A treatise on Naval Action: a complete guide - Mr. Doran

[Jeremiah O'Brien]

Or flavour..

[Sir Darric Vandhelm]

It's a color/colour kind of thing.  Both are right, depends on your flavor.

Dam your eyes sir, they are certainly not! A true gentleman would rather tear his tongue out than say colour with no 'u'. True those colonials, tend to misspell everything, hence why we plan to keep the sugar isles... Well those and the rest of the world.

Back on topic, a very well informed, professional guide, however I hope the meta doesn't replace fun.

[jodgi]

...however I hope the meta doesn't replace fun.

 

Well, winning is fun. I sure want to learn how to win.

[jodgi]

 

 

Edited April 10, 2015 by jodgi

[mel]

I am a relative newcomer to Naval Action and therefore my opinion may not hold much weight but I do feel the treatise is excellent.This is despite the fact that I do not fully understand some terms used and wondered if anyone could explain the following:

Meta

2:1,3:1 etc broadside and general referral to 1:1,2:1,3:1 and 4:1.

re-taking the wind

flip

boom and zoom

rage-board

Thanks for any assistance

[Puchu]

Brief explainations:

 

Meta = How the game is currently played

 

2:1 = you hit him 2x when they hit you 1x with a full broadside

 

Broadside = the whole side of your ship facing the enemy and you fire all cannons at once

 

re-taking the wind = get on the windward side of the enemy with the goal of raking the enemy

 

flip = turn to the other side of the wind while having the wind blowing from your back at all times

 

boom and zoom = hit and run = shoot your shots, then sail away 

 

rage-board = board

 

Thanks for any assistance = not that hard, it will all get clearer the more you play. 

Edited April 15, 2015 by Puchu

[slackeye]

As a complete noobie to Naval Action, and indeed Age of Sail combat in general, this is a excellent guide.  Although the terminology did take a little bit of getting my head around and I need to re-read the whole thing again....

 

flip = turn to the other side of the wind while having the wind blowing from your back at all times

 

 

I presume that is is the same as what I know to be a gybe / jibe maneuver, as in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jibe ?

Edited May 10, 2015 by slackeye

[M G]

 

I presume that is is the same as what I know to be a gybe / jibe maneuver, as in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jibe ?

Yes.

[Gentry]

Its been a good read, though I'm slightly concerned at the idea that the meta is foolproof. Nothing really is.

 

Maybe its because I've come from Eve where a doctrine's success is often down to its simplicity and accessibility. There are many 'elite groups' in Eve, but they only seem to have a local or immediate significance. Where if you can get a body of average players drilled into a simple but mostly effective doctrine lead someone who knows exactly what they're doing - then you will emerge victorious over an enemy fleet of duelists more times than not. 

 

I wouldn't be surprised is the most effective meta for group v group emerges in OW simply to be the side who can follow simple instructions the closest, stay in formation behind the fleet commander and simply exchange broadsides with DPS improving mods and officers. 

 

This is all conjecture and musing on my behalf though. 

 

I did just have some duels with someone from your group, who told me to read this guide and he did solidly beat me every single time so I don't dispute that all this is very useful stuff to learn. 

[Relt]

This is a good guide, and a fun read.  I already did most of this from my experience in potbs.  Very nice.

[VictusB]

..Maybe its because I've come from Eve where a doctrine's success is often down to its simplicity and accessibility. There are many 'elite groups' in Eve, but they only seem to have a local or immediate significance. Where if you can get a body of average players drilled into a simple but mostly effective doctrine lead someone who knows exactly what they're doing - then you will emerge victorious over an enemy fleet of duelists more times than not. 

 

I wouldn't be surprised is the most effective meta for group v group emerges in OW simply to be the side who can follow simple instructions the closest, stay in formation behind the fleet commander and simply exchange broadsides with DPS improving mods and officers. 

 

This is all conjecture and musing on my behalf though. 

 

I did just have some duels with someone from your group, who told me to read this guide and he did solidly beat me every single time so I don't dispute that all this is very useful stuff to learn. 

 

Be careful with that comparison, group combat in EVE is all about turnout numbers and power projection, so yes, a the fleet with the most ships of the proper mix to project power will always win against more skilled and better equiped enemies who are trying to duel it out.  But remember in EVE any ship that can hit another ship does some amount of damage, so 100 newb ships can insta-pop a high value ship flown by a high skill player just because the group responded to the command 'primary that guy'. 

 

From what I gather in this game even if you hit your target damage may not be done by virtue of your weapons vs their armor, not to mention the 'meta' of moving around that many ships in a battle space and maintaining order without people ramming into one another and getting their rigging tangled (can this even happen in game?) and blocking teammates line of fire could give a equal sized group or even smaller group an advantage if they have a plan for spreading damage and sheilding friendly ships that are being singled out without bumping into one another.

[Prater]

 

From what I gather in this game even if you hit your target damage may not be done by virtue of your weapons vs their armor, not to mention the 'meta' of moving around that many ships in a battle space and maintaining order without people ramming into one another and getting their rigging tangled (can this even happen in game?) and blocking teammates line of fire could give a equal sized group or even smaller group an advantage if they have a plan for spreading damage and sheilding friendly ships that are being singled out without bumping into one another.

 

Yes, all of what you said here is correct and can happen.  (For rigging getting tangled, in a way your ships can get "stuck" on each other where it can be hard to unstick them and this sorta simulates rigging getting tangled).

 

However, I agree with Gentry.  Nothing is fool proof, nothing is unbeatable.

[IonAguirre]

Quite a nice work ¡¡

 

Thanks a lot

[Hieronymous Alloy]

Honestly the more I read this the more confused I get >_<

 

Is the idiot's version of this "try to maintain the weather gage at all times, and if you have the advantage of position, keep your distance" ?

[Mr. Doran]

Its been a good read, though I'm slightly concerned at the idea that the meta is foolproof. Nothing really is.

 

 Where if you can get a body of average players drilled into a simple but mostly effective doctrine lead someone who knows exactly what they're doing - then you will emerge victorious over an enemy fleet of duelists more times than not. 

 

People who know how to duel and win a very high percentage of those duels should have a very high understanding of the game mechanics and a mastering of every single fundamental skill I.E raking, timing of full rolling fire, energy management, and every other skill you would expect someone to know and master to win a high percentage of solo fights. It is not hard then to teach those very same people to act as a disciplined unit who have control over all the fundamental skills to a proficient degree with proper doctrine [with the principles of an OS duel in mind scaled up] and if those players have the wind with proper leadership, communication, and a chain of command structure should win a higher percentage of times over the average players drilled into a simple but mostly effective doctrine lead by someone who knows exactly what they are doing. 

 

Yes, all of what you said here is correct and can happen.  (For rigging getting tangled, in a way your ships can get "stuck" on each other where it can be hard to unstick them and this sorta simulates rigging getting tangled).

 

However, I agree with Gentry.  Nothing is fool proof, nothing is unbeatable.

 

It ultimately comes down to the proficiency and employment of the meta of a player or players that is being beaten.  

 

-A disclaimer to all

 

What is instructed in this manual is largely outdated (but still applicable against anyone not using new meta) at this point approximately eight months later and was outdated likely only one-two months after by radical changes in the approach of dueling from a trading method to a non-trading method and from a high energy method to a low energy method. In other words going from exchanging fire for position and rakes to [preferably and mostly] never trading fire if necessary and from maintaining a high speed until not necessary to carefully trading speed for strategic retaliative position over the target(s). This information with more detailed duel to group fighting translation and applicability will be published in an irregular periodical or piecemeal if at all in any timely manner if I have the time to do. 

[Naughty Nancy O'Malley]

Yarrr - missed me !

[jodgi]

Made a new and crisper yards gif:

[jodgi]

Oh, and I heard the internet likes a perfect loop...

[Forlorn Hope]

Wow! Cudoes!! This is much needed and will take some time to absorb. Thanks for the time and effort.

[Balck]

Damn I'm rusty as hell... need to make time to get back into this.  I do miss it.

[Burns]

Thank you very much for making this great guide, it helps me a lot. 

 

 

I have a question regarding the PECULARTIES OF RAKING AND SPEED/SAIL MANAGEMENT section.

 

 

 

Start pouring shots out as quickly as possible into the gun deck crew hit boxes at either the starboard or larboard crew depending on pass direction.

 

I don't quite get what side to aim for in which pass direction. Should i aim for his starboard crew when passing his stern with my starboard side or the opposite?

Could someone please elaborate in a few words which one and why it would be more effective then the other?

[Inkompetent]

Honestly, it needs some pretty heavy editing. The formal language combined with complex sentence structure, neologisms, typos, novel use of nautical terms, and literal translations from Doran's native language add up to make it a very taxing read.

Agreed. Technically it is a very good document, but unfortunately it is nearly impossible to read it. Pondering making a translation into more readable English for personal use, but if I get around to that I suppose I could just as well toss it out there for everyone.

[Cpt. Heinason]

Great work mr. Doran, I salute you for all your hard work!

[Mr. Doran]

Thank you very much for making this great guide, it helps me a lot. 

 

 

I have a question regarding the PECULARTIES OF RAKING AND SPEED/SAIL MANAGEMENT section.

 

 

 

I don't quite get what side to aim for in which pass direction. Should i aim for his starboard crew when passing his stern with my starboard side or the opposite?

Could someone please elaborate in a few words which one and why it would be more effective then the other?

 

It does not matter what side of crew  you aim for and with which side you shoot their crew with as long as you hit the target and do not get hit in return. The crew is located right by the guns so you want to aim right by the guns if possible and at the middle or upper window panes so the shot may travel throw as many boxes as possible; the shot must also be as perpendicular to the crew and ship as possible in relative to the stern for the most possible kills. I've gotten 50 kills with one shot of grape just by scraping the rear weather deck of a Constitution with a 24 pounder at an 80 degree angle relative to the bow  with full armor. 

[Tenet]

Just finished reading the guide, two passes with some practice and attempts to implement in-game.

 

One thing I think needs definite improvement: The images of the idealized ship paths are hard to read because they are not well coded for time.

One simple solution, necessary for me to improve the graphics, would be to see each ship-location numbered for the time sequence it represents - so we see where both ships are a "time 1" and that a rake happens at "time 6" and that a tack starts at "time 8" etc.

I would then be able to fully comprehend the intent and possibly find a better graphical representation, through shading and color coding.