I suspected that you would say that Jim.
I must admit that I have not used the either the chain or grape shot more than once so far, as double shot seems to do the job for me, and consequently I have left masts sails, and seamen to take their normal chances. I do feel,however, that for the sake of historical accuracy I should add this facility to the repertoire of at least the French,whom I believe had a penchant for having a go at the the masts, or is that just another Victorian myth.
Rob.
It may be a myth, but one that has many believing in it? I've not ready that extensively on the subject, but what I have seen does indicate that the French aimed high (for rigging and masts) while the British aimed for the hull (having better trained gun crews with better accuracy).Originally Posted by Bligh
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
Thanks Jim.
I'll run with that until someone broadsides us then.
Rob.
Acquired a new ship last night. While the Bellona is an excellent Ship of the Line the major benefit to it's building last night was the acquisition of the Santisima Trinidad blueprint by our shipbuilder. Needless to say the First Rate guys are ecstatic.
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
Seems to be riding a bit high in the water Jim.
Have the Dockyard Mateys short changed you on provisions?
Bligh.
Visually that's something that does occur regularly in game. Fluid ocean rendering along with the ships motion makes for a challenging sim I expect. Either that or someone really goofed up on my ballasting!?!Seems to be riding a bit high in the water Jim.
Have the Dockyard Mateys short changed you on provisions?
Bligh.
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
But she lays stable. There's no visible lean.
There's a day and night cycle in Naval Action and sometimes the sunrises and sunsets are quite impressive. I was sailing in the Bellona recently and thought I'd take a few screenshots to show off the cabin and ship lighting as dawn approaches. Cheers!
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
I can just imagine myself looking out of those stern windows at the shimmering phosphorescence in the wake of the ship.
Rob.
Had an interesting encounter with the Bellona this evening. I took on a British 3rd Rate just outside of Jobe and managed to set it on fire. Due to crew losses and fire shock the ship actually exploded, which I have only seen happen in videos. Whenever it's happened before I seem to be looking elsewhere when the explosion occurs. It also blew off the main mast. I wish I'd had the camera filming rather than a single frame.
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
I bet that was pretty exciting to see Jim.
I like the on board view of your ship.
Do you get a 360 of the deck etc like in other games?
The ones we have watched of the Fleet actions seem to just concentrate on the overview of the battle as a whole.
Rob.
You can zoom in and look at your deck and crew during the battles. I think the 'view' is centered on the main mast and you can pivot 360 from there. In the open world you can also zoom in, but the animated crew is absent. There's also a 'free camera' that lets you move up and away from your ship to view an entire area. We keep saying we'll try to 'film' a battle from that vantage point, but it hasn't happened yet.
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
Thanks for the comprehensive answer Jim.
I bet you know what my next question is!
Will you take a few screen shots to show us around your ship please.
Rob.
I can do that. Which ship would you like to see? I'm currently sailing the Bellona, but within the next two weeks I should have HMS Victory to take photos of. Also, USS Constitution, HMS Surprise, generic 3rd Rate, HMS Trincomalee, etc., are in dock.Thanks for the comprehensive answer Jim.
I bet you know what my next question is!
Will you take a few screen shots to show us around your ship please.
Rob.
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
First HMS Victory for the USA on the PVE servers (as far as we know) was just constructed. I got a few screenshots, but this was my favorite to date.
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
Surprise would be great for me Jim, but any ship that the rest of the shipmates would like to see would be fine also.
Rob.
Game looks fantastic
It's piety, that my comp does not impose these graphic requirements
We finally have the Santisima Trinidad in Naval Action. Our ship builder crafted this for one of the fleet member just a few days ago. While I might prefer using a Sails of Glory version of the Santisima Trinidad one takes what one can get. Cheers!
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
Well that looks a fine ship Jim. I wonder when we will get ours?
Rob.
Congrats Jim! That Santisima looks magnificent.
I'm still playing a ton of Naval Action, to the detriment of my motivation/time available to play tabletop games, I'm sorry to say.
I don't know exactly what it is about this game, but it really scratches all the right itches for me.
I've now sunk (pardon the pun) over 200hrs into the game (having owned it since Dec. 2014), with most of it in the last 8 weeks or so since Steam Early Access launch.
In fairness, though, that makes the $40 investment I made in it back then quite good, in a "dollars per hour of fun" sense.
I've only had a handful of other video games that have captured my interest to this level... Minecraft (which is still my all-time biggest game timesink), Rise of Flight (second place) and now Naval Action (which will most likely reach second place here before too long). Civilization 5, with "only" 160hrs or so, is falling rapidly away in a distant fourth place.
The good news is that the developers are releasing new enhancements on a regular basis and, on the balance, they seem to be good. I know they certainly haven't turned me off the game.
Forthcoming are the long-awaited "land in" battles, where, if a battle is initiated close to a landmass, the landmass will be rendered in the battle instance. Originally, the developers thought this would be too difficult, but happily it seems they've found a way around it. I can't wait!
Lovely game. Backed it back in 2014, but rarely have time to play. Only ranked up to the point where you get 150men as a crew. Sailing for France.
Thanks for the update and great photo. Naval Action is rather in a down time for me at the moment. The developers in their efforts to 'balance' the game have gone totally bonkers on AI abilities. I know many folks who have outright rage quit the game after losing very expensive ships to an AI that can sink you ships without taking any damage themselves. Unless they tune back the AI and damage issues I won't be doing much other than crafting and enjoying the sight. Missions, even in large groups, can be disastrous.
The worse part of this is any new player coming in is going to suffer a huge disadvantage against the AI abilities. Being beaten by AI repeatedly is not how you bring new folks to your game. I hope the developers realize that average gamers are likely to move on when faced with 'simulations' that are too difficult to accomplish.
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
Dont find the AI that hard. They only aim slightly better after the update.
I think they did somrthing with how leaks are hqndled now. I get a lot more with much higher impact on the ship.
Supposedly the latest hotfix addressed the crazy leaking issue, but complaints of AI that's way too accurate, fast to reload and impervious to damage is occurring within out group. Last I checked half of the active players have left the PVE server and gone to PVP servers. The assumption being they can fight players more easily then they can fight the AI?
I've just learned that the latest couple of patches are definitely addressing the AI difficulties for beginning players. It's no longer possible for a Pickle to sink a Trincomalee in under 3 minutes, or a 9 pounder gun acting more like a rail gun from posts on the Steam forums. I thought I should add this information to bring things up to date.
Last edited by Nightmoss; 04-21-2016 at 15:28.
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
So, I'm still playing a ton of Naval Action, have around 350hrs in game so far.
The land-in battles are awesome and I'm really pleased with how they have been implemented.
There are some complaints about how positional reinforcements are currently being handled, but in honesty, there are so few times I'm in a "gank" situation that it's just not an actual issue for me. I've had people try to exploit it, but because I sail Privateers and other fore-and-aft rigged ships, it just doesn't matter... I sail away from them on a beam or close reach and they really can't do much.
Have been enjoying doing a bit of trading... built production buildings to gain access to copper and coal so that I could keep myself in Exceptional Privateers, and have been selling off Low Grade Crafting Notes for a bit of extra cash.
Have been enjoying capturing Le Gros Ventre from the AI, it's a bit of a long slog when done with a Privateer or Basic Cutter but it can be done. So... much... grapeshot! :)
Anyways I still like the game, it's a good time.
Any more of your mates battles coming up for viewing yet Jim, or have they also lost interest?
I was really enjoying those.
Rob.
Rob, the recent patches really took the players by surprise and many have dropped out of the game completely or gone over to the PVP servers. While the follow up patches backed off the AI powers many have not come back after losing 'expensive' ships? Where we used to have a minimum of 8 ACN players online at any given time now we're lucky to see two or three?
I'm still on the PVE server, primarily crafting and trading. I'm slowly working my way up to crafting First Rates. I'll be building a Belle Poule later today. If I get some good photos I'll post them, but I don't know if or when we'll ever get a line battle like we did before?
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
What a shame Jim.
Those battles really looked the real McCoy.
Why do these designers have to tinker with an on going game system, and not forewarn anybody. It takes a lot of time and effort to get anywhere, and then it can be gone in a flash. I would be really peeved myself if it happened to me.
Rob.
The whole game is still in development and many featutes arent implented yet.
I quite like the Ai changes. Better a bit harder then too easy.
Just lost my Cerberus against a Trincomalee....Bloody pirates.
A short record of my Mercury against a Frigate.
https://youtu.be/qDC93ZosNco
Last edited by Banana_Joe; 05-04-2016 at 11:24.
As I've said to those who remain I don't mind a challenge, but suicide missions are not fun and it's certainly not how I'll spend my free time. Does it make sense that an AI Pickle can ram and sink a Trincomalee or Constitution? That's exactly what was happening before they backed off on the damage for the system. At least for our fleet/clan the damage is done and we're down to almost no one online.
I've been told they're losing 40% of the new players within the first day of play because the game lacks tutorials and has a very steep learning curve. Yes, the game is in development and clearly "Early Access" on Steam, but if you don't keep the players on day one you're not going to grow your game base?
Last edited by Nightmoss; 05-05-2016 at 12:31. Reason: typo
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
I'm a little worried about the playerbase, too. I've been watching the numbers decline on PVP1. A month ago it was 800+ when I'd join around 8-9pm PDT, now it's below 400. Server reset happens at midnight PDT so at best I have a window of maybe 2 hours to play. I am able to find stuff to do, but it's feeling very much like a PVE experience rather than a PVP experience.
I love the new Duel Room, where you can have a 1v1 PVP battle in matched ships (by Battle Rating) with no risk of loss. It's really fun, although I often have a bit of trouble finding opponents weeknights... weekends are usually better.
So yeah, I think the playerbase is suffering a bit, and there is rather incessant tinkering with mechanics instead of focusing on things like user interface, tutorials, or even a professional / official knowledgebase to help learn the game. The learning curve is very steep and very offputting, even for friends that are favorably disposed to naval combat games. They're looking for something more like Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, whereas Naval Action is currently more like Minecraft circa 2011... lots of as-yet unrealized potential.
I am pretty sure, the game will turn out fine.
I would have hoped for an age of sail Silent Hunter game, but I am happy with this. I think it needs more crew management and some kind of maintenance mechanism. So not everybody is sailing around in Victories. Until then I enjoy the game.
Reposting something I typed up yesterday for the Naval Action forums, after a very fun evening on PVP1, where I sail for the Spanish crown as Sanson Carrasco:
--
I logged on last night thinking to play a couple hours before bed. I live on the West Coast of the US so normally the server populations are quite low, last night it was below 400 which was a bit depressing.
I figured I'd sail my Exceptional Lynx [Editor's note: the Lynx is the smallest, weakest warship in the game] - which I've been unable to sell for weeks now, even at bargain basement prices - from La Habana over to La Tortue and maybe setup a new outpost to seek PVP in that target rich environment. I didn't really care what happened to the Lynx but figured I probably wouldn't see many people anyways, given how quiet the server was.
And then suddenly, just before I reached Matanzas, Spanish national chat lit up with reports of yanqui (USA) raiders in Frigates harassing shipping along the coast between Baja and La Habana.
Figuring there wasn't much I was going to be able to do with my Lynx, but figuring I had to at least try to help, I wore ship and sailed back.
Thus ensued about two hours of some of the most fun I've had in recent memory in Naval Action. I spotted one of the Frigates off Mariel just as it jumped one of our player's Le Gros Ventres, and I jumped in to the instance to try to help. It took quite a while to chase them down (they were sailing on a broad reach) but eventually the LGV turned back towards me and I was able to catch up. A fierce battle ensued, with my compatriot's LGV taking heavy damage. However, I was able to dart in with my Lynx and begin stern raking the Frigate, eventually knocking his crew down to 150 and allowing the LGV to escape. I then set off close hauled and sailed away upwind. As soon as we dropped out of the battle instance, I was pleased to see many Spanish warships coming to help, and was able to tag the Frigate and pull him into another battle that saw him get absolutely wrecked in short order. So much fun!
Anyways, I know this all smacks of "cool story bro" but I want to reiterate that there is still quite a lot of fun to be had in Naval Action, even with the lower server population, and even in the "deadzone" time frames.
I was just on the PVE server and there were only 92 players online. 92 for an entire server!?
One of the regulars said that today's brief patch was in preparation of merging all the servers. He could not say for certain that the devs will keep one PVE and one PVP server, but that it's not a matter of 'if' they'll merge servers, only of 'when' they'll do so.
Sounds like you had a great time Steve and will have more 'targets of opportunity coming up soon if the above information is accurate? If they do get rid of PVE I'll likely be out of the game. I'm only crafting at this point, but have finally made level 35 and 'built' my first Trincomalee.
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
I'm positive the devs are going to keep a dedicated PVE server, if the merge happens it will be to bring the three PVP servers together.
92 on PVE isn't bad, PVP1 had something like 285 when I logged on last night... I sailed around south of Cuba and had an entirely PVE experience, which is not at all atypical and sort of the big joke that's always laid behind all the PVP vs PVE nonsense. If you stay mostly in national waters, you will have a 99% PVE experience, and if you stay pretty heads up, you will rarely if ever be ganked unless you're deliberately putting yourself in harm's way.
In any event... it's *still* fun for me. I've got my crafting leveled up to 16 or 17 now, have my production buildings churning out coal, copper, silver and compass wood (I know, I know) and have, for the first time, over $400k gold in my "bank account"... which to me feels like success!
That's because, prior to getting into the crafting & trading game (which I did only to ensure I had a ready supply of Privateers), I've always been perpetually broke due to my focus on capping trade ships... nothing like gaining 0 gold and 3 XP for your efforts, along with the grab bag of "who knows?" in the hold of that Trader's Lynx which you can sell to the AI for a whopping $1900~.
If that didn't make me quit Naval Action, I don't know what will. Now I want to craft Snows so I can craft Mercuries so I can get the Niagara blueprint, that ship is just so cool. I did have a fun duel with one sailed by a player last night outside of La Tortue. Beautiful little ship... and those 32lb carronades! Yeah baby! :)
Last edited by surfimp; 05-11-2016 at 12:23.
Two new ships have joined the Naval Action Fleet. Indiaman and Rattlesnake. I got the BP for the Indiaman and thought you might like to see the in game model. She's quite a ship. Sure would be nice if Ares released a comparable sculpt with similar statistics? Cheers!
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
Congrats Jim!
I just got the Rattlesnake BP to drop yesterday - I'm tremendously excited, she looks to be the finest ship for privateering in the game so far. Had a very interesting 1v1 PVP duel with one yesterday in my Privateer schooner. After 1hr 10min we both retired, taking on water, limping home and declaring it a draw :)
I actually got very lucky and got the Navy Brig BP to drop at the same time:
Will post a pic of the Rattlesnake as soon as I have one built - should be later tonight :)
Grats on you BP drops, Steve. The Indiaman was a real surprise for me as the drop rate is only 5% and I got it on the first build of an LGV. The ship is going to be hugely popular with the pirates! In fact that's who I sold my first one to. One of the few women playing the game. She used to be in ACN, but has moved on to piracy.
Some of the other updates I'm not too keen on and again I think many of the changes are being driven by pvp and those of us on pve are forced to accept it or just stop playing. Taking away teleporting with cargo is not setting well with our crafters. There are changes to combat models and the attributes of wood are also changing.
By the way that brings up something that was stated in chat today which I have no idea of its validity or not? Someone claimed the teak wood was not prevalent on combat ships because splinters from teak would cause blood poisoning and if you didn't remove all teak from flesh you would die from that poisoning? Have you ever heard of that?!
Have fun on pvp 1.
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
That certainly looks the type of ship that we could do with for general use.
I'm glad to see also that things are progressing in your on line game.
I really did enjoy those battles.
Thanks again.
Rob.
YAAASSSSSSssssssssssssssssss!!! :)
I got extremely lucky to get a yellow Speed built-in upgrade when I crafted the ship, along with the maximum number of optional upgrade slots.
I built it with Fir wood and with Crew Space options as this will be my primary privateering ship, so I need speed and the ability to carry plenty of crew for boarding actions.
I'll plan to add Copper Plating and possibly Speed Trim, though it's so fast already I'm hesitant to make its turning performance suffer.
In terms of size, this is similar to the sloop-of-war from Sails of Glory, but it sails even closer to the wind... I was able to close reach at over 9kts, which, for a square rigger, is incredible. And its speed on beam and broad reach is nothing short of exhilarating!
The British, sworn enemy of the Spanish crown on PVP1, are going to hate this thing :D
Grats on you build Steve. Getting 3/5 is awesome as is the speed bonus. I seem to only get stiffness these days. A little less RNG in game would be appreciated.
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
Good to hear that you got what you needed to fulfill your objectives Steve.
You must let us know how you get on running amok amongst the British.
Rob.
Getting to know the Rattlesnake by practicing "rageboarding" versus an AI trade ship. Rather gamey but quite effective :)
P.S. - this trader was a smuggler carrying contraband (seriously this is a thing in the game), hence the Spain-on-Spain aggression.
Nice boarding action there Steve.
I do like the close ups of damage flying off.
Gives a bit of extra excitement.
Can you get close ups of the boarders, similar to the Total War games?
Rob.
No, sadly there are no deck animations during boarding, currently. In fact the entire boarding minigame is said to be a placeholder while they work on other things, so it's possible this will change in the future. Right now it's sort of rock-paper-scissor amongst the different options, and having high quality Marines aboard, along with other boarding upgrades, is essential to success.
The game is going to get a new patch next week, which should bring more 'realism' to the simulation and battles.
Crew management is being taken to the next level.
This will certainly add some planning and complexity to the game. It also made me think of how the solo rules for SoG have been added to up the realism. Cheers!Crew will have to be hired for certain price for the sailor
Crew will be lost if you sink or blow up
Crew will become persistent between battles
Players will be provided with 40 free sailors at the start of the game which cannot be lost (to support new players), this number could go up with rank up to a certain limit
Crew will be available for hire in all ports that you can enter
Crew will have to be assigned to ships that you capture to be able to use them
Ships that you capture will have to have crew to be transported back to port
There will be only two options for the ship you capture:
Add to fleet (assigning crew)
Sink
Ships will have minimum possible crew - you won't be able to add a ship to fleet or transfer yourself to you if your crew is lower than that ship minimum for sailing
Examples of how the system works
1) If you captured a Trincomalee in a Constitution you will have to assign crew to Trincomalee and sail back under crewed in both ships. Once you arrive to port you will hire the crew again.
2) If your group lost a good amount of crew during heavy battle - you become more vulnerable for the next battle
3) You sail a cutter and your friend captures a Santisima for you. If you claim it you will not be able to sail a Santisima if its minimum crew is above 40. You will have to sink her.
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
My latest ship build in Naval Action. Ingermanland is the smallest 3rd rate in the game at 62 guns. Information here if you're interested.
http://navalaction.wikia.com/wiki/Ingermanland
The ship I crafted on it's way to Charleston.
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
Looks a right handy ship to have. It would do very well as an HEIC. in the Far East.
Rob.
A little older than most ships I've seen in from the game so far. About a century older than Trincomalee.
Nice to see a little more of non-British, French, Spanish ship. I'm not playing but apart from USS Constitution is there any?
There are several other nations outside of the big ones on the design table. If memory serves they just gave the go ahead on bringing a Danish ship into the game. Play balance and other design factors are the big obstacles to having more ships in game at the present time.
"It's not the towering sails, but the unseen wind that moves a ship."
–English Proverb
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