Exactly What Is the Point of the Chainshot?

@wilbymagicbear its called giving what the community wants however books and timed limited content we can throw away thats a waste of development resources and adding pointless items its an outright embaressing excuse for content its lazybeard content to keep us occupied for another few days so we wait for the next time limited exclusive that has you running around doing the same things like digging and killing skellies and more digging and uh..digging and running crates here and there like this stupid fishing event time limited exclusive to add a figurehead that will be sold for blue coins in a couple of months with a different color fo sho now im sitting here waiting for the fishing apocalypse to end so LFG wont be stock full of "fishing rubies ruby fishing! ruby ruby ruby ruuubyyyyy!!!" got a little carried away there but seriously the update that added something serious was tall tales and no FOTD does not count its a reskin of the normal fort with some gimmicks added to it for crying out loud

It was a real munition that was used in the age of piracy. For tearing down sails, rigging and damaging masts and beams.

It will definitely make ship battles more intense. Especially if you can get a good shot off as you pull up on a ship. Stop them from dropping sails and leaving.

I would like to say that I hope if you hit the capstan with chain shot it drops the anchor.

um it takes 3 canonballs to take down a mast. anyway it foes full damage to ALL ship parts meaning the mast, anchor and wheel if you dont see how usefull this is i dont know what is useful to you

I don't like that it OHK's the capstan and wheel.

Although I like the idea of a chain shot I kinda agree, it'll be so easy to stop people now that I bet you'll hear many complaints on the forums soon.

@k1lroyw4sh3r3 Only the chainshot should be able to drop the anchor, that would be dope!

You may as well ask : what is the point of a blunderbuss, when you can shoot people with a pistol or eye of reach?

It’s a different tool for a different job. Like a blunderbuss, accuracy is not quite as important, because the spinning chain has an “area of effect” wider than that of a single cannon ball. However, it lacks the pure power of a solid iron ball, so does less damage against oak hulls.

By making the chain shot be a different type of ammo it forces crews to think tactically about which kind of ammo to use for which situation. Also, the chain shot has less range so it can’t just immobilize a ship from the same range as a normal cannonball.

@wilbymagicbear said in Exactly What Is the Point of the Chainshot?:

I just don't see a point for it to exist. If you want to have masts taken down in one hit, why not have the standard cannonball do that? Why add more complexity, waste development resources, and bring about more mid-battle menu selection by making a whole new item? It's not like you're ever not going to have a chainshot, so the rare and powerful resource angle doesn't make much sense.

Chain shot was a real ammunition used. Its slightly wider making it more possible to hit the mast.

It just keeps combat fresh.
Its a good addition.

@wilbymagicbear during a broadside it would be incredibly difficult to drop a mast with three cannon ball shots. If you take into account the loading time and realigning your aim. However if your first salvo was chainshot and you can get all your hits you could incapacitate the ship.

The trade off being say your crew all fires chain shot and the opposite crew fires all cannon balls. Sure you dropped their masts but they just punched four holes into your ship. Now they are at a movement disadvantage but you are taking on water. Ships don’t sink from fallen masts or broken helms. They sink from water.

Just another way of adding seamanship and actual ship battle tactics to the game. Now if only swimming in open waters was more hazardous and deadly we may actually get real ship battles and broadsides turning into boarding side by side.

I agree.

@wilbymagicbear I agree. normal balls can take mast down. rigging ball raises sail. chain shot seems redundant

When I played POTCO, chainshots were freaking awesome to have. Ship masts had tons of health and you needed to fire dozens of chainshots to break enemy sails. Regular cannons took forever. SoT really praises the best of sharpshooters.

Chainshots would be more ideal if ships had front chase cannons when chasing ships.

@d3adst1ck
¨got em¨
¨rolls on deck laughing¨

@galactic-geek sounds like everything a regular cannonball does. I don't get the point of them but whatever.

seems like a waste development time.

Another tool in the arsenal. To be honest I’m trying to figure out why the OP seems to be so adamant about why to add this. Is it a fear of solo play being changed?

@wilbymagicbear

My point is, why did Rare, the designer, add a chainshot when they could have just changed regular cannonballs to only take 1 shot to drop masts and the like?

1. It is historically accurate.
2. It is very hard to hit a mast with a single cannon ball. Not impossible but harder.
3. It provides more interesting tactical options, and requires more tactical skill. Do I want to take down a mast, or punch holes in the hull? Have I loaded the right ammo for that? Is my aim good?
4. It was often requested.