Elbows

I would definitely like to see more of a useful description of the ships. Even if it's just combat-rating, or a generic "firepower, armour, speed" value. The game doesn't give much to the player in terms of information.

Absolutely not. If we went to subscription based, I'd leave (and none of my friends who are about to buy-in, would). No thanks.

I'm going to get down-voted here a lot, but I do think what's more at issue is that the models themselves are not that good. I appreciate limited resources/time/etc. it takes to model the ships. Coming from racing simulators and flight simulators etc. the ships in the game are not really high-level simulator art. They're decent ship models, but they could use a lot of work to become more aesthetically legitimate. I do think some weathering would be nice, but revamping the models would be even better.

I'd definitely like that.

Disclaimer: Been following Naval Action for quite some time, only have 30 hours play-time. Most of these suggestions are aimed at the game atmosphere and not so much the technical aspects of certain functions. Most of my feedback is based on the PVE server. I admit, sadly, that the game is a bit less than I'd imagined having watched a lot of videos and thought what would naturally be in a game of tall-ship combat. I'm quite sure most of these suggestions have been made already, just wanted to make it easier for admin/people to read the feedback. There must be alternate forms of XP gain. Be it trade/exploration/diplomacy etc. Whilst I'm not opposed to combat, the grind is...well, it's a grind. The game needs to offer far more to keep it mixed up and lively. My 30-hours have been very much rinse-repeat with little variety. Tagging onto the above, there needs to be a concerted effort to make the game worth exploring. As it stands now there is zero impetus for a player to take his ship from one end of the map to the other. Missions or objectives need to be available, or simple XP gain per port. I'd like to see a trade mission "Bring X amount of Y to this Port - gain 250 XP" ---- and have the target port a good 1.5-2 hours of sailing away. Give some purpose for long distance trade missions if you're willing to put in the time. Visit a few extra ports on the way to scoop up a little extra XP. At a stretch, I'd like to see Whaling or rescues at sea, or small sporadic instances which add some kind of surprise to the game. Ship customization, albeit kept within the realm of reality. I fully support naming ships, but also support limitations put on such. I'd like to see 2-3 colour schemes for each ship. I'd be fine if these were assigned to the ship when built, I don't necessarily need to choose them myself. But each ship bearing the same exact colour scheme is a little odd (unless you opt to go for a single scheme per country which would also be fine) I'd desperately like to see coastlines in the battle screens, occasionally even small islands. If a battle is fought within a certain radius of a coast, I'd like it to play a part. Use the same graphical contents used for Open World. This could provide actual shallows, perhaps a few inlets etc. to mix up the fight. I'd be fine with 4-5 pre-designed coasts, I don't need a hundred different variations. I'd like to see a lot more work done on the damage model. Sail damage is fine, but damage to ships is hard to see and often you don't even get a cannon-ball impact hole to indicate you've struck the ship. Hand in hand with this, I'd be fine with removing the health-bars if this damage model is increased. I'd like to see far more crew/cannon destroyed by ball rounds. From everything I've read/seen/studied on the age-of-sail, a lot of crew casualties were not from grape shot, but splinters from ships. This game allows you eliminate an entire side of a ship for the loss of around 5% crew. Doesn't seem very legit to me, and I've almost never seen cannons destroyed/damaged/knocked out of action (unless this is a function of lost crew, in which case, again, we need to see more crew casualties from standard fire) The boarding system is a bit clumsy/mediocre. Doesn't add much interest/excitement to the way the battles are fought. I'd prefer a system which auto-resolves (over a period of time) using your crew and upgrades etc. I'd really like to see a huge change to Pirate mechanics. I'd love to see them fly false flags and perhaps up-gun trader ships...only being revealed when you engage one in the Open World. Imagine your dread when that Trader Brig is actually an up-gunned Brig flying a black flag when you enter the engagement screen. Allow a certain cool-down period before flying the false flag again etc. As a penalty, do not allow Pirates to fly false flags on larger ships (encouraging them to keep to slightly smaller vessels). I'd like the Open World to involve a bit more work...namely using your spyglass and flying your flag. I'd like to have ships identified closer in, not further away - necessitating the need for the spyglass. Perhaps start at X distance = type of ship, at a closer distance = type of ship and flag flown, and at a very close distance = type of ship, flag flown, captain. The glass is far less useful in battles as it would be in the Open World. Would really like to see some different graphics for ports...they're all too similar and don't represent certain areas (for instance the port graphics for Charleston don't represent anything similar to the actual ports of Charleston. This is definitely a very weak aspect to the Open World. While I know most of this is coming, I hope the UI becomes very atmospheric. The older Total War games are a good example of how to beautiful create a game atmosphere with the peripheral components (namely Shogun 2 etc.). The menus/UI/etc. all really deliver the atmosphere. Looking forward to a cool looking compass, a beautiful hand-inked map etc. I just assume that stuff is on the way now, because the UI is terrible, but that's been discussed a lot. If we stick to solely combat gained XP, I do think the first few levels need to be re-balanced. Maybe 500-750 for the first rank and similar for rank two. As it stands, if you're not diving head first into the game and devoting a lot of time, you're not seeing much in the way of progress...that'll be a big turn off for the players who aren't quite devoted to the game. You need to make it a little bit easier to keep them interested and get them vested in the game. Once you start ranking up and increasing ships the draw will continue on its own. Things I'd like to see not changed: Pace of battles. They're spot on. Don't turn it into an arcade game. Don't speed up the Open World - it's also fine as it is. I'm sure there are some I've forgotten that I'll throw in later. I also think most of all of these have been mentioned before. Just adding them to the list.

I've seen SweetFX really change some games...but I'm barely seeing any difference in your pictures, and surely not enough to warrant me downloading/installing anything to get that result.

Yep, if the pace is too slow...this is probably not the game for you.

While it would add a little bit to the experience...the reality is no captain would go to sea without copious charts/maps/etc. I think for the PVP server it'd be nice to leave ports as their original owners...until you witness them otherwise. (ie. "Oh, didn't know the British had taken this port..." - it would subsequently change on your map).

I'd heavily support more national differences. Balanced or not. I'm still holding out that the devs will give use national ship colours, as I think that's a huge thing which is missing.

I still support a lengthy historical list...from which names are generated randomly when a ship is purchased. This will reduce the "cool names" that everyone takes and will generally be easier to avoid too many duplicates. I also don't mind the nouns/adjectives idea, even if it would lead to less historical names - I think it's a safe solution.

You could include spy missions as well. When your nation is at war, gain XP by going and investigating enemy ports (a dangerous thing obviously) by getting within docking range, etc. A mission to spy on a specific enemy port, or three British ports, etc. I think the port-visit experience would be a good idea, but even then it's not some rocket-ship way to advance your career. Keep in mind you can't visit ports which you're enemies with, so say at 10 XP per port, you'd have to visit 100 ports to even go from level 1 to level 2. I think people believe this would be abused. 100 port visits would likely take far longer than the 20+ combat engagements you'd need to level as well. It would not be a simple/easy route. If they could generate randomized courier/diplomatic/trade missions I think that'd be excellent. Who wouldn't be tempted by 500 XP for taking goods almost all the way across the map? Particularly if through hostile waters...(or you could limit trade missions to neutral/free towns simply for ease of use). Some of the cross-map missions could take 3-4 hours, maybe more if you have to locate certain goods first. And if a certain missions requires X number of a certain resource this would necessitate a larger ship, etc. All of this would push the point-of-the-game. Give a point to exploring the map further, getting larger trade ships etc. It'd be fun to see random distressed ships as well. On the Open World an icon could randomly generate for a limited amount of time. If you get there, there could be a slowly sinking ship --- if you get alongside and hit a simple "rescue" button and you take the crew on (maybe takes up hold space?) you gain XP when you deliver them to a port etc. This begins to go a bit out of the scope of the game, but stuff like that alongside whaling etc. would really broaden the appeal.

All in all, while this will still occur, I think it'd be nice to lose XP equal to what you would gain had you shot an opposing ship...would diminish it a little bit.

I disagree with your suggestions for point one and four, and three - there is a point. The closer you actually are, the closer you begin in the engagement, so it requires some vague skill rather than suiciding up and immediately engaging. The only point I agree with is to not be pulled in automatically. Your suggestions are counter to the purpose of the game. There are loads of other quick-battle ship games available on PC.

And...as we've discussed numerous times: money means nothing if you can't actually manage/crew the fancy ship you'd like to buy. What's amusing here is the ardent hatred against those unwilling to grind-battle their way into XP. If someone wants to sail around and slowly gather XP from visiting ports - is this somehow offensive to you? Does this diminish your game? Is there some negative effect you'll encounter for players you'll never meet/see? If you enter a PVP engagement against an opponent, what difference does it make if he's leveled up by exploring/visiting ports or by constant battle? Arguments against this stuff is a bit confusing. We're not asking for things to be removed - we're asking for additional options to appeal to a wider audience. Why such a narrow focus? Can you explain why you're so dead set against someone gaining experience in another fashion?

I think this is a good idea but needs to be handled carefully. I've done several 30-45 minute one-way trips myself, so I'd probably suggest the sail detection idea. Sitting stationary should allow a time-out. Moving in game should not.