NAVAL ACTION calling for modern BB experts.

[MengJiao]

Ummm....


Are they ever going to finish Naval Action?

???

   Good question.  I went to see what it was like these days and it has changed yet again.  Since I never quite knew what was going on before all I can say is that some things look better from my point of view:
1) vast numbers of ports are no longer controlled by "pirates"
2) there are a lot of "neutral" ports
3) almost no "free" ports (supposedly one problem with free ports was that since pirates and Great Britian controlled nearly every port, other players would get picked off and "ganked" or "sealclubed" trying to do the "trading" thing...this seems mythological to me and suggests a peculairly fossilized MMORPG of the 1990s approach to the game)

I still cannot fathom the fantastic wasted effort it took to turn a promising naval game into an extremely dull rehash of all possible out-of-date MMORPG cliches.

[mikeck]

They are spending too much effort on trading, economy and other
mMo stuff. Combat. It's about combat. Stay  in your lane

[MengJiao]

Ummm....


Are they ever going to finish Naval Action?

???

   Good question.  I went to see what it was like these days and it has changed yet again.  Since I never quite knew what was going on before all I can say is that some things look better from my point of view:
1) vast numbers of ports are no longer controlled by "pirates"
2) there are a lot of "neutral" ports
3) almost no "free" ports (supposedly one problem with free ports was that since pirates and Great Britian controlled nearly every port, other players would get picked off and "ganked" or "sealclubed" trying to do the "trading" thing...this seems mythological to me and suggests a peculairly fossilized MMORPG of the 1990s approach to the game)

I still cannot fathom the fantastic wasted effort it took to turn a promising naval game into an extremely dull rehash of all possible out-of-date MMORPG cliches.

  Checked back again.  It's sort of like visiting a weird dystopian universe.  This time, I've been demoted (but I have huge amounts of experince that I could spend on something -- not sure what) and of course no longer have my ships or money or whathaveyou.  There are some tutorials and as tutorials go they are pretty good!  I will do them all and the exams for some perks.  And I took a picture:

[Yskonyn]

It does look very good, graphics wise!

Let us know if its a good time to take another peek!

[MengJiao]

It does look very good, graphics wise!

Let us know if its a good time to take another peek!

  In terms of graphics and the sailing model and the ships and the gunnery and damage and boarding and so on it has always been a fun and intriguing game and all that has been improving slowly even.  The boarding and tutorials are a big improvement.  BUT, for me, getting anything else to work (well, except fishing which has always been fun), has not been much fun EXCEPT back in 2016 when I was in some big battles and built up the XP that has sort of propelled me through the later visits to the game.  At this point I'm not playing it with much expectation of getting very far into it (it is still ALPHA after all).  For an occasional few hours of sailing and shooting at the AI ships it might be fine.  At this point I would not expect much more than that.

[MengJiao]

It does look very good, graphics wise!

Let us know if its a good time to take another peek!

  In terms of graphics and the sailing model and the ships and the gunnery and damage and boarding and so on it has always been a fun and intriguing game and all that has been improving slowly even. 

   The Privateer seems improved.  AS I remember it, it was like a Lynx.  This one seems like the Pickle I used to have:

 

[mikeck]

It still just seems to me that they still don't know what they want the game to be. They add stuff and 3 versions later, remove it. I play it when I'm in the mood for a fight. Lasts about an hour and I'm done. Shame

[MengJiao]

It still just seems to me that they still don't know what they want the game to be. They add stuff and 3 versions later, remove it. I play it when I'm in the mood for a fight. Lasts about an hour and I'm done. Shame

  It's been pretty different each time I've put in some hours on it.  The first time (when it was first on Steam in 2016), it was easy to get into big battles and make lots of XP even in the despised Basic Cutter.  Then I came back and it was very hard to survive at all sailing for Spain.  Pirates had taken over the world etc.  Then I came back and I had lots of ships to redeem and so on and sailed the REnomee for a while.  There were fewer pirates but the British were everywhere.  And just recently i came back to find I had none of my old ships or money BUT some things seemed to be working better such as getting stuff off sinking ships and there were even Tutorials.  The PvP enthusiasts were lamenting that there were safe areas BUT there are some battles that resemble some of the old free-for-alls, so yet again a significantly different game.
  I have to say, I've always been wary and haven't ever gotten sunk or captured in PvP, but the current game world seems unusually dangerous...sailing for Spain has always been rough but today seemed extreme as my privateer fled from an Imperial Russian frigate force, ducked into Havana and hit the wrong button (I hit Sail because I thought I had activated the tutorials and that button is in the same spot).  I popped out for a moment right next to a Russian Frigate, experienced horror and re-entered Havana without getting engaged.  PHew!

[Destraex]

I love naval action but just cannot bring myself to play it (like star citizen) until they commit to no more wipes. Which should be on release.
I have not seen much progress recently with features I expected like boarding systems. but the sailing model has been greatly improved.
I hope they announce a release soon so I can get back to it.

[MengJiao]

I love naval action but just cannot bring myself to play it (like star citizen) until they commit to no more wipes. Which should be on release.
I have not seen much progress recently with features I expected like boarding systems. but the sailing model has been greatly improved.
I hope they announce a release soon so I can get back to it.

  All my stuff except XP has been wiped two or three times now.  The basic mechanics of the game (sailing and shooting and lately boarding and/or looting) have been improving.  One way to look at it is that each wipe is a new game -- so that's two or three new games.  At least with the alpha wipes so far, i have at least gotten to keep XP and perks.  The production release may never happen so I'm playing while I can.  And this iteration seems to be the best so far at least for a semi-casual player like me.

[MengJiao]

   The Privateer seems improved. 

   And the Cerberus.  Not a very popular ship in the game and it looks like a slightly generic older model...not like the Renomee or the Hercules or the Privateer.  But it is a Frigate and I made the Rank of Frigate Captain so here's a frigate (Cerberus at 13.1 knots):

[Destraex]

Hmmm. Perhaps I will have another look at their forums. Because it really is the best combat sailing game going. I mean I do not even think we will see such a good sailing model perhaps ever again in a combat game like this.

[MengJiao]

Hmmm. Perhaps I will have another look at their forums. Because it really is the best combat sailing game going. I mean I do not even think we will see such a good sailing model perhaps ever again in a combat game like this.

  Its a strange world.  The forums are deranged and depressing and there are a million weird ways to get killed.  BUT if you do the tutorials and keep your risks low and look around and only fight the AI in relatively safe areas, you can play a good sail and shoot game and even some boarding without suffering too much.  I have no idea why you would build a game like this that has a very good combat system and then load on strange grinding and "Clans" and "crafting" and whatnot to satisfy a tiny population (under 200) and make life absolutely totally and completely miserable unsatisfying and utterly frustrating for new players.

[Wburn]

 I think the best thing they can do for  a new naval game is purchase the rights to the Storm eagle series Jutland and Distant Guns. The game has been in limbo for years now and could get some polish and updates to give it a more modern feel. Would be a great base to start with.

[MengJiao]

I think the best thing they can do for  a new naval game is purchase the rights to the Storm eagle series Jutland and Distant Guns. The game has been in limbo for years now and could get some polish and updates to give it a more modern feel. Would be a great base to start with.

   That would be cool, BUT, a big part of the fascination with naval games after the age of sail is the interactions of different technologies.  Rule the Waves covers that BUT there is a lot of potential there still.  For example, most Space games have a tech tree derived from aspects of the naval developments from say 1850 to 1950 (Dreadnoughts, Corvettes, cruisers, stealth, missiles, carriers, detectors etc. etc.
   The problem (as with Naval Action) is the persistent world and the massive grind that implies.  It seems like it would be better to set games at say 3-4 months and let development of systems (and battles) run from 1850 to 1950 (steam frigates to primitive missile cruisers) with fixed REd/Blue/Yellow teams on a big archipelago with some kind of land, air and submarine modules.  A big groggy game, but it could develop iteratively with each new game run having new features.