Flip

If you can find hard facts about them I will gladly include them. Just post them here.

Please don't post explicit sexual acts between boats! At least blur the images!

*****Updated as of 9/23/2015 - I have returned home so will try to update this over the next few days, adding a few things and correcting the older FAQs.**** Q. How do I gain XP? A. Dealing damage to enemy armor, dealing damage to enemy crew, and damage to enemy sails all grant XP, based on the amount of damage dealt. Q. What are 'Contraband goods' and what does it mean? A. Often when clicking on a merchant in a 'trader' variant of a ship, the description "Contraband goods found" will be displayed. These NPC's can be attacked, even if they are of the same nationality as you at no penalty to your reputation. A good way to start earning XP and gold early on in your Open World career. Q. Are clans/guilds available yet? A. The system is currently not in the game but will be coming soon, you can still group up with clan mates and fight together though! Q. Is there a agreed upon PVP gathering area? A. The Windward Passage. Google it if you don't understand. Q. What do (combat) ranks effect? A. Ranks effect the number of crew you can have, and thus directly effects what boat you can sail in a competent manner. Don't try to sail a Frigate with 50 crew! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After seeing the same questions regarding the open world mechanics, plans, etc asked over and over I've decided to compile them into one handy, albeit long, post. Admins/Mods feel free to edit this post to update answers or to add answers or questions not covered. I have tried to include quotes or sources where applicable to make the authenticity of the answers as accurate as possible. Anyways, here is a start, I will add more as they come up, are suggested, or as I see them asked. Q. When will the Open World Testing begin? A. SoonTM - But seriously has started already. Q. What will be the 'entry standard' set by Game Labs to Open World Testing? A. An express invitation or having the Santisima Trinidad unlocked in the Sea Trials testing to be included in the first waves. Don't fret, everyone will get in eventually! Q. What "Starting Nations" will be available in the Open World? A. Spain - Easy: several starting zones, distant areas with low combat (ideal for traders), some zones with shallow waters. Britain - Easy: several starting zones, 1 zone with shallow waters France - Medium: several starting zones, no shallow water areas Denmark - Hard: starts in between multiple enemies United Provinces (Dutch) - Medium: 2 starting locations Sweden - Impossible: starts with 1 port on St Barthelemy island (we can add another port on Guadelupe which Sweden controlled around 1814) USA - Medium: 3 ports on Florida coast, but somewhat distant from enemies Check out this map for visualization of all this! (http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/4666-nations-neutrals-pirates-and-ports-summary/) Q. Pirates, what about pirates! A. Anyone can be a pirate, simply attacking forces seen to be 'friendly' to you will make you a pirate. (For example, playing British and attacking a British merchant.) This will make you "kill on sight" forEVERYONE in the game as well as restricting you to only using some ports, making piracy risky and very difficult. (see this thread). Pirates are NOT a Nation in Naval Action. Q. How big is the map? A. The map spans 16 million square km and includes most of the Caribbean including part of the South Carolina coast. Q. What does the open world look like? A. Check out this thread dummy! (http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/4225-open-world-beautiful-places/) Q. Will there be crafting and an economy? A. Yes, ships can be built and will vary in stats based on what materials are used to construct them. Update: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/6869-basic-guide-to-crafting-ships/ Q. What are 'Explorers' and what do they do? A. When a resource appears on the map it has to be 'discovered' by explorers, which allows it to be exploited my merchants. This in turn uses up the resource and once depleted will spawn a new resource somewhere else on the map. More details: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/4640-open-world-prototype-resources/ Q. If I sink do I lose my ship? A. Yes and no, when you buy or obtain a ship (not captured) it will have 5 durability points. One point is lost every time you sink, get burned down, etc with permanent loss occurring after losing the 5th point of durability. Captured ships come with only one point of durability. Upon losing durability one must also repair the ship. Surrendering a ship reduces the repair cost, making surrender more appealing than sinking outright. Q. What are "Premium Ships?" A. Premium ships are ships bought for real money that have more aesthetic qualities than common ships to set them apart. They are never permanently lost (imagine durability set to infinity) but still require repairs when damaged/sunk. When captured they are put into a nearly useless condition to be little more than a trophy. Some exceptionally well crafted player made ships will be BETTER than the premium ships in stats. Q. After a battle, do I have to repair my ship? A. Yes, if damaged, this can happen on the OS (by use of a kit) or in a friendly/neutral Port. Q. What happens after I sink/surrender? A. After losing a ship the player spawns in the nearest friendly, neutral, or free port; whichever is closest. Q. I have more questions about ship loss and I want to enter the discussion! A, Click this silly. Q. Are battles in the Open World instanced or do they take place on the map? A. Battles are instanced separately from the Open World Map. Q. Will ships be upgrade able? A. Yes, ships can be upgraded with permanent and non-permanent modules, the difference being permanent ones can only be removed by destroying the module. Q. Can I get off my ship and explore ports, islands, etc in avatar form. A. It all depends on how successful the game will become. It might be possible in the near future. Q. Can I avoid PVP altogether? A. Yes and no, the world is currently planned to be open PVP anywhere, that said, friendly NPC's in the area will enter battles to help you if engaged. So, for example, playing in certain areas where NPC's have fleets of first rates will make you almost completely safe from PVP. Q. Can I log off in the middle of the vast ocean? A. "Logging off will be possible in the open sea. Your ship will be vulnerable for some short period of time and then will disappear from the map." - Admin Q. Will there be npc's in this trial or is it going to be strictly players? A. "Some NPCs are sailing the world already - they will need tuning of course." - Admin Update: Many NPC's can be found, ranging from a lowly Lynx to a fleet of 74's. Q. Can my tiny boat engage that big scary elephant 1st rate? A. No, smaller boats can not attack boats that are exceedingly larger (think Lynx vs Victory). This is planned to cut back on greifing/trolling. Q. If I 'tag' someone on the Open Sea Map to engage in battle, do other players get 'sucked' into the fight? A. Yes, all nearby friendly players and NPC's will join the battle. Whether NPCs always join if nearby or only if you are alone is unknown. This is planned to prevent splitting. Q. If my friends and I win a fight, who gets to keep the surrendered ships? A. The player that does the most damage to the surrendered ship will 'own' it, if the surrendered ship was a result of boarding combat, the player who boarded the ships will 'own' it. Q. Are there guilds? Can they own ports? A. Yes, yes, and yes. Guilds will be able to found/own ports - details to come! Q. If I have 100 friends who play can I make my own Nation? A. Yes in theory it is planned. You could play as a 'neutral' and fly under the flag of the Ottoman Empire, Russia, Genoa etc and wage war. Good luck though! Q. Will the Sea Trials version of combat (instanced from a lobby) continue to exist? A. Yes. Q. Where can I find guilds recruiting players for the Open World? A. Here: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/forum/39-guilds-clans-and-trading-companies/ Done for now, will add more as they come up/as I see them, _________________________________________________________________________ Q. Will there be a way to flee battles? For example, if I am caught by the stronger enemy and go to an instanced battle, will there be a way to get out without fighting/striking colors? A. In the beginning of the battle both parties are given a certain time to engage or disengage from combat. Once that time has passed if you are out of combat for a certain amount of time you can exit the battle. Once you exit to the open world you will be invisible and invulnerable for a certain time to allow you reposition yourself and avoid campers. -Admin Q. Do battles have a hard timer? A. Yes. "Battle also has a hard time limit.. so it will not be endless per se.. just long.'' - Admin Q. What happens if I disconnect somehow (power failure, pc crash, internet dies) during a battle? A. "I spoke with Admin this morning, and he confirmed that disconnecting will act just like a Surrender at that moment." -Henry Darby Basically disconnecting will act as a surrender in its current form. "Autosurrenders ease the pain of people with bad internet." -Admin

Well just an fyi, the game is in compressed time, so while the sail spamming may look wholly unrealistic, well it is. I don't mind your idea but I do think it's just another system that, while in theory works, would need extensive tweaking and balancing not just across the board but per ship.

While good suggestions they are kind of unrealistic if you want them to look exceedingly good. Not only is the focus of the devs not on beauty right now but on actually building a game, the requests you make would be demanding in a single player game let alone a multiplayer game with battles of up to 30v30. It would be the same rinse and repeat animations. And you would need models for each etc, you can't just have a cannon instantly turn into a broken cannon without a animation without it seeming cheap and ugly, the same goes for spars falling or rigging or sails hanging down. Imagine 5 first rates Fire at 5 enemy first rates and vice versa, your game now has to be told by the server "hey, that ship lost 10 guns, that one now has rigging hanging, that one has spars here and this there." Etc and then your game has to render the changes all at the same time (or it would look quite goofy) while keeping up with smoke, waves, crew animations, etc. Now scale this up to a larger fight and realize your pc is not going to handle it very well. The issue then comes up as why bother doing this if only one person in the world can run it like this not to mention the extremely large amount of work needed. The tldr is everything is possible, but that doesn't mean it will run well or even at all. You could render all 700 crew of a first rate ship with good texture work and animations, at about 1fps until your computer catches fire or blue screens due to memory issues everywhere. Same goes for detailed price by peice destruction of ships.

I like the idea, the concept, and all of it... except the accent you put on for the NA tutorial compared to the ED video you did. Makes it feel.. gimmicky, I would say redo it with your normal voice and boom 10/10.

Magic

Considering it is in 3 days and no word has been said of it, no lol.

It's not pessimism, its realism

Well there are only 6 devs so resources and time are at a premium considering they are attempting to make a MMO, something most studios employ 100+ employees for.

I see your angle but I guess I am just of the opinion that a solid economy system or a solid nation vs nation system sells more copies, but more importantly retains players and keeps the game fun than a few fancy machinimas will.

How do they work for promotion? Genuinely curious as when I look at a game I don't go 'ooh it has replays, its a must have now.' Do some people?

Well thats the issue, do you spend time implementing a system that will be used by some people in the arena style testing or do you focus on building the core systems of the open world, the part of the game that will move the most copies?

Sadly replays are not that easy to implement. I think logs and screens work decently.

That's called censorship. No thanks.

Battlefront 3 better be epic!

Basically, right click on any image on the web (or if its on your PC upload it to IMGUR or photobucket) and paste that link. It will put the photo where your cursor (blinking bar) is.

F11 is love, F11 is life.

I think it has to do with running at 4:3 OR running at lower resolution. Maybe the game thinks it can't fit it all across the top so ping gets the boot. Could be entirely wrong though.

Do you both run at 4:3 resolutions by chance?

Evening/late night PST. Sadly there are not many engagements at these times so weekends tend to be the only large battles I see these days.

That game was also incredibly arcadey and, honestly, really really bad. If the scope of the game was smaller, and wasn't a MMO, and was going to be a co-op game then yes, I could see this. But its not.

Many dots.

It has been thrown out there in various styles but I doubt it will ever happen.

I think a companion app might serve better that shows who owns what ports and maybe market values for the economy? Not sure if this is what you mean or if you want an app for the 'commander' in large battles, which doesn't really make sense because said commander will be in the battle anyway.