Lytse Pier

I've posted earlier in a similar thread about this as also a solution in which no port timers would have to be used. We need to think more of what makes a port vulnerable to attack now and what the consequences are of a port battle. I think it is the wrong mechanic for a port to switch sides using solely the port battle mechanics and I proposed to use something called Port Loyalty. I think it is somewhat similar to your Town Morale, but also with a more economic trigger, like Hetwill suggests above. Port Loyalty is the measure of which you can swing a port's governor/mayor/leadership into your favor and towards your faction. The more you can convince the port to leave its Neutral Stance or stance towards a certain nation the better it will be for your faction. Port Loyalty convincing is done by: - Number of people of your faction getting docked each day (raises money to man the forts and buys their gatling gun cannonballs); - Supply the demands of the ports that are being met (happy people will like you); - Winning a port battle (or rather call it a port raid) significantly contributes to the ports loyalty. (showing muscle gets respect); - Formal war declarations, bribes and economic support by nations will certainly give modifiers to Port Loyalty for own or against rival countries. (Politics matter); etc. Port Loyalty should deteriorate if supply demands are not met and hardly any of a faction is docking at its ports. (If you cannot maintain your empire, you shouldn't have it); So it will not become a simple Port Battle that swings the loyalty of a port towards a threshold to join your faction (or leave your faction). An effort on more than one front, using several game mechanics that are now in place to convince a port to join your side, so to speak. Port Loyalty is measured towards all nations, so it would be also possible then to dock also at ports of a different nation, as long as Port Loyalty does not go below a certain threshold (which also can be raised or lowered with politics) . Hope you like this direction of ideas as an addition to your well thought out Town Morale ideas!

A small update for the Willemstad Crafters Guild. Output is at maximum of capacity and stocks continue to be small or depleted. In the last week of March 388 carriages were sold against 561.199,00 gold. This first week of April alone 908 carriages were ordered against 906.404,00 gold, most of them have been delivered or is in production.

Willemstad, at the Red Room of the Willemstad Crafters Guild, two weeks before the departure of the convoy. “The meeting is in session, gentlemen”, Hugo van Grojt said calmly. He softly imbibed on his pipe in between his sentences. “First point of order is the special gun carriages. Pier?” Hugo was well groomed and his velvet blue shirt with gold embroidery stood well out from the old fashioned red-curtained room where time easily could have stood still for at least the last century. Pier, alerted by his name answered quickly. “I’ve had them prepared as requested and the, erhm, deliverables are in place. I had them unloaded to your wharf’s storage facilities at Punda in Saint Anna’s Bay. They are ready for mounting after Pietjes modifications to the ships..” The ugly curtains moved slightly in the wind. “I have used enough pieces of eight to ensure they will remain undetected.”, Pier added a bit distracted. “Good, good, we need that to be our best kept secret. Onward to the second point of order, the ships themselves. I have seen the building schematics and the captured ship, but I was not satisfied. Together with Pietje we did some modifications to the design.” “Can I explain?”, interrupted Pietje eagerly. Hugo nodded with a smile and a friendly wave of his arm had our faces turned to the brightest crafter of us all, despite his young age. “This French Le Gros Ventre design is amazing. She has the ability to keep good speed on most of the quarters from the wind and it’s sleek lines lets her keep it, even when suddenly depowering or dropping sails. Apart from some minor tweaks to her keel, I had worries after inspecting the captured ship that was delivered to us from Europe by the Admiralty of West-Friesland. Her masts are not strong enough for the amount of sails it has. I made some strength modifications to the masts, however I am still not sure that under strain of strong winds they will hold like they should. I had extra masts added to the hold as contingency. We are building more ships on these new specifications at our wharfs, as we speak.” Pietje never seemed to stop to amaze us all with his efficiency. Even the eyes of Jester “Duitsman” Tul, our most experienced instructor and the master of any ships helm, twinkled by looking at those schematics. “When we sail these beauties I am sure the route I scouted will bring us to the island at least two days ahead of schedule! Even with those heavy loads.”, Jester announced. “Look, I’ve added the route to this map and marked the place where we will meet the Prince’s fleet for the transfer. The only thing we need is some fine frigate escorts to the convoy and some fair winds.” Hugo unbottled the rum for all of us. “Gentlemen of the Willemstad Crafters Guild, a convoy shall be assembled with those escorts, arrangements will be made. I will set the date and inform the Dutch Consortium leadership that the plans are on track. After a few drinks, all left the meeting satisfied, even the red haired cabin boy that had hid himself behind one of the dreadfully tasteless and ugly red curtains. For a change Pagan Pete might be kind to him this evening was all he could hope for.

Without the surrender of La Blanquilla and Saint George's back again to the Dutch by the Swedish, the status quo has not yet been achieved to formalize anything, I'm afraid. I'm sure however that the end of this war is for the fearing, the survivors and the uninvolved to see *when* it happens in due time, not *if* it happens in due time.

The message is clear. Things like roleplaying, ingame politics and non technical MMO interactions are considered offtopic, as the threads in these forums are better to be used as discussing game mechanics, suggestions and development ideas for making a better game. Personally I think it is a bit naive point of view, certainly after putting this game in early access on Steam, which obviously will bring in John Regular into the game that wants the interaction with players and not only the game mechanics. Sandbox games and MMO's revolve around human interaction foremost, not around game mechanics alone. These discussion threads are a good measure of how the state of the game, and the involvement of it's players is going. Judging by the sometimes passionate posts one can say "cool down, this is a technical forum" or one can speak of an "alleluia" to the current state this game has already, with a sprouting vibrant game community willing to interact over pixels. Again, personally, I think it's the wrong way to close off this adding gaming experience Game Labs can give the community surrounding Naval Action, but who am I to "flame" Gamelabs on their own forum for that?

Only 50K that is a bit meager for your deep purse, isn't it Hugo? Up the ante and let him have it!

The Dutch are not the agressors in this war. If Sweden continue the hostilities, I'm sure the Dutch nation, the Dutch Consortium, its admiralties and free merchant captains will remain united in defending our common national interests and take all necessary measures to reduce the impact on our trade.

Well spoken Tretton! However, we are a merchant nation and there is more than one way to secure resources, other than fighting over it.

Willemstad, Hugo Republic Shipyards, one day earlier. “Watch out with those carriages you moron!”, I yelled at the clumsy sailor that stumbled his way into the remote warehouse of the Hugo Republic Shipyards with a load that was obviously too heavy to handle for his meager stature. The sign “Hugo Republic Shipyards - providing the finest French ship designs West of Carupano”, looked like the only thing still in good shape in this rathole. Hugo asked me to oversee this project, but to be honest, it has me spooked beyond imagination. Paranoia is not one of my traits, but this secretive stuff sure does something with your mind. “Great day to deliver these carriages, Pier”, the bearded Chief of Repositories mumbled irritated, “This couldn’t wait ‘till at least the rain stopped? And what did you put in those carriages? Lead? They are as cumbrous as Mona’s chest without her ….”. My gaze was deadly and he quickly turned his attention to his staff to make sure the unloading went faster. Hugo better be sure this concealment plan is going to work or the entire Willemstad Crafters Guild will be hanged for sure.

Ah, that was what happened at first. We were speculating that it was a wrong tag from you guys or you miss-clicked on joining the open world battle instead of the Port Battle somehow. Oh, and I won't ask.

Operation The Flying Dutchman has come to a satisfying conclusion for the leaders of the Dutch Consortium. All goals have been met. Apart from recapturing the majority of the Venezuelan ports and ousting their Swedish defenders, Dutch experts are working now tirelessly on assessing the economic damage done after the Swedish occupation. The Consortium expect prices of oak and stone will rise for rebuilding the towers in the ports. All donations to the Consortium are welcome to fund the repairs. The leadership of the Dutch Consortium wishes to express their full thanks and admiration towards all involved parties in the operations. After the official salute by firing the guns of the fleet at 23.30 at Macanao in remembrance of all the brave Dutch and Swedish captains, crew and tower soldiers that fought today and lost their lives, all captains are to report to their own admiralties to receive further orders, as strategic command will be in session soon for further evaluation.

On the far side of perception and reality lies subjective information. It is words like these that makes us look ten times better than we really are. Thank you for that.

On a more on topic notice. Coordinated forces conveyed and ordered by the Dutch Consortium, also codenamed "Operation The Flying Dutchman", have made it possible to set numerous brave Dutch captains of its affiliated Dutch Carribean Admiralties to sail on a grand scale offensive strike against Swedish occupied Ports and forces near the Venezuelan Coast this very morning. The combined efforts is part of a larger and elaborate strategic planning of the combined clans in the Dutch Consortium for a counter-offensive against recent Swedish aggression towards Dutch interests in the area. Leaders of the PFK, DKF, RL, CMd, RICE, CAP, LIONS, DIWC, DAS, numerous Dutch independent Captains and other participant brave Dutch clans, are pleased on the progress and results of the operation so far. As operations are still in full swing, it is advised to trader vessels to stay clear of the area, or double your crow's nests lookouts and scan actively for Swedish corsair sails.

Your services and those of your brave crew were quintessential to the Dutch efforts in the Caribbean area, Captain Hethwill Eskeath. Exemplary to us all. Politics can be devastating to any investment and I am sorry that you were pushed into your position by these unfortunate events. For what it is worth, I am honour bound to defend the Dutch interests in the area, but I do sincerely hope that our paths will only cross on the rum-filled tables of "Schoonen Stormwolke"-Inn raising our mug for old times sake! Fair seas to you and your crew, captain.

Gusandall Pirate to the core. True -10. MEAN Corporation. But alas, my EVE days are long past.

Very nice!

No one has done anything wrong. Mechanics are mechanics. Sooner or later we will know what our money bought us. Be it a fight without timers on a much more strategic and perhaps economic level to maintain an empire, or a game that needs you online 24/7 and set alarm clocks to maintain an empire. We al hope for the prior, I'm sure of it. Until then, the fight continues! :-)

I agree with you Tretton, but all sides have "loud" players, not only the Dutch. It charmes up the game to a certain degree. There are still a lot of opportunities in this war to look into for a lot of players. There will always be people with different views and opinions, but I say most have a positive experience. Yesterday I exchanged some good chatter and a few Swedish/Frisian folklore music youtube videos in a fight (I lost) and half an hour later I got into a battle (I won) being accused of shooting twice as fast as was possible by the Swedish player (I was shooting the two trinco decks alternating) and I would be filmed and put under scrutiny. Two different experiences in under an hour. I rather enjoy it. To you Trackterror, no need to call out on a small thing like this. I deem you better that that. There were reasons to play like it was played and we are not obliged to share that information in any way. Perceive it like you want to perceive it, according to me, the war is not only fought in portbattles, open world battles or forums alone, but also on a more strategic level and the choices made yesterday were more than excellent by the Dutch in that light. The leadership of the United Dutch Consortium are doing an excellent job in this grunts eye!

Let's be real here. The ports that the Swedes choose to defend were almost a certain victory for the Swedes. The ports the Dutch choose to defend were almost a certain victory for the Dutch. We can deny all we want about the Swedes, but not their prowess shown in the portbattles of Macanao and La Blanquilla. Nobody can deny that. Tactically strong, with an intrinsic knowledge of the mechanics and good ships to back up their claims of holding down a fort. But that is not the entirety of the story and not the way to win a prolonged war. We've all seen that in the first French-Dutch war, where we were outgunned and outclassed many times. Somehow, whenever the pressure is on, this Dutch rock won't budge; and I am damn proud of that. The Dutch don't break, they step up even harder if they get pushed around. Must be in our nature. I told you the tree was shaking, and it will shake more. The pebble in the pond will create that tidal wave you have been preparing for. Buckle up!

Thanks, you have a good choice in music. I like it.

Most are ventilating opinions of their perceptions, not just their perceptions. Which makes most stuff uttered subjective and only can validate mudslinging. Bad show, ladies, bad show. Patience is a virtue. The Swedish proposed a peace talk now about three times in this thread, to which the answer was clear. That ship sailed. One should only wonder how and when the tree snaps to produce the wood to fuel our certain victory. And I say you, the tree is already shaking.

No more, no less, good sir! And like I mentioned, it's the creativity that will prevail, making it only a matter of time before the Swedish assault on our homelands will crumble.

So far, the rather boring Swedish tactics rely entirely on Portbattles for being effective. It gives us (the Dutch as a nation) a chance to try out different strategies to see what works, and what does not. No more, no less. Our long distance attacks are a good example of us willing to experiment with the game. It means you are boring the impatient, but you are also strengthening our growing number of Dutchies that are keen to find new triggers that we can pull to kill your one trick pony. Be afraid of the creative hive mind of the Dutch Nation!

Not much news from the Dutch side of the front, other than I heard Hugo van Groijt is going to deliver a fine Hugo Republic Shipyard Constitution riddled with eggs and chickens to Jo van Dekker tomorrow; Sounds like fake to me: eggs from a chicken. After some fact finding, Hugo claimed that the bunny was roasted last week in a family dinner, ... and I wasn't invited. HAPPY EASTER ALL!

Testing the waters, learning every day.