LeBoiteux

Second innuendo about a NA #2...

Thx for those explanations.

Btw is narrowness a US trait of (some) ships from that time (I think of the Lynx and to some extent the Niagara) ?

What are the length of the Brigs and the Snow in game ?

New AI since last patch seems to become a problem for some newcomers. Mr. Esterre Darby interestingly suggested to make adjustments to how the low-end AI works. One could also focus on newcomers' learning curve as NA is a skill-based game. Veteran players who played PvE didn't start learning NA with missions but in Sea Trails PvE Rooms where warbots stupidly sailed in a straight line. It made those newcomers learn how to aim/fire without having to care with sailing. They could then PvP and thus add sailing skills to their aiming/firing skills. Then those PvE players entered Open World several months later and could fight both unarmed bots and AI warships in OW (still no mission). If they felt not enough confident with warships, they could still learn with unarmed bots. This is a totally different learning curve from right now. Now newcomers may feel encouraged to start with missions to play faster, to grind faster... But current low-end AI fights are much harder than in old Sea trails and requires much more skills !!! AI is smarter. Fortunately !!! Thus, current PvE missions aren't the first thing to do in NA for a newcomer. That's great for grinding or quickly setting up a fight against AI for relaxing or training. But it needs a lot of skills from the start. They represents a steep learning curve. One could ensure that newcomers know that NA combats require skills and that they ought to learn separately how to aim/fire and how to sail/tack in an instanced combat. Having to deal with too many new skills may lead to "cognitive overload" (stress toward learning) and thus reject the game : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_load First things a newcomer should do in NA - Attacking unarmed traders in the Open world - Fighting against a friend or a tutor in Duel rooms. It is a way to play at one's pace, letting the other firing while sailing in a straight line, testing tactics, learning the basics without the stress of a "real" battle, see how cutters work (turn rate...), how to aim (...), have fun and fight against other players at no risk. Additional tutorials/missions for newcomers against : - unarmed traders sailing in a straight line (to develop basic aiming skill at different ranges and with different guns), - AI warships sailing in a straight line as in Sea Trials (to develop aiming skill in the context of a naval combat while enduring damage), - AI warships sailing with current AI but with disabled firing (to develop aiming and sailing skills against an highly-moving but harmless target) Making adjustments to low-end AI (first ranks) could indeed also help.

No French, British or US ships this time. Some day... L'Hermione deserves it (as many, many other ships...).

Single small trader should always be escorted by one and only small warship, not less. Because there's no fun in attacking a lonely trader. That's farming. About trader escaping form the instance while you fight the escort : AI never coordinate the trader and her escort : the trader flees while the warship attacks you, that's all. Attack the trader first and leave the warship behind, running after you. Sink or use chains on the trader and then sink the warship while staying close to the trader. Current system, that is trader ship escaping the instance when far away enough from you is much better than the previous one (a timer). If trader sails far away enough from you, you won't be able to catch her up anyway. A much quicker but more boring way to deal with traders with escort is to sink the trader first then sink/capture the escort. However, AI traders are boring, fleeing in a straight line waiting for death/capture. Would it be possible / realistic / interesting to have AI trader always trying to hide from you behind the escort, that is using the warship as a shield/rampart and then only when her escort sinks, she would try to flee?

That's why you're a mod. Mine's at 22+...1. But yours would be my second choice. I like the Descubierta for her history and the Christiansborg for her looks.

It really depends on the ship you voted for. I voted for a ship that received less than 30 votes. The ride hasn't been that wild...

Hopefully ! AI traders without escort ? Please, no. There is another recently created thread about AI : http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/13103-ow-ai/

There are in fact 5 US ships : Lynx, Brig (Fair American), Niagara, Essex, Constitution + 3 reskins : Navy Brig, Mortar Brig, Privateer + 1 new soon : Rattlesnake.

Meaning Gankers have to be well-organized (clustered) to be able to gank. Even Gankers have to be skilled in NA .

Two examples of fights allowed by the max BR difference of 1.5 : (based on data from http://navalaction.wikia.com/wiki/Ships) 1 Belle Poule vs. 1 Trincomalee + 1 Mercury. 1 Third Rate vs. 1 Bellona + 1 Trincomalee

Yes indeed. From Wikipedia / Threedecks : - USS Niagara : draft = 9 ft. - De Ruyter : draft = 19 ft. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Niagara_(1813) http://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=796

I guess shallow draught ships won't have more than about 24 guns in NA. That's the max armament of the most common Corvettes.

Game development isn't just a matter of doing what the more vocal want (if what you state is right)... However, one great feature for a PvP/E server could be an option panel allowing players to choose the conditions of being tagged : - who can tag them (players and/or bots) - if they want a max BR difference of say 1.5 when attacked or no condition at all (allowing ganking on them). That said, the same conditions for all may be better. And btw, a max BR difference = 1.5 allows fights between 1 Niagara (20 guns) vs 2 brigs and 1 snow (54 guns). Isn't it unfair enough ? Isn't it fun ganking ?

Most (if not all) traditional non-video games (chess, cards...) and sports (soccer, rugby, tennis...), all skill-based, all PvP by definition are fair : rules force the same number of opponents in each camp. There, only skills make winners and losers. You won't imagine say a soccer team of 11 players having to face 30 players during 90 minutes. Why ? certainly because fair games are funnier for both camps and need more skills. NA is a game, a skill-based one. Wars in XVIIIth-century were... wars : often unfair and never fun. OW fights in NA do not require to have the same exact number of players on both sides to be fun. Having to face a slightly more powerful force is fun too. But they need to be more or less balanced. The argument "It's a sandbox game" is invalid as devs never said Na would be a sandbox without rules. A 11vs30 soccer game would be fun for some, but, in the long run, not for a lot of ppl. The aim of patch 9.67 is to "soften the ganking" with the BR = 1,5 rule, not to prohibit it. Let's try it first before rejecting it. Just my opinion.

+1. Gros, gros patch !!! Super.

Jacques Frantz, Robert de Niro's French voice in his dubbed movies :

I don't know the Patrician. Which features among theirs would be interesting in NA ?

One of the three Corvettes of this poll because small is beautiful too.

Ship damage and new navigational hazards would be a plus but are by no means essential. We have fog that hides the OW. Hard weather conditions are there (rain, storm, fog). We have pirate bots/players. Give us just an unknown map to discover and things to search for / missions to accomplish. And fun will be there.

My main idea is to make a server provide a totally new Age of Sail experience, almost a new game with nearly the same mechanics and features that have already been or will be developed in a near future in NA : exploring the Unknown. Currently, the PvP servers are set-up in the Caribbean for conquest and AW-fight and the PvE server is simply designed to be a PvP-like server with the same features but port battles and bots replacing players. But an Exploration server could be more than that. It could be about a « Player Versus his Environment » place where players would actually fight against each element of their environment (navigational and weather hazards) : weather conditions that may cause ship damage (storms), uncharted territories to explore, fog and rain hiding the presence of very aggressive Pirate bots (or players) or of safe ports, sandbanks and shallows that may cause shipwrecks, unruly crew to manage (because of provision shortage…), etc. Exploration could be instanced as battles currently are (real-time sailing). Explorers would search something in a given landscape while the instance could remain opened to some pirate bots (or players). Captain’s goal would be to explore an unknown and dangerous environment in order e. g. to map those lands, establish trading settlements and search for artefacts or new species. Thus the setting-up of this adventure would be an unmapped fictional territory (Terra Incognita) that’d have to periodically change. There would be no conquest, no crafting on this map, no ports except one starting port per nations as a start point and few Pirate ports. Traders could trade from the settlements to national port. No OW-fight but Pirates vs. Explorers / Traders / AI Escort. The only feature that would really need to be developed is procedural maps. Because, most of all the others are/will be in NA : - storms, - crew management and provision, - instances, - Bots and AI agressivness, - AI escort fleets, - damage model, - ship lineup, - land in instances, - Servers : a PvE-server may be more adapted for Exploration, - Etc. It would definitely need some investment and development ressources, but, with two different types of gameplay, the Exploration Server and the current ones (that are more RvR and conquest-oriented) would be complementary, providing two different experiences. PS 1 : current PvE on PvP servers would stay the same as it is, ie OW and mission fightings against AI with some added features (new missions, AI aggressiveness…). PS 2 : Economy on the Exploration server and on the PvP/E servers might even be interconnected (in a positive way !) as : - PvP/E server ports could consume and buy goods and ressources collected in explored settlements that have been created by the Explorers on the Exploration server. - Explorers could buy player-crafted ships from the PvP servers. - Colonization quests could be ordered by PvP clans/nations from Explorers. Discuss. Sources : http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/1534-exploration-gameplay/ http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/9058-trade-and-exploration/ http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/8875-explorer-experience http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/8658-alternate-forms-of-xp-gains/ http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/8136-how-will-exploration-work/ http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/7768-exploration-and-survey-ships/

One way to add variety to PvE is indeed to create new kind of missions. Another is to improve OW-pve by re-implementing AI aggressiveness (AI enemy tagging). That feature will certainly be back some day.

It's only a matter of a couple of hours and you'll get used to current way of navigate. Start with coasting from an island to the nearest : look at a map, get your direction with your compas, sail to the nearest island ; then to the next one. Then try with longer distances. Some ports will quickly become reference points to you. Easy to sail to and from. All depends on what you want to do in NA : - do you only want to sail to the nearest pvp hotspot and create an outpost ? Coasting with do the trick. - do you want to explore and sail everywhere ? Being lost for some minutes is part of the fun. You'll quickly find a port that'll make you know where you are. - do you want to sail to a given port (for trading or conquest) ? You'll learn quickly how to do it. Fair winds.