Peter Fouche

Crew going about their duties in both OW and battle instances. at the moment its just gunners pushing guns. Would love to see sailors in the rigging climbing up and down as you manage your crew on gunnery etc. Have a visual reference.

It can

Why not change the title as well to : "Pirate Action" (That sounds even kinkier) And while you are at it, add the Black Pearl and Jack Sparrow too please...

I think the diplomacy system is a long awaited feature and should be implemented any time soon now. I am very curious to see what the devs came up with. There has been a lot of very interesting and helpful suggestions on this topic. Are there any statistics we can see regarding the total player/active players for each nation on each server?

I am not liking the power you want to give to players alone. People come and go, and the lords will not always stay lords, so somehow there needs to be an option for succession, which still does not guarantee anything. People also want to take a break from the game to revisit it later without having to start from scratch because he gave his title to a friend who gave it to a friend who gave it to a friend and cannot get it back because they do not even know each other. My suggestion is that the whole political system be controlled by the AI which are influenced by certain player events. This way, you can control the global political situation, preventing certain game breaking flaws like the current pirate steamroller sweeping the Caribbean. I like the landed titles allot, it is similar to a reputation system, but rather giving players the power to interact with the global political situation, give certain rewards like modules or even special ships like 1st rates. In my honest opinion, no player should be able to build a 1st rate, it should be a reward from the nation through heroic efforts and promotions. By giving the AI the power, you would also enable smaller nations with less players to have fun without being steamrollered, port battles could be announced by the AI long in advance in order for players to prepare for the upcoming battle. You could even implement a story, or a campaign which could be historical or not. To conclude, I just think by allowing the AI to have the political power over the players you open much more opportunities for later development of the game, whereas giving the players the power, you will limit your opportunities.

I think it should not be JUST the pirates that get changed. I think every Nation should offer the player a unique game play experience. British should have access to certain strengths and weaknesses that the Spanish, French, Pirates does not have access to, and visa versa. The Player should be able to choose his nation, based on his own personal game play, and maybe even his own personality and the experience that he wants to get out of the game. If Pirates alone get changed, I can guarantee that everyone will flock to the pirates because it is unique. I also do not want to see the map to change from black to red, to yellow, to blue the whole time as nations are getting nerfed. It needs to be balanced yet unique for each nation. Another option is to make all nations AI, and AI controlled. War and Peace are declared by the AI, and the players need to fall in with the AI's decision, yet be able to change their allegiance should they want to. Port battles are also controlled by AI. Only AI can decide which ports will be attacked, when and why (add a story) players can then decide if they want to join the port battle or not. If they do join, it will still be as it is now. Should no players join the battle, the AI Spawns in AI ships who fights the battle and determine the outcome. This way, the game could be kept balanced even for nations with low population.

That is exactly how Pirates should be! They should be a nuisance, not a threat and it should offer some unique game play to the players who really want to be a Pirate, yet make it really challenging for them. The way Pirates are currently (As a nation) simply does not work, and it is game breaking. Anyone can join pirate without any penalty. And we have seen two big national clans move over to pirates and basically the pirates just started to steamroll the map! I am in one of the biggest and most active clans in the game, but lately I can barely find anyone online to do any operations. I mainly blame the "pirate-fest" and with diplomacy not working where allied nations would be able to support each other in port battles, missions and open world battles, it is basically free for all with the pirates having the majority of the population = steamroll the map and causing national players to leave the game.

Maybe this could help?

This is an excellent video! Clearly showing the real killer of those days, not the projectile but the splinters...

I am playing just fine even with a 200ms ping. Luckily the game are very forgiving regarding ping. Ive heard of players playing with a constant 300-400ping without any issues. Except for crafting.

A good effort mate, but there is a vital flaw in your background. Firstly, the ships would never get that close to a jetty, the jetty was only used for the ships' boats. Ships would be anchored in the harbor. Secondly, your scale is completely wrong. Unless that ship was a cutter, which it is not, it is a Belle Poulle. Look at the size of the guns compared to the size of the barrel standing next to them on the jetty.

Why not have a captain decide whether he want to move two of his broadside guns over to the stern or the bow during a battle? Captains would take guns from the broadside and move them to the bow when chasing down a target, and move them to the stern when trying to run away. Let all ships start a battle with only their broadside guns. Then with a time and crew penalty the gun can be moved to the bow or the stern if so wished on any ship. Not sure how you would implement the visuals for this though.

Oh wow nice work! Where did you steal that? From Shrouded Recluse?

Learn to use manual sails.

Can I remind you that we are still in Beta? The game are being developed still, and some of the rumours I've heard suggests that the Devs has got great plans for this game for the future. The economy is still work in progress, I dont want to speak for the Devs but I think what we currently have in game is just the skeleton of the economy they intend it to be. Don't judge the game yet. There may still be massive changes to come? Thats what excites me so much of this game! We are in Beta, and it is already awesome!!

Once again, I mention that it is not an arcade style game. I like the long sailing time to get somewhere, you set a course and dont have to be online the whole time. You could go afk for a smokebreak or a cuppa or whatever. It also plays a big role in the dynamics of the game regarding port battles etc. If you could not make it back in time for a port battle on the other side of the map, then you dont participate. It requires organisation and structure. It gives a much more immersed game. Also, it gives you the sense of accomplishment when you get something done for example running up and down to different ports to gather recources for building a ship. It is supposed to be hard work. Otherwise everyone would have the best and biggest ships in the game. I do agree that long voyages can get boring sometimes. Would be nice to be able to do something during this time should you wish to, like minigames to determine your position by means of a sextant on a interactive(not gps styled) map for example, or fishing, or drilling gun crews, or cartography, whatever just to get the time by while sailing to your destination.

I think it is more aimed towards the simulator side, not arcade. If you want a quick battle, why not make use of the small battles?

I can confirm this tale to be completely true.

You are right, the game does need "rent-a-cars" but I dont think this should be the cutter. Maybe a Dinghy could be implemented for that purpose? No guns, no hull space. Something that could just take a player from point A-B. This should be free, not the Cutter. Edit: Coming to think of it, new players with no gold or no xp, actually need the cutter to be free in order for them to start the game.

Agreed. During night time you norally get a land breeze as warm air rises from the sea, cool down over land and cause a "land breeze". This is the opposite during day times where the sun bakes the land hotter than the sea, and you have hot air rising from the land, cooling down over the sea and causing a "sea breeze"

Diplomacy: I am not sure how this would be determined, but I think it is neccesary to be able to have other nations as allies, enemies or neutral. Multifaction battles: Instead of having only two factions fighting in a battle, why not more? For example, I am British and I come uppon a battle in OW between French and Spanish, but Britain are allied with Spain at that stage, so I join the battle and come to the aid of my fellow Spaniards (Under British Colors). Or Britain is at war with Spain and France, I join the battle and fight both the Spaniards and the French under British colors. Captured ships: The abbility to add captured ships to your fleet. You should still pay for a Captain to crew it for example, but it would be nice if we could make use of all the extra ships sitting in our ports. Being able to send a captured ship to your outpost with cargo. The abbility for AI Traders to surrender in hopeless cases and surrender his ship and cargo to you. I have chased down traders, demasted them, killed their crew to basically nothing, almost sank their ship yet they kept fighting till the last drop of blood. This is not historical accurate, traders' best weapon was speed and trying to run from a battle. If they couldnt, they would normally surrender.

. Be able to name my ships - would be really nice, and the name should be displayed on the back of the ship although it should be limited to certain characters only. . Be able to have a character / crew / officer profile(s) - agree 100% . Customize my flags / ship paint / figurehead - agreed, but this should be limited to certain colors only. I really do not want to see an all pink Victory called "#pink monster" being sailed by a troll.

There were no range finders back in the day. Instead accuracy relied on skilled gunners. I think the current system is quite accurate and shouldnt be touched. Back in the day, the gunners would fire a ranging shot to determine the correct elevation and charge for the guns, this ranging shot would be fired on a certain point of the roll of the wave, for example at the crest in order to have the gun at the same elevation (or as close as possible) to the same point every time before firing. Once a shot hit, or get really close to the target, they would let loose the whole broadside. Accurate gunnery was a real challenge that relied on skill. And I think the game represent this very accurately.

I voted for it to come of. The state of a ships' sea worthiness can be judged by a skilled captain and officers just by looking at it. A couple of things to look for: Shot holes and splinter marks Amount of guns that are ran out (ready to be fired) How deep she lies in the water Sounds (like the clanking of pumps, hammering of patching holes) Ripped sails Broken masts or spars I say keep it real. The success in sailing these ships and in the sea battles at the time greatly depended on the captain's abbilities, experience and intuition. Try to simulate that. Since the game went live I've seen so many "Land lubbers" asking questions in-game that should really not be asked, like:"Can I attack a 3rd rate with my Cutter?" Offcourse you can... Will you survive? Deffinately not! But let the people experience that for themselves. Feed the fishes if a poor judgment was made by the Captain (Player).

I agree that the map can get some attention, but I do not agree with the exploring part with a kind of "fog of war". Remember in those days, the areas have already been discovered and explored, I agree, maybe not in so much detail as we have today with satelite technology, but they knew Plymouth was east of Kingston for example. The noting and so forth on the map I agree! Could be nice if for example the admiral of a Fleet could make notes for the whole fleet to co-ordinate their movements etc. Also for individual captains to be able to plot courses and your position by means of a sextant on the map.