I know I am like the 1,000,000th person on the internet to complain about this cancer, but this is so unforgivably bad that it is making me question my faith in continuing or breaking with the AC series. It was already shaky after Origins and Odyssey but now it is on cracking thin ice.
I am 99.9% done with getting the platinum max trophy for this game, which honestly I only care to do because I am a big history buff for the Revolution and I was already 95% done with it by the time I finished the story so I figured it wouldn't hurt to finish it off, boy was I wrong.
I have only 2 incompletes holding me up, The Rescue and The Giant in the Storm naval missions. The third mission with Frigate powder stores (Battle of the Chesapeake) I somehow got lucky and both ships got vulnerable from friendly fire and not from myself.
I have spent 2 weeks trying to beat these two missions, at first I spent 2 or 3 hours trying to do them, would give up and delete this game out of spite, then a few days later cool off and try again, so fare I have spent about 10 hours just trying to beat these missions spending 1 hour every day or so before giving up in disgust and repulsion.
I have scoured the internet, seen every video, know every "strategy" and this is inexcusable and ridiculous. I excused all the poor lip-syncing, bad audio, frequent screen glitches, constantly falling through the ground etc. That this game calls itself a "remaster" is insulting.
I have beaten Black Flag both on Xbox360 and PS4 and I actually really enjoyed AC's Naval Combat in those games, but this is not only insulting to our intelligence but a spit in our face.
I am really close to cutting AC out of my life like I did Destiny and Halo.
Does anyone have any RELIABLE advice for forcing powder shots that is not "try to ram them and hope you get lucky" or "try to T-shoot them and hope you get lucky" because I have done these hundreds of times to no reliable outcome. In the 1/50 times it works, it always fails on the others and ruins the mission anyway.
Also that both missions have NO checkpoints, especially the Rescue which forces you to piss 10 time minutes with slow chasing, is especially insulting.
if you have an upgraded ram your chances are lower, i'm afraid you gotta restart and do them with a regular ram
EDIT: i was able to do it with an upgraded ram, basically immobilize the ships with the chain shot, then fire the grape shot from afar to make sure not every bullet hits the ship (otherwise it will sink it) and then you'll see the weakpoint, alternatively shoot them on the back of the ship with normal shot or grape shot, it will make the weakpoint appear