Blaatand

November 24, 2016

I think the dev team is violating a core rule in R&D change only one interlinked parameter at a time and avoid interlinked parameters where ever possible!!!! - if not you have NO WAY of tracking what worked.

Last patch severely broke the test by keeping BP learning interlocked with ship production quality. In other words - the result in what people will build and sail is worthless as the determining factor in most cases I know is that people do not want to waste production materials (fine woods) without getting new blueprints.

As we all know we will loose all BP's at reset next year whats the point in testing that any more????? Give everyone all BP's for now so we can test ships and other factors without the influence of BP learning!

This is simple research procedure and should have been done a while ago.

(worked as R&D engineer for many years with several international patents in my name so know what I talk about here)

It annoys me when testing and development is done haphazard with no discernible pattern or logic!!!!

EDIT Have made a thread in suggestions on how I think issues should be solved:

November 23, 2016

Just spent 2 hours reading through all.....

I like the proposal but like others warn against throwing all away at every patch - try a little tuning.

From threads:

Fleet should only be available in 2 ways: warships to traders as protection and traders to a warship (providing the fleet trader/s can carry goods) This will promote PVP as you can defend your cargo (either way)

More flexible ships crafting would enable traders to protect their vessels better - i.e. dump main guns and only carry a couple of large stern guns - or faster warships with reduced gun sizes.

Personally I started in PVE world but it got boring so changed to PVP 1 which is fun but sometimes tedious when you get jumped while moving precious cargo and have NO chance of running or fighting.

In the end I think the aim should be to have no PVP PVE distinction between servers - more diversity and people on a server also means more fun.

as for crafting - trim the fine wood thing - better system would be to remove it and let ships be crafted in real time....

i.e. crafting a frigate takes 1 day but you can only build a green

updating to blue takes 2 days

to purple 4 days and golden 8 days

times are sample only - but then number and quality will suddenly start to diverge!!!

edit: oh - all ships one durability - wreck is delivered to Yard and can be restored with materials and time.

November 23, 2016

Thanks - I read that a long time ago

This still looks mostly like on off switches and not gradual selection like what I propose. Further more it does not mention gun placements or sizes .

What I propose is more flexible AND includes a model for improving ships and learning BP's that is far more realistic.

As site Manager at a Large shipyard I actually know a lot about shipbuilding :-)

November 22, 2016

16 hours ago, Hodo said:

There is a more flexible system in the works. If you read the future patch plans you will see this is more or less what they are going to. probably not as complex as you have here, but something close.

I've read all the plans and I do not see anything fluid. Again - if all is chosen from a list it will be the same options picked, not the fluidity of a real outfitting. They do talk about making the ship more important than upgrades and reducing upgrade slots but then you need to go all the way with a system more like this. Also this system covers all ship areas - guns where I want or need them, BP's are learned by finding a vessel and studying it, modifications or quality upgrades are made directly to the specs and takes time.....

November 21, 2016

No OW - we are many who would leave - I second Anne Wildcat : Go into the battle screen and stay there.... Leave OW to those of us who like that pace

November 21, 2016

I advocate a more flexible construction/modification feature in the shipyard. I want to be able to trim the ship fitting my play - in this case making my traders fast, dumping all main guns to achieve more speed and fitting a couple of HEAVY stern guns to slow down pursuers. The ship mod section (and initial construction page) should have sliders to select weight, speed, gun sizes, gun placements, rigging quality, hold, powder storage, ammunition, crew selection (number of gunners, sailors, marines...) and all of course having results in speed, stability tonnage and so forth shown... Then I can make fast raiders with light broadsides, speed traders with only stern guns or heavy Corvettes for pirate hunting....

All in all this will make gameplay more interesting as all will have different preferences, so you never know exactly what you are up against. And in fact more period exact - just look at how all the ships stolen from Denmark were outfitted with heavier armaments by the brits and thereby got slower.....

regional bonuses and some upgrades could stay in slots but many would be better integrated here

November 4, 2016

ONLY way to test what we just got is to reduce all current ships to green or blue.... NOW

Then we can test how that really affects gameplay and crafting.

Next is to test another system - but maybe consider other options first???

Your comments here and arrogant dismissal with the remark on a server for real testers.... please.....If you do not let us test concepts to the full extent and then dismiss it the next day it is really taking the p... on us!!

I suggest a different system that would actually give room for all levels of players and give us what most want - TINKERING

We all want to tune ships to our own liking so why these half hearted tests - try out some radically different systems!

My suggestion is this:

Slots and slotted upgrades to be removed

I see it this way:

Material crafting follows current model with crafting hours

Ships crafting is separated into a Shipyard with 1 to 3 slots depending on crafting level or perhaps Rank

These slots can be used for

1 building ships (you can ONLY build a basic ship)

2 modifying ships (change a trader to carry only aft guns or add chasers to another vessel - tradeoffs needed - one size smaller broadside guns for larger chasers??)

3 improving ships (2, 4, 8 day upgrades to finer qualities and only one quality level per time)

4 rebuilding durability (Ships have durability 1 but the wreck will be delivered to your yard and you can rebuild it)

5 Research (ALL blueprints are earned by researching a captured vessel - this takes time but NO drop rates and you need to capture or buy a ship first - NPC should only sell the basic ships)

to get a spread in ships qualities cost in materials and time to build MUST be exponential (2, 4, 8, 16..) - a linear spread makes the cost too easy to overcome and you will see grey golden only.

For time cost to build make it depending on crafting level, rank and ship rating. Basically making it impossible for a new player to build a 1st rate. Time requirements can be modified as the spread in ships become apparent.

To implement you HAVE to reduce ALL ships in game to grey and green. Then if it takes a week to make a golden people will settle for a blue - knowing that option 3 in the yard allows for a 3 day upgrade to purple later.

Modifying a ship with Marine quarters would downgrade a choice of other options f.ex. speed, hold or cannon size

This method will both accommodate new and casual players AND the big hardcore clans - remember - diversity in population will be the only way to make this world perpetuate!!!!

I think this solves many of the current issues in one fell swoop :-)

Edit: readability / font size. ~the Moderation Team~

November 3, 2016

we will post about it next week hopefully.

I'm in - tired of the whining

November 3, 2016

You have just made a pretty enormous change to the entire shipbuilding aspect of this game. The fine woods requirements (and relative scarcity), regional bonuses, competing demands for LH (e.g., War Supplies), and re-introducing varying quality in captured AI ships, each on their own merits would've significantly altered the crafting environment. Taken all together at once, and you've shifted the trade/craft gameplay to such an extent that the playerbase hasn't yet fully adjusted to it; folks are still trying to figure out "the new normal". And I don't think we will fully reach that state until pre-patch gold ships are mostly attrited out of the players' collective inventory. That might take a while.

I think how the playerbase eventually evolved to meet the new environment might've been pretty interesting. As one example, I think quite a few players are learning that middling-quality ships aren't necessarily quite so bad after all. Your 9.96 changes were clearly meant to make Exceptional ships, well, "exceptional", rather than "minimum acceptable". And from my perspective, we were slowly headed toward begrudging acceptance among the playerbase of that new reality. Your observation "...not used and thus are useless. Nobody makes them and nobody buys them." was certainly true very recently, and still valid for many today. I think if you had let this process continue, however, for another few weeks, this statement would've become increasingly obsolete.

Yet now you've announced another seismic shift in the shipbuilding aspect of this game...before allowing the current paradigm to fully establish itself. The mere fact that you've announced these changes is going to affect how the 9.96 changes play out.

I really don't understand the timing of the announcement, following so closely on the heels of 9.96.

I agree !!!!!

November 3, 2016

Why should NAVAL ACTION give anyone unrealistic, unhistorical advantages ?

Why does NAVAL ACTION work with totally unrealistic and unhistorical advantages or perks?

They ruin any feeling of reality and equal chances for non-PIRATE players, and give PIRATES advantages, which the real pirates never had.

Why should PIRATES have an unreal bonus like their SPEED PERK?

If PIRATES want to sail faster than NATIONS ships, they should use fast, agile ships, like LYNX or PRIVATEER - like they did in real life.

But if they use frigates, why should their frigates be faster than any high-tech NATION's ships, like Great Britain's?

(Oh, and of course, the NATIONs perk "PIRATE HUNTER" should also be dropped !

Why should the NATIONS be able to load faster, because they are fighting PIRATES? Makes no sense at all.).

As it is now, PIRATES come sailing right in front of a NATION's capital with a small fleet of ENDYMIONs or INDIFATGABLES,

since both types are FAST, AND CARRY HUGE GUNS (42pd Carronades - on frigates!).

Since these ships are available, PIRATES can approach almost EVERY other ship, and since no-one can run from them,

due to their SPEED PERK, they don't need cannons - they come with 42pd Carronades, shoot up your crew, and you are done.

You will rarely find them sailing any other ships - the combi of speed AND huge carronades is perfect for them.

Does ANYone among the NA Devs truely believe, that PIRATES could have sailed right in front of PORT ROYAL

and plunder British ships, without getting caught in the act?

And here we come to another unrealistic setting: the immediate closing of battles.

If such a raid would have been tried by PIRATES, the British ships nearby would have come to help, and the PIRATES would have had to run,

or they would have got sunk, or caught and hung. THAT was Pirates' reality - unromanticised!

It must have been real HARD to survive as a Pirate.

As it is now in NAVAL ACTION, PIRATES are now just like any other NATION, plus these advantages.

This has NOTHING to do with Pirate Life. Why have just another NATION, called PIRATES - why not give them a realistic situation?

Why not have PIRATES who really deserve the name, and get their business done under realistic conditions?

THEN you could be REALLY PROUD of being a PIRATE!

From my previous posts you must have seen: I am a BIG fan of NAVAL ACTION.

So, this is not meant to be a frustration-rant.

This is written with all my hope and best wishes, that NAVAL ACTION could and should become a REALLY great game!

I second this!

November 3, 2016

I like some of what you start out with here so at the risk of repeating myself....

I Like addition of balanced properties and captured grey only.....