BobW-Bristol-RI-US

Thanks for all replies - Guess I'm done, for now. After dropping over $1.5K on two laptops in past few months (first Dell Win10 played fine, broke power jack, killed laptop - bought second what seemed to be even nicer Dell Win10 laptop - but you know the Intel 520 graphics story)... Can't realistically justify dropping more cash on another machine just for NA. Well, I could, but then I'd be yet another sad, lonely divorced old guy with only virtual wenches to keep me warm at night... and it gets too cold in New England for that folks. So, I'll bow out of testing, and come back when next I get another machine with better graphics capability than this. See you all again in the future. Regards all, Bob Williams (Muttley), Bristol, RI, US

Been part of the test team on laptops exclusively since Sea Trials - Last one was a Win10 Dell 13 inch, played no probs. This one is a brandy new Dell Inspiron 13 - Win 10, Intel i7-6500 CPU @2.5Ghz w/12GB RAM 64 bit Graphics Intel 520... But now, the sea graphics in OW are staccato - broken and jagged (ship looks fine). Tried: - Changed every 'in game' options > graphics setting I could find - no joy. - Changed compatibility mode for client.exe and client_exe in Steam folders - no joy. But with the sea graphics all jittery, the game is unplayable for me. Is there something that I'm missing here? Unless you folks have some other ideas / recommended settings, I'll (sadly) have to find something to play/do. By the way - laptops are how I play (and must play). Desktop gaming machines are not an option for me - work and travel demand laptop play only. Thanks in advance for any/all suggestions... as I will sorely miss NA if I have to bow out. Regards all, Bob W (Muttley), Bristol RI, US

Which is exactly why (probably most of us) players now only put outposts in free ports. Even the neutral ports are subject to being captured and losing all your stuff. Personally I think the neutral ports should be also placed in the 'no-capture-possible' category - else you eventually wind up with only the capitals and free towns actually with ship traffic other than trader visits. Just my 1 1/2 centavos. Regards, Bob W. (Muttley) Bristol, RI, US

While I realize that the pirates found this crack in the system (and it should be sealed), I personally thought that the fact that they found and used it to sneak past the powerful foe and use this tactic to take the port from under their noses was effing brilliant. I believe that this is often referred to as 'assymetrical' warfare in the present lexicon, no? Well done pirate lads. The loophole should be closed - but well done nonetheless (makes the game better and fixes holes at the same time.) Since I am not big on joining 'clans' ("I don't care to belong to any club that will have me as a member" Groucho Marx), while running around as a low level Yank and slowly ranking, this tidbit makes me rethink pirating... maybe. Not yet... but maybe. Regards all, Bob W (Muttley) Bristol, RI, US

Hopefully I don't cross any gunsights or reticules with this (or run afoul of any forum rules)... but after reading, I just updated my prof picture to include my in-game name in the image. Works simply for me (for now...I've not encountered a lot of nastiness online with any games - so not really too worried about this personally - If this were my livelihood however... and I had to deal with too much angry stuff - I'd probably also have to defer to a safety-security disconnect.) If this is not ok, I can revert to the previous prof pic, ya? Regards all, Bob W, Bristol RI, US

While on work travel, I had the same problem - was able to connect using my cell phone as a hotspot, but not from the hotel. Turned out to be a firewall issue. Check and recheck your connection (something changed?), specifically your connection ports etc. When it happened to me, the admin here connected me to the devs who helped me identify the problem. Send a PM to the Admin - at a minimum they can quickly direct you to the right posts on this forum that has a rundown on what to check. Best regards and good luck - see you at sea, Muttley (Bristol RI, US)

Lt. Scallion - I fully get and agree with every one of your points. My frustration stems from the fact that I want to see the game succeed commercially, so it'll be around for awhile (say... a Windows version or two - selfish, I admit). But as I'm sure you are continually seeing in game chat, there is an ongoing barrage of complaints and blasts from the new folks trying it on Steam - obviously expecting a much higher level of polish and completeness in a Steam released game. That's it. I'm now thoroughly addicted and in it for the long haul But I hate to see folks trying it and being so frustrated that they quit, ask for refunds, badmouth the game, hurt it's chances for long term viability and success. Regards, Muttley. Diomedesbc - Just be aware that ( I think ) if you start over you lose any redeemable ships (if you have any), as well as any XP, gold, etc. But yeah, you can re-do, change names, factions, etc. One thought (that I a actively pursuing now) is the multiple 'games' method with the different servers. Essentially... with the your name & faction of final choice... use the different servers to try different things (one trade heavy, one craft heavy, one straight XP battle heavy) Best of luck - Enjoy! Regards, Muttley

[FULL DISCLOSURE - RANT WARNING] Personally, I'm kinda dumbfounded at the server issue. As a Steam game, this is an amateurish situation. When 1 server is overloaded at 3-4K players? Open a second one, but only let XP transfer? This basically forces the player to decide to essentially choose - pretty much permanently. Really dumb. Not a good situation. Hearing a lot of pissed off players, new and old. PvP One (to me, a casual player, tester) is not worth the effort (what universe are you expecting folks to wait 30+ minutes in a queue to simply log on??) I'll just spend my time on Two or Three or Four and build my experience there. But this 'solution' to bad server load planning - pretty much forcing players to have to fairly well choose permanently which one(s) to play on? You gotta be kidding me. As a Steam blessed professional game software company, wasn't this already planned for, game-planned, red-teamed, white-boarded, worked out, and settled in terms of server load, code balancing, and software functionality long before Steam access? If not (as it amateurishly appears at the moment)... instead of making the usual ad nauseum excuses for the game like those unending ones make for the lousy UI, no Help, no Tutorials which would have tamped down the immediate, constant complaints about these (and the server non-sense) deficiencies from hordes of new players finding the game in this state after plunking down their cash)- hopefully someone's doing some serious damage control? Am I throwing rocks? Ya. Mostly angry because I love the game, loved being a tester, and expected more professional polish and smarts applied before release. We (even us casual folks that love the game and want it to succeed) are now continually having to try to defend these crap problems in chat. I love the game. It's beautiful, fun to play, supremely challenging - but rushed with just a primer paint job that I fear will never be fully finished properly. With this problematic server issue - in addition to the UI, no Help, no Tutorials... It always to me seemed to be a fairly small passionate community (like American Civil War game nuts), but there are some serious things here that need to be fixed immediately - not just launch it, get the cash flow going and hope for the best, we can fix all that other stuff later, oops oh-yeah the server... Just start a second one and only xfer XP (which is what this looks like to me from here, sorry.) At a minimum - someone with any marketing smarts at all - could have 'framed' the server issue and organization into a much more tasty message, for the UP side to the server issue is (since we removed the different character choices/nationalities): FEATURE You now can have your game name with your nationality and XP, with completely different lives on each server - Different outposts, ships, money & crafting on each server separately! If you try an approach on PvP Two and it doesn't work, try a different tack on PvP Three. You game name and XP is transferred - but you get a completely different game set on the other server! A Bonus to being an Early Access user! Nuff said, rant over. Regards all, Muttley

Agreed - They may be finishing touches - just didn't want things like this to get lost (and fall completely off the bottom of the list to esoteric windage on chain shot in flight things and the like.)

Sorry, as this may appear to only be my opinion, but I would ask all to reconsider this for a moment... Question: Because this has happened to virtually every new player, why isn't this viewed as a problem? Everyone seems very focused on game details for the experienced player... when ensuring the game is extremely easy to set-up and get new players going / sailing / fighting / ship buying and outfitting... is FAR more important for long term game success than it's being treated right now? If you want new players to like (and become addicted to) the game, it should be a '10 minutes to play, and a lifetime to master' experience. Not a 'go read the forums' and get back to me once you've spent hours digging out the info like I had to do... experience. A 'right of passage' or 'mistake to not be repeated' for beginner setup and gameplay sounds an awful lot like an excuse for not fixing an obvious problem that (a) does not add to the gaming experience, and ( stings new players in a bullying fashion unnecessarily. If the objective is to make game successful and sustainable... it would seem that fixing anything like this stuff that hits new players in an annoying 'why did this happen to me' experience needs to be ruthlessly eliminated from the game experience. To the uninitiated (this is, after all, a game still, right?), the obvious question would be "Why in the world would a game allow me to spend my hard earned noob $$$ to buy a ship if I can't sail it and go do ship fighting stuff (no money left for guns)? Or allow me to buy cannons when I own no ships that can use/carry/fight with those cannons? This is not a naval combat simulator that evaluates and grades your supply chain / supply corps management skills. It is a game. These allowable errors in my opinion are really dumb, piss off the new players, do nothing to add value, and should be eliminated ASAP. From a UI programming perspective, fixing this so that the new player can't do something this stupid without a warning can be easily crafted without heavy lifting. The other (related) real problem (which will hopefully solved in the final UI) is that the information (and functionality needed) to fix this is not intuitive or found in the game (ship/gun classes, costs, and loadout requirements) The game dev forums are NOT the game. I know they've added ship / cannon class info to the UI where the ships equipment is displayed - but these efforts should continue and be refined. Lastly - moving towards release, please focus more effort on making the game better and easier for the beginner. We've been playing for months and everyone knows and uses all the workarounds for information not available to them in the actual game UI. Revisit the efforts on making the UI better and easier for the new and casual players. That is, unless you don't want the new players (and game growth revenue stream.) Regards all, Bob W (Muttley)

Thx (about game return - was hotel firewall issue) - Regarding trade, won't be throwing away the trade port vs. price spreadsheet anytime soon - historical knowledge of what the 'deltas' are between ports and cargo, will probably still be very useful.

True. Interesting points all - maybe my American greed is piqued by the massive 30 slot cargo cap of the brig - depending on the cargo trade price delta - I've been shocked by how much can be made in one run.

Dunno - but I have to respectfully agree to disagree Captain C. During the open world period when boarding was disabled, I made extensive use of trade to crawl up the $$$ ladder (xp seemed easier to get than $$$). After finding that we could grape down the crew and still grab traders for cargo trucks, I used t-lynx, t-cutters and t-brigs (never got up to t-snows)... but I found a couple of reasons why I liked the trader brig much better than the smaller ones. - Cargo cap 50% more (30 hold slots) - Reasonable speed (never, not 1 time, when dragged into a battle by player or AI, was I unable to get away simply by turning beam on to the wind and setting sail until timer ran out) - Reasonable toughness under fire (even when attacked, depending on opening salvo geometry, never got sunk or damaged enough that I sank afterwards) Both of the latter 2 points are made better with speed and survival upgrades. The trader brig is my cargo truck of choice. Carries 3 times the cargo of any warship or lynx, 50% more than a t-cutter. Even when we wipe, wipe again, and get to release - unless something drastically changes, I'm assuming that in earlier stages I will need make some cargo runs for $$$. Trader brig will be one of the first targets I will try to capture and stash for trucking cargo. Regards all, Bob W., Bristol RI, USA

Well DONE!!! Yet another reason I REALLY like this community and this addictive game. CHEERS and CONGRATS Helene de Montfort! Well deserved. Many, many of us have both observed and been recipients of said gracious assistance in help chat.

BTW Capt Comery - Thx again - was starting to get aggravated until Game-Labs rep helped me walk out of prob - but you were a great assist - and patient while I was getting increasingly steamed. So thanks - will not forget - and will try to remember how you gave advice when others (me) were getting impatient. See you in game. Regards, Bob W, Bristol RI, USA (Muttley - Back at Sea)

SOLVED - SOLVED -SOLVED My apologies and thanks. This appears to have been firewall or network related. I was having the problem with two different laptops, but on work travel in a hotel the entire time. HOTEL connection for the entire time that I've had this problem. Sorry I didn't think of that until the Game-Labs guy mentioned networking, firewalls, ports, etc. Just tried it from the work location wifi on my lunch break and VOILA - Problem's gone. So if you are having a problem like this - check for an alternative connection or firewall or network port, etc. Will simply use my iPhone as a connection and play that way for now. So many apologies and thanks A TON for Game-Labs help. See you all in the game, and thanks again. Regards, Bob W., Bristol, RI, USA (Muttley)

They are now working the prob for me (can't play at all) - No result yet (already created a second character - no joy) They are nice enough about it though. Will share results - in the meantime, pass the word - don't exit without wait - bad outcome.

Different laptops - completely different - not a graphics or video card issue. Can't seem to see how to 'restart' the client.exe' proc - not in any way I can find in Win 8.1 task manager. Only exit. Restarting NA regenerates the client.exe Any other ideas appreciated. Capt. Comery thx - found link to admin message - did so - appreciate the patience all. Regards, Bob Williams, Bristol RI, US (Muttley)

I don't know how to send a message to admin - there is no button or function that I can find to do that. Windows reinstall? Currently I've been running the game on two completely different systems - I get the same indications when I sign on and start with either machine (one of which I comletely removed the game and steam, then reinstalled steam and the game - same outcome. This has to be server side - two completely different computers - same symptoms EXACTLY. If ANYONE knows how to elevate this to ANYONE that can look at this, I certainly appreciate it. Now 9 days without NA... seems I need to find an NA meeting. Regards all, and thanks for the suggestions Capt, Comery, Bob Williams (Muttley), Bristol RI, US

[ HOW DO I SEND PERS MSG TO FORUM ADMIN? CANNOT FIND BUTTON/FUNCTION TO DO THIS} Still broken - now Saturday - six days - cannot play. Had an unplanned Exit without Wait (after upgrading ship to Surprise, then had probs entering any port, then teleported at all stop to get ship into port, after teleport completed - had control of ship - then unplanned exit) - Now Game Starts Underwater - No Ship, No Controls, except chat and (strangely enough) Teleport works - but still results with underwater, no ship - no controls. Have to close client.exe using Windows 8.1 Task Manager to exit. Player Name Muttley - Verified local cache - No change - Dumped local files - No change - Reinstalled game - No change - Added new character - No change - Uninstalled Game, then uninstalled Steam - Reinstalled Steam, then Reinstalled Game - No change - Sent help request through in-game chat - No reply - Sent email to support - 6 days ago. No reply - Now sending help request through forums admin message Can someone reset me server side or tell me what to try next? Thanks. It's been a week. Next suggestions? Miss playing. Thanks, Bob Williams Bristol RI (Muttley)

Still no reply from support email or response in the forums. What gives? Does anyone at Game-Labs even read these? Would seem to be a fairly simple problem to solve - resetting someone's server side status - more the concern is no response whatsoever after 5 days??? Anyone? Still waiting... over a week now with this situation... over five days with no response. Bob Williams (Muttley) Bristol RI, US

Still broken - now Tuesday - three days - cannot play. Had an unplanned Exit without Wait - Now Game Starts Underwater - No Ship, No Controls, have to close client.exe using Task Manager to exit. Player Name Muttley - Verified local cache - Dumped local files - Reinstalled game - Sent email to support - 2 days ago. No reply Can someone reset me or tell me what to try next? Thanks Bob Williams Bristol RI (Muttley)

Appreciate it thx

Sorry - thanks for that (der) Any thoughts on how to 'reset' myself? Should I simply remove local content and re-download the game? (I play from my laptop(s) when on the road - never had a prob like this before - wonder if exiting without waiting for safe exit was the cause)

Had an unplanned Exit without Wait - Now Game Starts Underwater - No Ship, No Controls, have to close client.exe to exit. Steam Username ***removed by Leviathan*** Player Name Muttley Email ***removed by Leviathan*** Tried verifying local cache Same result on relaunch Have not dumped local files (someone online said this may be server side to my username / game name) Can someone reset me or tell me what to try next? Thanks Bob Williams Bristol RI (Muttley)