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Suggested priorities for further development


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I have enjoyed NA over 1500 hours, which indicates how highly I rate this game. I am a real-world qualified sailing skipper and have been on board ships of the era such as HMS Victory, so I appreciate much of the authenticity of this game. I come from a professional background in the graphic arts, so the visual side of NA is what I tend to focus on, a lot. I would love it so much more if the following developments could be implemented, after the new port UI is completed. In order of priority, I think these should be:

1) Implementing realistic, active deck crew that are visible both in battle and in OW sailing. For inspiration, I suggest looking at how this was accomplished in 'Tempest: Pirate Action' and 'Empire: Total War'. If it is too difficult to have cannon crew actually hauling and reloading the cannons, I suggest having them just standing near the cannons, but definitely not miming, as they do at present, in NA.

2) While the sea and landscapes are admirably realistic, the climatic conditions don't convey the feel of the Caribbean to me. I think this is due to the dark coloring of the sea and the shortage of clear blue skies, and the uncharacteristically long duration of the rain storms. If these could be addressed, I think the general atmosphere of the game would be more uplifting and convincing. I would also like to see the 'raindrops on glass' effect scrapped, as it seems inappropriate to me, when not using the spyglass.

3) While the sea itself looks very realistic, the wake that the ships create could be better. I think it was done better in 'The Pirate: Caribbean Hunt', even though other aspects of the graphics in that game aren't as good.

4) The colouring of the ships could be improved too. Some ships appear too drab (Indefatigable, Diana, Endymion, Victory, etc) while others look too garish (Santisima and L'Hermione). I would love it if player-configurable paint kits or a paint applet could be introduced. (The latter was done successfully in 'The Pirate: Caribbean Hunt'.)

5) A further development that could be considered eventually, would be the introduction of FPS boarding action. Again, this was implemented very effectively in 'Tempest: Pirate Action'.

6) Regarding the introduction of new ships, what I think is needed most now, is at least one more 1st-rate, such as, perhaps the Royal Sovereign and/or Temeraire.

Edited by Aldeveron
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We  could really use an in-game color correction tool, or maybe in the future a styling pass, because some assets just don't match up or stick out too much. May be remedied slightly with the much desired re-release of ship paints, that way we at least get some straight variety, and not just drab british ship, bright fancy french ship, bathtub toy wappen, and uber elite red sail requine

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Sailing & fighting, by this honorable period of history, was also including a good part of LUCK.

The weather factor was quite important in that LUCK side.

So, why not implementing stronger effects of weather/sea/wind behavior ?

Apart from making a fight much harder on strong sea, bad weather could also affect hull & riggs damage & consume repairs in OW.

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On 10/16/2018 at 11:00 AM, Intrepido said:

About the second rate: Christian VII is going to have bow chasers. 

Oh cool, if that is correct! I was under the impression she had no chasers, based on:
http://navalaction.wikia.com/wiki/Christian_VII 
(It lists no chasers, at the time of writing.)

Incidentally, if that is the Christian VII, in your image, I really like the way the stern has been painted. Kudos to the devs for that! Similar gold detail on the stern of the Santi, Victory, snd other NA ships is something I would love to see.

Edited by Aldeveron
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On 10/16/2018 at 12:43 PM, Celtiberofrog said:

So, why not implementing stronger effects of weather/sea/wind behavior ? Apart from making a fight much harder on strong sea, bad weather could also affect hull & riggs damage & consume repairs in OW.

Expanding on that, the occasional whirlwind/tornado could add extra excitement, as would some lightning during thunderstorms. Distant lightning too, can provide dramatic visual effects, illuminating distant skies momentarily, and warn of the proximity of storms. The latter, along with menacing whirlwinds/waterspouts, were done rather effectively in 'Tempest: Pirate Action', IMO.

Edited by Aldeveron
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On 10/16/2018 at 10:00 AM, Aldeveron said:

6) Regarding the introduction of new ships, what I think is needed most now, is (...) at least one more 1st-rate, such as, perhaps HMS Royal Sovereign  and/or HMS Temeraire (both of which took part in the Battle of Trafalgar).

 

On 10/16/2018 at 12:00 PM, Intrepido said:

No more british ships! There are lots of interesting ships worth to be added into NA.

I wouldn't say 'No more British ships' as there are still lots of interesting British ones to add (and from a lot of other countries too).

But I would definitely say : 'Enough of ships that took part in the Battle of Trafalgar'. If I ain't mistaken (and, believe me, I'm far from knowing anything about this battle :-), we've already had and will have in game a lot of ships that were part of this battle (please correct me if I'm wrong) :

  • The Montañés
  • A Téméraire class (even if we don't the specific ship, such as Le Pluton (?), we'll have at least the same class)
  • The Santissima
  • HMS Victory
  • Le Bucentaure

If 1st Rates were to be added some day, what about ships from another Battle ?

What about another period ?

Chesapeake, for example ? *cough, cough*

"Messieurs les Anglais, tirez les premiers !"  🙂

PS : don't you dare even beginning to articulate a word starting with Nil... 😀

Joke aside, older 1st Rates (and Sol in general... and ships) would be nice. The Wapen feels alone.

(edit)

There's also the Ingermanland (1715).

Edited by LeBoiteux
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15 minutes ago, Angus MacDuff said:

The problem is, the older ships are clearly inferior to the more modern ships, so the devs have to artificially buff them to be competitive.  Feels fake, IMHO.

well this is purely a matter of taste. I guess one could see it the other way around...

However NA has a timeframe. It's not NA Trafalgar. 🙂

Edited by LeBoiteux
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38 minutes ago, Angus MacDuff said:

The problem is, the older ships are clearly inferior to the more modern ships, so the devs have to artificially buff them to be competitive.  Feels fake, IMHO.

Although what you say is absolutely correct, a proper BR rating balances everything. What do you think would happen in Port Battles if the BR of the Victory was lowered by 15%?

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We need paints back, still don't understand why we don't cause we have the White Ballona and the Enymion one from NYE/Day so that means they still work.  I know they talked about makeing them like shipknowledge but that would mean a ship wipe.  So why not bring them back until they do that upon release so we can have some ship color variation.

 

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54 minutes ago, LeBoiteux said:

 

 

Joke aside, older 1st Rates (and Sol in general... and ships) would be nice. The Wapen feels alone.

 

 

well you still have The Wapen

i have nothing.....

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8 hours ago, LeBoiteux said:

But what do you want so much ?

 

only a Dutch ship

i am humble and not asking much, so ,  i am so desperate even a clumb (wooden shoe) may do the trick!

Edited by Thonys
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8 hours ago, Thonys said:

i am humble and not asking much, so ,  i am so desperate 

and a bit amnesic ? 😉

as :

8 hours ago, Thonys said:

only a Dutch ship

(...) even a clumb (wooden shoe) may do the trick!

a big one is coming soon !

A fluyt and some lighter combat vessels, such as the Pijl, would be nice additions too.

Edited by LeBoiteux
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16 hours ago, LeBoiteux said:

 

I wouldn't say 'No more British ships' as there are still lots of interesting British ones to add (and from a lot of other countries too).

But I would definitely say : 'Enough of ships that took part in the Battle of Trafalgar'. If I ain't mistaken (and, believe me, I'm far from knowing anything about this battle :-), we've already had and will have in game a lot of ships that were part of this battle (please correct me if I'm wrong) :

  • The Montañés
  • A Téméraire class (even if we don't the specific ship, such as Le Pluton (?), we'll have at least the same class)
  • The Santissima
  • HMS Victory
  • Le Bucentaure

If 1st Rates were to be added some day, what about ships from another Battle ?

What about another period ?

Chesapeake, for example ? *cough, cough*

"Messieurs les Anglais, tirez les premiers !"  🙂

PS : don't you dare even beginning to articulate a word starting with Nil... 😀

Joke aside, older 1st Rates (and Sol in general... and ships) would be nice. The Wapen feels alone.

 

Add Agamemnon to that list aswell :P

Edited by Guest
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1 hour ago, Wyy said:

Add Agamemnon to that list aswell :P

Indeed. 🙂For now, 6 ships that fought at Trafalgar are to be implemented in NA.

A majority of current NA ships actually belong to the end of NA timeframe (say 1780-1820). On the other hand, in my previous post, I forgot to mention lovely earlier ships such as the Ingermanland (1715), La Renommée (1744) or Le Gros Ventre (1766), as ships of the 'beginning' of the period.  

Edited by LeBoiteux
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I agree with all of these ideas. NA has come a long way, but it needs a lot more polish. I think the skybox especially needs an upgrade. Unmoving clouds with surprise hurricanes that appear despite sailing in clear skies only moments earlier breaks the immersion. There are plenty of other kinks to work out like ship balance and how adding fees to teleports is a bad idea, but a few cosmetic changes can also go a long way to making the game feel fresh for those of us that have played for thousands of hours.

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On 10/18/2018 at 3:18 PM, LeBoiteux said:

But I would definitely say : 'Enough of ships that took part in the Battle of Trafalgar'.

Most of the significant warships of the three main powers of Europe took part in Trafalgar.  Many of them were in other battles too, of course, and a good number of them were in the Caribbean on at least one occasion. So it seems natural and expected to me, that a few of the ships in this game happened to be at Trafalgar. Even a few more would not seem out of place to me.

 

Edited by Aldeveron
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2 hours ago, Aldeveron said:

Most of the significant warships of the three main powers of Europe took part in Trafalgar.  Many of them were in other battles too, of course, and a good number of them were in the Caribbean on at least one occasion. So it seems natural and expected to me, that a few of the ships in this game happened to be at Trafalgar. Even a few more would not seem out of place to me.

That's your point of view 🙂.

It depends on your definition of 'significant'. 

IMO, during such an extended timeframe as that of NA (1680-1820), there are a lot of significant (war)ships that did not take part in trafalgar, whatever their nationality (being from 'the three main powers of Europe' as you wrote it or not).

Le Saint Philippe fighting at the battle of Velez-Malaga in 1704 is one that comes to my mind as I've just found out a new monograph about her. But the list goes on and on and on...

There are so many interesting developments throughout the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th cent. One of my favorite is naval sculpture.

It'd be too bad to focus on just one short period, whatever its historical significance or even if it has the most modern and performing vehicles of the timeframe. Fortunately NA devs don't.

Edited by LeBoiteux
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On 10/16/2018 at 10:00 AM, Aldeveron said:

4) The colouring of the ships could be improved too. Some ships appear too drab (Indefatigable, Victory, etc) while others look too garish (Santisima and L'Hermione). I would love it if player-configurable paint kits or a paint applet could be introduced. (The latter was done successfully in 'The Pirate Caribbean Hunt'.)

Imagine the devs implementing the paints and you have to buy it in a random port of the Caribbean. That would be perfect for the port sustainability and would make the people move more.

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