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Any advantage to smaller ships?

AuthorMessage
Ensign
Jun 28, 2011
1
Alright, so me and my brother were looking through the crowns shop, and we noticed there was a Galleon that costed just as much as another Frigate. The Galleon had overall better stats. So, we were thinking, why would you buy the Frigate?

I'm wondering if there is some advantage to having a smaller ship. The main reason for this is because I saw the Thanatos head mounted thing, and it is awesome. I'd love to get it, but it requires you to have a Frigate, and I'd rather use a Galleon if there's no reason not to.
Ensign
May 28, 2009
26
I don't know about large ships, but I noticed that small ships are faster than medium ones. They don't seem to include speed stats in the shop popups, but I still use my small ship for travel and medium for battle. The difference may be bigger with bigger ships.
Gunner's Mate
Oct 22, 2011
210
Lunar716 on Oct 23, 2012 wrote:
Alright, so me and my brother were looking through the crowns shop, and we noticed there was a Galleon that costed just as much as another Frigate. The Galleon had overall better stats. So, we were thinking, why would you buy the Frigate?

I'm wondering if there is some advantage to having a smaller ship. The main reason for this is because I saw the Thanatos head mounted thing, and it is awesome. I'd love to get it, but it requires you to have a Frigate, and I'd rather use a Galleon if there's no reason not to.
Larger ships have better stats for fighting than smaller ships. The thing with the larger ships, such as a Galleon, is you have to be a certain level to be able to use it. Not only that, but you have to be a certain nautical level to be able to equip your larger ships.

If your player level and/or nautical level are way below a Galleon, then maybe put off that purchase. If you are looking at a crown ship, they require slightly less level/nautical than the in-game ones.

If you can, play the ship you currently have until the last possible moment. It will also last longer if you have others you can fight ships with, so it's not so taxing on your ship fighting limit. When the time comes, you can purchase the bigger ships. They do make a huge difference once you start using them!

Lazy Lenora Leech
Buccaneer L50
Nautical L50
Lieutenant
Jan 29, 2010
161
Lenora is right. The larger ships require a higher nautical level to use and outfit with armor and such. As you move through the game you will see the need for stronger ships in battle, but if you have someone to pair up with you can use the smaller ships longer (plus the lower level ship used against a higher level enemy gives better nxp longer).

One other reason you may want the use a smaller ship is if you are someone like me where large sails, and ships that are bulky block your view too much. I like the smaller ships purely for the ability to see what I am doing and where I am going (but I am dealing with a specific issue and low vision). It is kind of a contradiction: a smaller ship is harder to see, but allows for more view of the sky and what is in it (obstacles, enemies, items to gather, etc.).

The ships in the crowns shop are set at specific levels, so you get what you pay for. There are ships on some of the game card bundles and those give you a choice of level for your ship, so you can have a skiff size ship with the galleon level stats on it. However, you can only equip the skiff with the corresponding skiff parts. Ultimately the Royal Navy galleon is the top of the line ship you can obtain at this point in the game development.

I hope this information helped a little.

Happy sailing!


Merciless Mariah Moone (L30 , NL22)
Community Leader
Jazzaram on Oct 23, 2012 wrote:
I don't know about large ships, but I noticed that small ships are faster than medium ones. They don't seem to include speed stats in the shop popups, but I still use my small ship for travel and medium for battle. The difference may be bigger with bigger ships.
This may just be your perception based on scale. I have noticed that when I'm playing a larger character as opposed to a smaller character in the same game, even though they are moving at the same speed, the smaller character appears to be moving faster because it has to cover more ground to keep up with the larger character. Don't know if that makes sense, but if all the stats were the same, a smaller ship would appear to move faster even if it was moving at the same speed as a larger ship.
Host of the Talkin' the Plank Podcast, where we talk about Pirate 101 every Friday!
Community Leader
Jazzaram on Oct 23, 2012 wrote:
I don't know about large ships, but I noticed that small ships are faster than medium ones. They don't seem to include speed stats in the shop popups, but I still use my small ship for travel and medium for battle. The difference may be bigger with bigger ships.
How a ship is "equipped" will change how fast a ship goes. So this can vary quite a bit. Never really using a "stock" ship, I havent found a situation where the smaller ships are faster.
Travel also appears to be scaled somewhat. When I am on my raft, it "feels" like im going faster because stuff whips past this little tiny bit of wood as it travels along. Bigger ships observe the passing of space/area on a different scale, and it may appear they are going slower when using them, than when using a small ship, but are usually going faster.

When on the bigger ships later in the game, those rafts are tiny, and look very similar to the crates/barrells we have to collect in the sky. I think its funny sometimes in the busier areas, the rafts look likes swarms of flies to the big ships.

As far as advantages.... the bigger the ship.. the harder your enemy falls. ;)
Dr Zeppers (aka Silent Sam Stern)
Piratey parodies I like to make.
I be a crazy pirate for goodness sake!
Artist & Admin of Skull Island TV
Bosun
Aug 21, 2009
358
I'd like to see advantages on smaller ships that can rival larger ones. The heavy bison ship was my and seems to be most people's favorite. I liked the vendor bought sails, but the uglier ones have better stats on them. I don't see why smaller ships can't be upgraded to be in line with the newer larger ships, just make their upgrades way more expensive and harder to get to offset the new ship gold costs that players would have to spend.
Ensign
Oct 08, 2012
10
If you Can Find a Ship with Better Stats get that Ship Mostly because 1 Better Stats in Battle and Smaller Ships Have Better Speed. I Get alot of Quests in the Skyway so i Spend Some of my Time Also looking for a Good Ship.

Hope i Helped and Happy Sailing
- Clever Ellie
Commodore
Apr 28, 2012
962
Another advantage to a smaller ship is the deck size. With the smaller ships there are usually less enemies to fight upon boarding. This can be significant when the goal is to defeat a number of ships, not enemies, like the quest: Rumor on the Street (Waponi Canoes). Having fewer enemies to fight means less time in battle.
Ensign
Jun 03, 2012
3
Mouser01 mentions that deck size influences the number of bad guys you battle (at least that is what I think I understood) I don't think that has been my experience. I have noticed as I move up to larger ships that the number my crew and I fight is always 1 more than my crew and never more than 5. This seems to be the ratio even in group battles. The size of my deck doesn't seem to matter - I have a galleon I am using currently. Am I missing something? Does deck size and number of bad guys to battle relate?