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Captains, I had grand plans of completing this before full release of the game, but I simply do not have the time. What I do have is about 75% complete overall and is enough to give the developers some ideas and inspiration of how to flesh the game out, add some color and flavor without having to rework mechanics. The entire approach here is to: Add many more things to harvest and more things to craft, if you want to Nothing that would force a player with limited time to have to do in order to play the game. However those who do choose to put the time and effort into the deeper crafting can get some unique rewards and like this epic open world map deserves, some deeper age of sail immersion. Historical Resources: The concept here is one I proposed last year, but this one is further refined. There are two types of resources, the first type are: Resources that naturally exist and can be harvested in the Caribbean, North America and South America. Resources that are imported from Europe, India, Africa and elsewhere. These can only be purchased in ports of the nation that either produces it in their homeland or dominates the trade of that product by opening a building called Trade Office. This gives each nations some unique and valuable products that they can trade or use; no one will have a resources that gives it an advantage in battle however. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1T384qrwqg0CWYGlZDJ0z1jP_n9bcTI6PWaSS6rnqfsQ/edit?usp=sharing A more detailed (but unfinished) proposal below here, this one has 2 tabs and in tab 1 you can see the depth of crafting that would be available. The major change here is the ability to craft items that are not related to shipbuilding. Huge profits would be made taking the time to create 'Estate Goods' for example and hauling them to a capital or regional port of your ally. Or one could make spars and sell them on contract across the Caribbean. One could specialize in the fur trade, etc. It's all about choices and immersion. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XomSxvgZ6e2GAg0ZvOjfM3TqZR94-1iGbMJbVODoU-I/edit?usp=sharing Wood: I have proposed adding 4 new types of wood, splitting Teak into 2 historical types and Oak into 5 historical types. Click the link and it will make sense. I spent a lot of time over the last year researching and read primarily papers from the 19th and early 20th century on shipbuilding woods from the 18th to early 19th century. I love researching and working with wood in real life. (Note: Compass wood is not a wood, this may surprise some of you, but others already know this. Compass is a cut from a natural curve in a tree. Not every tree can produce compass timber. Frames and knees and other crucial parts were made from naturally grown curves. All the oaks produce the most compass timber due to the way they grow. Pines and Firs not as much. The British suffered a compass crisis so bad that several 74s sat unfinished in the shipyards for want of it in the late 18th century. You simply cannot grow a forest of compass wood. This proposal has your forest 'buildings' producing compass cuts based on quality of forest you have (Prime, Good or Sparse), the level (1, 2 or 3) and the tree type. Low percent productions would be 5% (Sparse level 1 Fir), top percent would be 25% (Prime, Level 3 Oaks). This makes compass cut frames more valuable as they should be! No panic if you have no compass cuts, thanks to a British shipbuilder who helped the Royal Navy out in it's crisis, there is a way to make Laminated Frames. These are not as strong as naturally curved timbers, but will do in a pinch, but you should take penalties to your HP and Planking if using Laminated Frames) Main reasons for this wood proposal: More historical choices and customization to match your style, sailing and combat needs while staying within the limits of the attribute range that is currently set between Fir and Live Oak. More types of wood to make shipbuilding more detailed and immersive. We will be building decks, keels, spars etc. The labor hours can be adjusted with this proposal so that crafting a frigate takes just as many as it does now, or it can be adjusted to where it takes longer, the devs can adopt this without overhauling that part, or they can choose to overhaul that part, making ships more valuable, it is flexible. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HRg4q7yxLlViQ6Ua5TP7wtz-xEHd6EK6en-ILdb_OVQ/edit?usp=sharing A unfinished write up on the wood types: Accurate Resource Locations: This is largely unfinished, but you will see where I was going with it. It works with the concept adapted by the devs original vision of not needed to sail further than 3 ports away to find everything you need to build a ship. If they were to scrap that idea, then this system is ready to go too. Here is how: There are regional forest types and different levels/qualities of forests, mines, plantations, farms etc. The resources can exist as they are now and every forest or mine that is there now would be considered 'basic' or 'sparse'. Productions levels would be adjusted the minimum to serve only in the building of ships for new players or players who don't have a lot of time to sail, but not enough there to stockpile or sell for profit elsewhere. This system adds Prime Forests, Good Forests and Sparse Forest and each forest has three levels you can upgrade to. There would no longer be 'Live Oak Forests' or 'Oak Forests', but rather a region will have either Temperate Hardwood, Temperate Evergreen, Dry Tropical, Temperate Coastal or Tropical. It will make sense when you open the link. Example: A level 2 Prime Temperate Hardwood Forest will produce 200 Oak, 50 Pine, 50 Fir, 0 Live Oak and 75 Craft Wood (which represents Birch, Cherry, Walnut etc); A level 2 Prime Temperate Coastal Forest will produce 50 Oak, 0 White Oak, 200 Live Oak, 50 Pine, 20 Fir and 20 Craft Wood, and so on. Tropical Forests will produce a ton of Craft Wood, which when harvested there will represent exotic tropical woods of course (there are a lot of things they will be used for, not just furnishings in shipbuilding as you will see) A region may have Sparse Temperate Coastal Forest and Prime Temperate Evergreen Forest available for you to build, some regions would only have Dry Tropical at varying qualities, or Tropical and so on, etc, etc. Forest Types represent what is accessible inland from that port, not just along the coast. (Note: Teak does not grow in the region of the game and currently this proposal and it would render the historical resource aspect silly if it were to be available as it is now. So Rangoon Teak (the less valuable) would be available in many ports as an import from the 'European Traders' in enough quantities to build with. Malabar Teak would be available in British ports, again brought by 'European Traders' or by players who open a Trading Office to 'harvest' it. This overall makes Teak a more valuable item in the game. In one of the images down below you will see a Mine tree I made, and then in the crafting list sheet you will see how these new resources are used. This is one of the part that I needed more time to complete, but again it adds a lot of depth for the crafters and some new (and historically accurate) ways to get rich. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gi0S2lV-lTvZpCzDAP2G_6ZkQhDOyb-6xwWBlIi0qHs/edit?usp=sharing Resource Map (this is one of the major unfinished parts) and some other vegetation maps I used to work from. The work is in the link above, these images are just superficial. Deeper historical Shipbuilding with endless options for customizing The new wood types and this system will allow you to build a ship out of many different types of timber, but no combination would be stronger than Live Oak is now and no combination of timber would be faster than Fir is now. This adds nuance and flavor to what we have. With this system, the wood you choose for your frames and the wood you choose for your planking defines your speed, planking and HP. You may find you personally like using Cuban Mahogany frames and Pine for your planking for your Le Gros Ventre, or you may choose to build your Bellona with White Oak frames and Rangoon Teak planking. This sheet has 4 tabs, tab 1 shows the potential uses of each wood type, 2 shows the effect on planking, HP and speed of each wood type, 3 shows every combination of frames and planking and their effects and 4 is some charts showing the stats. Here's the cool thing about it, you can choose not to care about this and you can still make all your planks from Oak and pick your frame wood type now and play the game, this adds options for customization. Many of us get a lot of joy out of testing different types of wood and modules on ships and race them, experiment making mission specific setups etc, this system is a wet dream for many players. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15vzY6NwiNPK2DPKdESM5WgLXTzFvJ8sZX_3d39WXtT8/edit?usp=sharing Other images that I used as information and other ideas for all of the above Port Consumption Ideas Lastly one of the ideas I had that I haven't had time to work on is for large ports to have basic needs that they can't supply themselves from the inland in theory. Grain, Sugar, Whale Oil, Turpentine etc, would have a minimum amount that needs to be brought to the port and sold to the AI every month. Any player in port could open a tab that shows how much more grain the port needs to meet it's minimum for that period. To work it would need AI trade fleets bringing a large portion of that every few days, thereby creating a meaningful incentive for players that prefer PVE to either attack or escort (work this into missions) . The rest would need to be brought by players, thus creating another way to make money and creating an attack/escort incentive for PVPers. Example: Charleston being a capital will buy any item you want to sell, national resources (like Dutch Laudanum or Russian Vodka) will always fetch top dollar, but it also has needs for the citizenry and labor force, like grain for example. Let's say it requires 150,000 grain each week; the AI traders bring 100,000, every ship that is captured by enemy players come off that amount. Players that bring a needed item can get good money for it, missions can be issued to players to protect trade fleets of grain etc. If the period ends and Charleston only has 110,000 grain delivered, it produces less of everything until the next period ends. Totals would not be cumulative. So everyone with a silver mine or Live Oak forest in Charleston would see lower production, but not enough to severely hurt you, just enough to make commerce raiding have meaning in the game. Also if all the basic needs of the port are met then all buildings would see a small boost for the period. If you made it this far, thank you for reading

When i happened upon Naval Action, I was ecstatic, I love age of sail games and all of the fun from bringing a full broadside of guns to bear to going toe to toe on deck of boarding to hammering/getting hammered by a city port or fort, when i joined i loved all of it, the beauty, the semi realism, the semi true sailing, and all that. now that being said the pvp is a little over kill, its great and all but really annoying when people just camp outside the capital for new players just to get their pvp marks and getting those marks gives them an almost unbreakable edge over anyone without. so here are some suggestions that might make all happy and would be willing to actually discuss things in farther if warranted. 1. first off to the pvp thing, make it so if you are in the capital port (Charleston for US) that you get capital class ships to protect you (I.E. 3 - 1 st rates depending on strength of enemy). everywhere else, unless you are tagged by a capital ship you only get up to a 4th rate and it matches the strength of the attacking ship. 2. now adding to the historical aspect that would really put a fun twist to the game and give you a little more national pride. Players can only CRAFT ships of their country (US gets the Connie and other US based ships) and ai fleets will only spawn with their nations ships (spain wouldn't spawn with a connie) and by ships of their country i mean the country that originally built the ship. - note give ALL nations a baseline ships for example: 7th rate - Cutter, sloops 6th rate - brig, schooner 5th rate - frigate 4th rate through 1st rate - ships of the line now the 4th rate would have about 50 guns with a crew of about 400(max) 3rd rate would have around 74 guns or less with a crew around 650(max) 2nd rate would have around 80 - 90 guns with crew around 800(max) 1st rate would have about 100 guns with crew of around 1000(max) from there you add in your l'oceans, essexs, and all the other ships/ ship types would be nation dependent. 3. PVP marks, #2 would factor heavily into this category, your pvp marks instead of giving game breaking upgrades instead, give out notes for ships of different nations but instead of making it 15 marks make it harder to get certain ships for example: 7th rate - 10 marks 6th rate - 15 - 20 marks 5th rate - 40 - 50 marks 4th - 50 - 75 marks 3rd - 75 - 100 marks 2nd - 100 - 125 marks 1st - 150 marks but on the side note make it so these notes could not be used to craft one out White oak, teak, or live oak. 4. Both of those now would make this possible and give the ability to capture 4 - 1st rates again because you would have to try to capture other nations ships from AI but make the AI fleets to spawn in out of really crappy material so that capturing them isnt necessarily a big win. Overall I feel this would help greatly in bringing your game population back up, adding new players because there isn't so much seal clubbing but you can get respectable pvp action outside of the capital harbours. it would also give a new feel to the game because Port battles would have to be won by the skill of the nation using their ships or stolen ships and you would have to plan around your nations strengths. now it would be easy to navigate around this feat simply by having multiple alts in different nations, but to counter it and make it a little more challenging and rare to see a quality 1st rate or 2nd rate (instead of 50 WO/LO or similar in a port battle) make them a little more difficult to craft something of that caliber like i said this is observations that i have seen while playing and i feel that all the player base would enjoy these updates and would bring your population up greatly as well, and like i said if you would like to discuss this more, i would be happy to in teamspeak or discord or just through email, and anything i could do to help this i would

Dear Devs, PLEASE change the running system of inter-dependent ship XP gaining, because of the following reasons (anybody else who thinks the same please add other reasons you have): 1. For me it's a massive "fun-killer" in this game to grind XP on lots of ships i don't want to sail, just to get the upgrade slots to the maximum on vessels i would really like to sail! 2. For me it's a massive "time-killer" too - Naval Action takes time, yes, but on the contrary to trading and so on, this grinding for XP feels useless and boring to me. 3. If you play Naval Action - for a certain amount of time - you have to sail in smaller ships or ships you propably won't use again later on. Everyone has (had) these time, that's ok. But the current inter-dependent XP system prolongs this period artificially in such an extreme way that it feels everything else but ok. 4. The grindig in it's current state can't be supported by historical data: Back in the days, to become captain of a ship of the frigate-class for example, noone would have had to sail every differnt kind of lower classified vessel. AND if someone has already been captain of a certain frigate he wouldn't have to sail a lower classified ship again just to be able to get the command of a frigate different to the one he sailed at his last command. Because of these reasons please abolish or at least change that system! You could change it like this for example: A. Make it easyser, better fitting to historical data and much less a grind, if you change it, so that everybody needs just to sail a random ship of one tier to be able to get every ship of the next tier to maximum upgrad slots. For example: If one sails a cutter, lynx or other 7th rate to the maximum amount of freed upgrade slots, he / she would be able to do so with every 6th rate and so on. B. If you want people to sail small ships open areas where they just could sail 7th rates because of extreme shallow waters (someone else has already mentioned this idea in the forums i think) and abolish that whole system of inter-dependent ship XP. I really like Naval Action but in this particular case i beg you: Please take ACTION to make it a LOT better!

In Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, Act II, Scene II, Juliet says to Romeo: 'O! be some other name: / What's in a name? by any other name a rose would smell as sweet.' Something needs to be done! Many names taken by players in Naval Action are the antithesis of 'sweet' and actually stink to high heaven. Some names are positively a blight on the game and are offensive. One I've seen refers to a genital illness, another to the prostrate, others are just a mispelled mish-mash of unknown meanings, others appear to be passwords with letters and numbers jumbled together, or just any two 'words' thrown together, etc. In short, a chaotic mess that needs rule and order. Some names, like mine, refer to a real life personage of the sea. Viscount Augustus Keppel (1725 – 1786) was an officer of the Royal Navy during the Seven Years' War and the War of American Independence. During the final years of the latter conflict, he served as First Lord of the Admiralty. I think, this is the way to do it: you take a real historical personage's name preferred by you and use that. The DEVS ought to make a rule that only HISTORICAL naval names must be used. I propose that names should be (1) of historical personages, (2) naval, (3) spelled correctly, (4) from the period in question, or a little earlier and a little later, (that is, from, say, 1620 to 1820). PS.: NAMES should be harmonious with the rest of the game that tries to maintain historical and simulation accuracy. PPS.: Please, read this fully. It is all one whole. Don't answer if you've only taken it in partially, please. And, don't take part in this discussion if your only intent is to insult and slander: the very type of person to whom I object and for whom I rightly have contempt.

When the new port battle system is made, it would be very cool, as a low priority feature, if the harbors in the port battles matched the actual historic harbors (for those harbors that had fortifications in real life). Player built upgrades could reflect progressively stronger fortifications as built over time. Since generally, capitals and regional capitals had much better fortifications in real life, modeling actual harbor fortifications will create natural difficulty levels according to the importance and usefulness of a port. Use this thread to post any maps, pictures, drawings, etc, of historical fortifications so that perhaps some day, they could be coded into the game. Attached are several historical maps of Charleston, SC, USA

Well, is sad to see that you are adding russians ships to this game but we have only one spanish ship. I like St.Pavel and The new 3rd rate (dont remember the name) but come on guys. This game is set in the carribean between 1775 and 1815 and we only have one spanish ship. Spain was a huge naval force in the 18 century (and i don´t speak about 17th) and we have only 1 ship, we have 2-3 british ships 3 french ships and 3 USA ships and 3 russian ships, i think that russian ships dont make sense. Spanish, british, Dutch and french ships should be the priority in development not for my personal idea, just for some historical issue. I add some sugestions Santa Ana 1st rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_ship_Santa_Ana_(1784) Rayo or Fenix 2nd rate https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayo_(1751) https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_F%C3%A9nix Bahama 3rd Rate. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahama Glorioso 3rd rate. Read his Story https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_the_Glorioso I don´t add smal ships because you have some posts in forum so, youn know them. Another suggestion I think that for long time development each faction should have one ship of each class and be only able to craft by the faction members. But, for instance if a british or french or dutch player captures a Santissima and destroy it in harbour, will get the BP . In that way we all can sail all the ships but it will give the game more histórical inmersion. For Factions that dont have 1rst or 2nd rates you can add a Russian Generic one. For pirates, is anti-historical have ships of the line and even being a country but maybe their crews should have exceptional marines and boarding axes without upgrades, added as Extra crew, that don´t affect the gunnery, so pirates can capture ships and get BP too. of course this marines bonus is just until rank 5 or 4. (more will be OP) So guys please tell me your point of view and please made a list like mine of brits, french, dutch... ships

Hi, I am very interested in the development of the shape of a ship hull between 1600-1800. I have been searching the internet but cant seem to find what i want. I will sum up some question and i hope someone can help me. Wouldnt it be interesting to discuss this topic? 1. How did the shape of the bow, hull and stern develop in this period? 2. What are the most common design for ships in that period? and not just for ship of the line or frigates but for all open water vessels. 3. What does i certain shape mean for the perfomance? What are the advantages and disadvantage of certain designs? I hope this will start a discussion, because i cant be the only one interested in this.

Gentlemen, Our ships are overgunned compared to the historical loadouts the captains of the time used. Currently, the game uses the “if it fits, it sits” mentality in regards to armaments. However, the captains of time certainly did not. Take captain Hull for example. First thing he did was to get rid of long 18-pounder battery on USS Constitution as soon as there was a lighter carronade replacement available. Why did he and other captains of the time generally used lighter armaments that were technically possible on their ships? Answers I found could be summarized as follows: Less crew – On a smaller sized ship (think frigate), it actually got logistically quite difficult to carry complement that would be able to man all the guns, if all the guns were long guns Performance – The ships speed, heel and manoeuvrability was heavily influenced by the armament as the carronades were third or a quarter of the weight of the long cannon of the same ball weight. Damage to the ship itself – As evidenced by the French ships (which tended to use the “if it fits it sits” mentality at some points) that were captured by the Brits and underwent their general repairs, they were in considerably worse shape than their not overgunned counterparts. If you compare the forces that are applied on the ship when firing 12 pounder and 18 pounder, the increase is exponential. You fire heavier shell, which is going faster from a heavier gun. How to address this in the game and thus impose realistic armaments while keeping in the ability to choose the loadout? Here are my proposals: 1. Crew capacity is based on the hull, but the requirement is based on the guns. I.e. USS Constitution can carry 450 men, while each 24 pounder requires 12 men, 18 pounder requires 10 men, while 32 pound carronade requires 5 men. Therefore 30 * 24 lbs + 24 * 18lbs = 600 men, therefore the ships is crewed only as 75% and suffers those penalties. However 30*24lbs + 24*32lbscar= 480 men, therefore she is crewed as 93.75% and suffers less penalties. 2. Make the speed, heel and turn more dependent on the gun and where are they placed. This means get rid of speed mods and present large difference based on the built wood type. The subtle gun type effect gets overshadowed quite heavily by the +5% speed overall, so either get rid of that, or get rid of that and make gun, ballast distribution, trimming and fiddling with ship part of the game :-). 3. Firing heavier guns than was historically correct for the vessel will damage the ship overtime as a random leak (not an armour decrease), with each shot fired, compounded by the built wood type. I.e.: Oak Belle Poule with 12 lbs (as she was built) has a chance of 0.1% for a random leak. Fir Belle Poule 12lbs has a 1% random leak chance. Oak Belle Poule with 18lbs has a 3% random leak chance. Fir Belle Poule with 18lbs has a 30% random leak chance. (The numbers should of course be adjusted, however the idea that overgunned ship built from low quality wood should be almost guaranteed to have random leaks during engagement should be preserved.)

I would really find it interesting to have region-specific historical 'niche' trades and careers, that go deeper than just the role of 'Merchant' or 'Privateer', although those would still be your overall career. Let me explain: In the West Indies there was a large variety of region specific trades and careers. Many players are already suggesting meta-games like 'oyster fishing' and such - why not have ones based in historical reality? I.e. Rather than generic 'fishing' (although we would have it), we could have region specific trade of turtle-striking (a mainstay staple food for all peoples of the West Indies). I think this would add varied national and regional flavour as well as giving in-depth options for game-play, deeper than the basic 'Merchant' or 'privateer' roles. As we expand into Europe and other regions, more trades and careers unique to that region could be implemented there. This also gives added bonuses and incentives as well as drawbacks for playing in different regions of the globe, creating dynamic and varied game-play in keeping with the 'immersive historical experience'. Examples of regional trades and careers specific to the West Indies include: the logwood cutting trade with Honduras, very popular (with the British at least) - a highly lucrative yet potentially very dangerous mission with the constant risk of encountering the Spanish 'Guardas Costas' patrolling the waters (see below). The very lucrative yet equally dangerous smuggling that France, Britain, Holland and Denmark engaged in with Spain, trading European manufactured goods for Spanish gold and silver, known in English as the Sloop Trade (as it was most often carried out in light & nimble local sloops). Likewise for the more warlike manner, Spanish privateers could be the Guardas Costas - hired mercenaries, sometimes policing shores and protecting shipping, and at others, engaging in smuggling and semi-piratical marauding in their own right. This would give great regional and national variation as well as depth to careers beyond just the roll of ‘privateer’ or ‘merchant’. This may not be implemented in any immediate future, but down the road, once we've got all the important features smoothed out and firmly in place, I think it would be something really great to have.

I came across this website while making some general searching and thought it was well worth posting here, Amongst others you can find data on National Strength lists Cannon Range 32 & 18 pdr Order of Battles, Trafalgar Nile etc An awful lot more useful and interesting information too. Well worth a read for the discerning historian and enthusiast http://www.napoleonguide.com/navyind.htm Enjoy.