Now Boarding, Party of One....

[thefadedrose]

Thanks for the reply. I guess "grabbed" was the wrong word to use instead I should have said I "enabled" four flag ships and the green circles were there. I didn't see the hooks/lines but I was pretty close to the flagships. I tried backing away from the ships just to see if maybe I was too close but yes I could see the "board" sign on my galleon and I have done that solo and a few times with a crew but not since I obtained the frigate. It is very frustrating because it was fun to swing over and take down the navy soldiers. Someone suggested it was because I broadsided them and then tried to grapple them. I will try my galleon tonight and see if I can do it again on it and if I can then I guess the frigate has a bug. Thanx again! Kani

[Steely Jim]

Well, hopefully you won't have any troubles on your galleon then, and also that they get that nasty frigate bug cleared up for you quickly. I like the frigate for "park and shoot" cannon training, which I ended up getting level 14 Cannon today playing around with boarding ships. Good luck!

[ancrom]

are you letting the ship automatically shoot the grapples
or are you manning the cannon and doing it yourself?

[ohhmyylantaa]

Sometimes I've noticed that the green circles only appear on one side. So if you can't see them check the other side, maybe?

[Steely Jim]

Even if the green circles are on the other side of the ship, we can still attach our grappling hooks from the far side. It is a slightly different shot angle than trying to grapple the facing side of a ship, but the grappling hooks should still attach without a problem.

[thefadedrose]

I tried the galleon last night and I still can't seem to "board". Yes, I am manning the cannons myself. By the time (this is on my frigate) I get down to the broadside cannons (and it takes awhile, LOL) one would think the "board" sign would come up automatically but it doesn't. Now I am thinking maybe my broadsides are too strong? All I know it is driving me crazy trying to figure out the problem. I know they are a lot of glitches but still. Last night I parked the frigate over on Padres and was taking down (with my cannons) the Phantoms and War ships and letting everyone around me board them unless I sunk them first! My cannon level sucks so I have got to level that up. Thanx for all the input everyone! Kani

[Steely Jim]

Well, that might give me a few more thoughts. Are we definitely talking about flagships, meaning only ships that have a checkered flag flying over the ship itself (black & white check for EITC and red & white check for Navy)?

I ask because I don't currently know of any ghost flagships, although I gather they were in one or more of the beta versions of the game.

Alternatively, are you also having issues with ships that do have flags flying over them, but that sink before you have a chance to grapple/board them? That seems to be a fairly common issue for people; I've definitely been frustrated by it, since it doesn't give any plunder when it happens. This seems to be a bug to me, but it also does seem to happen when I put a very strong attack on a ship that doesn't have many hull points left. The rep usually suffers too, since I typically board a slightly lower level vessel than I look for when I'm just sinking them.

[thefadedrose]

Thank you for all the input but suddenly when I logged on tonight and enabled a war sloop the grappling lines were suddenly there and I was able to board. I guess it was just a bug. No, not a ghost ship but the phantom ships that roam around the outskirts like Padres, Cuba, etc. But anyway for now everything is fine and I had fun swinging across. Although, I did get a little excited and swung across too soon and ran into (4) Level 11 soldiers and ended up in jail but oh, I had fun! LOL! Also, I had read somewhere on the boards about stowaways and suddenly tonight I had one! Someone with a sloop came in between and my frigate that I was broadsiding and just as the frigate went down I saw the name "Ricardo" on the little sloop and he suddenly jumped on my ship! I went about my business of sailing and he suddenly disappeared! How weird! To also answer another one of your questions that yes, I do attack the ships I want to board with the "flags" over them. Tonight was the first night that I got brave enough to try a War Sloop but I thought what the heck all he can do is sink my ship and throw me in jail so I tried it and succeeded the first time with a little help of other ships around me by keeping the sloops from firing at me and I had slight damage but I took everyone out with the cannons but one soldier and he was only a Level 4 so he was no problem. But as I said earlier then the second time I tried the War Sloop I got a little excited but oh, well! Thanks again for all the suggestions/ideas! I gotta go I feel the need to plunder! AARRG! Kani

[Steely Jim]

I guess we don't really have a category name for them like we do for Navy or EITC, but by ghost ship I did mean Phantoms, Revenants, Storm Reapers, and Black Harbingers.

So far, I've not encountered cursed crew aboard Navy or EITC ships. One of the things that initially drove me to solo board ships was the desire to find a cursed crew; I've started to think I misunderstood and Disney just meant that there were ghost ships sailing alongside living ships.

Kani, I'm glad to hear you got the boarding option back. I'd be gutted if I couldn't board ships; since mid-21 Notoriety, I've actually been mostly land-based trying to catch up my other weapons (upper-26 now), so I go boarding just to break up the monotony.

I put off trying War Sloops for a long while too, mostly out of the uncertainty of what I'd find aboard. I suppose that hesitation really was silly, since I've gotten myself killed several times after I had an idea of what to expect anyway. That was one of the reasons I wanted to start this thread though; I know there are a lot of other solo sailors, but I wasn't sure how many were even trying to board any flagships at all. I enjoy it so much that I also wanted to share what I was finding on the other ships, so that people who might have been curious would have enough of an idea about what to expect to try it for themselves.

[Angel]

Ive come across this problem today. We disable a flag ship, get the grapple commmand.....and the ship keeps sailing!!! We chase it down, try to grapple it and no green circles. Weird. We end up sinking it and moving on. No more flags for us for a while.

[thefadedrose]

Yes, I know what you mean in regards to breaking up the monotony. I used to be a land lubber too and that is all I wanted to do and I hated the thought of sailing. Then Chris Redcutter showed me how to do it solo and now that is all I want to do. Sadly enough my weapon levels seem low in comparison to my sailing and notoriety levels. I should be working off finishing the Greer Quest but I can't seem to take out 8 Level 12+ skeletons in Murky Hollow by myself so I become disgusted and go sailing instead. I am not afraid of what I find on board once I grapple a flagship but I am afraid of the firebrand and thunderbolt cannons so I try hard to stay behind them and out of the way of those cannons but those War Sloops have a great turning angle compared to the frigate I sail. Lol, one time about 4:30 a.m. I woke up suddenly due to the fact I was dreaming of one of those firebrand cannons shooting at me! Sailing solo is great for me but I have had a few crew at times and I don't think they like the way I sail. I can't see what they are trying to take out with the cannons and I am focusing on something else. I had one "friend" (supposedly) that always wanted to steer my ship and I thought what the heck I will be able to level up my cannon skills so I would let him and we did great for the first 2 or 3 times then he started taking on bigger ships than I like to handle and to me I was having to pay for everytime we sunk and I didn't like that. The last time I was taking on two ships at once (I love to sail between two and take them out with my broadsides! Lol) and he demanded with explanation points which to me is screaming at me that I let him steer. Well, you know what? I am the captain of this ship and I am really busy at that point so I don't have time to step away. He apparently got mad and went offline. Once I got to a quiet place I "de-friended" him off my friend list. I don't know what level he was (which I wish Disney would list the levels on the friend list) but you don't demand something right in the middle of battle. I did one time with a full cargo (the galleon) and was heading to port as fast as I could (I had a lot of damage) and was sunk because the green circle didn't appear for him. Which I have had happened to me several times but all you have to do is step back a few inches and approach it again and then it appears. But anyways needless to say we were sunk! My crew weren't very happy with him and told me from now on I was the captain and no one else. Has anyone else had the problem with right in the middle of sailing all of a sudden your sails go down (like you had hit the Escape button to go man the cannons and board) and you have to step back and go up again to the wheel for the green circle appear? It has happened the last couple of nights and once I was right in the middle of battle. I was not a very happy camper. All in all sailing solo is great for me that is but my cannon levels are low so there at times I wish I had crew (with a good captain that won't sink my ship) or I could crew up at times with others because I really, really want the firebrand and thunderbolt skills. I see I am rambling now....so sorry. Kani

[Steely Jim]

Uh oh, disabled ships just keeping on sailing? Just out of curiosity did you experiment with taking out all the sail points before finishing off the hull points? It probably wouldn't have mattered anyway, since the green circles aren't appearing.

I'm still hoping my golf game isn't going to fall through due to 1.5 days of rain, especially since one of the regulars planned to jilt the wife, kids, and extended family to get back into town early enough to play. If it ends up being too wet to play today, then I'll have to experiment with it, to see if that bug is affecting me currently too.

-----


For me, I took to Sailing right off; then, I realized I was level-16 Sailing and didn't have anything else over 5 (including my level-3 Cannon). I had a pretty fixed plan for how I wanted to distribute my points at level-17 Sailing (where I still am), so after that I had to go back and start working up my land-weapons. Funny enough, the realization that I needed to start improving other skills in a hurry really hit me when I got killed by a level-22 Hired-gun, while solo boarding an EITC Ironwall.


Over the last 2 weeks or so, I have been experiencing the bug where I suddenly disengage from the helm or cannon for no apparent reason. So far, it has gotten me killed, but it has happened at some inopportune times.

You'll soon get the hang of solo Cannon-eering. I've only ever been on 2 crews where I sailed under someone else, so almost all my level-14 Cannon is from solo action.

Eventually, I plan to use my guild as a part-time guild/permanent crew sort of thing. I do think a crew should mutually agree about what types of ships they want to target, but once underway I think the captain should direct the action of the entire crew or assign officers to oversee specific actions...this is solely about preserving the chain of command to maximize the efficiency of operations.

I haven't decided exactly how I want to build it yet, so it's just me. I'm not really inclined to join hierarchical organizations unless I'm at the top of the hierarchy, so I'm not very inclined to seek out and/or join anyone else's guild either. So, that's sort of on the back burner for me.

[thefadedrose]

I need your opinion and I have a question to ask please. This morning while sailing I enabled a Level 22 War Sloop and threw one grapple over and was fixing to throw another one over and this other player slid in on the other side and grappled and boarded before I had the chance to. And yes, I was the only that was attacking that ship. And yes, I know we are pirates and pirates steal but still I didn't think that was right. But my question is even though I enabled it, grappled it first, was I still able to board? I got so shocked and amazed that someone would do that I forgot to check and see if the board sign was on and try it and see if I could board too. Have you heard anything about this before. I tried it again once it reset itself and grappled it too soon before I took out a few Navy soldiers before boarding. But to my defense I was afraid another ship would take over again. Needless to say I was up against one Level 22 and three Level 12's all at once and ended up in jail. I worked hard to enable that War Sloop and got nothing for it! Doesn't seem fair. Anyway thanks for letting me vent. Kani

[thefadedrose]

To answer your question: yes, I hit the hull a few times and then I proceed to take down the masts...I love to hear the cracking of that wood (LOL). I am just a Level 14 on sailing and my level on cannons is so low I am embarrassed to say what it is. I let my cutlass skills fall by the wayside (only an 8) because I acquired the doll and was trying to level that up and I can't remember what my doll or gun level is at. My notoriety is only 18 but I did all that by myself. I don't like to have to depend on others.
1.5 inches in rain is nothing in comparison to what we had these past two days which was
20+".....here I thought we were going for the 40 days, 40 nights thing! LOL! Anyway, I better get to plundering! Aarrrg! Kani

[Steely Jim]

I've never been denied the ability to board once I had my grappling hooks attached to the other ship; however, I did like to lob grenades over to the other ship sometimes, after waiting for some of the other mobs to start coming out and wandering around their deck. They don't seem to be coming out as much anymore anyway, and I also had something happen once that made me want to quicken my pace when other ships are around.

One time I had done all the damage to enable a flagship for boarding; I got the green circles, but I started to take out the masts and some crew before I connected my grappling hooks. There hadn't been any other ships around, but sure enough someone sailed up and started shooting at the ship I had taken out. I wasn't too worried because I had taken out the entire red bar (hull points) on my own; however, the other guys shots were reducing the blue bar (sail points).

Imagine my surprise when suddenly I could no longer see the green circles that had been there, and a few seconds later I see that the ship I had taken out was being boarded by the other guy. Ever since then, I've always been quick to grapple and never had any problems; I guess now I'll be even quicker to board. There's no rep in taking out mobs on ship decks anyway; it's just good for aiming practice for long volley.

-----

We didn't have 20" of rain certainly, but since it was all day yesterday and this morning it makes conditions at several of the golf courses I play at very unpleasant. In any case, my friend's wife vetoed the plan, so I ended up just hitting a bucket of balls at the driving range with the guy that didn't back out.