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With the wiki and many of our guides becoming outdated, I've put up a new one (Posted over on Steam) which will hopefully answer many of the questions facing new players. I will be adding more content but for now it includes sections on: Nation Selection First Steps Basic Guidance on Port/Sea screens and the Map Combat and Sailing Levelling Making Money Evaluating Ships and sample recommended builds for current meta Equipping ships Solo vs Clan play DLC content guide [Note - Steam has been experiencing issues the past week on its servers that have not been resolved, and new content is taking a long time to load up. If you have problems, they should be resolved shortly, just let it take a minute to load in the meantime]. Edit: The lag/loading issue on community hub content on steam right now is caused by a new text filtering tool they began to implement two days ago. You may be able to fix this problem by disabling the text filter options. To do this click "View" in the top left corner of your steam client, click Settings, click "Account Details," go to "preferences," scroll to text filtering, click "join experiment," disable all the options. If the issue isn't resolved this week I'll put together an alternative form of distributing it. Picture below. Cheers.

Hello devs, I was recently out hunting this weekend in my Niagara with my friend in a Belle Poule. Last night we came across a Rattvisan and sunk it. I did 10k damage and got ~550 xp; my Belle Poule friend got 11k damage and ~650xp. I was under the impression that higher BR differences between ships would yield greater XP rewards, and expected to get a lot more XP than the Belle Poule. Is there some sort of cap on the scaling? Thanks, Doug Maoz

Hello, i'm playing Naval Action over Steam. I played for the US and got the Rank Master Commandant (Crew 280). Yesterday i decided to start a new Charakter with Sweden as Nation. I deleted the old and created the new one with a different Name (old is Osama binSwag (US), new is Doomsnail (Sweden). After logging in i saw that the Rank is now Sekundlöjtnant which can Crew 120 Men. In the Tutorial Interface all Exams are marked as passed (without the final one, i don't try it at least and leveled the Last Rank by trading and PvE). The Rank should be bound with the Steam Account and so i don't lose XP or is that just working as intended? Regards, Osama binSwag aka Doomsnail

Why do we only get xp for crafting ships? We should get xp for making cannons, repairs and mods too. I'm not saying it should give you a lot, but what if a crafter isn't a ship builder? Than shouldn't he get xp through other means? The other thing is travel xp should go towards Ship knowledge of the ship your in. It's very little but when your using trade ships you don't really fight in them so they should gain a little xp. Why can't we get xp for crafted ships like we did a long time ago. This would allow dedicated crafters to gain a little level from people using ships they crafted.

Looking for a new clan that will help me rank on the PVE server, current clan has few members online and even fewer willing to help, PM or post here and I will contact you. Thanks, by the way I am currently a MC in the US but willing to switch.

A small thing that I would like to suggest is that total xp be displayed somewhere. When leveling up there's a little display under the rank in port that displays the total xp earned, however this goes away when max rank is reached. I'd be interested in the display remaining and counting up even after reaching max rank. I'm certainly interested in seeing how much I got and maybe screenshot it before it gets wiped.

I brought this up before but honestly we should be getting the xp for traveling in OW going towards our ship knowledge. It's not a big amount of xp and I really can't see how it can be abused cause it's sailing from point A to point B not dependent upon how long you been at sea. This would give players a little help at opening slots and help on trade ships that don't have slots perm open.

I got to thinking about the War and Peace servers and since it seems that they want to make one server extreme peace and the other extreme war and not a mix of PvP/PvE for the most part. How about we upon release have the two servers linked account wise with just you level? So if you want to level up in peace you can, but if you want to jump over and enjoy some war action you still can at that level, but still have to get your ships and supplies. Of course most folks might just use redeemable DLC ships this way. This will make many players happy that don't want to deal with constant ganking or might not have time for a dragged out battle but could go kill some AI for a little xp. Of course all gold/reals, Doubloons and other things will still be locked per account. I would even go back to share labor hours so you can only use them on one or the other or until your out. There are a lot of players that like PvP, but just don't want it forced upon them. This might even encourage the PvE guys to play some on the War server cause they can still go back to peace side and level up on there own. The down side to this is that upon release both servers you will be wiped to zero xp and have to start over.

I suggest to give xp to the loosing side in PvP battles as well. As it is, the winner takes it all and the looser standing small, even without earning xp in a PvP battle, the system in my opinion ecourages people to level the knowledge slots of their ships in PvE instead. I would even like to see to in crease the xp earned in PvP compared to PvE

This guide is aimed at new players who are done with the small ships missions. When you get good at capturing bot Le Gros Ventres it is one of the most time-efficient ways of getting xp, money and combat marks. Ventres are everywhere and you don't need expensive ships, friends, fleet ships or other elaborate schemes to get going. Buy the cheapest square rigger in port, medium guns, crew and nothing else to start.

Hi Naval Action, I has Belona before on PvP EU. Loged in yesterday and I only had 67 XP redeemable while my friend had 8k. I played a looooong time ago but I just want to check if something went wrong some where? Could you please check. Thank you p.s best game ever!

Considering the fact that i havent met a single player that did not hate the new tiered ship knowledge xp, that forces you to grind lower ships up until you can max out your favourite... Is it safe to assume this knowledge xp will NOT be wiped even at release ( like rank xp which is now effectively rendered useless if you want to play on a competitive level ) if the ship knowledge tree stays in game? And if so, can we expect another change that brings us back to start the grind from basic cutter? I know it's EA ( inb4 at least 1 reply will tell me so ) and i love this game and testing it. I understand the devs wanted to get everyone back into the small ships and make people work for the big ships without breaking their promise of keeping rank xp for everyone, but i don't really like the new grind ( especially since the game is grindy enough and it forces me to sail ships i don't enjoy ) . I can deal with it as long as it isn't for nothing and will enable me to sail the ships i unlocked to their full potential even after release. I love the new "mega" patch ( except for this tiered ship xp system ). I have no problem with the asset ( gold, ships...etc.) wipe and the game improved alot but if our progress on ship xp or xp grind in general will be wiped yet again on release you might aswell count me and my clan out but i will enjoy this beautiful game until then. I don't want to complain here. I just want clarity for deciding how much time i should consider investing into the tiered ship xp system. If you really want more shallow water ships in game ( some of which i love and enjoy dearly ) please consider adding more shallow water regions, as it also makes for a great area for new players without enough cash for a decent frigate. Maybe even a very shallow area for 7th rates only? New rookie zone that can be teleported to from captial limited to rank 1-4? I don't see how putting the veteran captains in basic cutters again and again gives new players better chances against them ( they still have more skill ). And it definitely is not content for vets either ( i read this somewhere and was rather shocked...). Everyone i talked to is rather annoyed by it at best and would prefer to be able to grind the total xp needed for the 5th slot on the ship it unlocks for. I also think ( yeah i will be hanged at KPR for saying this ) SOLs / Lineships are still too cheap / easy to get. I actually would like them to be more powerful and even less accessible. I really want to know this. Thank you.

So, I have read some things about players only using a single corps for most of the game. I am guilty of this also, so I wanted to float some ideas about how to make the whole army viable. I fully understand that the caveat right now is the scaling, but Nick and Devs have said that's being addressed! 1) Random "blitz" missions - I am thinking these come up after a smaller battle where only one corps is used. Another corps, not previously used is automatically thrown into a skirmish. The AI army should be scaled in this instance and a handful of randomized scenarios could work. For example, hold this hill, ambush an enemy brigade, capture this town, protect point for "X" amount of time. I don't know how difficult that is on the technical side, but could be worth it. We are playing the same battles over and over again, anyway, so there doesn't really need to be a ton of variation in the random maps. 4-5 will do. 2) Maybe create a side set of missions where a corps needs to be dispatched to a different theater. I'm thinking Longstreet in Tennessee, historically. Lets say you are fighting the Peninsular Campaign, but before the large battle, you need to dispatch a corps to help hold a rail junction that could out flank another army. Again, scaling would be mildly appropriate, along with a window of time to complete the mission. With that window, if player A doesn't have a second corps, but wants the benefits of that victory, maybe they play a skirmish and create one. Again, the player would be unable to dispatch their first corps. 3) I would guess this would require a slight re-working of the AI XP progression, but if that was scaled back a little bit, then other corps could be rotated without feeling like the player is losing the "teeth" of their army. I would love to have 1 or 2 elite brigades that are in my 2nd or 3rd corps, but because the AI is throwing 2 star brigades at me after Bull Run, I feel like I can't risk the mismatch. These are just a few ideas I had! Please leave any other suggestions or feel free to poke holes in mine! Still loving the game devs!

So the population is dropping vertiginously. Today earlier i saw only 20 players at PVP2 and now are 40... Most people reached the top level and, right now, dont have any relevant reason to keep playing until some things get fixed. In my case, im playing because i need 3 lvl to reach the top crafter. So, i almost trading (have to mention that i liked the current trading changes) and crafting. Devs said that new ranks will be introduced, but how? What comes after admiral? And, as pirate, maybe i can be "uber curse" or "ultra curse"? I dont think this will work. Players at top lvl still earning XP (including travel XP). Right now that XP is useless and the system just throw it away everyday on the server reset. So, i propose this: * create the personal XP bank, which store the extra unused and useless XP earned each day; * allow players to exchange that extra XP for labor hours, upgrades, paints, bps, ships, whatrever, just make a way to make it worth (as i said, new lvl will not work). I think that will work, at least to the huge amount of players that are top levels and left the game.

Premise: My understanding of the developer intent for game veterans at release is for players to keep their previously earned rank XP and crafting XP, and that those items remain tied to our Steam accounts. While there is merit to the idea that players have earned their XP over long periods of gameplay and shouldn't have to re-grind for it, I put together a proposal below for an alternate approach that could work using a credit system. The main worth of a credit system is that game vets would still keep rewards for some (or perhaps most) of their previous gameplay, but at the same time there would not be a complete transfer of rank and craft XP in 1 fell swoop as is currently planned. This still allows players to reap rewards for time spent, but more closely levels the playing field at release, between new customers and veteran alpha testers. Proposal: I propose a credit system, with a cap of let's say 25,000 credits, and scaling downward from there based upon your total XP earned. New customers or newbs with very few XP points at release would receive 0 credits. Since some players who've been around for 2 years could actually have less gametime spent than a 6-month player, it would be more logical that credits would not be time-based, but rather only XP-based. So everyone has between 0 and 25,000 credits at game release. Those players with any credits at release could apply them towards starting gold, ships, materials, upgrades, roll them back again into rank XP or crafting XP, etc....essentially any game asset that is attainable you can spend your credits on. You have a time window to spend them and must spend them prior to doing anything in the game. The cap of 25,000 credits (or whatever the appropriate number is) should be a scalable reduction in worth of the total XP that players have attained. For sake of argument, lets say rank and craft XP are equal in value. So the meaningful conversion is simply this: Credits = (Rank XP + Craft XP) x Conversion Factor So for example if prior to release you had just made it to rank level 8 and craft level 18, you would have earned at least 41,000 rank XP and around 8000 craft XP. You then have 49,000 XP to convert to credits. The conversion factor in this proposal is really subjective, but as a starting discussion point let's say it's going to be 3-to-1. So your 49,000 total XP yield you 16,333 credits in this example. You can then trade in those 16,333 credits at release. If you decided to make them all rank XP (and given a 1-to-1 trade-in value), you would start the game at rank level 7 with no other assets (except a basic cutter with cannons). Goals: They are multiple: - To avoid blindly taking away everything players have spent time accumulating, testing, grinding, etc. I believe you should get something for your investment. - To avoid allowing players to keep everything they've earned in alpha; not realistic for games really, and arguably poor for the outset of the final game configuration (- So it's a compromise of the two points above) - This method allows for leveling the player base much better at release (you still obviously keep your actual experience, no one can take that away) - This method allows you to spread your initial earned advantage over more things than just rank XP and crafting XP; you can choose gold, materials, upgrades, etc. So you choose and are in more control. Discussion: Some may disagree and say they earned it all and should keep it all, but bear in mind others are of the very opposite opinion that a total wipe of XP and assets similar to other alpha game experiences is more appropriate. This idea is a compromise of those ideas and gives you more control. The conversion factor above is what I might consider reasonable, but others will want conversion to be better than 3 to 1, or maybe worse at 4 or 5 to 1. Also, should rank XP and craft XP be equal in value for credits? I made them so in my example above. What are your thoughts? Any merit to this idea?

I was thinking about the change to the XP curve in Patch 9.7 today, and wondering what tools the developers have to identify the best shape of the XP curve. For example, how many players get stuck at rank 5 for a long time because the required XP for rank 6 is a big jump but their ability to gain XP doesn't go up as much? Is there a way to measure this? If you make an adjustment, how easy is it to measure the effect when you don't reset things? How are the developers going to test whether the new curve is in the right shape if there are no testers left at rank 1 to try the new curve and see? It occurred to me that in order to test how long leveling takes for a new player, you need the ability to reset your XP to 0. Very few players will be willing to do this for their entire account, but you could reasonably expect some players to do this if they could do it on a specific server only. So my suggestion is this: On character creation, allow a player to specify that for that character, XP (and crafting XP) should be stored in the server database and not synced to their Steam account. If the flag is set for that character on that server, XP is 'local' to that server and doesn't sync from/to Steam. If the flag is not set for that character on that server then XP is synced to/from Steam as before. This would allow players to keep their XP on their 'main' characters and still make new rank 1 players on other servers for testing purposes. Or they could even delete their main and start from scratch, knowing that they can regain their 'parked' XP by making another character with Steam sync enabled. And perhaps more importantly, it would allow players to do this via self-service rather than requiring admin intervention.

Hey all, Hear me out. I strongly believe that if XP was secondary to personal wealth as the main factor to overcome in this game, it would have a wildly positive impact on gameplay and improve/solve so many aspects which are currently an issue. A few examples if wealth was the limiting factor to better ships and equipment: 1. Boarding and capture would be much more appealing than simply damaging/sinking other ships. This is much more akin to actual practices in this time period, and is much more exciting in general than the same old "all fights end in total destruction" practice which is currently par for the course. 2. Sea lanes would become much more active, as merchanting would become even more important. More merchants means more pirates and privateers, meaning more battles and excitement as players seek to capture cargo bound to be more valuable than NPCs. 3. The elimination of an XP grind for better ships/equipment makes the game much more appealing to new players. XP can definitely still play a factor in crew skill and etc, but if the only thing limiting players shipwise is simply their own personal wealth and purchasing power, the motivation to go out and either start merchanting or boarding+capturing becomes much greater. These are just a few of the positive affects of changing from an XP-centric game to an Economy-centric game. If anyone knows of any more (or of any drawbacks - it's good to discuss all possibilities), please speak up!

Hello/Dear, Naval Action Community, I am CO of Naval Action on the Task Force Bravo teamspeak community, it is a small but mighty group of gamer's who play lots of different games from Strategy to First Person Shooters, to this. I am recruiting the mightiest Sailors out there, from 7th rate to 1st, we crush our foes and have fun doing it, we travel the seas. We have about 11 members for Naval Action alone, but more for the teamspeak itself. If you need information add me on steam: [TFB] Perry If your interested in joining the Teamspeak just type: ts.taskforcebravo.com Or add me on Naval Action: CaptainPerry I will reply as soon as I can, Good Sailing people! - [TFB] Perry

I like the introduction of the 'Honour Kill' system, but like many I think the release version should be modified somewhat. What is an Honourable kill.= Destroying or otherwise doing the most 'damage' to a ship of equal or greater strength. Suggestion. Long Term. The ship you are sailing should be of a suitable Rate to your RANK. The targeted ship should be of an equal or higher rating than the SHIP you are sailing. In order for suitable ships to be available for this task, I believe at least 1 basic recipe ship should be available for each Rate. Players should have the option of using this basic recipe ship or a special drop recipe ship if they can build or have one built for them to use. Temporary fix current build. If insufficient rated ships are available in game to test this theory, then there are a few ways this can be rectified. 1) Provide a basic quality redeemable ship at each rank advancement of a suitable type per character. 2) Temporarily move a ship into the basic recipe tree so that it can be built by more crafter's on reaching crafting level 'x'. 3) Allow undermanned ships of a higher rate to be able to accrue honor kills. (eg undermanned 74 instead of Constitution)