Musuko42

It's Naval ACTION, not Naval Let's All Be Friends And Live In Peace And Harmony. How's this for an excuse to fight, then: because it'll be fun!

Ah, wonderful, thank you! Any known causes I should try to avoid in the meantime, or workarounds if it happens again?

In a battle, I activated repair and disabled gunnery, but 222 crew members stayed stuck in gunnery and wouldn't transfer (while repair was lacking crew). I filed a bug report.

All that would happen then is people would farm basic cutters off of alts. There has to be a cost for the loser as well as a gain for the winner.

Oh! Well, in that case then, I withdraw my comment and support yours!

The trouble with that is that it means PVP marks can be farmed at no cost.

The only problem with this is that players could then use the basic cutter to avoid getting tagged. It might be handy for ferrying around small amounts of cargo. The answer to this would be to completely remove the cargo space from the basic cutter, along with your suggestion. The basic cutter would then only be useful for returning back to a home port when you're stranded somewhere, or for doing low-level PVE missions (to get started when you're new, or to recover when bankrupt later).

Any time when sailing in a large convoy of ships, knowing that each one represents a player, most of them total strangers who wouldn't recognise each-other on the street, all organised and working together for a common goal. That...and playing the theme tune to the movie Convoy over the teamspeak while we're sailing.

I have knives in my kitchen that are sharp and perfectly capable of being used to stab people. Most things in our lives have potential misuses that are not intended. You're expected to be an adult and control yourself.

There's a concept in gaming circles called "rules lawyering": focusing on the letter of the rules rather than the spirit of them. Captains in this thread who are saying "show me in the rules where this isn't allowed" are rules lawyering.

NO! You SELL him the mats, and then he sells you the crafted parts. That way, if he runs off...well, you've at least been paid for the mats.

Provisions that need to be replenished could also be a useful way to balance uneven faction strengths, in the same way that the devs want to with crew availability; weaker factions might have access to more food supplies in their ports, giving them greater ability to sail attack fleets further. Stronger factions might find shortages of food, hindering their ability to sail their 1st rates halfway across the map to stomp on beaten factions.

Don't be impatient. Game development takes YEARS. Go play other games for a while and come back after a few updates.

I would much rather see it be a consumable, with various different supplies you can place on the ship, in differing amounts. Hardtack; cheapest, lasts forever, but crew don't like it; their morale will slowly deplete when out at sea. Grain; cheap, made into bread onboard ship, lasts forever, offers no stat boosts; this is the "standard" food. Citrus fruit; expensive, slight boost to morale, without it crew health deteriates over time (scurvy), making them weaker in battle, and possibly leading to "deaths" (incapacitated by illness) in extreme cases. Has a shelf life of however long fresh fruit lasts. Jerky; expensive, lasts forever, provides a slight boost to morale. Live meat; very expensive, lasts forever, but takes up some cargo space and consumes grain. Provides a good boost to morale. Is lost if grain runs out. All stats are reset to base level when returning to port. Any crew who are left unused in port for more than a couple of in-game days are given a temporary "shore leave" boost to morale when you set sail again. Hardtack and grain would be available at every port. The rest would be available in the same way as resources are.

Put to sea in boats and left to fend for themselves. Or, if there are too many crew for that...something unpleasant happens to them. Or, they can be carried in your hold as prisoners, until returned to port, where they can be pressed or ransomed. Actually, having the option to free, press, ransom, or execute prisoners, would be interesting...especially your choices had effects. Maybe you could have a "reputation" in game, along with the appropriate honorifics. If I'm nice to prisoners, I might become known as the "Honorable Captain Musuko", and enemy crews may be more likely to surrender to me, knowing they will get better treatment (mechanic of this would be a morale penalty for the enemy). If I slaughter them, I might be the "Dread Captain Musuko", and enemy crews might fight to the last, knowing they'll get no mercy.

This is exactly the kind of choice I like to see in games; various options, with different risks and rewards. This is the very essence of gameplay. I'd love to see this choice be in the game. You could add an additional option; towing. You can place a captured ship under tow, with no crew onboard. This would allow you to take home a captured ship even if you don't have enough men to put a prize crew onboard. You would travel slower on the open world (depending on the size of your ship, and the size of the ship you're towing), and if you get attacked the prize would be cut loose and sit unmanned and adrift in the battle.

Suggestion: Crew losses are permanent; if a crew member dies in battle, they're gone. And not just when your ship is sunk or captured. HOWEVER, the crew numbers in the OW will never drop below the minimum needed to sail, while you are still in command of your ship. Eg; you need 40 to sail, but you have only 20 left by the end of your victorious fight; when you pop out into open world, you find that the crew has gone up to 40. This will be because crew losses in battle are not necessarily deaths; they're incapacitated, either through injury or death. When the battle ends, if your ship is still afloat and in your hands, you'll get a percentage of your "dead" crew returned, based on how brutal the fight was and how competent your ship's surgeon is (which could and should be something you can upgrade). And the number returned will always be at least enough to bring you back over the minimum sailing limit. Crews surrender FAR earlier in boarding; it seems insane to me that a crew would fight to the last man when they're outnumbered three to one. Captured crew can be pressed into your crew. Out doing PVP deep in enemy territory and find yourself low on crew? Go capture a trader or two and replenish your numbers.

Maybe if you're using guns that are too large for your ship, firing them causes some structural damage on your ship?

A small suggestion for this update: allow the option to send captured ships sailing under AI control back to a port of your choosing, with your prize crew onboard. The ship would sail on the open world, in real time, in just the same way as AI fleets currently do. This way, you won't have to return to port yourself with every capture, but you risk your AI-controlled captured ship being intercepted and taken/sunk while it's sailing on the open world. This gives you a choice; look after the ship on its return yourself, or let it sail itself at greater risk of losing it. Perhaps when officers are introduced, you would need to assign an officer to command the ship in order to have it sail under AI control?

Just a quick suggestion to tackle the issue of hull penetration: how about having a weight limit for cannons on the ship, rather than cannon classes? This way, a smaller ship could have the option of equipping fewer, heavier cannons (say, filling the lowest deck with heavier cannons, but leaving the upper decks empty, or equipped with lighter cannons), and would then be able to penetrate the hulls of larger ships...but would still be weaker, as they'll be carrying fewer cannons. Perhaps, also, ships could equip more and heavier cannons than their ship would normally allow, increasing their firepower, but at the expense of stability and handling, increasing the lean angle...and perhaps even risking tipping over and sinking like the Vasa, if they've equipped too many heavy cannons on the upper decks. (And, of course, the option that many have suggested before; being able to double-shot cannons, or load extra powder, at the expense of range, risking cannons exploding, etc).

The smuggling mechanic means that every capital can always be supplied with all required resources.

My answer to the zerg problem: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/14195-winning-the-game/

Well you're not a very good tester then, are you? Maybe you should wait for the completed release of the game?

Do you consider frigate battles fun (compared to older versions)? I enjoy frigate battles in general now compared to the older versions; the outcome seems to hinge more on who has the better tactics and maneuvers, and you get more time to fight it out, and the ships feel more weighty and powerful as they duke it out. Do you consider ships of the line indecisive historical battles fun? I feel that ships of the line shouldn't sink too often; I want them to feel big and tough. I think their rears should be more vulnerable to raking fire from smaller ships, so a skilled frigate Captain could be a match for a SoL. Additionally, if non-penetrating hits still wore away at armour, allowing for penetration once it becomes weaker, that could be good. At the moment, it seems, certain cannon classes simply cannot penetrate. Should marines be tweaked? Once you introduce crew recruitment and management, marines could be rare/expensive crew that you can hire, in differing amounts, rather than modules.

Or give it a transit time measuring in hours, depending on distance, in much the same way that deliveries between free towns do.