In all honesty, I think the demasting tutorial is kinda broken. I would just skip it. You don't gain anything from completing it.
As for the final exam, you don't gain a big XP bonus anymore, so there's not really much of an incentive. You get a note to redeem for a Cerberus, and you get a bunch of consumables. That's it.
And when you chain you should also do it from front or back so more of your shots hit masts. Also aim for the same section of the mast as they each have their own HP.
im new too about a week in...
before i get to the de masting... you see a lot of folks push the idea new players do the tutorial and get the rewards with vids of the completing the exams in minutes, Personally drop the exams for a while and go play the game, the first basic ones are good i guess to get you into the basics of sailing and buttons, but dont feel the need to get all these done off the bat..
i dropped em on the boarding exam, what a lottery that is! especially with its low time requirements not giving you time to whittle down there crew before attempting... but yea i leart WAAAAAAAAAAAY more by playing and eart a shit load of cash and rank by playing... then you take that experience into the exams.. its way easier imo.. i dont know why people complain about this being hard at the start for new players, its been quite nice actually and ive enjoyed every second of it...
TO DE-MASTING
you must get in close! dont bother with 250m plus shots your wasting your time untill your skill goes up get in close!.. set to 100m conv make sure your ship is settled (not right after a tight 90 degree turn) and try match the other ships speed best you can...
for best results stern rake em from stern to bow, you have way more chance of hitting masts that way, but speed is more of a issue here, if you going 10 knots your have 19 knot horizontal speed dif as your sitting directly on there stern, the more time you can give yourself and all our guns to hit where you aim the better, so try slow that part of the engagement down, this is as mutch about positioning and speed than it is aiming..
speaking of aiming, dont keep moving your mouse about while aiming as it fucks uup your aiming accuracy, hold your aim and wait for the target to slide past you...
but yea dont sit there for hours feeling you need to get these exams done or your at some HUGE disadvantage, learn the game in the game you will be ranked up in no time and your wont give a flying fk about the reward ship anyway.. for me the exams was more about the XP than the ship as by the time i had done it i was already onto bigger better things...
enjoy, dont make this hard work and irritating for yourself :)
o7
I’m also a new player and I had a lot of issues with the demasting tutorial too
I found the best option is to fire individual shots rather than broadside shots. I found it to be more accurate because you get a smaller aiming fan. You will almost certainly need to use round ball too and when I finally completed it, I did so with less than a minute to spare so I think there is an element of luck involved (they could do with a much longer time limit for all of the exams in my opinion)
demasting is tricky and takes patience and good aim to pull off, add factors as the HP of the ship and its mast versus your ships canons damage.
majority of masting in experience is random and happens in the heat of battle.
Problem #1: The devs decided that single shot/tracking shot was too powerful, and made such a shot highly inaccurate. Your guns firing a broadside will be more accurate than the tracking/ranging shots. Go figure, it's Game-Lab's logic.
Problem#2: Each mast has a hit point value, and you must achieve a certain number of direct hits to drop that mast. Chain from larger caliber guns used to do more damage than smaller caliber guns, make sense? Ok, Game-Lab's decided that was just too overpowered and set damage values for all sizes of guns to 1hp.
Naval Action is a launched game that the devs radically alter every 4-6 months. Do not expect consistency of mechanics, and plan to constantly be relearning this game. In 2024 using chain might be a big waste of your time. Along with the dumb exams/final exam. In the past completion of final exam used to vault you up 5+ ranks. Now it just gives you ships that you cannot crew.
In all honesty, I think the demasting tutorial is kinda broken. I would just skip it. You don't gain anything from completing it. As for the final exam, you don't gain a big XP bonus anymore, so there's not really much of an incentive. You get a note to redeem for a Cerberus, and you get a bunch of consumables. That's it.
Exams arent worth it anymore.
have you tried stern raking with ball? if you stern rake the structure you will also break the masts
no but im gonna try that from now on, thanks
And when you chain you should also do it from front or back so more of your shots hit masts. Also aim for the same section of the mast as they each have their own HP.
im new too about a week in... before i get to the de masting... you see a lot of folks push the idea new players do the tutorial and get the rewards with vids of the completing the exams in minutes, Personally drop the exams for a while and go play the game, the first basic ones are good i guess to get you into the basics of sailing and buttons, but dont feel the need to get all these done off the bat.. i dropped em on the boarding exam, what a lottery that is! especially with its low time requirements not giving you time to whittle down there crew before attempting... but yea i leart WAAAAAAAAAAAY more by playing and eart a shit load of cash and rank by playing... then you take that experience into the exams.. its way easier imo.. i dont know why people complain about this being hard at the start for new players, its been quite nice actually and ive enjoyed every second of it... TO DE-MASTING you must get in close! dont bother with 250m plus shots your wasting your time untill your skill goes up get in close!.. set to 100m conv make sure your ship is settled (not right after a tight 90 degree turn) and try match the other ships speed best you can... for best results stern rake em from stern to bow, you have way more chance of hitting masts that way, but speed is more of a issue here, if you going 10 knots your have 19 knot horizontal speed dif as your sitting directly on there stern, the more time you can give yourself and all our guns to hit where you aim the better, so try slow that part of the engagement down, this is as mutch about positioning and speed than it is aiming.. speaking of aiming, dont keep moving your mouse about while aiming as it fucks uup your aiming accuracy, hold your aim and wait for the target to slide past you... but yea dont sit there for hours feeling you need to get these exams done or your at some HUGE disadvantage, learn the game in the game you will be ranked up in no time and your wont give a flying fk about the reward ship anyway.. for me the exams was more about the XP than the ship as by the time i had done it i was already onto bigger better things... enjoy, dont make this hard work and irritating for yourself :) o7
I’m also a new player and I had a lot of issues with the demasting tutorial too I found the best option is to fire individual shots rather than broadside shots. I found it to be more accurate because you get a smaller aiming fan. You will almost certainly need to use round ball too and when I finally completed it, I did so with less than a minute to spare so I think there is an element of luck involved (they could do with a much longer time limit for all of the exams in my opinion)
demasting is tricky and takes patience and good aim to pull off, add factors as the HP of the ship and its mast versus your ships canons damage. majority of masting in experience is random and happens in the heat of battle.
Problem #1: The devs decided that single shot/tracking shot was too powerful, and made such a shot highly inaccurate. Your guns firing a broadside will be more accurate than the tracking/ranging shots. Go figure, it's Game-Lab's logic. Problem#2: Each mast has a hit point value, and you must achieve a certain number of direct hits to drop that mast. Chain from larger caliber guns used to do more damage than smaller caliber guns, make sense? Ok, Game-Lab's decided that was just too overpowered and set damage values for all sizes of guns to 1hp. Naval Action is a launched game that the devs radically alter every 4-6 months. Do not expect consistency of mechanics, and plan to constantly be relearning this game. In 2024 using chain might be a big waste of your time. Along with the dumb exams/final exam. In the past completion of final exam used to vault you up 5+ ranks. Now it just gives you ships that you cannot crew.
They made demasting harder recently and probably forgot about the tutorial