Henry d'Esterre Darby

Hi there Mr. Spartan. I apologize that no one has responded to your email. The development team is quite small and problems with the forum itself are difficult to handle since the forum software is written by a third party. Have you tried a browser like Chrome to get around the image posting problems you're having? Alternatively, you can put the image onto a free hosting site such as imgur or photobucket and post a link to it. If you would like to spell out your various problems here, we'll see what we can do to help you get around them.

Ships didn't sail around commandeering each other and creating ersatz fleets. In order to command other ships, you needed orders from the Admiralty stating such. While two ships might work together in a limited instance to counter a threat that was unforeseen, the idea that because I'm higher on the Post list than you that I can countermand your standing orders and demand you come with me on my mission isn't correct at all. Admirals were placed over certain regions. Captains were assigned to those Admirals. Orders then came either from the Admiralty to a Captain directly, or more often, from the Admiral. Only the Admiral could make you a Commodore and assign additional ships under you. Except in exceptional cases, disregarding your existing orders without express permission from your commanding officer or the Admiralty was punishable by Court Martial.

As cosmetic only Maturin, that would work.

The problem here is that there isn't a "true" sail simulation running. There are approximate formulas for how a rig acts in particular situations, but to permutate that to the dozens of sails, each of which could be furled or unfurled separately is outside of the scope of this game. That sends you far more into needing a true tallship sailing simulator (and I understand from Maturin that even some that purport to do just that get it wrong) versus a fun sailing game.

I'm not sure. The 400th time I heard that drum rolling, if I wasn't already gouging my ears out, my wife would be attacking me from behind with a large kitchen knife.

Combat Fire by going to survival mode. If you were on fire and exploded, that would explain the sudden ending to the match - there's no coming back from an earth shattering kaboom, repair kit or no, because there was nobody left alive to repair the little pieces of your ship that were strewn across the sea.

A couple of quick questions sir: 1. Were you on fire? Was there a bell ringing constantly (ding ding ding ding ding....)? Or was the Snow on fire and were you close to it? You would have heard the same dinging... 2. Your second issue is a "feature" being reconsidered by Admin. It can be a real pain to lose 4 durabilities because your ship was too damaged to repair with the gold you have on hand. A suggestion (which I like) has been made to allow you to sacrifice a durability to fully repair your ship.

All rank names are "provisional". They're place holders for now. With regards to "English" ranks, I'd agree that the "Of the Fleet" is excessive and I'd like to see the top rank simply be "Admiral" as well, with maybe an extra Lieutenant added perhaps. One challenge is that many Navies at the time had a rank structure that was far more flat than we need to indicate advancements in progression, from memory, I think the US Navy only had 3 or 4 total Officer ranks at the time. I suppose a few ahistorical nods to gameplay might have to be made.

That's ok. Thanks for reporting the issue.

Thanks for the post! We actually have a Work in Progress thread running right here on the General Discussions forum. You can access the discussion about this and some of the other recent previews from Admin here: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/987-work-in-progress/page-8#entry105261 I'll lock this thread now to keep the discussion in one spot.

Yup! Sometimes it's more profitable from a time/XP approach to leave and start a new battle. Cheers and good hunting mate.

Steam's API isn't always incredibly reliable from what I understand. After restarting Steam (or just restart your PC if you're unsure how to actually exit and restart Steam), make sure you first open/log in to Steam, then click the Play button in your library for Naval Action (don't trust the Naval Action link in your start menu or anywhere else). If it still doesn't work, keep mashing the Login button in the game for a bit and it should work after a bit. I know it's a pain in the rear, I've been caught up in it too. If the above still doesn't work, please post here again.

I'd much prefer sticking to historical models. Trying to do a full-custom ship setup will very likely result, no matter how hard the Developers try to keep it balanced, in fad of the minute ships that are extremely overpowered. It will be a constant battle to keep them in line. Real life ship building at the time was art as much as science, and focusing on the designs that were gotten "right" in a spectacular way is enough "customization" for me (at least with regards to a hull). Custom flags, figureheads, colors, and other non-performance related items would be amazing and fun. Maybe a custom sterngalley, but fully custom ships requires a "ship building simulator" and would distract too much from an amazing, relatively historical Napoleonic Era environment.

Welcome! Right now, chain doesn't by itself destroy a mast (I suppose you could get extremely lucky taking that last point or two off of an already severely damaged mast), but in general, all demastings are usually a result of hits by ball ammunition. Chain damages the rigging, as it did in real life, which results in a reduction in % of Sail available, slowing the ship's speed and maneuverability. It's a nod to gameplay and not making this a heavy simulation. Rudders can indeed be damaged, preventing or reducing rudder based maneuverability until repaired. Unfortunately, the models do not (at this time) support deformation or major damage. There are "hit" "stickers" (which look pretty good actually) that are applied, however, you won't see gunports beaten into one, or missing pieces of the hull. Having said that, except under extreme conditions (two ships of the line pounding each other for hours), real life cannon balls didn't do much more than punch little cannonball sized holes in the hull, similar to the "stickers" in use by the game currently, so that form of damage isn't a-historic. A lot of this and more are discussed in the forums here. We look forward to seeing you on the seas soon.

Effectively, the Devs have stated their intent is to have a PvE only server. This doesn't help people who have internet connection problems, such as the gentlemen above who works aboard a submarine, but it takes care of 99% of the "Single Player Only" crowd if done correctly.

We have no idea. Hopefully soon. That said, please head over to this post for some eyecandy of upcoming ships that are on the way (and no, we don't know when ): http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/987-work-in-progress/page-8#entry105496

It would involve releasing the entire server-side code to the public, since all calculations, physics, locations, etc. are handled by the server itself. It's a little more involved than just repointing the location to which the client is looking for data.

Good afternoon Mr. Tote. I'm moving this over to the Tavern as it is not directly related to the game development. Nice picture!

Sir, I'm sorry you are unhappy with the time it took to deliver your key. Please keep in mind that this is not a game that is in production, that it is currently in an Alpha state, and is being worked on by a very small team of people. In order to keep up the pace of development, they have to do some manual items, such as adding new players, as a batch event. There is no customer service department, just 5 or 6 developers that are very busy creating new features and fixing bugs. That there are so few staff may mean delays in support, and in other aspects of the game. Please bear in mind that this is a very early Alpha test, not a polished final game, and I hope that you'll be able to understand those limitations.

Bart, have you completely exited and restarted Steam? Goodblue - when you see this, please punch F11 and fill out the form - that will help the developers identify and fix the routing.

If battle instances weren't permanently open, but instead pulled everyone in a certain radius and then stayed open for another minute or so, maximum, then none of these issues would be a problem. Signed to OP's request - remove the sides and close instances after a reasonable amount of time. Personally, I think that should be a long term development goal.

Only Admin can rule on that, I'm just a player forum moderator. Trollish how? You were in a battle, he came into the battle, and opened fire on you? This is very in-line with Pirates and how they acted in my opinion. That said, please elaborate on exactly what happened so that we can better understand.

The original key is no longer valid. Please go to where you originally got your key and get the new one and you'll be good to go.

Pirates, in my personal opinion, should attack each other at every opportunity. If you want to be "safe" from being attacked by your own Nation, don't be a pirate. It's pretty simple really.

Purchased Ships = 5 Durabilities (lives) Captured Ships = 1 Durability Basic Lynx = Infinite Durabilities