d0tl

Hmm, i really don’t mean it should be an arcade style game, i say and think it should be more focussed on the strong parts, and thus simplifying(/making it slightly more casual) its weak points so it actually starts to amplify the strong points. Many gameplay aspects regarding the world map aren’t in any way reinforcing the core of Naval Combat. For a big group of players it is actually the reason to stop rather than continue. No matter what you might think, the whole world map idea, with trading, making ships, long distance voyages.... it isn’t a simulation of anything. The economy is an extremely simplified version of how economies work, and it actually has more in common with the simple economies shown in games like Anno 1602 (made in 1998!) or even a civilisation game. The only real difference is that here it takes 6 hours to from 1 side of the map to the other, while in those simplified games it takes a 30 minutes max. The economy, the trading, the long distance voyages, they are not the reason why people buy this game..... People like me want a form of simulation in the actual Naval Battles. I think the game could improve a lot if it finds a way to simplify the world map a bit, making it friendlier for casual players to grind and have beginners battles with a purpose, while not making the world map completely obsolete and taking away the tactical options as you described and which i understand. The whole idea to capture and conquer the world map with different nations is fantastic, it gives those individual battles an actual purpose. Currently i would classify the game as a hard-core-niche-game. If you can somehow make the game a bit more casual friendly (especially a lot of the aspects regarding the world map and the out-of-combat parts in the world map), it will still be attractive for those hard-core players (those battles should remain as hard-core as they are), but then also normal players at least have a chance in taking part in this amazing game with the most amazing naval battles i have seen so far. That said, I don’t mind if it keeps the way it is currently, but it will only attract the players who are already attracted to the game. I see myself standing the middle between the casual and hard-core, thus I kept playing even while the first 10 hours were a pain. Player wise, the current game will not attract a bigger amount of people who would actually like to play a game about historical naval battles, but don’t want to spend ages to get an actual fight. It’s a choice the developers have to make. If they are happy with the current player base, they should keep it the way it is, as i do believe many of the current players are satisfied of how things are. If they want to have at least double the amount of players they currently have, then the current model isn’t viable, as those players aren’t the hard-core players we see now in Naval Action. They simply have different needs.

I think the simulation should be focussed on the in-game battles. The world map is only a gain to achieve those big epic scaled battles. I gladly spend an hour in those epic massive battles, but i don’t want to spend hours on sailing in the open world map. Again though, i might not be the right audience for this game, i only say that a larger group of people compared to what is currently playing the game, might actually agree with me. In a way the simulation obsession many of you have, which i recognise as a member of the Total War community, is keeping and driving a lot of people away who actually like the battles in naval action, but don’t got the time and patience to sail for hours to get into such an epic battle. The small and big battles aren’t a solution, because 1) they don’t give enough xp for the grind and 2) most importantly, they don’t have any correlation with the world map. The fact that i prefer the in-game battles doesn’t mean i want meaningless battles, i also want to keep part in the objective on the conquering of ports and trying to dominate with your nation. In NTW I get both, I got a casual friendly world map which is only there to achieve as much epic and good battles as possible. Again, in my opinion the world map, the economy, the ports and conquering should all be a means to achieve as much and epic big naval battles. ATM, as a casual player, it sometimes feels that it’s the other way around, and that is simply not feasible for many players like me.

As a new player, with no real MMO experience, just as a guy who likes to play naval battles (like NTW), one thing i would like to see is less sailing time for missions. I can totally live with the current grinding, but if i want to play a fast game, this cannot be done in Naval Action because you have to sail at least 10-15 minutes every time. You then also have to hope you find it immediately and that the wind is in your favour. Maybe i am not the right audience for a game like this. but if the devs want people like me to be an audience for this game, it should make it so that you actually spend most time IN battles instead of outside. The big world is awesome for the PVP and nations wars, but when i want to play a fast game, that big world is against me. I rather switch to a casual NTW, or World of Warships nowadays if i only got 30 minutes to spend atm, and that is a shame. I would also not mind if you had a premium option to speed up the grinding, or premium ships. Aside that, if some people from clans didn’t helped me, i would have stopped playing it after 2 hours because it way to hard. A friend of mine actually did that, he bought it, started it, and then never touched it anymore since this moment. The learning curve is insane. All in all, the game needs to become a lot more casual friendly.