Avatars

[Flibustier]

What do You think guys?

 

 

portraits are planned in the future

[Captain Black]

I think cutting out avatars might be a good idea all together, i posted a little while ago in little things we want added, that I'd like ship interiors and cabins, let me explain what I mean before I go on. 

 

Interiors and cabins can be made, but I wouldn't add a character to walk around. Maybe a view of the gun deck, hold and cabin, that might be used to see how things are fairing, such as the amount of reserves, supplies and food in the hold. Access the crew information, ship logs etc by clicking various objects in the cabin rather than walking around. 

 

Back on point.

 

This game would be better focusing on the ships, the sailing, the combat and the exploration. It doesn't however say you can't have it when visiting a port or location on an island. By all means have an avatar you can explore with, but we could also have a system that sends landing parties that explore for you, mapping out locations you might not be able to freely travel to with your avatar or might take to much time.

 

Not only that, but in those situations it leaves your ship very vulnerable to attack. 

 

So with that in mind I suggest that they focus on ships etc, and use avatars only when in port or important locations.

[HunHarcos]

I think cutting out avatars might be a good idea all together, i posted a little while ago in little things we want added, that I'd like ship interiors and cabins, let me explain what I mean before I go on. 

 

Interiors and cabins can be made, but I wouldn't add a character to walk around. Maybe a view of the gun deck, hold and cabin, that might be used to see how things are fairing, such as the amount of reserves, supplies and food in the hold. Access the crew information, ship logs etc by clicking various objects in the cabin rather than walking around. 

 

Back on point.

 

This game would be better focusing on the ships, the sailing, the combat and the exploration. It doesn't however say you can't have it when visiting a port or location on an island. By all means have an avatar you can explore with, but we could also have a system that sends landing parties that explore for you, mapping out locations you might not be able to freely travel to with your avatar or might take to much time.

 

Not only that, but in those situations it leaves your ship very vulnerable to attack. 

 

So with that in mind I suggest that they focus on ships etc, and use avatars only when in port or important locations.

As Cannonball said: "I'd rather play a game that does 10 things good than one thing great"

Imo ships are 75℅ complete and they will be even more completed with the next patch.

The things you wrote down are okay for a game made in 1990s.

If the team will keep ignoring furthermore the sandbox posibilities in this game, they surely wont get a wider audience!Therefore no mahney!

[theSpatchula]

I don't know if it was mentioned, but I think a good solution for avatars would be something similar to the original character creator for EVE Online. 

 

Its simply creating a 3D Portrait avatar that is basically just from the shoulders up.  You pick, skin tone, eyes, eye color, hair, hair color, beard and maybe the nation you originated from. 

 

Let's you personalize your captain. Nothing crazy but it worked well for EVE. 

[BrutishVulgarian]

It seems to me, Potbs maybe put way too much development time into avatars and spent about 10 minutes slapping their world map together.   I hope Naval Action follows the Elite Dangerous model and adds walking around on ship and shore as later add ons.

[Leviathan]

Right now avatars are definitely not of any importance. However, when I think about the open world aspect of this game having an avatar could be useful. Often in MMO's certain areas will serve as hubs for people to meet and interact in the open world. I surmise this will be possible without avatars but it would certainly be easier with one instead of everyone sitting on ships chatting in an area.

[Chustler]

For me portraits would be fine for the foreseeable future. The boarding needs to be beefed up and more about strategy. Of course fully rendered avatars and boarding would be cool, but is by no means "nessesary" as some people are saying.

[Mirones]

seeing what they are doing with the promo-art i cant wait to see the Portraits.

[Cpt.Morpheus]

Hello everybody, I just dicovered this game, sadly cannot preorder as I can see from the website, btw I have a question will it be possible to create a human charachter and visit in land port, for example to buy things in the market to the city, go to the inn to take a beer and seek for crew etc...

[Elysion]

This is something ive been curious about too. Because other open world online age of sale games.. (which there are not many mind you) have had this, im hopeful, however its a lot to add and if they are not planning on implementing avatar combat or something for boarding or away-from-ship activity it would be a lot of work for no real practical benefit.

It would be nice to walk around a nice 18th century town and have places to hang out, it would be nice to be able to walk around your ship for that matter, go below and look at your guns or cargo, talk to your crew... Or to invest in an economic structure and be able to go and inspect your papermill or whatever (for some reason i always enjoy making paper in games that let me...)

But im just not sure they have that kind of scope in mind.

Some sort of port interaction would of course be nice, and it would be nice to have a captains avatar even if he just stood on your ship and maybe you could get him (or her? did happen, captains wives that were on board have taken command in certain situations in the past) a few different kinds of fancy hats and coats. This avatar could then participate in a sid meyers pirates style of port interaction, where you have a nice little scene of a bar to recruit people, or of you talking to whoevers in charge, but nothing free-roamable and explorable. At least that would add to the immersive feel, but im not sure.

With a hesitancy to bring up EVE, the whole push they had for walking in stations turned into a gigantic fiasco both in their ability to deliver and the players reaction to the effort they were putting into something that was not seen as particularly needed. Some sort of representation of the player character would be nice, and something more than just a menu when you enter a port would also be nice, but im not sure an actual open world on land would be a wise time investment unless they had more than just immersion planned for it.

I would not of course be against the implementation of such a thing because again, if they were going to do something like that they would probably let you free roam around your ship which would be a lot of fun, but eh...

Edited February 28, 2015 by Elysion

[Cpt.Morpheus]

well what I mean it's something like star citizen where you can fly with your ships and visit city and station, but I understand that's alot of work maybe in the future they could think to something like this if players like it

[Brigand]

No details are given yet on how interacting with the port side businesses would look like, but I would not count on any 3D environment for ports where you can move around. It has been mentioned that there will be not walking around with our avatar.

This does not mean that port side business should look uninspired, it could still be very immersive, just less interactive.

~Brigand

[Black Bart]

dont count on a star citizen look alike when walk around and something,that game have so many funds behind it. compared to naval Action, i think the game will maybe use something like EVE online concept, with crafting stash hangar and such.. 

[Kaaru62]

^  ^  if only they had the funding, it would be the most awesome thing. maybe someday.

[ThePandanator2]

I'm fairly sure ports are going to play a large role. How we're going to interact with ports I'm not sure about though.

[SchurkjeBoefje]

I'd much much rather see the abiltiy to move around in our ships' interior than walk through a town.

 

 

The latter would be a Herculean task to model as well, with all the different settlements in the world. 

[Purple]

Im just glad they are focusing on ships and not spending time on avatars.

Edited March 1, 2015 by Purple

[Ned Loe]

Hello CaptMiles

 

We are definitely thinking adding an avatar of the player (but at a much later stage). Captain quarters - we also thought about this - it depends on the number of ships we will have in the final game. The more ships we have the less chance for a unique captain cabin for every ship. 

One solution could be to have them unique for the class of the ship (but not for every ship).

 

but of course - these are all very long term plans

Could have the same room that can be furnished and organized with tons of items from the store, missions etc..

 

[Brigand]

I would rather not see the developers waste spend their time on items which serve no purpose but decorating a virtual room. I would rather see the development effort go to the core gameplay :-)

 

~Brigand

[Lord Hood]

I agree with Brigand that I would like to see the developers focus on the core game first. We have yet to see what awaits though when everything is established and perhaps when the Naval aspect of the game is completed then you would see more effort in the land based/character tasks.

[Capt. Mads]

Could have the same room that can be furnished and organized with tons of items from the store, missions etc..

 

 

 

Even one cabin with paint/furnishing options would be a great start down the road:)  I'll have to agree with others with the ship avatar first, then land, as that's where you'll probably be most of the time

 

 

I would rather not see the developers waste spend their time on items which serve no purpose but decorating a virtual room. I would rather see the development effort go to the core gameplay :-)

 

~Brigand

 

As previously mentioned, I believe, the Core elements and gameplay are the priority.  We're speaking of options later

 

I agree with Brigand that I would like to see the developers focus on the core game first. We have yet to see what awaits though when everything is established and perhaps when the Naval aspect of the game is completed then you would see more effort in the land based/character tasks.

 

Yes, I agree    Once the main awesome ship and/or world stuff is steamrolling, then other options may come into play.  Personally, I almost need an avatar.  Ship Combat is my first priority, but I am a bit of a variety and customization fan.  That's how I am and the excitement for me behind what this beautiful game could be.  You may be surprised at how many people in many mmo's I've played enjoy customizing items, mounts [ships] and their own avatars with ingame money, real money, etc...  This adds many social ice-breakers, as well.  Many have hung out in towns/cities to explore, socialize and comment on one another's ships/outfits.  This isn't only good socially, but would make more money over time, bring more people in and keep them addicted longer   It shouldn't, by any means, degrade the naval sim   

 

Therefore, once the big stuff's doing well, I'd personally choose ship avatar movement(3rd and 1st person toggle), then worry/want the port hangouts/stores and island exploration.   First Person, for a cleaner view of ship, etc.. and Third Person so I can see how awesome I look and know that virtually I'm a captain in a ship, not just a ship

 

Honestly, when I heard and read of this game with amazing ship combat, future exploration of seas and land, I immediately assumed, I'd be exploring and finding species and whatnot with my avatar.  I'd hate to point at an island with my cursor and say to my crew, "Yer ne'er goin' 'ome er teekin' a breek, lads" heh.

 

Ship Combat: 

 

1)  Loving the ideas for RTS style combat!  Maybe even TBS (Turn Based Strategy).  As argued earlier with avatar combat, rts may rely on catlike reflexes, as well.  Quickly deciding before battle, where men go, may be a good option, as well.  I agree that no one here, including me, wants the 'magical' abilities of avcom that PotBS had, hehe.  You could do some great things with a strategy style battle This also has the side benefit of adding variety.  (I may comment more on this later)

 

2)  If down the road, NA considered doing Avatar boarding, perhaps you don't lose if you die...  as a crew member.  Perhaps you'd spawn in another crew member or you'd have to wait and see how your crew faired after you'd died...  You may still have to worry about ping, etc..; however, you shouldn't get any 'special' abilities.  Perhaps, just a sword of your choosing (heavy hit, light hit) and a pistol with one round.

 

3)  Who knows?  Time will tell.

 

P.S.  Let us not forget the people in games that do not comment in forums due to playing and/or time-constraints.  Many others have ideas and/or knows what they'd like; however, their thoughts may not always enter the forums, sadly

Edited March 20, 2015 by Capt. Mads

[Balsafer]

It is something that the developers eventually need to work on after OW and other elements are finished because people do like to customize things and it would provided revenue for the developers to have some items purchasable through cash shop and it would bring in more people to play the game. Perhaps maybe a basic avatar system without combat could be put in place in the mean time.

[Principe]

Like someone else have said before, it would be a fantastic add on after the game is finished; as in the mechanic and core plans are finished. 

 

I just don't get why people in here are so adamant into something great when its even optional in some cases -- UWO wise not POTBS, I know POTBS relied so much on land battle, this annoyed me as well. 

 

I'm currently writing a proposal for avatar right now, might take a few days or so. I like the idea of captain quarters though, but walking around every port with an avatar might be too much for the devs to handle so I won't be too pushy about that