Pub 104 - Cannon Crafting & Firing

Pawain · February 2019

Kyronix said:

I think moving the charges to alchemy is fair, so long as the tailoring skill is still required as a secondary, which we can do.

I don't see a lot of mileage out of changing the ramrod - it lasts forever and you only need one. I don't think there's any shortage of ramrods out there.

NOOO I have alchemy and cooking Fishing. My tailor has Tailor Smith tinker.

Please less double skills to make things.

Victim_Of_Siege · February 2019

looking at the tailoring menu, it takes 0 tailoring to make the powder charges at 100% success, if you want to add tailoring as a requirement on it, please make it less than 20 so JOAT on humans covers it. 20 pts on an elf/garg won't be too horrible for a mule.

Kyronix · February 2019

Victim_Of_Siege said:

looking at the tailoring menu, it takes 0 tailoring to make the powder charges at 100% success, if you want to add tailoring as a requirement on it, please make it less than 20 so JOAT on humans covers it. 20 pts on an elf/garg won't be too horrible for a mule.

AT 0 tailoring, you have a 10.0% chance of success. Make sure you set your tailoring to get accurate success chance values. To achieve 100% success you need 50 tailoring.

Victim_Of_Siege · February 2019

Image: https://forum.uo.com/uploads/editor/mo/noi5wop35veg.png

Victim_Of_Siege · February 2019

hmm, had tailoring on when i checked, my apologies. thought it was a new character that i was trying the alchemy side with.

Dinozzo · February 2019

Not sure if this is the right place or not. But the johnny rockers solid gold cannon got mixed up in the update. It is no longer solid gold.

Garth_Grey · February 2019

With an orc ship heavy cannons, you could scuttle another orc ship or tokuno with 11 shots, a gargoyle with 15 shots and i never bothered to count what it takes for Brits but it was near or over 20. Making them all take 20 shots now, well Dread Pirates can scuttle my orc ship with less than 4 shots at me prior to these changes, I'll admit I won't be pleased if this 20 shots per remains.

foamy · February 2019

Kyronix said:

Feedback for the cannon crafting & firing

foamy · February 2019

The 3 major problems why High Seas never reached the enormous potential it has are, the crafting of items required was cumbersome and cost more to craft [ or buy ] than any reward for success. But by far THE most annoying is the hoops required to jump through i order to fire a cannon. It would be as if an archer in order to kill a monster, had to string the bow, glue the feathers on the arrow, attach an arrowhead, load the arrow, draw back the bowstring, and then fire the arrow.

As someone who joined in Sept 97, I was so excited upon the release of High Seas, just imagining all which could be done, but sadly it's been ignored primarily in favor of turning UO into PO [ Pets Online ]. Hopefully this announcement signals a positive direction.

Kyronix · February 2019

foamy said:

The 3 major problems why High Seas never reached the enormous potential it has are, the crafting of items required was cumbersome and cost more to craft [ or buy ] than any reward for success. But by far THE most annoying is the hoops required to jump through i order to fire a cannon. It would be as if an archer in order to kill a monster, had to string the bow, glue the feathers on the arrow, attach an arrowhead, load the arrow, draw back the bowstring, and then fire the arrow.

As someone who joined in Sept 97, I was so excited upon the release of High Seas, just imagining all which could be done, but sadly it's been ignored primarily in favor of turning UO into PO [ Pets Online ]. Hopefully this announcement signals a positive direction.

Thanks for the feedback! Hop on TC1 and come shoot at stuff!

Khyro · February 2019

I really enjoy the changes made to cannon firing. Was the old system overly complicated and hard to figure out? No, but it was very clicky. The new system is very streamlined and easy to use. Yes it got dumbed down into 2 clicks, but I do not have a problem with it. I know it will bring more people into high seas that didn't enjoy the way cannons fired before.

Not speaking for myself, but you also have to remember that there is a wide gamut of player ages in this game, and perhaps the tedious clicking of the old cannon system was a strain on some peoples hands.

If the new system was just a single button that fired every cannon on your ship and auto-reloaded them, then yes that would be a step in the wrong direction, but I don't feel making tedious systems more streamlined is a step in the wrong direction at all.

Lord_Nythrax · February 2019

Make "cannon loads" that consist of a single stackable object, make them the only item needed to fire a cannon, and put them on vendors in stacks of 500. The main thing that has stopped me from doing HS content is that I don't have a crafting mule, nobody else cares enough to sell all the crap consistently, and I can't be arsed to sit around chat begging someone to make it for me.

Cinderella · February 2019

Lord_Nythrax said:

Make "cannon loads" that consist of a single stackable object, make them the only item needed to fire a cannon, and put them on vendors in stacks of 500. The main thing that has stopped me from doing HS content is that I don't have a crafting mule, nobody else cares enough to sell all the crap consistently, and I can't be arsed to sit around chat begging someone to make it for me.

have you checked the stalls at new magincia?
maybe someone there is keeping items in stock
I'm sure with this new content, more people will use that feature to sell them too

LilyGrace · February 2019

I'm coming at this as a player who's gone pirate and merchant ship hunting only occasionally but would like to participate more in this aspect of the game. That said, I looked at this from the perspective of getting ready to go pirate hunting on my home shard and what it would take before I could head out on a High Seas adventure.

The first problem I ran into first (looking to copy a character to TC and ready my existing ship and cannon) was what to do with a cargo hold full of fishing quests crates, lobster traps, and bunches of packs filled with various fish, lobster and crab.

I realize I could go buy another boat to use for pirate hunting, but I'd rather not. And what if you're a newer player that can't afford multiple ships? I'm not trying to go too off topic here but, while we're on the subject of streamlining High Seas content, it would be really great if you'd streamline fishing quests. It's crazy how many items and how much weight fishing quests add up to. You don't want to cancel your quests and lose standing. So you have to live with all those quest crates in the hold and move all the fish before you can load it up with ammo and ship repairs materials. The fishing quest system is so cumbersome I've given up on it over and over again.

This must have been requested a zillion time already but...Please give us a container that organizes fishing quests materials. Something we can drop the fish on and it's stored and organized when you open the container. I realize you'd have to create a system that would allow us to peel off a particular number of the item needed. I supposed is different than any other container I can think of, but it sure is needed in my opinion. Maybe it could work along the lines of an npc's shopping menu, where you can use a scroll button to get the number of items needed.

Anywho...instead of dealing with all the fish on my boat I took the cannon off instead and copied those over to TC, then mounted them on a different ship. I didn't have any issues with converting the old cannons to new. I really like the new method of loading the cannon. Although I'd love to see the pop up window for readying the cannon made smaller. If the text on it were all flush left it could be made about half the size of what pops up now.

Thanks to Petra for pointing out plundered ammo items not stacking. That was a confusing bummer.

As to the resource gathering and crafting process for ammo. I don't think resource gathering is that big of a drag. What bothered me was I couldn't remember which crafter did what or exactly what resources were needed for creating items. So I had to hunt online and look at various tool's menus to refresh my memory. We have all sorts of benches for crafting now. An all-in-one ammo crafting tool and / or bench would be great. Click on what you're looking to make, and as is with any other crafting menu, it tells you what resources are needed to create the item. I can see collecting recipes for this process too, making new types of ammunition possible down the line as well.

Thanks for listening. And my apologies if I'm repeating things that have already been suggested hundreds of times before.

Edit: I use my fisher to pirate hunt with. So even if I did buy another boat I wouldn't be able to place it. I'm forced to either use a different character that can place a ship. Or clean out the hold.

Zamot · February 2019

I just logged in to Test the Firing of the cannons. First off the old way one could set up a macro and never touch that little window, you had to have it open for the macro to work. So I never was clicking on the screen in some little box. I could just hit a key to clean, load and fire the cannon. This made it easier to target the crew while scuttling the ship. It would take my ship (orc ship) about 8 shots to scuttle another orc ship. The manufacturing of the firing supplies is what was tedious. When the high seas first came out Saltpeter was cheap, but game mechanics made it to where it was so tedious to mine up that noone ever sold back to the vendor and prices became too high to be beneficial. So from what I am reading and what I have tried I am confused at how this update is going to help get more people out there.

Can no longer use a hot key to prep the cannon or to fire. Clicking the ram rod does nothing now on Test Center. I do not get a target cursor. Clicking an unlit torch in my back pack puts the torch on the deck of the ship and then says I dont have a fire source to fire the cannon. Placing the torch after it is lit back into my pack resolves this. But still more mouse movements.
From what I have read it takes more shots to scuttle the ships. I didnt have the time to test this yet so if it is true the update is just backwards. If the whole point was to save clicks in firing why double the amount of shots needed. I am still clicking the same as before I am just going through twice as many resources to achieve what I could have done prior to the update.

Please look at the whole picture from a play style of a casual gamer. Making the firing easier but increasing the amount of supplies that I will need is counter productive. Adding Saltpeter NPC's will help in the beginning but it will end the same way as we are now. If no one sells saltpeter back to the NPC then the prices will continue to rise. Within a month on populated shards the casual player will not purchase from the NPC due to the cost being to high.

I have had an active account since 1998, I play in my spare time, but I did go out of my way to finally make an account on here as Pirate hunting is something that I do from time to time. I dont want to see another aspect of the game lost to developers that dont actually play.

Uriah_Heep · February 2019

@Zamot

+1

Please Please look at it as a casual gamer, and lightn it up more. Not everyone who would like to play HS wants to be a full time privateer.

Pawain · February 2019

If Garth or Vic says it takes too many shots to scuttle a ship then it takes too many.

@Kyronix A poster above said:The johnny rockers solid gold cannon got mixed up in the update. It is no longer solid gold.

Thats sux if it cant be put back.

Kyronix · February 2019

As for cannon damage, per the notes:

"Note: These changes are still in active development for balance based on damage and the amount of resources required compared to the reward for engaging in ship content, as well as damage output. Be sure to visit TC1 during play sessions to give feedback!"

We are planning a balance pass on cannon damage now that we have normalized it across all the types and made the choice of what cannons you put on your ship cosmetic only.

To reduce the tedium in crafting I am experimenting internally with making all cannon supplies "make all" where it will attempt to make as much at one time as possible. Stay tuned for that update.

Also per the notes,

Polished art assets for cannons to make them more visually distinctive
The metallic dyetub can now be used on placed cannons to hue them

This applies to all cannon objects, as they are now partially hueable to support more customization.

Thanks for the feedback!

Petra_Fyde · February 2019

I read the notes carefully - and then did a broadside

You need to be within 2 tiles to click on the 'prep' button, but then:

This process will continue so long as the player is present on the ship, if the player leaves the ship the process will pause.

You can move on to the next cannon, and the next, all around the ship, returning to be within 2 tiles of the first one to fire it. That was fun!

Garth_Grey · February 2019

I never understood the benefits of the "so and so assists in loading the cannon" etc...i saw no benefit from it or advantage if one person started a cannon and someone else joined in, it wasn't faster or slower, just kind of pointless..I'm assuming it's been removed with these changes ?

Garth_Grey · February 2019

If you unload a cannon, the powder charge no longer stacks with the others. And I clicked on the clicky to get cannon supplies but it didnt provide me with a match ?

Garth_Grey · February 2019

Also @Kyronix , I log in to TC and there are ships all over the place along the shore and in places that some people don't know the "trick" to placing. Can you either open up all available water for ship placment, or make sure the same rules apply all over ? I"m sure once you start the discussion about ships in general, it should get pretty heated, because I have opinions that others probably won't like.

Kyronix · February 2019

There is no longer any option to "assist" in the process. The original intent was to speed up the firing process based on the number of individuals working on the cannon, but it wasn't every fully implemented and since we've streamlined the process significantly, we removed it.

The stacking issues related to the cannon supplies should be resolved in the next TC1 update.

You don't need a match, you can use a torch purchased from an NPC provisioner.

@Garth_Grey not sure what you mean by opening available water for ship placement or the discussion on ships in general. As long as folks are respectful in their exchanges we won't have a problem.

Garth_Grey · February 2019

I mean, there are still areas of Sosaria where you can't place a ship/boat.

Victim_Of_Siege · February 2019

Garth_Grey said:

I mean, there are still areas of Sosaria where you can't place a ship/boat.

are you talking about in Ilshenar, Malas and Termur? Because i would love to put a boat in Gravewater lake in Malas

Garth_Grey · February 2019

Yes

Kyronix · February 2019

Outside of the scope of the current Pub but could be a means for some exciting content in future pubs!

Lord_Nythrax · February 2019

Petra_Fyde said:

I read the notes carefully - and then did a broadside
You need to be within 2 tiles to click on the 'prep' button, but then:
This process will continue so long as the player is present on the ship, if the player leaves the ship the process will pause.
You can move on to the next cannon, and the next, all around the ship, returning to be within 2 tiles of the first one to fire it. That was fun!

This is an unmitigated triumph. I'm not being sarcastic. Merchant hunting here I come.

Parnoc · February 2019

I was on TC testing cannons yesterday in EC and had the same old ghost problem, a ship targets you, you run a short distance away, you come back and the "ship" is now a ghost ship that you can sail thru and the real ship is only parts of the deck and the crew but it's the real ship and you can shoot it if you line up correctly. This has gone on as long as I've used EC, no idea if it happens in CC.

Garth_Grey · February 2019

A reasonable explanation as to why we can't place rowboats in any body of water please ? I'm standing on the shore and "You can't reach the water there " really ? I can toss out a lobster trap, but I can't reach the water with a rowboat ?

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Pub 104 - Cannon Crafting & Firing

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