Leaders, Nations & Wars

[Lyric]

So we've been asked which Nations do we want to see in the game.  That question alone opens up so many gaps to be filled either with current plans or new suggestions, so here goes.

 

1) If, assuming we do actually have Nations, there are going to be a fair few of them because I'm sure NA members will be of many different Nations. Thus, will we get the Globe as it is known today, or to save time and resources will each nation be given a fictional stretch of land? If we DID have a fictional map, it would be slightly better in the sense that devs could perhaps make travel time's shorter, it would also allow for capture of Islands which may not actually exist which leads me onto point 3)

 

2) Islands.  If we DID have a fictional map, we could have groups of islands, some big, some small which offer different economic bonuses on capturing, and depending on their location, varying strategic value.

Usually a well dug in island I believe would have up to 3 coastal batteries, a island just landed on would only have 1 battery, each battery hosting about 7-9 very heavy cannons. This leads me also onto my next point.

 

3)Wars. As far as I can understand the game revolves around PvP. Great. And there are Nations. Right...So are we going to have 20+ Nations constantly at war with eachother? Will that be good for trade with other nations etc etc?  Again as you're reading i'm hoping you are thinking of some answers to this too, but here is my suggestion:

 

Each Nation will have a ton of fleets [guilds/groups/clans], why not make a system that allows for members of the more prominent/illustrious fleets to be voted in as Admiralty.

Everyone in a nation has a vote, they can pick who they want to fufill which role.

Roles:

- Lord High Admiral [1] = Overall commander, has the final say.

- First lords of the Admiralty [5] = Almost like the High Admiral's war council.

- Admirals of the Fleet [10] = Significant leaders of Fleets.

 

What sort of duties would these leaders have?

- Providing the safest and most economically stable country for generations to come.

- Securing Islands of importance, economically or strategically achieved with constant communication and management of the most powerful fleets.

 

If the above duties require a Nation to declare war on another, so be it, let the PvP commence.

 

 

Obviously it is difficult to get every fleet to action, especially the smaller ones, which is why it may be worth creating some sort of Squadron linking bigger fleets to smaller ones, each giving each other support when required.

 

Let me know your thoughts & suggestions on all of the above.

Edited February 20, 2015 by Richard Bolitho

[Modern Major General]

Given how mixed the signals are on how the Open World will pan out my suspicion is first and foremost the Devs concept of how far historically and ahistorically they are prepared to go before a certain demographic of their potential customers are alienated and move on.

 

I'd expect a non-fiction world with fictional ahistorical outcomes where 90% of influence to events and the balance of power rests with procedural programming and managed by the Developers with 10% influenced by what we do as players.

 

Sea powers kept each other in-check through a range of alliances and diplomacy which kept a sort of status quo only broken through revolution and mismanaged economy.  Any one power dominant over the others was often caught in a crosswind of alliances set against them which prevented any sort of real winner and replaced it with the idea of Super Powers among the nations.

 

If we did not pin our colours to a national mast I'd expect us to be considered Pirates.  If anyone encountered a warship without a nation it was often the case and no one would think otherwise. 

 

The only reason you'd have access to bigger and better shipping came down to simply what a nation could afford to build for you both in terms of manpower, resources, infrastructure, finance and technological development.  All of which I'd expect the Developers, with our feedback to help, work out and balance.  This is a challenge given the idea that we are talking about a heavily unfair world in the first place with real winners and losers.  So this is where the ahistorical "what if" parts come into it where the game would shine a lot I suspect.

 

Any player guilds would reflect the "Trading Companies" set up under national flags to exploit the resources of the 2nd and 3rd world of the 18th and 19th century.

 

Players would chose a nation, belong to a player Trading Company if they wish and work along several different choices of play style; one of which is a Trading Company's choice of throwing caution to the wind and turning into a Pirate Conclave.

 

I suspect some similarities to the style of play found in games that have worked on this type of theme before in the past and hopefully some more innovation to make the Open World part of the game attractive to keep your bum on a seat for many, many hours of enjoyment.