Tennessee88

All I will say is that battles were fun. Was in 4 separate engagements, and eventually had to abandon ship on the first major engagement while trying to cover the stern of one our our flagships. Cheers to all involved.

I respond to this admittedly as someone who was assigned to the screening squadrons rather than participating in the actual battle. But from what I have heard, the French fleet never actually tried to engage the British invasion force at anything other than max range, allowing our ships to rush the towers and basically assault them completely unmolested. The second you all allowed every tower to be anchored under by those third rates, where the tower guns couldn't traverse down, you all lost. Is that what happened? Not disagreeing with the overall post, do think port battles should be handled differently. But I think it is slightly unfair to use this episode as an example.

Very well done sir. My thanks.

Its been discussed before. All I remember is that the animations were likely a no go just due to be being so taxing. Would love to see closed ports for open world travel, but not a high priority for me.

Did you really need two posts.

Capitals and the area around them should allow new players to call in reinforcements. Outside of that, I really hate NPC reinforcements and want them gone. Had a major port battle yesterday for Fredericksted on PVP2. British invasion fleet and French fought over the actual port, while Royal Navy squadrons responsible for screening actions had engagements with French reinforcements and their Swedish allies. It became an obnoxious fest of French players constantly calling in reinforcements to tie up the screening vessels and make it pass us. Don't blame them, its a perfectly reasonable game mechanic. But it really took away from what was becoming compelling game play.

First off Bob, welcome to the game. Secondly, hold fast mate, rough seas coming your way for this suggestion.

Honestly, its not that hard of a system.

PVE will continue to be boring for awhile (and in my opinion always boring when compared to PVP) until we can have additional game play systems, variations of maps/environments, objectives, etc. The simple fact is that for this game to become viable to more than just its current niche population, you need to find a way to make PVE/PVP much more accessible and compelling. That doesn't mean hand holding or instant gratification.

Love the idea and at some point want to actually start a thread just brainstorming various mission ideas. Not sure exactly how integrating land into battles will work with shallows and what not, but even if they need do something much further down the line with a series of hand-built maps that load in only for certain mission/events, I would be incredibly happy if we finally got missions where you had to deal with shallows and navigation along with the enemy. So just for fun... and so I can avoid doing my real job for a little while, I would envision cutting out missions as follows (obviously a lot of this is for fun and assumes other systems becoming much more refined). First off, missions should be limited to 5th rates and smaller. Finally give frigates something interesting to do. Accept mission from admiralty which includes a rough map of dangerous reefs. Enter mission that is randomly placed near shore. Load custom map that includes channels, reefs, land, randomly placed forts/batteries (various predetermined locations), objective ship (various randomly predetermined locations), and some enemy cutters. You start reasonably far off shore and from the channel you have to navigate giving you time to survey the scene, set cannons and crew, etc. Once you come to a certain range from land, enemy signal station alerts everyone and a time limit starts. Also, enemy ships will put to sea after a certain point in the time limit. Goal is to stand in, carefully navigate the channel not only to avoid reefs, but also heavier batteries, take control of enemy ship, and escort it out (it takes predetermined path based on map). Cutters/privateers/(whatever is appropriate) will try and recapture as you exit so you have to keep them away or sink them. The only way of making missions like this engaging (if the team even has the time/resources to create them in the far future) is to make it a constant balancing act of various factors. For example: Do you take a safer and quicker route while receiving fire from a heavier battery, or do you risk the longer route which will expose you to much less enemy fire but risk running aground and giving the defenders that much more time to put to sea. As you are leaving, you have to balance suppressing enemy batteries hitting your prize/keeping enemy vessels from recapturing. I doubt we will ever see anything quite like this but it is fun to dream. The time to craft custom maps, an entirely new system for reefs/running aground, the limits of AI, etc. all likely make this a pipe dream. Regardless, thanks for distracting me from work.

Would like several options regarding this. For ships in port, the ability to take traders into your fleet or even have them follow you in open world to make it slightly more tactical. Limit the ability for you to escort them with anything higher than a 5th rate. Hire crews to move ships (with or without cargo between ports), however there should be some limits. They must actually be present in the open world, and they should have at most a scratch crew making them vulnerable to attack. Finally, would like the ability to send prizes into your outposts (travelling via open world) instead of you having to constantly sail trader ships back to outposts. However, you must allocate crew to them and when the officer system is in you must assign an officer to them.

Absolutely against constant instant teleports between outposts. Way too easy to abuse for more strategic pvp action. Would have entire clans teleporting into free ports for quick raids and then be able to escape via the same magical device in very short order. Would really tick me off to hear of an American raid on Haiti, for me to sail with all haste on an intercept course to cut off their retreat, and find they had already teleported back to key west. On the flip side. I would like just keep an outpost at PaP where I currently grind and simply teleport to La Tortue the second someone signals enemy in sight. The grind isn't fun because there is almost no variety at this point (fleeting or missions, PVP gives good xp and is fun, but it is starting to get annoying having higher class enemy vessels show up in mass). Fully understandable, just needs time to develop. Overall, if you think of it, the grind really isn't that bad. The fact that we have so many players in line of battle ships is almost more concerning to me than the grind. I am hoping they find ways to encourage and direct PVP via missions.

I certainly like the idea, especially when players are involved. Heck I wouldn't mind false flags, etc.

I know things are likely already out of the running (time/resources/etc), many have already been mentioned and even more are being contemplated. Not only additional crew/animations for those whose machine can handle it, but some variety as well. Marines, officers, etc. Also would love to see crew along the ratlines and perhaps Marines shooting muskets from the tops. Captain avatar in battle instance. Just have him standing at the quarterdeck with a set of basic animations (looking through his glass, pointing, shouting orders). On top of that, thought it might be a good idea for micro transactions to be able to slight customize your captain (choose between additional uniforms, hats, etc). Signal flags or lanterns for when folks type in chat during a battle. Just use generic things like (enemy frigate in sight, engage enemy more closely, wear in succession, etc.) Ability to customize ship (this has been discussed in depth, just adding my 2 cents). Beat to quarters as soon as you load into a battle instance. Ability to have the ship appear with closed gun ports in open world. Recoil of the guns (don't think this qualifies as a small thing, could see some difficulties with this). Wish we could have smoke linger longer, but realize that is it liking very taxing, especially for large battles.

Which it will be ready when its ready.