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Naval Action needs a good story.


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The game is gorgeous, but a bit too elitist in my opinion. Its as if new players are simply needed as fodder  I think pvp marks conquest marks and other currency simply excludes people who refuse to be forced down a certain play style road. It should be fine to forge a non pvp career on the pvp server, by that I mean trading exploring and of course defending yourself when needed without feeling forced to go out kill for the sake of it. Different nations could offer rewards for different play styles. Would like to see rare loot only drop from rare  NPC spawns like named mobs in other games rather than sell in some pvp mark shop. So good game for me but I would like to see more content added rather than constantly messing with the existing stuff.

 

 

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A bread crumb event, where captain has to visit several ports gathering information about a certain location of a certain special event to take place on a certain day. Sure. Information puzzles that lead to "historical o'brian type of battles", not a mere simple click&reward system. I mean, even against AI at challenging odds, not the overpowering road most seem to take ( 1st rates fighting belle poule fleets ;)

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31 minutes ago, Hethwill said:

A bread crumb event, where captain has to visit several ports gathering information about a certain location of a certain special event to take place on a certain day. Sure. Information puzzles that lead to "historical o'brian type of battles", not a mere simple click&reward system. I mean, even against AI at challenging odds, not the overpowering road most seem to take ( 1st rates fighting belle poule fleets ;)

O'Brian is simply a gold mine and it's priceless in game industry and in the right hands ;) the amount of content you can create just from few of his books is enormous. 

Edited by Wind
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Just now, Wind said:

O'Brian is simply a gold mine and it's priceless in game industry and in the right hands ;) the amount of content you can create just from few of his books is enormous. 

A battle. It all ends in a challenging battle. A truly gruesome and very hard battle. Very hard.

#devsyoumadeimpossibletowinwtf

#nowedidntwesimplymadeaobrienbattlewhereyoumustbeheroic

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Yea the problem is that the game is just fighting to fight.  No clear defined goals other than owning ports and territory, which most players don’t even seem to be interested in.  

Hence my repeated pushes to make the game diverge into a clan based game with only a couple nations.  Players who want to do the nation thing could have storylines and generated events like randomized wars or objectives.  Players who simply want the RVR sandbox join an outlaw faction and then have at it.

We keep running into issues where forcibly making folks do one thing or another to progress in the game.  Tying 1st rates to Vic marks was just a stupid way to force people into RVR they didn’t want to do.  

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4 minutes ago, Hethwill said:

A battle. It all ends in a challenging battle. A truly gruesome and very hard battle. Very hard.

#devsyoumadeimpossibletowinwtf

#nowedidntwesimplymadeaobrienbattlewhereyoumustbeheroic

Not only that, but simple mission like - Hit enemy Powder room during the heavy Storm chase. (Hint* located between 6th -7th guns). Simple and fun huh?

 

Edited by Wind
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3 minutes ago, Christendom said:

Yea the problem is that the game is just fighting to fight.  No clear defined goals other than owning ports and territory, which most players don’t even seem to be interested in.  

Hence my repeated pushes to make the game diverge into a clan based game with only a couple nations.  Players who want to do the nation thing could have storylines and generated events like randomized wars or objectives.  Players who simply want the RVR sandbox join an outlaw faction and then have at it.

We keep running into issues where forcibly making folks do one thing or another to progress in the game.  Tying 1st rates to Vic marks was just a stupid way to force people into RVR they didn’t want to do.  

I pointed this many many months ago, player will not do things if you don't clearly show the reward and explain the objective. Visual design is very important. 

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2 minutes ago, Hethwill said:

While in control of the full ship ? Sure :) Gimme SailAway with your ideas. IL-2 age of sail with a career mode weeeee

My ideas will hit kickstarter one day, you will see... ;)

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5 minutes ago, Hethwill said:

Sure. Less mmo click heroes, more simulator with career please. o7

I can spend hours of debate on that. I know where money is. For example Train Simulator has to release new game every year or sell train models in order to survive. I do not wish the same for NA. 

Edited by Wind
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There SHOULD be a story which is including the Tutorial. Story will start in the PVE server.

So the story starts, you are being shown all the aspects of the game, ui/map/manuel sailing/fighting/boarding/game mechanics like in reinforcement zones, out of green zones/RVR.

So all the parts of the tutorial should be fitted into some sections of the story. The endurance exam, final exam should be the important part of the story, will be introduced with cut scenes made with in game engine. At the end of the story, captain will be master and commander rank, with the loot and money he has earned, he will be starting the SANDBOX.

I would say player should be starting the story with some delivery missions, which he learns about ui and map, he should be in a 7th rate. He will get used to the game, and learn trading. At some point he will be somehow starting his navy life, few combat missions with 7th rate. In 7th rates will be basic combat, he learns about cannon types, sail, hull and crew damage, cannon modes like front fire, locked focus etc. He learns about repairs and looting. He will have some outpost and farms. He will learn about fishing and sealed bottles.

Afterwards he promotes and starts 6th rates, having the chance to fight in a snow and heavy rattlesnake afterwards. When on 6th rate, he learns about manuel sailing, yards, depower and tacking into wind. He also learns about demasting, manuel sailing. He may have some knowledge on ship woods, refits, knowledge slots. He learns the boarding game and capturing a ship. He also gets some knowledge about ship crafting. He is given an opportunity to craft his snow  ? after learning about woods. Resources will be supplied to him to craft his first ship. In story he has a chance to do the endurance exam starting and finishing with in game engine created cut scenes.

Approaching end of story, he will be participating in a port battle with npc ships where he learns about RVR. Finally he will have the final exam with a story setting. And he will be promoted to Master and Commander, giving him chance to start the SANDBOX on PVP server, option to choose his nation. He will have his loot (repairs and gold) and some ships (one 7th rate, one 6th rate and a cerberus) ready at the his main outpost. So he knows about the game now, he will be eager to discover the PVP world.

If this becomes alive, this game will rock ! Players spending some 20-40 hours on a story with just in game engine plus some nice cartoonish 17th century themed screens, I mean just like a comic book style, not so big job. The players will be amazed, because when those kind of games are finished, the game is finished, here you will have option to continue forever, and live your own story.

After the story current tutorial will be still available, and the game needs an encyclopedia or reference book which includes all the knowledge about the game.

Look how Nick made the text part which is easy and still great.

 

 

 

Edited by AeRoTR
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13 hours ago, Hethwill said:

Also trends show that majority of players nowadays "hate" text based storyline in games - "too much reading" - is the most common negative topic in many rpg's ( which are absolutely stunning if one loves a good story and well developed world )

n sum - how much energy, development time and business effort is worth to put into something like this ? Would all captains enjoy having their careers/liberty curated by the machine and being given only the ship they needed for the task ? Or do they like the liberty of doing whatever they want ?

I agree with you when you define story as a text. A good story should be something that player builds - eg. a set of archievements and tasks he can perform to get to know the game better, which give him eg. some nice graphic and 1-3 sentences of a story.

It's best if player can decide which part of the story he wants to fulfill and which ones he can leave out - eg. it would be bad to force everyone to trade. Still, it would be good to incentivise everyone to try everything. A nice story behind this is a great way of doing this.

That's just a more advanced type of tutorial, less formal, getting people into more advanced aspects of the game - clan, RvR, trading etc.

Edited by vazco
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Instead of a story line, I think it would be cool if the devs replicated some historical battles for the player to play (with AI or friends) as "challenge missions". But I think they need to finish OW stuff first before adding stories/other content. 

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For the tutorials, the player starts out as the XO on a naval ship tasked with protecting a merchant vessel.  They have to follow the Captain's orders while learning the controls. 

During the mission, the captain takes some grape to the head, and the player takes command for the final exam.

The merchant that the player saves offers to hire them to captain for their trading fleet if they ever decide to leave the navy. The admiralty of the nation commends them for their bravery, promotes them, and offers them command of a naval vessel if they decide to stay on.

The player can then choose to captain the naval ship, and recieve orders from the navy, work for the merchant tycoon and recieve trade missions, or turn them both down and strike out on their own.

The naval missions would relate the story of the nation's war effort. Trade missions would relate the story of helping build the merchant's trade empire.

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22 hours ago, Hethwill said:

n sum - how much energy, development time and business effort is worth to put into something like this ? Would all captains enjoy having their careers/liberty curated by the machine and being given only the ship they needed for the task ? Or do they like the liberty of doing whatever they want ?

Make that optional. Myself, I hate storylines I have to follow mandatorily. So people who love to be guided by a story with missions pick it up and everyone else does sandbox as before.

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48 minutes ago, Cetric de Cornusiac said:

Make that optional. Myself, I hate storylines I have to follow mandatorily. So people who love to be guided by a story with missions pick it up and everyone else does sandbox as before.

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@Wind

 

I do like the storyline idea but keeping the plot line closed in an MMO can be a mine field. The starter or rookie it can be a lot easier to do. In fact, for my PvE ladder to PvP starter idea (ref: Idea:Norfolk nNoob goes Gank-ing...!) some form of storyline via missions would take place.

At some point I will flesh that out...

The other way is via the Mission Delivery system that could evolve a storyline. Remember already it could hold the data for multiple delivers via one client.

Story lines need not be (and shouldn’t be) solo affairs. The energy input in writing and testing a theme would be quite large I’d bet, but would add value no doubt about it...

Imagine just offering a player 5 messages to solve. 1 Unlocks 2 unlocks 3 that follows a story arc over distance and products and a test of skill set... That’s a small one...

 

Norfolk.

 

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There is a depth and richness to the story created by player interactions that would be very difficult to achieve with in-game restrictions.  The open world sandbox has limitless opportunities.

My character has experienced a facinating journey during the last couple years.  A story of; assistance and treachery, friends and foes, gifts and ganks, being hopelessly lost and pinpoint timely arrivals.  The outcomes are never certain and I have little idea what will happen around the next cape.

I cannot imagine the Devs creating anything close.

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3 hours ago, Macjimm said:

There is a depth and richness to the story created by player interactions that would be very difficult to achieve with in-game restrictions.  The open world sandbox has limitless opportunities.

My character has experienced a facinating journey during the last couple years.  A story of; assistance and treachery, friends and foes, gifts and ganks, being hopelessly lost and pinpoint timely arrivals.  The outcomes are never certain and I have little idea what will happen around the next cape.

I cannot imagine the Devs creating anything close.

That leaves us with 499 active players + you. I wish it was that simple. 

Edited by Wind
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4 hours ago, Macjimm said:

There is a depth and richness to the story created by player interactions that would be very difficult to achieve with in-game restrictions.  The open world sandbox has limitless opportunities.

My character has experienced a facinating journey during the last couple years.  A story of; assistance and treachery, friends and foes, gifts and ganks, being hopelessly lost and pinpoint timely arrivals.  The outcomes are never certain and I have little idea what will happen around the next cape.

I cannot imagine the Devs creating anything close.

They can't replace the richness of a story driven by player interactions, but they can foster it.

For example, the French Navy assigns two of their captains to guard a weapons shipment, while the Royal Navy sends two of it's own captains (who just happen to be evenly matched in terms of rank and ships) to intercept and capture that shipment.

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Juan Navarre said:

They can't replace the richness of a story driven by player interactions, but they can foster it.

For example, the French Navy assigns two of their captains to guard a weapons shipment, while the Royal Navy sends two of it's own captains (who just happen to be evenly matched in terms of rank and ships) to intercept and capture that shipment.

For sure :)

But, how is that different ( in Caribbean server perspective ) from two French captains guarding two other French captains transport ships which may be, at any time, intercepted by two Royal Navy captains ?

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1 hour ago, Hethwill said:

For sure :)

But, how is that different ( in Caribbean server perspective ) from two French captains guarding two other French captains transport ships which may be, at any time, intercepted by two Royal Navy captains ?

It is different in several ways.

Firstly, it removes the obligation for the players to break the ice and organize everything themselves. 

Secondly, it balances the encounter, so that it is challenging, but feasible for either party to succeed. 

Thirdly, the players can recieve rewards from their respective government for completing the mission.

Fourthly, individual stories could be tied into a larger national plot progression. 

There are some other differences and advantages, but more to the point, I would contest the implied assumption that your scenario would be the prevailing alternative.

The real question is "How is this different from two French captains and two British captains all wandering around the OW on their own, looking for something to do besides getting ganked?"

Edited by Juan Navarre
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