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I am not entirely certain to whom that question is directed, but personally there is only one reason that I take out masts after I have grappled a ship: there's a big ship circling me and my prey, and I'm waiting to board until I'm looking at their aft sailing away from me. So, no it doesn't add anything, but cannonballs are free and it's good for my timing when swinging back to my ship.
Other than that, as I alluded to in post #30, I take out masts before I fire grapples. Although, as I discovered yesterday when I was trying to test out the bug where enabled/crippled ships just kept on sailing. What I discovered is that I've become so fixated on de-sailing enemy ships in the distance, that I sort of have to make a conscious effort now to let them get to me with some sail power intact. Actually, that was born out of laziness, as I got tired of sailing out to board ships and started leaving them with sails for long enough to let them sail back toward me.
EDIT: I remembered another reason: I'm waiting to see if more mobs will come out on the deck before enough time elapses that I can't put off boarding anymore. This usually happens when I'm boarding larger ships, and hoping to take out as many mobs as I can before boarding. Again, taking out masts doesn't add anything to my character, but it keeps me occupied while I'm waiting for someone else to stroll across the deck of the enemy ship.
EDIT2: After re-reading my first post, I suppose it wasn't made clear that I did take some actions between earning boarding rights, and actually firing my grappling hooks/lines; in any case, as I divulged later in the thread, I had to give that up because I discovered precisely that it wasn't useless to keep firing even after you have earned boarding rights--after all, someone once took the boarding rights from me by continuing to fire on a ship that I had already reduced but hadn't yet grappled.
So, there can be an effect to continuing to fire on a ship before it is grappled, as you could potentially steal someone else's boarding rights.
Last edited by Steely Jim; 03-24-2008 at 03:23 PM..
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