Removing Tow, Time at Sea Solutions and Deployments

[Broadsides]

I have given this some thought and it was previously posted but what I found that if my final solution was way at the end of the forum post a lot of players don't bother reading it so I kind of combined my suggestion, while answering some objections and included my solution here all in this one upfront forum post.  I do believe my time solution will make this game more pleasurable.  Please give it a read with an open mind and agree or not  give it some thought.  Please ensure you read time at sea solution at the end.

 

 I believe the ship tow is detrimental to this game mechanics, naval strategy, and helps the bigger nations keep their dominance.  First we have already seen the tow feature removed from sea to port except to fix groundings.... since players learned to avoid ships by being towed from sea.

 

Let me explain why I believe this.  Especially as a naval gaming grognard.  Large powerful nations can now move fleets from one area to another almost at will, limited of course to the one per player per day, not counting alts, ship sales and trades.  In reality if a large nation needs to respond to threats even from smaller nations at the opposite side of the map they can manage to move their fleets with impunity to that port battle bypassing choke points and obvious sea lanes of travel, and  scouting frigates.

If we do away with the tow, ships individually or  fleets could be intercepted and restricted by choke points engaged prior to reaching a destination..  Think about this. Trafalgar was not a "port battle" but a fleet intercepted.

 

A big nation owning various ports would need to think about where to station response fleets. To meet the threats to their naval empire.  While a major fleet is in one area another  hostile nation, even a weak one, could be targeting a far flung outpost using the fact that these are sailing days and ships aren't beamed up in warp speed.  Frigates would gain another advantages roll.  One suited to their historical task, clearing a path far ahead protecting the main fleet or that of scouts searching for the enemy knowing that a fleet or individual ships must arrive via sea lanes or through choke points.

 

Getting rid of the TOW from port to port would benefits smaller less powerful nations while making the bigger nation think strategically.  I believe this would also lead to more PVP. 

Now everything depends on hostility missions followed up by an ensuing Port Battle.  If a fleet needs to sail to conflict they may have to encounter enemies by  alliance. temporary truces, choke points , sea lanes etc. which all could dramatical influence the outcome.

 

I believe that most historical evidence did not change the owner of the port(though at times it did happen).  A fleet may be destroyed in port but the port often stayed in control of the initial owner....since ships could not venture on land to engage armies directly.

Think about intercepting fleets or portions thereof before your nations is actually attacked. The game has developed way past the need to have ships take wings.. I believe having them sail makes this a better Naval Action.

 

I do not see how my suggestion would limit action or content.   Think about it, a poor vulnerable trader to do any good needs to take its cargo out into the open.  Yet a La Ocean magically flies via C-17 aircraft safely to the next port on the other side of the map.  If a trader needs to go back and forth why not the Victory.

The argument that ships would remain in port to remain safe is counter intuitive.  To conquer. patrol, scout, intercept requires ships at sea.  What this game is about.

My experience that nail biting ACTION occurs when you know an enemy is about to enter from a distance like a port battle but unsure of its location.  You have searches going on , and screeners deployed, all looking to intercept.  Of course there are counter screeners until one or more battles are joined.  In no way do I see a restriction on RvR.

 

This would change how, when and where you decide to attack. Time and logistics become issues that need to be dealt with.  So an empire somehow would need to respond to its far flung posts while weary of encroachment by other  nations biting at its heal on its outer perimeter somewhere it is not.

I do not see any lose of combat opportunities with this proposal I actually see more...but I must agree with the real world issue of TIME SINK as addressed above since most of use cannot sit in front a computer all day long..  So is there some kind of solution to this issue?  How can this be alleviated, modified regardless.

What has happened is that we have become accustomed to the MAGIC wand of ship travel.

 

I do have some ideas on mitigating the TIME SINK issue which I address below.

 

Getting rid of the Tow brings us to the time at sea problem.... long voyages that most find extremely BORING! Me too! 

 

Now for some well known facts:  Traders to do anything of value must do a time sink to use a term from a response to my previous post.  They cannot transport goods magically. Traders cannot avoid choke points if in its path.

 

Most players husband their main battle fleet ships for major engagements towing invisibly past all the hazards a trade ship must endure to get to its destination.  Quite unfair actually if you ask me.  And quickly too.  So that allows unreal expansion of a single nation. 

 

There is one place on the map where capturable ports are safe from this phenonium of enemy ships being teleported nearby to capture a port.  That is Bermuda once those 3 ports are captured.  That island is a long way to move major ships.  Hence its safely protected by that time sink.  To some extent many smaller nations would be more protected if the tow was removed.

 

 

Time at sea solution:

 

What is my solution to the Time sink. I'll call it a Deployment" or (D) for brevity... What the hell is a deployment? Keep reading....

 

Something that causes a time sink issue with players is the time of a long voyage especially if you want or need to do something else.  That's the real issue! its not necessarily that it may take me an hour to get there but I want to go with my friend and do hostility missions but I'm stuck out here... with no beer... and whatever.



So in thinking about this fix I also tried to think of  avoiding exploits.  Not waist a continuas time in a trip but still require the ships to actually sail to locations having to navigate the treacherous waters that they would normally do. The ship travels in open water time but a player can safely  do others things.

 

Deployment [D]:

 1) Every player can use a  [D} any time he wants. 

2.)A [D] can be a single ship or fleet.

3) A [D] can be any ship or fleet a player has the ability to use. 

4) A player can never have more than 1 (D) at any given time.

A deployment works like logging off at sea but you are not logged of the game.  Your (D) ships fleet exist out at sea as long as you choose unseen and safe where you left it and yet you can go do any other task you would like to do. Sail ships, fight battle, trade. anything.  All A (D) is your ships are deployed sailing the seas.  When you are ready whether 10 minutes latter or a week latter you can return to your (D) ship/fleet and continue on. 

5) (D) have a limitation.  The (D) cannot be done within 150 k from the nearest land.  This still requires the ships to spend actual sailing time and navigate through possible hazardous areas i.e.. choke points. It also will allow for the ability of scouts to be able to locate the ships if they happen to be lucky enough and be intercepted if the ship/fleet doesn't manage to evade or sink its enemy.

6) D ships cannot enter a port battle for at least 60 minutes.

7) Ships in (D) status are out at sea and cannot be used unless taken out of (D) status back into open world where you left it and you would be commanding it again.

 

I believe the solution is simple, neat and can streamline all play making the game much more enjoyable to all.

 

e.  I also think that a (D) in itself would help players with the monotony of the long haul at sea.

[Beeekonda]

nah`

[Slim McSauce]

I didn't read most of this. Honestly the entire game world is trash and the sandbox is so wacked out I swear the people thinking of this stuff are smoking freebase rocks (:see painter DLC). 

You get 1 tow because why not and you can't get any more because we are very bad at sandbox-ing here.

It makes no sense so here's what you can do, because we agree the gameworld is big, lots of it goes unused. Here is what you do: make it bigger.

Yes make it bigger, OW speed needs to match up with battle speed, OW speed being twice as fast is retarded on paper and in real life. So make it bigger, it will look better. What else?

Open ocean should be fast travel zones, it's all empty space that will never be used, so make it fast travel, like warp so you can traverse the countries. 

The result? faster travel long distance, slower travel short distance. Better ROE timers, better scaling of objects like land and cities, ships will look not oversized anymore. Better strategy, more population focused into coastal areas, less afk sailing through open ocean, no more need for tows. ez.

[Sir Lancelot Holland]

If Naval Action were actually a simulation of 18/19th century warfare with all the stratagems and tactics, a defined set of victory conditions with  re-settable default start points then the OP would be correct. 

However Naval Action is not that, I do not think that was the intent of the Dev's to begin with, more likely their intent was to provide a taste of naval warfare during a period where it has been heavily romanticised in print and on-screen. If I am wrong I am sure Admin will clarify that point of view.

In truth naval warfare of the period was tough, if nature did not kill you the enemy would, if not the enemy then your own side may do so for any one of the infractions of the articles of war,  it was fought with values that today are obsolete, yet the basic rules have not changed in centuries, from England it took months to get ships on station in the Caribbean, often remaining there for several years at a time, we are fortunate that we don't have to go to the India or Africa  stations, and god forbid the Far East stations! 

How does one take such circumstances and convert them to a playable game that entertains, remains vibrant and close to the conditions of the time? Where fleets could, and, did pass each other without being seen, where the weather could and did make combat extremely difficult causing more losses than combat,  where battles ended in stalemate more often than not, and, big fleet actions were rare,

Naval Action sees more battles in a week than most Napoleonic Sailors did in a lifetime, even though some of those lives were short and brutal, we have ships that are close to their real life counterparts, with concessions made for play-ability, we do not fight in conditions that are close to those which navy's had to face in the day in terms of weather, or, regulation, if we did the game would be far too frustrating to play, and, at the end of the day, it is a game not a war simulation.

[Tenet]

8 hours ago, Slim McSauce said:

Open ocean should be fast travel zones, it's all empty space that will never be used, so make it fast travel, like warp so you can traverse the countries. 

The result? faster travel long distance, slower travel short distance. Better ROE timers, better scaling of objects like land and cities, ships will look not oversized anymore. Better strategy, more population focused into coastal areas, less afk sailing through open ocean, no more need for tows. ez.

I don't agree with doubling the world size, but I do agree with the above part of your suggestion.

I suggested something similar years ago and was largely ignored - speed lanes, or speed away from coasts, should be 10x speed or more. I also suggested something similar to the Deployment idea by the OP - I wanted a "Tow" system that takes as much time to execute as actual sailing. 

I also wanted a Warning Bell whenever the crew sights an enemy ship, so people can actually semi-AFK in PvP (like a Captain would on a real ship). 

Current sailing is boring for both PvP and PvE servers.

[Macjimm]

Replacing the tow with a feature for players to remote sail their ships with AI would be fine.  It would increase the strategic planning and remove some of the wackamo aspect.

I hope OW sailing is always part of NA.  Removing long distance travel with warp travel, or supersonic speeds, describes a style without the concept of a vast expanse of the sea.   Perhaps instead of wrecking  the current game , the Devs will eventually add NA Legends/Arena Battles, for the captains who hate OW sailing.

[Slim McSauce]

1 hour ago, Macjimm said:

 

I hope OW sailing is always part of NA.  Removing long distance travel with warp travel, or supersonic speeds, describes a style without the concept of a vast expanse of the sea.   Perhaps instead of wrecking  the current game , the Devs will eventually add NA Legends/Arena Battles, for the captains who hate OW sailing.

The concept isn't lost on anyone. There's just no value in afk sailing. Having trade winds you could adjust normal travel to perfection instead of one size fits all. This isn't a college grads minimalist art project, walking away from the computer while you sail for 2 hours through nothing isn't gameplay.

Edited May 23, 2019 by Slim McSauce

[Aster]

I had always hoped they would bring back the old feature where you could have goods hauled automatically from one port to another for a cost. Very few people want to haul goods for hours across the map it is a un enjoyable time sink that must be done though. I think it would be far better if we could use one of our ships to automatically go from one outpost to another. It would spawn the ship in the open world as an ai and it would sail with its hold to the destination. During this time the ship and the crew on the ship would be occupied and unable to be used until they reach their destination. I feel as this would open up so many possibilities for player generated activities like raiding and convoy escorting. Things that should be very common and important but hardly exist in the game at its current state.