SYN_Bloody-Bandy

In many cases "exploits" involve the discovery or leak of certain game codes that allow unhindered testing by the developers or reliable alpha testers, basically things like god modes getting into the wild. In this case who knows, us plebs likely never will, but the rumours will fly... Oh, they already have... Events like this need to be quashed immediately (and they have, bravo!) because once the reputation of a game is tarnished, well...

I agree fully and completely. Really, choosing to become a pirate should be a selection box somewhere well outside of the daily keystroke interface. Making me nervous now as well, as I tend to find ways to hang programs... LOL

Priceless!

And just a quick necro on this thread (since I see Blackwake has already been mentioned on this forum... https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2000479544/blackwake-reboot) that this 'other' age-of-sail game apparently uses the same game engine as NA and has multicrew ships, though has a different perspective (not trying to be historically accurate). So it is possible to do mutlticrew without a completely new game, that is, if there is interest in exploring this by the community and time/resources by developers. Not saying we need this right now, but again, it sure would be nice in the future...

Not sure why some are defensive, or seem to feel that they need to advocate for this thread to not be taken down, i.e. that somehow this is a threat to NA. There is ALWAYS room for more great games regardless of the niche, it only makes the community stronger. Coming from my primary interest of WWI flight sims, age-of-sail is only a slightly larger community. And so what if they decide to have a sea monster, their angle is decidedly, different... Have to admit, multicrew of the ship is awesome.

Technically, no, this is not a good idea from an overall gaming perspective. Beware! In an ideal situation any graphics improvements such as AA should be done in-game as each frame is rendered by the game. Applying AA, or any graphics improvements, 'after' the frame is rendered and thus outside the game will only slow the image getting to the monitor, and therefore result in less fps through the gfx pipeline. Now, that said, I agree that if NA has not optimized gfx code yet, then yes, use nVidia driver settings as the way to go to improve your image quality -- but do so only at this early stage of game dev'm.

THIS!!! Ports would have had coastal defenses and shallow-draft near-shore gunboats (ie not ocean-going vessels) with BIG guns. These gunboats would use sea anchors to create a stable firing platforms and act like artillery as they sat in shallow water. Perhaps only for AI defenses to help even the odds??? There is a lot of opportunity to create very interesting tactical battles if the developers are interested in exploring this aspect. Part of the interest of a port battle, to me, would be the confines of the harbour and weather gage influencing these tactics etc.

Sorry I missed my opportunity to visit her while at Baltimore, Maryland. Real life getting in the way, it just sucks... Now, I've been to the habour and do not remember Constellation being without rig. This would have been a few years ago now I suppose. Just repair/maintenance?

Muskets at 100 yards from a rolling/pitching deck would be at the absolute outside edge of range I would think, and not very effective from there at that. They were barely effective when fired on land at that range; not everyone was Daniel Boone, Hollywood misleads us to think otherwise... But effectiveness would dramatically increase (ie not in a linear fashion) with closer range than that. I'm all for this, muskets and swivel guns, but let's not over model their deterrent power and loose the little effectiveness the small ships currently have in larger battles.

Pretty sure that's what I was advocating, you just did it in fewer words... Cheers!

Rarely, if ever, would a ship-to-ship melee result in the complete loss of life for one or the other ship. As it became apparent that a ship was going to be lost in hand-to-hand fighting, one side would/should concede defeat rather than waste the lives of men. Of course, online players do not care and will want to fight to the last man, but much of that decision should slip out of their hands as the battle turns worse for them. Right? As mentioned many times (and yes, we know the current boarding party mechanic is a stand-in) ship-to-ship battles must be refined to take intangible variables into consideration, such as the symbolic capturing of the helm, or the capture of ship's officers, and/or the captain. These 'outcomes' can lead to a morale-check for various segments of the defending crew; some of the crew will break morale and surrender, others may fight on. If the attacker (or defender) breaks enough of the morale of the enemy crew, they will give up, and so a ship does not need to loose "most of your crew" in a few engagements, though I agree, a captain should be smart and head to port at the earliest possible moment.

I'm sure your comments are meant to be constructive, but NA is not even in beta really, why would you expect a glossy GUI at this point? In time...

As to your last statement, I wonder what fired the 24 pound ball that sank the gunboat then? I doubt we'll ever know given that the British fleet included a range of vessels http://www.historiclakes.org/Valcour/valcour_battle.htm although a detailed order of battle is available http://www.historiclakes.org/Valcour/valcour_chart.htm Didn't know about this work-in-progress, it's very nice and love the carronade off the back. That makes this thread moot! Though it raised awareness if you didn't know about the recovery of the Philadelphia, or the X3D website (a shameless plug for my museum's latest efforts to reach the masses... ) http://3d.si.edu/

Again, I do not think anybody is advocating this gunboat (or similar) to be included on the open sea or for player use, simply that it could possibly be used for AI defense of ports. And it has 9 and 12 pounder cannons, not 32... http://www.rif.org/

Well, I think the "facts", or shall we say proof are in the original: http://americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/gunboat-philadelphia http://www.smithsonianlegacies.si.edu/objectdescription.cfm?ID=187 I don't work at American History, but I could walk a block and ask any questions you may have. 9 pounders on the side, and a 12 on the front! My my, I think the devs are short changing us in the small ship category.

Well, not so sure how sea-worthy it was. Wouldn't want to be in it on the storm map let's say... I wasn't posting for inclusion in game but I suppose it could be used by the AI as auxiliary harbour protection. Certainly should be relatively affordable for aspiring players wishing to protect their land assets while away. Imagine swarms of these little boats, all difficult to hit as they bob about, spamming you with chain and grape...

Oh, there are several ships that cost more, much much more, than $150... If I had known where it was all going, I would have jumped on buying one of the limited alien scout/fighter ships that came up for sale in the last day of the kickstarter (if memory serves correct). They are now selling aftermarket for thousands of dollars. I suspect the one poster here mentioning he funded this-in-that likely sold one of his limited-availability ships. Yes, the hype machine keeps rolling on, but when I bought in it was a very different scene and we all thought about a game being made by the players, no middle-men screwing it up...

The following 3D model of the Gunboat Philadelphia can be viewed here http://3d.si.edu/explorer?modelid=47 at the new Smithsonian X3D website http://3d.si.edu/browser You may have to update your browser (Internet Explorer 6 won't cut it... ) and perhaps download a browser plugin to be able to view, manipulate, zoom in, change lighting, etc. but it is worthwhile to poke around this boat and some of the other Smithsonian virtual "charter collections" being made available. They are all composed of real museum objects laser scanned, some textured. Updates and improvements happen sporadically, the gunboat wasn't there not so long ago... Most 3D models can be downloaded and I believe used without restrictions. The Tlingit Killer Whale hat http://3d.si.edu/explorer?modelid=392 has cultural-use restrictions, it came out of my office. I do not know anything about this gunboat (edit: but see below), though am sure there is a wiki page, and some of you history buffs likely know more. I can't believe a boat like that could handle the recoil of those side guns; the bow gun sure, but... Shortly after the American Revolution began, American forces in Lake Champlain, located between New York and Vermont, began capturing British strongholds in Canada. The British were determined to isolate New England from the middle and southern colonies by advancing down Lake Champlain-Hudson River corridor. To accomplish their mission, the British gathered a fleet at the head of the lake. It was essential for the British to reach and recapture Fort Ticonderoga at the southern end of the lake before winter conditions made military operations impossible. In order to have any hope of defending the lake from the British, the Americans had to expand their tiny navy. American General Benedict Arnold built a fleet consisting of eight gondolas and four galleys in the summer of 1776 to resist. The gondolas, or flat-bottomed rowing boat with sails, were designed and constructed as simple gun platforms. Armed with three cannon and eight swivel guns, Philadelphia was one of them.

Have to admit, I am disappointed by the fact that so much of SC's development money is funding a large contingent of hype-generators... I bought into SC the first week of the kickstarter, as did many of my squad-mates, so who knew it would go down the path it did? None of us are involved in the released modules or their forum (what a zoo), but we still have hope it will be a great title some day. You pay your money, you take your chances. Not going to be a hater, some people gotta hate... LOL.

The thread says 1753, but that ship sure doesn't look like a 18th century ship, and late 1600's dates float around for it in posts. Confused? So am I... Lovely ships, but going to say again, IMHO the devs need to concentrate on a tighter era of ship technology. These ships did not sail with or against Napoleonic era vessels. If they are included, I would hope that the devs would establish a time-line server where ship style and tech would evolve. Otherwise, including these lump sum would amount to a WoT world...

Starting to learn 3D modeling is not something to take lightly. As you get the hang of manipulating polys, then you have to learn how to UV map, then texture, etc. etc. It is daunting! And not an undertaking you will grasp in a weekend, or a month of weekends, or depending on you talent, a year of weekends. I got a start with an excellent and intuitive free program called Wings3D and highly recommend it. http://www.wings3d.com/ It will not get your models into a game, but be realistic. Chances are, your first models will not be game worthy anyways. Keep your poly count low... This WWI SMS torpedoboot was done in Wings for Rise of Flight. Months of part-time effort, much work still to be done...

When I replied above I only read the few first posts on page 1, and immediately quoted Brigand's post because in so few words he struck a chord about how global stats corrupt meaningful MP game play such as we expect from Naval Action. Perhaps corrupt is too powerful a word to use, maybe 'sour' is better, though a few will certainly find a way to corrupt... I'm damn surprised to see so many others voicing so similar an opinion on stats. Keep stats private. If you want to recruit/be recruited then allow someone to see your stats. Otherwise keep and publicly report stats that acknowledge team play and overall major accomplishments. Reputation (in some form) would be a good one to establish publically, whether someone is trust worthy to hire and escort your merchant ships, or on the opposite scale they are a raging sociopathic pirate. Depending on your perspective and what you value, you can choose to work toward one end or the other. I know players who frequent and post on game forums are in the minority (thus biased likely), I'd like to think they are at the core of that community and helping to shape where things are going. By all indications this is the case, and the devs are really making something special here. The overwhelming support and reaction to the gameplay videos is great (why me and many from my squad bought in...), and hope the devs are pleased with success thus far. Very surprising to see them close testing rather than cash-in on so much positive momentum.

I agree, keeping a 'leader board' of stats will have a negative impact on the overall game play. It will cause the game to become about the individual and kills, rather than teamwork and trade to advance. Leader board stats are for arcade games. Leaving stats out of NA (or at most personally viewable for feedback on where to improve), would likely be an unpopular choice to make in the beginning, since so many 'kids' are already locked into that mindset. Then again, it would/could cause a stir and gain some positive publicity in the gaming press. Perhaps it would be an interesting experiment to leave the stats out of the game for a while because I predict that people will not miss it if it is never there. And/or really think super-laterally and come up with some new way of evaluating player and guild teamwork. 'Major achievements' as mentioned is a good starting point. Though as mentioned, any game statistic will likely become abused by those so inclined.

As an aerodynamicist have you not read about the Sopwith Camel's gyroscopic precession? There certainly is a well-known basis for its left vs right turn flight characteristics. Unless I misread your post... All rotary (spinning) engined aircraft had gyroscopic precession (Pup, N17, Dr1 ...), but as mentioned other design quirks of the Camel, such as it's concentrated and forward placed centre of mass, small empennage control and stabilizing surfaces, resulted in some rather nasty handling behaviour (or beneficial depending on whether you mastered it in a dogfight). It is said that the Camel killed more pilots in training than the Germans ever shot down. Could be a myth, but I wouldn't bet against the truth of it. The aircraft designers of the time didn't understand as much as they needed to, though they did build some efficient killing machines by the middle of WWI. For instance, ailerons were not 'balanced' till after the war, so during WWI if you tried an aggressive aileron turn you get negative induced yaw, rotation of the aircraft on the vertical axis away from the direction of your turn. It feels very weird and unnatural. You have to start turns with the rudder (induce positive yaw) before or during application of the ailerons to avoid stalls. Thus the term stick and rudder flying, which you don't really need to do anymore (because of modern balanced ailerons) I suppose unless performing aggressive acrobatics.

BUT sometimes you want to fire stern to bow... Players need to be able to select the other as well. Bow -> stern by default perhaps, with a keystroke to switch it when required. This random fire is frustrating, perhaps not as much for SOL's, but on the little ships it means you miss more times than not even when using the space bar...