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My Fellow Sailors: A few ideas i have thought about, and talked about on global, have finally been written down. A few of these have been brewing for awhile, and a few came up while writing. Im sure most of these have been talked about, and may be in the forums. No, i didn't search the forum for these topics. No, i don't really care if there are other threads covering these. These are my thought, basically as they came to me, either through reading notes or remembering conversations. Lets help the devs bring out the potential of Naval Action. ------------------------ Fire Barrels ------------------------------------------------------- Ships with horrible turning can be destroyed by smaller ships. A surprise can stern camp a santi and take it down without too much trouble(Just tons of time). Trading ships also have a habit of being ganked, chained, and capped. To offset these annoyances, i propose fire/exploding barrels. The intention would be to deter or slow down a following ship. It would be a barrel dropped off the stern of the ship, with a timer set by the player(slider?), and it explodes and causes a large flame. The barrel wouldn't be meant to destroy the ship, just cause minor damage. It could potentially catch sails on fire, and cause some sort of crew or rigging shock. If the barrel exploded towards the rear of the ship, it could cause rudder damage. The timer would have a time to detonation range of 3-30 seconds, so it has the ability to damage pursuers that are further away, as well as close up. The timer would need to have a variable on the actual set time (due to a fuse having to be measured and cut in battle) between a flat 15-25% time variation. The other option would be 10% on the "too short" side and 25% on the "too long" side. This allows for the chance it can prematurely explode and damage the ship of the person dropping the barrel. Each ship shouldn't have more than 3-5 barrels, scaled to the rate of the ship. 4th-5th rates have 1 or 2 barrels, 3rd rates 3, 2nd rates 4, 1st rates 5. If a ship is carrying barrels, no less than 2 should be carried in case one doesn't explode. Rates lower than 5th shouldn't need them due to shallow hulls/lack of player use. The barrels could be an upgrade option (non permanent since its only barrels) with each "tier" allowing more barrels than the last (Basic -> Exceptional). Also, a prep time should be included, with the option to drop the barrel early. Dropping the barrel early would increase the "error" range of the fuse, up to 15% greater than a fully prepped barrel. This also opens up the option for a skill, such as decreasing fuse error or lowering the prep time. The purpose of the barrels wouldn't be to act as a main weapon, but as a last resort for defense. ------------------------ Officer Skills ------------------------------------------------------- Officer skills allow us to make our sailing styles a little more unique. Sadly, the skills don't vary enough to keep anyone guessing how an enemy ship will handle in battle. I propose keeping the officer skills, but also adding Captain Skills. Your officer gets 1 "skill" point per rank, with a max of 10 points. The diversity of skill choices to ship choices isn't that great. Captain skills could be implemented to switch that up a bit, make people guess a little more. Captain skills would be attached to the players avatar, not their officer, and would gain a few points at certain rank milestones. The captains skills could include things like cannon trials(reload speed, dispersion,etc...), rigging specialist (Sail rising and yard turn speed, lower damage to sails), shipwright (adds extra bonuses to ships beyond what the regular player makes, use less LH or supplies), boarding training (similar to marines, but for the crew), wind master (adds slight speed bonus to ship), entrepreneur ( better prices in port shops, lower costs for contracts), hull tech (better/faster repairs while at sea or in battle,High enough level allows 2 repairs in battle), shipboard defense (better defense against boarders, defensive only), leadership (adds more overall crew to the crew pool, not to the ship itself). The milestones could be set points between each rank. Each rank could have 2 milestones( current level -> milestone I -> milestone II -> next level), with each milestone giving a certain amount of skill points. Rank 1(Thief) starts with 3 points, milestone I gives 2 points, milestone II gives 1 point, rank 2 (Rascal) gives 3 point, milestone I gives 2 points, milestone II gives 1 point, etc . . . up to rank 10 (Curse) which will give 3 points, but no milestones since it is the highest rank. Having a system like this will make grinding feel more rewarding, while making each player more unique. The skills could be categorized by sailing, crafting, and trading. Having the option to choose a captain skill, without the risk of losing them, would make players feel more connected to the game community. It would also allow specialization of each player, such as a player being a dedicated ship builder, but not having the same sea prowess as a dedicated fighter. This wouldnt negate the "perks" (no longer skills) one would get from their officer. The officer perks would allow everyone to have a baseline set of attributes so they could still do a little of everything. ------------------------ Port Shop ------------------------------------------------------- The port shop needs a little streamlining. If i sell something at the bottom of a list (i.e resources), it sends me back to the top of the list. While it is only a minor inconvenience, that little bit of time adds up to a lot of frustration when trying to sell quickly. The slider when buying/selling is also a pain to use. Using a +1,+5,+10 next to the slider would be helpful. When buying cannons the shop only allows 1 purchase at a time. I think the maximum should be raised to at least 5 when buying. If i want to use the same cannon for bow/stern chasers and broadside, i would like to be able to buy them all at once. With the lag in the system, that can also become frustrating. ------------------------ Warehouse ------------------------------------------------------- The warehouse can become extremely cluttered, and difficult to find something. I know there is an option to show certain types of items, but being able to create my own tabs would be beneficial. Tabs such as "ship build", "future upgrades", or "trade-able goods" would make playing a little less cumbersome. An option to "Show items in shop" would also be appreciated, so i can choose to not see the items in the shop and accidentally sell them. ------------------------ Ship Docks ------------------------------------------------------- Currently we can only have 5 ships docked at a port. I think the maximum should be raised (8-12) through gold purchases. To keep it a little less cluttered, a building (private dockyard) could be built, and each upgrade increase the maximum ships allowed in the port. ------------------------ Clans ------------------------------------------------------- Clan ranks are a big miss when it comes to forming a community . The current system of owner/officer/member seems a bit shallow for a group of people playing together. The ability to have more "ranks" in a clan would give people a view-able goal to strive for, and to show their value to that clan. It can also be set up to allow clan members to be easily recognized of their role (crafter, trader, raider OR Leader,1st mate, 2nd mate, senior crewman, junior crewman, recruit). Having the ability to transport goods from ANY city to the clan warehouse would be nice, or showing on the clan page where the warehouse is located. I appreciate everyone who took the time to read through, and all comments will be appreciated, and discussion is encouraged. Great games are not made. Great games are shaped. Shaped by the ideas of players, and the following discussions. Naval Action has a ton of potential, and i would like to see it become one of the greats. Fair winds and following seas --- Wonderbread O7 Please excuse my lack of observation, I did my best to make sure there are as few grammatical errors as possible.

The strength of the commerce game is meaningless in this game. It only serves one purpose. Buying and Building Ships. Yet this active commerce by players many of who do only crafting and trade does very little to defend towns that are taken when they are offline with only a couple AI towers to defend. Even a small country that has been overtaken by hoards of large Clan gankers cannot defend itself against such mechanics. Therefore they lose their outposts and plantations along with access to cheaper goods. Even if they smuggle the good to maintain their economy it again makes the game meaningless if they cannot take towns because of rank or numbers. The games needs an more even defensive capability for such small country players. I propose a method of providing money to towns for their defense. That is players of a small country can contribute to a towns defense with their plantation profits. Capital cities are completely untakeable. There should be a way for certain economic centers and colonies to achieve near that in defensive capabilities. This would keep factions more viable on the map. Not like the current mess on PVP US 2 where factions get down to just their capital. Players log on, dont want to start all over again. They are not part of a large Ganking Clan that switches all their assets by gift cheat to a clan member's second account who returns it to them when they switch. These economic players are left in the gaps in this game. Money builds forts so it takes more that normal forts to kill. Enemy does not know that instead of the 2 or 3 forts for a non economic defensive port they suddenly have to take 4 or 6 towers before the town falls. Hit power of towers can be contributed to and increase gun sizes for defense. Certain increased attributes are bought for defense such as Pellew Sights. Finally larger forts or grouped forts are produced so that one side of the port has closer forts that are harder to destroy.

First of all, thank you Sons of Britain and company for a fun night. We enjoyed the Aves defense and ensuing battles, likely one of the largest & heaviest ship fights on the server yet. Full 25 vs. 25. February 19th the pirates were on defense in the lesser Antilles. Roughly 8:45 -9 EST a conquest flag was purchased by the Dutch for Terre-de-bas (pirate port). The nearest dutch port lies within about a 45 min sail with decent wind (the wind at the time was the worst possible for their trip northeast). We considered this to be merely a flag distraction, however the dutch did end up making an appearance after the conquest flag timer was up. Within an hour of the dutch flag being purchased, a flag was purchased by the British for Aves. Our main force was setup for the defense of Aves - with a rotating force near Terre De Bas - needless to say, the British numbers were matched if not outnumbered as the Brits had used the same tactic we employ with the outside blockading fleet. With Frederiksted being captured, it seemed obvious that an attack on Aves was inevitable. With that being said - we look forward to what ensues as this type of action makes for some fun game play. To note: The french also tried taking a pirate port in the same timeframe - likely to capitalize on these attacks. However, the southern pirates [bSO], [FC], and [sIN] - along with TSP/AUS defending the port of Guayaguayare. Aves Port Battle Report: Pirate losses: (Rough Estimate - please correct me if I am off): 9 ships lost (1 third rate lost, 1-2 constitutions lost - remaining losses frigates and below) British losses: Entire Fleet (25) - 4 third rates sunk, fleet consisted of mainly frigate level ships and below with a few constitutions. Should be a recording up at some point I would imagine [I] Invictus reports the outside defense fleet also claimed victories - feel free to report the outside numbers. Pirates Clans in attendance: [CF] Crimson Flotilla, [OMG] OMG, [I] Invictus. British Clan in attendance: [SOB] Sons of Britain Feel free to correct any portion of this post by replying and I will edit accordingly. - [CF] Twobeardz

So, as it's only been briefly mentioned I wanted to bring up the idea of detailed Islands. There has been a lot of discussion about port business, trading and the economy, but I'm looking at this in a much more strategic light. The idea is to make 4 different types of islands, with 4 types of sizes, every one of different shapes & strategic value. Below are the types, the attachment gives a very basic example of the sizes I had in mind, and the names to give them. A grand Island you will notice has an extra small isle attached to it, which can be used by the fleet controlling it. I think there needs to be a good amount of islands in the game, perhaps around 60 in total, but obviously a much smaller amount whilst the game attracts more players, 15-25 to start off with maybe. Each island, obviously located in different parts of the map will have different strategic value and can be claimed or even besieged by Fleets at war with the defenders. An atoll is an island formed from a coral reef that has grown on an eroded and submerged volcanic island. The reef rises to the surface of the water and forms a new island. Atolls are typically ring-shaped with a central lagoon. Examples include the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and Line Islands in the Pacific. Continental islands are bodies of land that lie on the continental shelf of a continent. Examples include Greenland and Sable Island off North America; Barbados and Trinidad off South America; Great Britain, Ireland and Sicily off Europe; Sumatra and Java off Asia; and New Guinea and Tasmania off Australia. Oceanic islands are ones that do not sit on continental shelves. They are volcanic in origin. One type of oceanic island is found in a volcanic island arc. These islands arise from volcanoes where the subduction of one plate under another is occurring. Examples include the Mariana Islands, the Aleutian Islands, Republic of Mauritius and most of Tonga in the Pacific Ocean. Some of the Lesser Antilles and the South Sandwich Islands are the only Atlantic Ocean examples. Another type of oceanic island occurs where an oceanic rift reaches the surface. There are two examples: Iceland, which is the world's largest volcanic island, and Jan Mayen — both are in the Atlantic. A third type of oceanic island is formed over volcanic hotspots. A hotspot is more or less stationary relative to the moving tectonic plate above it, so a chain of islands results as the plate drifts. Over long periods of time, this type of island is eventually eroded down and "drowned" by isostatic adjustment, becoming a seamount. An example is the Hawaiian Islands, from Hawaii to Kure, How would you go about business in an Island belonging to your fleet? I think Islands need to be fairly exclusive, available only to the Fleets [guilds/groups/clans] strong enough to capture them, a grand island obviously would need quite a large force to attack. Once you have control of the island, you have a wealth of economic resources unique to that Island, you have another trading port + a stream of money generated from tax in the Large/Grand islands that are actually populated. You will also be able to upgrade the island with finances your fleet owns. Such upgrades would include: 1 Battery [of 9 cannons up to 32 pounders] 2 Batterys [of 9 cannons up to 32 pounders] 2 Batterys [of 9 cannons up to 32 pounders] & 1 Howitzer 3 Batterys [of 9 cannons up to 42 pounders] & 1 Howitzers 3 Batterys [of 9 cannons up to 42 pounders] & 2 Howitzers Martello Tower x1 Martello Tower x2 Martello Tower x3 Fort x1 The upgrades of course would not come cheap, and only islands of real strategic/economic value would be worth investing in. Thanks for reading, let me know what you think