Sea Archer

@admin Can you please empty the proposals from time to time, mayby move proposals older then 45 days to some kind of archive? It is getting quite confusing with so many post.

Instead of this Kharma-thing, I would prefer to change the mechanics in the way that only during the first 2min players of other nations can join. For the rest of the time, when the battle is still open, only players of the original nations in battle should be able to join ( if their side is weaker). But after 2 min no ship should be able to join, that have a higher BR than the biggest ship already in battle.

I like this proposal. Woods will still be rare, if there are only one or two forests of each on the map, but no nation will have exclusive access to special woods. Though I still like the idea to find the rare woods on NPC traders... maybe we can do both.

I do not deny that a ships can sail with slightly differing drafts. Still the stiffness and heel will be influenced by it. Even in the period we are talking about ship building changed from a only experience driven business to a scientific one. If you have a look in Chapmans "Architectura Navalis Mercatoria", you will find in each draft desined water line. Finally every captain (or his sailing master) decided which trim a ship would have. One part of that book descibes the methods to calculate the different ship's properties. Kayak building is a different matter, no sails and only form stability, no ballast needed. What I want to say is, that the weight above the water line (guns, etc) in in our game the same for every ship, the sails and rigging are the same, too, as well as the shape of the hull. If the light wood ships shall have the same properties in terms of heeling, they must have the same Metacenter, and therefor the same CoG and CoB. So when all forces above the water are the same, the under water forces must be the same, too, to have the same effects. If a ship has a slightly deeper or shallower draft, it must affect the heel, since the CoB will change, especially during heeling.

No, a ship launched, without any ballast has little or no stability in water. The pivot point of a ship depends on the center of gravity and buoyancy and can move depending on the heel. Our sailing ships in the game have a nearly constant weight above the water line with guns, crew, masts and some wooden hull structure. The buoyancy depends on the shape of the hull and the draft. The further the ship moves out of the water (with unchanged weight of guns, etc.), the higher the center of gravity is. In the extrem it rises above the pivot point and the ship capsizes (even without any wind). The weight in the hold moves the center of gravity downward (ballast and/or provisions). This weight has to counter the wind forces on masts, rigging and sails, too. There will be a balance between both forces, the more heel, the bigger the influence of the weight and the lesser the forces on the sails. This balance was calculated by the old ship designers and works only with a defined draft. Therefore the weight of the woods has only very little influence on a ship's draft, if it shall be seaworthy. If upper weight is removed, like the guns, stability increases with less draft, that vessel may sail faster, but as long as you have your guns on the ship the "standard" draft is required, which will result in standard speeds.

If you Pirates should be able to join battles without this "Karma"-thing, everybody else should be able to join pirate battle without it, too.

I disagree. Wood density matters, as it affects the weight of the vessel. Why should the displacement be the same, as a different weight will allow for a lower water line to keep buoyancy? This in turn implies a smaller contact surface, which in turn, necessarily implies lower friction (together with a lower weight). Therefore, I can see speed being affected. I'm not a naval architect (but let's just say I really know my Fluid Dynamics)... I would love to understand these arguments. All ships, no matter the wood, must have the water line at the same hight. If not the balance between center of weight and center of buoyancy is not given and the ship will tend to capsize. This stability problem was historically experienced when ships returned from long voyages and were very low on stores. Of course you can reduce the weight of a vessel to increase speed. This comes with less stability and due to lesser draft, with more leeway.

Imo woods should have no effect on the speed of the ships, since the water displacement must be the same for stability reasons. Though heavy and therefore tanky woods should have an impact on the heel and with it a certain vulnerability below the waterline, which somehow counters the tanky part above the surface.

I would have preferred a system with all players not of your nation are red in battle, not only two sides...

Yes, this system was great. I used to craft nearly everything myself, but many new players could make a pretty penny by selling their LH. Todays system is quite boring. Though it can be discussed if carriages should be most LH-consuming items...

Ships speeds and diversity Right now we have some very fast ships with very heavy broadsides, which makes some smaller and slower ships with less broadside weight obsolete. From the historical point of view it depended on the weather conditions if the big or the small ship was faster and, of course, of the individual best point of sail. This game shows only one weather (even if there is sometimes rain), giving one specific speed for each vessel. The result of this is that quite a few ships are barely used by players, since they offer no advantage to their bigger counterparts (not faster, less hitpoints, less broadside weight). To increase the diversity and to encourage sailing the not so loved ships I propose the following (only for gameplay reasons, not for historical facts): - The bigger a ship is and the heavier the broadside weight, the slower its speed shall be (when build of the same woods and the same port bonus) The fastest ships in game will be the 7th rates, the slowest the 1st rates, even within the same class the rule shall be applied. In the 5th rate tier the fastest ship shall be the Cerberus and Pandora, the slowest Endymion and Trincomalee. With this rule, the frigate or pirate frigate can be a good choice, since they can escape from the bigger frigates and therefore would be seen more frequently on the open waters. It is then that you can choose between firepower and speed. It will be difficult for players to attack and sink other players in smaller ships, so more even fights are encouraged. The default speed difference between the ships tiers must be significant, like 0.75 knots. The same, at lower speed levels shall apply for the traders.

The Trinc is a nice ship and I like to sail her, but it is so cheap and easy to craft, that I don't see a reason to make her redeemable. I would have loved to see some rare ship, one that cannot be crafted. It really isn't a 50$ ship, as previously promised.

Never board elite ai. Why do you have to board every ship? Simply sink and loot them.

There is a reason they are called elite, adjust you tactics to their abilities and you will be fine.

I don't think that the number of nations is a problem. The problem are big nations, that are joined by many more and grow even bigger. Right now it is Russia, tomorrow maybe some other nation. The problem I see it that a strong nation owning the whole gulf of Mexico has a very comfortable position of trading and crafting with only a few raiders in their waters. On the other hand people sailing around Mortimer or KPR are constantly raided, even the capitals of Denmark, Sweden and France are close enough together to have daily visitors and with them battles. My suggestion is to give the impossible Nations some uncapturable capitals in places on the map that are far away from the existing capitals. There might be two or three capitals in the gulf then. To have fighting content, we need a good mixture of different nations around the whole map. To avoid nations growing too big, the price of expansion should rise with the number of owned ports, maybe higher hostility costs, maybe higher upkeep for ports, maybe something else.

It seems that some people cannot enjoy the game when one single ship is not added as promised. Now, I am happy with the ships we have, what I am missing are other things like water depth or musket fire at short range. ... and sometimes I miss better information from the devs about progress and plans.... But finally it is a fantastic game and I do not really care about the names of ships or their origin. I even sail sometimes the not so loved frigate or 7th rates, just because I like it.

The effort needed shall depend on the size of the attacking nation, the bigger the nation, the more they have to do for hostility. This might help a bit to balance between large an small nations.

Show again player names and clan ( even if enemy) and enable chatting with them. This game is after all a game with human players, playing the same game for having fun. Quite a lot have friends in other nations and sometimes different nations work together. For those who do not want to communicate with the enemy, you can install the possibility to switch it off in options.

Sell future DLC ships as packages of 10 at a low price (10 Victories for like 3-5$). Good for the devs, they will have permanent income from the Victory-lovers. Good for the game, the ships won't (most likely) be used as a way to get cheap seasoned wood and won't become the all-around-meta-ship.

The Victory is really weak and the high waterline invites to shoot leaks. During hostility missions we sometimes shoot more than 30 leaks with one broadside (usually with an l'Ocean). Since this happens quite often, even when the Victory doesn't heel much, it is something to be taken care of. Setting the waterline a bit lower might solve the issue.

Trading missions like have been once. Mission is to bring a certain good to a certain port in a limited time. The profit shall be bigger than "normal" trading, but it is up to the player to find, buy or steal and transport the goods.

When promoted, you should get a message from admiralty with your new rank, your new maximum crew and what ships you can now sail. ... and some warm words from your commanding admiral...

Water depth and ships draft The whole map (OW and battle instance incl PB) shall have a defined water depth, not only shallow and deep). Battles near the coast will become a way more interesting, when the bigger ships cannot follow the smaller ones or when in PB 3rd rates and above can only manoeuvre in certain areas, while frigates and maybe shallow draft dutch liners have a way more freedom. This would have the benefit, that there will be again areas for 6th and 7th rates, some ports may only be accessible in 5th rates and even the small frigates may find their place in the game. Ports won't be shallow or deep, but accessible for a draft of 5 feet, etc.

Short range musket fire, very efficient to kill the crew of nearby lower vessels. The crew has to be assigned to that task, like sailing or boarding and is missing on other stations, marines are automatically assigned to that task. The assigned crew will load their guns and fire at nearby targets, when triggered by the player. The closer the enemy, the deadlier the result. No automatism in it (except for aiming). Range max. 50 to 75m. This should do away with small ships hugging big ones.

Industrious crafter DLC Adding 5 more buildings slot and opens the possibility to upgrade the shipyard with up to 5 drydocks (each has to crafted individually, lots of stones, woods and doubloons), which allow to store 5 additional ships in that port.