PinkyDK

I saw somewhere a request for how to build a campaign and I thought I'd try my best to come up with one suggestion. I searched for the correct place for the post - but hopefully a moderator will move it if necesary. I would like the option to run a single semi-historical campaign spanning through the time periods of the game. I know other people want more options/freedom but I think it's a choice and the campaign need to be structured accordingly and so I hope my suggestion makes sense for what I would like to see. I suggest the campaign will be built after a master semi-historical timeline with historical navy conflicts fitting the timelines of the game. The suggestion limits a players sandbox, but makes it easier to balance and secure the player experience while still having the option to be rather flexible. This is a very good way to make sure a campaign will be able to follow a somewhat accurate picture of history, but at the same time prevents a lot of random or chaotic campaigns some other players might like. If necesary it's possible to script necesary peace deals or conflicts when historical situations are difficult to find. The player should select 1 player nation from a handfull of great naval nations - some of them perhaps limited in their starting period if necesary. Minor nations will play a part but not as a main nation. To narrate the experience I find it usefull for you as an admiral to not be the commander of your nation but a subject of a government, but also an important advisor allowing you to take some decissions, but also be forced along the timeline for participation in further conflict. The player will start in the timeline he/she decides and as time progress will either be involved in conflict with his own nation - or as an "advisor" on behalf of other major or minor nations. This makes sure that no matter your choice of nation you will be able to participate. Basically splitting the campaign up into several small mini campaigns linked together. As an example starting as germany you could fight your own wars in the proper timelines and at other times you could "Supervise" and play as minor nations or other major nations. Perhaps even be able to supervise in 3 different levels: a) entire command basically taking over as it was your own nation (but returning to your own nation later) b) Help designing ships - perhaps using tech from both nations but not playing the battles c) Just give them tech and money (maybe earn some foreign ship designs) but let them handle themselves This means France should be able to play even in the part of time where they are occupied or in peace either from foreign ports or supervising some or part of the british, us or chinese fleet. And in the times of european peace participate in conflict in other parts of the world... This also - depending on the conflicts in which you are an advisor - could give you faster research in some areas, better own economy and the ability to build some ship hulls from other nations? Would also be cool to play as England but advising either Russia or Japan in that conflict and both being able to build your own designs and bring home some of the foreign designs when moving on... Maybe some nations should have more options for who to support and others be restricted. Apart from this raw sketch I have a few issues witht eh current mini campaign: Its over way too fast To get more variation perhaps the enemy AI should develope more than 1 design for each shiptype at a time. The transport slider makes very little sense Torpedos are king in the early campaign timeline - You can build a lot of torpedo boats and even though you get blockaded without bigger ships you will turn around pretty fast. I would advise looking into either shorter range (600m), duds and/or make the torpedoes more inaccurate... The map and port system I think is pretty cool. Ships should be organised into fleets/armadas - ships not in fleets should be in a reserve pool. Fleets/armadas should have a restricted tonnage or number decided by the admiralty or nation leadership which could be modified during the game Ships should be sailed to and operate from a port You need to have better control of your fleets behavior like being able to set allowed range from port, behavior and tasks like Coastal patrol, Coastal defense, Convoy guard, Raiding, Combat patrol, Harbor/fleet assault. Maybe even have a fleet operate in a specific area. More than 1 fleet could engage at a time, but if you have a fleet with plenty screening ships it should be difficult to catch that battleship alone. You should look into the balance when talking ships and economy. Players should not spam large ships (perhaps from restrictions made by his national leadership?) - at the same time its also important that a player is not always able to sink large enemy ships at will but maybe thats an AI problem? PinkyDK

Hey Panda - Patchnotes stated you would not get the same economy but I'd still want to make a more qualified decision anyway. Yes I could capture both ships in the first mission - but is this really a game where a player (maybe even a player not as skilled as us) will have to repeat missions and only move on from a perfect win for a chance to complete the rest of the game? I think that would make for a horrible gameplay considering only a very few percentage of players will be interested enough to nerd around on the forums like we do...

I wanted to try the US campaign and when I got the first option to do either the land battle defending against the british invasion or focus on the sea battle I wanted to test the system and picked sea battle only even if I should easily be able to handle the land battle (I hope). 1/ When making this decission I would like more information about the consequences. Which rewards are offered for both missions and maybe see the missions before deciding? 2/ The missions I have to escape with the trade/troop ship from 5-6 enemy ships. I could fit in 2 smaller ships but I only had 1 ship available. My attempts to handle this didn´t go well because even though I tried to attack and draw the enemy ships away some of them just went straight for my slow ship. I feel like Im cornered already? Any advice is ofcourse welcome but Im just writing it here for developers to see. This game either need a better introduction when starting the battle as to which options I should use og provice much better information before battle. Maybe even when deciding if I want to do land or sea battle. PinkyDK

I would love for each stage to allow you to pick a technology, get a few for free (with a link to the career points) and then push the others to the next stage where you can repeat but with a bigger pool to select from for each stage you advance...

I would like to still have the story line battles and the POIs stay as they are + the small skirmishes added.......And not a lot of them - As panda suggested just a few here and there for extra gameplay. The point is the battles are extra - rarely providing anything big. But it gives a player like me a chance to prolong the playing experience for fun. And if someone like William just want to win the game he can skip them. Also the crew experience is ofcourse a thing to remember, but I haven't gotten any super crews yet anyway...

Just to clarify (I already done the british campaign twice just to play and provide bug reports - might start 3rd or try the US campaign) but I'm a big fan of playing SOME ground battles - especially amphibious landings...The long winded land battles - especially with wonky pathfinding is after the 2nd run through not very interesting, but the game is stronger from having both options. In the same story I would be super interested in having a few more playable and optional side skirmishes / quests - especially in the early british chapters for minor skirmishes: Make a few smaller naval missions clearly labeled as optional with 1-2 smaller ships (perhaps a limit of 40 or 80 initially and later upto 120) with ships doing small unimportant missions with rewards only big enough to compensate for repairs and a small bonus. Maybe get rewards like 200 or 400 special rifles, some carronades or EIC cannons, mortars or cannons on top for making them very interesting? Suggestions for missions from which the maps can be 100% water or reusing existing maps for easy development: Race the "insert name here" (select your fastest ship perhaps a 12 gun ship to reach a specific zone before another british ship with which you have a bet going - make it sail around an island or something and sail up against the wind so you have to zig zag) Maybe when you get there you encounter 2 enemy small 12-gun ships on patrol and you get control over the allied ship too. Sink the merchant (kill a single merchant with a small escort - merchant must be sunk to make an example - make the crew numerous and strong in melee to make it obvious not to board) Sink the pirate (same as above except it's a single armed ship which must be sunk to make an example - make the ship have a strong crew to make it obvious not top board) Battery ambush (remove the battery from a small island - either by taking up the gunfight or land troops on the back of the island... Maybe with 1-2 small enemy ships) Maybe even a variation of Battery Ambush where you take control of an enemy battery and use it to kill an enemy ship being anchored up in front of the battery. But this might not work unless the ship is hardcoded stationary and the battery is strong enough to kill it. Capture the smuggler, traitor, spy or whatever (board and capture a smuggler in an armed merchant or sloop-of-war to have him arrested - you may not necesarily keep the ship after - maybe it sank on it's way to port) If the ship is sunk mission could be a win or loss depending on what you think but with small or negative reward compared to boarding Similar you could make up a scenario to either cut down a mast or tear apart the sails on a merchant with plague on board - or maybe it's on fire so you cannot get close but somehow you just don't want to sink it... Kill the flagship (take on a group of 3 ships with only 2 ships of the same size - like allow 2 ships with a limit of 80 weight total to fight 3 or 4 identical weight ships. The missions is to sink 1 designated enemy flagship and make it to an exit zone. Like a hit'n'run (cutting off the head of the snake) All these battles should be minor skirmishes to provide more optional content for the player and not take a lot of time. Also a good variation from the big battles coming up later. Many of these battles can also be used as a training ground for some of the combat mechanics a new player need to learn. Most of them at the same time should not take too much time to develope? I hope it'll be possible PinkyDK

Just to clarify (I already done the british campaign twice just to play and provide bug reports - might start 3rd or try the US campaign) but I'm a big fan of playing SOME ground battles - especially amphibious landings...The long winded land battles - especially with wonky pathfinding is after the 2nd run through not very interesting, but the game is stronger from having both options. In the same story I would be super interested in having a few more playable and optional side quests - especially in the early british chapters for minor skirmishes: Make a few smaller naval missions clearly labeled as optional with 1-2 smaller ships (perhaps a limit of 40 or 80 initially and later upto 120) with ships doing small unimportant missions with rewards only big enough to compensate for repairs and a small bonus. Maybe get rewards like 200 or 400 special rifles, some carronades or EIC cannons, mortars or cannons on top for making them very interesting? Suggestions for missions from which the maps can be 100% water or reusing existing maps for easy development: Race the "insert name here" (select your fastest ship perhaps a 12 gun ship to reach a specific zone before another british ship with which you have a bet going - make it sail around an island or something and sail up against the wind so you have to zig zag) Maybe when you get there you encounter 2 enemy small 12-gun ships on patrol and you get control over the allied ship too. Sink the merchant (kill a single merchant with a small escort - merchant must be sunk to make an example - make the crew numerous and strong in melee to make it obvious not to board) Sink the pirate (same as above except it's a single armed ship which must be sunk to make an example - make the ship have a strong crew to make it obvious not top board) Battery ambush (remove the battery from a small island - either by taking up the gunfight or land troops on the back of the island... Maybe with 1-2 small enemy ships) Maybe even a variation of Battery Ambush where you take control of an enemy battery and use it to kill an enemy ship being anchored up in front of the battery. But this might not work unless the ship is hardcoded stationary and the battery is strong enough to kill it. Capture the smuggler, traitor, spy or whatever (board and capture a smuggler in an armed merchant or sloop-of-war to have him arrested - you may not necesarily keep the ship after - maybe it sank on it's way to port) If the ship is sunk mission could be a win or loss depending on what you think but with small or negative reward compared to boarding Similar you could make up a scenario to either cut down a mast or tear apart the sails on a merchant with plague on board - or maybe it's on fire so you cannot get close but somehow you just don't want to sink it... Kill the flagship (take on a group of 3 ships with only 2 ships of the same size - like allow 2 ships with a limit of 80 weight total to fight 3 or 4 identical weight ships. The missions is to sink 1 designated enemy flagship and make it to an exit zone. Like a hit'n'run (cutting off the head of the snake) All these battles should be minor skirmishes to provide more optional content for the player and not take a lot of time. Also a good variation from the big battles coming up later. Many of these battles can also be used as a training ground for some of the combat mechanics a new player need to learn. Most of them at the same time should not take too much time to develope? I hope it'll be possible PinkyDK

I had to move a unit directly on top of the flag and not just around it... I was thinking I had trouble because of a nearby fractioned unit coming back to harass me but maybe you're correct

I played it the other day and it seems completely fine and without any real trouble... Fleet/troop composition has to be done properly though I think.

Sweaty - I could not load more sailors on the ships. Also the reason I felt this mission was too hard for it's difficulty is mostly thinking about new players... When players buy this game they get dropped into the first battle. Then they pretty much get left alone in the mission map... I played with the brig and the sloop and got paired up against bigger ships with same manpower. Either the game should instruct me to purchase a bigger ship to reach the wanted difficulty level or I should have an advanced tutorial of ship hitboxes and "best procedure" for sinking a ship, blowing away sails, killing sailors etc. It's not because I can't figure it out myself - but I would want every new player (12, 16, 27, 84 years old - shouldn't matter) to get a good experience even if they're brand new to a game like this. Luckily the game is still in development so with enough time this can go from a brilliant game for experienced players to being a brilliant game for anyone. Many options are available including more advanced tutorials, better introductions during at least the first few missions and perhaps even my favorite: combine it with a few more introduction missions with low risc and low pay. PinkyDK

I made a post of how I felt this particular battles was a little harsh if you follow the story of only having a brig and a sloop... ie NOT buying a prize from the intromission if you take one. It is however possible with a 18 Gun ship and a 12 Gun ship - it just might take several attempts and some luck: I used both ships to soften up the warship target sailing past them towards the supply ship. I shot it until it surrendered and used the crew from my 12-gun sloop to take control of it. At this point I used the small 12 Gun sloop to get the attention from the nontarget warship and dragged it away from the target. The supply ship I tried to run away in a seperate direction and I managed to slightly win the duel with my 18 Gun Brig against the target warship and boarded it. Battle ended immediately when I took over the warship target as I was already in control of the supply ship. Good luck - if it's not working make sure you take a prize in the intro battle and smash your way through this one... PinkyDK

Bought the game yesterday - it's great so far and looking good... I do hope the development has plenty time for improving the instructions on game mechanics and giving me as a player more guidance through the missions. I'd love for the instructions/mission description to be very clear from the start so I dont have to start a battle and then restarting it with a proper setup only because it's the only way to get an idea of what is required for me... Dinner for Admiral battle made me think a lot about the scaling - I like the constant challenge, but sometimes I'm afraid to get punished for making a good battle result either from luck or hard work ... Anyway here is an example from the very first selectable mission I played after the initial battle. I brought the 18 Gun HMS Ferret with 120 sailors and a 12 Gun HMS Alert with 64 sailors for my attempt at winning "Dinner with Admiral" on medium difficulty and it felt like "hard level". I did have the option to keep a 26 Gun Prize from the previous battle but I left it as a Prize for a future addition because of price and wanting to follow the story at least the first battle. Also I was afraid to escalate the difficulty even from having it in the harbour... Since this was the first mission I decided to go with the story about having these only a brig and a sloop so I picked these 2 ships and didn't want to purchase a bigger ship yet. I faced (besides the Walpole) 2 x 18 Gun Spaniards... Obviously depending on the AI it's possible to win a good victory, but I think 2 x 18 gun ships was a little difficult for my medium settings thinking I had less cannons and during the game had to donate some crew for taking control of the Walpole. I ended up donating 30 sailors from the Alert rather early on since the sloop was pretty useless with 3" cannons only - luckily the 16 remaining sailors managed to grab the attention from the un-important enemy ship and drag him away while Ferret managed to gain a slightl edge on the "San Juan Bautista" and eventually winning a boarding action... PinkyDK TL:DR - I like the game - The naval battle "Dinner with Admiral" was a little harder than I expected...

Im slightly in doubt but those specs look a little light... specially since the game is now 3D instead of 2D (Don't shoot me for missing any technical differences) CPU: Intel Core i5 2.4Ghz or equivalent (You only have 2.3 + turboboost?) GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 950 or equivalent (You only have NO-GTX 940mx) RAM: 4gb (You have 😎 Storage: 10gb OS: Windows 7, 64bit With optimization you may get slightly better results further down the road, but I wouldn't expect anything but a horrible experience - Sorry...