Talk:Gunnery

Gameplay keys

 * Shro0m 21:03, 23 September 2005 (PDT): I kind of see it as a flaw that it takes two keyboard presses to lay an arrow. The command to place an arrow is especcially redundant with a device like a keyboard (which has typically 100 buttons, compared to a mouse/pointer which typically has from 1 to 3). I'm tempted to put in a 'bug' report (is there an official place to submit refinements/features?). The default keys 'WASD' should not only change the direction of the arrow, but place it on the board as well. I don't see why you would make the interface worse than the game that inspired the puzzle.


 * This is really a Game Design issue and should be posted in the forums. --Barrister 22:49, 23 September 2005 (PDT)


 * Shro0m 23:36, 23 September 2005 (PDT): Thanks, I'll bring it up there as well.

Destruction of pieces?
I've played an awful lot of gunnery, and I've never seen a piece destroyed. Got any screenshots or forum threads that show this? --Barrister 12:31, 12 January 2006 (PST)
 * I've seen pieces ignore the arrows once you cram enough of them in a spot- is it possible that the 'destroyed' pieces might be going overboard or into a cannon? Other then that, I've never seen it either. --Zava 14:26, 12 January 2006 (PST)

Personally, ive seen it quite often in 2x2 and 2x3 spaces I am 100% certain that peices can be destroyed in small confined areas with alot of traffic. --Lethallizard 02:04, 13 January 2006 (PST)


 * I've seen it myself as well. Simply feed pieces into a confined part of the board with pieces running back and forth between two stops (an area normally 1x3 squars in size) and they will disappear as if crushed. More will get put out by the barrel though. Clortho 18:51, 30 September 2007 (PDT)

Wasting cannonballs?
One section of the article claims that it used to be possible to waste cannonballs by tossing them out. As far as I know, this hasn't been true since I started in September of 2003. --Thunderbird 12:38, 12 January 2006 (PST)
 * Seeing as nobody responded to this, and I specifically remember the old documentation saying that cannonballs weren't wasted if they were tossed overboard, I removed that part. --Thunderbird 05:01, 17 March 2008 (PDT)

Gunning without a mission
I removed the instructions for Navy gunning without the mission, because doing this prevents other players on a legitimate gunning mission from taking the station, and it should not be encouraged. --Chupchup 21:41, 6 August 2007 (PDT)
 * Ahoy! I don't agree with that change. I understand that doing so can be considered rude, but I don't feel the information should be removed from the article. What do you think about adding it in with a note that it can interfere with other pirate's missions? It's also possible to grab a navy sloop and practice any puzzle there (in perfect privacy!). Perhaps that should be incorporated as well? --Zava 16:21, 7 August 2007 (PDT)
 * While using a sloop mission to practice is probably the best current solution, it still presents the obstacle of experience and other prerequisites to get the mission in the first place. If you can get a sloop, you've already got the gunnery mission. Using a loophole to bypass the requirements seems to me more than rude; I regularly /complain players who do it when I see it -- and conversely, I have been blamed for stealing guns when I took the correct mission but was the third guy to come aboard when someone was already there, using this exploit. To me, this falls into the same category as booting swabbies off sails to make the ship slow down - exploiting an unintended behavior, selfish, and ruins everyone else's playing experience. --Chupchup 19:47, 7 August 2007 (PDT)


 * Just because there are three gunners on a navy ship does not mean one of them cheated to get there. Many times when I'm rebuilding my gunning standing I will stay on the ship long after the 5 league mission expires. Also there is now a "Puzzle with the Navy" mission where you can do any of the 3 basic duties as well as gunning, so it'll send you to a ship that already has 2 gunners regardless if that was the task you wished to do. So its quite possible for more then 2 gunners to get sent to a single ship, you may have /complain'ed players that didn't deserve it. As to slowing the ship down, who would want to? 15 poe a league adds up quick };-) Clortho 18:51, 30 September 2007 (PDT)

Advanced Gunning Tips
I added several advanced tips to the page. I've found that good gunning tips are hard to come by and learning from an experienced gunner is pretty much the only way to go about it. This should help explain some of the less intuitive things about gunning above renowned standing, gods knows I wish someone had told me these things when I was starting to take gunning seriously. Clortho 19:25, 30 September 2007 (PDT)

Standing speculations
I was wondering if it would be OK to add speculations about gun duty to standing based on observations aboard a slow navy ship.

Like: Able : Less than 1 Gun board per league. Distinguished : 1 Gun board per league. Master : 2 Gun boards per league. Renowned : 2 1/2 Gun boards Per League or 5 boards per two leagues. Grand-Master : 3 Gun boards per league, must be less than 2 gun booches per board. Legendary : 4 Gun boards per league, must be less than 1 gun booches per board. Ultimate : 5 Gun boards per league, must be perfect.


 * Loading all 4 cannons on a board is not required to score well. If you can load 2 or 3 cannons swiftly, do so and then find another board. Your score in gunning is based on the amount of time spent on a board with fired guns (you may sit on a board with all guns loaded without penalty) divided by the number of guns you loaded. Example: Loading 4 guns in 40 seconds will score the same as loading 2 guns in 20 seconds or 3 guns in 30 seconds.

Also, I don't agree with the above statement about loading a less than full board and retaining your standing. This seems something for mid-level gunners and not those trying to achieve Legendary / Ult. I'm wondering if anyone else thinks/feels that way.--Plng 12:24, 17 July 2008 (UTC)


 * I can say for a fact that it will not keep you from achieving legendary or ultimate. I can maintain ultimate level standing exclusively by loading only 2 guns on a board and can raise a new pirate to ultimate in about the same time it takes to reach apprentice experience level using the same method. This is on the Sage ocean and I have a half dozen or so alts with legendary or ultimate standing in gunnery. *EDIT* I checked it out and you can show up on the duty repot after only loading 2 guns. I have loaded 4 cannons perfectly one league on two boards and score incredible and the next loaded 4 cannons slightly slower (but without booching) on a single board and only scored excellent. So, in my opinion, the scoring system noted above about your score being 'time spent divided by cannons loaded' is correct and has nothing to do with the number of boards you used to load those cannons. On Sage you have to score incredible all the time to be ultimate in standing and even a single poor load can drop you to legendary, while getting excellent with a few incredibles will put your standing at either legendary or grandmaster depending. It goes on down from there. Clortho 22:07, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

The standings cut-offs are variable ocean by ocean and also variable over time (the cut-offs tend to rise as the average skill of the playerbase also rises). It's probably not an appropriate thing to add to an encyclopedic style of entry. ~ Sweetiepiepi