Beta Update – 7v7 battle!
On Thursday, we coordinated a 25v25 player test of our RvR system. The battle failed to launch. (We found a great bug, though – just as Beta is supposed to do!) Not to be undone by this, some enterprising Beta Testers instead coordinated themselves into two groups of seven and met in the Open Sea to battle it out – again finding a bug! :P They then wrote up the results. (Names have been changed to protect the ...um... innocent.)
VK:
"Well the 25 vs 25 battle didn't happen tonight, but that's not saying that we didn't have some very good PVP.
For the main fight:
On the British side we have:
MR, lvl 47, 50-gun
RN, lvl 49, 50-gun
VK, lvl 40, Capricieux Frigate
RW, lvl 36, Cerebus Frigate
JP, lvl 32, Cerebus Frigate
ZS, lvl 24, Mediator Cutter
GP, lvl 21, Mediator Cutter
On the Pirate side:
Capt B, lvl 50, 50-gun
AB, lvl 50, 50-gun
PJ, lvl 36, Capricieux Frigate
NM, lvl ?, Cerebus
Doc, lvl 29, Cerebus
CM, lvl 24, Cerebus
WH, lvl 7, Sloop
The British line formed up as 50-gun, 50-gun, Capricieux, Cerebus, Cerebus... our two cutters were left to roam and harass. The British line started southeast in an attempt to gain the weather gauge. Gaining the weather gauge the line swung in an arch and started pounding into Capt B's 50-gun. For most of this first pass only the 50-guns were in range of each other, but it seemed that the British line was much more coordinated. After working to the rear of the pirate line the frigates joined the firing (at least mine anyway) pounding into Capt B's 50-gun and took her down. Sorry Capt B, we just figured you for the biggest threat.
The British line, now on its 4th or 5th maneuver, engaged AB's 50 gun at long range. After a good deal of exchange of fire, our lead 50 pulled back to the rear of our line. The Pirates' line by this point was in a bit of chaos. The British line advanced while the cutters were ordered to harass one of the Pirate frigates who had strayed from his group. The Pirate 50 having taken heavy damage at this point turned to flee, with the other pirates following. A chase ensued with the British Cutters and Frigates breaking the line in a general chase.
The British frigates and cutters would make chase turning to fire the occasional broadside at the rear of the fleeing pirates.
Or were they fleeing after all?
It appeared that the Pirates were trying to round the peninsula of the island so that the British would be coming at them from the North, taking away some of our weather gauge. Once the British frigates were separated from their SOLs, the pirates turned short and open fire. The lead Frigate (mine) was wounded. The British frigates, quickly recognizing this threat, wheeled, fired and headed back to form up with the 50-gun ships who were now coming into range. Once more the chase was on as the Pirates sailed for better positioning. But before they could get away entirely, the rear Pirate Frigate came in range of both British 50-gun ships and the Capriciuex. The Brits turned and fired into her stern, sinking her.
Then we turned back to chase more of the pirates... when BAM!! (that's the sound a bug makes)! Everyone was thrown out of the instance and ended up back outside Jenny Bay. I think the pirates ended up outside Marsh Harbour.
So in the end the British took the battle; our main strength being the regularity of our line, but I would like to put out a big thanks to all those British and Pirates who took part. Everyone was great, and I had a lot of fun. Hats off to the Pirates, they fought well. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did."
CM responds:
"I'd say that is an excellent account of the action! Well done!
At the risk of earning the enmity of my companions I readily admit that there was some confusion on our end at the outset of maneuvers. Nobody's fault, really, just that four of us were on TeamSpeak and three weren't, and I think we got some things garbled during translation. Once we withdrew from the initial exchange that cleared up.
Obviously that confusion wasn't taking place for the other side. By the way, a big doffing of the hat and a bow to your cutter captains! When we made our turn to take the western tip of the island they made a few of us (myself, for certain) irritated enough to do a quick larboard turn in order to throw them a broadside. All that earned me was a couple of hits from someone's stern chasers and a little less room to run comfortably. Had the fight run its course I think that shortening of the gap would've made a lot of difference. I'm certainly no expert, but here's how I saw it:
The thinking was that if we rounded that head we'd have to turn into the wind, but would have just enough time to get around into a good position, with a little weather gauge recovered. At first that seemed like a so-so idea, then it started to look really good. Then two things pretty much scotched it, to my mind. The first was the cutters and your MR, I believe, effectively harassing a couple of us into slowing down just enough. The second was choosing to turn when you did (which can be a tricky thing), which would've shortened that gap quite a bit by the time we rounded the head. Then we would've rounded and turned just in time to be forced into very close action just as we were getting the wind out of our teeth. I definitely didn't like those odds.
Fortunately, Doc's hold full of experimental powder we'd whipped up in Cat Island was detonated just in time, blowing us all out of the instance.
Seriously, though, a very, very enjoyable time, and definitely a learning experience! I hope we can do it again soon, durability be damned! I agree fully that it was the well organized line that carried the day."
Capt B also responds:
"Respect to everyone involved - it was a lot of fun even though it seemed I was the most popular choice for target practice. My 50 gun ship equipped with the finest upgrades available was turned to little more than a floating bath tub as I was targeted with crushing broadsides and terror skills that left me unable to turn or even fire my guns. It was still a lot of fun and I look forward to our next encounter."
GP comments:
"Many thanks for the remarks on the diligence of the British cutters. Although ZS and I did not do a lot of damage ourselves, I think together we did a good job of being potential threats and, as mentioned, annoying the Pirates as they attempted to maneuver. He stayed closer to our 50 guns to help protect them from the threat of boarding and that allowed me to freelance a bit. I generally kept to the north of the main British formation and probed the Pirate formation several times, but the relatively short range of a Cutter's weaponry meant I only got a few broadsides off. The fearsome sight of my 6 pounders did cause the Pirates morale to drop many times during the battle (translation: I sprinted into range, banged off a couple morale reducing skills, and then decided discretion was the better part of valor). I also spent a good deal of time harassing a Pirate light frigate who had got somewhat separated from the main Pirate fleet and was keeping or delaying him from rejoining them.
When the Pirates started to break off and gain separation from the British line, our cutters were given the order to pursue with all haste. The orders mirrored my own thinking and I ordered my ship to close with Pirate heavy hitters. There was some dissension from my first mate that went something along the lines of - Me: "Attack the pirate 50-gun" First Mate: "But Sir. The odds of successfully surviving an attack on a Fifty-Gun are approximately... " Me: "Shut up."
Prior to the battles I was dubious as to the viability of light ships in a larger battle, but now I think that they can serve a significant role, albeit one that requires a good bit of patience. My cutter was not outfitted optimally for a large scale fight as I had an armored hull, nimble rigging, wadding, 2 scuttlebutt, and a hammock outfitting. Ideally for a large battle, a cutter should outfit to boost speed and maneuverability as much as possible - the armored hull is nice against other smaller ships, but a light frigate (and above) is powerful enough that the boost in armor is really inconsequential.
All in all, good fights and I look forward to doing it again."
We're still puzzling over what caused this encounter to end so abruptly but Dev believes they have found and fixed the RvR bug so we'll be organizing another 25v25 attempt soon to test their theory.
