Search the Community

Ahoy. I was bored so I messed around with excel. Introduction: There is a lot of information out there regarding this game. Much of it is outdated since we are in a constant process of tweaking and testing. I have been playing for a couple weeks, and have just finished grinding myself up to 50 craft. I wanted to see if I did it efficiently (I didn't), or if there were better ways. What I intend to demonstrate with this study is a data-backed guide to grinding a new player to max crafting level as quickly, and as cheaply, as possible. Methods: Data compiled for this study was: Ship resource requirements (fir/crew space - reason below) Ship Xp gained from crafting Labor Hours for crafting the ship Total Labor Hour Wallet size of the ship crafter Total number of ships crafter can craft with a full wallet (Ships/Day) Real cost of producing resources necessary to max Ships/Day Labor cost of producing resources necessary to max Ships/Day Data was compiled in excel. Results: These figures are based on ship crafter having perks: Light Ship Shipmaster, Royal Shipbuilder, and Overseer Ship Requirements and XP Ship Oak Fir Hemp Iron Lig Stone Coal Prov Hours XP TCutter 14 35 9 3 1 2 3 20 43 202 TLynx 14 35 9 3 1 2 3 20 29 362 Pickle 16 41 11 4 1 2 3 55 48 598 Priv 42 8 10 3 1 2 3 60 39 480 Tsnow 26 65 13 6 2 3 4 65 125 944 Brig 33 84 22 7 2 4 6 110 66 826 Tbrig 33 84 25 7 2 4 6 60 66 826 Resource Real and Labor Cost Resource: Real/1 unit Oak 10 Fir 4 Hemp 58 Iron 62 Lig 36 Stone 14 Coal 4 Prov 15 Labor for all resource production is approx 0.8 hours if producing at least 10. Under 10 and the unit:labor appears to be 1:1 Fir/Crew used because Fir costs much less than oak. Then we find the total number of ships one can produce/day based on their wallet size and the hours required for the construction. This number is not constant, so I'm not including the figures. For this example, assume a wallet size of 1240 hours. From this, we figure the amount of each resource needed to make n number of ships/day and sum the cost of all the resources, the labor hours/day required to produce the resources, and the amount of xp/day. We can then figure the Real/Xp, or the real cost for 1 xp. Ships/Day = crafterWalletSize/shipLaborCost Real/Day = sum(nResource/ship*costResource*Ships/Day) Labor/Day = sum(nResource/Ship*0.8*Ships/Day) Xp/Day = xp/Ship*Ships/Day Real/Xp = (Real/Day)/(Xp/Day) * this figure is = (costResouces/ship)/(xp/ship) -> A constant, regardless of wallet size Ship Ships/Day Real/Day Labor/Day Xp/Day Real/Xp 1/Log(Real/Xp) Cutter 29 39334 2007 5825 6.75 1.21 Lynx 43 58323 2976 15479 3.77 1.74 Pickle 26 54534 2749 15448 3.53 1.83 Priv 32 69758 3281 15262 4.57 1.52 Tsnow 10 27290 1460 9364 2.91 2.15 Brig 19 78496 4028 15519 5.06 1.42 Tbrig 19 67674 3322 15519 4.36 1.56 LGV ? 31470 1753 5399 5.83 1.31 * Note the Labor/Day refers to labour needed to produce the resources, not the labor required to craft the ship. These are all based off the labor hours wallet of 1240. LGV was included to see how crafting a ship outside of the 6-7 rank worked. I removed some of the data when I realized it was not efficient in grinding XP. Then I realized that some people might want to see. I included the inverse log because I think it makes it slightly easier to visualize the relationship: X-axis refers only to the name of the ship, and not to a quantitative value. The Trader Snow has the best Real/XP with the Pickle as a close second. *Greater inverse log = less real cost per 1 xp* For a visualization of XP vs Cost, an additional chart. Again, the xp/day and cost/day is assuming you craft the maximum amount of ships you can afford with your ship crafter's labor wallet size. For example, with a wallet of 1240 one can make ~43 Trader Lynx or ~26 Pickles. Conclusion: From the data provided, it would appear that grinding Trader Snows a day is the most cost-efficient way to grind crafting to the max. At the lower craft levels you are capped by the surprisingly high labor hour cost for the ship construction. I'm not sure if this is deliberate, as all ships had labor hour costs reduced recently, and it seems odd that a Trader Snow takes more hours to craft than a Trader Brig. If cost is slightly less of an issue and gaining XP quicker is more of a concern then it would appear that the Pickle or Trader Lynx is the way to go (unless the resale value is higher on the lynx I would probably grind pickles because clicking all the prompts 43 times would be annoying.) I have done some ballpark figures with higher ranked ships, but the trend of Real/XP increase occurs. Additionally, even with large labor wallets, the number of ships decreases significantly - so even with the higher XP/ship you end up making less XP/day. This makes sense, as the higher ranked ships are more useable. Personally, grinding Trader Snows has been somewhat useful. You have an increased chance of crafting high end TSnows with speed perks, which make a useful addition to your fleet. I would grind TSnows until you have a good amount of fast trader vessels and then switch to something more XP/Day efficient. An additional note, crafting trading vessels is usually cheaper because they use less provisions than the non-trader version. All data on ships that have a trader version (tCutter, tSnow, tLynx, tBrig) are the data from the trader version. How can you use this data? I think this information can be useful for clans wanting to train new people or also for solo players that want to sponsor or shadow a newcomer. If you are using alts, this is helpful information as well, although limiting factors will be access to all resources necessary. As the crafter's wallet increases these costs will change, but the rates will not. The Real/XP is a constant, as these divide down to a per ship basis. Same with the inverse log, as this is just another way to assess the Real/XP figure. Next: The next obvious step is to craft one of each and sell them (with the perk that give +15% profit) and then figure which offsets the cost best. I have a feeling that making 43 Trader Lynxes would generate more income than 26 Pickles, but I haven't tested that yet. I do know that selling Trader Brigs nets ~1700/ship, for a total of ~31K if crafting the max number of TBrigs. That nearly cuts the cost of resources in half. I assume the same will go for all of the ships in this study - but I haven't tested it yet. To the team: Game-labs, are the labor hours for Trader Snows how they should be or did they get missed in the patch? Thanks everyone. Edit: If you want to know how many resources/reals/hours are needed to go from 0-50 crafting nothing but Pickles (208 of them) 0-50 Amount Reals Labor Oak 3328 33280 2662 Fir 8528 34112 6822 Hemp 5588 324104 4470 Iron 832 51584 665 Lig 208 7488 166 Stone 1016 14224 812 Coal 624 2496 499 Prov 11440 171600 9152 Totals 638888 25248 Or you could craft 505 Trader Snows over two weeks and pay~363,000 reals instead.

A small guide to stay safe(ish) while fighting bots These topics pop up on occasion: I'm green text in-game (chat mod) so I sometimes get contacted by frustrated players: Some sandbox pundits think people need a bunch of shiny PvE content to engage in the game and distract them enough to not minding playing the victim over and over: I think this is truly idiotic but the dudes honestly believe this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ People either like or feel forced to hump bots. “Pros” like to jump people doing it or ambush them as they come out. I have no sympathy for people who engage in such weak-ass PvP. This guide will help you reduce your exposure to such inane sandbox heroes. If you go out into OW you will be at risk, this is fine, the slower the ship the more exposed you are. If you’re one of those who likes to be left alone with your L’Ocean I can only help a tiny bit. Before you go out into OW synchronise Felix’ map with OW, it may help you orientate when coming out of an instance. Always note your heading when going into a fight, you’ll have the same heading when you get out. If possible make it easy for yourself to run to safety when you get out, after you’re done with the bots you have about 15 minutes to plan where to zoom with accelerated invisibility when you click out into OW. The admiralty Kill missions are private and people can’t jump you when you enter those (?), before clicking in point your ship towards where you believe you’ll have the most safety (reinforcement zone, ports, forts…). When you tag a bot in the reinforcement zone (R zone) you won’t be able to call in bots to help you and the forts won’t shoot at your enemy [correction: @Banished Privateer confirms that forts will shoot at enemy players] but your countrymen will have 30 minutes to come join and help you. If you’re jumped in the R-zone make sure to bring up the nation chat and tell everyone where the fight is, remember you can bring up chat inside the instance. If it’s the typical gank group try to waste as much of their time as possible, both to allow help to arrive but also to bore them as much as possible. They’re griefing you so feel free to return the favour: Fire ship, run, surrender or whatever you think will annoy them the most. Do not rage in chat because they feed on that. How to tag an OW bot or fleet. You should always scan the horizon, but be extra vigilant right before and if possible while the tag timer counts down. The two minute timer is long enough for ships beyond visual range to join before your fight closes, this only applies to windward ships so keep the keenest eye upwind. Make it a habit to tag with optimal wind position as that gives you a favourable fighting position or the option to extend and escape should you get jumped. Let the timer run for two minutes while you “escape” before engaging. The instance jumpers will inherit the relative bot position when they join and will have a hard time catching up with you. A gank group may have a smaller upwind sailer and with the weather gauge you’ll be able to seriously put out hurt on the small ships separated from their cavalry. If you’re chased by gankers in OW you can proactively tag bots with favourable wind and draw out the chase or get lucky and escape with accelerated invisibility. Don’t grow up to become a ganker or instance jumper yourself. That stuff is for the weak minds. You need real fights and shit like that won’t sustain you but rather rot your brain. ____ Made a youtube pretty out of this to make life harder for you shitheads... Bite me!

Introduction Building castles in the sky! I have just about 200 hours invested in this game. Most of that during the sea trials phase when there was no open world. I have spend 40-50 hours in the open world now. I have yet to actually win a PVP fight, or buy/craft a first rate. I'm not very high level.Nor have I played any other games similar to Naval Action, or worked on a dev team. Now, having said all that, here are my thoughts on what I would like this game to be in my own personal Utopia. If you agree with any of it, please comment, and maybe we will see it implemented in future. If you disagree, please keep it civil. Nations [N] I understand the desire of many people to sail under the flag of a certain nation. I love being able to fly the flag of my mother country myself, something that I'm not able to do in a lot of games. Having said that, I'm enough of a history nerd that seeing the "wrong" nations present bothers me. I'd like nations restricted to their historical starting positions. See [OW2] for ideas on nations. Having said all this, if we get a Baltic Sea "area" implemented, and the Russian nation decides to sail over and occupy Haiti, that's fine by me. Each nation should have a national government which should be made up of representatives from each of the three organizations. [See N 4-12 for organizations]The national government should have the ability to decide national policies through a voting system incorporated into the UI. This system would enable a player to make a suggestion, with a time limit for his fellow members to vote yay or nay. A majority of yays would mean the policy could go into effect on expiry of the timer. National policies - A limited list of ideas for what these could include: Raise / lower national taxes on x goods by x%. Create / cancel trade tariff of x% on x goods for x nation(s). Declare war on x nation. Sue for peace with x nation. Accept reject peace treaty / alliance with x nation. Offer alliance to x nation. Announce blockade of x nation's ports, making it illegal for citizens to trade with x nation, and making neutral ships within x distance of each port legitimate targets for citizens of blockading nation. Cancel blockade of x nation's ports. Issue warrant for player x with a reward of x for his capture. Each nation should be made up of players belonging to one of three organizations; the navy, the merchant marine or private captains. Clans should not be limited to players of a certain type, but should be able to recruit all kinds of players. The Navy - The navy should have a rank hierarchy. To rank up would need xp gained from missions issued by the ai navy, or from fighting foreign navies, much like xp are gained in-game now. Each rank would allow you to command larger ships, just like it does at the moment. I would like to see a few differences though - each rank should allow you to add more and or bigger ships to your fleet. Also, a navy player should not be able to command the largest merchant ships, and the rank requirements for merchant ships should be higher for each ship comparet to a player in the merchant marine. The ranks would also determine a players ability to initiate port battles and conquests, with larger battles reserved for the higher ranks. Battle and other groups should be limited in size by a player's rank. Players of the highest rank would be eligible for election to the national leadership. The national leadership of the navy would be responsible for setting priorities for the AI controlled national fleet, issue contracts for ship construction, and send representatives to the national government. The size of the leadership would be determined as a % of the number of players belonging to the navy and updated at intervals. AI fleet priorities - These would dictate the behavior of AI warships, and would be set by the leaders of a nations navy within the limits set by the national leadership. They could include trade protection, defensive patrols in x province, blockade duties of x ship type [warships/merchant ships] in x province. The priorities could be set as a % of each ship type assigned to the various duties. The decisions would be voted on by the navy leadership at regular intervals, and decided by a simple majority vote. AI ship construction - The navy leadership would issue contracts for warships, to be payed for using the national budget as determined by the national leadership at regular intervals. The contracts would be open for a set time, during which player crafters could build and sell ships to the navy at the set price. At the expiration of the timer the contract would be filled by AI crafters according to crafting capacity, and assuming the navy leadership set a price per ship that allows the AI crafters to make a profit. Player crafters, of course, could choose to meet orders at a loss, should they choose to do so. Player owned warships - Individual players would acquire their ships by crafting them, buying them on the open market, or buying them from the navy. Ships sold by the navy should be offered at ai determined prices, forcing the national and navy leadership to provide them at a loss, thereby making taxes and tariffs etc more relevant. The Merchant Marine - This organization should have an appropriate name in each nation. For example, the British merchant marine could be called the Honorable East India Company. Ranks in the merchant marine should govern the maximum crew and fleet size, as well as how many and what type of commercial orders can be created by a player. Merchant marine players should not be allowed to command the largest warships, and the rank requirements for warships should be higher than for players in the navy. The highest ranked players would be eligible for election to the board of directors of the merchant marine. Their responsibilities would include setting the insurance rates as a % of the value of the cargo transported by captains who desire insurance. The money made should go into a central account from which any claims would have to be filled. Merchant ship building - Merchant ships should be bought by the individual players from AI or player crafters. Merchant marine escorts- The board of directors would be responsible for issuing contracts for the construction of escort ships to be allocated to AI escort captains or sold to Merchant marine players who wish to take on that role. The ships would be payed for with money made from insurance profits, if available. Private Captains - These captains are free to play what ever role they desire in the nation. There should be no leadership for private captains, apart from the national leadership. Ship availability and crew/ fleet size should be dependent on player rank, and players should be restricted from owning the largest warships and merchant-ships. Letters of marque - These should be available for purchase by private captains, and be required in order for a player to purchase any but the smallest warships. Import / Export permits - These should be available for purchase by private captains, and be required for trade with ports outside the player's own nation. A separate document should be required for trade with each foreign nation. Sailing without a letter of marque / shipping contract - Sailing in a warship without a letter of marque would classify a player as a pirate and make him liable to be attacked by players of any nation as well as AI patrols. Sailing without an import/export permit would classify a player as a smuggler and make him liable to be attacked by a navy player of any nation as well as by AI patrols after his ship has been inspected. Outposts should be build-able by merchant players. Navy players should be able to build naval bases. Independent players should be able to build bases. Naval bases should have increased dock-space, but be unable to construct resource buildings such as farms. Outposts should likewise be limited to more civilian / trade focused buildings. Pirates Pirates should not be a nation. Piracy should be a legal status, as as such anyone wanting to play as a pirate should simply engage in piracy. It should not be possible to start the game as a pirate, although a new character could make himself a pirate instantly by illegally attacking a ship. Pirate havens - Pirates should not be allowed access to normal ports except through the smuggling mechanic. Instead, each island/ selected islands should have a hidden pirate cove. Players would identify these by engaging a mode in-game and sailing near / around an island for a sufficient time. Once identified, a pirate cove would be claimed by a pirate as his base, providing dock & warehouse space. Smaller versions of production buildings would be construct-able in pirate coves, reflecting the illegal nature of society in these places. I'm sure some unique ones could be imagined, making some form of profitable production possible for pirates. A cove could be shared by a number of pirates, such as a clan. Such groups would still not be considered nations though. Progression Different types of players should gain XP in different ways. I have listed the various player types above. Navy players should gain rank in the navy through earning combat XP. I see no reason to change anything about the way such XP are awarded at the moment. Navy players should earn less XP through trade. Let's say a 50% reduction, just for the sake of argument. Merchant players should earn XP through trade. Just like combat awards XP based on damage done, trade could award XP based on profits earned. Not simply on money made through selling things, but on actual profit. This would incentivize players to find profitable trade routes, as well as motivate them to sail farther afield despite the risks of piracy etc. Merchant players should earn less XP from combat. Let's say 10% of combat XP from battles where the merchant was the aggressor, and 90% from combat where the merchant was attacked by another player. After all, we don't want merchants to just linger in the safe zones! Diplomacy See [N 3] for how wars are declared, etc. Member(s) of the national leadership could be designated as a diplomat. A diplomat would use a UI function to propose/demand terms in order to agree a peace treaty. Once the dipomats have agreed terms, they would become available for ratification in the national leadership UI. All this should have real world time limits, enabling offensives, victories and losses to influence negotiations in progress. Diplomats should also be able to hammer out alliances using a similar system. Alliances should enable ships from separate nations to enter battles on the same side when fighting nations they are at war with. National leaderships should be able to define separate tarrifs for trade from allied nations. Intelligence Gathered by spies and networks established in enemy ports. Each spy/network would be able to gather only one type of intelligence. There ought to be four types of intelligence: Military, Commercial, Diplomatic and Technological. Military Intelligence- This would cover the number and type of ships based at the port as well as the number of troops and forts. Commercial Intelligence - This would cover stockpiles of goods, needs, availability and prices. Diplomatic Intelligence- This would cover any treaties, wars, orders, etc. currently in force. Technological Intelligence - This would cover the currently available technology, and perhaps give a chance to acquire same. Employing spies- Spies would be open world NPC's with skill levels and experience. They would be employable by players, nations, and companies. The employer would be charged a salary cost every day/month/year to keep the spy in his employ. Networks- A group of spies deployed in the same port by the same employer would form a network. The larger the network the more information it would be able to provide. The larger the network the easier it would be to detect. Counter-intelligence- A police chief/policemen would be other employable NPCs in the open world. They would limit the amount of intelligence enemy spies can gather, and also give a chance of capturing the spies working in a port. Ports and Capture Port capture should take place in phases. Phase one would require a declaration of war on the nation owning the port. Phase two would be a port battle as they are currently present in the game. In case the aggressor is victorious the next phase is enabled. Phase three would involve landing a force of soldiers to take control of the hinterland. The soldiers would have to be transported in on merchant ships, and there would be a timer for this activity. The troop transports would be intercept-able by defending ships. The number of soldiers necessary would be determined by the size of the target force, as well as any defending troops. If a sufficient number of troops are landed in phase three, the port is considered occupied. An occupied port contributes taxes to the occupying nation, and any buildings/ships are inaccessible to players from the original nation, except as per the smuggling mechanic. To gain permanent ownership of a port, it has to be ceded as part of an official peace treaty. This would slow down & hopefully limit zerging. Each port should have a governor. The governor would be responsible for local taxes and docking fees. He would be able to use this income to construct defenses and improvements. Possible improvements include infrastructure, such as roads which would give a bonus to any production buildings present. Housing, which would give a bonus to population growth. The governor could also invest in crop diversification, or introducing new industries, each of which would result in new production buildings becoming available. Each effort would have a real time implementation period, as well as a resource and money cost, and would have a chance of failure. Economy All ports should have a maximum capacity for buildings, determined by their population. Players should have priority in taking up this capacity, but any unoccupied capacity should be filled by AI producers. All goods should be produced in buildings either by players or AI. No goods should "drop" at any port. Goods should be transported by AI traders to meet first basic needs of ports lacking that good, and secondly luxury & production needs. Goods not produced in the Caribbean (or any other area)should need to be imported to that area from an area where such goods are available. All production buildings should be construct-able by players in ports where production of that good is possible. Production buildings should have needs. These could be basic, e.g. food for the workers, as well as advanced needs, e.g. a sugar farm would need slaves and fertilizer. These needs combined with the needs of the general population of the island would dictate prices in the local market. AI traders and small craft should follow routes designed to meet the needs of the cities. Sinking them should be a means of economic warfare, and protecting them should be important for players. The triangular trade was of enormous importance to the major powers at the time of the game. Thus I'd love to see it represented in-game. In case political correctness is a concern, slaves can be referred to as indentured labor. African indentured labor should originate in Africa, obviously, and Chinese indentured labor should be available from American ports. Historically the Chinese laborers arrived a bit later than the game period, but i suppose that can be forgiven. Players should be able to set up contracts offering loans of all kinds of money which would be repaid with interest determined by the lender. Players should be able to send trading ships on runs under AI control, to help keep important ports supplied. If a ship is lost under AI control it is destroyed. Goods transported this way would be sold to the shop in the target port, or delivered to the player's warehouse, depending on the player's choice when setting up the trade run. It should also be possible to ship owned goods from a warehouse in this way. More than one player should be able to join their AI ships together, creating convoys that sail together. It should also be possible to define the route taken by a convoy, and to drop off ships at ports passed. There should be an option to purchase insurance for any cargo. Insurance rates should depend on a player's history of successful or otherwise delivery of cargoes during his career. It should be possible for players to sell insurance to other players as well, at any rate desired. Crafting & Ships Each nation should rely mainly on ships historically employed by that nation. Blueprints for non-national ships should be more expensive to get - perhaps only obtainable through technology espionage. Upgrades should be craft-able, and dependent upon crafting level, so that only an expert crafter is able to craft the best upgrades. I do like the book system that we have now, so perhaps upgrades could be "learnt" from books, and then require a certain level to craft. Crew/Marines/Soldiers Crew should be recruit-able in ports subject to limitations of population size. Crew should be divided into categories according to skill levels - Landsmen (a small malus to re-load times, sail setting etc), Seamen (no bonus or malus), Able Seamen (a smal bonus) and priced according to their skill level. Lower leveled crew should be upgrade-able once they gain some experience. Crew should require food and water to be carried in a ship's hold. Lack of either should lead to crew deaths. Food and water should be consumed over time, limiting a ship's radius of action without replenishing these supplies from a port. Related to the above, relevant illnesses, such as scurvy, should be modeled, along with preventives, such as vitamin c rich fruits. Marines should be recruit-able for navy captains subject to the same limitations as crew. Soldiers should be recruit-able by port governors for defensive purposes subject to the same limitations as crew, and the availability of defensive buildings with spare capacity. They should also be recruit-able for merchant and private captains, subject to the same limitations as crew, for the purpose of port capture. Soundtrack I would love to be able to listen to a soundtrack of period music, including both instrumental/classical music popular at the time as well as shanties and sailor's songs in general. To make this even better, the soundtrack ought to reflect your nationality, so that a British captain would hear, for example, Hearts of Oak, but a Danish captain would not. Open World (OW) Spotting distance- I would like this to depend on the mast height of your ship, as well as the mast height of the other ships in the area. A cutter would not be as easy to spot as an SOL, etc. Related to this, I would like national flags to be rendered on open world ships, and I'd like the ability to fly a false flag. Just like in history, it should be illegal to fire at another ship while flying a false flag (unless you happen to be a pirate!), and there should be penalties for doing so. This would necessitate the creation of a system like the RN's private signal, or, in modern terms, IFF. A hotkey ordering the crew to hoist the private signal would do. The other ship would then respond, or not. A nice ( and i hope) simple way to introduce some more tension! Further, it would be nice if ships sank below the horizon, or vice versa, rather than pop in and out of view range. Size- this is definitely utopian, but hear me out. I'd like the world extended to the west coast of Africa and Europe, as well as southwards along the coast of South America. This would have several benefits. Portugal could become an in-game nation. The safe zones could be moved to the European coast for most nations. See other relevant sections for more detail. Alternatively a sort of off-map boxes could be used to achieve the same effect without having to create a huge map with all the problems that entails. Such a system could also be used to link a series of smaller maps, or theaters. The Caribbean would obviously be one. The Mediterranean could be another, the Baltic a third. Perhaps the English Channel and part of the North Sea would also be a nice addition. Off map boxes - These should rely on a teleportation mechanic that charges money and is not instant. I.e. to send a ship to the Baltic from the Caribbean could cost 50,000, and take 1 hour of real time to arrive. It should be possible to teleport ships with cargo in the hold when traveling to/from off map boxes. The same mechanic could be used to travel between separate map areas. This teleport should not work directly from port to port. Rather it should create a random-ish exit point on your current map. Once you reach that exit point the UI should prompt you in the same way it does on approaching a port, and by cicking the prompt you'd initiate the teleport. The player should be prompted to return to his outpost, like after losing his ship in battle (if the time delay mechanic is implemented). Winds- I would like the wind to be more closely based on actual weather patterns. With somewhat predictable winds, players will be channeled into certain routes/choke-points where PVP combat will naturally occur. Of course, due to the speeding up of time, real world patterns would not work well in game, but something similar to them, with an element of randomization would be very nice indeed. See here for animated wind map: http://yachtibis.com/caribbean-weather/ Ship inspection - Navy players and AI patrols should be able to perform an inspection by remaining close to a ship in the open world for a certain amount of time. Only after such an inspection is carried out should any smuggler status be revealed to the inspecting fleet. Ports- Each port should have a population. The size of the population would dictate the needs of the port, which in turn would dictate prices in that port's market. Shortage- A shortage of essential goods in a port should lead to a decrease in population in that port. Workforce- the available population should dictate how many production buildings can be constructed in that port. Exploration - The Caribbean was more or less fully explored in the geographical sense by our period. Exploration should follow the idea of the historical artifact good available now. These should be sub-divided into, for example, Mayan artifacts, Voodoo dolls, etc., as well as natural history artifacts, such as new species of insects etc. These should not be available in shops, unless they have been sold to the shop by a player. Instead, there should be fetch quests along the lines of the current sealed bottle mechanic. These should come from buildings available to governors to construct in their port. These buildings would be named after, for example, The National Geographic Society, depending on the nation. They could also be generated by ship's officers, with the relevant skill. Navigation - At noon each in-game day the ships position should be marked on the map. This should be weather dependent and in-exact to a degree. AI ships should spawn at ports, and require resources to build. Hence, if I sink an AI snow, the owning port would spend enough resources to rebuild that ship as it re-spawns it. AI ships should have proper missions. Hunt merchants, escort them, protect an area, etc. AI ships on a protection mission should attack players and other ai that intrude on their turf. There should be enough AI ships in the world to keep the economy going, but not so many that players can make no difference. Not that the role of the AI ships should be to keep the ECONOMY going, so simply to spawn as random targets! NPC Characters All NPCs should have appropriate skills, and be able to acquire more through leveling up. The employing player should be allowed to control the leveling up process, but if the NPC leaves his employ and is subsequently hired by a different player, it should not be possible for the new employer to re-arrange skills already gained. NPCs should be randomly generated and become available to employ in ports according to a logical system. A national capital should have more NPC available than other ports. The numbers generated should also depend on the type of port and the population level. NPCs should be transportable, just like the trade goods representing various persons we have in-game at the moment. There should be employable officers with a portrait and name available. Each ship should have slots for an appropriate number of named NPCs, effectively replacing the perk mechanic. Officer NPCs should give bonuses in suitable areas, according to the experience level of each officer. Each officer should have a chance of death in combat, and in case of capture should have a small chance of becoming available to the capturing player. Buildings should require NPC managers, with skill levels governing the output of a building. Each NPC should have, and gain as they level up, skills relevant to their position. The skills should provide bonuses and maluses, giving the officers a sense of personality. Example skills could be natural scientist, which would generate mini-quests that give the player a chance of acquiring valuable goods such as "insert name of rare butterfly here". More examples to come. Player Characters Avatar - Each player character should be represented by an avatar. I love the art style of the game so far, and I'd really enjoy a full length portrait of my captain wearing the appropriate uniform for his nation, rank and organization. Name - I'd love for each character to have a first name, a family name and a nickname. There should be some form of personalisation or role-playing aspects to a player character. The ability to buy a home in a port, preferably with a nice piece of art to enjoy. To find a wife, even if she is nothing but a portrait. To have children once a wife is present. These children could then grow up to be NPCs in their own right. In-game Encyclopaedia I would like to see one. I would like it to contain entries on the nations in the game, the history of their presence in the area, as well as entries on ports containing a brief history and perhaps basic information such as what production buildings are available there, populations size and type, current owner, etc. Sailing I'd like to see leeway modeled in the open world. I'd like to see the open world ability to sail directly into the wind changed to more realistic behavior. PVP I can't state strongly enough the belief that artificially encouraged pvp doesn't work well in an open world game. If you want merchants for pirates to attack you need an economy with appropriate game-play loops for traders to engage in. Rewards to motivate people to take the risk of being attacked by pirates. The economy is the bedrock on which the rest of this game should rest. Damage & Repairs In addition to sail damage I'd like to see rigging damage. To repair this would necessitate a new type of consumable. Crew damage should be split up into the various crew types outlined above, and dependent on hit location. Thus, chain to the sails and rigging would be much more likely to kill topmen. Damaged and destroyed cannon don't seem to have any impact after a battle at the moment. I'd this to be changed. I'd like to see weather damage to rigging and sails, as a consequence of raising too much sail in strong winds. Missions Passenger mission. Port to port. Fishing contract. Catch x amount of fish. Issued by ports lacking in food and at risk of population shrinkage. Ships Fishing vessels. Ability to convert traders cargo space to horse/cattle transport. Add passenger capacity to all ships. Ability to convert cargo hold to troop transport I'm done for now. I reserve the right to add more ideas, should any occur to me.

Everyone should be able to play on its own since he paid for this game (it's not a free to play kind of, remember?). The prices of the in-game items are insanely high and require a ton of grind to acquire. Also, you have to fix the ships' durability because it's no fun to try HOURS AND HOURS to buy or craft one and then lose it in a matter of minutes.

I also have some serious issues with this game right now and the only reason I'm still playing is because I hope change is coming soon. This was inspired by @Crayon and his thread "Final Suggestion". I started writing this as a reply to his post, but then this wall of text appeared so I decided to make a suggestion of my own. Issue 1: Sailing is to time consuming I love the OW part of this game, but when ship TP was totally removed sailing time increased to much. We should have gotten to keep the after maintenance tow of empty ships between national ports. That is a hard one to exploit and it provides us with a reason to RvR (take a region near a PvP hotspot = you players get content). Issue 2: The cost of it all and the grind to cover it The cost of ships is to expensive, but I like the permits. It limits the use of over-sized ships in OW. Some will say that it takes to much materials to craft the ships when we consider that they only have 1 durability, but that is only because we compare it with how it was pre wipe. The main issues as I see it is in the cost of crafting the resources together with the insane amounts we need of Fir, Oak, iron, and hemp it to make the materials. Then add that is is a extreme grind to make gold at the moment and the fun is lost. Because we all need ships, cannons, crew, hull repair, rig repair and rum. Collecting half of the resources I need to be able to craft this is extremely expensive, I think I need around 500.000 gold to empty out fir log, oak log and iron ore building once, those are level 1! And you need huge amounts of iron ore, fir log and oak log. I lose ships with repairs and cannons on them, all the time! This is forcing me to spend way to much time grinding and trading. I used to like grinding because it was something relaxing I could do on my own or with my clan mates, and it would give me the gold I needed to buy the shit I wanted for PvP. Back then I crafted my own ships to, it was easy in the good old days. I even used to enjoy trading once in a while to mix thing up a bit.. Now there is no option, I have to grind until I'm sick of it and then go out and trade. I do not want to be forced to do this. The game is no longer fun.. It is broken! Issue 3: It is not easy to compete with free stuff Yes we got back the option to capture AI ships up to 5. rate and that is great, but this was necessary because the cost of crafting ships and cannons was not properly balanced in the first place. And we no longer have enough players to have healthy price competition in the marked. But now all the crafters who make and sell ships (7. - 5. rates) in the nation marked while they try to rank up their crafting level has to compete with captured ships. That is free ships that include cannons and loot opportunity.. It is not easy to compete with that! Issue 4: PvP is a unrewarding gold and time sink, unless you are a ganking-son-of-a-bau-itch The repair meta is making it very hard to kill good opponents when they have the skill books and upgrades to buff repair. And if they have more players than you do, I would say it is almost impossible. The days of losing 25 ships in PBs are over, just not possible unless they all decide on committing suicide. Because the hull, sail and rum repairs are so OP! And we can use them unlimited amounts of times with a cool down, and bring way to much repairs with us. So after most of my PvP battles I get 0 gold and 0 xp. Either I just lost a ship or the hello kittytard I was fighting understood what was about to happen and escaped. Only time I get a reward from PvP is when I'm with other players and we have the BR advantage. This is forcing us to gank, often single players that are new to the game. This is a part of the game that is destroying the player base.. And if the only way I can be rewarded for PvP is if we gank players, then I don't want to do OW PvP anymore. I understand that the devs wanted to make the PvP system less exploitable for players who are farming their alt accounts. The problem is that now the OW PvP part of the game is unbearable for some of us. So it is basicly killing of the new and old players at the same time.. I do not have a solution for this, but by starting to correct some of the issues over here would seriously help imo. Ideas to help with these issues: To be honest regarding repair I preferred the old 1 repair for hull and 1 for sail system, with no magic comeback for crew. Balancing the system we have now is not easy, but if I had to try I would increase the weight of hull and rigg repair to 2 weight per repair and rum to 0.5 weight. That way we can not bring so much and it is a more a tactical choice what we bring and how much. Then I would nerf the stock repair percentage it self by half or increase the cool down to 20 minutes. Or preferably a little bit of both, so 15 min cool down and reduce the health repair to 2/3 of what is is now. I would like to have the material needed for the normal PvP and newbie ships and cannons reduced. 7. rate and up to 5. rates. This is needed for crafters to be able to compete better with the option to capture ships, to lower the cost of ships for use by new players and to help reduce the cost/risk in PvP. Reduce the cost of crafting resources to 25% of what it is now or increase the gold we get from PvE, a lot (a a balance is needed). A balance I would like to see is 1 hour PvE grinding (in the Indefatigable, 2 fleet missions) should be enough to get you all the resources for a Frigate with cannons, repairs and rum. If you make that in to 1,5 hour PvE grind you should have enough gold for resources to buy what ever wood combo you want Trinco with long cannons, 100 rigg repairs, 100 hull repairs and 250 rum. I'm guessing the cost for all of this just in resources is around 300.000 gold. So this would add up to 5. rate fleet missions should pay out 100.000 gold net (after repair and crew). Some of you will say that this is to much and to easy, and we would get a inflation for sure. But IMO it is time to go to the other extreme again, because what we have now is not working. I also think that grinding PvE should be close to as rewarding as trading is. That way the player can chose what he wants to do, and not be forced to trade/afk sail around the map.

Now, this may have been suggested elsewhere, but as I've not the time nor interest to trawl through every single thread and read every single post, I'm going to throw this out here as a suggestion and gauge the reaction to it; there may be flaws in it that I've not seen. The problem below is what I've gathered from reading threads about the forum recently (I can't be in-game currently), that the grind and access to ships is an issue, particularly progression from 7th Rates to 6th Rates. This is not an answer to solve the problem entirely, but it could help. On to the issue at hand... Free ships for all! Problem: This appears to be two-fold but centered around the 'grind'. Firstly, it is difficult for new players, unaffiliated to a clan and lacking knowledge of the game, to progress from the fore-and-aft ships to square-riggers. Secondly, replacing ships can be difficult, which makes PvP unattractive due to low rewards and the difficulties from losing a valuable asset. Frederiksen's Answer: Free ships. Alright, more detail below. Now, I'm not advocating everyone having access to every ship for free. That is ludicrous. However, what if, what if the game gives you access to a free ship depending upon your rank. It is a simple concept. Currently we have the Basic Cutter. Brilliant, a free ship with free crew and repairs and is not for PvP, but gets new players started and can be used as a barge to get around for ranked up players. What if, once you reached the relevant rank for the crew numbers, the game gave you access to an Oak/Oak Sixth Rate, perhaps the Brig. The ship is free, purchased just like the Basic Cutter, but you must pay to arm it, crew it, repair it, same as a normal ship, but it is free for you to get hold of. You don't get a choice in wood types of which Sixth Rate, maybe you can't mount permanent upgrades on it and its 'knowledge' upgrades are restricted to, say, 3 boxes. That makes the free Brig viable in a basic sense as a ship to take to PvP or PvE, you can waste it in PvP without issue and get another. Yay! Taking this further, it could be done as well for Fifth Rates, maybe the Cerberus is available as a free ship, or the Renommee. It would also follow the same procedure; you pay for the crew and repairs but to get it it is free, but you lack choice in wood types, etc. Now, where this falls down is the potential for 'spam', as we saw with Basic Cutters; using a free ship to attack ships with no loss for the people using the free ship. How do we counter this? A cooldown? You can only have one free Sixth Rate per 24 hours, one free 5th Rate every 48 hours? It still gives a leg up but means that if you lose it you will need to buy a replacement ship. In short: Positives When you rank up you can 'buy' a Sixth (and maybe Fifth) Rate for free at the relevant rank (when you'd have enough men to crew it) in port, same as the Basic Cutter. This free ship has a set wood/wood type, perhaps no permanent upgrades and limited knowledge upgrades. Repairs, crew, cannon etc. are paid for as usual but the ship itself is free. Combined with other ways of incentivising PvP (decent rewards) it gives a fallback option for PvP/PvE that isn't back to square one in the Basic Cutter. Can treat it as the ship issued to you by your nation's navy (goodness knows what excuse the pirates would have, but hey). Leaves player-made ships being worthwhile as they can be customised by wood types, will have all of the upgrade/knowledge slots available to you (if you have the knowledge) and can be an investment, but if you need a free ship for some PvP, boom! You have an option. Perhaps this could be introduced for a free 7th Rate ship beyond the Basic Cutter to give new players a sense of progression. These ships cannot be traded or captured (suggested by @The Wren). Negatives Would need a means of preventing spam (my suggestion being a cooldown). It is giving stuff away for free. Anyone think of anything else that would be a problem with this? As always, thoughts on a postcard, address being the reply box below.

To get the very powerful ship knowledge slots the game encourages you to grind PvE. Only PvE, everything else is super inefficient. That sucks. How can we change that? Make it so that you can unlock 2 ship knowledge slots through PvE XP, 2 through PvP XP (fights only counts when enemy has at least 80% of your BR to discourage ganking) and the last slot through money or portbattles. This would mean more PvP and less stupid and boring grind.

@admin I suggest bringing Ship durabilities back, but somewhat modified. Since there are 3 types of Port Battles i suggest the following: Unranked, 7th and 6th rate ships: 3 Ship Durability 5th and 4th rate ships. 2 Ship Durability 2nd and 1st rate ships: 1 Ship Durability That way, on lower levels, the loss of a ship is not quite as harsh and unforgiving. It would be more forgiving to new players, and keep them in the game longer. Also, i might suggest the loss of a percentage of the cannons, disabled during battle, say 25-30% of the cannons (barrels get damaged, carriages get shot to splinters).

Howdy Folks, Personally, I hate the new system of having to unlock Knowledge Slots of certain ships to then be able to unlock the Slots of other ships. It annoys me to be forced to drive something to make something else better. To me, it takes sand out of the box. As soon as I'm done with the Brig I'll never drive one again (until another wipe and I have to do it again...) But since this is the way it is now, I'll deal with it. That said, it would be nice if the Experience you get from Sailing between ports, would also be added to the specific Ship Knowledge experience. I mean, I got that experience sailing that boat, why don't I get that experience on that boat? It would be a great help to alleviate some of this new grind as well as get me personally out of a ship I absolutely detest sooner (the Brig).

Dear Devs, PLEASE change the running system of inter-dependent ship XP gaining, because of the following reasons (anybody else who thinks the same please add other reasons you have): 1. For me it's a massive "fun-killer" in this game to grind XP on lots of ships i don't want to sail, just to get the upgrade slots to the maximum on vessels i would really like to sail! 2. For me it's a massive "time-killer" too - Naval Action takes time, yes, but on the contrary to trading and so on, this grinding for XP feels useless and boring to me. 3. If you play Naval Action - for a certain amount of time - you have to sail in smaller ships or ships you propably won't use again later on. Everyone has (had) these time, that's ok. But the current inter-dependent XP system prolongs this period artificially in such an extreme way that it feels everything else but ok. 4. The grindig in it's current state can't be supported by historical data: Back in the days, to become captain of a ship of the frigate-class for example, noone would have had to sail every differnt kind of lower classified vessel. AND if someone has already been captain of a certain frigate he wouldn't have to sail a lower classified ship again just to be able to get the command of a frigate different to the one he sailed at his last command. Because of these reasons please abolish or at least change that system! You could change it like this for example: A. Make it easyser, better fitting to historical data and much less a grind, if you change it, so that everybody needs just to sail a random ship of one tier to be able to get every ship of the next tier to maximum upgrad slots. For example: If one sails a cutter, lynx or other 7th rate to the maximum amount of freed upgrade slots, he / she would be able to do so with every 6th rate and so on. B. If you want people to sail small ships open areas where they just could sail 7th rates because of extreme shallow waters (someone else has already mentioned this idea in the forums i think) and abolish that whole system of inter-dependent ship XP. I really like Naval Action but in this particular case i beg you: Please take ACTION to make it a LOT better!

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!

Hi Like in the title. I've backed this game from the time of sea trials and there was not so much plp in the game, thtas because it was not realesed and there was never a problem whit getting in on server. But now game is out on steam and there is so much more plp who wants to play, and thats gr8, but I have some gold on server 1 and I cant get log in to it because it full so I get in to server 2 and f&*^ yeah I on whit my exp, basic cutter and 0 gold! I know that this is maybe because of the multi acconts thats can be used to exploit that feature, maybe. I dont have a time to play the same gind on three difrent severs, I need monye to buy a ship on other servers!!! OR AM I DONIG SOMETHING WRONG? CHeers, gr8 game.

So your new here and all you have is a starter ship with 8 or 12 guns. You've tried your hand at fighting bots but they turn and shoot well enough to get you in trouble. You don't have a lot of gold and your ship is fragile... What to do? Capturing ships can help speed up your grind, you can sell them or sail them. I recommend you go out and find a Pickle, it's such a sturdy and comfy ship to level your character up to Jr. Lt. or Lt. Once you're there you can set your eyes on the Brigs or the Mercury. There are many ways to capture a ship. I will demonstrate one way to do it, one that's easy to explain and execute with minimal damage done to your ship and crew. This tactic works for all smaller vessels trying to board a bigger. I've tested this with a Yacht versus a Mercury and it worked but the Merc will make you sustain quite a bit of damage. It can be done with mediums, longs and carronades. I've chosen long guns for this demonstration because they allow you to fight at a safer distance. This is for bot bullying, don't do this against players - They will either run away or beat you silly. We start out downwind for maximum stupid bot fighting comfort, go gunnery mode and load chain: Then we start to work on his sails to bring them down and make him pop his repairs. Alternate from side to side. Notice how I stop or reverse my turns as he is firing, it works to throw off his aim and preserve your planking. Keep at it for a while and his sails will drop below 50%. Now his sails are at 25% and I work my way upwind: I'm upwind, he's not happy. Time to change to doubles and smash him up a bit: The idea now is to get behind him and take down his stern planking. It could be placebo, but I have the impression it's easier to kill crew by sternraking with the armor down, in any case it doesn't hurt your efforts to take it down. Please forgive my manual sails, it was unintentional. But, hey! It demonstrates how easy it is to deal with a chained bot even if you slip up a bit Now I switch to grape and stay glued on his stern. Notice how I mainly use the "T" key for depowering staysails to stay where I want to be. This is probably the trickiest part if you're inexperienced. Watch the crewcount as I singleshoot his stern. after 2 broadsides he's down to 10 guys and I hit "9" to prepare for boarding. There! Capped a Pickle almost unharmed. Level up to Lt. in your captured Pickle and repeat the above to get a Brig or Mercury. Good luck!