Old player back again, my thoughts.

[Lady Athena]

Not entirely sure where to start... I bought into the game a little over a year ago, maybe even close to 2? Either way, it was well before the Open World even hit the game. The talks about the game on the forums, and the website itself was hopeful. It looked to be the follow up of an old MMO I used to play, which I can't seem to ever remember the name of.
 

It spanned the entire world, with player guilds owning ports. Trading with guild ports allowed for money to be exchanged in the guilds coffers, and the player trading, and if you repaired your ship, that repair cost would go directly into the owning guild. Port battles were a thing, piracy was a thing, all the different nations were thing. Guilds could upgrade their ports and defenses, and own territory, set up alliances, and players could influence their nations alliances and wars, etc.The talk 2 years ago seemed to be taking this into the new era of gaming where all the things that game had would be here in its own way, and possibly more! All the different discussions of these on the forums, so many good, and not so good suggestions being thrown every which way.. 

Coming back now though after over half a year break.. the changes.. are slight and most don't sit well with me. I was looking through this:

My feelings of slight resentment grew a bit bigger. Now I want to stop here and say this. I still like this game, it's fun for a little bit here and there, but.. That's not good enough for a game like this is it? It needs to be able to hold the player, and keep them wanting to come back... But that's a different discussion.

Looking at this list of "planned features", for the upcoming patches.. So much of the talk 2 years ago, gone. Thrown out, and that's not even counting the plethora of idea's the devs put forward 2 years ago that I didn't mention. Then "january-February" for release, granted that'll probably be pushed back a few months, but.. release of what? the game? or beta? Dear god I hope beta, as I feel this game is anything but full release worthy.

-------------

Why do I feel that way though? Probably from playing the game, and feeling as though it is empty. With the changes that hit me in the face while trying to play seeming all but out of nowhere, for no logical reason, and if there was a reason, surely had a better option than this... And so my experiences start...

---------------

Got on yesterday to my Pirate PvP server. I'd get my feet wet so to speak, by hitting a few trading ships and seeing how things have changed, knowing ships, cannons and many other things were tweaked in my absence..

But wait, now I can't attack a pirate trading ship, as a pirate.. Wasn't that what was supposed to make pirates unique and different? The fact anyone could strike you, the added danger to the whole love affair of a pirates life being high risk, high reward and all the love that goes with it? The talks a year ago about pirates always being at war with other factions seems to have been laid to rest as well. Well this is disappointing.. How can I feel like a pirate when my faction is now literally nothing more than a regular run of the mill faction? Nothing setting them apart. Might as well be frank and change their name to the "Le Care Bears".

So I'm a pirate, that's restricted by the same rules and regulations as a captain from Great Britain, France, Spain or any of the other Nations in who I can or can't attack..

There have been many awesome suggestions in the past of how to make pirates more interesting, different, and not a normal faction, but one that skirts between rebels, and pirates with their own unique limitations, that have high risk, but high reward... Apparently though, that's been shot down.

Deciding that I no longer am wanting to be a pirate (what's the point now? especially with nothing interesting to look forward too in the future?), I decided to go on the PvE server and check out my crafting.

---------------------

Of course all my stuff was reset due to the crafting change. Ok, fair enough. Reset up my stuff, not much information on the changes that I could find, no real change to ship blueprints, 2 new wood types but that's ok. oh wait.. a slight change to production buildings.. no scratch that, a massive change.. Don't need shipyards anymore (whoot!), but oh wait.. the cost to get resources is damn near the same price as on the market... u wot?

Now granted there may be some points, or times that this may be a big change, and maybe the devs plan somehow to balance this in the future? But all I can speak of is now,and the fact there's no mention of it on the update list for patches.. Before you'd pay about a quarter, to half the cost of the market value for an item if you are harvesting it, now it seems to be damn near max price.. I can however dump a whole ton of gold into upgrading the buildings for a 20ish percent decrease in the cost it takes to get it.. but really, the cost vs reward.. not worth having to make so many ships before I"ve paid off my cost setting all that up...

Furthermore France apparently owns all the nearby gold, silver, and copper points.. well grand.. (I'm playing as Great Britain on PVE), and we are at war with them for another 29 days.. Isn't this spiffy...

----------------------

2 things I like to do.. craft, and work against the grain. The piracy 2 years ago seemed like something that would be fun, challenging, and rewarding, now? It's nothing more than a copy paste boring faction like everyone else with the same rules. (again why even call it pirates at this point?). The crafting seemed like a fun thing to do within that challenge, as pirates may or may not be hard pressed for ships, especially gaining and holding ports.

But again, playing around with it now... not worth it. I can sail around and buy the mats cheaper at key ports with a high amount of stock items, and even if I buy them at the same price without the 20% reduction, we're talking minimal difference in cost, and the amount you sell the ships for greatly outweighs that difference making it minimal, even with the largest ships in the game. Literally zero reason or gain to setup a production chain, and when I can simply go out in half the time, cap some trader ships, sell them and the cargo, and net more money by far in a fraction of the time... Crafting is looking even less than zero worthwhile.

However

Reading this post did heighten my hopes a little. Removing the grades, and allowing more direct control to the crafter is a really good move in my opinion. This allows for a crafter to take special orders from players or guildmates who want a ship built in a specific way, or specialized in a specific way. The other things mentioned all seemed a step in the right direction for crafting. Though the problem with materials and resources... stops me from actually getting excited about it..

 

-------------------

My personal feelings playing the last two days is... this game has gone backwards. So much was seemingly thrown out, and decisions and balance changes made in my absence that make the game even less interesting than it was (and it was already struggling), and less enjoyable and rewarding in all aspects. Maybe the changes with the shipbuilding and some other changes will turn it around a bit.. but.. there's still just so much... missing...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Spud]

First off Welcome back!

 

I have only been here since EA release, so can't comment on any changes VS Sea Trials. I have been playing almost daily for that time, and have followed allot of discussions on this forum.

Now I think the devs have not been lacking with great intentions in their endeavours to make this game all it can be, but I think they have found many times that what looks good on paper doesn't seem to work out as they intended it to be. This not being that they implemented it poorly, it was mainly met with strong player feedback. At which point implementations got tweaked or removed to benefit the gameplay. So I don't think it has been a lack of ideas, imagination or inspiration, it has mainly been walking that thin line between realism and good gameplay. For some part obviously technical limitations have been in play, I don't think this game would run well with a world size map. Even if it did it would be too big to sail in without increasing OW speed to unrealistic proportions.

One of the things I found very age of sail like, and were probably one of those awesome ideas the devs had, but was met with strong player feetback, were the Special Events, where each week notes would drop with a rough indication on time and place where an Armada would approximatly pass, and on the day and hour of the event there would be multiple shipwrecks on that spot where you could find Ship Paints and other stuff. This was however removed after strong player feedback after about three weeks (dus three events).

The way I see it this game it consists out of players who like the Age of Sail, realism, the privateering, the ships, the total immersion of the game on one side, and then there is a part that is very RvR focussed and very competitive, but still with a love for naval warfare obviously. And its the devs who have the tough job of balancing this game between these two groups.

So thats probably why some stuff feel like they are not all they could have been, but thats just the balancing in my opinion.

The pirate faction is also one of the examples where people proposed to make them realy pirate like, with no SoL crafting, added boarding bunusses, option to fit bigger guns on smaller ships, etc. but this was met with allot of criticism by people who wanted the Pirates to remain competitive VS nations RvR wise. Its has been the discussion in many different topics, and at this point the devs have not realy changed or improved much for the pirate faction. This is one of those things they still need to tacle.

All in all I like playing the game, and we still have some changes to come and I hope it improves the game for all player types.

Edited January 5, 2017 by The Spud

[BoomBox]

As Spud said , Welcome back Athena.

I've been here for a while , not aslong as some others but a while   We players have so many different opinions concerning gameplay in NA , that i sometimes wonder how the devs even get anything done. I like the whole PVE aspect of the game for example. I love fighting the AI and the crafting and the tradeing. I dont get into RVR too much . I loved the fine wood change others hated it. Same as theg rind , i actually liked it but alot of ppl hated so it got tweaked. one of the best examples i have was before ea. the devs tried something calles "elite kills" i think. you could not advance in rank without killing a specific amount of a specific ship. For example you had to kill 2 cutters to get to the 2nd rank. I loved it like hell and had a blast but there was an huge outcry in the community and it got removed.

 

the devs have put alot fo effort into the game but we have so many different opinions and the forums are full of them . this is my first EA game and i love playing NA but i think it's hard to implement something new in the game without an outcry starting on the forums. alot of ppl r very passionate bout the game and changing it in a way , is pretty hard.

[Twig]

I can understand a lot of things here and I totally agree! Especially that the game took a lot steps in the wrong direction. I think it is boring as it is right now.

For your understanding: The Pirates "free 4 all" gamestyle had to change cause a lot Pirates simply misused the possibility to attack each other to move their fleets extremely fast. (Attack guild mate - Surrender - Sent ship to port of your choice)  Maybe now, with the towing, the devs should be able to put the Pirates back to as it was. Still they had to get rid of that behavior first.
There was a time where the Pirates "ruled" more than half of the map cause of that. Pirates had been the easiest playable choice and that shouldn't be. (Behaved as a nation but without the disadvantages.)

The resources are now mostly produced local. That is actually pretty good. Now you can not easily buy a ship. No you normaly should have to work for it. Thanks to  smuggling everyone can get those resources. But under more danger and not that easy. Trading with those makes more sense now.

Still, that was the point were maybe the resources, which the player had, should have been wiped. A lot (and I count me in here) had already such a big amount in their warehouse that they just didn't care about lesser resources.

There is also still a extremely high inflation. At some point "compass wood" was just used to print money. They wiped it out one/two months later but the damage was already done. Further, they tried to implement "fine" wood which had to be used for better ships (The better the ship grade, the more fine wood was needed).
Than that step was also taken back - Thus you were able to sell it for a big amount. (I right now have 100 Mio. A big warehouse and a lot ships -around 8 first rates)

You dont need to buy the shipyard anymore cause you are forced to build in different towns if you want the regional buffes. You normaly are not building your ships in the capital anymore cause that gives no buffs. Thus you have to get the stuff for your ship to the regional area and are more delicated to pirates.
 

[JeanJacques de Montpellier]

5 hours ago, The Spud said:

The way I see it this game it consists out of players who like the Age of Sail, realism, the privateering, the ships, the total immersion of the game on one side, and then there is a part that is very RvR focussed and very competitive, but still with a love for naval warfare obviously. And its the devs who have the tough job of balancing this game between these two groups.

This is true, even in my opinion there are these two types of players.

But I'm not sure that those who love the realism they are not also the competition lovers. I am a player of simulators and i like the competition, and even my friends are like that. A competition based on skills, knowledge of how to make and how to fight, the teamwork.

No knowledge of how to abuse of game mechanics.

To date we see things like: get out from battles a sentry and then move the rest of the fleet; escape to the epic event or attacking AI fleets; move all the players in a battle to hide them or them into safety from OW; loggin/out directly in front of a port or hot zone; etc etc etc.This is not to be competitive, it is just shit (excuse the strong term).

[Ned Loe]

I wrote 100s of times that PvE content is missing and we need it to keep people hooked. Everything else will develop around it. Game is developing, but people are tired of testing. 

-Junk Loot, Collections, Missions, Special Items From Loot.

-Treasure Chests, Maps, Keys, Rare rewards.

-Random OS missions and events. Shipwrecks, people floating on debris offering missions after rescue etc..

-Easy and Clean Trade windows, Euro Traders, Black Market

-Much better World map illustrations. I am talking Port resources with icons, unrest zones etc.. 

-Better group,clan managements

These are the things that should be added before game release. 

 

My biggest suggestion for Devs is Open a private server, select 100 trusted Veterans who know the game and let them test and build the game with you. They will handle content changes. The rest will get test proven content for fine testing and final bug fixing on existing servers. It's sad times indeed. 

[stormridersp]

Every step forward is a 2 steps backwards.

 

[SirSamuelHood]

15 minutes ago, Wind said:

These are the thing that should be added before game release. 

These are the thing that must be added before game release, otherwise post release NA will do a very convincing impression of the Hindenburg's final landing. 

[The Spud]

51 minutes ago, JeanJacques de Montpellier said:

This is true, even in my opinion there are these two types of players.

But I'm not sure that those who love the realism they are not also the competition lovers. I am a player of simulators and i like the competition, and even my friends are like that. A competition based on skills, knowledge of how to make and how to fight, the teamwork.

No knowledge of how to abuse of game mechanics.

To date we see things like: get out from battles a sentry and then move the rest of the fleet; escape to the epic event or attacking AI fleets; move all the players in a battle to hide them or them into safety from OW; loggin/out directly in front of a port or hot zone; etc etc etc.This is not to be competitive, it is just shit (excuse the strong term).

Well, the thing with exploits is that it starts out with a couple of guys using an exploit to their benefit, and after a couple of times using the exploit against fair players, the fair players will start using the exploit too, out of frustration for losing against a "cheater". And thats how exploits become common practice and kinda "accepted". It becomes part of the game mechanic, and if you're playing fair you're basicaly playing with a handicap. I never used it, but I imagine if you're being chased by a gank fleet, its tempting to get into an epic event.

The ultimate Naval Action would be a game where traveling and battles are done in the same world, just like in real life. Thats tagging, ganking, battle logging, screening, port battles, mission jumping, etc... all solved. Unfortunatly its technicaly impossible to pull that off, maybe in a couple of years. So I see the exploits as trade offs for having an OW, its not ideal by far but its as good as it can be I guess.

[Hethwill]

There's no war attrition. There's no incentive other than "writing own story" or compete for "bragging rights". Risk/reward is nonexistant, everything is a immediate reward or simply a non-reward. There's no sense of loss. There's no career purpose as everyone is everything at once. A lot of gimmicks to fill some shortcomings provoke a avalanche of mechanics loopholes.

In the end I do enjoy a lot the game but I fill the void with imagination and set my own ruleset on how to act and play a "age of sail character".

Which a lot of ego-shooter players do not and refuse to be, via game mechanics, to do so.

Combat is the summit and the rest of the mountain must be there.

[Lady Athena]

1 hour ago, Wind said:

I wrote 100s of times that PvE content is missing and we need it to keep people hooked. Everything else will develop around it. Game is developing, but people are tired of testing. 

-Junk Loot, Collections, Missions, Special Items From Loot.

-Treasure Chests, Maps, Keys, Rare rewards.

-Random OS missions and events. Shipwrecks, people floating on debris offering missions after rescue etc..

-Easy and Clean Trade windows, Euro Traders, Black Market

-Much better World map illustrations. I am talking Port resources with icons, unrest zones etc.. 

-Better group,clan managements

These are the things that should be added before game release. 

 

My biggest suggestion for Devs is Open a private server, select 100 trusted Veterans who know the game and let them test and build the game with you. They will handle content changes. The rest will get test proven content for fine testing and final bug fixing on existing servers. It's sad times indeed. 

I do feel as though this is completely true. If focused on just PvE, making that solid. People will stay due to a stronger framework and ground for them to enjoy themselves, instead of a handful of broken mis balanced mechanics. From there, the devs can get even more and better feedback.

12 minutes ago, Hethwill said:

There's no war attrition. There's no incentive other than "writing own story" or compete for "bragging rights". Risk/reward is nonexistant, everything is a immediate reward or simply a non-reward. There's no sense of loss. There's no career purpose as everyone is everything at once. A lot of gimmicks to fill some shortcomings provoke a avalanche of mechanics loopholes.

In the end I do enjoy a lot the game but I fill the void with imagination and set my own ruleset on how to act and play a "age of sail character".

Which a lot of ego-shooter players do not and refuse to be, via game mechanics, to do so.

Combat is the summit and the rest of the mountain must be there.

This is a big problem along with the above. There's no solid framework still after 2 years, and absolutely no sense of reward or challenge anywhere in the game. Originally depending on which faction you chose sorta depended on your difficulty, some nations starting off in better positions than others, with pirates being one of hte hardest due to always being at war with everyone, etc. Back then there was also the ability to join the Neutral faction. Players who joined the "Free Towns" or neutral factions didn't fight against anyone else, never got into wars, but could attack pirates. (Basically if you wanted to be a pirate hunter, or be a safe trader).

Now there's nothing in terms of difficulty as everyone has been brought to the same level, with nothing interesting between them.

 

[Stilgar]

Although I do agree with some points and share concerns regarding development of this game, I also feel that players posting on this forum tend to be too dramatic at times. I think there is a general sense of fatigue for testing new features/changes. Furthermore, many probably have that been-there-done-that feeling with hundreds or even thousands hours played.

Let's be honest, it will be very difficult to replicate those crazy first months after release, when there was so much to explore: learn meta, level up (rank and crafting), and then throw all that in the fire of RvR was great fun and few cared (at least at the beginning) about some issues with battle mechanics, simplistic economy, and very basic conquest mechanics. That was time of mega clans, improvised and messy, but engaging, diplomacy game, and above all a lot of PvP. I still hope devs could pull this off and bring all those great features together and release a game that would last at least a couple of years.

 

 

 

[Hethwill]

For me personally every cruise is a new "game" on its own, but I'm a nutcase so I understand many NA players do need guidance by mechanics would be terrific if the OW becomes the base tabletop, populated by content both provided by the game and also by the players themselves - connected to what careers they choose and what activities they will perform.

I want it all syndrome is not a good thing for a war based game where catastrophic defeat as much as a heroic capture of a enemy ship should be meaningful as much as being a Indies company magnate on one day just to lose a lot of routes in the next morning due to privateers attacking the cargo ships.

 

[Angus McGregor]

I hate to say it, but right now Naval Action is another No Man's Sky. It's a great looking game engine with some dodgy game play issues. It really is an MMO and does have PvP (unlike NMS)... but there's no story. There isn't even a shred of RPG career path narrative. There's progressing through levels, but the character story is strictly limited to the names of the promotions. "Hey! I'm a British Port Captain now... Wheee!" What's the name of the governor? What governor? What's the name of the King? What King? What does my toon look like? What's the name of my ship? My officer has abilities? What about MY abilities?

It's even NMS-like in that it doesn't seem to have a viable endgame. At what point is the plug pulled on a server and it gets a complete wipe & reset? If PvP2 isn't the poster child for it, I don't what is!!

Very little quest content like Wind pointed out. Good ideas there.

With a healthy player base there's always PvP combat to be had. Where's the content to attract the player base? It takes more than great graphics, a good game engine and RvR between characterless nations.

Leaving port, hunting for enemy ships, dancing the CYA circle twirl while boom-booming broadsides. That will hold my attention for very little time. Hell, Sea Dogs is 15 years old and GameLabs could have made an MMO knockoff and been golden.

[Lady Athena]

2 hours ago, Angus McGregor said:

I hate to say it, but right now Naval Action is another No Man's Sky. It's a great looking game engine with some dodgy game play issues. It really is an MMO and does have PvP (unlike NMS)... but there's no story. There isn't even a shred of RPG career path narrative. There's progressing through levels, but the character story is strictly limited to the names of the promotions. "Hey! I'm a British Port Captain now... Wheee!" What's the name of the governor? What governor? What's the name of the King? What King? What does my toon look like? What's the name of my ship? My officer has abilities? What about MY abilities?

It's even NMS-like in that it doesn't seem to have a viable endgame. At what point is the plug pulled on a server and it gets a complete wipe & reset? If PvP2 isn't the poster child for it, I don't what is!!

Very little quest content like Wind pointed out. Good ideas there.

With a healthy player base there's always PvP combat to be had. Where's the content to attract the player base? It takes more than great graphics, a good game engine and RvR between characterless nations.

Leaving port, hunting for enemy ships, dancing the CYA circle twirl while boom-booming broadsides. That will hold my attention for very little time. Hell, Sea Dogs is 15 years old and GameLabs could have made an MMO knockoff and been golden.

Personally no story is ok with me. YOU make the story. Same as in NMS. The problem though, is there is almost nothing to make the story WITH.

A character, a bio's, being able to name your ship, and just some other oddball information like the current date ingame, or your actions having a real impact on the economy and other players in the game, regardless of how big or small it is (Similar to EVE Online) would be a big step towards allowing you to make your story from nothing, and being able to share that story with others and you have the base line for an awesome game.

 

[Hethwill]

Breadcrumbs... leads... encounters... discovery... danger... rewards...

For example one thing that I would quite enjoy, on a per cruise basis, would be to have the proceedings shared with the crew and a log about it.

Can live without an avatar, I don't miss it, but the crew having a bit of life would be a touch. Them little men in the ships shouldn't be a disposable asset but rather something important.

But little is important if the "life or death" really matters with the serious danger of sailing knowing a ship is one ship, not five. ( obviously this is all tied to cards deck named modules, etc, etc, it is quite a intricate web ).

Still can dream and give a bit of life to my cruises but my bet is that many would appreciate the breadcrumbs.

[JeanJacques de Montpellier]

1 hour ago, Hethwill said:

Breadcrumbs... leads... encounters... discovery... danger... rewards...

For example one thing that I would quite enjoy, on a per cruise basis, would be to have the proceedings shared with the crew and a log about it.

Can live without an avatar, I don't miss it, but the crew having a bit of life would be a touch. Them little men in the ships shouldn't be a disposable asset but rather something important.

But little is important if the "life or death" really matters with the serious danger of sailing knowing a ship is one ship, not five. ( obviously this is all tied to cards deck named modules, etc, etc, it is quite a intricate web ).

Still can dream and give a bit of life to my cruises but my bet is that many would appreciate the breadcrumbs.

Yes, I totally agree with you!

If i understand correctly you refer also to the durability. Even here i agree. The system of more durability and upgrades as well as being totally unrealistic and nonsense, diminish the importance of a captured ship. Often she is demolished or set aside because having a single durability is not convenient to use the upgrades.  I really do not like this thing.
The captured vessels must be important. Throughout the age of the sails it was based on capturing of vessels.

I understand that the current system is due to favor fulfill purchase and the search for upgrades, but (should be totally changed my point of view).
- a durability
- no upgrades but a "crew / weapons setup"

As said by Hethwill, it would be nice to have an assigned crew, with officers and other, a ship with its own name, a costum skin (by choosing it on a historical collection), etc etc. everything would be much more immersive. Each patroll, an adventure; and not just as now; tag, run, boom boom, exit to close port, tp, make out a sentry, log out, etc. etc..

 

[Lord_Sluggo]

I said ALL of this stuff almost a year ago in the Steam forums. I was told back then to be patient, and questioned on whether I understood the meaning of "EA Early Alpha Early Access". I knew that the game would be in its current state way back then. How? The devs stated that there wouldn't be an 'on foot' aspect to the game as it would be 'making a whole second game'. At that point I knew that GameLabs was too small and, frankly, either too unimaginative or too timid to take the leaps and do the things that this game needed to be more than just "You are a ship, sailin' around". A triple-A studio, hell even a decent indie studio, could take the core of Naval Action and make the best game you ever played. The problem is that, in a world where historical fiction has been mainstream for over a decade, and Johnny Depp became a gazillionaire playing an insane drunken pirate in a movie with wooden ships and cannons going boom, a certain segment of the community has been adamant that this is a 'niche' game, and frankly seem to have done their loudest, most vocal best to make sure that only basement-dwellers who have 15 hours of free time per day are the only ones who will be able to enjoy this game. Take pride in the mostly-empty servers guys, you've earned it.

[Mrdoomed]

A large group of friends and i (ten) probably played the same other game u did and was so thrilled when naval action was open world ready!

From the start the game was great how it was ,short of combat tweeks etc, and simply needed to be polished and added to. 

But then as you mentioned suddenly the game started going 180° in the opposite direction.  Its been talked to death about what happened etc but over a year all my friends and i have finally realized, like you,that this game is no longer the same game that was released and is some wierd combination of single player quests/battle arena /theme park game.

I truly think the devs missed a huge opportunity in having a long lasting "niche" game that could have had strategy and history lovers as well as sim players supporting it for decades. 

[Yar Matey]

1 hour ago, Mrdoomed said:

A large group of friends and i (ten) probably played the same other game u did and was so thrilled when naval action was open world ready!

From the start the game was great how it was ,short of combat tweeks etc, and simply needed to be polished and added to. 

But then as you mentioned suddenly the game started going 180° in the opposite direction.  Its been talked to death about what happened etc but over a year all my friends and i have finally realized, like you,that this game is no longer the same game that was released and is some wierd combination of single player quests/battle arena /theme park game.

I truly think the devs missed a huge opportunity in having a long lasting "niche" game that could have had strategy and history lovers as well as sim players supporting it for decades. 

Your comment intrigues me Mrdoomed.  I would love to know what you think the developers got wrong and what the game used to be that it is now not.  Also, what you think should be changed now to fix this game. 

Edit:  I am being serious not sarcastic.  I really want to know your opinion on the matter.

Edited January 6, 2017 by Yar Matey

[Rramsha]

Here is the problem. "Once You the player" have hit top rank and top crafting rank. What is there really to do? A few port battles? A pvp arena? A tiny bit of trading to keep gold in your pocket?

 

As with many other games there has to be a reason that makes the player want to fight and keep logging in. There are no real missions, quests, or events that can fill your spare time. You can't own ports, or regions or upgrade them.

While nations can own territory, players can not. This in turn gives players no meaningful reason to fight, along with the fact that there are very few ports to capture, since entire regions now fall with the fall of one "capital" port why have all the rest?.

Some will argue that port battles and pvp instances are the end game, I have to disagree, it is not enough to keep players playing in the long run. If this were the case, why not just log into the game at a menu like sea trials and choose port battle or battle instance from a menu? It would be much easier and less time consuming.

 

There needs to be something that keeps players drawn in and continually feel like they are fighting for something especially in the END GAME. Without this, Naval Action is mostly a Battle arena game with a very beautiful map screen.

 

Where is my living breathing Open World? 

That is the problem.

[Jean Ribault]

I agree with some of the comments made above that there seems to be just something missing, whether it's considered an end game or some other material reason to keep logging in.  My opinion is that this game should really have a character life span.  In other words, you're initiation into the Admiralty's navy begins the day you set up your character, and your gameplay actually spans a navy man's lifetime.  Your character ages, your character's reputation grows or shrinks, your character gains medals or accomplishments (call them Steam-type achievements if you want to), your character has its own leaderboard and history, and you play that character until his career is declining and he retires.  You should have graphs and charts showing what your character has done over time.  More to it, but that's the idea.

If I had that for my character, then I would be much more immersed in my game.  I would feel more of a personal attachment to Jean Ribualt than just logging into the French faction when I feel like playing this game.

 

Edit:  I apologize, I should have said "navy person's lifetime" not "navy man's lifetime".  I always forget there are a few women who play the game too.  How politically incorrect of me.

Edited January 6, 2017 by Jean Ribault

[Rramsha]

I agree one of the ideas my friends and I discussed was truly turning your character into a "captain charecter" then building elements within the game to facilitate this.