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

[RedArgo]

It seems like the missions vs AI have gotten harder lately.  I'm doing 2nd Lt missions in my brig and out of 3 attempts last night I had to withdraw from 2 of them to not risk losing my ship.  I defeated a pirate brig, but then against a snow and then 2 privateers I was close to sinking and although I might have been able to win I didn't think it was worth the risk.

It seemed like in the past the missions were pretty easy.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I'm getting a lot of 2 vs 1 missions as well. I can take on 2 cutters or 2 lynxes, but 2 privateers or 2 snows is more than I can handle in my brig.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I just got a promotion and jumped up from a brig to a Niagara.  I started out with 24lb carronades.  I like the damage they dish out when they hit but I think I'm going to switch to long nines instead as I can hit much more often with them so I think the damage balances out over time and I can engage at longer range. 

[RedArgo]

What rank are you SDR?  I just got to 1st Lt and I'm still five short for a full crew on my Niagra.  I don't know if this makes much difference, so I went ahead and equipped it anyway.  Using the long 9s also.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Same as you.  1st Lt.  I think I can deal with a 5 man deficit.  I usually lose about that amount in the first view volleys anyway.

[MengJiao]

Same as you.  1st Lt.  I think I can deal with a 5 man deficit.  I usually lose about that amount in the first view volleys anyway.

  As a Tenante de Frigatta, I think I have a crew size of 110.  I was sailing in Navy Brigs and Mercuries with Marines and...it was kind of depressing.
So I got a nicely crafted regular Brig and Powder monkeys and Pellew's sights and I'm doing better with fewer guns.  I'm sure the live oak and the
extra planks are helping too!

[AchillesLastStand]

There will be a nice little content patch in a couple weeks...........

Content patch discussion

New store interface.
We wanted to improve the store information for players making purchase/sale decisions and improve usability a bit.

In the new interface you will be able to see the amount of goods bought and sold at that price level and will be able to purchase everything in one block (no more unnecessary clicks if you wanted to buy 2000 of something - if someone is selling 2000 items you can buy it in one block). In addition to that you will be able to see top contracts and player names placing those contracts in case you want to trade with them in private.

New battle crew management - BIG CHANGE
Crew focuses have been reworked completely and became more realistic. They will now work as toggles – instead of absolute choices. Previously all tasks were fulfilled with penalties starting from zero penalty to 100% penalty in a linear progression, and you could only improve a certain task while reducing the benefits on another independently of your crew size.



In the new system:

All main tasks have a certain allocation of crew depending on ship type.
All main tasks have a minimum and optimal size of crew required.

•   Optimal crew – task will be fulfilled at max speed
•   Minimal crew – task will be fulfilled with penalties
•   Less than minimal crew – task wont be fulfilled at all.

Sailing, Gun reloads, Repairs, Leak fixing is atomized and all of them require a min or optimal squad. The crew requirement is the sum of individual crew requirements. Switches between crew focuses take time and the bigger your crew the more time it takes to reposition the squads from task to task. If you have full crew you can toggle optimal performance for all tasks.

The main differences lie in the changes to gunnery. We will try to explain it in simple English – if we fail please rephrase for us in comments and we will update the text.

Previously all guns were reloaded simultaneously. If you did not have enough crew it affected ALL guns. It was unrealistic and unhistorical. In the new system every gun works separately and has a gun crew allocation. All guns are loaded gun by gun if you have minimal gun crew.

How it will work. Example: You first rate have lost most of the men and has 20 men left

Current old system: Ship suffers enormous penalty depending on a crew focus. All decks are affected. If you have switched on the gunnery crew focus you never reload anyway.

New system: Penalties and reload will depend on the gun composition of cannons for this particular vessel. If you have 20 men left and switched to a gunnery crew focus it will be enough to reload 2 heavy guns per minute allowing you to fire them individually. All guns have a minimum and optimal crew requirements and the gun composition for the vessel will become extremely important in battle.

•   Equip lighter guns – you will have more flexibility in choices when you start losing crew.
•   Equip heavier guns – you will have to manage the crew.

Certain ships will become impossible to sail without extra crew management.

Repairs/Survival changes
Survival will also start working differently. If you have only 1 leak it will take only 5 men to repair and will not affect other sailor/gunner crew composition. If you have 90 leaking holes you will have to find 450 men to plug them in.
Repairs also will be affected. If you are repairing Victory you might need up to 30% of crew to repair 15% of the integrity (number is arbitrary at this stage).

These changes will also allow for interesting options in improving repairs in a realistic way.

Sailing
Sailing is simple and works similar to guns. You have a % of crew required to work sails and if you don't do any other tasks you will not suffer any penalties to speeds of raising sails or turning yards. If you have enough crew you can work sails and man guns at the same time.

Boarding
Boarding crew has to be allocated before the boarding. And the main difference with the old system is this: if you have enough men you can shoot guns and have boarders ready at the same time. Some ships with low number of guns will shine as a result – lynx is the best example. And it will allow you to board when you are sinking (sending some men to repairs and the rest to boarding party).

We also would like to discuss the following potential changes to the boarding – but they wont get in next patch.

•   Only prepared boarding crew will fight in boarding for both sides
•   Fire deck guns will be moved out of the boarding interface and you will be shooting actual guns with their real reloads and performance. If you don't have crew allocated to guns you will not be able to fire during boarding.
•   Disengage duration will be affected by several commands and factors. Players wont be able to disengage in certain situations unless they are pulled away from the vessel by friendly ramming.

Production buildings
Production buildings are still tentative and might not get in next patch. Please leave your feedback on how you want production buildings to work in the following topic http://forum.game-la...gs-discussions/. We will of course try hard to make them happen in Feb but not sure about it.

New ships
2-3 new ships will be delivered after the patch – as they need more time to be tested and fine tuned. Most likely candidates are improved Niagara that will be boosted in certain areas based on the player feedback and Essex Frigate.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Not much in the way of improving the PvE server.  It's getting pretty grindy.  Been working towards Master and Commander rank for ages now.

[JasonPratt]

You must feel like that rank is on the far side of the world.

:D

[Philippe]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I'm curious about the time it takes to reload and fire.

How much time do you need to reload, aim, and fire a 12 pounder in minutes per round?

Handling a naval gun probably won't be as fast as its land-based equivalent because of the need to work in a confined space with poor ventilation.

[smithcorp]

From Wikipedia -

A typical broadside of a Royal Navy ship of the late 18th century could be fired 2-3 times in approximately 5 minutes, depending on the training of the crew, a well trained one being essential to the simple yet detailed process of preparing to fire

In the Aubrey-Maturin novels (O'Brian's research is pretty faultless), Jack Aubrey, who prizes gunnery practice above all things, is satisfied with three in 5 minutes. I think Naval Action's reload times are even quicker than that.

There's a good description of the evolutions here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_artillery_in_the_Age_of_Sail

[Philippe]

Let me ask that question again a bit more clearly.

Does Naval Action use realistic rates of fire?

Three rounds in five minutes sounds a bit on the fast side.  Two minutes per round used to be a pretty good rule of thumb, but the reality would have been a sliding scale, with reload times as well as aiming times both degrading as the lower decks filled with smoke. 

Given the twitchy nature of online players, I would imagine that most of the gaming community would be allergic to reality.

Of course, if the ships are moving twice as fast as they should be it will all come out in the wash if the guns are firing twice as often as they should.

So what I'm really asking is how convincing are the fire and maneuver tactics in Naval Action ?

[Nefaro]

In the Aubrey-Maturin novels (O'Brian's research is pretty faultless), Jack Aubrey, who prizes gunnery practice above all things, is satisfied with three in 5 minutes. I think Naval Action's reload times are even quicker than that.

Didn't he base those numbers on the literal practice of some ship captain from the period?

[Philippe]

I'm not as concerned with what reload times are in an historical novel as I am with what they are in the game.

Does anyone know the reload times ?  And are they fixed or do they vary ?

Firing an eighteenth century cannon is a far cry from sliding a shell into the back of an artillery tube.

[SirAndrewD]

I'm not as concerned with what reload times are in an historical novel as I am with what they are in the game.

Does anyone know the reload times ?  And are they fixed or do they vary ?

Firing an eighteenth century cannon is a far cry from sliding a shell into the back of an artillery tube.

It takes about a minute or so to reload round shot on the long 9's I'm running on my current ship.  The carronades I was using on the Niagara took a bit longer, around a minute twenty or so.  I timed a few quick videos off youtube and it seems that's about right.  The smaller cannons take less time, on my old cutter my medium sixes could load in about 30 or 45 seconds.

It varies dependent on crew size and battle stance.  If you have your crew focusing on gunnery it'll shave a few seconds off.   Different shot types also take a lot longer to load. 

Reload time also can be altered by the amount of shock the crew has sustained in either casualties, concussion from point blank volleys and sudden loss of rigging.

I'm probably reloading a bit faster than normal because I have a few crew upgrades to tick up my time to 3% faster.

It's faster than historical rates of fire, but it feels right and it does simulate naval combat a lot more realistically than anything I've ever played.