that. :-P
I believe that was already discussed. It's definitely going to have to be included. I think one of the problems with PotC was that the water was just too deep. In CoAS, the same problem was there, and I don't know if PotC has this too, but every time your ship ran aground it just bounced off at impossible velocities.
Not quite crazy velocities, but bouncing for sure. You would take damage when hitting land though.
Strange though, because PotC has had this ability since the stock game:
"Sense Fairway
The character's ship is protected from the perils of traversing reefs and shoals for 60 seconds, providing the character an opportunity to escape dangerous waters without taking heavy damage."
As far as I am aware, that has just about zero purpose because there ARE no reefs. Just a few places with lots of rocks. But that's it.
Hopefully we'll change that for HoO. There's too much gameplay potential there to ignore. (That also makes ship's boats useful. Now you won't be able to bring your 100 gun ship of the line right up to the dock.)
Personally I'd like something at around the size of a 6th rate frigate/corvette (24 to 28 guns) but with a different sail plan so it can sail upwind quite well, along with down wind... But also has a a good armament. To do this I would arm it with Carronades for the broadside allowing it to keep a powerful broadside but also keep manoeuvrability. The only exception to this would be the chasers. I reckon this ship would be a good fighter as it could out gun anything that can chase it, and out manoeuvre larger ships.
I wouldn't mind not having to be able to go into shallows as the larger hold would allow more cargo space, and a studier ship, which I think outclasses hiding in shallows.
Well, carronades come a bit after the first time period that will be implemented. When you're dealing with something with the size and hull shape of a corvette, you're looking at a standard frigate's sail plan as the most effective rig.
Having a deeper draft would enable sailing to windward better, which is a possible modification, but if you want to retain actual speed, you need a smaller displacement, which means a smaller hold. Everything is a tradeoff here, or naval architecture would be really easy.
For clarification, I'll be doing the design based on the plans in the image.
Oh righto, is that a Brig-Sloop or a Schooner? I'd still try and make her be able to sail upwind quite well and load her with 12 pounders (while 9 pounders would be the realistic size :/) because it'd be quite important to run away from larger ships. Also since the game is set pre 1770's will it be set before or after 1740 when the first real frigates were made?
By the way, I wasn't logged in when I made my previous post :/
Well, it's actually neither. It's a ketch, but I plan on doing a bilander rig as well. I'll post a link to the sail plan. It's a bit smaller than you would think... The largest guns I would go with are 6-pounders. You could definitely mount heavier guns, but then you would end up with a very top-heavy load and far less power to carry sail. But if you're running from larger ship, you only need speed. That's why most Baltimore clippers in later years didn't even mount chasers.
But anyway... the first time period will be the Seven Years War, so there will be plenty of frigates from various nations.
All-model.com
The ability to sail into shallower areas would make quite for an advantage for instance if the opponent wouldn't have much experience and would try to go after you, you'd sail into shallower waters and ran him aground or if you're in a bad shape you'd flee into the shallower waters where the opponent couldn't reach with his ship and his guns + makes it more useable for smuggling.