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

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I'd say 18 times out of 20, allies who showed up in a battle were genuinely helpful.  One time out of 20, they were trying to be helpful but they were new to the game and would end up shooting you or ramming you due to their inexperience.  That final time out of 20 is the problem.  I have had two people deliberately ram me a couple of times to bump me out of the way and stop my boarding attempts so they could slip in and try.  I've also had three people purposely rake my stern with a full broadside just as a battle ends just to be jackasses.

What I'd like to see is the option for people who start a battle to open it up to allies if they want to.

It's really kind of killed the PvE server as there's not a lot to do now other than admiralty missions or trading.

[SirAndrewD]

I'd say 18 times out of 20, allies who showed up in a battle were genuinely helpful.  One time out of 20, they were trying to be helpful but they were new to the game and would end up shooting you or ramming you due to their inexperience.  That final time out of 20 is the problem.  I have had two people deliberately ram me a couple of times to bump me out of the way and stop my boarding attempts so they could slip in and try.  I've also had three people purposely rake my stern with a full broadside just as a battle ends just to be jackasses.

What I'd like to see is the option for people who start a battle to open it up to allies if they want to.

It's really kind of killed the PvE server as there's not a lot to do now other than admiralty missions or trading.

I'm on the PvP server, but yeah, I can see this being a problem.  I am guessing that a lot of these problems might have happened on PvE as I never really saw them or even heard them complained about on the PvP. 

This is a bit of cutting off your nose to spite your face by the devs though.  I mean, yeah, it solved a griefing problem that I suppose existed, but it's dropped a bomb on the open world and community aspect and has appeased only what seemed to be a vocal minority. 

As for stealing captures, I think the value of capturing has been a bit overrated, especially at the lower levels.  I'd rather have player participation in my Admiralty missions and zero captures than no player participation and captures. 

[RedArgo]

I captured another traders brig and went ahead and tried to answer my questions.

Send to Admiralty doesn't work yet.

Take Command does just change the ship you control and allows you send the other ship to an outpost.

That allowed me to keep all the captured cargo.

[jomni]

Is this going to be like Elite Dangerous in the Carribean?

[SirAndrewD]

Is this going to be like Elite Dangerous in the Carribean?

Perhaps.  Prior to today's patch it was a bit more open world.  Right now it's a bit of a work in progress. 

[jomni]

I hope it would be like Elite with trading, missions, ship upgrades, and pirate hunting.

[SirAndrewD]

Yikes, my first outing as 1st Lt. wasn't so pleasant with the new system.

I got a 2nd Lt Order, that had prior brought Brigs or Snows. 

This time I got a Cerberus. 

I was in my Niagara for the first time, and yowsers, his first volley had me down half armor on my port side.   I angled and his second volley took me more than half my starboard.

I got three solid broadsides on him that cut into his aft and dinged his starbord down to one tick.  And that's with good hits on 32lb carnonades.


I cut and run after that of course.  No one was coming to help so that was a fight lost.  The Niagara foundered in anything less than close or broad reach on the points of sail, so she was essentially worthless to maneuver.   

Yikes.  At least I got away with my ship intact, barely. 

[AchillesLastStand]

Just made 2nd LT and would take any advice on what ship to get next is, hull strength, cannons, cargo capacity and speed all play into my decision. I've heard a lot about Snows but ive also heard they are glass cannons. Any advice?

[DennisS]

Snows are very fine crafts for 2Lt's. I am a first lieutenant, and am running a Niagara. I ran one for the last third of the exp needed while as a 2Lt, and managed just fine, despite only having 77% of the crew needed.

The Niagara has the capability of carrying class 4(!) carronades, the big bastard 32 pounders. Gotta get in close, but I can take a cutter to half health in one volley. They're slow as pigs, and not manueverable, but dayyum! The DAMAGE they can pump out!

I am still running my Niagara, and am close to being promoted to the rank beyond 1Lt. Like you, I am not sure what ship to get.

I have been building brigs left and right, and an upgraded, human-built brig has three upgrade slots. Get one for speed, one for turning, and one for combat and this becomes an exceptional ship for your rank.

[MengJiao]

Agreed. I think being able to toggle your battle as Open for the first five minutes would be the best solution.  Make a proper Reinforce button, huh?

Indeed. 

To be fair, the reinforcement button works, but only for Nation vs. Enemy combat.  I wasn't aware of it until this blow up apparently hit the steam forums, but apparently you can warp people into your battle only when it's something like a British commander attacking French.

  Yep.  That works.  I once went after some small passing enemy ship when a fleet was assembling for a sortie.  When the battle opened there were 3 cutters including me, several brigs, and some frigates.  The enemy sails were shredded in a minute and then somebody just rammed him and sent him down instantly.

[SirAndrewD]

Well, tonight fighting with the Niagara within her weight class was better.  I still had very hard fights against a couple of Brigs.  I'm just going to avoid taking the Lt. Commander orders.  I had no chance one one one with the Cerberus. 

I switched out to Long 9's after having a lot of trouble hitting with the carronades due to the Niagara being an unstable gun platform, especially in rough seas.   The 9's are pretty amazing actually.  They don't do as much damage, but I actually started a Pickle sinking on the first volley with them.  Even though it didn't rip away its armor, its higher penetration apparently made the ship spring a lot of leaks right away, too many for it to deal with. 

I was also horribly mistakenly using Rum Rations as an upgrade.  That was probably why the ship performed like it was in irons, the crew was drunk. 

Swapping to a very good optimized ballast tonight, it might slow down the ridiculous roll on the ship and make it actually able to hit things.

[Nefaro]

I'm really wary of using a full set of carronades.  Especially on the small ships early in the game.  You gotta get so close, the enemy will have such an easy target.

I preferred shooting at range with Long Guns before they added the open world stuff.  I hope not much has changed regarding aiming.  If they removed Double Shot loads, then it's all the more reason to stay at a distance and hopefully take less damage while wearing them down.

[SirAndrewD]

I'm really wary of using a full set of carronades.  Especially on the small ships early in the game.  You gotta get so close, the enemy will have such an easy target.

I preferred shooting at range with Long Guns before they added the open world stuff.  I hope not much has changed regarding aiming.  If they removed Double Shot loads, then it's all the more reason to stay at a distance and hopefully take less damage while wearing them down.

Well, the AI doesn't miss much regardless of range.  Even on a small and quick target the AI nails probably 80% or more of its shots, even at very very long engagement ranges. 

But, yes, I do tend to agree after trying it out.  Carronades are more or less like hurling  a spit wad compared to the accuracy and velocity of the long 9's.   Not to mention with the 9's I don't have to completely strip the armor to hole the enemy. 

I'm not sure it's completely superior, but I'm having better results with the Niagara at least. 

Now, if I were in a Navy Brig with its huge hull, I'd probably just go back to carronades and ramming/boarding.

[DennisS]

I'm really wary of using a full set of carronades.  Especially on the small ships early in the game.  You gotta get so close, the enemy will have such an easy target.

I preferred shooting at range with Long Guns before they added the open world stuff.  I hope not much has changed regarding aiming.  If they removed Double Shot loads, then it's all the more reason to stay at a distance and hopefully take less damage while wearing them down.

I roll with a Niagara, with a full set of 32-lb carronades...and get very good success with them.

The secret is to get in VERY close before you fire. I can strip half the health away from a cutter in one salvo.

Last night, against a Renomonee, I gained 143! extra experience in a group of five, in addition to the 100 base exp for the mission. This was due to four solid, major damage dealing broadsides. I just can't find fault with using Class 4 guns on much lower class ship.

[MengJiao]

I'm really wary of using a full set of carronades.  Especially on the small ships early in the game.  You gotta get so close, the enemy will have such an easy target.

I preferred shooting at range with Long Guns before they added the open world stuff.  I hope not much has changed regarding aiming.  If they removed Double Shot loads, then it's all the more reason to stay at a distance and hopefully take less damage while wearing them down.

Well, the AI doesn't miss much regardless of range.  Even on a small and quick target the AI nails probably 80% or more of its shots, even at very very long engagement ranges. 

But, yes, I do tend to agree after trying it out.  Carronades are more or less like hurling  a spit wad compared to the accuracy and velocity of the long 9's.   Not to mention with the 9's I don't have to completely strip the armor to hole the enemy. 

I'm not sure it's completely superior, but I'm having better results with the Niagara at least. 

Now, if I were in a Navy Brig with its huge hull, I'd probably just go back to carronades and ramming/boarding.

The biggest ship I've sailed in the game is a Privateer (ie an armed Lynx), but my experience overall is that, after the intial exchange of fire, if you pull out to a good range for long six-pounders, the AI starts to miss pretty often.  I'm pretty sure in low-level missions the AI only has medium six-pounders and they either miss, don't penetrate or don't do much damage a lot of the time.  So I use long six pdrs which have an easier-to-aim trajectory for me and do penetrate more often.  I had 18 pdr carronades on the Privateer, but I saw them bouncing shot off targets at 20 yards and i had a terrible time aiming them at anything other than very close range so I went back to long guns.
On the other hand, I'm thinking of going into a PvP small battle in a live oak cutter with powder monkeys and medium six pounders.  The combination works okay against the AI and for PvP might have a depressing effect due to the rate of fire compared to long guns and relative accuracy compared to carronades.  Plus if I I lose the cutter, then I will have gotten rid of the medium sixes I've captured from the AI.