Destraex

Originally the core of the game was just the battle instances. The open world was put on top of that. I like the open world but the time between action\naval engagements is not condusive to people staying around. Most of the people left seem to be doing supporting function grinds like trading crafting and fishing. The combat element has boiled down to PVE with missions and even that just takes too long to get to for my hour or two a night. I can play 2-3 other games with 6 mates a night or 1 battle of naval action with a few hard core grinders friends that literally stay on the game 24/7. One of my friends plays from 12-3am or so and then gets up and plays when he gets the chance the next morning before work. Then gets on at 9pm or so at night if he can. I cannot compete with this level of commitment. He has a lot of fun but I would describe him as spending more time than most are willing to spend. None of my other friends can do that. @Tyrdael: Are you saying that you just sail for an hour a night doing nothing but sail in that time and then go to bed. So essentially you are just wondering at the beauty of the game for an hour like it was a movie? I do this sometimes and the sail is indeed enjoyable. But it's the time it takes when you want some naval action. The endless chases for PVP that result in no action even when you do engage (countertagged usually). The sails against the wind to a mission. Those things get in the way of firing the cannons and having a battle which is the whole point of this game in the end. The battle mechanics are superb and the open world is there to serve them. I don't want the speed changed necessarily. I just want to be able to battle.

My opinion of PVP is that if you are caught up to in the open world then you are caught up to. No chasing a second time in the battle instance. Thus distances relating to the open world battle "spawn circle" should be much closer and never so far that it leads to an hour of chasing that requires a renomme. Once in battle this should hopefully force people to commit to the fight or surrender thus wasting less time. I want to play PVP as well and play exclusively on PVP servers. I just don't have time during the week for long chases that result in a battle instance chase that result in nothing or worse never finding anybody to fight that is not 2hrs sail away. If I want to PVP I literally cannot during the week. There is nobody close to port and raiders just log off at the after battle screen for similar reasons... the time investment (apart from the overwhelming numbers waiting for hours for them). Thus recently we lost a clan member to the time issue and 3-4 of my other friends stopped playing some time ago for other games that they can enjoy right away without the long cruise times. I am not whinging. I would just really love to log in every night. I find my enthusiasm for the long sail out even to a 169 or 152 PVE to do so and real life intervening to be getting in my way. This game was taking over my life. I generally stay away from MMORPG games for this reason but LOVE the combat model in this game and the period ships. I love the open world as well but am having trouble keeping up with the giant time sink that sailing to places takes. That's all. If your not in the right time zone or a large clan it's very hard to join port battles as well. This does not bother me so much. But really should be a less time consuming task to group up for. On things people have said that I considered good suggestions: - First 3 teleports to missions and back free - I consider this would cut open world numbers but hey. THose people would probably not be on if they do not get some way to save time and have some naval action - Trade Currents - A good suggestion and one more likely to bear fruit as it would speed up all functions. As long as these currents did not need half an hour to sail to. Another thing I would like to see is a solution to the endless group up problem.... not a big problem I grant you. But when I get on of an evening our clan is generally spread to the four corners trading and such or not logged on. Fine we can all teleport to capital once. 3 of us set out for a mission or hunt and during the sail out time we might be 20mins off shore and gradually 1, 2 then 3 more might log on and we either have to wait for them or forever play the waiting game once the 30-40min battle is done. Never connecting with our friends. This then is not condusive to having friends join of an evening because they will be wary of being asked to use their gaming time trying to group up with open world sailing time. They just don't logon, the more casual ones. EDIT: Another suggestion I would have to enable more PVP would be to have a teleport circle outside each capital. Get your group in it and you can teleport within 10 minutes of any enemy capital you want. You cannot do this with a flag but it would mean more people to fight. Their are some factions we just never see down our way. You must use your free three hour teleport to get back though. This way people who want to sail for many hours still can and the open world does not need to be shrunk or changed as PVP action would be compressed around the capitals. Their should be enemy fleets patrolling for PVP. I don't know. Perhaps this would just mean that the capitals would be devoid of traffic and fleets. Or perhaps it would mean that when I log on at my capital their are people their to go and fight against. Perhaps a national message saying semaphore has detected enemy ships entering your area announcing a teleporter incoming. P.S. When I said world of warships I did not mean the gameplay just the wait times, the battle instances. You can get a game without hours of waiting or having to fight the AI because the only humans around run or hide in after battle screen unless you want to sail for 1hr on your own raid.

But I think shrinking the world may upset some unless you do the world in instances instead of the battles? But that would separate the population and in effect because of even slower open world speeds in those instances make it very hard to find anybody and still increase the time to do everything within that smaller world. I still think just speeding up the entire open world may be better. But if it does look silly perhaps just rationalising the bobbing may have to be enough. But if most people don't mind the travel times then I will just have to play on the weekend only when i have more time.when or perhaps just no battles are around. otherwise those with limited time near home port will never be out of sight of a ship and never warp.

I understand the epicness of the world especially for exploration. I am primarily talking about good pvp and pve within a reasonable time. I guess I want world of warships style instant action during the week and epic open world during the weekend. If you shrunk the world are you saying we could haabe battle instances in the open world without having loading timesl . As in that would solve all of his bank and anti gsnk stuff

Naval Action open world speed needs to be x3 what it is now in my opinion. The reason for this is that I simply don't have the gaming time to sail against the wind for 30minutes and back for potentially another 30minutes of my 1-2hrs gaming a night. I understand that having to sail to a mission rather than just entering one from port is probably meant to get people sailing in the open world to keep it active. But real life prevents me from doing so especially on a week night. This in turn has meant some of my friends have left the game calling it a time waster. Thus I don't care how silly it looks, it cannot look sillier than it does now, I would be hopeful that speeding up the open world will encourage more people to jump on for the quick battle and populate the world. Even rarer is pvp that actually ends in a battle. I would propose that this is fixed by having a special PVP crossed swords just outside port that allowed people from any nation to join vs each other with almost no sailing and no durability loss. This would show how many people were in the queue to people in the open world and allow groups to stay together on the same side in the queue. The ones started in port don't seem to be populated and are hard to understand.

I have always wanted to be able to turn the rudder without having to slam it around full hard left or right. The manual adjustment where you click once and the rudder centers after you let go is useless because it also gets to hard right or left the longer you hold it. So to use it at smaller settings toy must constantly hold to the point you want the rudder at and then let it centre again before repeating. In reality a helmsman would hold the rudder at whatever gradient you wanted.

Now that we have co-ordinates. Navigation tools are fairly pointless unfortunately.

I have not tested battle combat sailing yet with this patch. But I love the way the sails now seem to flutter in the wind according to whether they would actually be filled. Having said this I also note that people are complaining that ships will no longer tack where they did before by just getting top speed and just ramming the rudder full tilt to right or left. I suggests again that it be made so that you can adjust the rudder by points and hold it for shallower turns. Gradients (or points) of the compass if you will. Rudder points are also needed to counter any sail adjustments that you still want to enable you to sail in a straight line still. Helm\tiller 2 points starboard Helm\tiller Hard a starboard etc

I have not tested battle combat sailing yet with this patch. But I love the way the sails now seem to flutter in the wind according to whether they would actually be filled. Having said this I also note that people are complaining that ships will no longer tack where they did before by just getting top speed and just ramming the rudder full tilt to right or left. I suggests again that it be made so that you can adjust the rudder by points and hold it for shallower turns. Gradients (or points) of the compass if you will. Rudder points are also needed to counter any sail adjustments that you still want to enable you to sail in a straight line still.

Will have to try again later. Thx gents.

A friend and I have been kicked about 5 times each in the last 45 minutes or so trying to sail in cutters from one place to another. We get kicked to the login screen and can immediately join again. We are both in Australia, in different houses, different PC builds and other internet working fine (speed tests and other programs and household devices working fine). Upon coming back in I noticed 5-10 people in the queue. Are servers unstable at the moment or close to crashing? P.S. One time of these my buddy loaded back in to have no chat and apparently was not listed in clan list and the group invite led to him being listed in group as "not_ready" instead of "at sea".

I love reading nation chat during long battles or talking to the clan. They would have communicated via flags at great distances anyways and if this is a cheat so is open world chat and voice coms. Its the modern world. You will always get one flouting any no coms rule out of game so why try restricting it.

The new wind and hull form system sounds really amazing! Not sure about the whole holding people in battle thing... perhaps that should be a hard and fast mechanic rather than a perk.

Yeah. I understand the time thing, I myself only have an hour or two each night and this generally only gives me one or max two engagements because of open world sailing time. But the thing that gets me is that it's always going to be a natural reaction for a nation to send a fleet to take care of marauders prowling the area (as in real life). It is dis-heartening to find the battle and not be able to get in and then be able to do nothing in order to hunt down the raiders. It's a game and some things are not going to be perfect. For instance voice and text communications to tell friendlies where an attack is happening is not 19c tech. But both sides have it. The in battle raiders who communicate with the scout they left outside and the fleet waiting for the "revenge" or "gank" so it is termed, but I prefer to know it as a natural defensive reaction. Something fleets in real life did albiet over an extended period that cannot be depicted in game. Nobody in their right mind is actually going to waste hours patrolling and thus the time compression in game. The battle instance to allow for better battle physics and fighting mechanics. We need a way whereby nations fleets are not feeling helpless against raiders who attack and then warp away with no chance for a chase. A chase that would have happened had the battle been entirely in the open world and naturally without complaints as well. I think the travelling battle (looking like a ship on the ocean) is a reasonable solution, solving both the time compression problem by moving the battle and the problem of chasers being denied any response to what the defenders could also call "ganking". The defensive fleet waiting is simply a counter gank. \ The only problem with it being that over an hour a lot of ground can be covered. You know what I have an idea. Open up the battle timer to unlimited. But only allow people to enter the battle at it's original start point. This would mean that people joining would be miles away from the chase. Maybe all people in the area near the battle bubble would be pulled into the battle unless they avoided the battle bubble. This way you could kinda sail in and out of a battle instance and when the battle is over all people appear in the open world in relative positions.

My solution means they can log off legitimately. The only other solution I can think of is that the game allows for time dialation and brings the players out in a different position, but one that can be calculated. An extrapolation of direction sailed in battle but corrected for time spent sailing compressed as if it were the open world. If that makes sense. Have the battle marker move according to this as of it were a battle moving so open worlders can chase it. But at open world speeds.... With the penalties above for logging off still.

I have been thinking after another 1hr wait which meant I lost sleep for the next days work that perhaps the game should incorporate a mechanic that offers logoff at the after battle screen but warns that all rewards will be lost and durabilities and cargo that was gained un-done being given back to those they were taken from. If somebody ALT-F4s or crashes the game at the same point or before the same thing happens. The person who logged off loses the spoils and they are restored to their original owners. In Addition a mark should appear in the open world outlining the persons name and that they have left the area by skullduggery and a small "bribe" reward given to the waiters within a radius of the logger according to how long they have been stationary within the radius. Reputation of the loggers would also be affected negatively. So that in battle people could judge the odds the person would log by checking their rating and perhaps this would then stop people bothering. The people in battle could see a rating icon on the person that will log and tell that they have logged many times before. This would legitimise the mechanic so people who need to go to bed do so while rewarding those that have wasted their time. It would also encourage people to come out and fight rather than log off. I think it is fair while not requiring any game mechanic changes. It may though have an effect on those that legitimately crash during battle. This could also be exploited by people organising the enemy to log off so they can get rewarded. But this would take collusion between nations and should be easy to see and stop when diplomacy comes into effect. Those that crash legitimately would need to submit an F11 claim and the others would still get the rewards.

I wonder. Is it possible for you to enter nuetral pr pirate ports. When you press TAB in battle what is your rank?

rebel witch I wonder if there is some way to give a bonus timer if attacking the same rank and BR. I.e. A fair fight and not a gank. Say make a 5 minute escape timer instead of 1 or 2 if these conditions are met for a fair fight.

I was reading that in real life SOLs took an hour to clear for action. In films like hornblower and master and commander they seem to clear for action in under a few minutes. There would have been a few types of clearing for action I imagine. At least one that was fast and another more thorough one. The fast one used for when one is genuinely surprised by an enemy which would be rare and a slower more deliberate one preparing for a set engagement where the enemy may have been in sight for hours. A lot would have needed to be done, fires put out, belongings stowed in the hold, boats let go and tied to the rear, hammocks turned into barricades, boarding nets erected if chosen. Fires lit for matches. I ask because I was thinking that perhaps this game should involve some time to do these things before one can attack or during battle. A preparation bar similar to boarding gi ving more buffs according to the level of readiness reached. I would dearly love to see ports open and cannon run out but know that is too intensive and that often one level of cannon was left open in the tropics anyhow. But yes curious to know if any ship actually missed clearing for action.

I would like to welcome Vanguard. Our newest [REIS] member. This clan page does work quickly.

or perhaps just the ability to convert your hours into labour contracts. Might flood the market though.

Very very nice!

Still offline. Well bugger me Refresh, refresh.

Royal East India Squadron [REIS] - A small British Nation, Beer n Pretzels style clan primarily in Australian time zone. Brief Ordered to transfer all the way from the East Indies to the aid of the fleet. Consisting of crews encompassing men from all corners of the Empire and beyond. Including a not insignificant Colonial contingent. Synopsis We are a small informal "beer n' Pretzels" style clan made primarily of Australians but open to all corners of the globe and in fact already comprised of at least one Italian (Australian Expat), two Belgians (inactive) and one British gentleman from Norfolk. We generally only have four or so players on at a time currently and sometimes as low as two. We play during AU +10gmt time zone on EU1. Usually around 9-10pm AU EST and some of us only come on at midnight. On a weekend we tend to come together a little better. However any of us can be on at any time and we can have up to 7 at once. The Members Most of us are a fair way over 35 and some over 50, but we also have inactive members in their 20s. We love our history and period stuff when it comes to naval history or any other wargame kind of material. All members are very friendly types especially if you are new to the game. We enjoy taking out smaller ships to play with newer members. There is no pressure to be on and "do time" as we are very casual and understanding of real life. For us it's all about playing and having a good quality experience with friendly like minded people. We don't have much structure at all as we are too small. You just do what you want when you want and it does not even have to be with the group if you don't want. All we really ask is common courtesy and respect. We are not much into smack talk either. But the odd curse is heard under the pressure of battle.... What we do within the game [REIS] generally like to do Fleet Missions together as well as patrols and help with port battles where we are online and have time to do so. As you can tell even though we are active enough to be on most nights we are not large enough or time rich enough to do port battles every night. The Squadron does however co-operate with the larger nation and clan activities where ever we meet them to help with national naval actions. What we have do outside of naval actions The squadron has at least one avid level 50 (the max level) crafter and a keen trader\explorer. How we communicate The official Squadron voice communications tool is a program called Discord. Which is free and across between Skype and Teamspeak. We have a number of channels in this for those that don't want to be swamped by whatever chat is going on at the time. Some of us get carried away debating naval weaponry, history, naval fiction and such some times, but generally it's quiet enough to have a good conversation. Would you like to join? If you are like minded and interested in a laid back game of Naval Action. We are really just after filling out a bit and having some quality mature people to talk to and enjoy the experience with. Respond here or pop me a PM. Thank you for reading and regards to all, Destraex Squadron History: A long way from home to the Caribbean: Quote "the Trafalgar Companion by Mark Adkin"

I read 6 books or so but it drags on for so long I gave it a rest and went to Aubrey maturin and now Thomas cochranes autobiography - life of a seaman. I will head back to the series one day. It is a good read.