Cetric de Cornusiac

I have been told 'war supplies' currently is out of function for preparing an invasion of an enemy port. They were used to deposit 'hostility' in a target harbor, if I understand this correctly. The idea was not bad and I think it could be revived in another form, in context of what I will try to explain here as my next suggestion. -- The preparation of a planned invasion is crucial for success. My idea is about troop transports taking the place of 'war supplies'. Let's face it: to take over an enemy port an aggressor not only needs to defeat a fleet and fortifications of the harbor - historically and actually this is only the first stage to the following fight on land. This is done by landing troops who will fight against the defenders. Only after they win, the town will get conquered and taken over. When no troops are getting on the shore, you can bombard the place with your ships as you please, it will not be yours by that alone. So, gamewise, how could this important aspect of an amphibious invasion be represented? - We will have to build 'troop transports' for the port battle. They could be AI-steered or players are commissioned by their clans to command the troop transports. This is a crucial part of the battle and only the best players should be selected for that task, because it will be in their hands if the invasion succeeds or not. In that role they do not participate in sinking enemy ships, they concentrate in bringing their ships to target areas and keeping them afloat while they unload troops (repairs possible on board). We will have battles for dominating zones as before, but also we will have to defend those troop ships (or stop and sink them, from point of view of the defender) so they make it to a designated landing zone - usually a beach close to town or the town pier. Troop transports have to be protected by all means to reach this place, where they will unload their troops in longboats. This while they are shielded from the defenders by their accompanying war ships. Hopefully. Port battles could still contain mechanics like now where you get your victory points from the struggle about domination zones, so this part of the conquest will not become obsolete, we would only have to add a new part, about the troop ships safely reaching their destination. Every port has a calculation based on what's necessary in Battle Rating for attacking it, as far as its land troop defenses are concerned. Now what the attacker would need is to bring to the beach enough troops to outnumber the calculated defenders. This will determine the port flipping. The troop transport would have to be a new ship type in game, larger and less elegant than the Indiaman. Bulky and rather defenseless, made for containing as many soldiers and weapons inside as possible and providing the means of unloading them. This could be symbolized by animations which start the moment the transport reaches beach or mole, triggered by AI or the Captain who commands the troop ship. You can still interrupt the process, it has to be completed in a given time window for success. Troop transports will be one-time instruments and not usable for something else, like shipping cargo. They are built exactly for a given invasion plan, in a port of the attacker. You use the same material for them as are necessary for 'war supplies', plus soldiers. It would be rather interesting for battle development if you have to bring them on OW to destination (escorted of course by the battle groups). Very precious. The key to success or failure. If you loose them already on the march to destination, the port battle would become meaningless (or only be fought for victory points, but no actual flipping the port). Once being used for a port battle, the troop transport will disappear and you will have to build and collect new ones for another port battle to come. In the way 'war supplies' did. Effect: More tactical requirements for both the voyage to target port and the port battle itself. A new role as commander of transport vessels who has a decisive importance for victory or failure. When the port battle and invasion are done, the commanders of troop ships would either find themselves in the conquered town or a spawning basic cutter represents their escape vessel as the transport has to be left at the place, if successful or not.

Not sure if I like this. It would lead too much to routine crafting and working at the band-conveyor isn't fun. Not even invented before the times of Henry Ford. ⚒️ I think the equipment of the dockyard (having upgrades itself which give specialization) paired with your personal skill expressed by crafting xp should entitle you to reach high percentages of producing high quality ships, no matter what type and what size (size may still remain a matter of dockyard capacity).

Next round in suggesting stuff: I am all in for individualization and more options in ship building, so one player ship will most unlikely be a clone of another player ship. Let clone ships be an AI thing alone. For this goal and the affection you will grow on your special, personal ship, I dare propose the following... Ship quality should depend from these factors: - dockyard size and upgrades for that dockyard, so it's not only three sizes as now which seem to determine buildable ship size only. - construction time you are willing to invest. Short (rushed) building means worse, cheaper ship - long (considered) building means better, feature-rich ship with improved characteristics. - accumulated crafting experience. Your crafting level, that is. As I understand it now in the game, it only determines what ship model is available to you. Let that expand also on ship stats. - some rare skill books for ship design + crafting. Manuals by famous ship architects. Treatises by navy engineers. So your shipyard will have upgrade and 'shipyard knowledge' slots just like a ship does. - if you remember my other idea here about recruiting specialized crew groups for determining the abilities of your ship, you will see the source for my idea here about expert carpenters and naval engineers employed by you for improving your ship design further. - tiered material quality: chosen wood type could prove to be one of the following - (1st class) excellent quality (2nd class) good (3rd class) standard (4th class) flawed, where 3rd class would be wood of the common quality we have now. Not sure if this would be visible on the market when you buy in your material, or it turns out to be this or that while working with it (random results, however lowered risk of worse material when employing a high trained specialist in your dockyard who knows how to avoid faulty material). Permanent upgrades in this concept In the result, permanent upgrades (number and quality) would depend on the capability of your dockyard and its crafting power, while ship knowledge as now would depend from buyer and user of same ship. For more options, the number of permas would range from zero to maximum eight. They could get augmented in number by given factors you chose when crafting the ship *and* later when refitting. Later added permas would be considerably expensive compared with those who come with a fresh build, due to more efforts necessary to make room in an existing naval architecture and having to live or deal with existing flaws which need to be mended first. The higher effort is not bought by money, but by excessive requirement of labor contracts. Also we could consider the need of real time for completion of an refitting project, so you would have to take the ship out of active service and put into refit, after real number of days when your playing is recorded by the game you get the refitted ship back, with an additional perma slot. Instant refit would be too easy, it's got to be expensive and valuable. So you appreciate the result better. Some new permanent upgrades would have to come at a price, however. They could mean a reduction in cannons or cargo hold, as it makes sense to reduce them due to characteristics of that new permanent upgrade (if it is spacy, bulky, taking the place of standard equipment). For example, if you refit your ship to be an explorer, serving scientists (like the common coal transport which became Cpt. Cook's 'Endeavour'), you get a permanent upgrade which increases view on the open world map and investigation results about places you pass (so in fact it is a reconnaissance or espionage ship), while you have less cannons (space taken over by scientific instruments and the quarters and laboratories of scientists on board) and less crew. When you craft permanent upgrades, they also could differ in quality, like (1) elite (2) supreme (3) good, while 'good' means the same as current standard. Permanent upgrades could get damaged or destroyed in battles, don't get repaired by your usual repair options and need to be seen after at your next visit to home port and dockyard. If destroyed, the slot may become free for another choice. If damaged, it is greyed out and you don't enjoy the bonus until it is repaired in dockyard (there you can chose to dump it completely and get a new one). This special repair of permas would not be done simply by paying gold, but would require a percentage of the original material needed. For example, if you have Bovenwinds Refit, you would need one out of the original 5 Gritjie Van Dijks as replacement to put Bovenwinds Refit back into function. All this makes permanent upgrades even more valuable than they are now, and ships equipped with them, as well. Your ship has a chance to undergo changes even after original perma slots are full. The dockyard specialization would be a great deal and encourage people to enter the interesting profession of a ship builder, as it would offer more variations. The skill books helping in that would be interesting only for ship builders and thus passed on to those by captains who are just fighting or trading. However, I like the random aspects in getting this or that factor which determines the ship building result. So, the various ways to improve your qualification in ship crafting should influence percentages of chances to obtain this or that partial result flowing into the big result, not generate a sure ticket. So, a ship crafter with low crafting experience xp would have a low percentage to get the top tier result, a colleague with high crafting experience can hope for it on grounds of higher percentage. Makes also sense to get permanent upgrades back, or at least back on a reduced quality tier, if you break up a ship in your dockyard for parts.

J'ai acheté un 'war supply' et je me pose la meme question. Je ne crois pas il te faut le deponer dans la warehouse, car sauf outpost la 'marchandise' sera detruit á ton depart. Donc, je crois il faut les vendre. J'ai vu environ 25 'war supplies' en Basse-Terre ou quelque endroit la, dans le shop, et on ne sait pas si c'est deponé par les Suedois pour attaquer cette porte ou laissé orphelin apres la derniere 'flipping' par nos Francais.

Don't know what you understand when I spoke of 'percentage' of a reward waiting for the long-living character. I think it should be as low as to discourage people from silly farming efforts. Say, one percent per playing day. Makes hundred days until you get a note, the rare upgrade, or whatever it is. This way it does not become a main content of the game, but a nice side-effect (by longevity). We have to address the players who love playing, if this isn't possible without opening doors for silly farming freaks, than be it.

And there you can try out many upgrades which you would get only much, much later on PvP, given the enormous prices asked.

Seems you never played on PvE. Yes, I sail from the Gulf of Mexico to the Antilles and back. Neutral ports are no reason for not sailing, they are the reason FOR sailing much around. As you can look and discover what they have to offer without getting harassed by those... those... you know whom I mean...

And this is historical. Except for Pirates, maybe. They profit from a 'bad ass reputation', fear is part of their business, so let have Pirates have an advantage from NOT sparing your life, contrary to every other nation (if Pirates were a nation at all).

OK, Captains, thanks for the lively responses to my suggestion. I hope you don't get annoyed if I elaborate a little on my idea, as new ones keep coming in: Part Three: For the ranson system in case you got captured (and the winner spared your life), I think it would be great if we had a 'solidarity treasury' for each nation or clan, to which every national player gives a certain amount per day. From this cash collection the ransons would be paid to the Captains who present a prisoner of that nation. Gives a nice social aspect to the whole thing, because each national community would expect from their members not to get captured in battle too often, lest the treasury would get depleted. After that - no ransoms, or just by yourself, taking it from your own money. This is sort of an economic warfare aspect. Many prisoners - many costs to that nation. Now the ones of you who want players to act more unselfishly or as demi-gods who never fear doom will have to rejoice, because Captains would hate to lose battles more and turn into prisoner, for said reason. And prestige in their community.

Well, but the game already disconnects you after a while of not doing anything, right? Would be really annoying to sit like a mouse in some corner and give a life-sign to the system every now and then just for collecting percentages for the 'survival bonus'. I don't think anyone enjoys this.

Did it not come across your mind that those who have to fear their death fight more heroically than the 'blind fighting' ones? Because when you know you have to lose something more than just a few thousands of merchandise value, you take your fight more serious, you do more for avoiding the end, you are more desperate - that makes a fight heroic. Not carelessly going into another "spawn". This reminds me that more than one character owned by us on the same server should be prevented. That is also better for the role playing part. An idea could be the time while you are in open world is being measured by the 'survival bonus counter' only. So you are on a ship and you expose yourself to certain risk someone comes along and tags you. Just sitting passively in harbor of course is no way to gain percentages for a survival bonus, I agree on that.

I want them only to behave like in real life. Else I can regard them as AI bots, actually? Or what does tell me the difference? -- Someone mentioned the hero deeds (and deaths) of historical persons like Nelson. That has a romantic point, but if he or the Admirality would have an option, they certainly would have liked him to survive, or any other commander of quality. Because a surviving commander is the better commander. He can serve his country in battles to come. While the dead commander... well, you guess it. He is just dead meat.

You can still sail full risk, as my concept does not speak of punishments. You just would not get the bonus. I want to feel more I have a human being opposite me, not a demi-god who knows he cannot die. Not really, that is.

Alright, as I moved over to PvP server and made my insights for a week or two, I got the following ideas. Part One: Make death a more severe event (almost like in real life ) for giving people a reason to spare their character its death. Now it is only an economic disadvantage when you get sunk and killed, you lose a ship and its cargo. We should shift the focus to the personal side and give a reason to avoid getting killed, for sake of becoming more realistic in that matter. IRL you do everything for not dying, right? So let it happen in the game, too. I am not proposing a punishment for dying. This could just get used as an argument for this game being too hardcore and scaring off new players. I am proposing advantages for staying alive. -- The game would measure how long someone has not died recently. The longer he can stay alive, the more he would receive in bonus. This is the motive for people to take their mortality in game more serious. If the long-time unavoidable happens and you get sunk another time and die, the counter would get resetted and you would have to wait accordingly for receiving a new 'survival bonus'. -- Now, what could that bonus be? Maybe percentages of a victory point. Or percentages of an admirality note, or a rare permit, or a rare book, which will be given to you once the 100% is achieved. Then the next one... randomly, of course, so it does not become predictable. I am against giving money or battle points this way. We would count the time being logged into the server, not real time outside. The effect of this proposed game feature would be, people would be more careful about losing their lives. Your success in staying afloat gains a new value. -- Part Two of this suggestion: Not every defeat in battle should mean your death. Your opponent could chose to spare your life and take you as prisoner. Then he will ask a ransom from your nation for your release. Or simply let you go at the next port, out of courtesy. The ransom could be negotiable between the winner and the clan of the prisoner, or get determined by your rank and (sic!) your accumulated surviving time. Did you manage to stay alive for a long time in Naval Action? Prepare to pay a high price for staying this way! - Now what if nobody or yourself pay the ransom? Sorry, I think that would mean your death and you find yourself "fresh" at the home port, but with wiped survival counter.

Well, what if allied ships could stop in the open world ocean and transfer cargo, especially ammunition (imagine it done by their longboats or side-by-side via cranes) for replenishing? That would even bring new tasks for some people as supplier for battle groups.

As your proposal has many tweaks and strategic thinking involved, leading to decisions of where to put the emphasis, otherwise opens compromises in the load of powder/ammunition types, --> it has to be great. To embed it however the devs would have a decent amount of work to do. This together with the idea read before about having to put down sails for repairs, the more you put down, the more you can repair. Or the limitation of chain shot has to be met with limitations to repair sails in battle, unless you move away from the action to find opportunities for substantial repairs. Say, something like a distance radius without enemy ships, as requirement.

As soon as I reach the necessary rank for recruiting enough crew, my ship of choice will be the Endymion. Until then, I have to annoy Merewether and Nethro with a Prince of Neufchatel, like yesterday. One of them sunk, other only escaped due to massive repair efforts. Have to admit, most of the work was done by my ally (think Lisa was sailing a Trincomalee).

J'ai fait des belles experiences avec Le Prince, très agile et dangereux pour son tailleur. Mais il faut avoir un dockyard tier 5 et un permit d'admiralité pour le construire. Privateer on peut assembler sans restrictions.

This idea about tiered marine soldiers isn't bad. It could be integrated into a larger quality system regarding all personnel - sailors to outpost employees alike. here: And the conclusion that captains will more likely flee the battle because they want to save lives of their top level marines is no automaticism - it still is a personal decision one player does this way and another player does that way. Just like to risk or to spare valuable ships with permanent upgrades you *hate* to loose.

Diversity is always a gain, game-wise, as it expands our horizons. I'd welcome different tiers in cannon quality and specification. However, that makes it necessary to equip a ship exclusively with one type you settle with, as 'mixed batteries' would be a hell of simulation efforts...

I think it would make sense to connect the number of outpost slots with our rank. Higher rank = more outposts possible. Because rank is power.

Last days when I went cruising from one side of the map to the other, back and forth, something like 72 game-days at sea with constant fishing, I got NO bottle at all. The hope to get a worthy bottle content is why I am fishing at all. I love the surprises those sealed bottles contain (or don't contain). Maybe bottles were temporarily switched off by some recent update?

There was this one Indiaman in gold with 5 permanent slots I did some time ago. Already thought I climbed finally up the master builder ladder, afterwards I learned it was a bug of one of the more recent updates...

Basically every ship going through the hands of a shipbuilder should be a "one of a kind", and remember, those were the times before mass production in the sense of the industrial age...

Have the maximum level shipyard and crafting level 40. I still keep producing ships in blue, with 3 permanent upgrade options. What I am missing to reach 5? -- For me the crafting of personalized ships is one of the major attractions of NA. There is still potential for more enjoyable content in this. Will think it over and place a new suggestion post about that. Meanwhile, that basic question here bothers me.