Sir Darric Vandhelm

Depends on the orders or role. Line of battle in a large fleet, then a 1-3 rate. Cruising then a large frigate. Piracy, something small, fast with lots of crew. I doubt a perfectly balanced ship exists, and it certainly shouldn't.

I think the officers would be English, but the crew full of yanks. They generally seemed to be very competent with excellent morale in this period.

This made me laugh... Must try it sometime.

im not sure you understood what I wrote. Naval rank should be seperate or degrade quicker. There by limiting the advantage whichever server has an advantage (you never know, like in eve it could be pvpers). Naval ranks (or trade or privateer) are to my understanding levels. I invest in a character I think you should be able to transfer the investment easily between the servers. This is not due to a sense of entitlement, rather Re rolling for the sake of it is lazy game design to keep you in game longer. Longevity and repeat play is a sign of good game design.

As this is happening, I would like players to be able to swap chars (not ships) between servers to help sever population. I would suggest naval rank is either seperate between servers or decays quicker when on the other server.

They were intentional no able. This is one of the tests.

I'm getting the same. Sent a crash report..

Well, my experience is many of the testers are a helpful bunch, so getting up to speed shouldn't be a chore for new players. But yes, experience will tell. Sailing, shooting, positioning, line sailing, all require experience. Or another way to look at it, is it will be "the first happy time" for testers. But It's worth remembering there are 7000 or so testers...

Regulate the use of ships by balance, not the economy. If there is a big bad bun fight, bring a rating (1,2 or 3). Solo play, expect a heavier frigate to give you a bad day if you take a shiney 1st rate unsupported. These are the poster gals of the high seas, making them pointless follies is just bad game play.

As Prater says around one marine per gun. Unrated ships like HMS bounty didn't carry marines, which was a likely factor to the mutiny. it's also worth noting, in the RN, 'marines' could be army infantry soldiers or cavalry troopers. Several regiments on both sides fought at both Waterloo and trafalgar.

In the same bracket myself, current sea trials show Gamelabs are very good at listening to players concerns, the also the statement above from admin above we won't be ignored. Thus far I have very high hopes this will be a game I play for many years ( for no more than 2-3hours per night)

I have seen chaos reeked in small ships too. I wasn't clear in my post above, it's big ships that currently don't win a stern camp situation. A well sailed snow, in my opinion and experience, will always beat a victory one on one given enough time if they can get behind the large ship with sails intact. I honestly don't think player skill in the larger ship really comes into it, as it's about accereration, deceleration, turning speed. I'm not saying small ships are OP, but you do need escorts when sailing big ships.

I really want Portugal in game too as a Brit. Portugal and Britain, the oldest of allies our only spat being outside the game period.

I'm looking forward to testing this, but I do share you concerns.

No worries