Similon

Have to say, anything that can be supported with an argument of "But EVE..." probably won't go down well

I'm not entirely sure how recreating a battle would work - our current "Trafalgar" is just a limitation of ship size and requiring more players. Plus, people use whatever ships they like. Since the bulk of the game will be open world, I suppose you could convince a group of people to bring the right selection of ships and sail on over to the right place. Unless you mean making something entirely new, like a pitched arena style option with a selection of fixed ship loadouts and just fill all the slots. Removing any choice from the player and recreate it like that, but that's radically different from anything I've seen... In that case, I personally wouldn't be too interested

I think adding some lock-elevation feature makes sense, since the gun crews do the aiming, not the captain. So for realism's sake, some assistance makes sense. No, I definitely do not want the game to be played for you (which is the traditional response to any suggestion of assistance), but like I've said on several topics - you have a whole damn crew! It's not a 1 man ship. Some way of simulating the input of the other 30 to 800 competent crewmen on the ship only makes sense. On raising the skill bar: I really don't think that should be the goal. If random Joe is incapable of doing anything without a load of practice, random Joe very well may not stick around. One could argue that somebody so fickle is not the target audience, but for a game to succeed, it has to be accessible. I've always felt that Skill should be what allows you to excel, not a requirement to compete.

You have hundreds of people on your ship. Are you saying the entire crew (some of whom will be lookouts) will just ignore any ships they spot, and wait for the captain to either turn around, or feel the broadside ripping through his ship?

My 2 lines of thought on this: 1) I enjoy sailing, gunnery, looking at pretty ships et cetera. I do not enjoy trigonometry, cartography, spotting specifically shaped rocks et cetera. If this was required, I think I'd consider it an active deterrent, designed to force everybody but the most hardcore enthusiasts to stop playing. I can appreciate that this game is aimed at enthusiasts, but I have always kinda assumed they want to appeal to a slightly wider market. Besides, it's marketed as "Naval Action" and not "Navigation Simulator" - I can already see the negative reviews forming, and I do really want this game to succeed. 2) I can see how this could be fun (or at least interesting) the first few times, but I'm fairly certain I'd get sick of it fairly quickly. That said, I want them to make the game they want to make, regardless. If they do want to implement potentially exclusionary mechanics, I will respect and support that. I'll still spend money on the game, recommend it to anybody I think would like it, and (hopefully) enjoy it.

Since Sea Trials is for testing, I would say balancing the feature should be more important than getting the pretty little models on the ship. We all seem to be coping fine with only half our cannons manned, no helmsman and everything else we're missing

On a more sincere note, I'm genuinely concerned you could accidentally attack somebody (In a rush to click cancel, you overshoot and click "kill the friendly trader in the face") and lose your months of progress in the navy... No, I don't think you should be able to Kill your friends, and resume your career unaffected. But if we're able to easily and permanently declare ourselves an enemy of the state, with no recourse. Well, troublesome...

I know it's mostly unrelated to what's being discussed here, but I can't help but think of this: My sun rose in the North and now sets in the South The Golden Horn lives up to its name From tower to tower a chain guards its mouth Unbreakable, they claim That chain was apparently fairly effective at preventing ships from entering or exiting, although it certainly wasn't unbreakable. I reckon that could be a fairly interesting obstacle to consider. As for chaining your line together? I don't think I trust people enough. Not to say I think it shouldn't be in the game, I'm all for adding as many options as possible. I'm just not convinced it'd be worth the effort for something that probably wouldn't be used too much. Or would be used far too much.

How do people feel about this? If an ally of yours is severely damaged, would you like to be able to help them? Whether that entailed sending crew over to help with repairs, towing a de-masted ship, acting as a float (I don't see that one working), or dragging them out of a sinking wreck so they don't need to recruit new officers. Or any other, more plausible scenario. I know It's something I'd like to be able to do, for enemies as well as allies, but not everybody is as altruistic as me

Since we're told that if a ship sinks, you lose it, I'm curious as to how sinking premium ships work. Will you be able to reclaim the ship ad infinitum? Will it be re-purchasable for ingame currency? Considering the yacht was valued at $20, and anything bigger than a Surprise can sink it in 1 well placed volley... If you're going to have multiple revenue streams, Guns of Icarus has a nice take imo. All the purchased items are purely cosmetic, they don't give you any descernable advantage what so ever, and they're all fairly cheap. The Secret World takes the alternative approach of having you buy the game, pay for a subscription and spend £20 on each outfit. Regardless of whether or not paid-for ships are better, If the ships are freely re-claimable (even with some kind of cooldown) that'll give you a significant advantage over people who have to re-earn a ship if theirs sinks. And if they're not reclaimable (lol), I would never take the risk.

My thoughts on various ideas: Autopilot to nearby port I can definitely see that being used by somebody who can't be bothered to actually sail to their destination, get half way there and log off. Log back in after however long it takes your ship to get there. That aside, it's probably one of the better options since it kind of makes sense. Sailing back to some assigned Home port, or the previous port may be "safer" from a preventing exploits standpoint. Or maybe some chartered autopilot if you want it to serve a purpose. Log in for 5 hours of sailing to your destination without actually doing anything, or log in at your destination? Yes, I know your open sea testing hasn’t started yet, but if the world is big enough to actually be big, somebody somewhere will consider it too big Timer and pop If they do it that way, I'd expect to see people who happened to be nearby just throwing a broadside into you if you're clearly unable to retaliate. It's zero risk, so why not? (I don't seem to trust people). Sure, they don’t gain anything but they do get to annoy another human being. This is only an issue if you log out near another ship. I have no idea how much time will be spent close enough to other people for them to possibly affect you, but I’d rather not risk it. Simply disappear anywhere immediately It's the safest option, and it'd almost definitely be abused by people who don't want to get sunk... Can't say I blame them really, since we're told ships are quite an investment and easily lost. But dropping out because a fight is going badly will just suck for the person who remains, they’re now damaged and have gained nothing. Stopping people logging out if they're doing something No. Just no. They'll just Alt + F4 instead anyway. If I have to leave the game quickly, I'm leaving the game quickly. In every open (or open-ish) game I play, I attempt to clean up before I quit. This usually involves getting somewhere safe, sorting out inventories/levelling/loadouts or whatever, and preparing things for my next session. If I'm stopping playing of my own free will, I'll have done my best to allow for that. If I end up going to sleep an hour late because I got side-tracked, that's fine. If I'm trying to quit immediately, it's because I have to go. I don't like the idea of being punished for unforeseen circumstances. Leaving a ship stranded sitting duck style I'm against that. If somebodies internet/power drops out while they were being attacked by pirating players, they log back in to find they've lost their ship. Sound far? It wasn’t their choice but they’ve suffered a considerable loss because of it. I have no problem with these things breaking immersion or whatever, quite simply real life is more important. It's always annoying in games when you have to leave, but you can't because you have to spend 45 minutes returning to a safe zone. But finding a system that both isn't exploitable and won’t punish a player if their child falls down the stairs and has to go to hospital is damn tricky. What would I want? When you can log off: Whenever, with no real penalties Where you can log off: Anywhere, with no real penalties How you return: I like the on the way to (or at) home port option. While/once you're gone: Nobody should be able to interact or interfere with your ship while you aren't there to do anything. Yes I'm aware this is exploitable, I'd prefer to trust people to be sporting and moral than punish people for I think I went on a bit there... Just my thoughts at this moment, don't hate me too much for it

Seperate game worlds? I'd vote against. Having old ships available? That just makes sense. As others have pointed out, they were still around. Just because there's a better option, doesn't mean there's no other option. I doubt I'd want to use many older ships, and not just because I'm in love with the HMS Trincomalee. Although, if you added a Dromon, I'd happily sail a 1,000 year old brick of a ship for the oppotunity to spew fire over my much more advanced foes...

That is pretty damn pretty.