Questions to developers

[Barberouge]

Is cargo going to affect ship performance (speed and maneuverability)?

 

Yes, as well as gun batteries.

[Hethwill]

Dear devs i have been really bussy trying to find lineships from the dutch navy i have found the archives but they can only be orderd and there needs to be payed fir the ship plans. This is the website.

http://www.gahetna.nl/en/collectie/archief/ead/index/eadid/4.MST/node/c01%3A0.c02%3A0.c03%3A1./open/c01%3A0.c02%3A0.c03%3A0.

i do not now the state of the plans there are years posted if build and more please help out deu to the ones needed or wanted.

I hope hearing from you shortly

Great regards

Michiel de Ruyter.

 

It is the same with all nations historical archives. Pay to research and pay to copy.

I suggest you discuss any particular ship with them Devs and then reach a compromise if they are worth to research and then having them in game. Having all the information ( especially plans with MEASUREMENTS ) are half way through.

 

Easier to focus on one or two models and work your way through the archives.

On top of that you gain nice reputation with the museum/archive teams. They love to help.

[PiR]

Hello,

 

I have two questions for the devs and anyone who knows the answers.

How the Politic and the Diplomacy between nations will be implemented? It’s maybe too soon to ask but the sooner the better and it will play a major role in the open world gameplay

And about the 24h Battles I was wondering if more precisions will be available. I knows the général attention is on the upcoming open world ( with reason), but I see a true potential in this Battle.

Please, forgive my English and carry on the amazing stuff.

 

Cheers.

[Mirones]

imagine a battle instance that last for 24hours where you can rejoin and respawn.

it was also said that there will be fortifications that can be captured.

best to explain it with one of the real battles from history where certain sea straits or other points of intresst are fought for.

[archaon_archi]

Graphics right now are great, but I see one flaw, the sails are too plain. Do you plan to give them a bit more of waving?

[Mirones]

if a sail is not fully filled it is waving because of bad crew skills or not much wind.

i'm sure that there will come some improvements for animations in the future

[archaon_archi]

Yeah, of course I meant depending of the way it's catching wind. It could help a lot too on manual sails or to notice that you are going upwind.

[admin]

Yeah, of course I meant depending of the way it's catching wind. It could help a lot too on manual sails or to notice that you are going upwind.

 

You will get used to them and eventually will stop noticing them.

also sails waving properly -20fps. 

[archaon_archi]

Oh, but wouldn't they be lovely? ;D

[DazednConfused]

Question - is it possible to have a new match type - Arena -

 

I have noticed an upsurge in clan groups using PVP - and being split by MM into the opposing teams. these teams are also using clan TS so really do change the dynamics of how PVP plays out.

 

I am fine with this - in fact that's why I want arena - so you can choose which side you are on to cement team play. and do team duels

 

I have noticed that when you enter - say - PVP there is a menu with all the players waiting, then an empty menu beside it. rather than an algorithm for MM, can both screens be open to allow you to pick your side?  

 

I realise that focus is on open world but this would be epic so I had to try.

 

Cheers

dazed

[AtomicTiger]

Question - is it possible to have a new match type - Arena -

 

I have noticed an upsurge in clan groups using PVP - and being split by MM into the opposing teams. these teams are also using clan TS so really do change the dynamics of how PVP plays out.

 

I am fine with this - in fact that's why I want arena - so you can choose which side you are on to cement team play. and do team duels

 

I have noticed that when you enter - say - PVP there is a menu with all the players waiting, then an empty menu beside it. rather than an algorithm for MM, can both screens be open to allow you to pick your side?  

 

I realise that focus is on open world but this would be epic so I had to try.

 

Cheers

dazed

How you will handel Randoms joingin one team?

how you will control balance?

i would like that mode to play, but i think there is going lost to much time to implement it.

[BungeeLemming]

Such an arena mode was the original way the lobby was designed. We jumped in and switched sides on our behalf.

So basically it still is in the code somewhere.

Only when the sea trials started the internetz brought in the clowns/ douches wich abused the system for powerleveling. So it was removed.

 

This gamemode was brought to the devs attention some time ago and they said its possible.

With all the work they have to do I dont know if its still on the agenda.

[Toggman]

On the mini map would it be possible to have my ship in a color or something to differentiate from other team mates? In a group it is hard to tell who is who and would help me from ramming other ships. Thank you 

[maturin]

You will get used to them and eventually will stop noticing them.

also sails waving properly -20fps. 

But sails are only really going to wave and shake when they are luffing (yards are parallel to wind direction) or when the mast is falling.

 

These are relatively rare occurrences, only likely to happen to one ship at a time. And the animations are only necessary at the highest LoD. So you might have a fleet of 50 ships, but only four of them will be using this animation at once in normal conditions, and probably in different parts of the map.

[BungeeLemming]

Maturin when I play I very often set my sails parallel to the wind for numerous reasons. Slowing down in lots of situations or reducing heel.

I agree that the immersion with animations on the sails can be great. I can also see that if it happens on many ships at once the frames can drop horrible. Smoke already is a framekiller.

 

Maybe a well done sound for luffing can be a compromise and help the player realize how his sails are dragging.

[SYN_Bloody-Bandy]

Since Game Labs already makes a tactical top-down battle game in Ultimate General, at some point in the future, could just the very basic elements of this game (basic control of units movement, fire, charge/board) be simplified and used for ship-to-ship boarding party combat?

 

Boarding parties will be such an important element to get right, and having an 'engaging' melee system will be a triumph for this game.  It could be a good performance/graphics compromise.

 

Edited February 17, 2015 by SYN_Bloody-Bandy

[MesserJocke]

Probaly already ask a thousand times but my forum foo failed me here searching for an answer: Will there be a full wipe at some point in the future ?

[Leviathan]

Probaly already ask a thousand times but my forum foo failed me here searching for an answer: Will there be a full wipe at some point in the future ?

Certainly. Wipes will/may occur during Sea Trials and i'm sure everything will be reset just before the game is officially released when that time comes.

[BlueEagleGER]

When can we expect the developers wildcard from the latest ship poll to be announced?

(Go Christian VII!)

[RGS]

Is there a very rough ETA, such as two months, six or a year?

 

I heard about the game awhile ago, but was turned off when I heard it was multi-player (not a fan of arcade titles, such as 'World of xxx,' 'War Thunder' etc. though admittedly I've not tried them). Having now seen quite a few YouTube videos and discovered that NA will be more than just multi-player battle maps I'm keen to give it a try (I understand that combat's all that's currently available in the alpha; no probs there).

 

Is there somewhere I can get a general overview of the game? I've nosed around the web-site and forums and gathered a fair bit of info, but not spotted a general overview for the final vision of the game.

 

Finally, is it possible to play against AI only in any situation, either in the current alpha build or planned for the final release?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

(FYI - I'm not against multi-player per se, but find it a bit of an immersion breaker when you're fighting someone with an 'out of character' name and the chat gets filled with other out of context/inappropriate content. I like to take my gaming seriously )

[Barberouge]

Since Game Labs already makes a tactical top-down battle game in Ultimate General, at some point in the future, could just the very basic elements of this game (basic control of units movement, fire, charge/board) be simplified and used for ship-to-ship boarding party combat?

 

Boarding parties will be such an important element to get right, and having an 'engaging' melee system will be a triumph for this game.  It could be a good performance/graphics compromise.

 

No visualization of boarding in the near future, only commands.

 

 

When can we expect the developers wildcard from the latest ship poll to be announced?

(Go Christian VII!)

 

The wildcard is still in discussion.

[BungeeLemming]

@RGS: I moved your post here since its not a question regarding the preorder per se.

 

The final game will look somewhat like EVE without all the hardcore loss and crafting mechanisms.

Open world environment, player driven economy etc.

Since the game is nowhere near to be finished the whole economy idea is nothing more than speculations.

The open world will come in the next weeks (months). Devs already uploaded screenshots on their facebook page.

 

Right now you can play versus AI. But they are very basic and know nothing about tactics at all. They are good to learn the basics, tho. I will advise everyone to give PvP a shot. It can be a blast. Or decisive defeat. But thats the charm of online gaming.

[RGS]

@BungeeLemming

 

Thanks for the reply. I'll def. give PvP a shot when I eventually get the game; I was just wondering about AI as it's nice to test things out against and learn the basics as you say.

 

My fears over multi-player in general are those of immersion into the world (or rather lack thereof) when other people constantly remind you that you're playing a game. So for me the immersion and realism of the game-world is paramount. Take CoD for e.g. (not that I play those games any more, but anyway...) - I'm not going to be playing multi-player imagining that I'm in a real world war scenario; it is in fact a competitive e-sport (such as Quake or Star Craft) that's purely dressed as a military shooter. Plus, there's always the possibility that someone's going to come along, act like an idiot and ruin your session (I know it can be good too; I had some great times with Hidden & Dangerous 2 and Vietcong coop back in the day ).

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against competition at all, it's just that I am fussy about a consistently believable game-world. I briefly scanned another thread yesterday that was discussing what the outcome should be when you lose your ship for e.g. - Though I know very little about the game currently (obviously! ) I'm of the opinion that this should be a major consequence as it leads to a more realistic play-style, where people act more as they would if presented with a certain situation in reality (e.g. if the odds are heavily against you, it'd be best to surrender and pay-up if possible or run for your life rather than fight for the sake of it or ram the other ship, safe in the knowledge of an easy re-spawn in a couple of minutes). So if people are playing the game relatively 'seriously' I'm def. cool with that, but if the experience has more of an arcade feel with little consequence then it becomes hard for me to believe that I'm actually 'there' and thus much less enjoyable for me personally.

 

Anyway, sorry for going off topic, was just trying to explain my multi-player concerns and got caught in a bit of a ramble!

[Guest raat]

@BungeeLemming

 

Thanks for the reply. I'll def. give PvP a shot when I eventually get the game; I was just wondering about AI as it's nice to test things out against and learn the basics as you say.

 

My fears over multi-player in general are those of immersion into the world (or rather lack thereof) when other people constantly remind you that you're playing a game. So for me the immersion and realism of the game-world is paramount. Take CoD for e.g. (not that I play those games any more, but anyway...) - I'm not going to be playing multi-player imagining that I'm in a real world war scenario; it is in fact a competitive e-sport (such as Quake or Star Craft) that's purely dressed as a military shooter. Plus, there's always the possibility that someone's going to come along, act like an idiot and ruin your session (I know it can be good too; I had some great times with Hidden & Dangerous 2 and Vietcong coop back in the day ).

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against competition at all, it's just that I am fussy about a consistently believable game-world. I briefly scanned another thread yesterday that was discussing what the outcome should be when you lose your ship for e.g. - Though I know very little about the game currently (obviously! ) I'm of the opinion that this should be a major consequence as it leads to a more realistic play-style, where people act more as they would if presented with a certain situation in reality (e.g. if the odds are heavily against you, it'd be best to surrender and pay-up if possible or run for your life rather than fight for the sake of it or ram the other ship, safe in the knowledge of an easy re-spawn in a couple of minutes). So if people are playing the game relatively 'seriously' I'm def. cool with that, but if the experience has more of an arcade feel with little consequence then it becomes hard for me to believe that I'm actually 'there' and thus much less enjoyable for me personally.

 

Anyway, sorry for going off topic, was just trying to explain my multi-player concerns and got caught in a bit of a ramble!

 

As it stands right now, AI is far more immersion breaking than players in this game.  But even if the AI improved, it's likely players will always be a more difficult foe.  And challenge = immersion.

 

As for players who just intentionally want to suicide, well, there's no anticipating the behavior of an individual, so there's no way to change that.  It'll happen in OW for sure.  I would just remind you that the mechanics of sailing greatly prevent the ability to be sunk by a rammer or something simple because of the slowness of it.

 

You'll see it coming, and if the player is behaving erratically, best to stay at range or simply sail away if you can.  Not always possible, but seems possible to avoid grief 90% of the time.

[RGS]

Thanks for the reply Raatha,

 

Yeah, I agree that a human opponent will almost always be more of a challenge, which is great and more 'immersive,' plus teamwork can be very satisfying indeed if you get a good group of individuals. However...

 

Let's say you're playing SP/AI only:

 

• The other 'commanders' will all have appropriate, historically believable names for a start; even if someone's playing well it's hard to remain in character if they're called something like 'FatToad72' or similar.
• I don't know if voice comms is supported in the game or not, but all the lovely sound work  with the whistling etc. is kind of instantly undone if you have someone speaking over it all, particularly in an out of character way with phrases such as 'kick some ass,' or openly discussing game mechanics (as a game as opposed to actual naval tactics). 'Have you seen Capt. Morpheus online recently?' someone asks; the reply, "He's had some computer issues, will be back on after the weekend apparently," doesn't exactly put me in the mood. Obviously there are more immersion breaking things to talk about than these, but you get the picture.
• You also don't have to worry at all about griefer types...
• ...or any of the usual problems involved with multi-player such as  player '24_pound3r' suddenly vanishing from the battle as he/she was about to lose (intentional disconnect) or maybe someone was just at the door and thus had no choice in the matter.
• When I was playing Vietcong online years ago, the majority of people in the hardcore servers were decent, but every now and then you'd get some idiot show up, either intentionally trying to ruin everyone's game or unintentionally (one guy actually played dance music over his comms and thought that'd be cool for the rest of us - It wasn't even of the era! ). Single Player's never inconsistent like this.
• And finally, you don't have to worry about server issues, connectivity problems or worse still the servers eventually being shut down .

 

Single player just avoids all of these 'Hey, you're playing a game!' moments and allows me to slip into another world as opposed to feel like I'm either playing an e-sport or a more casual MP experience.

 

These are the kind of reasons why I was initially dismayed when I heard the game was multi-player and had ignored it up till now. But then I saw a YouTube video, and then a few more... Came here and read a little about the open world (which I love in games); I'd previously assumed it'd just be just a set of multi-player maps with a CoD-like XP system.

Anyway, I won't go on any more. From what I've seen the community does seem really good (possibly helped by the slower paced and fairly niche theme, with a heavy leaning towards realism) and I'm well aware that there's a lot of great stuff that can come from multi-player too - It's not all bad!

 

Looking forward to the game coming up for purchase again; I missed it by a day!