[Announcement of an alliance between the Kingdoms of Russia and France]

Anyone else confused?

I gotta say that as a North American timezone Dutch player who plays both during the day (Europe prime time) and my own evenings, I don't really know who the Dutch are allied with.

I think at some point in my afternoon I switch from being enemies to being friends with the Brits and the reverse happens with Russia. French are friends 24-7. Poles are friends at night but not during my day. I think I'm always enemies with Prussia. I never see a Spaniard. At least I know to always try and kill Swedes, Danes, and Pirates.

Diplomacy is futile.

[In shorts at the dock yard (ship builder)]

I'm okay with something like this but would rather it be linked with shipyard level instead of crafting level. New Crafters need some love. 

The extra dock space should only be in the port where you have your shipyard. Level 1 shipyard = 1 extra dock, level 2 = 2 extra spaces, level 3 = 3 extra.

[Trade Mark Exchange]

Would I pay real money for cosmetics, ship name, or forged paper? Perhaps. Depends on the cost.

Would I buy a special ship or mod? Doubtful. I also doubt that I would pay a subscription fee. That opinion could change if I saw the game headed in a direction I think is positive: a real concentration on adding a civilization building, real economy and industry aspect to accompany the great combat mechanics that are already done.

[Need more PvP? Join Prussia, while you can!]

What time are you most active? Is it primarily a Euro timezone nation?

[Penetration mods help Carros?]

I've always assumed this to be true: mods like French Gunners, Basic Weighted Gunpowder, etc increase the penetration of carronades as well. But is this true?

[Possible solution to farming alts for PvP marks]

6 hours ago, Hethwill said:

Knowing the enemy has one less warship.

Capturing the trade goods of the enemy nation.

Interdicting the routes behind the lines.

So many reasons other than marks.

Admiralty could pay your Admirals the allowance, guaranteed cash every 30 days at sea plus share bonuses for prizes ( not sinkings, that's your duty ).

O a lot could be done with career papers and not marks.

 

...* wakes up *...

I like your vision. If only...

[Ideas for new gunnery mechanics and also swivels baby!]

Great ideas!

But as I would expect implementation to require a lot of new code as well as exponentially growing demand on processing power, I would hope that this would be more of a long term goal of a Naval Action 2.0 rather than something that happens now. Thickness, BR reevaluation, functioning economy, 4th dimension hopping Port Battles and screeners, not to mention tutorials, FAQ, and UI design all are higher priority.

[ELI5 Giving people the wind]

12 hours ago, Giobhniu14 said:

Hey, I'm struggling in understanding the full strategic value of having/giving people the wind, I've no naval background or experience, until I started playing this game so a lot of the naval terms are coming slow to me. I've played on and off for a little while, and I believe I understand part of its value, however I'm sure I don't have the complete picture, I've seen it mentioned that is is bad giving an enemy the wind, I can see why its not ideal, but it seems a primary concern of some captains to avoid, and as I don't share that sense of priority, and i'm woefully inexperienced with pvp, I assume there is something I'm missing, and its not something I'm prioritizing in battle. I'm hoping that someone out there can explain the concept to me so that I can play more effectively. I'm used to fighting A.I also so I have no idea if they are trying to gain wind-related advantages on me or if they are just playing as simple as I assume I am, and if I got sunk in pvp more maybe it would become apparent.

 

What I think giving the enemy the wind means:

If the wind is blowing from S to N, and the enemy is to the S of my ship, and we are both sailing due N that enemy has the wind. 

Why I think that is bad:

if someone is downwind of me it is more difficult to close the range of the engagement assuming we both want to fight, and we have comparable speed and stern/bow chasers

Where I believe my confusion lies:

1. If players are presumably using longs in pvp as its the dominant weapon isn't their range the same (I'm aware pen is not)? If so when they turn to shoot, as long as I can meet their turn can't we exchange fire the same regardless of the wind? Assuming we can pen each other of course.
2. if I'm in front, they have to sail towards me to engage which means they can only shoot when we are in effective range of each other, they cannot force me to a specific side for fear of losing distance, doesn't that mean that if I'm in front I dictate which side I fight on?
3. If I have the wind (by my thought of what that term means) and I turn to shoot, do I not get pushed into the water lowering my aim and presenting a nice flat surface for my enemy ship, which is up wind to shoot assuming their elevation is too high?

Additional questions:

1. Is having the wind only useful if you are the faster ship? I know the consensus is that speed is king in PVP but if its that important and a player is that good at staying in that pocket why have much Armour at all? And why isn't everyone just attacking and kiting from that sector of the compass?
2. Can a slower ship do anything against a faster ship that can sit back their effectively?

Maybe I've simply got the concept backwards now that its typed out in front of me and I've read over it, it wouldn't be the first time a Naval term has done that  to me. Either way I'm definitely missing something and I know its simple and I'm going to feel a fool when its pointed out, but I've been married long enough to know sometimes that's just the order of things. 

@SteelSandwich gave you some quite good answers. I will address your question 3 if I understand you correctly. If you are running with the wind (wind at your back) and the enemy is in front of you, yes a turn to fire a broadside will tend to lower your aim by differing amounts depending on the tendency of your particular ship to heel. You can counter this by depowering (the T key) which lowers your stay sails and by turn your sails perpindicular to the wind. In other words: reduce the amount of sail that you have catching the wind and making you heel.

[PVP servers merge]

12 hours ago, Zompa said:

Hi , I just rejoined the game, I got my Xp, Ships back , not no money.

Anything you can do about it?

I'd advise posting in the support section of the forum and submitting an F11 in game. 

[Fix the hiding in battles already]

1 hour ago, Slim Jimmerson said:

Can't wait until we have officially implemented screening, multi battle PBs and defense/attack options.

This copy/paste 25v25 isn't cutting it.

Just as soon as leeway for a cag/fir Niagra at 80% sails sailing at 30 degrees wind is being calculated as perfectly as possible. Naval Action is the only game that does this, doncha know.

[fleet practice - setting options]

7 hours ago, seanjo said:

Where is fleet practice? And if you get sunk, do you lose your ship?

 

Under the Missions tab. You will enter in the ship you occupy in port when you enter the Fleet Practice. There is no permanent damage nor rewards. I don't know what happens if you survive the Fleet Practice but if you die, you spawn again in the same ship right OUTSIDE the port from which you started.

[How do I get bigger ships in battle mode?]

3 hours ago, Villars said:

I am happy to say I signed up for Naval Action and am very impressed. 

However, in pure battle mode, I do not understand how I can get bigger ships. How do I get gold?

I have sailed in the open world and earned 25,000 gold from attacking a ship. But that did not transfer into the battle mode for some reason.

Thanks!

In addition to the previous answer, note that to effectively captain a bigger ship, you need more crew which you can buy when you are a higher rank. Check out navalactionwiki.com for details on player ranks and ships.

I'm not sure what you mean by pure battle mode. A combat instance is started from open water by either you clicking on an enemy and clicking "Attack" or him doing the same to you. If you are victorious, you win gold. If you're talking about the fleet practice room, no gold is awarded there and you sail in your own ship. You can "capture" ships by boarding in this fleet practice but you don't get to keep them.

Welcome to the game. 

[Captains Chest for Books, not Refits]

4 minutes ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

capitol part won't work....I'm RUSSIAN we have no capital.  Though just make it done with a workshop and it would be limited enough.

Well you did pick an "impossible" nation.  

Okay, Capitol not required but if only a workshop is required, someone could put their workshop in the resource producing port and we'd be back where we started: resources harvested, mods produced, and then added to the Captains Chest all in the starting port. Remove or change the Captains Chest and the ships will just get built in the original port, modifications made, and tp'd out.

My goal is to see uninstalled mods or their necessary components out on the open water.

[Captains Chest for Books, not Refits]

2 hours ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

I don't mind the captian chest for the mods, but what I don't like is you can pop into a port, buy the rare mats needed, craft the mod and than pop back out to where you need it.  The resources need to be brought back to a port to be crafted so chance some oe gets your trade ship.  Easy solution is make the work shop needed not just for cannons, but any mod you want to craft you have to have a work shop in a port and bring all mats to that workshop to craft the mods.

Yes. Make all mods craftable but only in a workshop in your Capitol. 

[First game impressions]

This game will make you yearn to upgrade your graphics card. I played the first few months on a weak card and finally upgraded. It was a feeling like the first time my bad eyes out on a pair of glasses.

Welcome to NA!

[France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain]

9 hours ago, Baptiste Gallouédec said:

Thanks to the few Dutchs who came to help at the El Toco screen, when some Russian and Polish captains choose to fight side by side with the Swedes and  Brits... 

It was an incredible few hours. It seemed like every nation was represented -- some nations perhaps even fighting for both sides of the primary combatants. On Dutch TS we were trying to figure out who was joining whom.

Anyway, I enjoyed joining up with the French. It was the first time I'd faced @Liq in battle. And even tho he spanked our small frigate force in his Bellona, at least I didn't die.

Many good fights in those waters yesterday. 

[Copper Plating]

1 hour ago, Eyesore said:

Why would it make a difference? Alts will still simply buy everything?

That's why I'm suggesting that the mods have to be crafted in the Capitols. Make the required resource from the remote region have to be transported and not just harvest, craft, put in Captains Chest, and instantly use on the other side of the world.

[Copper Plating]

2 hours ago, HachiRoku said:

I've been thinking about the war of Carthagena and I like the fact that this port will always cause wars even with all the alts buying goods. The port is so good that its worth sinking 1000 ships to take simply because of the income of gold it makes. Today its 12 million. I am against the OP thickness of ships atm but that is more the base thickness of the ships and not the refit itself. Maybe a bit of both to be fair. I don't really care about this in this topic because I want to talk about copper so don't talk about op thickness here for now 

Now I think if you did the same to another port and made copper plating craftable and just as hard to craft(maybe harder) it would be a 2nd port to cause big wars. Nassau Boarders and crooked hull are not worth fighting wars over but copper might be  

Ideal in my opinion would be if resources were necessary for production of Cartagena Tar, Copper Plating, and some other special modifications but they were only available in distant, nonsafe-zone ports BUT the mods themselves could only be crafted by the skilled craftsmen who reside in Capitol cities. Our "impossible" nations would be, well, impossible. They could control supply of raw materials by capturing the resource ports but they would have to have another nation craft the mods for them because they have no Capitol.

And make those distant resource ports need something from the capitols to encourage two way trade rather than one way teleport.

[In preparation of part 5 (final changes) of the sailing model.]

@admin rather than having us all guessing, exaggerating, or giving perceptions based on everyone's limited experiences, perhaps you could summarize how the game calculates wind change in battle. Because now the overall community impression is that the changes don't feel right. But even the most active players have a limited number of battles to compare.

I think it would help us help the game if you described the process a little.

For example: every 5 minutes the game asks if there will be a wind change. 25% chance Yes or 75% chance No. But if yes, which direction? 50% chance clockwise or 50% chance counter? How big? 1-10 degrees.

[A Smuggler's Suggestions]

2 hours ago, EliteDelta said:

I think we need the old signaling perk to become standard everywhere on the OW.

Yes!

The Devs pulled it saying (I think) that it didn't work as intended. As I was fairly new then, I'm not sure what the problem was. I thought it would come back.

[Port ownership]

2 hours ago, Cortez said:

And if the clan switches nation, and it is not disbanded? A nation owns ports which belong to the clan which switched nation, but wasn`t disbanded?

Bad mechanic?

More like an awkward mechanic which delays the port going neutral. The port stays in the ownership of the orphaned clan until there is no more gold in its warehouse to pay maintenance or its captured. 

[PvP market]

This is more of a tech question. I've never duelled. How do you guys verify that the other side is playing within whatever mod limits are set? Or prove that you are complying?

Honor system?

[Recent Port battle primer?]

3 hours ago, Kubrat said:

So in such a case a player that could sail around quickly and avoid battle would be able to stop the enemy gaining points. 

I presume this is the reason why PB fleets rebuilt in teak/WO several weeks back.  I knew it had something to do with mobility but nothing explicit.

Lighter ships can be driven out of a circle by the heavies. Different strategies can be used. Wind plays the biggest role. The current mechanic encourages some variety in PB fleets but unfortunately ridiculous thickness mods and the Wasa being OP for its BR squashes that variety.

Most of us have our fingers crossed that the Devs will go through with their promised BR evaluation.

[Recent Port battle primer?]

3 hours ago, Kubrat said:

Is there a recent post by some helpful soul that can explain how port battles work nowadays.  I say nowadays because I know dynamics somewhat recently changed when (most) everyone switched to faster ships and focus switched away from Live oak.

But in saying that i don't really understand how any of it works, circles, timers etc. Links to a good post would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

@Liq covered most everything inside a PB. I'll just add what it takes to set a PB and who can enter.

If you look on the map, each port lists a BR rating. This is the maximum total BR of ships that can enter a PB on each side. Each side is also limited to 25 ships. Additionally some ports are designated shallow water ports. Only 6th rate ships and smaller can fight in these PB. In all others, the ships have to be 5th rate of larger. Mortar Brigs can enter either Deep or Shallow.

Ports are owned by clans. The owner can pay a daily fee to set the PB timer to a 3 hour window. If this is done, hostility can only be raised and the PB scheduled within this window. 

Port Battles occur 24 hours after hostility at the port reaches 100%. Hostility is raised by a nation successfully completing Hostility Missions. The PB will be set by the clan which raises the most hostility. Although all clans and clanless players can participate in hostility missions, only members of the clan who sets the PB and members of clans which are on that clan's Friendly Clan list actually get to fight in the PB.

Hostility Missions are defended by 10 x AI ships. They will either be 10 Mercuries (I think) in Shallow ports, and 10 Aggies or 10 Victories in all others. Unfortunately there's no way to determine beyond Shallow or Deep by just looking at the map. This configuration is left over from the days of Shallow, 4th Rate, and Line Ship port battles.

PB against neutral ports are defended by a mixture of 6 x AI of the specific class. Again, there's no way to tell which class this will be unless it's a Shallow port.

It takes 4 hostility missions of killing all AI to reach 100%. You still gain hostility if you don't kill all, you just will need to do more missions. If you lose ships during a hostility mission, reduce the hostility gained.

Hostility that fails to reach 100% before the daily server reset will reset back to 0%.

Hostility Missions stay open until all AI are dead or 90 minutes has passed so sometimes the defending nation players may jump in your mission. Sinking players in the defending region raises or lowers hostility at a higher rate.

It's always best to coordinate with the attacking clan prior to trying to join a PB. Many clans have very specific requirements about who and in what ship they want in the battle. And if your clan is not on their Friends List, you won't be able to enter anyway.

Perhaps someone else can jump in and explain how battle groups and screening works but please don't turn this instructional thread into accusations about exploiting mechanics. 

[4th rate Rebalance]

4 hours ago, sounthernrebel78 said:

First thing is to upgrade the WASA to a 3rd rate which will add depth to that class and remove the overpowered ship from 4th rate PBs. With this move you also increase the BR rating of the Wasa. Many players complain that the Wasa is overpowered for a 4th rate and needed to be reclassed. It doesn't effect its PVP abilities only locks it out of 4th rate Port Battles.

Wasa does need its BR raised but just wanted to point out that there are no longer "4th Rate Battles". They are either Shallow (6th rate or smaller) or Deep (Cerberus and bigger).