Henry d'Esterre Darby

Exactly. You reduce the model's detail at distance (to some degree, this is already done by the size of the pixels on the screen, but if you wanted to level the field for 1080p vs. 4k resolution viewers, you might "handicap" the detail) - but it's less a factor of "blur" and more a factor of just not rendering as much detail. The edges of the sails and hull are still crisp at distance (look at a mountain range that is 10 miles off on a clear day - you can see the mountain clearly), but discerning the number of gunports or the finer details is impossible (given that same mountain range, you can't see the individual trees at 10 miles away).

No. It's realistic for still and motion photography, but the eye itself doesn't see that way. Your main eyepoint is always in focus, so having it in games makes them less "real" and more "cinematic" IMO. To wit - when I'm looking at something, it's in focus, even if the other focal planes are not. Those focal planes are in my peripheral vision though, so I can barely discern that they are not in focus. The moment my eye flicks up to something I want to see, that new item comes into focus. In the game, it doesn't know where I'm looking on the screen. So while it may have the decks nearby in focus, I really want to see the distant ship in focus instead. Having that ship out of focus doesn't make any sense.

Two quick notes: 1. I don't think there should be "smoke" when a cannonball hits a ship. The ball isn't superheated to the point that it is going to cause a fire (which aren't implemented yet for shots that would cause one anyhow), and while there will be a spray of debris, etc. from the hit, it's not smoke, nor would it hang about. You can see from the video posted above that there isn't a smoke cloud, just a debris spray, which acts completely differently in the wind. The Devs may have a very small smoke puff to simulate the debris cloud, maybe there will be a suggestion to improve that in the future. 2. Smokeless powder doesn't mean no smoke, it just means LESS smoke. As mentioned, powder at the time was extremely smokey, and a ship firing into the wind should be shrouded heavily in smoke, making rangefinding difficult (firing a broadside was also sometimes used to mask the ship itself on approach to the enemy by creating a temporary smoke screen).

I grew up recreationally sailing my family's 25' Catalina (similar to the picture, I don't have an image of ours at hand): We used to cruise the coast of the Gulf of Mexico for a couple of weeks every year, as well as race in our club's regatta. I've also sailed 16' Hobiecats, Lasers, and Sabots, including almost making it into the final bracket at the club's bi-annual match race. I think of everything I've sailed, the Laser in the most fun. Being on the bleeding edge of capsizing, fighting the wind, boat and rig tooth and nail while fully hiked out over the water is a real blast. Me sailing a Laser: Me failing to have properly managed my Laser during an extremely gusty day (for the record, I walked the side perfectly and didn't get a single drop of water on myself, both during the roll and during recovering the boat back to upright):

This has been answered and discussed in two different threads. The main one you're interested in is here: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/4886-users-7-battles-2/ Thank you, closing.

Awesome! Glad to hear it. Thanks for the followup.

In a match? It's network latency (how long things take to get to the server and back), frame rate (how many times a new "picture" is rendered on your screen - when you get down around 10fps things start to get really stuttery), and a number of other diagnostics. They're there to add value to a screen shotted bug so the developers have more information with which to troubleshoot.

To clarify, send a bug report by pressing F11 and filling in the resulting form. Thank you!

A lot of discussion on this topic at the following link: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/3654-ai-takeover-when-dc/

To further clarify Admin's response, the Developers wanted to keep people from setting their sails in Sea Trials, and then going to the pub - effectively they were griefing by ensuring they would be so far out of range as to be uncatchable during the match. Since Sea Trials was about combat testing, the Developers added the white ring to keep the battle within a certain area. Running around within that area is completely legal. Once Open World is released, a valid and valuable tactic when you're overmatched will be to attempt to "escape" by keeping your ship out of range, after a certain time of successfully evading damage, you will be able to leave the instance with your ship in whatever condition it's in. Escaping in this manner will likely involve running at best point of sail as fast as you can make her go. There will be no "ring" and no rules against evading and running.

In my experience, if you make PvP loss too serious and important, the number will be miniscule. If you make PvP loss a setback, but not a huge one, you'll get far more people that will try/participate in PvP, enter dangerous areas, etc. I'm hopeful that durability will play a part in that dynamic, and I'm also hopeful that mechanics will ensure that the average ship running around in Open World is in the Surprise and smaller category, which means far less chance of getting WTFBBQPWNED if you're sailing anything less than a Third Rate, a lower barrier to entry for new/casual players, and a fun, helpful role for new folks in Privateers and Brigs. ETA - and sorry, yes, this is heading off topic. Let's circle back to Premium Ships and Pay to Win. There are a few topics on the limitation of First Rates in the Open World, as well as the Loss Mechanics where this can be discussed.

You shouldn't have to play the Brig again, just the Navy Brig, and then the Cerberus. You can skip the ships in between.

I think he was reading the current list below Constitution, and didn't realize that those three had been inserted since the last time he played. Gunny - if you had actually cleared specifically the Privateer (not the Cutter, but the Privateer), Navy Brig (not just "Brig" but Navy Brig) and Cerberus already, please let me know.

They released three new ships, Privateer, Navy Brig, and Cerberus. You must clear each one of those before you regain access to the ships above them. Once you've cleared each one, the ships will magically reappear.

I meant from a gameplay standpoint of course. It would be useful for "organized" port battles.

Just the Developers and the Moderation Team at the moment. From what we've heard, the next round of invites will be to those with the "Tester" badge will receive the next round, when they're ready, but that plan may change at any time.

This. They've rolled in quite a few features and bug fixes since saying they weren't working on Sea Trials any more. Have faith.

This functionality doesn't exist just yet. I'm sure it's on the list once the core world and game mechanics are completed though.

Hrm, could initiate the role of Flag Captain. You place the Fleet Commander on a ship that is controlled by a Flag Captain. Commander sits on his laurels issuing orders, the Flag Captain fights the ship. Interesting idea.

Hi there Crimguy. I know there is a lot of information on the forums, but you're really best off going to the Open World subforum and reading the pinned posts there. Most of them are by Admin, and there's even a FAQ, and they all cover vast amounts of Open World Information. Anchoring hasn't been announced yet. Navigation is extremely rudimentary right now from the screenshots we've seen. You have a compass....that's it. Best of luck finding your destination - better bring some food and water. We have seen a screenshot warning of shallows, which reefs would probably be very similar to. The map looks to be large enough to have larger bays and coves. I'm going to lock this as it's a duplicate. Please head on over to the Open World Forum and take a look around. There's a handy search in the upper right corner you can use when you're in that subforum too. Enjoy your weekend! http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/forum/40-open-world-discussions/

There are netcode updates to fix this, but they are applied to Open World. Hopefully this will improve once Open World is released and folks are invited over into the newer netcode version.

It is still in very closed testing. Admin hopes it will be out within a few weeks, but there is no set date right now. At any time, problems found during testing may push it back a bit. Once it is ready for wider testing, there will be a phased rollout based on previous testing experience, then Santissima Trinidad owners, then, we think, the rest of the current testers. Meanwhile, enjoy Sea Trials while you're waiting.

I don't think that Steam really has an "Alpha" early access system, so Game-Labs did the best they could with the label. The game is most assuredly in an early Alpha Test phase at this point.

Absolutely correct Dazed. I consider carronades on the Brig and up to be a more "advanced" mode, requiring coordination, teamwork, and experience. When someone is having trouble with the Brig in the first place, I tend to discourage their using carronades until they've had some experience operating in a higher-threat environment.

I still maintain that new, player created nations is what will keep the game fresh and interesting. Those shifting alliances, betrayals, and politics are what will keep folks coming back, and will prevent an "England Stronk, England always wins, everyone re-roll England" situation (just an example, judging from what I've seen, it'll be Sweden ).