State of the game

[Teutonic]

30 minutes ago, Potemkin said:

This game is 9.89/10, the players are rubbish though. Would be 10/10 if they brought back small battles and did weekly trafalgar events but perfection is an elusive animal.

meh.

I'd give the game a 7/10. it's got good parts, but still needs improvements. if small battles/trafalgar was brought back, I'd bump it to a 7.5 or 8.

and 7/10 is really not a bad score. I've had real enjoyment with the game, but also real headaches and so the score changes. but 7/10 is the current decision.

Edited November 21, 2019 by Teutonic

[Slim McSauce]

I think NA had a good run for a niche mmo inspired and created by an indie dev studio located somewhere deep in the Ukraine territory.
World politics aside I think they did O.K with the combat, presentation and all. O.W. being an unmitigated disaster.

I would have rather had the combat instance fleshed out completely more than anything. Storms would have been cooler than the OW since in this game's development that was an actual choice that had to be made weather or not we can include those conditions into the shared server space. Decisions like that don't put you in a good position.

O.W could have been done a lot better, and I mean A LOT better. It was all about the map and people looking at it and knowing exactly where to go. All the information one would need should have been right there on the map. Map tools and lack of insight gained from the map was really draining though it really captured the days at sea feeling 

NA:II should take a page from the UG:/UA:AoS playbook and ditch the eco for logistics, take a serious crack at being a platform to expand on.

[contact]

As a noob.

I started in August.

I still consider myself a noob. Though I have learned a lot in that space of time.

To begin with I “played around” to see what keys did what etc. Did the tutorials etc.

I was advised to join a clan. This I did. One that has players on line when I will be and in the areas I like to operate.

I am a Flag Captain . Half way now to a Commodore. I have received lots of help from my clan. I like to think I am doing my bit in return to help the clan. Plus others players just starting out.

It isn’t an easy game. Lots I do know not. I tend to ask about subjects when I need to know.

I know what my current capabilities are. I feel confident in a 5th rank ship. Shortly I intend to start to try a 3rd which I can have. My crew limit being 500.

I am enjoying NA.

But I do think it is down to being in a clan.

It would be difficult if someone tries to go it alone.

As the game stands. I’m ok with Pirates and gankers. I have not know any different.

Best wishes to all

[contact]

I have put above my own experience of  NA.

I feel perhaps I’m one of the lucky ones.

That from what players are saying it is the case a number of players leave because it is a very steep learning curve.

So I agree something needs to be done to keep noobs from losing interest and leaving.

However, I personally do not know the answer !
I hope a solution  can be found as once the noobs “get into NA”, they will love it. 

Cheers all.

[Never]

5 hours ago, Winterthrust said:

Again the crux of your argument is that the attitudes of the new players are the problem, not the game itself. KPR is meant to be a place where new players can faff about and learn the game, like every starter area in every game ever. They are not expecting to have to run away from that zone as fast as they can least they be the target of a higher level PvP'er, you can make the argument that vets are always telling them not to hang in KPR but again, as the point I made before, that's just vet players telling new players how to compensate for the games questionable design. 

In fact in every other game ever it is the sensible noobs that hang around the starting area and only venture forth once they have a feel for whats going on and leaving KPR to venture forth does not elevate you of the problem, being a person who spend the first 2 weeks of gameplay running around in a T-lynx doing traders missions I can atest to just how many people tried to come after me, how little money I made vs how much work I did (which with recent updates would take me now twice as long) by the end of which I was ready to suck my eyes out and play dice with them rather than stare at the ass end of a Lynx anymore.

Again the game is Naval Action, a game about naval warefare in the mid 17th to 18th century, you cannot fault anyone who buys the game for expecting some sort of Naval warfare to happen and expecting them to either not do this, sail to another starting port that spawns 6th and 7th rate missions (which are very few), do trade missions all day for weeks or leech off a clan is again just compensating for a singular problem which the crux of my entire argument has been, if we just fix that then maybe, just maybe, all the problems mentioned may just start to go away.

No question the game has issues but they aren't as big in terms of difficulty for new players as some people make it out to be. 

I will give you an example, it was posted in this forum a short time ago. One noob player is able to obtain a Santissima permit and some rare books to craft encyclopedias, which are very all very valuable and end game content. This player then puts all that in the hold of a Bellona and takes a trade ship in his fleet to move it all to another port I guess. He gets caught by a veteran players sailing an Endymion. He loses the Bellona, a ship supposedly for veterans as it requires an expensive permit. And all his precious cargo.

Now was that the game's fault? or the player's? I would say the player. This player had access to end game items and made multiple mistakes that cost him all of said items. How does someone who can sail a Bellona + a trader in fleet and afford to do so fail so badly. How long does the game need to hold his hand? I don't think giving even more protection to noobs is going to help that much. It would just keep players as 'noobs' for longer.  

KPR does offer a Capital zone, maybe it could be better, but it does provide protection. You're not meant to stay at KPR after you can sail a decent frigate in a somewhat capable manner, IMO. 

More alternatives to make money while simply fighting I think would help, but not babying new players with more protection. 

[Custard]

@Never

Were is a noob going to get the skill to win a kill mission that gives a silver/gold chest as a reward?

Or the knowledge were to even find a silver/gold chest mission?

The cash to buy a Bellona cos he/she sure as hell ain't having the resources to build one.

RED card mate your post is abject nonsense, however @contact post is honest and has facts in it.

I am not a new player I need no babying new players really do need some love.

 

[jodgi]

6 hours ago, Slim McSauce said:

I think they did O.K with the combat

Dude! It's one of the best games in history as far as combat is concerned.

If only it was all about combat...

#liberateNA

[Never]

48 minutes ago, Custard said:

@Never

Were is a noob going to get the skill to win a kill mission that gives a silver/gold chest as a reward?

Or the knowledge were to even find a silver/gold chest mission?

The cash to buy a Bellona cos he/she sure as hell ain't having the resources to build one.

RED card mate your post is abject nonsense, however @contact post is honest and has facts in it.

I am not a new player I need no babying new players really do need some love.

 

Clearly the noobs are already doing all those things, that's why we have noobs sailing ships like Bellonas and crying when they lose them. That would show they can get more than they even know what to do with, not that they are lacking resources. If a player needs help finding a gold chest mission, they are hopeless in Naval Action. It's not that hard. 

There is no game out there that teaches you 'how to be good at pvp', you're supposed to figure that out as you play. 

Edited November 21, 2019 by Never

[Guest]

@Never When we talk about 'noobs' we mean new players to the game, not low skilled players. New players wouldn't have Belona's or access to Gold chest missions.

[Despe]

9 hours ago, Potemkin said:

This game is 9.89/10, the players are rubbish though. Would be 10/10 if they brought back small battles and did weekly trafalgar events but perfection is an elusive animal.

totally agree. I think that is imposible make a game that like all players, but in any case, is excellent

[Slim McSauce]

17 hours ago, jodgi said:

Dude! It's one of the best games in history as far as combat is concerned.

If only it was all about combat...

#liberateNA

The combat in NA falls a bit short and is held back by some technical limitations, such as being unable to support deck combat that old total war and new UA titles feature.
That's a tough critique because we know it's the technical limits that are the reason for that, but of the design for gunnery, I think the ease of aiming, use of gyro stabilization and the overall accuracy of the ship's guns created a dilemna of; how do we balance damage models when skilled player can land their entire broadside on a single masts? Not by chance but a very effective, almost too effective result of just how point-and-click ship to ship gunnery is in NA, and how it detracts from the total accurate representation of the combat.

As for the rest of the combat model, it varied from update to update and from the point of the introduction of the structure bar, onwards had various flavors and too me the best era was the one with the most balance, which has to be the months after austerity which fielded many variety of roles. Then gold ships were introduced and ships which had upsides and downsides became homogeneously better than their counterparts. You can make a case that individual ship balance doesn't compete on the same level as group balance, but I liked when there was more certainty about the capabilities of the ships you faced. Too many variables and stat chasing widened the gap further, beyond reasonable for the setting of the game.

Combat could have definitely gotten better treatment if that was the only focus.   7/10
OW was a disaster and I'm not sure if anything but a list of mistakes could be drafted from it....4/10 
Overall 6.5/10. The engine is out of date and the technology behind NA is obsolete.

sorry to say, further development for NA would be charity.
Nothing to be gained at this stage. ;c
new game time! 

[LegoLarry]

23 hours ago, contact said:

I have put above my own experience of  NA.

I feel perhaps I’m one of the lucky ones.

That from what players are saying it is the case a number of players leave because it is a very steep learning curve.

So I agree something needs to be done to keep noobs from losing interest and leaving.

However, I personally do not know the answer !
I hope a solution  can be found as once the noobs “get into NA”, they will love it. 

Cheers all.

 

 That is a heartening post ,  I think the devs talking to level headed new guys like yourself would be a wise move to get a different view on things.  If I was them at least it is what i would try to do, and they probably are already.

 Naval Action is the only game like it out there, leeway, sail control, mass battles and has a lot going for it.    

Hoping for the best, and an ocean filled future . 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2019 by LegoLarry

[Yachteru]

I think what never is trying to say is that if you are new-ish and you want to sail big ship, it is okay but try to go out in cheap ships, maybe use grey, green, blue ship for your first time out. 

But I think problem is when people sell admiralty grey, green, blue ship at the price of crafted ship. Player have the choice to buy and sell to any price but it makes difficult for players who want to try it.

Also, some player like giant ship and want to progress to it but the capital zone is very difficult to find ship sometimes. The money reward sometime is too little and you work so hard to afford overprice grey ship which is no match for ganking pvp player ship. So they stay in capital all the time until they are bored.

Although it is pvp server, i think it is important for pve to be balanced and accessible too. Not because it is pvp that why you dont deserve pve fight and you only must get good or always lose. 

I am wondering if having basic ship in 6-5th rate like basic cutter can help alitte. People will naturally want to see they can sail bigger ship and having basic version of 6 and 5 where they cannot attack players, is free to buy and have smaller gun can help them get experience for bigger ship before they invest in anything else. A 5 rate is also good opportunity for player to catch ai ship so they can earn them and use them to go sailing for experience instead of locking them in capital and always buying expensive but lousy admiralty ship. 

One example of game that do this mechanic of having a pvp and pve mix server is pirate of the burning seas. It is a old game and many player scoff at lousy graphic but the mechanic is very good job and I have many fun as a new player even when i pvp and lose I feel like I am rewarded and learn something