movement

After sitting around and talking to my dad i made a quess that most new captians arent good at mobilty with there ships and arnt use to the controls. So is a good idea to buy a normal r/c ship and get use to the controls? Its going to take me a while to get the money for the warship so. Any suggestions?

Zac

 

Or when your boat is ready run plenty of "sea trials" to get a feel for it before anyone starts shooting at you.

Pax,
A.

 

I think the bigger problem is situational awareness. It is difficult to drive your ship, hit your target, and pay attention to the whole battle. I still have trouble with that. I will look up at the whole battle (losing sight of my ship for a couple seconds) and determine who is the best target for me, then go in for the attack (losing track of the rest of the battle). I try to look up often, but I'm not perfect about it. This is a problem only experience can solve.

When it comes to using the controls, a radio transmitter isn't very different from a playstation or xbox controller. If you've ever played console games, or even computer games, then you should have little difficulty adapting to the controls of a warship. All you should need is a few hours of practice on the new controls and you'll do fine. A day of sea trials with your ship should do. You'll have a good idea how well your ship handles, so once shells start landing all around you won't panic and ask your ship to do the impossible. You'll also get a chance to test all the systems to make sure they work. "It worked on the bench" is not a good excuse if your ship breaks down at a battle.

 

It always works on the bench!!! The true test comes when a ship has been shot, rammed, mossed, rammed again, torpedoed, sunk, lost on the bottom for an hour because the float didn't deploy, recovered, dried out, patched and returned to battle.[]

 

Each ship handles different, so there really isn't much benefit in "practice" with a standard model boat. Since money is an issue, and boats take time, I'd worry about the CO2 and weapons last. Build the model itself first, so you can take it down to the pond and "play" with it so to speak (I like to take my boats to the lake on nice days and just drive them around sometimes even when there is no battle or other captains) because it can be fun and relaxing. Once you get the model finished with the propulsion and maneuvering systems installed, you can start ordering the CO2 fittings, guns and such and start adding the punch to your model. But it doesn't have to be a FINISHED RC combat model to take it to the lake and enjoy the fruits of your labor

You'll find that Kotori is quite correct as well. The combat part is a LOT harder then it looks. That doesn't make it any less FUN, but it IS more complicated then you'd imagine by watching a video or even watching a battle.

Mike D

 

I have to disagree with that. The purpose of a warship is to carry cannons in to battle. Since cannons are just about the only things that have fixed locations, they should always be #1 in your mind. Batteries, motors, and other equipment can be moved around inside the hull, but cannons can only go in certain positions. You don't have to install them until the very end, but you should know how you're going to install them and how much space they will take up. If you don't plan properly, you may build your model, then find that the cannons won't fit where you wanted them to. Then you have to either choose a different spot or rip the boat apart and rebuild that section. I've seen this happen, and the result is not pretty.

I'll agree with that. "Zen sailing" (as it is called in the WWCC) is also fun, even if the model isn't complete yet. Just keep in mind HOW you will make it a combat boat from the very beginning, so you won't have any trouble finishing it up.

 

ok so it would in a way be pointless to buy a normal r/c ship and playaround wiht it to get use to the contorls?

 

I don't think so. I think that any actual sailing you do is good practice. You can learn plenty about ship handling in general - it doesn't necessarily have to apply to a specific ship. Of course, the best practice is always going to be with the fully-equipped warship that you'll be running in combat, but if that isn't available, something else is second-best & not a waste of time.

JM

 

It's a cost-vs-benefit question. Time and money spent on a regular RC boat is time and money NOT spent building your combat ship. So what you need to decide is whether the money spent and the time at the pond with a regular RC boat is worth it.

On the plus side, you'll have some fun and learn basic boat-handling skills. It is also a small investment to find out if you enjoy RC boating. While it doesn't cover the combat aspect, you may buy an RC boat and find out that RC boating is not for you. Better than building an expensive combat warship before finding out that you don't enjoy it. If you do enjoy it, then all the more reason to build and battle your combat warship.

On the minus side, you'll spend time and money with a non-combat RC boat rather than getting your combat ship ready, which may delay the launch of your combat ship. Also, the commonly-available RC speedboats have very little handling characteristics in common with combat warships, so the experience gained may be of dubious value.

 

ok so its usefull in getting the main controls down but hurts becouse it might delay time for getting a combat boat on the water.

 

I don't know if I's use the word "hurts". Really, it all depends on the time, money, & expertise that you have available. Maybe "helps a little less"? You do what you can, with what you have available.

If all you have to spend is $2-300, you might want to consider building a cargo ship. You'll learn a heck of a lot in the process of building it & learning to sail it. I wouldn't call any of that a waste, even if you never get into a battle with it. You'll learn techniques that you can apply to your armed warship eventually, figure out plenty of better ways of doing things, & make a lot of your "rookie mistakes" on something that isn't as valuable to you.

On the other extreme, you might spend a ton of time & money on an armed ship that turns out like crap & you won't know how to drive or fight it very well. You may find yourself out on the water, trying to figure out port from starboard while somebody else is pumping shots into you at will. That can take a lot of fun out of the game.

JM