Two ideas to even the playing field between Galleon and Sloops

Sloop's mid-deck often dips below the water line.
Galleon's mid-deck lives high above the water line. There 'should' be an intake in storms and high waves if they crash that high.
Also, be careful not repairing your mid-deck in a galleon. If your waterline hits mid in combat, all those holes kick in. You're done then.
On your second point, physics says huh?? If you shoot a hole in a wall, then shoot the hole, does it get bigger? If you hit the exact same spot, you are not hitting a new spot. What would cause the hole to grow? There should be a smaller 'hitbox' for the holes though, if you hit half-cannonball to the right, that's now an oval. I see your point there, but not with hitting the same location repeatedly.
I would like to see piercing damage though. If I put a cannonball through a hole in your starboard deck, I want to see a hole in your port.

As far as the sloop mid-deck water though, why does it have to kill your animals? Barely enough water rolls through to cover their feet but if you don't repair the hole they die?

@nomadical13 said in Two ideas to even the playing field between Galleon and Sloops:

On your second point, physics says huh?? If you shoot a hole in a wall, then shoot the hole, does it get bigger? If you hit the exact same spot, you are not hitting a new spot. What would cause the hole to grow? There should be a smaller 'hitbox' for the holes though, if you hit half-cannonball to the right, that's now an oval. I see your point there, but not with hitting the same location repeatedly.

My thought is if you look at the current hole it's not a full hole or even the size of a cannonball. More like a half breached damage in the hull. If you hit the same spot it should open up further to the size of a cannonball. Subsequently the hit box of the areas on the hull are rather large. So hitting the same spot isn't necessarily exact but the game treats it as such.

@helmsy16 I think it ads a lot more to the combat when you have to hit other areas constanly, so that it does not end up in a anchored battle of attrition.

Do you actually feel a sloop is at a disadvantage with a galleon in a cannon fight? Besides being boarded by more people then you can handle, I find sloops to have a huge advantage given their maneuverability. Obviously this is just my experience, but I have found the sloop vs galleon fight pretty even and depending on crew skill most of the time when its down to just shooting cannons at each other.

@nomadical13 but if u hit the same spot twice exactly, shouldn't the cannonball then go thru and hit something else? Like blow thru the other side or the bottom?

@johnny-vain Yes, That's why I included that in the second to last line of my comment.

The ships are pretty darn even. All you need

@nomadical13 be cool to see floor damage repair. Amazing a crudely hammered board can stop all water from getting in. Must be made of magic seal as seen on TV haha.

@johnny-vain lol yeah it's a bit cheesy for sure. Stop a hole that's literally underwater with a board and an infinite supply of invisible nails, yet a small splash of water in the captain's quarters will kill your chickens.
xD

@nomadical13 hey, I lost a chicken in rain storm on top deck in sloop. Right next to the anchor! That's got to be a bug.

@johnny-vain Yeah I hope so and one that gets fixed. Otherwise the animal quests are going to be the pinhole to legendary status.

@johnny-vain said in Two ideas to even the playing field between Galleon and Sloops:

@nomadical13 hey, I lost a chicken in rain storm on top deck in sloop. Right next to the anchor! That's got to be a bug.

Could have been struck by lightning. The clue was the word "Storm".

@nomadical13 Right now there isn't a whole lot of actual ship-to-ship battles anyway, since the most effective tactic is swimming to the other boat and hope you establish the spawn-camp first.

If you could raise the ladders on the boat, then it's pretty evenly balanced right now.

A well coordinated duo can out-maneuver a galleon and pepper away at the low deck, but it's high risk - one mistake and you should be sunk. If the galleon catches the sloop on a broadside with two competent people on the guns they are sunk.

With equal coordination and max supply, the galleon is going to have an advantage. However, the galleon requires twice the coordination than the sloop and nobody ever focuses on resupply. I'd actually probably give the edge to a committed sloop if it weren't for the grief-meta of super easy boarding.

@mostlyjustokay that is brilliant. Damn why didn't someone say that sooner. Raise the ladders!!!!. Just make sure if ur solo, u lower em before jumping haha. That would be a big game changer

@johnny-vain Just grab the mermaid.

@mostlyjustokay haha ok ok

As far as expanding holes... that was almost a reason for me to not buy this game. What clown thought it would be a good idea to have a ship hit with a cannonball and have a tiny hole created? It's ridiculous. The ship should be falling to pieces. Masts should be breakable, anchor riggings destroyable, and if your ship is hit over and over in the same place, that place should be gone... not have a tiny hole in it.

the ships are even, I sink Galleons in a sloop and been sunk by galleons, its all about shot placement and skill

One of the major advantages of the Sloop is that it's so low to the water. If the map deck holes didn't let water in (at a very slow rate, mind you) then the Sloop would be very difficult for a Galleon to sink, since the downward arc of their cannons is limited.

A Sloop should be all about hit and run. Get in close, get in some good hits on a Galleon's waterline, then peel off and use speed, maneuverability and waves to avoid and/or hide from a Galleon's line of fire.

That said, I do agree about expanding damage. It's a little frustrating pouring volley after volley in a Galleon v Galleon fight and having the damage repaired almost as fast as it's dished out in during the each quick pass.