WilsonMG

Until today, I would have said the infamous "wind patches", because they're the primary reason I stopped playing. However, after the announcement of a Chinese faction, I'm going with that, because that's what pushed me to finally uninstall the game entirely...

Some of us are busy professionals, with many areas of responsibility in our daily lives that require proper time management, and we can't waste our entire day arguing with strangers on the internet. I only come here when there's something important that needs to be addressed, like losing an entire segment of an online community practically overnight, due to poorly implemented game mechanics...

I cover some other points regarding this mechanic in this post here:

Maybe we could listen to reason and just fix all of these problems by applying the speed boost to the map and not the individual player, so that ships will still behave as they should, and still have their designated roles and specialties, points of sail would still matter, and speed bonuses would be applied fairly to all players, and all ships, at all times, based on where they are, without the need for complex code changes, as I have suggested here: This system would still allow people to cover greater distances in much less time, and cut people off by sailing faster while farther out to sea (not a bad thing), and while it would still create some issues with the current ROE mechanics, that is a balance issue, not a core gameplay issue, like we have now. You could even keep the button, or better yet, create a simple, random QTE so that it couldn't be activated while AFK or by bots/macros! I think we would all like to see trade winds, or proper wind zones, but let's face it, that takes time to code, and Game-Labs needs to balance development time against the potential benefit to their customers so they can stay in business, and the engine has its own technical limitations, so the simplest solutions are the best solutions, and the most likely ones to be implemented.

Yep. Before this update came along and absolutely crushed our Clan's morale, we were actually ramping up to do a big giveaway during the upcoming Steam Halloween Sale, to bring in more new players by handing out copies of the game to our members who had it on their Steam Wishlist. We might be a large community by most standards, but we're a non-profit entity, so we try to sync up our giveaways with Steam Sales. The MG XO--my second-in-command, who assists me with overseeing the MG community--was also very active in Naval Action. He owns a chain of game stores in Texas, and in recent months, he's been branching his business out to include selling game keys, and I know he was very interested in reaching out to the publishers of this game to start selling Naval Action Steam keys, and hopefully get it distributed to more players in the US, all because he believed in its potential. As to whether he is still interested in that, I can't say, but in light of this game branch literally becoming almost nonexistent within the last few days, we definitely won't be doing a giveaway. The primary causes for this sudden turn of events are the drastic, untested changes to the game mechanics resulting from this latest update, and the way admin chose to respond to any kind of constructive criticism regarding these issues. Those responses crushed any hope any of our members might have been clinging to for these changes to be reverted. Those issues, were the final straw for us. Now, I've been here since the earliest days of this game, and a member of these forums for even longer, and I've weathered all kinds of crazy changes to the game the same as a lot of you have, but that was also during development, when it was to be expected. These extreme changes to what is supposed to be a fully-released game broke the core game mechanics, and it dropped the bottom out of the already struggling player-driven economy, so much so that even our most-dedicated Naval Action Clan members decided that they had finally had enough, and were stepping back from the game. As more of them continued to voice their disappointment at the direction the game has taken with this update, it made me realize that I, too, no longer found the game to be rewarding for the time investment it requires. After making our big post-release push to get our members back into Naval Action, and personally averaging between 4 to 8 hours a day in this game for the past 3 months straight, building our Clan into a competitive organization in a shorter amount of time than most, I've finally hit the wall, too. It's becoming more and more clear to me that this game is being developed to cater to a hardcore, vocal minority within the playerbase. I can't say for certain that our community is done with Naval Action for good, but after having spent years now working to get our community members engaged in this game, striving against the odds to keep them engaged in spite of the game's shortcomings, and having watched so many of them leave in favor of games that are more rewarding to them for their time, I would say the outlook is anything but great.

Even though it's probably statistically unlikely with individuals using them on their own, I wonder if it's possible for more than one player using Loki Runes to join into the same battle if there are multiple NPCs still alive in it? If so, I could see some Clans saving all of their Loki Runes to use simultaneously for some next-level trolling...

Being called a carebear by someone who fled Pirates when the going got tough to go play the game on easy mode with Russia... so hurtful... I never claimed to be "hardcore". I said I actively participate in PvP on a daily basis, and I'm good with the consequences of it. Undocking into the open world is consenting to PvP in Naval Action on the PvP server. I feel I should clarify that my chief complaint about the Loki Rune's isn't the nonconsensual nature of the mechanic so much as the fact that it is being intentionally hidden from the victim, and, more importantly, that the player using the Loki Rune isn't risking anything. Knowing whether you are fighting a player or the AI is important and whether you are experienced enough in PvE to tell the difference is really irrelevant. You're going to have to fight a player differently than you would an NPC and it helps knowing at the onset of the battle what you're getting into. Personally, I also tend to take on more challenging NPC fleets when I engage in PvE, and my safety is anything but certain, so a player taking control of one of the NPCs I'm fighting could mean the difference between a net gain from the battle, or taking a major loss. I mean, let's face it... grinding a lot of PvE is not something that can be avoided--at least not if you need Doubloons or XP--or I think a lot of us would. When I do it, I try to get the best results for my time and effort, and losing a ship and its upgrades, while the other player suffers no risk at all, just doesn't make for good gameplay. If the game used a banner announcement (like with conquests) that said something like "An enemy captain has fallen and an aspiring officer has taken command of the ship; John Ramsey's ship is now controlled by TrimSlayer69!", it would probably sit better with me, but it still wouldn't address the fact that the player who is using the Loki Rune isn't taking on any risk. The way it is now, it's just a troll mechanic.

This is seriously one of the worst mechanics ever implemented in this game, and I still remember the update where everyone immediately sank if two ships barely touched, and the other one where a single broadside of ball shot killed the majority of your crew... The PvP isn't consensual and there's no warning given to the player who believes they are engaging in PvE. That's simply not OK, under any circumstance. If there was a warning that was displayed that told a player that the NPC he was fighting had just been taken over by another player, then that would make it more acceptable. As it stands, it's a shitty mechanic designed specifically to cater to trolls. Just for clarification, I'm good with PvP. I play solely on the PvP server and I engage in PvP every single day. You see, though, I'm a Pirate, so all I have to do is undock from any major Pirate port and there is usually a fair number of gankers trying to kill me. All you people that are always bitching about not getting enough action need to try putting yourselves in someone else's shoes before you try to dictate how the game experience should be for everyone. Maybe stop being a bunch of pansies and join a nation that actually offers a challenge?

I did the math last night and there were more "Online Members" in the top ten Pirate Clans than the entire server population... I think it's safe to say it's broken.

There's almost no correct information anywhere on it. I spent some time trying to figure out why our "PvP Kills" weren't being recorded and were even being erased, why our "KD" was going down even when kills were being made and no one had been sunk for days... I eventually just gave up and wrote it off as completely broken...

Loki Runes... because consensual PvP apparently wasn't good enough, they're now turning our PvE battles into PvP without the consent of the player who sailed out to grind some PvE. Sure, let's fine tune it to make sure it favors the troll with nothing better to do than randomly drop into some poor bastard's battle! I feel like the title of the post-release development roadmap should be "New Ways to Keep Frustrating Our Players Until They All Quit".

The lack of maneuverability would be something we'd have to adjust to, but that's already the case with the current implementation... The greater concern is that now, some ships can magically go faster than other ships because 10 minutes back they clicked a button that their victim doesn't have access to. Let me present a scenario that happened just last night... I was alone outside Baracoa, in a 15 kn Snow, looking for some of that PvE I'm being pushed to engage in now, grinding to rebuild my level 3 Shipyard (again), and a squad of five British gankers in two Bellonas, a Le Requin, a Pirate Frigate, and two Snows (one in fleet) came screaming at me from the west, up the coast. Knowing I had no hope of escape, since I could tell they were already magically boosted from a wind zone and I was basically sitting still in comparison, I made for the closest wind zone I thought I could reach. I managed to click it just in time and reach one of the square forts at Baracoa right as they got to me (their wind zone must have been slightly better than mine, as they were still faster). I was able to escape from a very lopsided PvP fight only out of pure luck. If they had taken an interest in me any sooner, they would have had me dead to rights. Unfortunately, one of my Clan members had just logged on, and having his headphones off, he didn't hear my warnings. He wasn't speed boosted, so he became their victim. This was his first experience with the new update. He surrendered against an impossible fight, and immediately logged off to go play another game. He says he'll be taking a break. Most of my other Clan members have said the same after yesterday's update. I don't blame them...

Creating a complex system for wind isn't necessary... There's already a lot of mechanics in the game that work off of the principal of circular zones around ports, so here's a really simple solution to make open-world sailing faster that doesn't involve a mechanic that can be easily exploited like this current implementation we were just cursed with... Using the distance tools at https://na-map.netlify.com/, I was able to quickly perform a few tests and determine that a circular zone around every port, with a radial distance of anywhere from approximately 10K to 15K, based on in-game distance units, would create overlapping zones around all ports, and therefore most coastal regions, as well. Inside of these circular "speed zones", ships would travel at traditional open-world speeds. Everywhere else in the game world, outside of these circular speed zones, everyone would receive the same speed boost; thereby, allowing people to cover the large, open, and empty regions of the game map quickly and in a way that's fair to everyone. TLDR: Create circular speed zones around ports. If you're in them, you go the traditional open-world speed. If you're outside of them, you go fast like Ricky Bobby...

One of my Clan members just told us he stacked three of these wind zone speed bonuses to achieve 99 kn... at least visually, according to the GUI; he was uncertain of his actual speed...

I'm really not looking forward to having a fleet of gankers in 1st rates running down my 15.5 kn Prince de Neufchâtel because they found a magic floating icon to click and I didn't... it's certainly not like I'm worried about my trade ships getting attacked, as I won't be wasting hours of my life running economy missions anymore, since they no longer reward Doubloons... It was also bad enough when someone could come from 20 minutes away to interfere in your PvE battle and sink you after you were already committed to the fight and beaten up, but now they can cover even greater distances in that time, and you're going to be forced to PvE even more to get Doubloons... In their infinite wisdom, the developers even gave potential gankers a rare upgrade (Ship Logbooks) that shows these opportunistic vultures your open battles... I'm not typically a doomsayer, but this might be the last nail in the coffin for me, and probably for a lot of my Clan members...