Lets try and improve NA's Player numbers

[PowderMonkey]

Hello everyone, i have been a part of this community since Sea Trials and have loved the game and the community. Some of the best moments were when we changed and directed Admin and the others to  improve the game.

Id like to ask a favor from all players who are still active on the forums, pass the word along to everyone who has quit or haven't played in a year to return in 2 weeks (lets hope they keep that timetable).

Organize are selves so we have constant community wide content we will make our selves.

If we pump up are numbers we increase are content we can enjoy.

I do hope everyone does come back and we show how much we love this game

 

[xAzDKr]

This is entirely contingent on the game not being broken, those of us who left didn't just get up and walk away for no reason.

There were (are) fatal errors in this game which drive away even long-term players. 

[Fenris]

Removing the visability of player numbers which are online would make more sense.

Seem to me that most are not playing the game, just looking how many are online.

[monk33y]

Our Devs should publish ""how to kill your server population with stupid wipe announcements for dummies" 

Followed up by a second publications called "don't announce wipes then delay it for months, it kills your game"

[PIerrick de Badas]

8 minutes ago, monk33y said:

Our Devs should publish ""how to kill your server population with stupid wipe announcements for dummies" 

Followed up by a second publications called "don't announce wipes then delay it for months, it kills your game"

They made the same mistake with "land in battle" wipe. I'm waiting with impatience the announce on the launch, 3 month before the real date :-)

[Justme]

I would love to get more people on here, but my friends read the forums and think the devs have no real sense of direction. They feel they are ignoring the larger base for those who don't want to play the game as it was originally intended. They have no interest in a primarily PVE game.

They won't drop money on it until about 2 months after launch.

i have started telling others who ask to do the same.

Edited April 20, 2017 by Justme

[Anolytic]

The game is in alpha, wipes are what we signed up for. 

Yeah, maybe devs should just have wiped when they were ready, and not given us such long notice about it, but surely we would have been complaining and raving then as well. 

@ OP: I too hope many will come back. And with good fortune we will also have an influx of new players to the game. I've seen the devs state that they could do some advertising and a steam discount after the wipe.

[Grundgemunkey]

slowly but surely falling out with the game .... when the wipe was first announced ... i  still played the game as normal ..checked the forums everyday ...now got to the stage where i pop into game once every 4-5 days its empty ...cant be bothered to check the forum.... other games that i had not played for a year or so have become interesting again ..

when i do check the forums the stuff i read isnt inspiring .... no global chat ...alliances gone ..no more transporting of ships or been able to jump between outposts .. hours to be spent sailing to get anywhere crafting becoming more tedious ..freeports meaningless ... hours to be spent either grinding pve or looking for pvp to get enough admiralty points or whatever they are to enable you to craft something worth while

some of that may be wrong ..but i get bored reading the forums most of it seems to be short statements that dont seem to tell the whole story followed by 3-4 pages of unanswered questions or uneducated guesses

while powderhorns intentions are good ... i get the feeling the game will be  unrecognisable from the one i loved playing 

im starting to think that devs are actually using this wipe as an exit strategy ...once they reduce the game to a minimum level of players they can shut the servers down as it wont be viable anymore

 

 

 

[PowderMonkey]

There is a lot of negative aspects to the game as pointed out in many other posts, and have been present for some time.

 

I personally have issues with the game that can never be fixed, and does make the game un-enjoyable but the fact remains if we all abandon the project then there is no opportunity to fix these issues!

 

Alot of us have issues with the game but lets just see after wipe if Admin and the rest surprise us and make the game better!

 

Also, the lack of content in the game is an issue but we can create are own. Organize tournaments, community events for the entire player base not just your friends and clan.

We all have issues but what the game needs is player vs player content and its up to us to create that, I just hope they figure out a way to remove META ships from 4th rate PB's and 1st rate PB's thats all id like to see, and maybe for awhile the crafting changes, making it more tedious might help that

 

[VonBarb]

Seems to me the community is torn between those looking for a sailing age "Silent Hunter" and those wanting a full null-sec Eve system, and the devs keep going back and forth between the two trying to please everyone at the same time. I'm fine with both options (though leaning more towards the former) but perhaps this constant compromising is driving more people away than it's keeping in.

It's also starting to look like the way the scope of the game has expanded and its complexity has increased since EA release will be making it hard to please everyone while still making good on the promise to keep it a free to play game.

If the next few months' wipe and fresh start don't bring in new first-time players, it might be time to consider subs or a cash shop of some sort... 

[Blackjack Morgan]

Well the game has changed a lot from Sea Trials that's for sure. The original premise of Age of Sail combat was there in the beginning and I'd say that part still remains. Where the long arduous path we find ourselves currently on started with the introduction of the OW and the efforts to turn that early arena style game into a massive open world sandbox one. Somewhere along that journey I'd say the original vision and concepts were lost. I'm not entirely surprised, the scope of the game continued to grow and grow and as every new feature was introduced new challenges would present themselves. In the end though I think the problems we face now are a result of not sticking to the initial concepts.

Naval Action was originally billed as a PvP centric game. It drew inspiration from game like Pirates of the Burning Sea but wanted to put an emphasis on realism over arcade and fantasy. It had a relatively small but very dedicated base of testers who had great passion for not only the era but for the game as well. The community in general seemed more focused on helping give advice, feedback, and opinions that they truly believed would benefit NA as a whole....not merely to suit their self interests. These early days, even leading into the introduction of the OW, were the "Golden Age" of Naval Action. 

Then came Steam and Early Access. Looking back on it I think one could definitely question if that was a wise decision. I remember being excited at the prospects of seeing the game world filled with players and increased opportunities for player interactions. I'd say now it probably was a mistake. While it was good to have so many additional "testers" I feel that the majority of these people were not really the type of testers NA needed at that point in time. What started off as a small group of focused passionate testers turned into something that was much larger and have very different opinions on where the game should go. Sometimes those suggestions and opinions came from players who simply were to new to the game to understand why changes they clamored for would be bad in the long run. The original voices of the community were often times being drowned out by the masses now....and the original path became less clear.

The developers started off being receptive to the community from the very early days. This was not a bad thing....however, I think they still carried this mindset with them as the population grew dramatically. So, they listened....perhaps too much or simply perhaps they listened to the wrong people? What started off as a noble trait turned out to be an albatross. Many cried for changes that might have seemed good on the surface of things but would end up being bad later as they learned what the ramifications of such changes would entail. This eventually led to confrontations, mistrust, and disillusionment I believe for both sides.

Now we seem to be at a crossroads of sorts. I see more divisiveness in the game than ever before. The splitting of servers into Global, European, and PVE....The announcement of an Arena Style NA game devoid of the OW....the shift from the original concept of realism but not at the complete expense of fun....the desire to create artificial grinds to appease those who need "accomplishments" rather than finding their own sense of it. I see more division in what has been, and always will be, a limited niche market game....all because so many refuse to seek compromise for the overall sake of the games success. Instead it has turned into separate us into groups because you will never make everyone happy. Anyone really believe an open world game set in a world this large with travel times this slow can succeed with few people playing it? Let's not forget while this is a game it is also a business....one that needs to be financially sound and profitable to sustain itself.

If I had to make a prediction based off the upcoming patch and server splits it would be this: NA OW will turn into a PVE centric game that focuses on the relative mundane sailing simulation but requires very little further development efforts for those who simply enjoy the notion of sailing ships. The actual financially sound product will come from the PvP focused arena game. It will attract both casual and hardcore players thus a much wider and larger audience. I think the ship combat in NA has always been their strong suit and one they have continued to refine for years now....even now their has been more efforts focused on what most considered to be good enough than on other aspects of the game. We shall see I guess but that is what I think happens....not that my guess counts for much lol. Part of it makes me sad though....I think the OW and RvR had much to offer but I just don't see it working out unless they make some pretty significant changes to what they have announced. 

[z4ys]

Don't know why people think less teleports make the game harder and more time consuming.

On the live server you just can teleport everything to a freeport. And than sail it in 2- 10min to its destination.

Players doing so are adding nothing to the game. The are not available for OW content. With nobody or just a few actually sailing on OW while the other are porting around you spend Ofc a lot of time to get OW content.

With the upcoming changes I am confident that more player have to get out of their holes and actually have to use OW. That means more player at OW less time needed to get access to OW content.

Ofc hauling stuff takes longer. But don't forget the changes coming to ship holds. Ships in your fleet share the cargo hold. That means fighting and hauling at the same time. We can do 2 things at once. If that isn't time saving I don't know.

Break the cycle of old habits. Don't to everything one after an other. Do it simultaneously. Be a part of OW content.

Edited April 21, 2017 by z4ys

[PIerrick de Badas]

I get the "power" to call back 1059 captain that i can insta join per mail with navalaction-france. The question is: Should I?

I'm a bit afraid to tell people to come back to find new bugs and new problem specially with RvR that my cristal ball see as "totaly going broken".

So should i tell them to come back althought many bugs will have to be correct just after wipe or should i wait with the risk server collapse due of not enough french on it :S?

[The Spud]

I'm actualy not too worried about the player numbers, its always the same with any EA, people scream on the forums that the game is dieing, etc... Look at DayZ, its been in development for how long now? 3-4 years? Pumping out patches at a very slow rate, still people play it (dispite allot of alternatives being on the market).

Same goes for NA, which will hopefully release this year, people keep popping in to check progress, I see new players in game and they all have a great time. I think allot of the stuff we complain about are not game breaking, its mostly stuff we no longer want to deal with after 1000+ hours of gameplay, but were OK before. Stuff like long distance OW sailing, chasing etc. was probably sorta fun the first 20-30 times, and then it became a bit boring, and now its probably frustrating. A new guy will say "Omg, I was being chased by an enemy but after 30 minutes I got away, yay", people who've had to run or chase for the billionth time won't say that. Still I feel that dispite some stuff "got old" its a very enjoyable game with allot of epic moments in it.

We mostly need to figure out what problems new players have, and what they believe to be frustrating, and then sort that out. Mainly a Tutorial would be a great move to just keep new players in the game, cause if they have a hard time figuring stuff out chances are they get frustrated realy fast. Obviously that will be something to do closer to release.

[JollyRoger1516]

On ‎21‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 3:35 AM, PowderMonkey said:

I personally have issues with the game that can never be fixed, and does make the game un-enjoyable but the fact remains if we all abandon the project then there is no opportunity to fix these issues!

I personally have given this game about a year and a half of my life and over 1500 hours. Sadly this game feels like it is in a worse state then when I bought it and honestly I am now running out of patience waiting for some progress...

On ‎21‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 5:46 AM, VonBarb said:

It's also starting to look like the way the scope of the game has expanded and its complexity has increased since EA release will be making it hard to please everyone while still making good on the promise to keep it a free to play game.

Wait this is supposed to be free to play one day?!?!

 

On ‎21‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 8:37 AM, The Spud said:

I'm actualy not too worried about the player numbers, its always the same with any EA, people scream on the forums that the game is dieing, etc... Look at DayZ, its been in development for how long now? 3-4 years? Pumping out patches at a very slow rate, still people play it (dispite allot of alternatives being on the market).

The difference is - DayZ only needs 32 players for a full server, Heliborne only needs 16 to fill a full game (and btw 2vs2 or 4vs4 are already fun). We are playing an open world game where we are supposed to find enemies and I can tell you the Caribbean is a pretty big place with less then 200 people in it...

[The Spud]

24 minutes ago, JollyRoger1516 said:

The difference is - DayZ only needs 32 players for a full server, Heliborne only needs 16 to fill a full game (and btw 2vs2 or 4vs4 are already fun). We are playing an open world game where we are supposed to find enemies and I can tell you the Caribbean is a pretty big place with less then 200 people in it...

Thats no my point, my point is that there are plenty of people still playing DayZ not just 16 or 32, they got maybe 50-100 servers or so with people on it. Dispite the many times they cried that it was dieing, and how they rumoured that part of the devs left and whatever (have not been following it so closely the last year or so). But in the end there are still hundreds of people out there playing DayZ and having a good time. Dispite even having very simmilar competitors in the genre (let us not forget that).

NA is going to be no different. Its just natural for an EA game that has had no patch to the live server for 4 months and has a wipe comming to have a low server population. There are no games that have an endless life, every game you buy, you'll get bored of it at some point for some reason. This is a realy good game, i got some new players on my friend list and they are having a blast in brigs and snows etc.. they appreciate the beauty we no longer see. And maybe if we would just take a break for two months, we would be back and appreciate the small stuff again. Theres no fundemental problem with this game, its just some details that need to be ironed out to maybe make it more interesting for people who got over 1000 hours in this game.

[Grundgemunkey]

2 hours ago, z4ys said:

Don't know why people think less teleports make the game harder and more time consuming.

On the live server you just can teleport everything to a freeport. And than sail it in 2- 10min to its destination.

Players doing so are adding nothing to the game. The are not available for OW content. With nobody or just a few actually sailing on OW while the other are porting around you spend Ofc a lot of time to get OW content.

With the upcoming changes I am confident that more player have to get out of their holes and actually have to use OW. That means more player at OW less time needed to get access to OW content.

Ofc hauling stuff takes longer. But don't forget the changes coming to ship holds. Ships in your fleet share the cargo hold. That means fighting and hauling at the same time. We can do 2 things at once. If that isn't time saving I don't know.

Break the cycle of old habits. Don't to everything one after an other. Do it simultaneously. Be a part of OW content.

which freeport do use to transport bermuda cedar from flatts  maybe i have a bug in game because thats always a 2 hr sail to little river freeport tp to cayman brac or la navasse still another 30 mims sail to kpr

ypui want to get gold or slilver into kpr ....which freeport on jamaica do you use ?

i always thought the transport to freeport was a good idea ...it made freeports natural bottlenecks

so i play british after the wipe there is no Teleport and i want to craft a ship with a speed bonus since i need to have a shipyard i choose kpr... its a 4 hour sail to bermuda to craft the speed bonus blue print and a 4 hour sail back  ... im unlikely to encounter any other player  due to the sq milage of ocean ....maybe at mortimer if i go the quickest route

the most dangerous part of the voyage will be within 10 minutes of entering or leaving kpr ..... so eight hours sailing for 20 mins of danger ... and if i do get attacked i have to do it all over again ..

same thing with gold and silver but good news its only a 2 hour sailing each way  thats assuming playing as a brit we can even get gold or silver as there is currently none of these will be  available if resource locations stay the same with the port wipe

time saving are you serious ..... i see a full time job not a game that you can spend an evening enjoying

[z4ys]

23 minutes ago, Grundgemunkey said:

which freeport do use to transport bermuda cedar from flatts  maybe i have a bug in game because thats always a 2 hr sail to little river freeport tp to cayman brac or la navasse still another 30 mims sail to kpr

ypui want to get gold or slilver into kpr ....which freeport on jamaica do you use ?

i always thought the transport to freeport was a good idea ...it made freeports natural bottlenecks

so i play british after the wipe there is no Teleport and i want to craft a ship with a speed bonus since i need to have a shipyard i choose kpr... its a 4 hour sail to bermuda to craft the speed bonus blue print and a 4 hour sail back  ... im unlikely to encounter any other player  due to the sq milage of ocean ....maybe at mortimer if i go the quickest route

the most dangerous part of the voyage will be within 10 minutes of entering or leaving kpr ..... so eight hours sailing for 20 mins of danger ... and if i do get attacked i have to do it all over again ..

same thing with gold and silver but good news its only a 2 hour sailing each way  thats assuming playing as a brit we can even get gold or silver as there is currently none of these will be  available if resource locations stay the same with the port wipe

time saving are you serious ..... i see a full time job not a game that you can spend an evening enjoying

One port out of how much? If we start talking about French Swedes Danish Spanish US and pirates it was way to easy to ship goods between the towns. 

Consider an other crafting port get out of the green circle.

Play safe and sink a lot of time that's how it should be.

Pay people to do the job if hauling doesn't suit you.

Look what we had 600-800 people online I bet most of them were in port so we were left with 50-200 people actually using the OW world.  Why I say that? OW now on the live server looks mostly the same as pre wipe announcement. 

So I am glad that devs decided to do something against this circumstance.

 

[Grundgemunkey]

16 minutes ago, z4ys said:

One port out of how much? If we start talking about French Swedes Danish Spanish US and pirates it was way to easy to ship goods between the towns. 

Consider an other crafting port get out of the green circle.

Play safe and sink a lot of time that's how it should be.

Pay people to do the job if hauling doesn't suit you.

Look what we had 600-800 people online I bet most of them were in port so we were left with 50-200 people actually using the OW world.  Why I say that? OW now on the live server looks mostly the same as pre wipe announcement. 

So I am glad that devs decided to do something against this circumstance.

 

 i was using bermuda as an example .... live oak  is a 2-3 hour sail away ...god /silver 2 hours sail ..even mahogany wood is a 45mins sail if wind is kind  ... which other crafting port would you suggest thats closer ,,kpr is pretty central ...remove tp to freeports and the french swedes and danes will find it impossible too    I dont mind transporting goods but when irt becomes a chore i stop playing ,,,and go play another game thats more fun than sailing in a straight line for hours on end ...

would prefer 600- 800 people in game doing something ...rather than  no one in game ... because they dont want the grind of sailing 6 hours a day just to get resources

if your saying that NA action isnt really a game playable for people with 2-3 hours spare a day ...i will move on and find other games to play

 

[Justme]

26 minutes ago, Grundgemunkey said:

 

if your saying that NA action isnt really a game playable for people with 2-3 hours spare a day ...i will move on and find other games to play

 

I believe  at one point the devs claimed they were making a game for players that did not have a lot of free time. It's been awhile and I forget who asked but iirc the devs stated that the game would be viable for someone with as little as an hours time a day to play.

Its clear to me that's not really feasible. Seems like you need 4 hours min at a time to get anything accomplished, unless you restrict yourself to a really small area.

Edited April 21, 2017 by Justme

[Thonys]

well players come and players go,

people who promise to play a lot are gone in a zip ,not telling why they just stay away

and there are people you dont here talking a lot and are still around..

some times it has nothing to do with the game,but some times more with commitment to a game..

lets hope the developers make just a nice game to play, just for the guys who doesn't want to leave..for no reason

the only thing the devs need to do is not to listen to much to the guys who wants restrictions ,thats all to it...

 

[Ned Low]

Many will wait until release as we all know there will be more wipes in the future. Whatever numbers we have now is what we are going to have until release. The only thing that can increase numbers is Patch Content. Begging players to come back sounds terrible imho.

Edited April 21, 2017 by Ned Low

[Grundgemunkey]

2 minutes ago, Justme said:

I know at one point the devs claimed they were making a game for players that did not have a lot of free time. It's been awhile and I forget who asked but iirc the devs stated that the game would be viable for someone with as little as an hours time a day to play.

Its clear to me that's not really feasible. Seems like you need 4 hours min at a time to get anything accomplished, unless you restrict yourself to a really small area.

the tp to freeport and delivery system made the whole map available to people who didnt have all day to play ..I dont see how sailing a trader in ow the middle of ocean somewhere between Flatts and KPR an hours sail from the nearest land ..benefits me as a player or  anyone else in game no one will know where I am will be able to find me or have the time to search the 60 or 70 possible squares on the map

however making 4 -5 trips a day between freeports carrying goods gives other players 4-5 chances to intercept me and take my cargo ..surely thats more fun ? more fun brings more players

i know some players want realism in the game but is adding the boredom factor of been at sea with nothing to do really an attaractive proposition ...

[z4ys]

26 minutes ago, Grundgemunkey said:

 i was using bermuda as an example .... live oak  is a 2-3 hour sail away ...god /silver 2 hours sail ..even mahogany wood is a 45mins sail if wind is kind  ... which other crafting port would you suggest thats closer ,,kpr is pretty central ...remove tp to freeports and the french swedes and danes will find it impossible too    I dont mind transporting goods but when irt becomes a chore i stop playing ,,,and go play another game thats more fun than sailing in a straight line for hours on end ...

would prefer 600- 800 people in game doing something ...rather than  no one in game ... because they dont want the grind of sailing 6 hours a day just to get resources

if your saying that NA action isnt really a game playable for people with 2-3 hours spare a day ...i will move on and find other games to play

 

The game is playable even with 2-3h . If someone wants everything at once Ofc he will gets disappointed. There is so much rush outside take your time and enjoy.

Grab a fighting ship take traders as escort sail to your trading outpost sink or capture ships while doing so have fun. And the next day sail back fighting for your goodies. Counter attack enemy's while your traders sail away sink greedy privateers.

 

Tell me what have you done in your 2-3h as you played NA.

 

[Justme]

10 minutes ago, Grundgemunkey said:

the tp to freeport and delivery system made the whole map available to people who didnt have all day to play ..I dont see how sailing a trader in ow the middle of ocean somewhere between Flatts and KPR an hours sail from the nearest land ..benefits me as a player or  anyone else in game no one will know where I am will be able to find me or have the time to search the 60 or 70 possible squares on the map

however making 4 -5 trips a day between freeports carrying goods gives other players 4-5 chances to intercept me and take my cargo ..surely thats more fun ? more fun brings more players

i know some players want realism in the game but is adding the boredom factor of been at sea with nothing to do really an attaractive proposition ...

The problem is at the base the game has a huge flaw.

You need players out on the map sailing to provide PVP oppertunity.

However sailing anywhere is boring for many players due to lack of stuff to do currently in OW. So to keep players happy, devs put in teleports to speed things up,but that leaves few player controlled ships in OW. Which is a large problem for the PVP players.

I really don't think it can be worked out to the satisfaction of both.  OW as a whole was/is poorly conceived and implemented. No offense to the devs meant but to me it's the facts of the situation.