_Masterviolin

I humbly recommend the Surprise to answer #1. She is not nearly as fast but her unique sailing qualities and x4 stern chasers really help when being chased at least. As long as you position yourself well and manage the bow guns, you should be able to keep trade ships and fleeing foes under your guns. The Surprise is simply the superior fighting ship. Well-armed, quite maneuverable, brilliant sailing qualities and blessed with a plethora of chasers. A teak-teak build is excellent, I do not recommend fir-fir as it's very common in PVP that a second or third ship will be able to fire upon you as you maneuver. Teak will fetch you a good speed and good protection, thus you can stand up to a few hard hits whilst still being fast.

The Ren lacking bow cannons is a bit of an issue. If you're chasing a ship in battle you want to keep it tagged in the battle by making sure you score a hit before the battle timer runs out. Having bow guns means you don't have to turn to present your broadside to try to hit your opponent. This is why bow cannons are so important. Yet, this does not render the Ren useless. She is very, very fast and you should never end up in a scenario in which your quarry is sailing away ahead of you. You should be more than fast enough to start the battle very close to the enemy, and to continue to keep him in the range of your guns the whole way. So the Renommee is probably the better chase ship. However, the Surprise is simply a better fighting ship. It's better armed, still maneuverable, has excellent sailing qualities and as a result, is quite effective. The Surprise simply lacks the raw speed to catch up with ships. Put simply, the Ren is extremely fast whilst the Surprise is a powerful close-range fighter.

You're essentially looking at two ships: Ren, Surp. The Renommee seems to be what you're looking for, its wicked fast though lightly armed. It lacks bow chasers so it can't tag well, but its sheer speed can allow it to escape or catch pretty much anything. But, the Surprise is really unique. She's better armed, she has four stern chasers (very helpful for when being chased), two bow chasers for tagging, and her sailing qualities are really unique in that she fetches a high speed at a beam reach (if i recall correctly). She's really tough to catch but not phenomenally fast when chasing. Both ships are relatively cheap, the Ren only requires 30 guns so it's far cheaper to outfit if you're buying cannons right off the market in comparison to the Surprise with her 44 guns.

I think the present system is fine as is, respectfully Instead of slowly getting benefits in all areas over time, we can choose individual things for our crews to specialize on. For example I've applied lightweight ropes and blocks, The old flag officer and opt. rudder to make my teak-teak Surprise a maneuverable and powerful ship that responds quickly to my commands. I plan to put ropes and blocks and as many gunnery mods as I can on my lovely Wasa. I've specialized my fast privateer with speed and boarding mods and books. Ect, ect, ect. I think its better we have control over what attributes we "train" our crews on.

Oh shoot, my apologies! Southampton, as I understand, was the first of Slade's 12pdr ships, she would definitely be an excellent option as well! Niger is described in "The Sailing Frigate: A History in Ship Models" as a slightly improved version of Southampton hence why I rolled with Niger The Friderichsvaern looks pretty sweet, by the way.

I humbly submit Thomas Slade's excellent Niger of 1759, one of the finest '32s built in the 12pdr era. A beautiful ship renowned for her sailing qualities. From her model, I think she sports 36 guns in total when including the gunports on the weather deck battery. Though if added into the game she would represent yet another British vessel, Slade's 32-gun ships are quite historically significant as they marked an essential step forward in the development of British frigates and, in my humble opinion, were a part of British victory at sea in the Seven Year's War. I think it's important to add more Dutch ships too, but I think Niger deserves a spot there with this in mind. Niger also would serve as an excellent light frigate. She was historically known for her excellent sailing qualities and the ships of her class were praised extensively by her captains (She gets a lot of attention from "The Frigate: A History in Ship Models" by R. Gardiner), her good speed, maneuverability and sailing qualities could be perfect for a light frigate role. Plus, the model looks stunning! If she were added into the game, I hope the beauty represented in the model would be translated onto it. The green and gold furnishings across the length of the ship are really quite beautiful. Some general dimensions, courtesy of our lord and savior Wikipedia: Tons burthen: 679 67/94 (as designed) Length: 125 ft (38 m) Beam: 35 ft 2 in (11 m) Depth of hold: 12 ft (4 m) Sail plan: Full-rigged ship Complement: 220 Armament: 32 guns comprising: Upperdeck: 26 × 12-pounder guns Quarterdeck: 4 × 6-pounder guns Forecastle: 2 × 6-pounder guns

I'm really interested on how this game would sort out the pre-dreadnoughts from the dreadnoughts... the pre-dreadnoughts before 1906 would be vastly inferior to pretty much anything built post-HMS Dreadnought. I would consider only accomodating 1906 -> 1950 (so we can have WWII vessels, notably Vanguard, Iowa, Blucher, Fletcher).

Duguay-Troutin makes sense, she's a french Third rate. As Intrepido mentioned, we are lacking in 3rd rates. Sirius is an interesting option, for us veterans of "The Mauritius Campaign" especially. She's supposed to be a fine-sailing 12pdr frigate if I recall from the books correctly RIP Sirius 1795 - 1806

I would recommend clarifying what happened. Are you saying that when you dropped out of your game, the ship stopped and was then sunk by your opponent? Or are you reporting a bug in which your ship was suddenly sunk by the disconnect? What were the circumstances of the engagement? By freeze do you mean that your ping skyrocketed and you disconnected? Internet stopped working? Suddenly dropped without a sign of trouble? Huge lag over time, and then a disconnect?

These are good points, though I don't see any great overwhelming advantage to the defender. Increased dura would probably increase the range and operational usefulness of combat ships on offensives in enemy home waters, in that they can be sunk a few times and are far more difficult to eradicate as a result. But I think your idea is better, lessening the blow losing a ship does to you financially.

The simple reality of life is that few people have the time to devote many hours in-game. I'm starting classes as a freshman in college in a few months, and I know that it is going to be literally impossible to do much of anything in Naval Action lest I am content with devoting every lick of free time to the grind. Now, dear reader, this will be long as there's a lot to say. TLDR below. I recall quite fondly how I boldly snatched a green Surprise, grey oak build from Carlile and dashed out into the pirate-infested waters around Port Antonio during my junior year of high school. I knew my ship, which I dubbed the "HMS Mulligan" was no perfect vessel, yet I was comfortable in the knowledge that the ship was not too expensive. It has five durability for me to burn through, repairs are relatively inexpensive. I was just trying to grind up a bit on XP and do some PVP. My brief tenure serving as captain of the humble Mulligan was extroadinary. I would come home from school with an hour before work, open up my violin case and set sail from KPR in my ship- just round the end of Port Morant, sail north and see if I could find someone to fight. As my vessel would plow forward, I strangled out a bit of improvised tunes from Master and Commander- The Far Side of the World out of my cheap-ass plywood violin. I would attack Connies and Trincs for the hell of it, I even got some even fights here and there. I lost plenty of times to many people, yet I learned much. Mulligan eventually lost her last durability after a good month of hard fighting, the last blow dealt by a pirate Bellona off Jeremie. I eventually got the finest ship I ever sailed, the lovely Gold oak-built HMS Black Prince. The Essex to me was an excellent ship, I still felt the general manuverability of the old Surprise yet she was far more powerful and sturdy. I liked how she sailed, and how she looked too. I shaved three dura off her, two from port battles. I weaved inbetween 4th rate SOLs at Bani, some of the most wicked fun I had. I was sunk, but I had fun. I got an identical copy made for PVP2 when I switched over there to play with SMS, I loved that ship so much. When we had durability to work with, when resources were easier to get and there were fewer costs associated with progressing, the fact that the Essex lacks bow chasers or isn't a wicked fast ship was problematic but not fatal. I could lose now and then without being knocked out of action, I could be a bit daring and bold in the Essex. The little imperfections of a ship were acceptable. That was some of the most fun I ever had in Naval Action. Now everything has quite plainly changed for the worse. I had to grind for days and days just to sail the Niagara in a basic cutter, blowing off nearly 60k gold just to be able to sail a 9pdr brig. And this ship has only one durability, meaning I have little room for error. I tried to do what I did with the ancient Mulligan by raiding the French out of La Deseriade, and things were tough and I lost my ship. I had fun in the end, but despite the wicked fun PVP I was broke and had no ship spare for a tedious basic cutter. This was after dozens of hours of game-play. I simply followed everyone's lead and spent hours staring blankly at the horizion in a Trader's Cutter trying to make the money to fit out the Surprise we all got. Finally got 100k, to blow off on cannons for the Surprise. I didn't even get to name it- I miss my clanmate's call of a tag on an AI fleet near Cumana and I'm broadside to broadside with a Frigate. Ship's gone, with all 100k and 20+ hours of boring trade going with it. The difficulty of the game has become so ludicrous that the following conditions are absolutely necessary to even play the game competitively: -Joining a large clan, or a clan with alts to pool limited labor hours and resources. -Sailing out with large groups with your ships. -Investing unacceptable grinding hours simply to sail a one-dura ship. -Trading long distances with significant financial risk, staring blankly at a screen for numerous hours from A to B, and back again. If we are going to use a one-durability system, compensate the increase in risk for sailing by lowering the cost to fit out or purchase a ship. Reduce the general cost of crafting. If we're going to increase the cost of obtaining resources, then reduce the resource and financial cost of ships. We've migrated from a light, well-populated sandbox game to a ridiculously difficult and insanely grindy game that is 100% incompatible to those who are unwilling to buy multiple alt accounts or invest insane hours of grind. I propose the following: -Either increase durability of ships perhaps by one or two, or decrease the cost of ships, cannons and buildings. -Decrease the cost of cannons, convert the cannon market to a market focused on longs/carronades, not trying to augment insane, game-breaking NPC price -Make the risk of losing your expensive ship worth it by vastly increasing PVP rewards Why is it okay that so many people feel compelled to buy extra copies of the game to be resource competitive? Why is it okay that players have extremely limited mobility in their ability to PVP? Why is it okay that it is literally impossible to fly solo, or in a small clan? Why is it okay that players have to play for numerous hours every day to even remain competitive? I am deeply frustrated, and fear that I will have to abandon this game once college comes around. Lest I rush to build up a horde of gold and ships in the next month. TLDR: The game used to be far lighter and less time-demanding, now it simply feels time-consuming and far too difficult. The extraordinary demands of the game as of now not only force casual players out from the game, but will also most certainly prevent me from playing meaningfully in the near future.

Niagara would be crazy OP in a shallow PB, more powerful than the Heavy Rattle. The Niagara is honestly a serious contender to the light frigates.

I am proud to say that I own it! It's quite excellent, an instrumental part of my senior thesis.

I am extremely jealous of your book collection Welcome to the glorious realm of Naval Action!

Use a mortar brig.

I demand Ultimate General: Austerlitz or I will protest outside the GameLabs office

yes

I am having the exact same problem, fellow Brits in nation chat just now seem to have it going as well. Took a full minute to load in, half of the UI loaded.

OH NIIIIIICE! I should have known, I played Dark Souls III with a friend of mine

Ah, well this is humiliating.

nevermind.

OMG THE RAMS ;-; The one thing that bothered me the most about AC4 was that the ships had these absolutely hideous iron ram things on their bows. They're impractical, hideous and warp the ship's lines and organic hull shape. And of course, this game has those too...

SORRY is without tedious, and it's no secret that I don't hold the clan and its leadership in high regard. However, trolls and immature players are simply a part of every multiplayer game that ever existed. You can't simply ban or punish everyone who acts like a two year old in game- though it may seem tempting. Such people feed on the attention those actions bring. We must simply put our heads down and ignore them- that is the only true remedy for such nonsense. As the forums are so highly public, this is quite difficult to be quite honest. The rest of the mature community must exercise maturity and avoid stooping down to their level.

I must agree entirely, the crushing costs inflicted upon the players can only really be mitigated by pooling resources, devoting numerous hours of rather boring trade and relying upon clans. Everything has very high costs, and it is quite painful upon the solo player. Cannons are ungodly expensive, lest the nation's cannon industry is very strong, consistently refilling the market and in a position to sell at low costs. Ships have had prices increased significantly as well. Meanwhile, missions are only so profitable. Loot from traders and sunk vessels is dismal at best. We can't capture NPC ships either. And we now have an XP system which seems quite fun to the veteran, but is simply too much for any remotely casual player. Grinding out three or more levels of XP knowedge in an ungodly number of ships that you may not even like just to gain extra slots on the one ship you like is not fun when combined with the extremely high price of buying and fitting out ships. In addition, no one is getting any ship above the Indy lest they participate in clans and fight port battles. That's cutting off virtually half of the game's ships to any casual players. It's also worth noting that once all of the nations have conquered their "home ports", the supply of conquest marks will decrease significantly as the only PBs won will be hard-fought battles that may rarely even happen or be entirely orchestrated by clans. The grind and huge costs in the game are fine as long as players are well rewarded for their efforts, and can enjoy themselves whilst doing the grind. Slapping insanely high costs on everything in-game whilst not adjusting profit earned by players in combat to adhere to more time-constrained players will stunt growth. After all, there is a reason steam ratings have plunged to the lower 40s over the past few weeks.

Aha! Little do you know that I kept my cabin boy hidden in the bilges! I instructed him to pull the seacocks once your men were aboard, looks like he did his duty