From the Devs: Improved Naval Combat

[FXS_Sar]

Aaaand our voyage toward Update 1.3.0 continues! Firaxians Edward Zhang and Chris Burke dive into all the upcoming improvements to naval combat in our latest article. Read it here!

 

[Nikolai II]

"Be warned, though - you’re not totally immune from diplomacy. Killing another player’s unit or plundering their Trade Routes will still reduce your relationship with the target player. "

Not surprised.

 

[Siptah]

This reads like quite an update.

I have one question though: in the (by me dreaded) continuity mode, do all antiquity ships automatically upgrade to Privateers now? Or do you still get cogs, because they are available at the beginning of the age?

 

[Jkchart]

How did the Corsair City State unit get affected by these changes?

 

[FXS_Sar]

This reads like quite an update.

I have one question though: in the (by me dreaded) continuity mode, do all antiquity ships automatically upgrade to Privateers now? Or do you still get cogs, because they are available at the beginning of the age?

Antiquity ships will upgrade to Cogs in continuity mode!

 

[FXS_Sar]

How did the Corsair City State unit get affected by these changes?

Corsairs are now heavy units with a ranged attack, but maintain their capture ability

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

"Be warned, though - you’re not totally immune from diplomacy. Killing another player’s unit or plundering their Trade Routes will still reduce your relationship with the target player. "

Not surprised.

I'm glad they confirmed what I suspected

 

[Jkchart]

Corsairs are now heavy units with a ranged attack, but maintain their capture ability

Ah I like that quite a bit! Gives that unit its own niche.

 

[MrRadar]

The changes are nice, of course, but will the AI be taught how to use the new system? Will they make the seas dangerous and interesting?

 

[CivKirk64]

Ok one question, can we defend ourselves against privateers without a diplomatic penalty, or without declaring war? Or will they just cruise around with impunity?

 

[stealth_nsk]

Ok one question, can we defend ourselves against privateers without a diplomatic penalty, or without declaring war? Or will they just cruise around with impunity?

I guess killing them results in diplomatic penalty, but not war declaration, just for the symmetry.

 

[Brutus2]

I'm glad they confirmed what I suspected

Tubman pirates is the new "meta" LOL!

 

[TheGhostEnthusiast]

Tubman pirates is the new "meta" LOL!

Considering the Raid on Combahee Ferry, it's not the most ahistorical strategy in series history. If you imagine her Exploration Age piracy as a tool for disrupting triangular trade, it's almost fitting.

 

[m_mus]

Looking forward to that. Differentiation between unit types + proper pirating sounds definitely like an improvement to naval gameplay and the Exploration age. Both are needed.

 

[Lebo44]

The changes are nice, of course, but will the AI be taught how to use the new system?

I don’t know but I can guess

 

[King Flevance]

This makes me like the idea of Antiquity ships not "auto-upgrading" even better as it would allow heavy vs. light contrast in combat in exploration immediately. Currently, everything goes from "all light" to "all heavy" with privateers as the only light naval vessels - which should quickly be outmatched by tech upgrades of heavy.

I do like the update and am curious to try it out. It would be great if naval combat really came with a punch in 7.

 

[tman2000]

"Be warned, though - you’re not totally immune from diplomacy. Killing another player’s unit or plundering their Trade Routes will still reduce your relationship with the target player. "

Not surprised.

Can you sink an enemy Privateer without a declaration of war?

 

[Nikolai II]

Can you sink an enemy Privateer without a declaration of war?

Hopefully? Probably?

 

[King Flevance]

It is an interesting question. I am guessing your privateers will fly your banner's color to advertise that it is your unit. In Civ 4, you didn't know who owned the privateer unless it was you. But with 7's mechanics, you won't be able to attack allies (You could in 4) and you suffer relationship penalties with the people you plunder (Didn't in 4). So you will probably be able to tell if a privateer is owned by an ally or someone else by the banner it is flying. If no war declaration is needed, privateers will be a kill on sight unit by everyone and make it hard to field them. Which wouldn't be a bad thing necessarily, but I do think they should be stronger than they are if that is the case since, they are units that will be continuously under fire even during peace time and they are advertised as the only "counter" to heavy naval units. EDIT: Although you can hide them in Fleet commanders... hopefully, the AI plays with this tactic as well.

It will be interesting to see how this naval update plays out.

 

[magicq99]

I am looking forward to those changes. I recently had a weird behaviour from this hybrid melee/ranged combat as it currently is applied. I was playing Great Britain and used my Revenge to attack a ship across a 1-tile wide strip of land tiles. The Revenge used a ranged attack to sink the ship but then literally drove across the land tiles to occupy the tile on which the attacked ship used to be. And I was able to reproduce this several times with other ships across the same strip of land tiles.

If I understand the changes correctly, such things should no longer happen in 1.3.0