Testbed Feedback - Battle UI, Localization, Patrols, Delivery quests

[Sea Archer]

1 hour ago, Archaos said:

If the rewards are reduced that low then people will not bother doing the missions. The current rewards may be too easy as there is little downside to taking the mission and failing, but as you can see from my sample trip above after a long trip away from home waters to get these rewards you soon fill up and become a very attractive target. The rewards could be reduced a bit but nowhere near what you are suggesting.

The doubloons shall be reduced, but filled up woth reales. I don't see why that is not attractive.

[Archaos]

46 minutes ago, Sea Archer said:

The doubloons shall be reduced, but filled up woth reales. I don't see why that is not attractive.

That would be okay, either way they have to make the missions attractive but not too easy.

I think there will be a requirement for fast interceptors as most delivery missions will be done in fast trader lynxes.

[Sea Archer]

The sextant perk is too much gps for my taste. Can you reduce it to the last noon position?

But to say something positive, I really like the new icons for goods. You should go on with those.

[Guest]

Maybe it was already reported but I'ver overseen it. 

Ghost Ships are back. AI's sails disappear sometimes when shooting with chains. Further shots on the sails are not counting as though sails are not there anymore.

[Jan van Santen]

On a general note regarding testbed: I find it hard to compare apples to oranges....

On life server I use 4/5 or 5/5 ships w all bookslots unlocked and solid upgrades/books (carta, gunnery encyclopedia...)

On testbed I have to use 3/5 no trim no books ships.

So when comparing testbed/life fights, I never know is it the ai or is it my inferior ships.

I'd therefore suggest we should get on testbed better ships and a selection of upgrade, so that we can model what we use on life server.

Or, if that is possible at all: allow us to use a copy of our ships from lifeserver. (unless ofc a restart situation is wanted)

Edited February 3, 2019 by Jan van Santen

[Aquillas]

I completed the testbed twice with two accounts without major problem.

The adaptation to the inversion of bow and stern selection ammo is easy and rapid.

I tested once the trading missions (a transport to make from Fort-Royal to Saint Pierre, for 1 doubloon). This worked OK, and it short enough to be easily tested by such a lazy player as I am. Then such missions were locked I think, because I couldn't select more.

I just got from times to times the Hieroglyph bug, and reported it by F11.

@admin, thanks and congrats.

[admin]

2 minutes ago, Eleazar de Damas said:

The adaptation to the inversion of bow and stern selection ammo is easy and rapid.

 

initially we wanted to change back but decided to stick with it. 
Buttons should correspond to the positions of bow stern guns on the reload circles . which means bow to the right and stern to the left. 
 

[Michael of Saxe Coberg]

Boarding:

I think that the boarding game isn't much fun and that the interface is not appealing. So much now "feels right" with the game that this area let's NA down. I don't know if the developers have the time or resources to implement significant changes but I'd like to make a suggestion:

The current game is really just a two-dimensional grid game; you pick one option, your opponent picks one, and given enough prep time you can switch your choice. At the start of each round the current state is all that affects your playing decisions. Currently you can see the other player's choice, and even with the testbed implementation you can deduce it from the preparation time changes.

I'd like to see your choices presented as a deck of cards from which you make your selections. If you have perks such as Nassau Boarders they could have their own card. Each card has a time cost (preparation if you like) and you play a sequence of cards, either face up or face down at extra time cost. Choosing a run of cards, say 2 * attack would be cheaper than choosing them singly. At each round the first card in each players sequence is revealed, consequences invoked with say 5 seconds to make changes or additions to your sequence. Changes costing significantly more time cost.

With this system you (and your opponent) could plan a boarding action that then might well change as the battle progressed, but that would reward planning. It would also help mitigate the influence that ping times seem to have, I suspect it's not fun to have 300ms+ ping playing against someone with 20ms ping.

Visually it would be a lot more appealing and perhaps more in keeping with the flavour of the game. I don't think a "full-blown" boarding game is possible or desirable as it has to take place in the context of other ships in the same battle continuing to fight and influencing your game.

As always, my thanks to the devs for a game that I find very enjoyable.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, admin said:

initially we wanted to change back but decided to stick with it. 
Buttons should correspond to the positions of bow stern guns on the reload circles . which means bow to the right and stern to the left. 
 

its default right? so i can just rebind it if i want?

[Sir Loorkon]

1 hour ago, Michael of Saxe Coberg said:

I'd like to see your choices presented as a deck of cards from which you make your selections. If you have perks such as Nassau Boarders they could have their own card. Each card has a time cost (preparation if you like) and you play a sequence of cards, either face up or face down at extra time cost. Choosing a run of cards, say 2 * attack would be cheaper than choosing them singly. At each round the first card in each players sequence is revealed, consequences invoked with say 5 seconds to make changes or additions to your sequence. Changes costing significantly more time cost.

This is a very interesting idea!  Reminds me of Gwynt, a card based game in the game "The Witcher". This would be a great boarding game!

[Hethwill]

Oh gods no... no cards...Not even in single player... A thousand times Blood&Plunder figurines in the boardings  But back to NA... and this thread feedback.

I feel the Boarding UI without transparency to have less action than before. There's nothing going on, no animation, no ships still fighting, no figurines moving on the deck. At least with the transparency there was some visual noise going on.

 

[Capn Rocko]

There was a card mini game for boarding in Uncharted Waters 2 that worked pretty well. But it was based around the idea of 2 captains dueling each other, not entire crews. It could be adapted to better suit Naval Action though. Anything would be better than the current boarding game imo. 

 

Edited February 4, 2019 by Capn Rocko

[Angus MacDuff]

15 minutes ago, Hethwill said:

Oh gods no... no cards...Not even in single player... A thousand times Blood&Plunder figurines in the boardings  But back to NA... and this thread feedback.

I feel the Boarding UI without transparency to have less action than before. There's nothing going on, no animation, no ships still fighting, no figurines moving on the deck. At least with the transparency there was some visual noise going on.

 

I still say, Auto-complete the boarding.  Measure Crew size, morale, prep, mods. etc and give us a Gucci animation to fill some time......Bob's yer uncle and nobody complains about ping n' such.

[Baptiste Gallouédec]

The boarding system is not that bad, a card game would manage to be even less immersive, and too much outside of the combat instance.

 

Just add some arts to the battle log.

 

Also please increase the size of the Melee & Fire indicators as they are now the main info to read.

The purple(blue?) tipbox on the choices button block the clicking of the button if you clic on it. 

Also i would like those options to be selectable by key shortcuts instead of clics. 

 

[Zlatkowar]

The card game idea comparison is not bad. Card game while OW sailing would be nice too xD

[Jan van Santen]

As to Boarding: I have no problem myself with the new system, since I already know the rock/paper/scissors part.

I am asking myself though, how a new player is supposed to learn it, if he doesnt see the ai actions ?

Basically now he would need an external guide . Learning by doing isnt working imo with the new system.

[van der Clam]

This is all we are asking for. I would not mind the rock, paper, scissors boarding as long as we had some action in the background that correlates with the actions we are giving and the sounds we are hearing. Just have the cannon dudes on the ship do stuff related to boarding. We don't need to control each dude, we don't need fps, we don't need something hugely extravagant, we just want some action that looks nice...something like this behind the Boarding Window.

 

[Rouleur]

How do you get the rewards - I have killed more than 25 AI of which I boarded 7 or 8 them sank them in the x screen - no reward at maintenance though - bemused.

[Angus MacDuff]

4 minutes ago, Rouleur said:

How do you get the rewards - I have killed more than 25 AI of which I boarded 7 or 8 them sank them in the x screen - no reward at maintenance though - bemused.

Gotta wait till they close the testbed

[van der Clam]

1 hour ago, Banished Privateer said:

Naval Action needs 3D boarding for complete realistic battles  

It would be nice, but this isn't a character fps or whatever it's called. I don't think NA will ever be players controlling an actual character. But yes, it would be cool.

[Zlatkowar]

I was thinking of a RTS type boarding system where you could order troops on the deck with different troop types and different strategies like you could either keep an equal amount of them on the entire lenght of the ship or concentrate fire on one point to try and break through once you managed to lower enemy crew etc... But it would be much more complex to develop as it is a genre on its own.

[Baptiste Gallouédec]

This will never happen. 

 

And i prefer the rock paper scissor with a good ui to some kind of heroes of Might&magic fantasy abstraction

[Zlatkowar]

I was more thinking of the most classic total war you could imagine, only on a ship

[Guest]

15 hours ago, van der Decken said:

A good idea.

the numbers could show up while the scene plays through the next 10 seconds while you choose your next move

[Baptiste Gallouédec]

29 minutes ago, Zlatkowar said:

I was more thinking of the most classic total war you could imagine, only on a ship

i know and i was telling about that, i would love an "ala totalwar" boarding, but this is too much asking for this game engine and team sadly. When i look at this sad boarding UI on testbed, i understand they will not spend time or ressources on this anymore.