Preble

Hi there, Would it be possible to create a mechanic by which AI ships (particularly traders) choose to surrender to a vastly overmatching foe rather than fight? Parameters could be how many times greater the enemy is in size/weight of broadside/crew, proximity, and speed. Merchant sailors weren't keen on getting slaughtered to no end in hopeless fights in the 18th century; creating an AI surrender mechanism would be vastly more realistic than having to force a small merchantman up into the wind to be boarded and its crew cut to pieces in a single round. Thanks--

Hi there, Would it be possible to get Charleston's forts onto Sullivan's Island and the island I presume is meant to be where Fort Sumter is? Not sure about the placement of other forts (maybe Beaufort needs a rework) but Charleston is one place I know could use a fix. No use having them so far inland where nobody sails... Cheers--

Would love to hear more about the specifics of your proposal

Hi there, Two separate but related points: It's a bit unrealistic that fleet ships cannot carry cargo. Sizable convoys of merchant ships were a frequent occurrence in the Age of Sail, and defending or attacking them should consequently be a possibility. This is currently impossible, as since a player can only carry cargo on their flagship, the flagship must be the merchantman (not a frigate escort), and the fleet cannot carry cargo, so there is no opportunity for enterprising players to pick off one or two merchantmen and escape before a general engagement. Additionally, trader players are constrained in their ability to carry cargo. As such, the constraint on fleet ships carrying goods hampers effective commerce and limits the number of targets for cruising raiders to attack. It's also a bit unrealistic that prizes cannot retain their cargo and be sent into a friendly port. At present, a raider wishing to keep a merchant prize or the cargo it contains must either load the loot into the modestly-sized hold of the raider and send the prize empty into port, or stop the raiding cruise as a whole, send the raider into port, and sail the prize to safe harbor oneself. This hampers players from undertaking long-range commerce raiding cruises that were so frequent in the 18th century, and as such players tend to stick near the coast and their outposts rather than getting out into the world and exploring. PvE in particular is extremely well-suited to frigate-style players, who, with the more limited player interaction that PvE entails, should be able to sail far and wide taking or sinking everything in their path until they run out of prize crews. Instead, the current parameters keeps players relatively local and able to actually capture just one merchant prize at a time. Though I understand the concern that players will use the post-battle teleport feature to move their ships and cargoes around, there are several possible solutions here. One is to create a new "prize" category of ships actually captured in combat on the post-battle capture screen. Pre-existing fleet ships can only be sent to an outpost empty, while prizes can retain their cargoes and be sent in different directions. This can either be accomplished with teleport or by creating NPC characters in open world of the prizes sailing home, which will require an allocation of crew. Fleet ships should also be allowed to carry cargo, to give players the option of escorting their prizes to port or running their own merchant convoy (after battle, fleet ships should retain the ability to be sent to an outpost, but only empty, so as to prevent players from using combat as a means to teleport ships and cargoes without incurring the fees of towing). These features, I believe, would make for a more satisfying, realistic, and exciting game, particularly for raiders and traders. Cheers--

If I can impress upon the developers, the quality grades system is one of the differentiating factors of Naval Action and its positive attributes will become more pronounced once the game is fully released and new players begin to populate the servers. Nobody tries to make a bad ship, but ships in real life often have different intrinsic characteristics based on the skill and experience of the designer and builder (look at the differences between the original six frigates of the U.S. Navy, for example, Chesapeake being the great negative standout). Moreover, captured ships are not inherently of poor quality--reference the way the British captured and refitted many excellently built French frigates into the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, and used them to great effect. The French vessels were superbly constructed, but their crews were typically simply less experienced than their British counterparts for lack of time at sea. Mid-grade ships sacrifice some qualities and upgrades for a lower purchase price, thus allowing newer players to afford a larger ship, if not the most finely crafted one. They are also ideal lower-end fleet ships, as one does not want to spend too much on a vessel to escort/accompany the player but only has limited utility in battle. From a crafting perspective, they also hold great potential as stepping stones to higher blueprints--if perhaps the blueprint system can be retooled such that the next blueprint can only drop when one has the ability to build exceptional ships of a type (so one has to work up from basic to common to fine to mastercraft to exceptional), the midgrade vessels will regain their viability. I hope you will take these thoughts under consideration. Many thanks-- (reposted from the Forthcoming Shipbuilding Changes thread)

If I can impress upon the developers, the quality grades system is one of the differentiating factors of Naval Action and its positive attributes will become more pronounced once the game is fully released and new players begin to populate the servers. Nobody tries to make a bad ship, but ships in real life often have different intrinsic characteristics based on the skill and experience of the designer and builder (look at the differences between the original six frigates of the U.S. Navy, for example, Chesapeake being the great negative standout). Moreover, captured ships are not inherently of poor quality--reference the way the British captured and refitted many excellently built French frigates into the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, and used them to great effect. The French vessels were superbly constructed, but their crews were typically simply less experienced than their British counterparts for lack of time at sea. Mid-grade ships sacrifice some qualities and upgrades for a lower purchase price, thus allowing newer players to afford a larger ship, if not the most finely crafted one. They are also ideal lower-end fleet ships, as one does not want to spend too much on a vessel to escort/accompany the player but only has limited utility in battle. From a crafting perspective, they also hold great potential as stepping stones to higher blueprints--if perhaps the blueprint system can be retooled such that the next blueprint can only drop when one has the ability to build exceptional ships of a type (so one has to work up from basic to common to fine to mastercraft to exceptional), the midgrade vessels will regain their viability. I hope you will take these thoughts under consideration. Many thanks--

Hi there, Right now in the open world map the coordinates are given as longitude, latitude. This is somewhat confusing, as in real world navigation coordinates are always given as latitude, longitude. If this could be addressed in the next patch that would be most wonderful. Thanks--

Right now the overwhelming majority of NPC fleets that I've seen are massive armadas of 1st rates, with the occasional single St. Pavel or frigate squadron. 1st and 2nd rates were rare not just in the Caribbean but globally. Naval Action is really much more suited to single raiding warships, especially in PvE (where I play), unless you have a massive group (which will do conquest or missions anyway). The PvE open world becomes essentially unviable without lots of NPCs sailing about of all different sizes--and this is especially true on the low end when new players are just getting their feet under them. It's a lot less fun when you're in a basic cutter at the beginning of your development and all around you are towering line-of-battle ships. More volume, more variety, and skew it towards the ships that would actually be more common: lots of small regional traders and coastal warships (7th/6th rates), a slightly smaller number of long-range cruisers (corvettes, 5th/4th rate frigates, and larger merchantmen like LGV and Indiamen) sailing alone or in small groups, and then a select few battle divisions (i.e. AI fleets of 3-6 ships of the line) based in national and regional capitals, occasionally making an expedition to a hostile city that players can join or concentrating for a big fleet action in a strategic location someplace.

Thanks so much. If there's any chance we can lobby to bump it up (next patch or two would be amazing), that would be splendid. Some of the recent modeling work for Endymion and Indefatigable has been incredible, and it would be terrific to give Old Ironsides the same treatment.

So is a new Constitution model in the works? Or could it be induced to be in the works?

Does this mean the devs are working on a new version? Can you send a picture? Would love to see it

Hi there, I recall the developers saying that USS Constitution was due for a hull refit on her 3d model, both in terms of shape (currently a bit boxier than in the real world) and in terms of stern decorations. Any word as to when these changes will be effected? Thanks--

Noticed that Dutch towns in PvE have their own 3D models to look more "Dutch" (more wooden structures and steeples) while other countries' towns (especially the United States, but also Pirates and others) use an apparently Spanish model (tall, faded stone/coral towers that look like Spanish missions and the colonial quarter of Santo Domingo). Any chance the models could move toward nation-specific versions, based perhaps on drawings of the individual capitals from the time period (Charleston, for example)?

Hi there, One thing that I've noticed since the update is that the map is now crawling with NPC 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Rates (I sail primarily on the American coast in PvE, so that's my frame of reference). It's certainly good to see these as primarily in smaller squadrons rather than the gigantic Trafalgar fleets as was the case previously, but it seems there are considerably fewer NPC merchantmen and smaller warships in the new update. Since capital ships were relatively few even in the largest navies (Britain at the height of her power after Trafalgar had only 100 ships of the line of varying sizes in the entire world) and because the emphasis in Naval Action seems to be more on independent cruising and trading, perhaps it would be possible to have more prowling frigates and cruisers with plenty of ripe merchies for the taking, rather than so many heavy line-of-battle ships? Thanks-- PS--any chance the next update could include the tweaks to USS Constitution as outlined in the topic "USS Constitution spritsail?"

Sorry--just Indefatigable then. Though ships of the line occasionally had short diagonal riders, they didn't have the full ones that Constitution had. Would also love an update to the hull shape and decorations if possible. Thanks!

Hi again, Congrats on a wonderful update. Now that Indefatigable and Endymion are in the game (beautiful work by the way), it's my understanding that these ships have been given thicker hulls than Constitution. To my knowledge, this is not historically accurate--while Indefatigable was a razeed ship-of-the-line and Endymion a purpose-built 24-pounder frigate, neither had the same sorts of full-length diagonal riders that gave Constitution her incredible structural integrity and hull thickness (Constitution had timbers in excess of 21 inches thick). Furthermore, on certain points of sail Constitution was disposed to make 13 or 14 knots and I recall was regarded as having at least decent sailing qualities at about 60 degrees off the wind. Any chance these things could be corrected in the next update along with the spritsail issue and the hull model redesign? Thanks for all you guys do. Cheers--

Yep, can absolutely wait. Just making sure you guys know. In terms of the hull, does that include both hull shape and stern decoration/design? Thanks--

Hi there, One thing I've noticed as I've been sailing around the Bahamas and the Florida Keys are the towering pinnacle rocks and ridges soaring high above the waves... while that sort of terrain exists elsewhere in the Caribbean (the Windward and Leeward islands come to mind), the Florida Keys and Bahamas don't have any mountains or particularly much rock whatsoever. The Bahamas and the Keys are quite low: the highest point of New Providence Island is little more than 100 feet, while none of the Florida Keys breaks 20 feet. As an example, Key West's maximum elevation is 18 feet above sea level, so it probably shouldn't look like this: From what I've observed, an elevation similar to the areas near Charleston's outer harbor for these islands would be more accurate. Thanks so much for creating a great game--you guys rock. Cheers--

Hi there, I recall this coming up on the forums some time ago, but I believe it was established that USS Constitution did not carry a spritsail as her 3D model currently does. Any chance this could be addressed? Cheers--

So does that mean places that are already on regional borders like Cape Canaveral and Key West will remain Free Towns, or are Free Towns to be dispensed with completely?

And wasn't the original European PvE a completely separate server, rather than a mirror? I.E. someone could have different assets on each one, versus a carbon copy with the same assets on both?

Would there be a way to set up some kind of server relay to allow American players to access the European server (so they could stay combined)? I'm not a tech person, but wouldn't such an arrangement make sense?

Hi there, I primarily played on PvE US before the server got moved and renamed. Though my character retains his rank on the other servers, all of my assets are on PvE, which now has the same ping time as the European PvP server (now 100ms vs. 19ms for the US PvP server and the US PvE server formerly, which leads me to surmise that the PvE server was moved across the Atlantic). If there's any chance that the developers would consider creating a US PvE mirror (i.e. same player assets and progress as the original PvE server), that would be very much appreciated on this side of the pond. Cheers all--

So I've noticed something on PvE USA, playing as the Americans working south along the coast of Georgia and Florida: Constitution, Essex, Rattlesnake, and Niagara are American ships, all used extremely rarely by the American AI (except occasionally in fleets), but used extensively by the British, French, and Spanish (especially the latter three). Trincomalee is a British ship, that seems to be used to some degree by the British AI but used extensively by the Americans, French, and Spanish. Rennommee and Belle Poule are French ships, used to some degree by the French but used extensively by the British, Americans, and Spanish. Would it be possible to adjust the frequency by which the ships appear for each country so that the AI is predisposed to have its own nation's ships (not that foreign designs weren't used frequently by other countries, but this is maybe a bit skewed right now)? And as more designs are introduced that are approximate equivalents for each country, perhaps we could start placing certain restrictions on what countries can build certain ships based on what was possessed historically (ex: HMS Indefatigable, HMS Endymion, and HMS Leander/Acasta for British heavy frigates equivalent to USS Constitution; the Hebe class for a French 18-pounder frigate equivalent to HMS Trincomalee, etc.)? Thanks and cheers to all.

Sorry about my mistake. I indeed mean that I would like to see HMS Temeraire of 1798 in the game.