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

[z4ys]

5 minutes ago, Hethwill said:

Not really... entirely... true. Distance covered and time. In tacking you only have to turn through about 12 points, to wear you have 20 points to cover. ( points of sail )

But yes, the "future position" determines how the guns will be used. Hence beating can be sustained, as much as wind allows, but that's it. 

 

Did come across these when designing some rules for tabletop, which may even be more effectively used in NA. ( in tabletop, time is better be abstract for game flow ). Has some solid fact about the wears and tacks and immobilization of ships with cross yards at 6 points of the wind ( not on the eye of the wind ).

http://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol13/tnm_13_4_29-39.pdf

https://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol14/tnm_14_3_57-68.pdf

Was starting for both at 90° so same change of degrees.

[Hethwill]

Wearing was always the "less of two evils". If i'm not mistaken 17th century orders had some explicit entries against tacking through, but the rigging evolution in a 100 years was immense. Same as the guns  

[Esprit]

Concerning how damages are displayed, it is a bit hard to see the icons on top of the screen. They are rather small, too high on the screen, and they do not last long enough. This is particularly critical for leaks, I would say, since leaks play a strong role in some important decisions during fights.

What about having them displayed directly underneath the boat target on the top right side of the screen?

I have not checked how the boarding looks like now but it was rather dry when the patch was initially deployed.

Otherwise, great job and interesting additional content - thank you!

Edited February 14, 2019 by Esprit

[DeRuyter]

8 hours ago, Hethwill said:

Not really... entirely... true. Distance covered and time. In tacking you only have to turn through about 12 points, to wear you have 20 points to cover. ( points of sail )

But yes, the "future position" determines how the guns will be used. Hence beating can be sustained, as much as wind allows, but that's it. 

 

Did come across these when designing some rules for tabletop, which may even be more effectively used in NA. ( in tabletop, time is better be abstract for game flow ). Has some solid fact about the wears and tacks and immobilization of ships with cross yards at 6 points of the wind ( not on the eye of the wind ).

http://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol13/tnm_13_4_29-39.pdf

https://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol14/tnm_14_3_57-68.pdf

Nice find. 👍 I have a couple Willis' books ("The Fighting Temeraire"). He has put together a good synopsis of sources here. Your compass rose illustrated that even a generous angle of 60 degrees would be playable and lead to more "realistic" tactics. 

It is important to note that some ships, in particular longer ships did not wear well. Some ships were noted to be "good in stays" on their sailing reports as well. (I believe Endymion was one of these). Also we shouldn't forget about boxhauling - which was mostly done when a ship missed stays or failed to tack. 

Of course the weather had a big effect on whether a fleet or ship for that matter tacked or wore to change course. Tacking was very risky in high wind and heavy seas for example. Being caught aback could have dire consequences for the rigging!  No worries about this in NA so carry on. 

[Marquês do Bonfim]

Just sunk an Indefatigable with my Endymion, easy enough. I had some upgrades, poods and carros mounted and I still had to give her 5~6 broadsides to sink her.

[Carlos_Condell]

@admin i did a quick test on the new damage model with a capped 5th rate against a 1st rate. i fought a lone Santisima with this ship.

 

as you can see, nothing special. i put Bow figure Katherine and Light canvas on it, 42pd carros and medium guns for stern and bow.

this is the result of the fight:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/534858936856084512/545725892396056586/unknown.png

well my impresions, the fight start with both ships side to side, i shoot a full broadside ( cause i had prepared perk) and i did some damage at 250mt aprox, then i turn to take the stern and i stay there, did a couple of good stern rakes and even i put her in crew shock with a nice grape racke, the fight gone well taking some damage and bouncing others (still bow tanking works a little with the indef, at least agains npc) i was very afraid when the santi fool me in a maneuver and i almost get boarded, but i manage to stay away and i save myself when she pull me, this happen when Santi went close hauled and i didnt notice the wind shift and didnt manage my distance correctly... anyway, i took a lot of damage with her broadside, but i destroy his rudder and i save myself, reapair and go back to fight... this continue for about 30 minutes, after 4 repair cicles and a lot of racking shots i notice something...

friggates can sink 1st rates in 1v1 if the friggate captain is smart and fight without mistakes and Know what he is doing BUT if you get chained or demasted you basically are dead, so Im very glad to have this nice and well balance again, SOL are deadly and it should be, but they are not invincible, wich is nice! but in a good player hands probably they should, at least 1v1.

some aditional stuff i noticed, sometimes when i put straight shots into his stern, i don't do any damage on the structure but i kill some crew and cannons, wich sometimes buggered me cause i need to do another pass and the bar dont move at all... anyway.

conclusions: 1v1 friggate vs 1st rate(npc)  Posible - Very hard, but posible
                        1v1 friggate vs 1st rate/2nd rate (player) Posible, BUT Hard as Hell !!! 

PS: i add another Screenshot fo the fight, take a look of the damage... i almost sank it by only raking shots... i put some broadsides into his left side, but not much
 

 

Edited February 14, 2019 by Carlos_Condell

[LIONOFWALES]

Ok I just got done spending a good 2 hours or so on test bed... this is my opinion after seeing what is and is not,

1) PVP hunting missions, in my opinion, should not be limited to a specific class of ship, especially if the PVP mission is intended to be open world oriented and not limited primarily to port battles. I like the idea for PVP rewards, I think missions are a good way to influence this, however being I am somewhat experienced in the PVP open world theater in game, I highly recommend not to put stringencies on class of ship... just a head count would be good. NPC missions on the other hand are just fine with the rated limitations.

2) I took several ships in game... NPCs, and the dabloon return was very high in my opinion. Such quantities of dabloons should only be available in a mission instance, and only to reward those that successfully took a ship by boarding in my opinion. After roughly an hour of play I had pulled around 300 dabloons off of a random brig, then got around 500 dabloons off of a 5th rate I took, then I captured a La Gros Venture and got 1340 dabloons off of it. Don't get me wrong, I am in favour of rewarding people the trouble for combat, the dabloons gained from doing such activities just seems too high to me, I think the dabloons gained should be cut by 75%. Perhaps consider removing dabloons except for in missions or epic events as the increased dabloons would encourage people to play the missions more than just looking for a super sized NPC fleet to kill. I should also remark that I do believe that the inflated dabloon quantity would be condussive on the PVE server, it just doesn't feel right on the PVP server in my opinion.

3) I tried the delivery system out, very cool in my opinion, this makes sense to me to have this in game because delivering goods or personnel to locations of importance was a thing and would fit nicely in Naval Action. In my opinion the rewards are decent for the risk involved and should encourage newer players to risk themselves and their ships to gain the 1500 to 2500 or so dabloons that they would earn after completing such a hazardous voyage. This specific genera of missions will be good for those that like to smuggle or blockade run. The delivery missions are very good in my opinion. One thing that I do feel obligated to propose... can you make these missions stealable from the ship hold after defeat by say a pirate or other warring faction? That is, say, a player, we will call him Smith, in a Traders Brig is running mail to Puerto Plata, he gets intercepted by Pirate Longshanks half way into his voyage and the mail is taken from Smith. The time to deliver the mail is still listed on the mail mission and the pirate player can see it and the info. Lets say there is 4 days left to deliver the mail and gain from the mission. The Pirate, Longshanks , decides to take the mail then and get the rewards instead of Smith. Can we please consider this as a mechanic in game to encourage some real pirate work? Just a thought, this in my opinion would be really cool. If these sort of missions could eventually replace just killing super fleets I am very much in favor of them.

4) I saw the 3 pound base cannons... they have the exact same stats as 4 pound mediums, I hope this changes. Would you consider making a basic cannon class that can not be double loaded in any way? Make the new cheap cannons standard in port items and create a trade for medium cannons in game? The cheap cannons could be lighter and cause the same damage as mediums, maybe with a small range penalty, you know, super cheap junkers that nobody really would want to use, but would offer some super cheap options for poor players, even consider making them only available between 3 pound and up to 12 or 18 pound. We then could focus on making the mediums exclusively player driven just like carronades and longs. Perhaps also consider adding the Poods to the Admiralty store. I feel this would be a good way to go and would bring a booster to the cannons trade in my humble opinion.

5) I tested the accuracy for the Sextant, very good so far, would you consider starting new players with it automatically? I think this would be a good way to go, after running a couple of mail deliveries successfully a newer player would be able to afford a new ship from the Admiralty and a permit to reset their perks if they so desire.

Thank you for your time, I have truly enjoyed this beta and I feel that this game is going the right direction.

Please take my advice seriously, I have put a lot of time into pulling this data from in game experience over the last couple years for you. None of my thoughts were driven by a whim or moment of emotion. All was thought out very carefully and articulated accordingly.

I look forward to getting that Santa Cecelia, I will love getting sunk in it.

Good luck Devs and best of wishes.

Sincerely,

LIONOFWALES aka... Count Ceprian Von Igmann

Never take a line ship out without a good frigate escort, and never initiate an engagement you think you may lose.

 

Edited February 15, 2019 by LIONOFWALES

[CdrNexoe]

Done the killings a& boardings, more than 7 days ago.

When do we get the promised rewards?

[Hethwill]

4 hours ago, CdrNexoe said:

Done the killings a& boardings, more than 7 days ago.

When do we get the promised rewards?

If i'm not mistaken they should be awarded same as last time, when patch is deployed live.

[Hethwill]

No idea. Last time we had testbed the rewards were in redeemables on live server after the full patch deployment. That's all i know.

[Holm Hansen]

33 minutes ago, Borch said:

Is the patch going to be deployed with Battle UI, Localization, Patrols, Delivery quests only or with new damage as well? In case of new damage model is it going to be tested throughly first or released live to be fully tested there? In case of new damage model being tested fully on the testbed and being released with other new feature, how long is that going to take?

That would interest me too, because we finally need npc on the PVE server and the new patch should help. The only hint i found here:

Therefore it looks like that the damage model will be patched separately, so at least the state on Monday.

... would also make sense for me, because the new damage model is indeed a bigger project.

 

[Marquês do Bonfim]

Some of my experiences yesterday:

I was able to finally craft a few frigates with Live Oak/White Oak ~ Oak/Oak wood and started my journey on hunting down ships from the same rate and occasionaly heavier frigates, 4th rates. After crafting me 2 Endymion's and a Belle Poule, I took my fleet up north towards Key West and Jobe, which I knew was a good place to hunt down frigates and sloops. After getting there, got an outpost on both ports I mentioned and headed out for the hunt. After a few minutes in open waters, I faced a French Indefatigable by herself sailing a few miles east from the coast and I engaged. By now, I only had a Oak/Oak Endymion w/ structure hp + thickness upgrades, 18p Poods gun deck, 32p carronades on the weather deck, 32p bow chasers and 9p longs on my stern-chasers. After engaging, I managed to do as much damage as I could possibly deliver and I screen'd to receive as much damage as I could aswell, so I can test both ways, the Indefatigable packs a heavy punch, but because of my upgrades, I was able to sponge almost 15% of all of her damage, really holding my HP bar high enough. After exchanging broadsides, she was done and I still had almost 75~80% structure, 20% L side and 80~ on my R side.

 

After the battle against the Indefatigable, I thought about getting back to port to repair, 'cause I didn't have any on my hold, but as soon as I setsail, I spotted a Spanish Frigate sailing right past me like it was nothing, so I start pursuing and engaged right outside port. My tag was right beside her, so the first broadside I gave, took almost everything of her R side, about that time, it was only a matter of reload-time and keep her screening with me.

 

By that time, my journey up North was pretty much done, I was thinking about sailing Southwest towards Key West again to pick up my other 2 frigates (A Live Oak/White Oak Endymion and a Live Oak/White Oak Belle Poule), so I could sail South back to Mortimer or even St. Nicolas, and I saw her... A lonely Wasa coming down from the US Coast, and I thought for myself, I could possibly engage her and probably even sink her, if I didn't have poods and carronades perhaps, or could I? So I engaged. I tried to keep my distance far, around 400m out, shooting her sails down so I could slow her down even more, and maneuver around to rake her sterns a few times, but my plan failed right after the start. As soon as I set full sails, she started sniping me from 400m out like it was 250m, every single shot that she delivered was biting a huge chunk of my HP, even though I was faster than her, she gave me leaks after 2~3 broadsides from afar, my L side was completely gone and my structure was hanging from around 35~40% and she kept firing shots at me every 5 seconds, sniping me. I managed to get my distance even further, but she managed to creep up on me from behind with her stern-chasers annd kept raking my stern till my structure finally gave away, and I finally got sunk.

[Marquês do Bonfim]

I did have the footage, but for some reason it got corrupted and I couldn't use it.

[CdrNexoe]

On 2/15/2019 at 10:52 AM, Hethwill said:

If i'm not mistaken they should be awarded same as last time, when patch is deployed live.

Aka sometimes in the not determinable future… As like the "going live" in end of 2015.....

[jnovotny6]

I wish admin would respond to this, rewards could be given anytime , no need to wait for the patch......its not a huge coding feat

 

[do not say dlc]

No coding at all...just reasign new values to given modules.

[Eyesore]

Yesterday, fought a battle against a player (bellona vs Pavel) on testbed. (only one battle with the new update)(only 3 people were online, so lucky to find one of them close by)

To me it felt like the fight (patch/update) was better than the ones i had a week earlier (did only pve).

My bellona was teak/white, navy hull and structure, something that gave me 10% thickness on masts, medium guns (32/24/9). Only one bookslot unlocked which had 'melee training'. I don't know anything about the pavel, except that it seemed very hard to penetrate it (even when at pointblank (tried doubles and charged)).

Startingpositions : both ships point almost into the wind, land on the starboardside (in front of Philipsburg), Pavel sits behind the bellona.

Pavel tries to maintain its position (and succeeds for a while), Bellona tries to get into a position to take controle of the wind. Being in font of the Pavel, the bellona fires broadsides into the pavel's bow at first, one broadside of chain. The shots to the stern did considerable damage to the pavel's structure. When the bellona got on the pavel's stern it could just continue to rake and bring down the structure to nearly nothing. The bellona's broadsides on the pavel's flanks (perfect angle) had little effect (compared to the structuredamage the raking chad caused (which makes me thinks it may have been live oak and/or had thicknessmods equiped?)). Two broadsides from the pavel took out 50/60% of the bellona's portflank,almost no structure lost.

Bellona repaired hull while continuing to angle and get/stay behind the pavel and rake more structuredamage.

The pavel then chained the bellona (2 chainbroadsides brought it to 49%, big mistake on the bellona's side, well done by the pavel). It was too late by then, the structuredamage on the pavel had slowed it down to a crawl aswell, even the loss of a bowsprit and frontmast on the bello could not turn the tide and the bellona could rep sails a few minutes later, while it chained the pavel once more (which sailrepped soon after). With all the raking through front and bow, no masts fell on the pavel.

The bellona hit only 26 masts. It did never really aim the masts, mostly hull (90% : stern and bow). The pavel also did not concentrate on masts (the bellona would have been demasted much sooner if it had? (after the fight it is easy to point things out, but the structuredamage through the raking went fairly quickly which made the pavel suffer severely in speed and manouverability and thus dimished it's potential to get guns on the bellona))

- Angling worked again. Not as much as in the old model, but it felt pretty ok to me. The 'window' seems closer (which is good).

- Damage to structure through raking (stern and bow) seems very high, especially considering the penalties such damage comes with.

- the fight lasted longer.

 

Perhaps something to add : at the moment, it doesn't matter where you hit the hull, it will lose armour/structure, even if you keep shooting through the same hole ... Is it not possible to make destroyed areas (?) invulnarable to new damage? So, we would have to really target specific points/areas on the hull to do critical structuredamage? (a bit like how damage for masts work? but a horizontal version of that?)

 

Picture to illustrate the structuredamage.

[admin]

On 2/15/2019 at 12:59 PM, Borch said:

Can we get an answer to this questions please @admin?

 

On 2/15/2019 at 1:29 PM, Holm Hansen said:

That would interest me too, because we finally need npc on the PVE server and the new patch should help. The only hint i found here:

... would also make sense for me, because the new damage model is indeed a bigger project.

 

We are trying to get the clan resource missions and new player helper guide into the patch before deploying. It is getting closer and closer. But we are not yet ready to provide the final date. 

[admin]

On 2/17/2019 at 8:33 AM, Eyesore said:

 

Perhaps something to add : at the moment, it doesn't matter where you hit the hull, it will lose armour/structure, even if you keep shooting through the same hole ... 

 

It works like you described for crew damage, cannon damage and internal module damage. So for crew if you inflicted enough casualties on the gun deck you wont be able to destroy them further. (same with sails) 

But for hull it was always one structure. Hitting it repeatedly lowers its integrity even if you shoot at the same area, because of energy transfer to overall structure.

[SirAlatriste]

Convoys/merchant fleet misions?

[admin]

27 minutes ago, Intrepido said:

What are the "clan ressources missions"? We have never heard of them.

too early to announce

[Rouleur]

Been on the test server a few times - liking the new damage model a lot - still not a fan of the boarding system although its no worse the the previous one.

[BusterGut]

Not read all the posts here (47 pages worth) but I can't find any reference to how we get victory marks, does anyone know how to get them?

 

Thanks 😁

[Hethwill]

13 minutes ago, BusterGut said:

Not read all the posts here (47 pages worth) but I can't find any reference to how we get victory marks, does anyone know how to get them?

 

Thanks 😁

Be in a Clan that goes on Conquest, participate in a Port Battle and win... and win again so you don't lose it, etc.

 

[BusterGut]

11 minutes ago, Hethwill said:

Be in a Clan that goes on Conquest, participate in a Port Battle and win... and win again so you don't lose it, etc.

 

Thanks for that, will see if I can join one, but with so few on the testbed and they're mostly brits,  it might be unachievable.

Edited February 18, 2019 by BusterGut