Barbancourt

They missed the boat long ago. You can already play Elite Dangerous for reals, which has an established community.

Sure. I'm just commenting regarding the issue of attracting players. I don't represent everyone, but I doubt I'm that unusual.

I actually built a $$$ "gaming" desktop computer to play Naval Action, after watching the youtubes of big arranged battles ("trafalgars") a couple summers back. I never had such a desktop machine before, since I had not done any "computer gaming" since Ultima V in the 1980's. The youtubes featured fleets of a dozen or more fancy ships - lined up and spewing cannonballs until they started sinking one by one. I ended up getting into some other games before the early access became available. When the early access rolled around I found out this game was not the big battles I saw on the youtubes but instead the sparsely populated "open world", with a lot of time sailing around cursing the wind and waiting for traders with contraband, followed by a half hour battle to try to capture one little ship to get loot and progress to a larger ship. I did jump into one battle in progress that had about 5 player minnows mobbing a lone NPC. I hardly fired a shot in that one because the other players were practically mounting the NPC boat in their lust - there was no clean line of fire. It wasn't really what I expected, and certainly not what I had time for, so after some light experimenting I went back to other games I was already heavily involved in. Anyhow, my comment is that it was those youtubes of big battles that attracted me to this game...which is something I didn't actually find in the early access game itself. I was thinking it would be a computer version of Age of Sail board games like Close Action or Flying Colors, centered around battles. Essentially, World of Warships for the Age of Sail. I imagine that the same kind of events that originally caught my interest would still attract new players (or old players), though not for long if it doesn't deliver what people came for. The "open world" is OK in some ways, and sort of interesting in the rare event that I actually have more than the usual span of free time to sail distances, but it isn't what I actually came for and that's why I've rarely played.

I originally made a USA captain because I was uncertain about hitting a "language barrier" if I started as a captain of another country. The Carolina Coast was fairly boring to sail, so the next time I started playing the game I made a Denmark-Norway captain on the PVE server, because I like being one of the "little guys", and because their home port is nicely situated for exploring and variety. Most recently I made a Netherlands captain, though the Venezualan coast rarely has players on the US PVP server when I'm playing. I'm still learning/testing how to play, so I'm not committed to any nation yet.

Fortunately quality rum is much cheaper than some other quality spirits (tequila, scotch, etc). My favorite rums are just $30, whereas my favorite tequila and mezcal are about $70-80.

Heh, there is life beyond the keyboard. On longer hauls I'm gonna go feed the pets, vacuum, make a mai tai...something. Watching the waves go by 10-15 minutes at a stretch over and over is a bit much. That cutter grounded against the coastline at full sail is me...I'll be back in 5, no worries.

Heh, in about my 4th or 5th session playing on the USA "PVP" server I finally saw a player sailing today. (PVE had lots of players) Fortunately they were flying the same flag so I didn't have to worry about getting blasted. I just zoomed on through... Saw another player later on. Nobody seems to like Venezuela on the USA server. Finally made it to level 2 and ditched the cutters for a privateer and a captured traders' brig.

The basic 750ml Pussers is a $30 bottle in Hawaii, or $27 in Colorado, but they also seem to have overproof and aged rums I haven't encountered that would be more expensive. Appleton is one of the largest and most well known rum producers (lots of marketing), and have several styles/price points.

To me Pussers is very similar to Appleton in flavor. Many people like them, but the flavor doesn't work for me. Pussers is on the cheap side - mostly used for mixing, I think. Grog, swizzles, punches and such.

While I sail tonight I'm drinking one of these - 2oz White Grapefruit, 3oz Rhum Barbancourt, 1/2oz agave nectar, 1/2oz Kahlua, 1/2oz Cinnamon syrup and some lime peel:

Yeah, color in rum is manipulated for aesthetic appeal. There isn't a code controlling rum, and many styles to enjoy. Flavorings are also common. (I'm not talking about obviously flavored rums like "spiced" or bizarre fruit flavored rums, but flavorings added to basic rums that aren't marketed as flavored) For instance, they dump a ton of some kind of vanilla flavor in Zaya. I like Zaya in a Mai Tai, but it's kind of expensive as rums go. (which means only half the price of cognac, scotch or tequila/mezcal)

Stole a couple more trader's cutters north of Caracas, from the Brits this time. I was something like 0-for-8 chasing lynxes last night and this morning, and now captured 3 larger traders in a row. Trying to capture lynxes was my error - the first lynx I captured so easily I guess I had a terrific initial positioning in the battle to shred its sails before it could get up to speed.

That would be low quality mad dog frat party rum.

A fun thing about these ship games is the appearance of rum....because I like good rums and love quality rum cocktails, and often sip them while playing. My favorite rums are Pampero Aniversario from Venezuela (dark) and 8 year old Barbancourt from Haiti (light), and it tickles me that I can visit those areas in Naval Action. I think I'll soon pay a visit to one of the free ports in Haiti to see if they stock any Barbancourt in-game. Much easier than finding a bottle in my area. Right now I'm drinking Barbancourt with some lime peel and agave nectar. If I can find a quality lime in town I'll make a Mai Tai - I mix quality 8yo Barbancourt with basic Coruba or Myers's dark, or if I'm feeling spendy the dark rum will be Zaya. Plus Caffo Solara orange liquor, standing in for the locally elusive orange curacao. (lime is the ONLY juice in a traditional Mai Tai) I've attempted a few other rum cocktails, but none of them satisfy my craving for a traditional Mai Tai.

Is it normal to get solidly stuck pointed into the wind in battle with 100% sail and crew assigned to sailing? The last two battles I entered I got stuck pointed into the wind and nothing I did would make the ship turn for an extremely long period. Once the battle ended with me still stuck into the wind, and the other time it did eventually start turning far too late to matter. It feels like a bug, but I'm not experienced enough to say. YARRRR! Got my first capture in 2 days. (yeah, just a trader) 30 XP away from level 2 and being able to man the trading brig I just stole from France. Speaking of which, I was interdicting multiple french traders near the same french ports, and it's kind of silly how the french warships sailing around there just didn't care.

I made a new captain on the PVP server, though I can't remember if I've even seen a player in several hours of sailing. After about 7 failed attempts in 4 hours to locate and initiate combat with trader lynxes (they always escape my slow cutter), I got really frustrated and started targetting slower ( == more powerful) ships. I just fought my first fully armed cutter and got annihilated in less than 5 minutes. 1 XP! Well, 1 is greater than 0, so since I earned just enough cash with the new captain to mount carronades I'm going to try Full Frontal Suicide Assault on any ship with less than 100 crew as a means of generating any XP at all. It's kind of tricky in this area because I had to sail into enemy territory to actually find enemy nations to battle, but now that I'm across the "border" they're swarming and I have to isolate traders and cutters when they don't have allies sailing nearby. At the same time I can't trade at these closed ports or store anything at the one neutral port here. Let's see what bigger guns can do... (...answer, 8 XP)

Well this is weird - last night I spent over 100000 gold on an outpost, a forest to farm, some commodities, and a Snow. This morning I log in and the ship, outpost and forest have all disappeared, as well as the gold I spent on them. I think I may have been rolled back to the previous save. Do people often lose an entire game session or more of progress?

Well, that's the littlest guy. I just meant not one of the biggest.

Does the yacht have more firepower than the cutter? Sinking or boarding anything solo with the basic cutter takes me an hour or more. Basically I'm mostly cruising around in a trader's cutter checking out the ports in my region and making money to buy and test-drive other ships. However, my rank is low so when I bought a Snow to try it's less than half crewed.

I'm not the pirate type, though.

I am currently learning the game on the PvE server. I expect I'll eventually want to participate in some occasional group activity, so I'm wondering what the best group and PvP server choices will likely be for my time zone Hawaii GMT-10. I'm currently sailing as Denmark-Norway. I could possibly entertain a switch to Netherlands or maybe even Sweden. I like the little guys, and I like being based centrally in the Antilles.

I bought the game back in December, when they were offering the yacht as an early adopter bonus. I haven't sailed it "in anger" yet because it looks too purty to get scuffed up. Saving it for later when I know what I'm doing.

Heh, it's happening at 9PM for me - prime game playing time. By the time it's back up it's too late to start playing again before bedtime.

I wasn't sure what would happen if the crew went to zero, so I stopped when they got down to 3. However, I couldn't cut the speed of the lynx enough to board. How often does the server get rebooted? The last 3 evenings I've started playing and within an hour or two the notice of a server reboot came up so I had to quit the game for the day. GRRRRRRRR

I do know of that one, and gave it some thought, but with limited resources I have my money and time invested in the old school 1970's style games already. Lots of nostalgia from playing those hex-and-counter games long ago. All I need is a dimly lit basement with wood panelling, a vintage stereo and to finish my tiki bar... Yeah, Blue Cross White Ensign is the Flying Colors Russian expansion. I don't think I have the other expansions yet.