Development plans update: 1 half of 2019

[Gregory Rainsborough]

Would much rather just have smaller port battles back. It's a bit shite at the moment having such high BR ports.

[HachiRoku]

14 hours ago, Papillon said:

Plenty of bugs I think, from the forum feedback.

Bugs get fixed. I mean going on YouTube and watching gameplay people compare it to red dead already. Instead of playing an outlaw you play an Indian. People are already begging Rockstar for a charles smith(afro Indian character) dlc. The animations hurt my eyes after around 300 hours of read dead. In red dead you collect resouses to craft different ammo types and need to hunt and eat to stay healthy. Eat to much and you get fat. Arthur takes longer to get onto horse cause he is so heavy  I guess this land has a survival element to it but the game industry is already saturated by survival games just like the zombie phase it had. I mean the idea and everything around the game is brilliant. The setting is perfect but a shit ton of work should be invested in animations. Horse riding is actaully decent but the lower legs spread out in a retarded manner. They should also put in more horses of different sizes and breeds including mares and stallions if they have not already. Some people were critical of the balls in red but it adds alot to making the world feel alive. Maybe I will start playing it to give feedback but my guess is that there is no Buget for that unfortunately because it's the small details that make or break an open world game. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Gregory Rainsborough said:

Would much rather just have smaller port battles back. It's a bit shite at the moment having such high BR ports.

The 2600-5000 br ports were great.

[AeRoTR]

On 6/28/2019 at 9:46 PM, Vizzini said:

sending an email to all on forums would have been something , for me, I don't load steam if I don't play NA and I am probably not the only one so a Steam announcement wouldnt have been noticed by me

I HAVE A GREAT IDEA. 

I am sure I am the first one in the world to figure it out! 

How about a splash screen when you log in to the game. Full screen, "NA IS RELEASED, Welcome to Version 1.0" and many information written below, wipe, release exams, some tips for new guys, and a tick box, do not show again!

I think I am a genious! Who would think of it? 

[jodgi]

On 6/28/2019 at 10:44 PM, van der Clam said:

Your WoT stat indeed shows a downtrend, does it not?...
...BTW, which server is your WoT stat? US? EU? RU?

It shows a downtrend and if you'd just said that I wouldn't have started typing. You also went on assuming to know what causes the trend, I can play that game too; It's arti and wheelies that are ruining the game . I pulled the EU stats so I wouldn't be accused of cooking the numbers  RU server is way, way bigger and the downtrend is much less pronounced.

ech! Even with with this terrible downtrend the low threshold of free-to-play gave the "dying" EU server 50k new accounts this month. I wish we could try that, even in a possibly smaller scale, with NA arena.

[Jim Beamreach]

7 hours ago, jodgi said:

ech! Even with with this terrible downtrend the low threshold of free-to-play gave the "dying" EU server 50k new accounts this month. I wish we could try that, even in a possibly smaller scale, with NA arena.

I think it was the wrong time for NA-Legends cause most of the Players where involved in to NA-OW there where a Ton of things too do in OW, from PB to get PvP-marks. And without any Promotion on Steam or announcment for all the People that had buyed the NA-OW Game.

So i think the timing was bad for NA-Legends is Point #1 and Point #2 many dont follow so much games or Forums so there where a lag of Players that didnt know about Legends.

[Tenet]

On 6/26/2019 at 6:15 AM, rediii said:

Solo Patrol works. (you get only 1v1 you know)

normal Patrolzone has worse ROE than normal OW battles that's true

How does one sail into a 1v1 zone when it is surrounded by a "Gank Me" zone? 

Why is the Solo 1v1 Patrol not in a separate place from the Group Patrol? 

Why is there no mechanic to get back to port after a 1v1 fight when you are weak and out of repairs?

[--Privateer--]

On 6/25/2019 at 5:23 PM, admin said:

But duels in real life happened a lot AND they happen in NA a lot. And that's why duels will only happen in OW. 

Could we get the duel room back, but as a practice room, where we can only fight people from our own nation? 

It's an indispensable tool for training. The practice room lets you try new things and refine skills. Back in the day we practiced demasting, leaking, boarding, stern raking, and anti-stern raking maneuvers. If you lost, you noted your mistakes and tried again. This is impossible in the OW.

Not only that, but most of the people who did use the duel room to practice are STILL PLAYING. This is because they learned the skills to be able to sail alone in the open world. This is how we get Rear Admirals who can PVP vs Rear Admirals that get clubbed outside their capital. They aren't getting clubbed because they're at their capital, they're getting clubbed because they lack the skills not to be clubbed.

In the OW they get sunk before they can learn, and eventually become disheartened. A practice room would solve this.

P.S. You can't say no one used duel rooms, but also they took people out of the OW. It's one or the other. 😉

 

[Puchu]

I fully aggree, just need to add that here is no reason to limit its use to be vs your own nation only actually. 

[Puchu]

So let's talk a little about player demographics and migration according to gametype.

If you want statistics here is a good place to start: https://www.wepc.com/news/video-game-statistics/ 

 

If you think about who played Seatrials, it was mostly people who came from arena type simulator games. Especially the arena style flight simulators was where many people came from (people and streamers like Schuetzengel e.g.). That's also why many people liked, watched and bought the game because they knew they would get their fun in the manner that they were used to.

Many of those people were also notorious beta players who dont shy away from unfinished games and are generally curious of game developement (People like Jodgi and Hethwell e.G.). So when the first few were let into the OW they jumped on it, and while seatrials was still active, the most active players had alrdy hopped into the OW out of curiosity and to test it to see if it is "any good".

When people realised, that there was basically no content to be had under 4h playtime, many people quit. They had been used to Arena type gameplay, which was completely gone and the player landscape changed. All those who only hopped on to play 1 or 2 battles after work were now gone. The average age of the male gamer is 33. I think it is much higher for NA. So most of the players here have jobs and family to take care of and especially the family doesnt want them to disappear for 5h in the evening.

So the average gamer of ST left and over the years a different playertype got predominant. Lets call them the OW-Players. These OW-Players are people who have more than 2-3h per day that they are willing Invest into NA. People like moscalb e.g. who are basically allways online, sometimes even with multiple accounts. Those are people who have been actively looking for a game like NA-OW. And of course they are happy with the game design in general, because thats what they came here for. 

Then NAL was started and thrown onto a demografic of OW Players... and the OW players didnt like it and didnt play it. Of course they didnt. It's not what they came for and its not what they wanted in the first place. Ask a group of vegetarians if they want a delicious steak... it will give you the same results. The Beta players also came to test it, found that the mechanics were massively lacking and needed massive overhaul. They stated there criticism and nothing changed. So their job was done aswell. There was nothing more for them to test since it didnt change and there was no inclination that it was going to change. The Arena players had already left NA-OW and letf the Forum, so most of them just didnt notice that NAL even existed. So those that might have liked the general concept had already been driven away by the OW design.

Now the game got "released" but nothing has really changed from its beta days. Only that many of the testers from the old days have come back to see how it has all shaped up and how the "final game" that they have been part of for so many years has shaped up. After a few weeks of getting to know the release version many have figured out that the game still has the same concepts and flaws which made them leave before in the first place and the player numbers will drop back to what they were a few months before release. So again only the OW-Players tho came after ST and who came after release will be the ones remaining. And of course they are going to be the ones who like the OW concept because thats why they are there. 

So if one looks at game genre statistics, one can see that the games that provide quick action are much more prominent than games that have slow action. I am very sure that there are more people in the world who fit into this cathegory: 1. Likes naval combat 2. Has job and kids and only 1-2 hours to play at max per day 3. Needs to have instant action, because he never knows when he can steal himself away from his dutys and cant afford to hang out on the ow all day. 

The statistics suggest that the market for that kind of player is way bigger than for the gamertype that is required for NA-OW.

So for the life of me i cannot understand why there seems to be no intention to make the game appeal to a much larger demografic by adding an ability to get instant fights in the limited time that one has.

 

Edit: People have been asking why i am so persistant and what drugs I am taking. It's actually pretty simple: I just want to play the combat of NA within the limited time that i can spare to do so, since I also have a job and kids like many of the actual and potential NA players do. I can play a max of 1-2h per day. If i make room i can do 1 full day per month. And in that time it just doesnt satisfy me to watch the ow. I want to fight real players right now. And yes, the current design of the game just isnt for me. Thats why im asking it to be added, adapted, changed, tuned, whatever you want, to be more fit for people like me, because i think "we" are actually many.

Edited July 3, 2019 by Puchu

[Turing]

So patch notes are no longer a thing at all? And since we are at the half point of 2019, theres no development plans?

[Norfolk nChance]

@Puchu

Realistic STAGES for NA-L, Lobby, Contests or Duel Rooms…

 

Stage1: Launch NA-OW and bed it in

To achieve any form of ARENA gameplay it must be based around NA-OW and its model updates.

Stage2: BASIC Duel-Room DLC

Like the original Duel-Room trials. PvP/PvE and allow drop in Battle Instances from all even same Nation/Clan contests. Sling shot bug disabled. This packaged is offered as an extra DLC cost on top of the BASE NA-OW game with limited time. Outsiders cannot access it.

Would you as an existing owner PURCHASE this DLC…?

Stage3: Contests Added to DLC Function

Optional Contests can be entered via this DLC download. Winners will receive hard to get skill books, cash and BLING. Weekly and Monthly contests covering different scenarios. To add to this will be TEAM events. Members can be of different Nations or clans…Also an OUT-OF-GAME kill board tied to the Duel-Room.

Idea: Limited Time DLC Duel Rooms Function.

The cost of the DLC needs to be cheap, but it expires every quarter or half year. WHY…?

The Contests offer BLING, rare bling. The Dev’s can monitor realistically how they can market this product to the FIX sales group who have bought the main game already…

Stage4: Test Launch Naval-Action Legends

With this knowledge the Dev’s have learned and bedded in its time to test an independent game. This game still tied to the NA-OW models…

And so on…That’s a lot of steps...

For @admin to be remotely interested in it, It needs to pay for itself.

 

Norfolk

 

[Angus MacDuff]

2 minutes ago, Norfolk nChance said:

Would you as an existing owner PURCHASE this DLC…?

Not me.  Only 50% of my combat fun is the fight.  The other half is stalking/hunting and then evading/countering the retaliation.  An arena aspect feels contrived an incomplete to me.  Of course, I have no objection to what others enjoy and if it were made a DLC, then it should have no impact on me.

[Macjimm]

2 hours ago, Angus MacDuff said:

An arena aspect feels contrived an incomplete to me.  Of course, I have no objection to what others enjoy and if it were made a DLC, then it should have no impact on me.

NA legends, or a variation of an Arena Combat Game would be boring for me.   I have no interest in fighting repeated battles.

I would feel like I was wasting my limited time if there was no content other than fight after fight.  I have no intention of slugging it out in 5 or 6 hour sessions, day after day, just to rank on a pixeled competition ladder.  I prefer to make a trade run or two because I only have an hour or so per session.  It's simple and easy with interesting long term goals and integrated National (and clan) strategies.

I have no objection to NA-Competition-Arena, and see it might be an enhancement to Naval Action because it may attract (and remove) those players who hate sailing and thrive on the mind numbing boredom of continuous action.  Those players might stop trying to degrade Naval Action with the efforts to remove trading, economy, and sailing.  Could be a win-win.

Edited July 3, 2019 by Macjimm

[Puchu]

4 hours ago, Norfolk nChance said:

Would you as an existing owner PURCHASE this DLC…?

I would. If it would allign with or even be better than the ideas that i posted in the other thread.

1 hour ago, Macjimm said:

I have no objection to NA-Competition-Arena, and see it might be an enhancement to Naval Action because it may attract (and remove) those players who hate sailing and thrive on the mind numbing boredom of continuous action.  Those players might stop trying to degrade Naval Action with the efforts to remove trading, economy, and sailing.  Could be a win-win.

Ah i love some provocative discussion.  

If you prefere staring at the ow for 2h over doing 2-4 real fights vs actual people, then you are indeed very different from me. But you also deserve a place in NA OW since NA has become just what you seem to love. But it is no more what people who love the mind numbing boredom of real even combat love. It used to be, but it got taken away from us to benefit you. I dont want to take anything away from you. I just want a place for me and the likes of me aswell. 

Its interesting how i bought an arena game, which turned into an ow game and now im supposed to buy the arena game again. Why dont we make it the other way round? Let's give everyone who bought the Beta Seatrials and those who want the OW should buy it as a dlc. Sounds reasonable right? I mean ... They get so much more from it. You get  hunting, stalking, fleeing, ganking, crafting, bottles, portbattles, traderuns and and and... But you only bought Seatrials.

Would you as an existing owner PURCHASE this OW DLC...?

[Norfolk nChance]

Both @Angus MacDuff and @Macjimm make valid points that an ARENA style game version is not for them. For me, WoWs couldn’t hold me long enough either, but I did learn it was as much about the publisher’s continual drive at the client that makes ARENA games work as well as the combat model and great graphics...

This is way too far ahead for NA-OW however...

A BASIC Duel-Room DLC as I mentioned above. Say USD2.00 for six months access.

Would you give this DLC ago for the price?

The Stage steps are to allow the Dev’s to toy and play with this new style ARENA mechanic. It needs a low repeater income stream while in NA-OW. This once grounded in would allow for Competition roll-outs... But not at the start, just the basic room functions.

The Cost is needed at first to allow HR allocation to the project. Even a small sum allows for forward planning. The Dev’s or @admin need to learn how to entice the community into the DLC. With the repeater cost, they need to keep pushing new content into the DLC or players will drift away and not renew the fee even though its small.

This via marketing weekly, monthly and TEAM events with rewards to match like ‘The Book of Five Rings...’ or scenarios to complete via Co-Op teams at different PC Rank levels. You get the picture? This is a new style of gaming to what GL have done before. The staff have experience of this, so I know they know what’s needed.

I would buy the DLC at first and see...

I want @admin to allocate more resources and build more content within NA-OW. The DLC Duel-Room is a good way to help develop or try an extended area of the NA-Franchise. The stage method mentioned allows for limited up front investment. If the idea proves popular, then measured allocation is an easy step up without risking the company balance sheet. If unpopular easy to drop without the large initial cost.

Would also like to see what plans GL have for the second half of 2019 for NA-OW...

 

Norfolk

 

[Farrago]

Honestly all my DLC or alt purchases are on hold until I see some positive development. Something. And I don’t mean just bug fixes. I mean fixes to improve some of the many issues repeatedly, for months/years pointed out. Pick one. Even adding more paints to the DLC I already purchased would be a step. Make a real crafting XP improvement. Make a real trading improvement. Work on the ROE problem. Work on the Port Battle BR issue. Improve the new player experience with more tutorial or instructions. SOMETHING that shows the game is moving forward rather than just tidying up after the release and moving on to a different project. They could even make an announcement that they are basically satisfied with the game but will be releasing DLC for players wishing to expedite/ease their experiences in game.

[Mr. Doran]

6 hours ago, Macjimm said:

I have no objection to NA-Competition-Arena, and see it might be an enhancement to Naval Action because it may attract (and remove) those players who hate sailing and thrive on the mind numbing boredom of continuous action.  .

 

Only the community of Naval Action could possibly ever say that "continuous action" is boring. 

[Vernon Merrill]

Only the diehard legends community could ever fighting the same battle over and over exciting....

[Mr. Doran]

34 minutes ago, Vernon Merrill said:

Only the diehard legends community could ever fighting the same battle over and over exciting....

 

Are we going to pretend that there are not a select amount of archetypal types of battles that you can find yourself in playing OW? Go ahead, tell me when you start finding, or more likely, ignoring the similarities. 

 

My personal experience during my years was spending probably 70%+ of my time solo-hunting. I did in fact run into the same situations continuously.  Usually against someone who never stood a chance even if they were in a larger ship. The difference between me running into the same situation, fighting the same battle over and over again, is that in an arena I can fight that battle continuously without potentially needing to search it out first for three hours. Yes I know this is a "sailing" game. As much as basically having the same OW sailing model as POTBS can be seriously considered "sailing". But I would rather not do the pretend "sailing" in order to fight the same types of battle continuously. Even the time I spent group-fighting and ganking it was always the same situations time after time. But yet again, with the same "fun" caveat of wasting god knows how many hours to get a decent fight if a fight at all. There are only some many types of battles and circumstances you will commonly run into in OW... you just may be spending a lot of time to get one of the good ones.  

[Macjimm]

6 hours ago, Mr. Doran said:

Only the community of Naval Action could possibly ever say that "continuous action" is boring. 

Continuous action lacks excitement.  When the violence and fighting is unending it starts to become uninteresting.  Like a continuous diet of the same taste.  It is variety and anticipation that creates tension.   Without ups and downs even the most extreme experience begins to seem flat and bland.

I just don't play for long enough at a time to get bored with OW.   Perhaps if I sailed for too long at a time I would feel different.  It is more fun to break up long journeys into several smaller legs and take several days to complete the voyage.

[Mr. Doran]

3 hours ago, Macjimm said:

Continuous action lacks excitement.  When the violence and fighting is unending it starts to become uninteresting.  Like a continuous diet of the same taste.  It is variety and anticipation that creates tension.   Without ups and downs even the most extreme experience begins to seem flat and bland.

I just don't play for long enough at a time to get bored with OW.   Perhaps if I sailed for too long at a time I would feel different.  It is more fun to break up long journeys into several smaller legs and take several days to complete the voyage.

 

You can temper the high you are looking for even in an arena game by the same function of simply just limiting your playtime of combat which is essentially what you are describing in regards to OW. For me, the adrenaline and uncertainty faded for me in Sea-Trials and well before OW closed access became available to the "testers". A well designed game does not need to keep you on edge and high strung in order to be enjoyed. Even though the high had disappeared for me long ago I could play the combat model we had just prior to the introduction of structure indefinitely via the duel-room without getting bored of it. Just like Chess and Chess players, albeit I do hate the game, I do not think play for the excitement and thrill after the five-thousandth game. They play because there is an incredibly well designed game in front of them with great depth to it. There is no cheap gimmick required in order to keep them coming back. All they need and want is the game. 

A parallel to Naval Action in regards to the thrill and excitement factor for me is Day-Z. When I first played Day-Z and purposely try to get into as many combat situations as possible you have that thrill, excitement, and adrenaline. But of course as in pretty much all games that does eventually fade. I continued to play not to seek a high of some sort but because there is a depth to the game of finding quarries and killing them. 

[Mr. Doran]

15 hours ago, Farrago said:

Work on the ROE problem. 

 

What problem?

[Macjimm]

5 hours ago, Mr. Doran said:

I continued to play not to seek a high of some sort but because there is a depth to the game of finding quarries and killing them. 

They play because there is an incredibly well designed game in front of them with great depth to it. There is no cheap gimmick required in order to keep them coming back. All they need and want is the game. 

Well said Mr Doran.

[Angus MacDuff]

9 hours ago, Macjimm said:

Continuous action lacks excitement.  When the violence and fighting is unending it starts to become uninteresting.  Like a continuous diet of the same taste.  It is variety and anticipation that creates tension.   Without ups and downs even the most extreme experience begins to seem flat and bland.

It's like that Game of Thrones episode this year that was nothing but a big battle with the walkers...I was bored.