Post by misette on Feb 7, 2013 20:23:44 GMT -8
Gari asked if I would post a few of tips and advice on soloing merchant brigs, and after talking to Ardentfire, I don't think it's going to be much help, but maybe to someone, one day, it will be....
First of all, A merchant brig is primarily for the bulkier items found in the game - wood, sugar, hemp, fruit, and can hold almost 7x more volume than a sloop, and a little more than 2x the amount of a cutter. There are larger ships out there, but the mb is the largest-volumed ship out there that you can move solo. Having the ability to move large quantities of commods on your own, enables you to move a lot of stock whenever it's convenient for you, as opposed to relying on others to help, and as you can see, you do in one trip, what it would take 7 trips to do in a sloop.
So in general, I pass along these tips:
1- Be extremely good at looking at your chat window, and the little window at the top right where you can see you ship moving, and your speed/damage/bilge levels.
I was taught how to do this during war times, so watching my chat window and my surroundings was crucial. Think of it as checking your rear view mirror and your speedometer when you drive you car. Do it often, especially as you near a league point as you're chances of getting attacked are MUCH higher at a league point.
2- Be good at duty nav and set your ship to evade. The better you are, the easier soloing a merch brig is after the last release where doing duty nav on evade reduced the number of spawns you'd get. Prior to that change in the game, it was a little easier to leave your ship set to pillage, with you sailing, but it has been well over a year since I tried used that method. The 2nd benefit of duty nav and evade, is that it acts as a multiplier to speed, and *supposedly* helps with damage control and bilge.
3- Practice a few times. Really. The first few times I did a solo trip from Spring to Heph, it took me almost an hour and I'm really glad I didn't have anything to lose but a few rum, and a lot of my time. You may as well practice on an interarch route because it IS harder but it's not impossible.
SET UP:
- Set ship to evade.
- Check your hold. Check it 2 times. Check it 3 times. Yes, I have left port without my goods so...
- Do you really need to move 719 units of fruit and 20 gold nuggets at the same time? Sometimes, its safer to leave the small expensive things on a sloop and zip those around later.
- Chart your course. You duty nav, 3 bots on sail, 1 on carp. If you are good at duty nav - you should be past 1/2 speed by about 2/3 of the way to the first LP. At that point, move one sailing bot to bilge.
- Once you have hit full speed, you can bounce one of two remaining sailing bots around. I usually put it on carp, because MBs leak, the ship begins to acquire damage, and then, of course, bilge slowly begins creeping up, and speed begins to drop. I bounce that one bot around almost every LP.
- 10-13 LPs is a pretty decent trip solo. Yes, you can go farther, but don't make that a goal when you're first learning how to solo a mb. The more you do it, the more you get comfortable with what you're doing, and you develop a feeling for that spawn that's waiting for you at that next LP.
- When charting, if you have the option of touching an island without it going out of your way, chart through the island point. This way, IF you must abandon ship, it will reset back to the closest island it last touched, or, if you are within 2 LPs of your destination, it will auto-port forward (after about 15-20 minutes if no one boards your ship). It also helps in case you want to stop for a break, you will not have to leave station to rechart to a close island.
- Speed is extremely important. When I see my ship coming up behind another MB that has turned (99% chance, it's my spawn, and will target me soon) if my damage and bilge are in good shape, I will go ahead and move my carping bot to sail for a few minutes. Just to get it sailing asap, because after I turn, and turn back on course, I will have slowed down considerably, and every second I can gain in getting back to speed helps.
- If you get caught by a brigand - sail. You must generate tokens and get as far away from the other ship as possible. You fair much better if you head in directions where you can do lots of turns, as opposed to just going straight.
- You might be having a bad run. If I'm caught before my 2nd LP, I stop at the closest LP, let the ship auto-port and repair, go have some ice cream, and come back later. Don't push your luck.
- If you turn about and sail back to the last LP you went through, when you hit the LP and set sail again (automatically turning you back into the direction you meant to be) you do NOT lose speed at that turn... just in case you never noticed that. Of course, you also run the risk of generating a new spawn which will cause you to have to turn about...
There's one more thing that I've been meaning to try...
I always get a spawn at the VERY end of my charted course that is a complete pain. I turn, I am no longer targeted, I turn back, and it has turned AGAIN to target me. I have wanted to test the idea of charting beyond my actual destination island, to see if that will help. I just keep forgetting to try it.
I can't think of anything else right off the top of my head - feel free to post if you have questions and I'll do my best to answer.
First of all, A merchant brig is primarily for the bulkier items found in the game - wood, sugar, hemp, fruit, and can hold almost 7x more volume than a sloop, and a little more than 2x the amount of a cutter. There are larger ships out there, but the mb is the largest-volumed ship out there that you can move solo. Having the ability to move large quantities of commods on your own, enables you to move a lot of stock whenever it's convenient for you, as opposed to relying on others to help, and as you can see, you do in one trip, what it would take 7 trips to do in a sloop.
So in general, I pass along these tips:
1- Be extremely good at looking at your chat window, and the little window at the top right where you can see you ship moving, and your speed/damage/bilge levels.
I was taught how to do this during war times, so watching my chat window and my surroundings was crucial. Think of it as checking your rear view mirror and your speedometer when you drive you car. Do it often, especially as you near a league point as you're chances of getting attacked are MUCH higher at a league point.
2- Be good at duty nav and set your ship to evade. The better you are, the easier soloing a merch brig is after the last release where doing duty nav on evade reduced the number of spawns you'd get. Prior to that change in the game, it was a little easier to leave your ship set to pillage, with you sailing, but it has been well over a year since I tried used that method. The 2nd benefit of duty nav and evade, is that it acts as a multiplier to speed, and *supposedly* helps with damage control and bilge.
3- Practice a few times. Really. The first few times I did a solo trip from Spring to Heph, it took me almost an hour and I'm really glad I didn't have anything to lose but a few rum, and a lot of my time. You may as well practice on an interarch route because it IS harder but it's not impossible.
SET UP:
- Set ship to evade.
- Check your hold. Check it 2 times. Check it 3 times. Yes, I have left port without my goods so...
- Do you really need to move 719 units of fruit and 20 gold nuggets at the same time? Sometimes, its safer to leave the small expensive things on a sloop and zip those around later.
- Chart your course. You duty nav, 3 bots on sail, 1 on carp. If you are good at duty nav - you should be past 1/2 speed by about 2/3 of the way to the first LP. At that point, move one sailing bot to bilge.
- Once you have hit full speed, you can bounce one of two remaining sailing bots around. I usually put it on carp, because MBs leak, the ship begins to acquire damage, and then, of course, bilge slowly begins creeping up, and speed begins to drop. I bounce that one bot around almost every LP.
- 10-13 LPs is a pretty decent trip solo. Yes, you can go farther, but don't make that a goal when you're first learning how to solo a mb. The more you do it, the more you get comfortable with what you're doing, and you develop a feeling for that spawn that's waiting for you at that next LP.
- When charting, if you have the option of touching an island without it going out of your way, chart through the island point. This way, IF you must abandon ship, it will reset back to the closest island it last touched, or, if you are within 2 LPs of your destination, it will auto-port forward (after about 15-20 minutes if no one boards your ship). It also helps in case you want to stop for a break, you will not have to leave station to rechart to a close island.
- Speed is extremely important. When I see my ship coming up behind another MB that has turned (99% chance, it's my spawn, and will target me soon) if my damage and bilge are in good shape, I will go ahead and move my carping bot to sail for a few minutes. Just to get it sailing asap, because after I turn, and turn back on course, I will have slowed down considerably, and every second I can gain in getting back to speed helps.
- If you get caught by a brigand - sail. You must generate tokens and get as far away from the other ship as possible. You fair much better if you head in directions where you can do lots of turns, as opposed to just going straight.
- You might be having a bad run. If I'm caught before my 2nd LP, I stop at the closest LP, let the ship auto-port and repair, go have some ice cream, and come back later. Don't push your luck.
- If you turn about and sail back to the last LP you went through, when you hit the LP and set sail again (automatically turning you back into the direction you meant to be) you do NOT lose speed at that turn... just in case you never noticed that. Of course, you also run the risk of generating a new spawn which will cause you to have to turn about...
There's one more thing that I've been meaning to try...
I always get a spawn at the VERY end of my charted course that is a complete pain. I turn, I am no longer targeted, I turn back, and it has turned AGAIN to target me. I have wanted to test the idea of charting beyond my actual destination island, to see if that will help. I just keep forgetting to try it.
I can't think of anything else right off the top of my head - feel free to post if you have questions and I'll do my best to answer.
