Game manual

[i64man]

I finally updated the game after seeing a campaign game play in YouTube. The question I have is there a game manual? The game is deep and would like to do some reading to get a better understanding of it.

[Dr Yueh]

No manual. See videos and ask the players. We are pleased  to help

 

 

[sterner]

There is discord server for the game. You can ask questions there.

https://discord.gg/pP2EJAR

[i64man]

Thanks Sterner... I will take a look in discord.

[MikeK]

Q&A is no substitute for a description of how the game actually works and is intended to work.     and assumptions  important

[Bonden]

Hi

Is there a webpage where we can understand all icons and stuff in the user interface ? I recently bought the game but I still have difficulties to understand all features. The Wiki helps much (thanks for that!) but it is quite general. 

It would be also nice to have the detail of all things that are simulated and to understand the rationale (history, limits of a game, fun,...) of the choices that are made by the developers. I read the UA AoS website and posts in the forum but it is a bit frustrating in this regard. That is why I also find that a "manual" would be nice. 

Thanks anyway for the job !

[RAMJB]

Hm...Maybe it's time for me to dig my claws into this one and make a let's play of it.

Held back from doing it because I've been mostly out of the loop for a while. And also for this game in particular because I generally dislike the land side of the game (not the game's fault, I just find musket era combat boring and uninteresting in general) and it's a quite large part of it, no way to avoid that.

But I can see how and why the naval side can and will confuse the newcomer because of the nature of age of sail combat not being something that's really out there for the non-initiate to understand. In general people always commend my LPs as being very informative about the game I'm playing, so if that might help newcomers, I'll think about it. 
 

[Bonden]

11 hours ago, RAMJB said:

Hm...Maybe it's time for me to dig my claws into this one and make a let's play of it.

Held back from doing it because I've been mostly out of the loop for a while. And also for this game in particular because I generally dislike the land side of the game (not the game's fault, I just find musket era combat boring and uninteresting in general) and it's a quite large part of it, no way to avoid that.

But I can see how and why the naval side can and will confuse the newcomer because of the nature of age of sail combat not being something that's really out there for the non-initiate to understand. In general people always commend my LPs as being very informative about the game I'm playing, so if that might help newcomers, I'll think about it. 
 

It would be nice indeed thanks !

[Bonden]

Hi, I began to play the British Campaign and won the first two battles (easy mode of course). I still do not understand how exactly operates the user interface on the big mission map between battles. More precisely, what are the precise functions and meanings of the icons on the left of the screen (here the crossed Swords, but there are also papers, and other icons if my memories are good) ? Is it possible to choose between missions or do we have to follow a sequence (in a chronological order, visible on the icon below setting the date and indicating "next stage" ?   

And when we look at a mission, what do mean exactly the circles on the map ? The minimal number of ships we need ? What's the meaning of the different colors (as a clorblind, it is difficult to me to spot red dots against dark background, but this is another story) ? What's the meaning of the Numbers just above the circles (I guess something with minimal crew/gun requirements ?)

 

 

Edited April 25, 2020 by Bonden

[Bonden]

And why reputation is lowering when the player buys ships to admiralty ? 

[Navalus Magnus]

@Bonden

The icons on the left side show you all news (the scrolls), missions (crossed swords) and side missions (questionmarks) available at your stage.

It doesn’t matter which mission you do first, but don’t do any sidemission until you completed every mission, because otherwise you might lack the ships to do the missions!

The circles on the map indicate the maximum amount of ships you‘re able to deploy.

Blue circles indicate the need for  warships, green ones the need for troop ships (landing operations, land battles). This however is more like a suggestion, because you‘re also able to place warships on green circles and troop ships on blue ones.

The numbers above are important for the sidemissions: Every vessel has a certain rating, you can check in it’s stats on the rightmost side. The above mentioned numbers display the limit for the deployment of ships. The sum of thier ratings is not allowed to be higher than the side mission‘s number.

Edited April 25, 2020 by Navalus Magnus

[Navalus Magnus]

2 hours ago, Bonden said:

And why reputation is lowering when the player buys ships to admiralty ? 

You need to rely on your reputation at the admiralty to get the prizes you conquer - if your reputation isn’t good enough they won’t grant you more ships.

To get more ships you need to build up more reputation.

[Bonden]

Thanks a lot Navalus Magnus, it is much clearer now !

Then how to assess our needs in ships and troops for a mission ? I did probably an enormous mistake in selling my 4 smaller ships to buy a frigate (5th rate) as I thought it was a better choice in strictly "naval battle" missions (as I did not asked for land battles)… And now I only have one warship 😬 while for missions there are more than one circle… 

 

 

[piotreh1]

I think you should aim to deploy as many ships as battle allows. It will help with training crew/officers and even ships with useless guns can board effectively or be used as bait.

I am playing US campaign for second time and bought only one ship from admiralty on the first run. Capturing ships is only reliable way to get better ships as admiralty offers ships that are far behind what is deployed by enemy - e.g. I captured Leda class 5th rate as one of my first 5th rates - you can mount on it guns that can bring down SOL which not many 5th rates can do. Best class offered in admiralty for me was 5th rate Diana and it appeared when I had 4 SOL, 2 Endymion, 1 Leda, 1 Diana and 6 other 5th rates.

Buying ships will bleed you of cash you need for crews/guns/research. Captured ship are probably 30-40% of total rep/cash you can get and seems necessary to expand and upgrade your navy throughout campaign.

It might be sub-optimal from cash perspective but I build up roster to 10+ ships and 6 transporters as soon as possible. This allow to fill slots for mission and guarantee success in Point of Interest.

[Bonden]

Another question I couldn't answer to: what is the procedure to capture a ship once she has surrendered  ? I tried to board it but it wans't possible anymore. And when a ship has struck her colours, if you don't capture her, she comes back ! I had this disagreable experience in my second battle… 

 

[pandakraut]

4 hours ago, Bonden said:

Another question I couldn't answer to: what is the procedure to capture a ship once she has surrendered  ? I tried to board it but it wans't possible anymore. And when a ship has struck her colours, if you don't capture her, she comes back ! I had this disagreable experience in my second battle… 

 

Boarding normally still works. One thing that could be an issue is if your grapple ability is on cooldown.

You can also deploy a rowboat(small button above each ship in the ship icon list across the bottom of the screen) to send an officer and his detachment to take over the surrendered ship.

[Bonden]

1 hour ago, pandakraut said:

Boarding normally still works. One thing that could be an issue is if your grapple ability is on cooldown.

You can also deploy a rowboat(small button above each ship in the ship icon list across the bottom of the screen) to send an officer and his detachment to take over the surrendered ship.

Thanks a lot !

I tried to board with a boat but how to make the boat's crew take possession of the ship ? A right click on the ship ? In my battle, if I can remember, it was bumping on the surrendered ship but did not board her. Or was the ship's wall too high ?

And (last question, promised) how to know when a prize crew is enough to sail the surrendered ship ? Is there a risk that the surrendered crew revolts and tries to take again possession of the ship ?

[pandakraut]

Select your ship, then select the surrendered ship as your target, then click the boarding button.

When a boarding is in progress and one side surrenders a new menu will pop up when your ship is selected. This will allow you to transfer all crew, minimal crew, one or more officer detachments, or scuttle the surrendered ship. Some of these options might become unavailable when officer detachments are too small to fulfill the minimum crew requirements on either ship.

While your crew is on the ship there is 0 chance that the enemy crew will take over again. However if your crew leaves, the ship is left in a surrendered state, or your crew is wiped out by enemy action then the enemy crew can retake the ship after a certain time period.

[Dixie]

Pandakraut, how do you reduce the costs of ship upkeep each turn other than selling ships?  Is there an admiratly perk you can add points into to do this?

Is there a guide to all the career points?  I can't figure out what admiralty assortment does either.

[pandakraut]

Admirality assortment increases the amount of items available to purchase. I don't think there is a career point that reduces upkeep.

Having lower veterancy crews will decrease upkeep as well as having fewer ships. Last I saw upkeep is just based on ship class and doesn't factor in cannons, officers, or upgrades but this may have changed or I may be misremembering.

[doublebuck]

On 6/14/2020 at 10:19 PM, pandakraut said:

Admirality assortment increases the amount of items available to purchase. I don't think there is a career point that reduces upkeep.

Having lower veterancy crews will decrease upkeep as well as having fewer ships. Last I saw upkeep is just based on ship class and doesn't factor in cannons, officers, or upgrades but this may have changed or I may be misremembering.

There is also an upkeep cost for the number of troops, trophy's, reserves and captives that you may have in your harbor.  For example: If you have an SOL trophy and you keep it in your harbor for a few turns until you can make enough REP to unlock it but each turn you take you will be paying an upkeep cost although true once you unlock it and add it to your fleet you will also be paying an upkeep cost. My point is, if you haver a lot of trophy's in your harbor it is best to do something with them than just leaving them there for their upkeep cost will add up. Even the captives will cost you upkeep until you can get rid of them, when the game gets around to sending you a letter so you can sell then for some money or REP. Some times the game went many turns before giving me the letter to sell them which every turn until I got that letter, there was an upkeep cost. Every penny counts specially in the American campaign.

Edited June 16, 2020 by doublebuck

[Bramborough]

On 6/15/2020 at 10:23 AM, doublebuck said:

There is also an upkeep cost for the number of troops, trophy's, reserves and captives that you may have in your harbor.  For example: If you have an SOL trophy and you keep it in your harbor for a few turns until you can make enough REP to unlock it but each turn you take you will be paying an upkeep cost although true once you unlock it and add it to your fleet you will also be paying an upkeep cost. My point is, if you haver a lot of trophy's in your harbor it is best to do something with them than just leaving them there for their upkeep cost will add up. Even the captives will cost you upkeep until you can get rid of them, when the game gets around to sending you a letter so you can sell then for some money or REP. Some times the game went many turns before giving me the letter to sell them which every turn until I got that letter, there was an upkeep cost. Every penny counts specially in the American campaign.

Am in late Brit campaign, the point where the bills start stacking up with all those SoLs.  Last night looked closer to understand better what exactly all the costs are.  Learned a few things which may be helpful: 

Ship Costs.  Class specific, of course, but range from roughly 1200 for a 5th-rate up to 3500 for a 1st-rate.  Ardent-class 3rd-rate (most numerous SoL) about 2100, while Bellona runs just below 2500.  Merchant troopships run from about 500 for the small 2-slot to 1300 for the large one.  (these are rounded ballpark numbers, not exact to the penny).

Trophy ships cost half-price.  For example, an Ardent which normally costs 2100 will cost 1050 as a trophy.

Guns, weapons, & officers do not affect a ship's maintenance cost (nor do they affect the ship's sell price in shop, either).  An "empty" ship costs just as much as a fully manned/equipped one.  With one exception...

Upgrades DO increase a ship's maintenance costs.  So, unlike weapons and officers, with an upgrade there's not only the initial buy (which is usually pretty hefty in itself), but an ongoing maintenance cost as well.  And it's not negligible...one Lvl I upgrade can add hundreds of dollars in upkeep cost on a SoL.  (note, upgrades increase maintenance cost, but they do NOT increase a ship's sell price in Admiralty shop.  So when selling a ship, do not forget to remove (most) upgrades beforehand; most will give a partial refund, but a few actually cost to remove).

Crew AND Reserves cost 3 per man.  So there's no cost savings in moving crew from active to reserve.  Land troops count for this as well.  As far as I can tell, there's no difference between highly-skilled veterans and fresh rookies (as far as maintenance costs go).  Note also, there's no way to outright dismiss hired sailors/soldiers, whether active or reserve.  Once hired, you're committed to paying that 3x wage until he becomes a battle casualty.  So if you're trying to reduce your overall manning levels to cut costs...well, make your next fight a reckless bloodbath, lol.

Captives cost 1 per man.  Usually not a big budget item, but they DO cost, and makes it a little annoying that you cannot ransom/exchange them immediately after capture but have to wait for the game to take them off your hands. 

-------------

All the above has made me rethink some of my gameplay practices/habits.

I already wasn't being overly lavish in ship upgrades, but likely to become even more frugal with them.  Likewise, I hadn't been in the habit of keeping a lot of Trophy ships hanging around a long time as a "SoL reserve", but now will probably cut that out entirely; either convert or sell to Admiralty NOW, not later.  Similar thing with keeping a few smaller ships around for potential future fireships; nope, burn or sell now.

Building and maintaining a large land force on several troopships AND simultaneously keeping all ship crews fully or over-manned is probably just too exorbitant.  Since they share the same Reserve pool, it's probably better to shift manpower back and forth between ship crews and land units depending on the fight at hand.  For this reason, those three crew-related career-point categories have suddenly skyrocketed in value from my perspective.

I had been in the habit of modestly overmanning ships.  Not to max, but enough that the ship could take some battle casualties, do a boarding, and leave a prize crew on a captured ship, and still not go too far below optimum.  This is one practice I'll probably actually continue...but at least now I'm more aware of the costs in doing so.  I may not do it with every warship, though...will probably specialize the ships a bit more, making more of a distinction between overmanned "boarders" and optimum-manned "shooters".

A bit long-winded, but hopefully some of this is helpful to some folks.

 

Edited July 11, 2020 by Bramborough

[pandakraut]

Excellent write up, thanks for doing to research.