Naval Action coming to Steam EA on the 21st......

[SirAndrewD]

Hooray!  I captured my first ship!  So is it more advantageous to sell them right off or break them up for parts?

[MengJiao]

Hooray!  I captured my first ship!  So is it more advantageous to sell them right off or break them up for parts?

Supposedly if you break them up, you have a chance of finding the crafting blue print for that ship.

I took a cutter and took the mediium sixs off it and sold it for 3200.

[DennisS]

Hooray!  I captured my first ship!  So is it more advantageous to sell them right off or break them up for parts?

Supposedly if you break them up, you have a chance of finding the crafting blue print for that ship.

I took a cutter and took the mediium sixs off it and sold it for 3200.

I captured a trader, and ripped it up for mats, and now have a Brig BP (blueprint).

I also just earned enough experience to get promored again, from 2LT to 1LT. I can noew run ships with 140 crew.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I had a very tense but satisfying fight between myself in a brig with 6lber medium cannons along with another player in a privateer vs. two AI controlled French ships consisting of a Lynx and a Snow.  The Snow immediately focussed on me and her opening broadside did a massive amount of damage.  Knocked almost 1/2 my hull away and sprung a leak.  I thought I was going to have to try and make a run for it but I was able to turn just a little tighter than the Snow and avoid the full force of her broadsides while I continuously picked away at her bow.  My ally in the privateer stood off and lobbed chain at the Snow's sails while I hammered away at her hull.  I took a pretty bad beating but ended up de-masting the Snow after about 15 minutes and she sank soon afterwards.  The Lynx made a nuisance of herself by plinking away at anything that got in her firing arcs but didn't really do too much damage.  I was able to rake her stern once the Snow had gone down and that knocked out almost half of her guns.  They privateer moved in to board but hit too fast and the collision sank the Lynx.

Very fun fight!  It's made me want to play the Sails of Glory miniatures game so that's now lined up for this coming Friday.  Should be fun.

[RedArgo]

Sounds like a good fight SDR.  Were you out looking for a fight or did they come find you?  I should get out Sails of Glory too, haven't played that in quite a while.

I had my first PVP encounter last night.  I was in the Florida Keys in my brig sailing west to Key West, which is a free town, and when I got there I ran right into four Spanish ships.  There were two Renomees, a Snow, and a Cutter.  The Renomees have 12 gun broadsides to my 8 and can carry heavier guns too.  I tried to run, but they were able to get long shots into my sails and eventually slow me down enough to catch up.

I ended up doing the most damage I've ever done, but to no avail, I caught on fire, was dismasted, which I had never seen before, and sank. 

I respawned in Key West, so I waited a bit, hoping they'd leave and then made a run to the north and eventually back to the eastern part of the keys which is under United States control on the PVP One server.

I'm enjoying the game a lot.  Need to get into crafting maybe to experience more.  Right now on the long journeys between ports I just play Civ 5 to pass the time.  Good thing my brig can get a connection to Steam on the open seas. :)

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

The guy who was commanding the privateer called for help.  I was close so I joined in.

[RedArgo]

So did he just ask for help in the chat box, or is there a different mechanism for that?

I see the reinforcements available label on the screen, but I thought that was handled automatically if you are in an area protected by a friendly port.

[MengJiao]

So did he just ask for help in the chat box, or is there a different mechanism for that?

I see the reinforcements available label on the screen, but I thought that was handled automatically if you are in an area protected by a friendly port.

Rumor has it that you have to push ctrl and hit the reinforcement available tag to get reinforcements

And possibly in battle you have to hit 'm' to command AI ships (but I havent' done any of these things).

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

He asked in the chat box.  I saw the crossed swords icon in the area he mentioned so I sailed towards it and was able to get to it before the timer expired.

[SirAndrewD]

So did he just ask for help in the chat box, or is there a different mechanism for that?

I see the reinforcements available label on the screen, but I thought that was handled automatically if you are in an area protected by a friendly port.

Rumor has it that you have to push ctrl and hit the reinforcement available tag to get reinforcements

And possibly in battle you have to hit 'm' to command AI ships (but I havent' done any of these things).

I'm a bit confused about the Reinforcement Available tag.   I have control clicked on it in the open world and nothing happened.  I've just sailed into other players battles at will before they close. 

I've also had players freely join my fights without any needed action on my part. 

I'm wondering if that tab is just there to tell us that there are open battles nearby?

[MengJiao]

So did he just ask for help in the chat box, or is there a different mechanism for that?

I see the reinforcements available label on the screen, but I thought that was handled automatically if you are in an area protected by a friendly port.

Rumor has it that you have to push ctrl and hit the reinforcement available tag to get reinforcements

And possibly in battle you have to hit 'm' to command AI ships (but I havent' done any of these things).

I'm a bit confused about the Reinforcement Available tag.   I have control clicked on it in the open world and nothing happened.  I've just sailed into other players battles at will before they close. 

I've also had players freely join my fights without any needed action on my part. 

I'm wondering if that tab is just there to tell us that there are open battles nearby?

Supposedly joining battles is frowned on.  Which is odd.  The mechanism for joining all battles is the same, except that mission battles close in five minutes or something.  I have joined a comple of relatively large battles without too many "social" problems, but then I generally signal my intentions and haven't yet been threatened with being sunk by my own side (though I have seen that threat made, as well as a few "green on green" exchanges of grape and shot).  i haven't used it, but I think the reinforcement tag brings in the AI fleets in the area.  I haven't seen anything like that happen
in my limited experience as a Spaniard off Havanna in PvPTwo.

[RedArgo]

Why do you think join battles is frowned upon?  I just assumed it was a okay and I've only had one person who had a problem with me joining, so I just left.  I will always defer to whoever started the battle as far as if they want to board or sink.

I haven't read much of the forums, is it bad etiquette to join someone else's battle?

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

It's sometimes annoying. I was trying to capture a Lynx and was just about finished the battle when half a dozen "allies" showed up.  In their eagerness to score hits, they proceeded to do more damage to me in 30 seconds than the Lynx had all battle.  Then one bumped me out of boarding position and tried to take the Lynx for himself so I had to sink her out of principle.

[glen55]

Why do you think join battles is frowned upon?  I just assumed it was a okay and I've only had one person who had a problem with me joining, so I just left.  I will always defer to whoever started the battle as far as if they want to board or sink.

I haven't read much of the forums, is it bad etiquette to join someone else's battle?

In traditional MMOs, it can be considered "kill-stealing" (where you grab the XP for yourself after somebody else whittled the monster down).  Ss little as I know about NA, I have no idea whether that dynamic prevails here or not, but some people frown on it just because it is traditionally frowned upon even it games where there's nothing really wrong with it.

[MengJiao]

Why do you think join battles is frowned upon?  I just assumed it was a okay and I've only had one person who had a problem with me joining, so I just left.  I will always defer to whoever started the battle as far as if they want to board or sink.

I haven't read much of the forums, is it bad etiquette to join someone else's battle?

  I think the theory is that you form a group and then you all do a mission.  This almost never happens.  Even more confusingly, you can't tell mission battles from encounter battles until you click on it and even then its not always clear.
  As another poster notes, this is more a matter of how MMORPG games get played than anything that makes sense in NA.  A lot of people apparently have to play every game more or less the same way as in "Its not a hard game, I'm already an Emperor, just join a clan and use Teamspeak" or "no afternoon of painting the kichen need be boring -- I've already painted all the kitchens in the nieghborhood -- just shove your hand into a live wire behind the fridge every few minutes!"
  So yes, just being a normal, casual player is, as usual, very much not the done thing.  But if you follow a few simple basic social rules (for example, much as in Real Life, always put on the watch cap that makes you look like a criminal when discussing car insurance problems with somebody who hits your stationary car in the parking lot) -- be slightly aggressive, vaguely helpful, bluff, don't whine and get ready to run -- you can actually avoid all the clan-oriented strictures and play the game as a relatively open game with lots of options.
  So yes, you are apparently supposed to be "in a clan using teamspeak" and not playing the game like an ordinary human being which means that you aren't supposed to intrude on other players for some reason -- though you are supposed to turn up for some battles and in theory there are people to PvP out there somewhere -- so yes, there is some frowning on joining battles -- even encounter battles -- but, if you don't deliberately foul things up, nobody really seems to care.