Search the Community

I know devs are dealing with NPC behavior and intend to teach them "new tricks". I applaud to anything on that field, if even present NPC act very convincingly at times. We are used to call AI "dumb" in the tradition of three decades full of examples given by game industry history, but the NPC in Naval Action are quite an exception which makes hope for the future. Still, we can shape their behavior for more human likeliness. Fleeing is a reasonable human reaction when things go wrong and the opponent is stronger. We have traders fleeing per definition, which seems right. But what about war ships which are apparently outgunned and outclassed? Why do they always fight till death when any sane mind as captain would disengage and retreat? So what I ask for is: (1) Diversity. There would be warship captains always willing to fight, even larger vessels (of players), like now. But there would be a percentage which would turn and attempt to run. The bigger the difference in class to player ship, the higher the percentage of a random decision taken in favor of flight. (2) Situation-related switches. A NPC captain who was bold enough to fight us, even if he commands only a frigate and we have a 3-decker, would realize the odds are strongly against him, after receiving 2 - 3 broadsides and realizing his hull armor is done for. So introduce a (still random) decision by AI to break off the fight when it becomes pointless and threatening for their ship. They will turn away and attempt to flee. (3) Numbers matter. The strength in numbers in a NPC fleet could be of significance. People who see themselves as part of a group act more courageous than when being alone. Obvious why - chances are simply higher for a crowd, every wolfpack knows this. So larger NPC fleets should show more courage than little flotillas or solo ships when facing players. Means, the decision to switch to flight attempt is less likely to happen among bigger groups, except when odds are really hopeless (fleet of 7th rates against bunch of lineships). NPC are also proud captains, they fear being called cowards by their colleagues. But after you sank half of them, their assessment of the situation should somehow change and a retreat being ordered. -- Now players will most likely whine they want easy targets and no more NPC running away, as it is harder to sink them then. On the other side, the challenge is higher and the fight more enjoyable if you don't face suicidal squads but more appropriate human-like behavior. Also human player fleets need then new compositions. Not only heavy-weight brawlers hitting suicide applicants, but a mix of tanks and fast chasers (like it is done on the PvP side of heaven), where the accompanying hunter frigates chase the fleeing opponents and try to keep them in battle (shooting sails, tagging, maybe destroying them by themselves when they are strong enough). So more versatile NPC behavior including decisions to retreat creates more tactical fleet composition, other than the usual group of x L'Oceans, and decisions in battle on players' side. Like registering when a NPC decides to run away and what to do as response. In the sum, more interesting fights than just "sealclubbing" small fry NPC. -- Like most of my late proposals, this suggestion mainly is directed to PvE Peace Server environment. I leave it to others to think about how this would work out on PvP War Server.

Currently, when a NPC captures a player ship, they leave it with zero crew in battle instance and it is gone, if you don't have someone capturing it back for you in same battle. For obvious reason, this is impossible in solo fights and I would figure there it happens most of the time and less so in team fights. Now what I want to propose is, NPC would not only transfer decent number of crew to a captured ship (and use it in battle!), but also take the ship with them into OW once the battle is closed (and they win/survive). Why? - Because it would mean a nice challenge to capture your ex ship back from NPC. It creates hope. Your ship may be a gold ship with premium upgrades on it and what not in port boni and seasoned woods. The NPC formation you fought would take that ship with them, repair it and crew it to max, just like it were a standard NPC ship. So it will be hard to capture back in any following battles done with that particular NPC fleet. And other players may discover that ship earlier than you back in OW and also capture it. Nice surprise - you find a strange ship in a NPC group, unexpectedly, and you know it used to be a player ship... you may keep it for yourself or give back/sell it to original owner, if he claims it in chat... I imagine there would be a time window for your ex ship to sail around with that NPC group, like two hours. And then really gone for ever. Or make it stay with the group until next maintenance. Ex player ship will not spawn again with that group, it will be a unique one-time addition free for the taking. Perhaps DLC ships would need to be exempted from that because of possible exploits in changing hands. Optional: surrendering working the same way: ship joins NPC group until retaken later by yourself or another player, or destroyed by another player, or expired with maintenance. -- Idea is primarily for PvE peace server, you PvP heroes will know if it fits your server or not.

There are times of the day when the population is low and its hard to find a player to fight- would it be possible to increase NPC traffic at these times to give us something to fight against? Maybe even mix up NPC ship classes more than usual? If I log in the last few hours before server reset- sometimes I can't find any NPC's or players-- and I either log off or fall asleep. To have things to do during slow periods might aid in player retention or encourage players to log in at off times for a different experience. I am not sure if this would be difficult to program or not.

Some people ask the open world to be more lively. Here is one way to add life to the sea and even connect a gameplay purpose with it: Generate small boats which appear randomly on the ocean, preferably closer to islands and shorelines, less so on distant waters. Upon sighting, you would need to close in and investigate further about the nature of that boat. Or ignore it completely and treat it as 'decoration' - your choice. When investigating, you find the boat to be one of three sorts: (1) fishing boat (2) smuggler boat (3) longboat with rescued crew of some sunk ship How you do interact with them? First of all, there is no battle instance with them, because they are too insignificant to enter fight with a big ship. They all get spawned in OW like AI fleets, but stationary and without a route for them. After ten minutes or something they vanish again. You just see them floating on a spot, waiting for you to contact or to ignore them. They don't show national flags, you have to get close to find out whose nationality they have. Fishing boats act as local 'memory' of the game, who store for a time a recording of who came across them and into which direction, within a certain diameter of their view. So you make halt at the fisher boat and interrogate them when you suspect an enemy was passing by. They will tell you size of ship (large, medium, small) and direction he took, roughly (West, Nordwest, Southeast etc). So when you are pursuing an enemy, the fishing boats, if there are any, give you clue where to head while chasing a disappeared enemy. This can be very helpful tracking a hiding opponent. Foreign fishing boats may give you deliberately wrong info or refuse to give any info at all if they have the same nationality as the chased enemy. You may now threaten to sink them if they don't tell. Chance will show if they do or still refuse. Upon refusing they get sunk. This hurts your reputation counter (I mention this here only in case we ever get a sort of 'honorable conduct counter' which measures actions according to honor of the captain). A cooperating fishing boat of your own nationality may even offer you information upon sight without you having to ask first, you will see them signalizing for you to come closer and get the message. Smuggler boats look just like fishing boats (they like to disguise) but serve criminal purposes along the shores and between islands. They give you some loot if you stop by and confiscate their illegal cargo. Cutters, Lynxes, Pickles and Privateers are far more efficient in arresting smuggler boats, so the loot will be bigger if you use small ships of this type to hunt smuggler boats (make small craft great again...). After arresting, smuggler boats disappear from waters, you don't capture a boat for use by yourself, as they are no ships in the sense of game mechanics, but local spawn tokens. To spice smuggler boats up a bit, let's have them carry sometimes permits from Admiralty they have stolen somewhere. Bringing up smuggler boats is honorable in the eyes of your government and thus brings you positive reputation too. You act as law enforcement (again, last remark refers to a honorable conduct counter we don't have yet). Longboat with rescued crew you may interpret as leftovers of any battles happening around you in open world. They head for the next shore to safety. If they share your own nationality, you may help them by giving some of your 'fishmeat' as provisions and thus get a positive impulse for your honor counter. Or you take them aboard and add crew this way to yours. In case they belong to an enemy nation, you may take them prisoner and receive a reward from Admiralty for it. Sometimes a famous person may be on board of that longboat, which will significantly increase the respective effect. You earn the gratitude of that celebrity, the gratefulness of your government - or the wrath of the enemy nation. As with the other boat types, you may simply ignore them and pass by, taking them for open world decoration and you won't be bothered. -- And before someone tells in the comments "we have other things to address now", I tell you suggestions don't have a "best consumed before XXX" date, but can be used any time and resurface from a drawer when they suit. Don't choke the flow of imagination. C'est même gratuit.

Earlier this year, devs announced aggressive NPC would come to the game, including PvE Peace Server. Then the idea got canceled. Lately we hear admin mention "limited aggression" would come, in context with protecting noobs (assumedly in home waters at the capital). I welcome aggressive NPC anywhere, considered they estimate when they have a chance and if positive, decide to hunt players. But I know part of the PvE Peace Server community is against aggressive NPC or want to decide themselves, when the battle is happening and when not. The best solution for this dilemma is an individual decision taken by every player. So, just like in the suggestion I made earlier about the 'consensual duel' thing between players, I think a switch in game settings can solve this. So players find in their game settings two sliders which let them determine if and by whom they can get attacked NPC-wise (and still, you can combine that with the mentioned other idea about duels, in same interface). First slider lets you chose: - I allow no NPC to attack me, ever - I allow only 7th rates to attack me if they see fit - I allow 6th - 7th rates to attack me if they see fit - I allow 5th - 7th ... - I allow 4th - 7th ... - I allow 3rd - 7th ... - I allow 2nd - 7th ... - I allow all ship rates to attack me if they see fit Second slider in conjunction with first slider (which gives precondition) lets you chose: - I allow only single ships attack me - I allow 1 - 2 ships attack me - I allow 1 - 3 ships attack me - I allow groups up to 6 ships attack me - no restrictions on NPC group size attacking me The decision to play with NPC aggression being switched on may result in rewards being added to the standard pay-off in case you succeed. Like random mission chests being awarded or for people with all ship rates and all group size aggression being allowed may receive even gold chests as random reward after such battles (not everytime, just a chance you can hope for). Your slider settings don't prevent you from joining fights other people may have with NPC enemies, they only work for initiation of battle on yourself.

Please increase the NPC spawn rate on the PVE server. Its it beyond ridiculous to have to sail for hours at time to find no target or just huge fleets. There is no reason not to do this. Thank you

Hi all, I have one suggestion to improve the gameplay providing more content for hunters and traders alike. My proposal is to allow players to send a ship or even a fleet of ships to another port. These ships should appear in the open world actually sailing to the assigned port as NPC ship/fleet. Obviously, there is the risk that the ships are attacked by players and eventually sunk. But hey, that's life! When the ship/fleet arrives in the assigned port, the player may take control of the ships again. The ships sent abroad should be allowed to carry cargo to facilitate trade and allow transferring goods to distant places also. Implementation of this feature is not very demanding in my point of view. Instantiating a NPC fleet from the ships assigned for the journey should be easy. Setting the route to be sailed by the ship/fleet to an arbitrary port is not quite straightforward, but there could be limitations as to which port is available from which (maybe only player's outposts?). Perhaps AI fleet routings need to be fixed, but this is an issue that should be on the agenda anyway to deal with the AI sailing through land 😉 The concept allows players to reach distant harbours without forcing them to stay in game which is in my point of view a major reason for potential players quitting the game (or not even starting it). PVE now has a meaning: There would be a lot more NPC ships out there on real, meaningful missions. The ships would be loaded with goods valuable for a player (not random goods) encouraging privateering. And stealing those goods actually has an impact, e.g. on crafting goods supplies or repair supplies for supporting RVR. More PVP content as players would start organizing convoys to escort AI fleets and secure their trade and supply routes which brings more PVP content. If the idea proves itself, maybe even the tow function can be disabled. Then, port battle logistics would change dramatically, as you would not risk sending your 1st rates unescorted. It would no longer be possible to have a whole fleet of battle ships pop up out of nowhere for a port battle or to raise/counter hostility in a far-away region. Battle ships could be intercepted while on the way. The whole RvR gameplay would require a lot more strategic planning. I'd love to see this in the game! Looking forward to your feedback! Cheers, van Veen

Just a thought, if AI ships/fleets could report sightings of players to their respective Nations, in an "AI Reporter" a similar chat box to Combat News. So say a Spanish AI is sailing along and a French player is within its sight, the AI reports something like, "French ship 20 k's SE of Turneffe" to the Spanish Nation. This would open up a whole new way to play and add to content in my opinion. Thoughts?

I boarded 2 NPC traders today and thought I captured them. On the second one a Trader Snow, I even put minimal crew on it and upon closing found I didn't have the ship in my fleet. I did have the open & empty fleet spot for it. Are NPCs still capturable?

This Npc sailors...

Just as the title says.. Have you ever... EVER!! seen or heard about such a "patrol"!!!! in naval history??!!

Hi there, One thing that I've noticed since the update is that the map is now crawling with NPC 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Rates (I sail primarily on the American coast in PvE, so that's my frame of reference). It's certainly good to see these as primarily in smaller squadrons rather than the gigantic Trafalgar fleets as was the case previously, but it seems there are considerably fewer NPC merchantmen and smaller warships in the new update. Since capital ships were relatively few even in the largest navies (Britain at the height of her power after Trafalgar had only 100 ships of the line of varying sizes in the entire world) and because the emphasis in Naval Action seems to be more on independent cruising and trading, perhaps it would be possible to have more prowling frigates and cruisers with plenty of ripe merchies for the taking, rather than so many heavy line-of-battle ships? Thanks-- PS--any chance the next update could include the tweaks to USS Constitution as outlined in the topic "USS Constitution spritsail?"

There is any chance to implement manilla galleons fleets when Pacific finally get open? Will be nice to try to intercept big and strong NPC fleets with lots of loots. Btw, why dont implement too the great spanish armadas (armada de barlovento, armada de guarda, armada de la carrera de las indias, armada de nuestra señora de guía)? Right now, the NPC traders just dont worth nothing. I know there is a huge effort to just get rid of NPC traders (and i really like the idea) but with the average pop of players it cant be done for a long time without break the game, because OW stills empty enough to do it.

Before the patch this was a problem, after the patch it seems to have gotten worse. Shoot an NPC ship to bare numbers: sails < 65%, crew < 10, hull < 50% and that ship can still turn fast through the wind out run me and has become nearly impossible to board. Last night, I was in a battle with a trader snow, had their sails down to 63%, hull was probably about 30%, crew was 2 and that ship was flying around as if it were 150% manned. Before the patch it would take me 30 to 40 minutes of careful chain shots and grape to get the ship to boarding stage. Last night I almost ran out the 1.5 hour battle timer and still couldn't board. NPC's need to be more realistic AND surrender.

Yesterday, as I was heading back to my home base to log off, I got disconnected and my internet connection was severed for a few minutes. As I logged back in, my ship has lost a durability and was sitting in a port near where I disconnected. Apparently while being disconnected, I got attacked by an NPC ship, which was not in sight when I disconnected. (I am kind of sure it was NPC, the area I was in is not very popular with enemy players and I got attacked there by other NPCs earlier) Could it be technically possible for the NPC ships to avoid attacking timed out players? I am okay with that you can't just pop out of the map with logging off when you see someone attacking, and I am okay with losing a ship in any way, but this kind of loss only creates frustration.

Just something I've noticed, I know there's a good bit of griping about the huge amounts of sail/reload debuff we experience when our crews are killed past about 10%, and I'm sure that will be reworked sooner or later, but what's bugging me is that NPCs are almost immune to the crew debuffs. Earlier myself and several fleetmates were graping a Surprise to board it, and it was matching our rate of fire and tacking masterfully despite having 60 crew left. Were one of us in this state we'd have no choice but to disengage because reloading would take about 6 hours. I understand that the NPCs must present a healthy challenge to players or else everyone will be sailing around in captured heavy frigates and ships of the line, but excruciating crew losses for NPCs (especially in the realm of 25% crew remaining) should have quite a bit more pronounced effect on the ship. Having a 25% crewed ship that can tack like a dream and fire a broadside every half-minute is a bit of a stretch.