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

[MengJiao]

Going to purchase myself today, sailing ship just too good to pass up, even if MP....but before I do, just a couple of quick questions.


3)  I have seen posts at Steam that indicate they only have one server (I think) capable of hosting up to 2000 players.....are you able to get one when you want or long wait times?

There are currently 3 servers, each capable of hosting 3000 players.  The two North American Servers have relatively low populations at the moment.

[Grim.Reaper]

Ended up buying, will see how it goes...as others have mentioned, the user interface is very rough.....won't have time tonight to really dig in, but hopefully some time early this week....

[DennisS]

I have about a dozen hours in..here's my initial thoughts.

This game is what Pirates of the Burning Sea SHOULD have been. An open ended MMO, with crafting, and consensual PvP.

Pros:
-Massive game world, with HUNDREDS of ports, across about ten factions.
-No ingame mapping feature. You leave the port, and it's all dead reckoning. I LOVE this...great immersiveness, and you better learn the coastlines pretty darn quickly!
-Very solid crafting system, much more fleshed out that I would have thought
-Good combat system, using instances. Not sure if these instances are designed to have additional players jumping in, or if this is a bug. Steam forums disagree on this point
-LOTS of ships, across ten tiers, each of which have 3-10 variants. In some cases, these variants are striking
-Customization is massive, with gray, green, blue, purple, and gold (think WoW) upgrades
-No pay to win, or freemium, in ANY way that would increase your chances to perform at a higher rate, or to even earn exp and a higher rate
-You earn "labor points" when you play online, used to craft. Absolutely no ability to have bots do the work for you
-All files are kept server-side..virtually eliminating cheating or bots
-Player created ships are the best ships in the game. Period. This is a truly awesome design decision, IMHO. The Gods of RNG may grant you an Exceptional (gold) ship when completed, whose value would be priceless
-Each ship you have has five lives. Lose the fifth, and it's gone, as are its permanent upgrades.

Cons:
-Grindy. Personally, I like grindy, and this has it on steroids. 50 exp per battle, which can take up to an hour, 20 battles to level up.
-Commerce, i.e. trading, is broke. You purchase from a town that produces the goods, and take them to a town that does not, and lose 50% in the process. I cannot see, at this time, ANY way to turn and actual profit while being a trader. Major bummer for me..as this is what I like to do
-Crafting a widget, just to skill up, works...but ALL crafted goods need to have a market, or you will just throw away the completed material. Not a huge deal, as money doesn't seem to be an issue yet
-Crafting an actual ship will take weeks of gameplay, when you can probably generate the resources to purchase that same ship in about 1/3rd the time
-Mats to craft are scattered all over the Caribbean. You won't know what a city produces until you visit the city. I have been looking for coal (for iron ingots), for the last four hours.

[jomni]

You should be able to use a sextant if your location is not plotted on a map. I missed that in the old Pirates!

[Nefaro]

-Good combat system, using instances. Not sure if these instances are designed to have additional players jumping in, or if this is a bug. Steam forums disagree on this point

The combat instances are, indeed, designed to allow extra players to join the battle.

The ability to join is limited to the first 5 minutes, however.  After that time, it is locked.

This allows nearby friendly ships to reinforce.  I'm not sure how grouping is done but if you have a group of players spread out, in multiple squadrons, the others still have a short chance to help out if they can get there quickly enough. 

Similar to the way it was in PotBS.  For PvP one person in a small fast ship with good sailing properties, usually a lateen-rigged ship that could run close to the wind, would be the so-called "tackler" and attack a large enemy squadron.  Then he could evade until his other larger buddies in a different nearby squadron could catch up & join in.  The retarded Red pvp Zones around contested ports, in PotBS, added way too much meta on top of this though.  I don't think there is such a thing in NAction, thankfully.  Also.. I'm not sure how much ship speed varies while sailing on the strategic map.  If they're all about the same, it would nullify the need for such "tackling" tactics.

You should be able to use a sextant if your location is not plotted on a map. I missed that in the old Pirates!

I imagine they're going to add something like that.  I do recall planned features about navigational stuff being on the dream list. 

They still have quite a bit to add to this thing.  Should probably still call it an Alpha, if being technical. 

[Surtur]

I ended up buying and joined the Netherlands. Still very much learning though

[Grim.Reaper]

I ended up buying and joined the Netherlands. Still very much learning though

You don't have time for playing games!   You need to get Oriental Empires released sooner:)

[Nefaro]

I ended up buying and joined the Netherlands. Still very much learning though

You don't have time for playing games!   You need to get Oriental Empires released sooner:)

[glen55]

Sorry if I'm repeating somebody, I haven't read the whole thread.

I watched an hour or so of Youtube vids and played a little this weekend and it seemed like a game that is going to require some time commitment to get the hang of. 

Sailing around seems like it is not real-time but not all that different from it, either.  The sun moves quite slowly.  I can just imagine the thrill of sailing across the Pacific. . . .

Somebody said something about sextants?  Do you have to frickin' PLOT your location?  I did notice that there was no apparent hint of my location on the map when I went out chasing an enemy on my first mission.

I watched a video about combat, but I couldn't get my cannons to fire when I was sailing around.  Do you have to have an enemy targeted?  It may well simply be that I have no clue.

My overall impression was:

(1) Beautiful, scratches a sweet spot, WANT WANT WANT, but
(2) Very early in development, not really ready for prime time

I'm inclined to come back in a few months, but I'm glad I looked at it.  I won't forget that this game exists.

[Pete Dero]

I'm planning on watching this tutorial tonight to get a better idea about this game and how to play it.

[Jarhead0331]

(2) Very early in development, not really ready for prime time

I'm inclined to come back in a few months, but I'm glad I looked at it.  I won't forget that this game exists.

You do realize it's an "early access" release, right? Your impression should come as no surprise...it's not ready for prime time, but it has come a long way since closed alpha.

...and when you are sailing in the open world, time is compressed in that you sail much faster than you do when you enter combat. You are able to cover much more sea in open world travel than you would if you were sailing in the combat mode.

[DennisS]

There is time compression, when you are on the strategic map. Battle instances are much more deliberate, as they should be.

There are no map plots of your position. Ever. Once you leave port, you're on your own. Dead frigging reckoning..and I like it!

In about two minutes, I am going to build my first ship. I have levelled up, twice, and am now an official second lieutenant. This enables me to have more crew, thusly having the capability of running a larger ship. Shame that I spent so much gold on purchasing ship building materials!!!

[RedArgo]

Somebody said something about sextants?  Do you have to frickin' PLOT your location?  I did notice that there was no apparent hint of my location on the map when I went out chasing an enemy on my first mission.

I watched a video about combat, but I couldn't get my cannons to fire when I was sailing around.  Do you have to have an enemy targeted?  It may well simply be that I have no clue.
ned to come back in a few months, but I'm glad I looked at it.  I won't forget that this game exists.

Hello,

There are currently no navigational aids in the game.  If you get lost you can either teleport home (button in the top left of the screen) or sail until you find a city, press 'M' for map and use that to re-orient yourself.  Of course if it is an enemy city, there will likely be lots of enemy ships around too.  I've read the devs may add some kind of navigation at some, but not yet.

To fire your cannons, you have to be in combat mode, not open world, then you have to orient your view in the general direction of your guns arc of fire.  Next right click to bring up the firing view, like looking off the deck of the ship instead of the normal third person view, then press space bar to fire one cannon or left mouse click to fire all the guns in that arc. In the beginning that will just be your left and right broadsides, but eventually you can have multiple decks of guns and fore and aft guns too.

Hope this helps.

[Jarhead0331]

There is time compression, when you are on the strategic map. Battle instances are much more deliberate, as they should be.

Your ships definitely move faster in open world than they do in combat. That is what I meant by a form of time compression.

[MengJiao]

My overall impression was:

(1) Beautiful, scratches a sweet spot, WANT WANT WANT, but
(2) Very early in development, not really ready for prime time

I'm inclined to come back in a few months, but I'm glad I looked at it.  I won't forget that this game exists.

  It's a classic MMORPG in many ways.  They go through many stages and are often more fun in their earlier stages.

  What I like so far about this one is -- instead of starting out fighting giant rats or being killed by chickens, you start with a fully functional boat.
I got lucky I think and got a oak cutter as my second cutter.  So it is less easily penetrated by small shot.  I put long (high penetration) 6 pdrs on it
and I can generally penetrate the pirate ships (big things with two masts!) from outside their penetration range.  I assume they are using medium guns of some kind. The upshot (harhar!) is that
I shoot the pirates to bits in about 15 minutes.   Very satisfying compared to fighting giant rats.
  Of course the rest of the grind might be quite different, but for now, I'm happy with the game.