KillBox

Would that make you an 18th Century Kim Jong Un with scores of uniformed men following you around with parchment and quill on every portrait you have painted of yourself?

All joking aside, we shouldn't immediately scoff at non-historical ships. A well-intentioned community member may have plans for a custom Schooner he's drawn and would like to submit it, it should be taken with just as much seriousness as a user modelling a historical ship. It should be judged on it's own merit, and we have plenty of real life sailors aboard who should have a good idea as to how it should handle. But I will agree that HMS #SWAG4LYFE should never come to be.

Also, can do 150 knots upwind, and 250 knots running with 20 masts with yards up to Moonraker XXII (also called n00brakers), 2000 staysails, 100 jibs and can launch Exocet Missiles from it's cannons.

The only major issues I've had are the occasional blue-screen - in my case, I get a Driver_IRQ_Less_Or_Equal BSoD. Besides that, I've had my system restart for no apparent reason, however I suspect it might be a thermal issue so before I post any more about that, I'm going to reconfigure my case first.

I haven't personally encountered any "knuckle-headedness" to be perfectly honest. Yes, some belly-aching in the main chat about certain ship's performance and power-gap (once) - but every match I've played so far has been an absolute pleasure, and post-match is always filled with congratulations like "GG" or "GJ" or "GF". Most players of Naval Action I've met are of pretty decent character, and now that the "Win" conditions' been replaced with Damage, I've seen some extraordinary tactics even against insurmountable odds. I come from such places as World of Tanks (forum's an utter joke), War Thunder (Draconian Moderation that has to be enforced to keep the mongrels from tearing the place down), Star Citizen (forum paranoia combined with buyer's remorse and bad reading comprehension - lovely) and I had a very, VERY short stint in EvE. I don't think I need to tell you how that went, or how those forums are. I hear Planetside 2 is just as bad, though I've never tried it. Until this community reaches it's initial critical mass, we'll still have a pleasant place to hang our hat, methinks. After that, however, it may just go as Mirones fears.

A Rose by any other name, eh? And when I said French Corvette, I meant by Admirality standards of the early 19th Century - which is effectively a Post Ship, between 20 and 26 guns, fully ship-rigged and looks exactly like a Frigate, except for the fact that it's missing an Orlop deck. Specifically the French Diligente (carrying 20x 6-pounders until being re-armed with 12-pounder carronades a few years later), or if we carry on with a British theme, the Sphinx Class. However the Ontario with 22 guns will fill the gap just fine. Just adding suggestions here.

Bellona's a 3rd Rate - 74 guns. 2nd Rates commonly have between 90 and 98 guns. They also fell out of use for the most part as they didn't make sense. 1st and 3rds were the mainstays near the end of the 18th and most of the 19th centuries. Source. There were a few very pretty Dutch 2nd Rates (1st Rate by Dutch standards, damned be those shallow harbours), while the few 4th Rates that were around were usually used for Escort duty, but were powerful vessels in their own right.

I'd very much like the POTBS Myrmidon (La Renommee)... have you guys seen that STERN? You can't look at a French lady like that and tell me you're not interested...

In order to be believably diverse, we're going to have a few different types of ships in the same class (representing many nations and merchants alike) - though understandably, this is a long-term plan. However, now that I've experienced first hand the obvious power-gap between our 16-gun light Brigs and the HMS Surprise (the difference is VAST) might I suggest the addition of Post Ships or French Corvettes? The Sphinx class in British service would be a nice gap-filler between two-masted brigs and the much more powerful HMS Surprise.

There might be a meet-me-in-the-middle solution for this. Naval officers are all the same character rig (male, average height, build, etc) and will wear the clothing appropriate to his occupation, rank and nation. None of this is customizable, and it's the same stripe through and through. However, add in a simple face-modifier (like TES: Oblivion) so there's some semblance of customization and we're not all Baldy McGeneric with a wig. With this setup, there's a greater sense of individualism and a connection with an Avatar of yourself. However, the boarding is still in abstract, and no 360-noramrodmusketsnipe or captains tea-bagging each other, just an Avatar directing the whole gamut from the quarterdeck.

CPU: Intel i7 3770 @3.7GHz Mobo: MSI Gaming Z77-GD65 16GB Corsair Vengeance RAM @ 1600MHz MSI Gaming Edition nVidia GTX 780 Getting between 65 and 90fps on Ultra depending on the amount of ships and activity. I've got loads of headroom for animated crews - hint hint.

Admittedly it is a nice list of soft mechanics for those who like to Micro-manage and immerse themselves in these aspects if only to have the best crew/officers they possibly can before taking that next prize!

Had an issue where my PC restarted mid-match for no discernible reason during a PvE game. I'm going through the event log and crash dump as we speak to see if the problem is Unity/NA-related or a hardware issue I'm having. Will post results ASAP.

31 and loving it!

And that's about where I stand on the subject. I'm all for some old lubber naming his crate "Lady Jane" in honour of his wife/girlfriend/daughter - but once you open the door, all sorts are going to march through it and take advantage of that freedom, soiling the beauty of a ship's christening with some immature internet meme nobody cares about any more. So +1 to you, and my vote remain for "List of Names" or just "She's already named when you get her - now make her famous!"

My fellow gamers in the Skjaldborg are aware and some have already pre-ordered, drawn by the allure of wood given beautiful form and purpose. Pretty ships...

Historical question (related): Weren't ships christened when they were launched? Also - didn't the Admirality name her and register her? I for one think it'd be fun to have the ship's name as a given, then work to make her famous. I digress, I don't really care much for it anymore - I used to, but then I learnt that there's a certain bit of fun to be had in renaming the HMS xXxYOLOxXx with my cannons

Wow... many sea dogs here. I'm a lubber though I have a thorough fascination with the Age of Fighting Sail, and of course, the Men-o-War built in that era are perhaps some of the most beautiful things every crafted from wood. But yeah, I know most terms and what they are - I figure I'll be using them as soon as I get my hands on the Sea Trials.

Lol @Wind So how many times are you going to plug the Friedrich Wilhelm zu Pferde? I love both ships, but you seem slightly obsessed...

She's beautiful - thanks for posting pics of her!

She's gorgeous, well done sir!

You would be very correct too. To the best of my knowledge, the practice of decorating the Foresail was almost exclusive to the 15th and 16th century Spanish and Portuguese Vessels, and it was only ever the Foresail that carried the respective cross. In the time-line we'll be fighting in, the practice was not really popular, and considered a waste of resources like extra canvas and dye. What would be nice (as @akd mentions) would be personal flags. Just a little swag item. My family coat of arms would look very nice on a personal flag (or even on the stern gallery). Again, not a necessity - just steer clear of the Hot Pink and Chartreuse sails.

None, really. Having no decks below they were hosed down with grapeshot and musket-ball fire from the swivels, killing their crews (but saving the valuable guns). Literally like shooting fish in a barrel. However I'm all for adding them to AI-controlled coastal defences, if only to give the swivels something to do while the ship's guns get to work on the fort behind them.

While both sound awesome, the second may just be best in terms of development time, bugs, etc. Also, they should look better in that a pre-defined skin would be bespoke to the ship, whereas the custom colours may end up going the way of POTBS and it's colour-blind shipwrights.

While I'm sailing and doing me thing in the Open World? I'll just put ShoutCast over on Classic FM... which is what it is on most of the time anyways.