Cost of cannon firing and only first day

So, I did some figuring and came up with this as a cost for loading and firing a cannon just once.  With current pricing for saltpeter as of about 20 minutes ago from the new guy on britain docks and also in moonglow.  It costs about 6936 gold to fire one shot.  So to kill a Beacon with an orc ship it took 20 shots.  That comes out to be 138720 to kill a beacon and you dont get any resupplies.  you do get the cool new boxes to turn in.  Mythical box is 10k, Highest reward is 100k so a parrot is going to cost you roughly 1.3 million in ammo supplies.  Again you get no resupplies from the becons.  I will try the orc ships and merchant ships tomorrow.  But I did mention that saltpeter was going to be the issue with keeping people on the high seas.  Current price on Catskills at the two new vendors is already 221 per in Britain and 227 in moonglow.  Hopefully the Pirates and merchant ships will give boat loads of ammo.
Good luck and happy hunting.

So far, merchants give about 1/3 of ammo I spent.

Pirate ships give more than it takes to scuttle them.  Also you had a months notice to Make small cannonballs that work.

It only took 9 shots with my orc ship to drop the beacon. (with a few sad hits from my archer)

Orc Ship

With a 800 luck suite I was able to mine almost 500 saltpeter in less than two hours on Trammel.

TimSt said:

With a 800 luck suite I was able to mine almost 500 saltpeter in less than two hours on Trammel.

Ah yeah, I have 1929 luck and I get the big niters all the time. 🙂 and just got those new sandals so that's...70 more?! (as soon as I remember where I put them)

Just did a quick test and a Gigantic Niter Deposit just gave me 253. So logging in on her, arriving at her mining spot. All of 10 minutes maybe?

While I agree that saltpeter and other bulk resources should have an upper cost limit from NPCs, mining saltpeter is actually pretty fun. There is also the ship painting which suddenly became a lot more desirable. 

I also agree that if you plan to mine saltpeter, make sure you have a suit built for it. High luck and strength bonuses for example. 

Mine for saltpeter in Ilsh.  It counts as a dungeon.

Gidge said:

It only took 9 shots with my orc ship to drop the beacon. (with a few sad hits from my archer)

I would say that it was already damaged.  Unless these things spawn with wide range of hit points.

TimSt said:

With a 800 luck suite I was able to mine almost 500 saltpeter in less than two hours on Trammel.

Well that 2 hours of mining just got you 16.6 shots.  So unless you can find a beacon that would go down in 16 shots or less you are out of powder.

To all the others,  I was just making a point about the overhaul that was just done to the High seas.  I was out last night and saw 1 other person out.  grant it, it was 1 more than I usually see.  My point is that unless they cap the saltpeter vendors they will not be drawing more people out into the seas for a sustained period of time.  For the record

• I do mine saltpeter with a luck suit.  I have done this since high seas came out.
• I did not know that small cannon balls and small charges would convert to the large variety until a day before this went live.  I even made a starting supply of 300 of the large just before I found out about his.
• With the loot that I had gotten previously from pirate ships I have about 2400 shots that have converted from small to large.  Also about the same amount of grapeshot. I am a pack rat.

I really did want this to draw more people out to the water, I think they missed the mark with saltpeter being the main ingredient and not capping the or slowing the rising cost from the vendors.

So now off to fight some of the ships.  Oh does the Orc ship still have the damage bonus?  I only use that type so was just curious

Zamot said:

TimSt said:

With a 800 luck suite I was able to mine almost 500 saltpeter in less than two hours on Trammel.

Well that 2 hours of mining just got you 16.6 shots.  So unless you can find a beacon that would go down in 16 shots or less you are out of powder.

Beacons go in 10 cannon ball shots.

Zamot said:

To all the others,  I was just making a point about the overhaul that was just done to the High seas.  I was out last night and saw 1 other person out.  grant it, it was 1 more than I usually see.  My point is that unless they cap the saltpeter vendors they will not be drawing more people out into the seas for a sustained period of time.  For the record

• I do mine saltpeter with a luck suit.  I have done this since high seas came out.
• I did not know that small cannon balls and small charges would convert to the large variety until a day before this went live.  I even made a starting supply of 300 of the large just before I found out about his.
• With the loot that I had gotten previously from pirate ships I have about 2400 shots that have converted from small to large.  Also about the same amount of grapeshot. I am a pack rat.

I really did want this to draw more people out to the water, I think they missed the mark with saltpeter being the main ingredient and not capping the or slowing the rising cost from the vendors.

So now off to fight some of the ships.  Oh does the Orc ship still have the damage bonus?  I only use that type so was just curious

Yes, the orc ship does 150% damage. We see 6500 when we hit the beacon. What do you see? Maybe we can compile a list of them. Although there is a list speaking of the damage, it doesn't show the damage of the big Britannia Ship. So actual numbers may help us.

Pawain said:

Zamot said:

TimSt said:

With a 800 luck suite I was able to mine almost 500 saltpeter in less than two hours on Trammel.

Well that 2 hours of mining just got you 16.6 shots.  So unless you can find a beacon that would go down in 16 shots or less you are out of powder.

Beacons go in 10 cannon ball shots.

OK,  I used the small cannon balls and small powder charges that were converted and almost positive it took 20 shots from an orc ship.  I will go check again But I loaded 100 in each cannon and killed 2 beacons. I just double checked took 10 shots from 2 different cannons so 20 shots total.  Maybe something is amiss.  I can try again and will check the damage done  I wasnt paying attention to the damage numbers

Friend that was with me says 6500 per shot is what he was seeing.  headed out to double check in a bit

Tokuno, Gargoyle, Britannian Ship: 5000 Damage per Cannonball
Orc Ship: 6500 Damage per Cannonball

Pirate Ships and Tokuno Merchant ships have around 70000 hit points (11 shots from an Orc ship, 14 from any other ship).

Gargoyle Merchant Ships have around 100000 hit points (16 shots from an Orc ship, 20 shots from any other ship)

Plunderbeacons (the lighthouse) have just over 65000 Hit Points. This is 11 shots from an Orc Ship, or 14 from any other ship. However, when I say just over 65000 hit points, I mean just over it. You can save yourself a set of ammo with any ship if you shoot 10 cannonballs and then hit it with a spell or arrow 1-2 times.

If it took you 20 shots to kill a plunderbeacon, you may have not been lined up properly against it. Need to make sure the firing cannon is hitting the lighthouse directly, and not just the boat part.

@Kyronix what is the chance to up the output of mining saltpeter just a little.

Spent the evening out killing Beacons and ships.  Beacons sink after 10 shots I was off on that. Sorry for the confusion.  I can only say that we had to not be lined up properly.  Thanks for the correction.  Ships I have no problems with, the cargo is worth the effort now that there is only one size of the cannon supplies.  I did get more ammo than I used plus the resources.  Now just make saltpeter cap out on a price that gives enough room to help the first timers get started.  

Pawain said:

Zamot said:

TimSt said:

With a 800 luck suite I was able to mine almost 500 saltpeter in less than two hours on Trammel.

Well that 2 hours of mining just got you 16.6 shots.  So unless you can find a beacon that would go down in 16 shots or less you are out of powder.

Beacons go in 10 cannon ball shots.

Hell, when i tried my cannons against the Plunder Beacon the other day, they didn't do any damage to it

PlayerSkillFTW said:

Hell, when i tried my cannons against the Plunder Beacon the other day, they didn't do any damage to it

Didja take out the orcs first? Were you close enough? Have to be with like 10 tile range ...I get right up against it and fire. Not sure if you've read in this thread, but some of the beacons in some locations are being a bit fickle. If you can remember how it went down, it may help to let them know what happened.

I'll take one for you and yell your name in a battle cry of revenge!

I was able to destroy a beacon using one small cannon and regular cannonballs.Each hit made 5000 points of damage. Would the large cannon do more damage? Would changing to grapeshot boost the damage?

PlayerSkillFTW said:

Hell, when i tried my cannons against the Plunder Beacon the other day, they didn't do any damage to it

Only the cannon directly in a line with the lighthouse will damage it at close range, the others will fly harmlessly over the lower parts at the side.  I'm not sure if you could hit the other parts by backing off further so that the beacon is at the end of the cannonball's arc. Not tried that, I'm not entirely sure what the cannon's maximum range is.

Didn’t the patch notes read something about more chance of mining salt peter in fel? 

1000 luck boost in fel

does that mean more chance of mining it then? i take it it's affected by luck

Mervyn said:

does that mean more chance of mining it then? i take it it's affected by luck

To my memory, luck affects the size of the deposit, not the chance to get the deposit. 

It has affected the amount I get.  One mining trip in Tram and I get ~100 units of saltpeter versus 200+ in Fel.