Little things you'd like to see

[Xoosch]

please, please give us clan tags in open world, please!

 

and reduce the fight join timer to max 1min

[AKPyrate]

Sea shanties as background music for sailing, like the sailors sung during the period. If you've played AC IV: Black Flag you'll know what I have in mind. I'm not sure how to post youtube videos so you can watch it on the forum, but here's one for example:

 

Possibly have them crafted/collected/unlock more as you rank up (gain more crew, gain diversity in lead shantymen). Improv is probably a bit much to try to code, but if it can be done that'd be much more accurate and incredible.

 

Apologies if this idea has been posted, I haven't combed through the thread too thoroughly.

 

EDIT: Didn't realize youtube videos were parsed automatically.

 

You can supply your own music.  There are plenty of youtube videos and other sources of music that you can go to for entertainment while playing (and the music does come through while playing the game).  Additionally, shanties were generally not used by navies as work songs; they were much more common among merchant ships, and even then the vast majority of the shanties we have today came from the mid to late 19th century.  They would definitely not be sung in battle, as it would make it much harder to give and hear orders.  Contrary to contemporary belief, shanties really weren't used for that long as work songs; less than a hundred years or so before steam power (even mechanical winches and capstans on some sailing vessels) phased them out.  So, for our era, they weren't really used.  Many of the older 'shanties' that we know of today were really just songs that were sung while not working.

 

 

A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty is a type of work song that was once commonly sung to accompany labor on board large merchant sailing vessels. The term shanty most accurately refers to a specific style of work song belonging to this historical repertoire. However, in recent, popular usage, the scope of its definition is sometimes expanded to admit a wider range of repertoire and characteristics, or to refer to a “maritime work song” in general.

Of uncertain etymological origin, the word shanty emerged in the mid-19th century in reference to an appreciably distinct genre of work song, developed especially in American-style merchant vessels that had come to prominence in decades prior to the American Civil War.^[1] Shanty songs functioned to economize labor in what had then become larger vessels having smaller crews and operating on stricter schedules.^[2]The practice of singing shanties eventually became ubiquitous internationally and throughout the era of wind-driven packet and clipper ships.

Shanties had antecedents in the working chants of British and other national maritime traditions. They were notably influenced by songs of African Americans, such as those sung whilst manually loading vessels with cotton in ports of the southern United States. Shanty repertoire borrowed from the contemporary popular music enjoyed by sailors, including minstrel music, popular marches, and land-based folk songs, which were adapted to suit musical forms matching the various labor tasks required to operate a sailing ship. Such tasks, which usually required a coordinated group effort in either a pulling or pushing action, included weighing anchor and setting sail.

The shanty genre was typified by flexible lyrical forms, which in practice provided for much improvisation and the ability to lengthen or shorten a song to match the circumstances. Its hallmark was call and response, performed between a soloist and the rest of the workers in chorus. The leader, called the shantyman, was appreciated for his piquant language, lyrical wit, and strong voice. Shanties were sung without instrumentalaccompaniment and, historically speaking, they were only sung in work-based rather than entertainment-oriented contexts. Although most prominent in English, shanties have been created in or translated into other European languages.

The switch to steam-powered ships and the use of machines for shipboard tasks, by the end of the 19th century, meant that shanties gradually ceased to serve a practical function. Their use as work songs became negligible in the first half of the 20th century. Information about shanties was preserved by veteran sailors and by folklorist song-collectors, and their written and audio-recorded work provided resources that would later support a revival in singing shanties as a land-based leisure activity. Commercial musical recordings, popular literature, and other media, especially since the 1920s, have inspired interest in shanties among land-folk. The modern performance contexts of these songs have affected their forms, their content, and the way they are understood as cultural and historical artifacts. Recent performances range from the “traditional” style of practitioners within a revival-oriented, maritime music scene, to the adoption of shanty repertoire by musicians in a variety of popular styles.

 

[poison]

Thank you for quoting all of the mobile version of the Wikipedia article for me. And thanks for letting me know I can play it in the background too, I had no idea applications wouldn't mute all other audio output.

[eriks]

I would like it if I click on a port name that is currently in the list of active port battles/assault fleets that port would then get highlighted on the map.

[Irving Grey]

My map position!

[Comandant Almogaver]

My map position!

 

 

No! I think it would totally ruin the fun of orientation. For me, leave it like this

[Comandant Almogaver]

I thought several improvements. There they go:

 

1) MORE TYPES OF QUESTS.

 

For example:

 

Find and Destroy in known place (as exist now). 

 

Find and Destroy Unknown place (just an approximation of the zone where the sailor was last seen)

 

Find and Destroy Epic Ships (Known pirates or sailors or Phantom ships, NPCs, that sail all arround the world and only few people see them every month).

 

Find and Destroy PLAYER (I'll talk about this later but it would be great that depending on the PLAYERS the diferent nations had some empathy or enmity with other nations so they gave you quests of killing important players of enemy nations)

 

Trading Quests of Resources Needed

 

Trading Quests of Intercepting Merchant enemy city ships

 

Trading Quests of Moving some Goods from that port to another. If you loose those goods you have to pay a fee

 

Trading Quests of PROTECTION some ship that has to do a long journey with expensive goods. 

 

Exploration Quests of visiting places

 

Exploration Quests of selling cartographic information

 

Exploration Quests of seeing rare events acrros de map (Phantom ships, Kraken, etc..)

 

Pirate Quests (All pirate quests taken at pirate ports) of Stole Goods

 

Pirate Quests of destroying law agents

 

 

 

 

2) MORE TYPE OF NPCs SHIPS/SAILORS

 

Would really enjoy if there were Port Guards (Easy to remove if you are high level ship, like the City Guards in WoW for example), that they cashed you if the nation of that port hates yours.

 

I would enjoy some NPC ships for complementing the quest system i exposed above

 

 

 

3) A MERCHANT / PIRATE / PRIVATE GUARD system for "Merchant companies".

 

As in SilkRoad Online, you could be Merchant, Thief or Protector. When you trade goods, you had to take a long way from one place to another and the income of money was good, but the road was dangerous as thiefs (NPCs and real players) were following you and waiting you on the road wanting your goods, so one hired some Guard Players as they helped them. So would be great a system that offered the possibility to Find Avaliable Guards, dedice the payment, and start the journey.

 

 

4) OFC a new Interface but they already told it's on progression and the one we have now it's not definitive. Would really apreciate song at the interficie. Like.. Patrician III?

 

 

5) More diferent envirorment "unique" places. I mean that the diferent ports would be nice to be like little cities or have some "zone" one could enter and roam in a quite-little space with other ships that were on that port. That would give the feeling of immersion and that the port that you are is unique, and would motivate to visit diferent ports to see how they look

 

6) A Better Clan System. With a Clan Graphic interficie, with divisions (traders, action, cheifs leaders, etc...), and easy-organized events from the clan, as well as Clan relations and the most hated Players of the clan (the player who has sunk more ships of the clan).

 

I'll come with a Part 2 of "Suggestions". At the moment, the game looks Awesome, it feels like where you've been working, job's done and works good. But it's not finished. I have huge expectations of these game, that's why i'm recomending it all to everybody i know.

 

Take care

[JulsIII]

Server Region next to server label. I think this is why tonight 800+ people where on EU server and only ~150 on the US server.

[marcmb]

Server Region next to server label. I think this is why tonight 800+ people where on EU server and only ~150 on the US server.

US players decided to stay in EU server for good competition and because 150 ping dont really matter in this game.

On topic: I would like to see Clan Tags in OW.

[Novakaine]

In the time my 3 friends and I have been playing together, we came up with a few things we'd like to see:

 

-Pirates being incognito until a battle is initiated.

-Pirate faction ships allowed to trade at any port.

-As a pirate, no penalty for shooting other pirates who join in on your battle to try and steal your prize. (and vice versa)

-Fishing and Whaling

-Slave trade

-Visible crew on ships in open world

-Telescope in open world

-Fix scale of ships in open world

-Courier and Merchant missions

-More variety in port visuals

-Ability to leave ship and walk around (obviously a farther future update)

-Ability to access cargo of other ships in my fleet

-Allocation of crew numbers to ships in fleet (including a ship i have just captured)

-More detail and options for fleet control in battle (grape shot, command to board)

-Map navigation tools (Please dont ever put waypoints and/or markers)

Edited January 24, 2016 by Novakaine

[Fluffy Fishy]

I'd quite like the option to rename your character, say you turn pirate and have an immersive name it would be nice to be able to change it to a more pirate style name, I would suggest a long cool down though. It would also count as a nice extra because of only being able to have one character

Edited January 23, 2016 by Fluffy Fishy

[Jim Bligh]

TO DEV's

I believe this needs to be addressed DROP in players on missions and player battles, seems that since the community has grown that a lot of player are dropping in on battles and taking the prize or glory and XP from the players who started the battles. this is causing friction between player who are asking for on option to lock battles. Also to lock battles missions to the player and group's only who's mission it is, those who accepted the mission and not players who are not grouped with the initiating player of the mission. as I mention, this is causing player animosity and friction with in the game. changing the whole community at large to a negative one.

I believe that this needs to be looked at as a priority.

thank you.

[smooshkin]

I second the suggestion for animals and their ambience in the world. Dolphins, fish, birds.

 

Birds may make a fine clue that you are near land as well and dolphins may make fine company when bored and sailing windward. 

[Asbo]

I have not got the time to read all the post just got up but would like to see ocean fish as Landsman mentioned above and may be floating cargo or corpses, Ice bergs on my journey to make it a little less boring when I travel please. Also birds could show land or even throw us off course as they flying around a dead corpse to enhance what Landsman said again above. 

[VehoNex]

After talking with my buddy we came up with a couple ideas which I've seen here as well. So adding my +1 to a couple:

 

Pirates hidden before a battle. (the option to fly a nations flag so at a distance it looks like you are that nation and only when players are closer can you be "detected")

 

A compass rose on the map and maybe make it look like a parchment map. (more for aesthetics than anything else.)

 

Renaming a character.

 

A couple that I didn't see but might have been mentioned

 

The option to go into spy glass while on the OW. For more immersion have the zoom be up in a crows nest instead of down on the deck.

 

The ability to choose where you zoom is during battle. For example: right now you zoom directly into the center of the ship resulting in the camera sitting right behind the main. Being able to zoom to the front, back, and sides of the ship would assist in battle greatly.

 

Banter among the men on while in battle.

 

At least 1 man per gun to give your ships some more immersion. 

[Baron Quertier]

A like the admiralty mission aspect because if there is naff all going on you are guaranteed some action. I apologise if it's been mentioned before but would it be possible to integrate some kind of trader mission that you can select also that might perhaps award more money than normal missions but perhaps less XP.

[Fluffy Fishy]

I'd like to see the option to turn off the ability to double press A or D to turn round in circles, I like to turn bit by bit and this part of the control scheme annoys me a lot as it tends to screw over my broadsides in combat and send me round in circles on the main map

[Lord Van Pelt]

Would be nice to see on each port instead of the blue solid background color.. a custom still-live screen of the port; similar to Age of Empires III home city and how it is still but also live and some wind movement / people movement.

 

Each island can have a different set of appearance in the port background screen; but each port based on its own development and size can show how whether it is packed with buildings or a minor port with few buildings showing in the back.. and on this port screen players can trade, use all the current port interface.

 

 

 

http://www.ageofempires.co.nz/images/aoe3/screenshots/French_World_Trade.jpg

 

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/ageofempires/images/7/74/AoE3SevilleTurquoise.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20101016115922

 

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/ageofempires/images/b/b2/Londonevening.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20071109140324

 

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/ageofempires/images/b/b2/Londonevening.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20071109140324

 

http://pcmedia.gamespy.com/pc/image/article/645/645630/age-of-empires-iii-20050825052652310-000.jpg

[Lord Van Pelt]

Would be nice to see official trading companies in game.. they can be established in certain regions of the islands where each specializes in particular produces and the players take charge of import & export to the old world.

 

High ranked admirals could assign several NPC line ships to protect against enemy attacks.. on the other hand.. enemies willing to risk their ships for this trading fleet could end up with loot more valuable than 10 of their ships put together!

 

 

Also would be nice if Spanish nation could do both trading companies as well as treasure fleets from the Maine to the old world and NPC's assisting the player admirals would be much tougher than regular trade fleet NPC's.

[Freefall1984]

I would like to see more orientation tools, a pop out compass which could be orientated to the cameras view would be great, in real life to work out your position you need to take a bearing from nearby landmarks, usually peaks of hills or mountains, you then draw lines from those landmarks at the same angle as said bearing on your map, the point where those lines intersect is your approximate location, depending on the skill of the navigator and the accuracy/detail of the map, you can pinpoint the location of a vessel within a few hundred yards. So a compass which can be linked to camera direction is essential.

 

Also the map should show more detail, by this I mean the locations of peaks and valleys, contour lines should work. Another cool feature would be the ability to "draw" on your map, in order to calculate the location and courses as mentioned above. Something simple, like a "free draw" and a "line" tool would work, the "line" tool could show the angle from the point of origin as well as the real world distance from start to finish as the person draws it. Maybe you could then save and share this map drawing among friends, to plan attacks, meeting locations, and the position of buried booty, perhaps resulting in treasure hunts created by administrators/clans. maybe even have the ability to sell them/buy them in ports/loot them from enemies. 

 

These additions would help with navigating close to land and plotting a course out at sea, but in order to allow people to check they're on course when out of site of land, perhaps have some kind of sextant system to work out latitude, and longitude (but only at mid day each day) I'm aware that this would require the use of location based skyboxes which changed depending on the persons location but that might not be a bad thing, it would allow for localized storms, varying timezones, and possibly even account for varying wind directions. The devs could even manually create weather-fronts during big battles, or better still, take real world weather data and incorporate it into the game.

 

Just my thoughts, of course many players would still choose to navigate via the current "hit and miss" methods, but more dedicated players could use real world methods and the resultant increase in accuracy would be their reward. 

[Captain Longbeard]

There are a couple of "small" things I would really like to see!

 

Spy glass in the Open World, and also in the Crows nest.

Some more detail in the map and maybe the ability to add certain markers, or maybe a drawing tool to keep track of your sailing directions.

Maybe some animals in the sea and in the air?

Have your crew visible in the Open World, if this would be implemented, maybe having them sing songs like Ubisoft did with Assassins Creed Black flag? 

Im not entirely sure if this would work, but maybe have the opportunity to change the colour of your sails? Or maybe have a symbol or something on your sails.

[AKPyrate]

I wouldn't mind the chart/map looking a little more period proper instead of its current state.  There's obviously the artistic talent to do so there!

[Markcufc]

Wildlife, like birds and fish and so on, would be cool to see sharks and stuff while in combat!

[Fluffy Fishy]

A little thing I would like to see is who is in battles, that way you can find a friend or person in your group much more easily.

[K. tom Brok]

I can look up the Port Defence  times of every single Port in the game, just the ones from my own Nation I can't. Please, we can't always ask the Lord Protector of a Town, on what time he has set the timer.

 

regards,

Kenesma