Game with an incredibly short shelf life

[Lisa-Azra]

I am bored. Very bored. 

I have been playing for two weeks only and the game has already lost its sparkle. A believe me it had a great sparkle to start with.

In the two weeks I have owned this game I have clocked over 100 hours of game play. My life has been work and play Naval Action so I feel confident to give comment on this game.

Please before you say it, I know this game is alpha and more content is to come. In fact an announcement from the developers came only yesterday claiming new content of land and land effects  being incorporated into the battles.    And there it is, this game is just battles.

 

I hear everyday other players asking, biggest ship, quickest way to earn xp to get the biggest ship, a serious 'get rich quick' attitude to the game. Complaints about doing the 'grind' ( a laborious, monotonous repetition of the same thing to reach a desired goal) What is that task? ...... battles.

People want the high ranks and the ships that go with them and when they have them, will they cherish them, lovingly coat their hulls in fresh tar everyday? No, they will blow up a few things and be unsatisfied because it is so much like the 'grind' and the ship came so easy. They turn to the only other element in the game crafting. Once a challenge because of finding resources now. All I hear is how can I increase my labor hours? Fast, fast, fast, I want to reach the top as fast as possible. When I have reached the peak, I will go do something else as there is no challenge left, no game left. All your hard work developing a beautiful game gone, sunk into the depths.

 

This could be an EPIC game of trade, build, explore, fight on the scale of the original X-universe but it is not. It is just fight, fight, fight, fight. In history trade was the priority and fighting to protect the trade. Here in Naval Action it is fighting is the priority and trade so I can fight with something bigger.

 

Developers, if you are reading this. You are spending massive man-hours on this 'land in battles' whose impact on the game's longevity will sadly be quite minimal. Where as, some simple low man-hour changes could have a incredible benefit to this game's enjoyment.

 

First Missions

What's today's mission? Search and destroy. What's tomorrow's mission? Search and destroy. What's next week's mission, actually don't bother.

 

Trade missions - collect this material (mission resources always available) and deliver to this port for this amount of gold. Good for learning trade and ship control. The only mission available to new players

Courier missions - take this letter to this port, do not let it fall in enemy hands. Good for fast small ships. Some possibility of attack from AI controlled ships, helps new sailors master sailing for speed and evasion

Escort missions - protect this trade ship

Courier intercept missions - gain enemy intel

Protect trade routes

Fleet action - you and friends or AI controlled ships attack enemy convoys.

Search and destroy

Along with building and discovery missions (see below)

 

A progression of a variety of missions which each one can have increase difficulty to match players' xp

 

Building

I have made to date, 7 lynx ships, 3 lynx traders, 3 cutter traders, 4 cutters, I have broken 4 privateer ships, and 5 brig traders and I still do not have any dropped blue prints. I have heard blueprints for small ships are not available, only available from captured ships, why are you even bothering get a snow.

 

Building to order - a client wants 3 cutters, build, sell. You complete you get gold, crafting xp and some labor hours (I don't know through employing more staff) to do that you need to increase your factory size.

Complete an order and you keep the blueprint

Orders for big ships only available to builders that match the skill and factory requirements needed to build them

 

Exploration

Every port looks the same, the map tells you where everything is and now there are no resource shortages, why leave the home port vicinity?

 

Even way back to the days of the first Command and Conquer, maps could be obscured by a cloud which dissipates on discovery. These are new lands with a lot controlled by enemy fractions, you would not know where everything is. 

A player should start with only their home port and the two or three ports in closest proximity visible.

 

Exploration mission easy - sale for x number of hours/day in a course of x heading and report back any discoveries

Exploration mission medium - discover x number of new ports in a certain region

Exploration mission difficult - discover the location of enemy ports and ship strength (every time a ship is clicked in open world it is recorded)  in a certain region

All good missions for fast ships and a good if you are planning to incorporate ship management as in consumables etc

 

If you reply to this saying 'the game is in alpha and these are going to come', don't bother I know (or at least hope) that

What I am saying is these need to be made high priority, they have a far bigger impact on the game, and they are a lot, lot easier to implement.

Please loose the tunnel vision you currently have on this game's development.... there should be more to navy life than battles

 

 

Please read peoples' comments to this

 

 

Last week 7/2 on the European server 2 there were about 900 players, almost full capacity. This week 14/2 there were about 600.

Edited February 15, 2016 by Lisa-Azra

[Ned Loe]

Early Access.

 

Developers recently fixed many major bugs and now moving to content production. Take your time and lvl up, by the time you get good rank you will see many good changes. 

[Galileus]

With all

 

Please before you say it, I know this game is alpha and more content is to come

 

We will say it anyway. You use this phrase as a shield to pretend to know what is the best course of action, while all you do is point out your preferred course of action.

 

In the meantime, everyone I spoke to is thrilled and excited about more battles and better battles. Most people I know are interested in battles. And sure - there are traders and explorers too - and they will get more content too. In time.

 

Because this game is in alpha and more content is to come.

[ObiQuiet]

I think the OP's points are reasonable and it's fair to make them.

From reading these forums it is not easy to tell if the devs have plans to add variety and more depth to the craftibg and non-battle game play..

The land in battles will add a very interesting dimension to the that part of the game play, no doubt.

[WhiteWalker]

if you play solo and if all you want is missions then you gona get bored at least with the content we have right now

last night brits try to take porte de nippe and every one went there ti protect it althought smoller ships didnt enter the port battle they where needed to intercept brit fleets going to battle

that was my first time doing something nation organized and there and that was fun even if it was only battles 

[Lord Roberts]

I think the game should have been more developed with more to do before steam release, the game in it's current state its very very narrow and does not really offer much for people to do apart from do very simple missions, simple crafting and simple port battles. i'm sure it will get much better in the future but should have waited on the steam release.

[Lisa-Azra]

Galileus - I am not saying no to battles. Like all those people you have spoken with and have commented I also like playing in battles. What I am saying it is time for some other things and not some 'in time'  . And saying the quote about me using alpha as a shield for my own agenda then repeating the game is in alpha, please. If what I have said is  something you don't like then have the decency to give me something back constructive as I have provided in writing this original comment. 

 

White walker - yes I am sure nation battles are something special but if you did them and only them all the time how long will they retain their charm and originality?

 

Wind - thank you for your comment. As for levelling up. I have actually restarted several times to avoid that, and it is my preference for doing this. Although as from yesterday I am no longer able to do this as restarting will no longer reset my xp to zero. I kind of find that fact a little oppressive.

 

Lord Robert - I was under the impression this game has been about for around a year (I might be wrong) and little has changed and the early steam release was to get round a paypal putting a prohibit on sales (again what I have read I do not know first hand).

 

We are all here playing alpha/early access to provide feedback and suggestions, which is what this originally is, a suggestion for developers.

Edited February 13, 2016 by Lisa-Azra

[Lord Roberts]

Galileus - I am not saying no to battles. Like all those people you have spoken with and have commented I also like playing in battles. What I am saying it is time for some other things and not some 'in time'  . And saying the quote about me using alpha as a shield for my own agenda then repeating the game is in alpha, please. If what I have said is  something you don't like then have the decency to give me something back constructive as I have provided in writing this original comment. 

 

White walker - yes I am sure nation battles are something special but if you did them and only them all the time how long will they retain their charm and originality?

 

Wind - thank you for your comment. As for levelling up. I have actually restarted several times to avoid that, and it is my preference for doing this. Although as from yesterday I am no longer able to do this as restarting will no longer reset my xp to zero. I kind of find that fact a little oppressive.

 

Lord Robert - I was under the impression this game has been about for around a year (I might be wrong) and little has changed and the early steam release was to get round a paypal putting a prohibit on sales (again what I have read I do not know first hand).

 

We are all here playing alpha/early access to provide feedback and suggestions, which is what this originally is, a suggestion for developers.

Yes the game has been around for over a year and little has really changed, since I got the game only OW was implemented and maybe 5-6 ships

[Rosebud]

I believe Lisa-Azra is doing exactly what these forums are here for. Developers want feedback, in my experience it is generally not positive. They are big boys and will not wilt under these mild, spot on criticisms. Truth is rarely pretty.

[Jan van Santen]

+1 

The OP hits the nail on the head. This indeed is the first ever MMO I play (and I started with MMO's in the 90's) that comes with one quest only: Find sword symbol, kill pirate(s), repair ship, rinse, repeat.

 

Allow me to add to the points the OP already made: 

 

1) MMO by definition means interacting with other players. It does not neccessarily mean teaming up with them for fighting in PvP.

Chatting, trading, doing PvE together  etc are valid forms of interaction as well. An increasing number of players plays MMO's simply for their size, their persistent world  and for being able to achieve something in a game that isn't finished after 30 hours. There is also an increasing number of gamers above the age of 16, meaning with fingers not actually used to coordinate 9 keys plus 2 mouse buttons, mouse position and scrollwheel just to land a few cannon balls in a target. Why would that even be needed in PvE ??

How high actually is the percentage of gamers, who want to spend 100 hours on reading forums, watching youtube vids and start with a painfully steep learning curve ? 

 

2) There are several other Pirate/Naval games in the making. If this one wants to get a decent slice of that market, it's high time it doesn't cater to a limited number of full time hardcore PvP enthusiasts only. 

 

3) The sextant was in use since 1730, Harrison's H4 dates 1759. Captains of those days had a much better knowledge of their position than we have in Naval Action. What we do is Columbus 15th century style: sail west till we hit land...

Or we "cheat" with F11 and external tools, so why not implement this into the game properly ?

 

4) More variety in exp gaining,  less clumsy controls, and a manual/tutorial/internal help library should be top priority of the devs, much higher than new ships and other stuff new players don't encounter anyway within the first month of gaming.

 

5) Half the new players leave after encountering the cheating AI in their first 5 or 6 missions, that is, before they have earned the money to hire a fleet. The AI in this game is actually very good, there is no need for it to cheat on top of that. Eg aiming through smoke, shooting through the waves and still hit their target or show hardly any effect of damage/reduced crew.

The way I understood this works is: the AI does perfect "manual sailing" with a poll rate of 10 secs. 

 

 

So how to solve the new player issues w/o a large programming effort and w/o reducing the fun of the hardcore PvP players ?

 

On top of more variety for gaining exp, I suggest by reducing the AI poll rate somewhat and give players a better quality AI for their skipper auto. That would preserve the advantage of manual sailing for the PvP pros and at the same time make the game a lot more playable for new/casual players.

This could also be done by one of the yet to be installed officers, thus making it new content the player has to achieve.

Edited February 13, 2016 by Jan van Santen

[ObiQuiet]

Yes the game has been around for over a year and little has really changed, since I got the game only OW was implemented and maybe 5-6 ships

 

What an odd thing to say.  The period was full of fine-tuning the battle mechanics and balance, plugging exploit holes, implementing crafting and trade...   All features that would have caused huge trouble if not done before EA.

[Admaa]

"Game with an incredibly short shelf life"



ok then

Edited February 13, 2016 by Admaa

[Azzak]

The main interest of the game right now lies in PVP.

 

Get a cerberus minimum, then squad up and attack other players.

Don't care about sinking.

[Meraun]

yeah, my main motivation is PvP,  the war against others Nations. That waht i play the game for.. are you in a Clan?

[Galileus]

Lisa-Azra -  you would pull much more discussion and see much more friendly attitude if you didn't use phrases like "game with an incredibly short shelf life", "I am bored", "game lost it sparkle". Imagine that vets of the game seen this topic and this EXACT suggestions for dozens of topics, and discussed them in depth to game, and THEN on top of that you come in with attitude. Try joining in and building up - you will have more luck providing feedback and constructive criticism that way. Otherwise no one will be bothered to go over the same stuff again and again and wrestle with your attitude. Sorry, we're just people.

[Lord Roberts]

What an odd thing to say.  The period was full of fine-tuning the battle mechanics and balance, plugging exploit holes, implementing crafting and trade...   All features that would have caused huge trouble if not done before EA.

I'm talking about content not the behind the scenes mate. What an odd comment you made.

[ObiQuiet]

I'm talking about content not the behind the scenes mate. What an odd comment you made.

My apologies sir -- I included crafting and missions in content. My mistake.

Note that I agreed with the OP's point that more content would help more.

Edited February 13, 2016 by M.Cmdt. ObiQuiet

[Ruthless4u]

Hunting down and sinking other ships in OW, and large scale PB's sre more than enough for me.

trading and crafting are dull, and for my needs are pretty much a waste of time. If that's your thing more power to you but it's not for me.

Edited February 13, 2016 by Ruthless4u

[Balsafer]

Some of those suggestions will be added it has been discussed by the devs in the past all I ask is be patient

[Prater]

I suggest you join a clan and get involved in pvp.  Battles are really where the game is at, although more is coming to crafting, exploration, and port improvements, production and port battles.

 

 

The person who said very little was added over the last year doesn't know what they are talking about.

[Balsafer]

aye lots were added, graphic improvements, new combat mechanics more ships, ow port battles.

[Lisa-Azra]

Thank you for your comments. For Admaa congratulations that is some achievement certainly not one I will be rewarded with for this game or any other. You and I expect, many of the long term players do have high hour of play stats but one could also question how many of the steam players who no longer play have stats less the 30 hour game play? I don't know.

I think this game has the framework to cater for both those who like huge battles and nothing else AND those who like variety of trading, building and exploring, and it could be done very easily and quickly. MMO like Elite Dangerous manage to do it well enough. I have no idea how many other players feel as I do but if it has been an old subject of discussion as stated then surely now is the time to develop it or will it always be swept under the carpet? When writing this reply, the pole on this forum showed more people wanted improved missions for exploration and delivery than land in battles.

Being told that I should join a clan, level up as quick as possible in order to play the game, is not how it is sold on Steam. Everyone has there reasons to like this game why do they all have to be the same?

If anyone thinks I have attitude I am truly sorry. Yes I have brandished shock titles and statements only to get what I have written noticed. Newspapers do it all the time. My aim has always been to highlight areas for improvement because this game is good and has so much potential for more and I wouldn't bother spending my time writing this if I didn't think so.

There are voices here for the developers to hear if they want to. There is a community who can respect those views if it wishes to.

Edited February 13, 2016 by Lisa-Azra

[ajffighter86]

If we are to continue to have missions in the game (which I find incredibly dull as they currently exist), they need to be reworked to encourage PVP on the PVP servers. There have been some great suggestions such as 'engage other players on the front lines', 'escort a fellow player's trade ships', 'smuggling', etc. These missions could be generated by the players themselves instead of someone just clicking on an admiralty mission over and over and never really interacting with other players.

[Dalriaden]

Land in battles is going to have a dramatic effect on gameplay, dunno how one wouldn't be excited about that.

Think you should be able to get group missions against fleets, and some sort of trade escort missions in the future, but the news about land being implemented in battles is almost as exciting for this game as the planetary landing showcase for star citizen.

[Prater]

Pvp is where the game is at.  If you only play PVE and missions (more pve), you are going to get really bored really fast.  If you pvp, it isn't boring.