Food supplies - advanced warning

[Hethwill]

It is a ship building component. Not a consumable.

 

Unless I read it all wrong...

[Anne Wildcat]

You are right, it's a ship building material only.

Just thinking of other ways food could be used instead.

[ulysse77]

at one point we have to figure out... if we always need money sink, if player always have too much money that it become irrevlevant, then why do we have money...

[Hethwill]

You are right, it's a ship building material only.

Just thinking of other ways food could be used instead.

 

Marines recruitment ( instead of being dropped they could be recruited, and lost ofc ), Officers demand food of quality before joining,  etc

 

As a building material, such as Danish Beer, it can be used in crafting and for recruitment purposes ?

at one point we have to figure out... if we always need money sink, if player always have too much money that it become irrevlevant, then why do we have money...

 

IIRC we make money for doing damage atm. Might not be the case in the future ?! That could be very interesting to control inflation

[Kanay]

That seems a little too complex; I would not want to buy food supply for ships I'm not using or for time I'm not logged on, but buying food prior to sailing for the expected days I may be at sea, outside of battle, could be interesting.

It's really not, food if it stays on the ship docked can deteriorate after a certain time, if you don't plan to use the ship for a long while or not play the game for a month, you can either sell the food at the shop once you dock-in or transfer it to another ship that you plan to use.

[Vernon Merrill]

Make provisions have a lifetime, you have xxx members of crew, each crew member consumes xxx food per day, for one day at sea you need xxx food for all those, food have xxx lifetime, food have a xxx weight impacting your speed.

 

You plan to stay 2 weeks at seas you load food accordingly, your speed gets impacted according to the food loaded, you plan to do a 3 days patrol you bring less food, less impact on speed etc ... 

 

Ship is docked, crew is drinking and having relaxing times in land and not use any food , if the ship is not used for xxx days food will be rotten and you will have to buy some more when taking out the ship .

 

Ship is at seas and consumes food ...

 

Do you really want to keep track of this for ~40 ships?  You might, I'm just asking.

[Guest]

Pretty disappointed, it's not as if there's much management to do in its current state, and could make for some interesting scenarios (e.g. engaging fleets despite being outmatched because they've been out for a long time, traders might have to plan routes instead of just dashing through large stretches of water, OW decisions about whether to push on or resupply e.t.c.). Similar to what crew loss and management will hopefully bring to the table - some more dynamic fleet compositions of fresh/weakened/captured ships instead of the current state in which the outcome of a battle is almost predetermined.

 

Meanwhile, I doubt it'd be tedious since for the less exciting parts of the game - for example mission-running - you end up going back to ports quite regularly to get new missions already, so it's not as if it's a hassle to resupply. Perhaps even exploration upgrades that extend the food supply for long excursions at the cost of upgrade slots.

 

Unless the food acquiring is some fun and novel activity (god forbid that it's just a heap of production buildings and labour hour sinks) it'll end up just being yet another crafting item of no interest. 

 

Edit - then again, since that seems to be the spirit of the game lately, people would probably just do junk like re-tagging fleets at max range until they starve and whatnot. *sigh*

Edited June 7, 2016 by Guest

[Macjimm]

When I read the title I thought "Great!! A new feature will be an added aspect to the game that requires us to supply the ship with food and water". No sarcasm. I was excited.

I was disappointed to read the first post and find that this is just a addition to crafting that really has nothing to do with a new feature. Ships will run forever with out refilling.

I had hoped that the devs were about to include a system where ships need to put into to port and refill water barrels and restock on food (for a fee) ... after several months of in game sailing. Wouldn't affect the PvP'rs who are out for a few days or even a few weeks. I envisioned that after several months (of in-game time) without taking on water or food the crew morale would begin to slowly diminish. The game development is still young and I'm hopeful.

Edited June 7, 2016 by Macjimm

[Blackjack McGee]

Sounds like the change doesn't add to the game play and is just another material needed to build the ship. Personally, with all the other big problems in the game, ie pirate mechanics, port battle timers, diplomacy etc I think the valuable developer time could have been better spent. Adding this change will not bring people back to the game.

[Kanay]

Do you really want to keep track of this for ~40 ships?  You might, I'm just asking.

I don't see where is the problem in this, you just need to check before leaving a port that you have enough food for what you plan to do, is this really too much to manage ? 

 

You have 8 outposts max where you can store food in warehouses before taking out a ship, you can have food that will deteriorate at various dates all loaded into the same resources stack with the infos displayed about how many crew you will feed with this and for how much time, no matter if you mix food with different lifetimes, all this calculated and automated by the game code.

 

You can choose to load less food to get less impact on speed during a long trip, and make a stop half way to resupply, the gain of speed + the stop to resupply will still make the trip faster than loading all food needed for a long trip without any stop etc .

 

Checking for food will not be any longer than checking if you have enough repair kits loaded and add some non permanent upgrades on a ship .

 

Right now in the way it is proposed it brings absolutely nothing to the game, if it works like we suppose as a one time thing to do when crafting, having a not much difficult management of food and also powder and ammos types and even repair kits that should have an impact on weight and speed based on how much of them you load will bring more variety and options for gameplay.

[Hethwill]

Sounds like the change doesn't add to the game play and is just another material needed to build the ship. Personally, with all the other big problems in the game, ie pirate mechanics, port battle timers, diplomacy etc I think the valuable developer time could have been better spent. Adding this change will not bring people back to the game.

 

I think it is unrelated and different agendas of development (?) and maybe it is another step stone towards a new economy revamp. I do not think what we have at the moment is even close to final.

[Baptiste Gallouédec]

I am quite disapointed about this announcement. If this is nothing but a new ship building material. This adds nothing in term of gameplay, don't waste time working on this, and don't make us loose time with this in game.

 

Food supplies only interest is if it influence crew morale at least.

 

I can imagine something looking like the upgrade line we could call "supplies": on every ship you have one empty box for food, one empty box for drink. You can't leave port with it empty.

You can craft/buy/produce/build supplies of different qualities, you can buy basic ration and water in every port as a ressource (grey basic quality) in some ports you can buy for exemple french wine or iberian meat (idk but for exemple blue/fine supplies) or craft grog, superior rations, saussages, officer rations etc..

 

Supplies are like upgrades, they dissapear if you loose your last dura, you can move them from a ship to another. Supplies like grog keeps their actual combat bonus and malus.  Basic supplies do nothing, but the quality do give morale boost in combat.

 

Anyone agree with this ?

Edited June 7, 2016 by Baptiste Gallouédec

[Vernon Merrill]

I don't see where is the problem in this, you just need to check before leaving a port that you have enough food for what you plan to do, is this really too much to manage ? 

 

You have 8 outposts max where you can store food in warehouses before taking out a ship, you can have food that will deteriorate at various dates all loaded into the same resources stack with the infos displayed about how many crew you will feed with this and for how much time, no matter if you mix food with different lifetimes, all this calculated and automated by the game code.

 

You can choose to load less food to get less impact on speed during a long trip, and make a stop half way to resupply, the gain of speed + the stop to resupply will still make the trip faster than loading all food needed for a long trip without any stop etc .

 

Checking for food will not be any longer than checking if you have enough repair kits loaded and add some non permanent upgrades on a ship .

 

Right now in the way it is proposed it brings absolutely nothing to the game, if it works like we suppose as a one time thing to do when crafting, having a not much difficult management of food and also powder and ammos types and even repair kits that should have an impact on weight and speed based on how much of them you load will bring more variety and options for gameplay.

 

 

I dont necessarily disagree...  I'm just trying to flesh out what the plan is currently.  I too, think it would be adding to gameplay to have to worry about re-provisioning every now and then.  In my opinion, ALOT of how this game can progress is dependent on the diplomacy patch.  If they get it right, or at least close, so many things can be opened up.  For example, even this re-provisioning can be enhanced.  Example:  I'm running low on fresh water.  Oh, good theres a port local that we are allied with.  I can stop in there and pay a small fee or tax to the port to get my water.  All good, and the city gets some tax income to devote to building upgrades.  

[OTMatt]

I guess in future updates you have to get the food by fishing probably or other farming related things. But basically this thread is for crafters and is not really connected in any way with the Captains and the sailing part of the game. It is a nice step forward just a bit lame for those of us who wanted provisions management.

[Captiva]

I have to admit, i am dissapointed to see you went for a "no life time strategy" . Players where affraid for micro management, but then again it would have made boarding players so much more unique. Board to survive, buy to survive. One of the goals of this game was to make us captains feel we are in that age of sails again.

I feel with this iteration of this feature you are missing the boat sorta say , as food was crucial back then and now it has been made dull by the looks of it.

I will offcourse test it fully and enjoy it, but it is far from what i expected.

 

I agree with Konali89 -  and also, for this game this would not be micro management to my way of thinking. Micro management, to me, is having to do too many things at once to the point that you feel overwhelmed in the moment.

 

Having to enter port to re-supply from time to time just makes a whole lot of sense. If you are going to make it a part of the ship building process, then why not make repairs also part of the ship building process i.e. you craft and pay once for repairs, and you're done?

 

Having to monitor food supplies to keep the crew fit and happy would add to the realism of the game.

 

I'm hoping that the developers eventually add an accessible window showing an open sided view of your ship (similar to Silent Hunter). Within this view one could could locate the galley to see the percentage of food supply available while at sea. When in port, you would also bring up this window to re-supply provisions.

 

This view would also apply for showing masts,sails,rudder, marines, charismatic botswain and upgrade windows beside each of them. We would then not be limited by the number of upgrade slots available, but limited only by our ability to purchase and upkeep whatever upgrades - and their quality - we choose for outfiting our ship.

 

In short, I'm in favor of having to be responsible for the continual management of ships in my possession, including provisions,  

[Hethwill]

OffTopic ... micro-management = HoI 3

 

[Jean Ribault]

Maybe an unpopular opinion based on some of what I've read here, but for myself I do like the added depth to the game and I want even more of the same.  This is only the first step and it needs more steps and a lot of tuning after testing, but a welcome and a good testing will improve it.  As a parallel I've played thousands of hours of Civ games and IMO the more intricate and interwoven the gameplay dependencies are, the more longterm enjoyment you will gain from the game.  NA has a lot of similar immersion potential but with much better graphics.

[Cecil Selous]

Sounds like the change doesn't add to the game play and is just another material needed to build the ship. Personally, with all the other big problems in the game, ie pirate mechanics, port battle timers, diplomacy etc I think the valuable developer time could have been better spent. Adding this change will not bring people back to the game.

 

Gosh, you people!. This is a f***ing discussion to check and include our thoughts, like there already were for a new politics system and port battle mechanics. They are working on many things simultaneously. It takes time. If they would work on one thing only at a time this game will never be finished and everybody will cry again! 

 

And even if it is just a new ressource to build a ship (until now the official information is very vague to me about that fact), then think about how to get it if you are a trader or crafter ffs. Maybe there will be more to food and how to get hold of it in the future. In general, bring in your ideas and thoughts to make it better but stop constantly whining and threating with leaving the game!

If I could make a small comparisson to EVE. I know many don't like to compare it. I played eve the last time maybe 4 years ago and back then it did seem way more complex to me than NA. How is it today with countless new updates? Is everybody there also crying constantly about everything which is roughly time consuming or expensive? After all NA wants to be an authentic MMO, with many ways of playing it (professions) from which you can choose. And therefor we need interesting and historical aspects to it like crew maintenance (which includes payment, food etc.). 

Edited June 7, 2016 by Cecil Selous

[Red Jack Walker]

My two cents on the food supplies thing...I like that but I'd want to see it fully and properly implemented (so periodically I need to re-supply my ship and crew) or otherwise not implemented at all.

Edited June 7, 2016 by Red Jack Walker

[Horror]

I dislike the food supply idea. It doesnt bring sighnificant value but just adds an excessive mircomanagement. You dont add crew hiring yet but think of food supply already! Deal with more important goals at first, pls!

P.S. The idea of food supply blueprint looks awful !

They are just adding 'Provisions' as a one time component in the recipe (blueprint) for the ship.

Could be costly though as it is one time cost projected over operational life of ship.

This will obviously scale up markedly with crew size.

 

These changes are good because:

1. Puts more ships in the OW to supply provisions

2. Brings up relative cost of big ships. Big ships right now are dirt cheap compared to the power pay off they provide, so win - win imo.

[ulysse77]

These changes are good because:

1. Puts more ships in the OW to supply provisions

I doubt you `ll see many trader doing them if they are available from every port. I dont see many trader anyway thses days, not in my corner of the ocean anyway

[Horror]

I doubt you `ll see many trader doing them if they are available from every port. I dont see many trader anyway thses days, not in my corner of the ocean anyway

I have to disagree. Most shipyards all bunched up in capitol. Provision demand in vacinity will vastly outstrip supply. 

[Horror]

One more thing, Devs,

 

Why do you not consider also rolling in crew hiring costs into the blueprint?

This also would scale appropriate costs to higher crewed ships and avoid the maintenance hassles of constantly recrewing.

[Halsey74]

I am quite disapointed about this announcement. If this is nothing but a new ship building material. This adds nothing in term of gameplay, don't waste time working on this, and don't make us loose time with this in game.

 

Food supplies only interest is if it influence crew morale at least.

 

I can imagine something looking like the upgrade line we could call "supplies": on every ship you have one empty box for food, one empty box for drink. You can't leave port with it empty.

You can craft/buy/produce/build supplies of different qualities, you can buy basic ration and water in every port as a ressource (grey basic quality) in some ports you can buy for exemple french wine or iberian meat (idk but for exemple blue/fine supplies) or craft grog, superior rations, saussages, officer rations etc..

 

Supplies are like upgrades, they dissapear if you loose your last dura, you can move them from a ship to another. Supplies like grog keeps their actual combat bonus and malus.  Basic supplies do nothing, but the quality do give morale boost in combat.

 

Anyone agree with this ?

I'm agree ....

[Tiedemann]

I do not see the need for this at all. I seriously think it's a waist of time an developer resources. Why do you even bother with a small annoying details as this when you have so many needed content patches on the way!? If you want to add stuff just because you like to add stuff, give us new ships! Focus on the big picture and stop adding stuff that do not give a fun bonus. The developer that came up with this idea should only get cold coffee for the rest of this month!

Yes this escalated a bit, but I would like to see that you are still focusing on the other aspects of the game, like for example the boring port battles, the need for diplomacy or the massive pirate nation.

Sorry if this was to harsh, but i doubt that food supplies will help the game right now. Food supply sound's to me like something you can save for when you are doing the last finishing touch on the game.