[Goatfoam]

Yeah, my initial intent for the grapeshot was for crew killing purposes, I just didn't type it in. Doubleshot has been noted, definitely, and will be added.

Archers... these would only be used by certain 'races'. Colonial types wouldn't really bother because they'd have plenty of supplies from their countries, but pirates may be slightly more inclined, especially if muskets were in short supply. No matter how much gunpowder changed warfare, I can still picture some nefarious types using fire arrows, especially pirate/savage types.

As for mortars... I do agree with you, but for the sake of variety I'd like to see them in ship-to-ship combat, too. They'd have a very low accuracy, for the reasons you mentioned (which would be made up for somewhat when targetting planets), but the fact that they'd ignore armor (since they'd be coming straight down on the deck) could make them slightly useful. But yes, their main purpose would be for bombarding islands.

The copper lining of the hulls is a good idea, and will definitely be going into the mod. Perhaps even serving as a form of leaky armor in conjunction with the movement bonus - but yeah, I'd still like to include oars, though, mainly due to the scene from the film Pirates of the Caribbean. They'd give higher movement bonuses to smaller ships (though not a whole lot, since they would have less oars than larger ships equipped with them).

Also, the overall idea was to leave the caribbean contested until somebody won. That is to say, technology will continue to increase steadily beyond the 15th century (not too far, though), the main theme of the game is wooden ships.

Here's some other things for you guys to chew over:

Fighters - Row boats? Is it possible to allow fighters to use the boarding attack? These would be high KT fighters, obviously, with a very large ship being able to carry around 4, total.

Mines - Did they use mines? Or anything that could be used as mines?