That was fun, but the AI and the balance need some work.
It's too easy to win as the small boat. You just stay ahead of your opponent and then turn back and strafe periodically.
It would be much more challenging if you added wind and realistic sailing dynamics. If wind direction vs sail orientation mattered to your speed and boat characteristics weren't as simple as smaller = faster then I think it would be much better balanced and way more fun/challenging!
On further play, really the only match up where I had any trouble was large vs large. (As a side request, it would be nice to be able to choose your opponent!)
With both small and medium, you can just strafe back and forth in front of your opponent if you're faster than them. With medium and large, you can just circle them and absorb more punishment than them when you're larger than them.
Multi-player would solve the AI problem -- especially if it was more than 1v1 -- and then it would be more challenging.
But I would still request realistic wind and sailing dynamics. That strafing maneuver isn't really possible with real wind dynamics, because you slow down as you swing around and that allows the opponent to catch up to you and return fire. You could have a little arrow in a corner of the screen that shows the wind direction. You don't even have to make the sails movable, you could just have your speed be proportional to how orthongal your sails are to the wind direction in the simplest implementation.
It would add a whole new element to it that would make it much more challenging! :)
Highlighting that game mechanics are hard - I struggled with your strategy but found it too easy to be the tank. Turn in a circle and shoot and rely on the higher HP + cannon loading.
That's interesting, because I found it trivial to win with the largest boat. Tank one hit, lead your target, blast away. I remain undefeated with the largest boat.
By contrast I found winning with the medium boat required the most skill, and lost the first few times I tried.
Nice job! Sid Meier's Pirates is one of my favorite games, wish they brought it back (I still play it occasionally, can't believe it never got a remake)
It's too easy to win as the small boat. You just stay ahead of your opponent and then turn back and strafe periodically.
It would be much more challenging if you added wind and realistic sailing dynamics. If wind direction vs sail orientation mattered to your speed and boat characteristics weren't as simple as smaller = faster then I think it would be much better balanced and way more fun/challenging!
With both small and medium, you can just strafe back and forth in front of your opponent if you're faster than them. With medium and large, you can just circle them and absorb more punishment than them when you're larger than them.
Multi-player would solve the AI problem -- especially if it was more than 1v1 -- and then it would be more challenging.
But I would still request realistic wind and sailing dynamics. That strafing maneuver isn't really possible with real wind dynamics, because you slow down as you swing around and that allows the opponent to catch up to you and return fire. You could have a little arrow in a corner of the screen that shows the wind direction. You don't even have to make the sails movable, you could just have your speed be proportional to how orthongal your sails are to the wind direction in the simplest implementation.
It would add a whole new element to it that would make it much more challenging! :)
By contrast I found winning with the medium boat required the most skill, and lost the first few times I tried.
Reminds me very much of Overboard for the PS1 back in 1997.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71accvNZ0aA
(if you need this kind of motivation)
Then I realized the space bar was shooting. You just can’t see the bullets because they are tiny black dots on a dark blue background.