Little things you'd like to see

[Thomas Blackwell]

Some of these things will be added into future releases.

[Shibbyland]

I'd like to see little details to increase the immersion.

 

Example:

-A cabin screen for making changes to navigation, and for crew and supply management.

-Letters of marque or letters of commission when given a task or a new ship.

-A chest which contains curiosities found around the map.

-Some pre-selected views (like in a flight game) perhaps F1, F2, F3 etc to change quickly to chase view or helm view.

-Basic ship customisation (which I think is already covered) but this would include the ability to name the ship, the ability to change paint scheme for the different nations (again just very basic default schemes)

 

I'm not sure how the open world is going to work exactly but this is part of the game where I think people will spend a lot of time. I'd like to see:

 

-Hazards such as sand bars, ice bergs if there's ever an intention to include more artic conditions (nothing detailed just some sort of barrier). These sand bars can move at random within their area so you constantly have to be cautious of them.

-Supplies. Again, just simple stuff, food, water and ammunition. This to ensure people have to stop at ports to resupply at a cost. A deeper level of supply could include wood and ropes.

-Weather conditions which can cause damage to ships: I.e if you are going to use prolonged full sail in a storm, expect to lose a mast.

-Changing weather. Perhaps five predetermined weather conditions which change at random and can occur anywhere on the map. These could include: Clear skies, cloudy, fog/mist, storm, becalmed. (Becalmed could get annoying without some supply management coming into play).

[Morashtak]

-Hazards such as sand bars, ice bergs if there's ever an intention to include more artic conditions (nothing detailed just some sort of barrier). These sand bars can move at random within their area so you constantly have to be cautious of them.

Was in a battle chasing down a ship and suddenly the sea graphic I'm in and next to changed to the land graphic and back as the wave level rose and fell ("Storm map") - No waves crashing or other indication of shallow water. Sub-surface and near surface hazards and their inherent warning signs should be a core feature ("Iceberg! Dead ahead!").

 

Should I be chased (pirate, enemy belligerant, etc) and I'm in a shallow draft vessel it would be nice to have the option to brave the shaols and sandbars daring my pursuer to follow and risk grounding or, even worse, tearing a big hole in their hull. Or if I in a ship larger and better gunned than my target they should have the option to brave the coral reefs in a bid to escape.

 

But we'll need some signs of shallow water added - Waves far off the beach, old mast sticking up out of the water, etc.

 

Along with navigation hazards we should also encounter weather extremes (a truly PvE encounter) that could cause ship damage or even lead to capsizing should we set the sails incorrectly, not sail into the wind and waves, avoid land masses and sub-surface hazards and the like.  Trying to skirt a hurricane/cyclone/typhoon and messing up your navigation could get you sucked into a PvE weather encounter - A few minutes (5-15, more or less depending on crew specialists, location, etc) of sheer terror.

 

Rogue waves might be a bit too much but could be added as a way to greatly endanger a ship from time to time.

 

Success would award experience points which could be based, as only one example, on how many seconds one was in the encounter and subtracting shiip damage. Epicly fail and... well there's always another ship needing a captain somewhere. Risk/reward and all that.

[Karl]

More deck views would be a big plus in a small package. I'd like to be able to hit a key to get views from deck-level on the poop and forecastle at least, and preferably the quarterdeck and amidships too. Right now it's easy to get in a position where I can only get situational awareness with 3rd person camera, and it'd be nice to not have to rely on it so much. Views from the mast tops would be great too.

 

Should be really simple to just define a camera locked on an x,y,z coordinate on the ship model.

 

If you want to spoil me you could add an animation of the camera travelling from point to point (no need for a 3d avatar imo) that would simulate the travel-time, but I wouldn't cry about it if the camera simply teleports.

[HunHarcos]

On the thread of Females and Avatars

I MAY be the only Female on here at the moment and wanted my 2 cents worth.

First off, there were far more females sailing the Ocean Blue than you might think, and many of those were not just wives of officers, though there where the share of those.

Some of the most successful pirates in history have been female. While we all know of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, those two were not really successful, but they were women and they were pirates. Fact about Mary. Mary or Mark as she was known as served on board a British ship when she was younger. She then joined an Infantry unit, fought n the Nine Years war, joined a mounted unit and gained rank and was known as one of the best fighters in the unit. During this time she fell in love with a man and after the war the two wed. She dressed as a woman until the death of her husband and as was the ways of that time, it meant she had nothing. She joined another ship and sailed but the capt was not good. When Calico Jack and Anne raided her ship, she joined them. Anne found out about Mary being female and the two at times dressed as male, and other times as female. it was a known fact that the the two were female pirates

If you want some great books

Seafaring Woman: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Stowaways, and sailors wives

The Only Life that mattered - About Anne, Mary and Jack

Mary Read, Sailor, Soldier, Pirate

These are but a few

It is a fact that women did serve more often than though on ships. Most disguised themselves as males. This has been the case in history and goes back a long time.

So Yes, I want female avatars. Not all manly looking ones, but not overly serialized as that is not realistic either.

Now with that, what do I want - Be able to name my ship

Be able to change my country flags (This was done often to lure or to keep one's ship safe)

Not sailing through Land (I see this a lot and hope it is just a thing in test) I want to see damage from sailing into land or reefs

Music... Yeah that would be cool, period and typical naval songs

Voice commands - When you give the command to turn to port, have the voice say Turn to port like an officer repeating commands (No biggy if they are not but would be cool)

Storms - We have rough sea's and they can be a pan, but man are they cool to sail and fight in

Real weather aka fog, no wind

Ships sitting in water lower when loaded with heavy cargo, and sitting high when low cargo.

Rumors

Ok that will do for now I think.

 

It is not even sure that we will even get avatars of any kind.... thanks to the minimalistic people of this game!

[ObiQuiet]

 Views from the mast tops would be great too.

 

Masthead view sounds like a really good idea!

[Skjortentrold]

I would like to see a sligt 'twist/screw' of the square sails as a default setting for any other wind angle than directly astern: The topmost yards being braced to a larger angle to the keel line than the lower yards. See picture below:

http://www.thelochlong.info/images/lochlongbarque.jpg

and page 48 of Marine Painter's Guide by Jack Coggins:

https://books.google.dk/books?id=JbUtkESSQC4C&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq=square+rig+screw+yard&source=bl&ots=jtFhSd-2Kq&sig=91nD6Bb86f636WKPXjEWV0yyVnE&hl=da&sa=X&ei=XJOpVIq8CKrOygOG7ICQCw&ved=0CEEQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=square%20rig%20screw%20yard&f=false

 

A translation from the danish maritime handbook "Haandbog i Praktisk Sømandskab" by Jens Kusk Jensen, anno 1924 has the following suggested yard setting at close hauled (6 points from the wind [8 points = 90 degrees]):

Lower sails...... 2 1/2 point to keel line ... 3 1/2 point to wind

Lower topsail... 2 3/4 - ... 3 1/4 -

Upper topsail... 3 1/4 - ... 2 3/4 -

Topgallant....... 3 1/2 - ... 2 1/2 -

Royal............... 3 3/4 - ... 2 1/4 -

Mizzen boom... 2 1/2 - ... 3 1/2 -

Mizzen gaff...... 3 1/2 - ... 2 1/2 -

Staysail............ 3 - ......... 3 -

[maturin]

Wow, that's a pretty intense twist there.

 

Interestingly, there's not much evidence that sailors in the period of the game understood, on an intellectual level, that the wind is fairer aloft. Or rather, you can't find evidence in writing. Seamen still often braced their yards in a spiral, but maybe it was all instinct, trial and error.

[Tom Selleck]

One thing i'd like to see, and not sure if its been mentioned. (19 pages is a bit too long to read entirely through but I did skim and didn't spot it.) Degree azimuths for the gunnery view. It'd be nice to be able to coordinate fire in a fleet by degree of standing from your location. It would not break the game or make it any less skill based to have a degree slider next to our gunnery line showing at what degree we are raising our guns to bear on the target. It would not give friendly vessels an exact bearing on a target as the degree would of course be in relation to your own ship, but it would give a general guideline to be able to more quickly focus fire on a particular target.

 

Also during the age of sail sailers had degree markings on their cannon stops so that they could quickly reset a gun on target after firing when the gun would bounce and roll after being fired. It'd be a nice quality of life addition that I'd like to see added to the UI.

 

Thanks.

[Semni]

snip

 

Yeah, I figured that would be pretty reasonable and actually fairly historically accurate. Some sort of scale from the horizon.

 

I imagine that something like this would work well and be easy to understand.

 

 

All it really needs to be is consistent.

[Mr Christian]

How about a few sea birds plus sounds flying about.

[AlabastarEpic]

Only 5 things I would like to see that will make this game truly a naval action of oldern times kind of game and with a side benefit of discouraging kids(those immature) from ruining the game experiencing.(seeing its hardcore)

1.Ability to open or close gun ports to show hostility or not (and obviously admire cannons)

2.A captains cabin that can be customised, reflects battle damage(if it does happen) and like STO(star trek online)other players can meet and discuss tactics,converse etc.

3.Hoisting of colours(see which country,mood etc)

4.Ability to customise your gun decks(each deck if im not mistaken has a certain weight limit and/or plays a part in the way ships manouever,the way they roll with waves etc) and thus no player can abuse this mechanic as they will be subjected to the laws of physics and nature if they do choose to put all their decks with 32 lbs.

5.ABILITY TO TALK WITH YOUR MOUTH not by typing chat boxes or requiring the use of third party apps like teamspeak running in the background.

[HunHarcos]

Only 5 things I would like to see that will make this game truly a naval action of oldern times kind of game and with a side benefit of discouraging kids(those immature) from ruining the game experiencing.(seeing its hardcore)

1.Ability to open or close gun ports to show hostility or not (and obviously admire cannons)

2.A captains cabin that can be customised, reflects battle damage(if it does happen) and like STO(star trek online)other players can meet and discuss tactics,converse etc.

3.Hoisting of colours(see which country,mood etc)

4.Ability to customise your gun decks(each deck if im not mistaken has a certain weight limit and/or plays a part in the way ships manouever,the way they roll with waves etc) and thus no player can abuse this mechanic as they will be subjected to the laws of physics and nature if they do choose to put all their decks with 32 lbs.

5.ABILITY TO TALK WITH YOUR MOUTH not by typing chat boxes or requiring the use of third party apps like teamspeak running in the background.

all is good but the fifth is shit.

The game will just be flooded by many retards screaming and trolling into the microphone.

Use Teamspeak, its leightweigth and you can choose whom to you want to speak.

Also TS3 is well optimized so you will be heard and you will hear everyone you want to hear.

[DukeOfWellington]

I know this is probably way into the future but I would like to see marines added to the vessels. For example it was usually customary to have one marine per cannon on a British vessel, so lets say you have a 40 gun frigate, you would have around 42 or 43 marines on board. Of course these men would be wearing different uniforms than the navy and would have muskets and would be firing from the rigging and such during boarding. Also of course with this would be a general improvement of uniforms for all the crew on board so that you can clearly see your officers and sailors and marines on board

[Vasco]

Lots here and most of it really good. Mine:

 

Realistic navigation: Use of sextants, marine chronometers and charts (in fact, reproduce Admiralty charts from the period as PDFs if you can get hold of them)

[ObiQuiet]

I find the telescope view thrilling --- nothing like seeing the bow wave of an enemy approaching in the haze!  Well done, and very immersive; compelling even.

 

Two suggestions:

1. The water drops on the lens are an awesome detail.   I wish they would be different each time.

 

2. When scanning the horizon to find a ship, I have no idea in which direction it lay when I remove the glass from my eye.   Perhaps a the non-scope view could follow the last angle of the scope?  Of course, we wouldn't want this to affect aim.

[Grunf]

You canno see no flags on the minimap ,  aye  lads  uck,uck ,uck

Hereby I was refering that you need to look through the looking glass to see the flag, minimap is just handy not to run into friendlies, something i tend to do from time to time sadly

[Semni]

Getting run over by a Santisima in my Brig was a particuarily traumatic experience.

 

Identifying distant ships by flag and ship type is a nice feature. Actually, wouldn't it be rather interesting to implement visual communication methods? In stead of having a regular style chatbox, text you type would pop up above other ships. Simulating visual telegraph, semaphore or signal flags etc. Assuming you are close enough.

[Rikonariko]

• Is there any chance of changing the skyline backgrounds and adding more different weather situations?
• is it possible to make armament management more realistic? i mean the speed you can change sails is absolutely arcade! take privateers bounty : age of sail 2 for instance: though it had some issues it also had this absolute beautiful physical behavior of the ship: the speed of changing the armament depended on: how big the armament is, how many crewmembers you have, weather conditions, the condition of the armament, how tired or scared or wounded your crew is. you also could assign different amounts of your crew to do different jobs: taking out the fire for example before it burns down all the sail with stopping reload of the cannons---> I think all those things SHOULD be in a project like your game
• is it possible to relook how the ships behave on water?  a sailing ship doesn't sit still even on stall waters, and in storm I guess less like the asassins arcadegame. Big ships have big momentum -so why does it stop at instant with ridiculous fast sail management?

Overall im suggesting to take the arcade parts and throw them away, I think that's the arcade parts that do this game bad

again-the physical model and crew management in-battle in privateers bounty:age of sail 2

 

your game is fantastic but all those flaws(imho ofcourse)are stopping me frombying it

P.S

I regged to leave this comment

I have faith in this game, please make it more hardcore via crew management in-battle and more accurate physical model-winds, gusts, fogs fogs from firing cannons-which was a pain in the butt according to the history of naval warfare

 

all those hardcoreness will make it shine forever

 

[ObiQuiet]

When a ship rolls in a heavy sea, today it rolls as a single solid unit looking like a static model.  Adding some back-and-forth rotation to the yards as the momentum shifts would liven that up.

 

Respectfully yrs, etc.

[HilarioHarpplayer]

I'd love to see a "tentative commitment" to carrying the Age of Sail forward to at least the American Civil War with its river battles, ironclads, and "cottonclads" if not further into the 19th century, but not into the Dreadnaught period. Just a thought.

[Totoche]

I did not read everything so maybe it is already there:

 

For the Rudder is it possible to have 3 keys, one for left, one for right and one to lock/unlock the rudder in the position it is at the moment we press the 3dr key! To unlock press again the same key and the rudder goes back to center position.

 

There should if possible more peoples on the deck! And some sailors in the rigging.

 

I am also advising more weather background  for the moment some background is out of sync with the sea?!

 

Otherwise as a combat system this is a great game, many thanks to you and all the team.

[Captain Black]

Gun ports, and the ability to open/close them!

 

I to would love this feature, I played Age of Pirates 1+2 and always hated how lazy they were in giving us that option.

[Captain Black]

my list of small features would be:

 

Ship customization.

Ship interiors.

Full crew.

4-5 men per gun.

Visible ship damage.

Visible water pumping.

Night time lanterns.

Crows nests.

Captain on deck.

Diseases, plagues, illnesses.

Rouge waves, swells. Maelstroms.

Shallows, river ways.

Different water clarity depending on areas.

Beautiful Islands, Skies.

Ambient life, Sea life, Birds, Natives etc.

Ports, Docks for players to moor, or anchoring in the bay.

Option to open/ close gun ports.

Option to use boats to move ship in low winds. (Only lasts a few hours)

Option of role. Naval officer, pirate, explorer, privateer, smuggler, whaler, trader. 

Authority system, certain roles have consequences:

 

Pirate - Capture and/ or death.

Smuggler - Imprisonment.

Naval Officer - Target for warring factions.

Whaler - Target for pirates.

Trader - Target for pirates.

 

 

These are just a few of the ideas I would like to see, but the others can be posted on relevant topics that are for those ideas.

[ralphtheman]

general alarm, crew scrambles to there post"s, men with muskets, marines running to the armory water affects in the ship, life boats that work, stuff like this