[Oldenborg 1740 (With Plans)]

One of my favorite ships from PotBS, I hope Le Fleuron makes it into Naval Action.

[Flags, Ensigns, Banners]

...You could implement a commun ications method by flaghoists if the player had a "spyglass view" which fixed on the flag hoist. A simple "read signals from ship X" command would fix the zoomed in player's view on the signal flags for, say, 10 or 15 seconds and then the message those flags are sending is shown in a text window bottom of screen. It would certainly be something unique in a naval game.

 

Unfortunately clans and such will just use Teamspeak and talk to each other, there's no way round this I don't think so any historical in-game comms system would be purely for plaayer immersion. Unless you can force VOIP to not work or something.

 

Of course in MP fleet battles you could have an agreement not to speak over TS and all fleet signals be sent by flags. That would be truely awesome...

 

It's an excellent idea, but it raises concerns (for me at least) about mass communication. How would the people of a 'nation' or 'clan' be able to communicate effectively with the rest of their peers when not in the same battle or same area? Chat systems? What would prevent the chat systems from being used in battle instead of signaling?

 

These are just my concerns... not trying to discredit your idea.