Questions to developers

[Ned Loe]

You guys have this package? It is looking good...

 

http://u3d.as/content/philipp-schmidt/big-environment-pack/2T9

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsq1oWThCLY

 

I hope such nature and textures will be in this game....

[Daniel Alessi]

If your ship sinks, either in open world or faction warfare, does it respawn? I'd like ships to be a one time only, so that a player strives to take care of overpowered historically larger ships which could potentially unbalance the game should they respawn multiple times. This way, if you lose your ship, you have to build/buy another one. Is there a planned system that takes care of this?

[Duskguy]

A bit curious how you plan to or are implementing damage and what sort of damage model are you going with?

 

Pirates of the burning sea uses a armor covering a structure method and voyage century online used a simple health bar method. In both after a certain amount of damage cannons would start to be lost or damaged. I notice you plan on being able to allow players to aim at certain areas of enemy ships, which is different from PotBS and VCO in which you fire cannons at the targeted ship when it is in range of your cannons. In reality however, cannons if they pierced the enemy hull would either go through to the other side or roll around inside the enemy ship. The front was slightly more armored than the rear, but both were much weaker than the broadsides of a ship, and so "crossing the T" was a maneuver that could potentially wreck an enemy ship in a single broadside.

 

If you have already decided on the damage model, will it be similar to PotBS with a health bar covered by armor based on sides, VCO with a single large health bar, or something a bit more realistic with cannonballs going through hulls?

 

With the ability to target certain areas, will those areas each have their own "health bars", or damage model? How, if you have already decided, will we be able to know the damage we have inflicted/sustained to those parts?

 

Thank you for your time.

[admin]

Will we be able to paint ships? customize sails/flags? ... similar to Potbs.

Thanks.

 

Flags, Banners, Paint schemes = yes.

Sails probably. (i personally seen no references from the Napoleonic wars that sails were painted), but many players say they want this feature.

 

A bit curious how you plan to or are implementing damage and what sort of damage model are you going with?

 

Pirates of the burning sea uses a armor covering a structure method and voyage century online used a simple health bar method. In both after a certain amount of damage cannons would start to be lost or damaged. I notice you plan on being able to allow players to aim at certain areas of enemy ships, which is different from PotBS and VCO in which you fire cannons at the targeted ship when it is in range of your cannons. In reality however, cannons if they pierced the enemy hull would either go through to the other side or roll around inside the enemy ship. The front was slightly more armored than the rear, but both were much weaker than the broadsides of a ship, and so "crossing the T" was a maneuver that could potentially wreck an enemy ship in a single broadside.

 

If you have already decided on the damage model, will it be similar to PotBS with a health bar covered by armor based on sides, VCO with a single large health bar, or something a bit more realistic with cannonballs going through hulls?

 

With the ability to target certain areas, will those areas each have their own "health bars", or damage model? How, if you have already decided, will we be able to know the damage we have inflicted/sustained to those parts?

 

Thank you for your time.

 

Currently there are health bars that show general state of the various parts of the hull. The ship sinks because of leaks that appear due to holes or general disintegration of the structural integrity of hull. This system will be continuously expanded and improved. There is no internal structure in our game. Ships sink because they take water.

 

On the stern damage. Stern damage was deadly to the crew and cannons, but it could not sink the ship alone. There is a specific documented example from the one of the battles where the Spanish line ship (70 cannons) exploded after 4 full raking doubleshotted broadsides from 4 British line ships (90 cannons, 64 cannons, 74 cannons, 80 cannons). It required a lot of damage to sink a ship due to stern fire.

 

If your ship sinks, either in open world or faction warfare, does it respawn? I'd like ships to be a one time only, so that a player strives to take care of overpowered historically larger ships which could potentially unbalance the game should they respawn multiple times. This way, if you lose your ship, you have to build/buy another one. Is there a planned system that takes care of this?

We have to find the balance that promotes the desire to join the battle, and not to sit in port waiting for the good group. 

[Ned Loe]

I hope you guys played Assassin Creed Black Flag, there is a lot of things you can take from that game.

-Fort capture will control territory.

-Ports that can be upgraded.

-Ship upgrades.

-Side missions/dynamic on the go events.

-Fishing/Harpooning

-Treasure maps/hidden ship upgrades.

-Reputation damage as you sink ships.

-Reputation restore.

 

etc...

[Ned Loe]

Are you guys working on a first game trailer? When can we see it? Do you plan to use cinematic or in game mode?

Do you plan to get a new nice looking webpage (similar to GW2)?

 

Thanks.

[Barberouge]

Flags, Banners, Paint schemes = yes.

Sails probably. (i personally seen no references from the Napoleonic wars that sails were painted), but many players say they want this feature.

 

 

Glad to hear that ! If you're looking for ways to make some money, maybe those types of convenience items would fit well.

 

I didn't see any example of painted sails either, but the 70% sails decals opacity in PotBS made the feature acceptable (IMO) - Except some strange designs passed the comittee, such as exhaust pipes on fire and my awsome hardcore carebear decal:

 

 

[Chilly Willy]

I Have a couple questions

First:  in combat, will there be more than open sea, Hopefully coastal and island battles where shoals, reefs,sand bars and channels come into play

where a schooner and other low draw ships can travel with skilled navigators or charts.  Where larger ships if they dare persue run the risk of

running aground or risk damage from reefs, shoals.

 

Second: will the ships eventually be altered by a player  ex..if i had a 40 gun ship with no bow chasers could i remove 4-6 guns at the bow, reinforce the bow structure

to support  installing 2 or more long range bow chasers

[Johny Reb]

I love the pictures you have provided. Any chance you can put one up that shows the player interface and not just a clean view of the ships?  Thank you

[Mortiferum]

Hate to be so impatient.

 

But when will we be able to help test the game?

 

(Yes, we want to "help"   )

[bikkebakke]

I'm sorry if this has been discussed somewhere else, but I just want to ask how you will handle ship purchases and availability. I mean, how ships will be available to purchase in ports.

 

I'll just refer to the british royal warship rating just to get some form of good comparison to what I mean.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rating_system_of_the_Royal_Navy

 

So will you be able to purchase max 4th rated warships in ports and if you want higher you have to special order them, get them as a form of reward or take them over in battle. I am also assuming that non-warships will be available to purchase without restriction, just gotta have the money or will all kinds of ships be available to get. I'm just guessing that warships might not be the thing that nations like to just sell to random people with money.

 

And how will you handle bigger ships and their captains, I don't know if you have played age of pirates. There ships are tied to your level (or am I thinking of sea&dogs >_> anyways), so you can still use bigger ships but if you are a low level you will get penalties to sailing and cannon firing accuracy.  Will there be a non-restriction to using bigger ships than you are used to have? I'm not saying use a level system but will there be a form of skill system or will the game be purely skill based (I can just go from piloting a sloop to a 2nd rate warship without any penalties)?

 

People who have more insight in how this used to work irl are extremely welcome to put in their opinion. I am only used to how it works in games like sea & dogs or age of pirates 1&2.

 

//thanks for moving to appropriate place ^^

[Kiefer Cain]

Will there be an attempt at censoring the names of players?  

 

It would be appropriate for the sake of maturity and game immersion to prevent ALL CAPS names, and other names (LongSchlong, Unfreedservant, etc...) that take away from the experience.  This was a small issue among many many reasons that PotBs started to drift away from its path of the gaming promise-land, but it started the departure from a mature gaming landscape.  

 

Just a classic maturity argument.

 

Thanks 

[Limey McLimerton]

Will there be an attempt at censoring the names of players?  

 

It would be appropriate for the sake of maturity and game immersion to prevent ALL CAPS names, and other names (LongSchlong, Unfreedservant, etc...) that take away from the experience.  This was a small issue among many many reasons that PotBs started to drift away from its path of the gaming promise-land, but it started the departure from a mature gaming landscape.  

 

Just a classic maturity argument.

 

Thanks 

It's pretty difficult to enforce a name policy outside of basic automatic filtering.  In pretty much every MMO that I've played where there is a naming policy, even on strict RP servers where they have particular realistic naming conventions that are enforced in game, there is always a wide variety of adherence to the policy.  It quite often encourages overzealous moderation as well, which can have a negative effect on the community.  I do agree in theory though with discouraging offensive names and the typical "BLAZEIT420YOLOSWAG" names that you see in every game ever made that allows players to choose their own names.

 

That being said, I would like to see some attempt to head in that direction.  As it's looking like many aspects of this game are aimed towards the sim crowd, and realism is being favored above appealing to the casual market, I could see a strict policy working here.

[ChristianLove]

Well I was going to say something on the topic myself. but Skyze unfortunately beat me to it. Not to sound like a "Yes Man" but, I have to agree and would like to see the naming convention go in a more strict direction as well.

[wbcochran]

What's the political landscape like over there? Are you guys ok? I heard there's some crazy riots going on.

[admin]

Well I was going to say something on the topic myself. but Skyze unfortunately beat me to it. Not to sound like a "Yes Man" but, I have to agree and would like to see the naming convention go in a more strict direction as well.

 

Names of players could be curated. How we have not discussed yet. Once this element is designed we will post it up for voting

[admin]

What's the political landscape like over there? Are you guys ok? I heard there's some crazy riots going on.

 

We are trying to stay out of politics. And do what we know best - develop games. If we knew how to rule countries we would still continue developing a sailing game as we want it more than anything else.

[Limey McLimerton]

We are trying to stay out of politics. And do what we know best - develop games. If we knew how to rule countries we would still continue developing a sailing game as we want it more than anything else.

Your passion for this project, and love for the era is obvious and infectious.  Granted, anyone who has made their way here is likely already longing for the chance to sail the open seas on their own little piece of the age of sail, but seeing how involved you guys are with the community is wonderful.  I can't wait to get to help shape this game!  Thank for giving us all that chance

[zimmer1lb]

Is there a consideration for a bug/crash program for testers???  I have no idea if it is feasible or not but was wondering.    Example:  I want to test so I download a program that tracks all moves and stores them on my computer until something happens and red flags it to your attention...........then the program stops on my computer and downloads the moves up to the problem to your server.  You see first hand what has happened and where and the tester doesn't have to try and remember what he/she was doing up to that point.   Just a thought.

 

zimm out

[admin]

Is there a consideration for a bug/crash program for testers???  I have no idea if it is feasible or not but was wondering.    Example:  I want to test so I download a program that tracks all moves and stores them on my computer until something happens and red flags it to your attention...........then the program stops on my computer and downloads the moves up to the problem to your server.  You see first hand what has happened and where and the tester doesn't have to try and remember what he/she was doing up to that point.   Just a thought.

 

zimm out

 

NSA could have something like that on your computer already ))). Just kidding of course

We currently have F12 button and you can press it and send screenshot of the problem with short description. We don't track anything in the client yet, and will be very careful with what we record in game due to privacy. 

[Duskguy]

So I played Assassins Creed Black Flag for the first time just recently and the sailing and such is great fun, if a bit unrealistic.

 

However, the cannons are aimed with an arc in which the player must aim.The arc indicates the sides and center of your cannon placement, so aligning the center line on a ship would guarentee the most cannon balls hitting their target. That arc has a limited horizontal area of movement and around a -15 to +30 degree vertical angle (estimates). The back of the ship has fire barrels, the front chain shot chase cannons. Chase cannons have a much narrower attack arc as there are fewer cannons and they are closer together and again the arc can only move so much side to side and up and down. the fire barrels out back basically just have a spread of how wide you want them placed.

 

When a wave comes up in the middle of your shot, the cannon balls from yout broadside sink and you miss obviously.

 

My question is, while you aim for more realistic sailing (which I am all for) will the aiming of cannons be similar to AC:BF's aiming scheme, or do you have something simpler or more complicated in mind?

 

Because in all honesty, I find the simple, yet challenging idea of aiming through your own gunsmoke and over waves (and through storms) fun, and would love the addition of the wind factor to challenge me to maintain the wind guage as well. Add in that you guys are planning on taking into account where the balls land on the enemy ship, and I think this would be a simple yet effective way of implementing player controlled aiming of cannons while still keeping the game fun and challenging. So, will you be doing something similar, or something simpler/more complicated?

 

Thanks.

[wbcochran]

We are trying to stay out of politics. And do what we know best - develop games. If we knew how to rule countries we would still continue developing a sailing game as we want it more than anything else.

I meant no disrespect. I was just concerned that maybe things had escalated to a point that interfered with development. It looks like you guys are still chugging away and I'm very happy about that. I cannot wait to see the final product!

[admin]

 

 

My question is, while you aim for more realistic sailing (which I am all for) will the aiming of cannons be similar to AC:BF's aiming scheme, or do you have something simpler or more complicated in mind?

 

 

Thanks.

 

We have a lot more realistic sailing in Naval Action. 

Aiming is also presented differently - you have to take into account target speed and positioning, angle of cannons. Current shooting is not yet final and we will post more information about it on the open forums.  

[Brigand]

Are you guys planning on implementing sea/coastal currents into the game? especially near shallows and islands, I think this would create some very intersting game mechanics.

 

~ Brigand

 

(Also: should I have asked my question about musketmen in this thread instead?)

[BungeeLemming]

an easy and fast question:

 

will there be carronades?

 

short barreled, fast reloading but horribly inaccurate at over ~250 meters. (not sure about that number)