Excelsior718

I agree that some traders would certainly be slower than combat ships. I think that the issue here is not one of realism, but rather game balance. The game balance problem is that as the game stands now, carrying goods on the open ocean in a trader is not a viable activity because traders are defenseless. If you are a trader, your only defense is to run. Slowing traders down removes this defensive option. The way to solve this isn't by making traders faster or slower. The way to solve this is by allowing players to put traders in their fleet, so that they can defend the slow defenseless trade ships with their combat ship. Allow every player to have up to 2 traders in their fleet. These could be traders that they purchase, or traders that they capture. (Instead of having to take command of a trader you captured to preserve its cargo, give players the option to add a captured trader to your fleet.) I know some folks will say, "Why not just group up and have players in combat ships escort players in trade ships?" Well, theoretically, that's not a bad idea, but in practice, how many players want to spend hours of their time escorting someone else's trade ship, hoping not to run into pirates? Much better if a player is given the tools to defend his own ships. The player presumably has a combat ship in his arsenal. Why not let him utilize that combat ship to escort his trade ship(s.)

I've already paid for this game (purchased 3 copies,) but I want to continue to pay for it once it goes into final release. I don't want to pay a lot, but I really want Game Labs to charge me a modest subscription fee. ($5 to $10 per month seems about right.) Why do I want to pay a subscription fee? It's because I want Game Labs to make this game something that will be attractive to long term players. If all of the revenue is earned on initial game sales, then the incentives are for Game Labs to dumb the game down and make it appealing to the broadest possible base. Financially, it won't matter if people get bored of the game after a month and stop playing, because there's no money to be made by keeping players interested and engaged long-term. There's also no incentive to keep supporting the game. (Remember Hellgate, London?) With a subscription model, there is a greater incentive to make the game interesting for long-term players and keep the game challenging and fresh. A subscription would also provide an income stream to fund improvements. So, please, take more of my money. I want Game Labs to work hard to keep the long term players happy, and without a subscription model, I don't think the incentives are correctly aligned.

This is an amazing game, even in the alpha stage. However, there is a conflict between the desires of the casual players and the long-term, hard core players. One of the attractive things about this game is the opportunity to sail a ship of the line into battle. Everyone, including the casual players, wants to do this. For a casual player, that just spent $40 on a game, it doesn't seem fair that in order to sail a Victory or Santissima Trinidad, you need to spend hundreds of hours online, saving and slaving to earn this ship. On the other hand, the long-term player doesn't want it to be so easy to obtain a ship of the line that everyone has them. To the long-term, more serious player, captaining a ship like the Victory is something that should be earned. How to reconcile these opposing desires? I suggest expanding and changing the current PVP battle instance missions. Currently, when in port, you have the option of entering a small battle or large battle. Why not make this "Arena" combat it's own game, separate from the Open World? Don't tie gold and XP earned in the Arena to the Open World. XP earned in the Arena would simply mean that you could use bigger Arena ships, and the progression would be very generous, so even a casual player would be able to sail a Victory or Santissima in the Arena without dedicating their life to the game. Arena gold would be used to purchase upgrades solely for use on your Arena ships. Arena ships would be used only in the Arena, and could not be sailed in the Open World. Having a separate PVP Arena would allow casual players to enjoy sailing the bigger ships, and keeping Arena XP and gold separate from Open World XP and gold means that the generous rewards in the Arena would not ruin the balance in the Open World. For some added excitement in the Arena, keep track of Arena rankings, so players would know who was tops in Arena PVP. For even more Arena excitement, allow teams to wager Open World gold on the outcome of Arena team battles (with a 20% cut for the house.) I could see clans betting millions in gold on the outcome of clan vs clan Arena battles. This proposal would go a long way to satisfying the desires of casual players, while preserving the Open World experience. In addition, it would add a whole new competitive dimension to the game.

I am happy about the change to cannon losses. It always seemed odd to me that a ship could be sinking and yet firing almost all of its guns. I am not happy about the changes to resources, and the huge boosts in XP and gold for missions. I have not had any problems finding resources in this game at any time. During the so-called "iron crisis" I had plenty of iron (and I have never placed a buy contract on any resource ever.) You just have to be willing to explore the map and find out of the way places that are not right next to faction capitals. When you flood the market with gold and resources and inexpensive NPC built ships, you remove risk and challenge. Crafting should be a challenge. Losing your ship should be a frightening proposition. When everything is disposable, and easily replaced, the game loses its relevance. When everyone's rate limiting factor for crafting is labor hours, then you know that the economy is too rich. When there is no market for ordinary player built ships and other craft goods, you know that the economy isn't working properly. The economy should be player driven. This latest patch undercuts the player driven economy and feels like the developers are trying to make everyone happy by giving everyone free gold and materials and XP. All that does is devalue the items you obtain, the progress you make, and by extension, devalues the game experience. Please don't continue to go down this path. We need more challenges, not less. We need player crafting and pvp to be more relevant, not less relevant. We need greater risks, not the elimination of risk. If nothing is at stake, the game soon becomes boring. You want to fix the "grind" problem? Making the game easier isn't the solution. Provide more variety and challenge, both in PVE and PVP situations.

I'd like to see a little bit more variability in wind direction. It pretty much just slowly rotates counter clockwise now. Would be nice to get a bit of randomness in how wind direction changes.

+1 This would make trading much more interesting and viable.

I would love to see a wind gauge when you are in port, so you could keep an eye on the wind direction. Often, I will hang out and craft in port while waiting for the wind to change. It would be great to be able to check on wind direction while in the port.

I have a question: Suppose I am in a neutral port. I don't have an outpost there, but I have a ship in the dock and some goods in the warehouse. I log off. Next time I log on, I find out that the port has been captured by a hostile faction. My assumption is that I wouldn't lose my ship, but that anything I left in the port when I left, I would lose (because I couldn't build an outpost in a hostile port, and if I leave, I lose whatever is in the warehouse.) So, if I were to leave, I lose everything, but if I stay there, and don't leave, I don't lose anything. (If I didn't want to lose everything in my warehouse, I would have to stay in the port until it is recaptured by my nation.) Is that how it works?

An easy way to create meaningful trade missions would be to simply allow a player to add a trade vessel to his fleet (like early level people can do with cutters.) Then, you could run around the open world, buying and selling, and defending your trade ship (and the goods it's carrying) from those who want to take it from you. Currently, you can't really defend your own trade vessel, because it's unarmed, so you just have to run. Adding a trade vessel to your fleet would allow you to generate your own trade "missions."

If you are going to delete the option of teleporting with cargo, then you need to allow for adding trading vessels to your personal fleet. Currently, if you are a trader, there is no protection for your trade vessel other than (possibly) two cutters from your fleet. They way it should work is that you should be able to make a trade vessel a part of your fleet, so that it can accompany your warship. That way, you could actually have some support for your trade vessel when it is traversing hostile waters, instead of just hoping you don't bump into a pirate (or group of pirates.) I understand that teleporting with cargo reduces risk on traders. However, unless traders have the ability to protect their vulnerable trade ships from pirates, trading isn't really a viable activity. Give traders the ability to defend themselves.

I've been examining the module stats. Some of the modules are a trade off between the module's benefits and disadvantages. For example, a module that increases armor might decrease overall speed. That makes sense, as design elements of a ship will affect one another. What does not make sense to me is that as the quality of the module increases, the ratio of advantage to disadvantage remains the same. A common module has the same ratio of advantage/disadvantage as an exceptional module. It seems to me that an exceptional module should have a higher advantage in proportion to the disadvantage. So, if a common module grants a +5% armor bonus and imposes a -5% overall speed penalty, an exceptional module of the same type should grant a +10% armor bonus and have a -7.5% speed penalty. Currently the quality of a module just increases the bonus and the penalty, rendering some of the high quality bonuses a bit too extreme in their negative effects to be useful.

Would love to see an option to add a captured ship to your fleet, WITH its cargo. That way, if you capture a trade ship, you could continue on raiding or whatever you are doing, and bring the captured trade ship along with you.

Kickstarter!!!!

We currently have one mission type. We need lots of different mission types. Add some escort missions, where we have to escort a trade ship through hostile PVP waters. Add some missions where we need to engage an enemy ship very near an enemy held port. Add some small fleet actions, where we are part of a battle. Add some cutting out missions, where we have to come into an enemy port and capture a ship, with a timer on the port defenses (take too long and the guns open up on you.) Add some blockade missions, where a fleet is going to leave an enemy port, and you have to intercept and sink them. Add some rescue missions, where a weaker friendly ship is being beset by hostile ships, and you have to keep the friendly from sinking and ensure its escape. Add some PVP missions, where you are required to sink a player of a certain rank from a certain nation. Add some trade missions, where you have to provide the Admiralty with a certain amount of some particular resource. Add a port capture mission, where you need to participate in a port capture battle. Add some revenue enforcement missions, where you have to catch a contraband smuggler in shallow water with a cutter or Pickle. Add some missions where you have to clear out hostile forces (PVP and PVE) from the vicinity of a a port for a certain amount of time. All of these types of missions would add some much needed variety to the game. Other folks please add their suggestions to this thread regarding mission variety.

No. I guess I will go do that now.

This seems like a bug. I got a new Snow. My first square rigged ship, so I wanted to test it out. Took a lower level mission with 2 fleet cutters, and we polished off the mission privateer with almost no damage to anyone. After the battle was over, I sailed around in the battle instance, practicing tacking, turning, using manual sails, checking sail speed, shooting guns, etc. Eventually, the instance closed and I was kicked back out to the Open World. However, I lost a durability on each of my fleet cutters. (In spite of them being virtually untouched in the battle.) This seems like a bug to me.

I agree that we need a safe place to test out the capabilities of new ships. An instance with a few floating targets to aim at would be great. I'm just moving up to square rigged ships, and I really would like to be able to practice sailing, tacking, shooting, etc. before I go into battle.

Seems like a lot of features about this game that people would like to see are constrained by resources. Lots of things that would be really cool are simply out of the question because they would cost a lot to implement. Why not use Kickstarter and see if those resources could be raised? Do some kickstarter fund raising, and offer kickstarter backers some nice rewards (unique ships or something of the like.) Then, you could implement a bunch of things that today are not possible. Put together a wish list of awesome but expensive game improvements, tie them to kickstarter goals. I'd back it.

Regarding national characteristics, I'm not saying that just because you are French, you get a +15% speed bonus, but there might be a bonus for crafting speed-related upgrades in French ports, or more labor available in Spanish ports, etc. Live oak should only be available in certain ports, and other resources likewise available in specific areas, etc. Various countries could have some bonus chances (or less chance) to obtain various crafting blueprints, (British have better chance to obtain 3rd rate plans, and Americans better chance to obtain Constitution plans, Spaniards have a bonus for Santissima Trinidad plans, etc.)

Some observations and suggestions. Some of these are new. Some of these are simply adding my voice to other folks who are asking for these features: Combat mechanics: It seems to me that combat mechanics are currently very well tuned. There’s the ramming/capsize exploit that is already well known and I’m certain that the developers are already working on this. Also I assume that they are working on boarding mechanics and ways to prevent interlopers from stealing your mission prizes. One thing I would change is adding double shot. Would like to see it give a boost at short range (pistol shot range,) with penalties for longer ranges, and increased reload times. Relevance of Open World location and weather conditions on battles: This is my number one request. It’s not new, and has been requested a lot, but in my mind, it should be the top priority for the developers. If a battle takes place near an open world shore, then the shoreline should be implemented in the battle instance. Likewise, weather conditions in the open world should carry over into the battle instance. Waves should vary based on open world conditions, as should wind speed. Conditions in the battle instance should range between gales and high waves, to near calm and flat seas. Port conquest: Three towers sitting in the middle of the ocean is not a proper setting for a port battle. There needs to be variation in port topography and defenses. Some ports should be lightly defended, with a couple of Martello towers and easy access. Other ports should be extremely difficult to attack, with approaches covered with towers, and NPC/AI ships to defend them. There needs to be some coastline and scenery, so there is some visual context for the battle. National Flavor: Other than the location of their capitals, and the starting control of various cities, there is no real differences between the nations. Other than the variations in the names of the ranks, gameplay between the national factions are all identical. I would really like to see some significant differences between national factions. Different nations of the era had differing strengths and weaknesses. I’d love to see these reflected in the game. Make it easier of more difficult for different nationalities to craft the various ship types. For example, the French had a knack for building faster ships, and the Spanish, with their big facilities in Havana, had an easier time building larger vessels. The Americans built some very nice “super frigates” tended towards larger crews, and had access to live oak. Dutch traders could have larger cargo holds, etc. I’ve seen a lot of suggestions about differentiating the Pirate faction by giving them various advantages and disadvantages, but I would suggest doing that for each national faction as well. I’m not saying that Americans shouldn’t be able to build first rates, but I am saying that it should be harder for an American to build a first rate than it is for the Spaniards. (And likewise, it should be harder for the Spaniards to craft a live oak Constitution class frigate.) These are only off the cuff suggestions, but what I’m looking for is some differentiation between nations that provide some historical flavor. Allowing formal alliances and cessation of hostilities between certain nations on occasion would also be good. Making some ports more or less difficult to capture would be good. Personal flavor: Also highly requested by many people has been the ability to personalize your ships; changing colors, sails, pennants, names, etc. This would be a great thing, which would add to the immersion of the game.

I really hope they don't do this. After playing for a while, navigation is not difficult, provided that you are paying attention. Navigation is a game skill, just like combat. Learning to navigate, recognize landmarks, and estimate distance traveled is one of the things I enjoy about this game. Please don't dumb it down.

I have a question about the bonus ships. I wanted to look at them in a safe environment, so I redeemed them when I was logged into the PVE server. I figured that they were going to be available to redeem once on each server. (My Yacht is on all the servers.) However, now I have the bonus ships on the PVE server, but I can't redeem them on the PVP server (which is where I play.) Am I permanently screwed? Did redeeming the bonus headstart ships on the PVE server eliminate my ability to own them on the PVP server where I actually play? Is there any way to transfer these ships from the PVE to the PVP server? Hoping I didn't mess this up permanently.

Great. Thanks. Now I know what to do with my Steam Key.

Here's a dumb question: I can't find this game on Steam. I search the Steam store for "Naval Action" and it doesn't come up. I find a bunch of naval games, but not this one. What am I doing wrong?