Belphe

Hello Everyone, I have never actually played Naval Action despite being a backer Long development, many U-turns and uncertain future were the main reasons behind my decision over the years. Today I know this time was wasted.. I would love to start playing now but I feel a little lost. I hope it's still not too late... Could you please answer the below questions? They will help me decide how I want to embark on this adventure! My expectations: - In the long run, I would love to own L'Ocean and Santissima Trinidad. - I would mainly want to fight my way to fortune and glory. - I don't mind being a Pirate.. My questions: 1. Should I start sailing on a PvE or PvP server? 2. Am I better off alone or in a Guild? 3. What nation do you advise me to play as to make acquisition of the above Ships-of-the-Line easier? I hope to hear from you soon! Thanks in advance! - Belphe

Ahoy! I am a returning player (! :) ) who would like to sail the seas yet again! I have an ancient character/in-game account which received a couple of gifts such as ships etc. over the months I stayed inactive. Me and my friend would like to try other nations and were curious if those gifts would become redeemable again on the new in-game account or would they be lost forever. One good example is the Christian ship available for 5 more days as a New Year gift. I'm other words: are the redeemables ETERNAL or a ONE-TIME OPPORTUNITY? Thanks

Thank you for clarifying this

An option to open and close gun ports on ships that had gun port covers. Apart from being a very nice aesthetical element they would also drastically lower the chance for the cannon to receive damage. Depending on how the "sinking mechanics" works (which unfortunately I know nothing about) closed gun ports would also slow down taking in water if the ship was struggling with leaks and the ports were under the waterline.

Ahoy fellow Captains! While navigating through the Caribbean I loved the fact that one needs to establish his/her current location on the map to proceed to their destination. However, I found the always-available, super-precise data in the upper right corner of the map a bit "unhistorical".. And what if while sailing through the Open World we had to press a key only to receive a circle on the map depicting our estimated location within which our Officer managed to place us according to the sun, stars and previously acquired "ageing" data? The size of the circle would be dependant on a Navigation Skill of that Officer, getting smaller as his level progresses. The wind at the moment is not in the "best shape". It changes direction very predictably and causes zero side drift. Currently, crossing the vast sea between the south American coast and Cuba is a matter of simply getting the right latitude and sailing North. If we "aimed" correctly we will arrive on Cuba in the exact point. However, since the winds in the Caribbean are usually blowing from the West, in reality we would drift to the East quite a lot, even constantly maintaining a course of 0 degrees. In my opinion, the idea I described above would add a nice touch to the realism of long distance sailing and would allow us to correct any potential drift/error in our navigation while keeping the "fun". Please, let me know what you think. ~Belphe

Do you think ocean currents would be something worth modeling in Naval Action? They would not matter in battles but in conjunction with an open world AI NPC fleets sailing for the player across the globe this could make a difference between loss and profit. If one knew the "faster, current fuelled" route he or she could sell their goods for a better price, just before it dropped... What do you think? It's probably very little programming but hell of a lot of immersion.

Ohh, I'd love to see all that! And if somebody says this is too complex to model they are wrong. There are flight simulations out there available for PC (Rise of Flight, DCS series) that perform hundreds of calculations regarding the air flow around the wing in real time and how ANY obstruction/deformations influence the lift generation. I suppose all we need to implement a mind-blowing damage model to both the hull and sails are a group of historical experts and coders. It can happen!

Can I still enable the data display regarding wind and angles of sails using the console? If so, how? Thanks!

We must remember that WoT premium tanks are never the top tier tanks - they are not the top of the ladder (one is tier X but it can only be won). That is why people are willing to pay to "skip" a long grind and jump right into the end-game fun. In NA we could make e.g. 3rd rate ships similar way but a problem could emerge if those ships engaged in 1 vs 1 battles against much lower tiered opponents. In WoT every tank can "only" meet -2 / +2 tiers and the battling groups are equal in numbers. The premium tanks are slightly OP on their level but they blend in when played against higher tiers. In NA with premium ships we could see situations where a fleet of 3 slightly OP "golden" 3rd rates obliterates barques or frigates sailing solo because here everyone can choose their opponent. And even though that frigate would stand no chance even against three "normal" 3rd rates her captain would definitely start a ranting thread somewhere on this forum... (how the premium ships are so very OP)... We could allow premium ships in NA to earn more XP and money but otherwise NOT make them ANY different to their standard counterparts. That could make people want to spend money on them and still keep the balance.

maturin, I enjoy reading your posts. I find them very logical and full of real-life, historical information. I agree with your suggestions 100%.

OK, good to know but you must admit that the scene below seems unreal: - Oh my God, here comes a big wave, the captain will perform a sharp turn in a minute and we are already knees deep in... water - lets leave the deck and evacuate upstairs! And halfway there, with people climbing up the stairs a new order is given: - No! Wait! The turn is completre, the wave has gone or whatever - back to your stations!!! And all that within 5 seconds... When flooding of the lowest (or any) deck reaches a certain level it should be sealed off and no shooting should be possible until pumps have lifted it above the waterline level.

Why won't we just try to simulate how it all really worked? Why dividing the hull into invisible sections which will be not fair when comparing e.g. 2 with 4 decked ships? Why not treat each ship as one big box with horizontal divisions (decks). The box has buoyancy which makes it float at a certain level creating a waterline. Each hole whether made by a cannonball or being a gunport below the waterline will let in x-number of cubic meters of water per minute to the deck it is in. The buoyancy should (and is, isn't it?) be calculated in real time making the ship sink at a "realistic" pace. Pumps obviously try to do the opposite but may be insufficient against too many holes. People and guns were pretty much on every deck so making some of the decks responsible for sinking MORE then others is "not fair". Making certain gunports unavailable for seconds only when the slightly damaged ship is pitching and rolling on high waves and then making them available again is also very unrealistic. If flooding was heavy the crews were leaving the deck and never used the cannons again. Also, we should be able to close the gunport doors per deck which would slow down the flooding rate and perhaps give the pumps a chance to save the ship.

What if the game is sold @~£20 one time payment but an in-game online store sells "vanity" items such as pretty sails, dyes, logos, flags, fancy clothes etc. for real money - items that DON'T influence the gameplay in any way? I'm no expert but would that work long term and keep the game profitable (Rift and DotA2 work like that)? If not, perhaps a sort of a premium account (faster building time, resource gathering time, quicker XP gain) could help? If you think about it it would not be "pay to win" per se. One with no premium could still spend more time playing then the one with premium account to earn the same amount of XP but it would be very visible when those two met each other in battle who was the better sailor. The game will require skill learnt during countless hours spent playing and no premium will buy anybody victory which I believe is what we all want...

super cool! I not only see no background but also no Victory ship icons...

In relation to my question from an earlier thread regarding what Naval Action will look like when it is finished (http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/1145-what-will-the-full-game-be-like/) I would like to suggest the following approach. 1. I would love this game to be an "open region sandbox", with the Caribbean and perhaps the whole of African coast being the areas of player influence. Ideally however, I'd like the whole globe to be available for players to explore. As crazy as this may sound to some people it has been implemented into a computer game before in the Silent Hunter series of games simulating various WWII submarines where the players could venture everywhere they wanted as long as they stayed in the water. The coast was created based on a 2D map of the world and the sub commanders could travel to the coast of America, visit Japan or admire icebergs in the North Atlantic. 2. Since Naval Action will model TRUE ship behaviour, manoeuvrability and speed if the world is made in the correct 1:1 scale it will take the "right" amount of time to get from A to B. Therefore, it seems absolutely logical to build this game as a Massive Multiplayer Online title. What I hate the most about ANY MMOs is the feeling of them being too crowded and if it's a game about saving the world or being a messiah well, it seems extremely odd to see other messiahs running around doing the same stuff. Naval Action, being a game of realism and history (to some extent) should not fear for this as the true distances on the seas will prevent from overcrowding. If the game turns out to be the greatest success of all time in the gaming industry (which I hope it will anyway ) and we do face hundreds of ships everywhere which would kill the immersion and the special type of loneliness that accompanied the ship crews in their voyages then it would be a good idea to limit the cluster to a certain number of players playing together in on world instance. Perhaps an approach known from Diablo 3 would be a good solution where players only play together (Co-Op) when they both desire so. However, that would drastically limit the PvP side and require much more well scripted AI to serve the players with interesting content but I am not sure if we all want to borrow the approach known from EVE Online where PvP is possible absolutely everywhere and anything lost is lost FOREVER. 3. I'd like to be able to live a life as a ship captain in Naval Action, whether I would be an admiral leading the Spanish armada to battle against the English or a pirate plundering anybody and everybody, a merchant comparing the prices worldwide to buy cheap and sell to make profit, a privateer "working" for a king, a smuggler shipping contraband etc. That requires a VERY rich living world to be modelled away from the sea. I do hope we all understand how much effort it may take to build all this and implement into this game. The economy itself could be one of the biggest issues. Do we script it and make the player made goods "vanish" after they are sold to the NPCs with no impact on the price or do we make the customer demand and availability of products govern their prices? Do we again borrow from EVE and make 99% of the in-game goods player made (that would require the whole background of industry, plantations, mines etc.) or do we make them appear in the shops driven by AI? I know what I want but is this possible? Is this not too much? 4. Politics and historical accuracy could be a serious issue if we were allowed to own towns and ports, conquer forts and change governors. Naval Action would loose historical accuracy literary on the first day after release! But perhaps that's what would make it even greater. Overpowering governors and changing layout on the political map would be interesting and could serve us with the best possible global conflict option for PvP. One could either climb up the career ladder in the chosen Navy or try to make a quiet living on the edge of the raging conflict. Others could try to smuggle goods in and out of the "danger zone" and perhaps flip their banners accordingly and serve whomever pays more... We truly have incredible potential within this project and using it wisely could produce THE best tall ship simulator out there. Let's not waste this opportunity! Please, at least consider the suggestions above. I am not making up the impossible. Various games already house all of those ideas. It is down to us to use them!

I do apologize but.. what is Unity? OMG, is NA "playable" already somewhere, somehow for the "common folk" such as myself?!?!?!

Hi, I have been reading the forums and came up with a few ideas for this game as well. Some may prove to be too demanding (both time and hardware -wise) but I just couldn't help but ingonre the "voices in my head" saying "I'd be sooo cool if...". Here we go! 1. All crew members (abolutely everybody on board) to have criteria/statistics such as: Name: First and Last Vitality: Able (100% of the capabilities below) / Wounded (50% of the capabilities below) / Dead (0% of the capabilities below) Sailing: 1 - 10 Cannons: 1 - 10 Fighting: 1 - 10 The mix of those would influence e.g. the speed at which the sails are set and cannons loaded etc. Loosing sailors would lower the overalla ability of the ship to sail and figth (bare in mind, I am not talking about sinking the ship - with this model it would be possible to kill 90% of the crew and render the ship defenceless and unable to do anything). 2. There are exactly as many 3d modelled sailors visible on board as the ship is carrying. 3. Me, as the captain can go everywhere on the ship: from the top mast to the lowest deck (they are all modelled). 4. Captain's Cabin is my personal "heaven" with a bed (speeding up time), log books etc. 5. Speed, course and position of the ship are determined by the tools from the era (forgive me for not knowing the proper names in english which is not my native language but as far as I remember wood log was dropped to the water and it was measured how long it took the ship to travel past it [speed determination] and sextant was used to find position in regards to stars). 6. Stars have to reflect the real night sky. 7. I would like to feel that even sailing a small (20 men?) boat requires a lot of work.. 8. This one is wild ;P I'd like to be able to "jump" into any sailor on board and play as him while the computer takes over the command only to continue to do what the player was doing (following a course, etc.). So, we would be able to "jump" into the sailor on the mast looking for enemy ships, get down (not follwo the order to stay), "jump" into being the Captain and punish the sailor with 10 whip slashes and lastly "jump" into the body of the boatswain and exectute the punishment. 9. I'd like the orders to be verbally passed on to the crew: Captain gices the order to the boatswain, he then shouts to the corresponding teams etc. I hope not all of those will end up in the bin and that you liked at least a few. Thanks for reading!