My combined suggestions...

[Elbows]

Disclaimer: Been following Naval Action for quite some time, only have 30 hours play-time.  Most of these suggestions are aimed at the game atmosphere and not so much the technical aspects of certain functions.  Most of my feedback is based on the PVE server.

 

I admit, sadly, that the game is a bit less than I'd imagined having watched a lot of videos and thought what would naturally be in a game of tall-ship combat.  I'm quite sure most of these suggestions have been made already, just wanted to make it easier for admin/people to read the feedback.

 

• There must be alternate forms of XP gain.  Be it trade/exploration/diplomacy etc.  Whilst I'm not opposed to combat, the grind is...well, it's a grind.  The game needs to offer far more to keep it mixed up and lively.  My 30-hours have been very much rinse-repeat with little variety.
• Tagging onto the above, there needs to be a concerted effort to make the game worth exploring.  As it stands now there is zero impetus for a player to take his ship from one end of the map to the other.  Missions or objectives need to be available, or simple XP gain per port.  I'd like to see a trade mission "Bring X amount of Y to this Port - gain 250 XP" ---- and have the target port a good 1.5-2 hours of sailing away.  Give some purpose for long distance trade missions if you're willing to put in the time. Visit a few extra ports on the way to scoop up a little extra XP.
• At a stretch, I'd like to see Whaling or rescues at sea, or small sporadic instances which add some kind of surprise to the game.
• Ship customization, albeit kept within the realm of reality.  I fully support naming ships, but also support limitations put on such.  I'd like to see 2-3 colour schemes for each ship.  I'd be fine if these were assigned to the ship when built, I don't necessarily need to choose them myself.  But each ship bearing the same exact colour scheme is a little odd (unless you opt to go for a single scheme per country which would also be fine)
• I'd desperately like to see coastlines in the battle screens, occasionally even small islands.  If a battle is fought within a certain radius of a coast, I'd like it to play a part.  Use the same graphical contents used for Open World.  This could provide actual shallows, perhaps a few inlets etc. to mix up the fight.  I'd be fine with 4-5 pre-designed coasts, I don't need a hundred different variations.
• I'd like to see a lot more work done on the damage model.  Sail damage is fine, but damage to ships is hard to see and often you don't even get a cannon-ball impact hole to indicate you've struck the ship.  Hand in hand with this, I'd be fine with removing the health-bars if this damage model is increased.
• I'd like to see far more crew/cannon destroyed by ball rounds.  From everything I've read/seen/studied on the age-of-sail, a lot of crew casualties were not from grape shot, but splinters from ships.  This game allows you eliminate an entire side of a ship for the loss of around 5% crew.  Doesn't seem very legit to me, and I've almost never seen cannons destroyed/damaged/knocked out of action (unless this is a function of lost crew, in which case, again, we need to see more crew casualties from standard fire)
• The boarding system is a bit clumsy/mediocre.  Doesn't add much interest/excitement to the way the battles are fought.  I'd prefer a system which auto-resolves (over a period of time) using your crew and upgrades etc.
• I'd really like to see a huge change to Pirate mechanics.  I'd love to see them fly false flags and perhaps up-gun trader ships...only being revealed when you engage one in the Open World.  Imagine your dread when that Trader Brig is actually an up-gunned Brig flying a black flag when you enter the engagement screen.  Allow a certain cool-down period before flying the false flag again etc.  As a penalty, do not allow Pirates to fly false flags on larger ships (encouraging them to keep to slightly smaller vessels).
• I'd like the Open World to involve a bit more work...namely using your spyglass and flying your flag.  I'd like to have ships identified closer in, not further away - necessitating the need for the spyglass.  Perhaps start at X distance = type of ship, at a closer distance = type of ship and flag flown, and at a very close distance = type of ship, flag flown, captain.  The glass is far less useful in battles as it would be in the Open World.
• Would really like to see some different graphics for ports...they're all too similar and don't represent certain areas (for instance the port graphics for Charleston don't represent anything similar to the actual ports of Charleston.  This is definitely a very weak aspect to the Open World.
• While I know most of this is coming, I hope the UI becomes very atmospheric.  The older Total War games are a good example of how to beautiful create a game atmosphere with the peripheral components (namely Shogun 2 etc.).  The menus/UI/etc. all really deliver the atmosphere.  Looking forward to a cool looking compass, a beautiful hand-inked map etc.  I just assume that stuff is on the way now, because the UI is terrible, but that's been discussed a lot.
• If we stick to solely combat gained XP, I do think the first few levels need to be re-balanced.  Maybe 500-750 for the first rank and similar for rank two.  As it stands, if you're not diving head first into the game and devoting a lot of time, you're not seeing much in the way of progress...that'll be a big turn off for the players who aren't quite devoted to the game.  You need to make it a little bit easier to keep them interested and get them vested in the game.  Once you start ranking up and increasing ships the draw will continue on its own.

 

Things I'd like to see not changed:

 

• Pace of battles.  They're spot on.  Don't turn it into an arcade game.
• Don't speed up the Open World - it's also fine as it is.

 

I'm sure there are some I've forgotten that I'll throw in later.  I also think most of all of these have been mentioned before.  Just adding them to the list.