Henry d'Esterre Darby

No need to apologize, and I certainly understand your frustration. There is an entire thread on Ramming, I'm going to merge this into it so the conversation can continue.

Even the smallest rowboat had a spot that was the Commanding Officer's to claim. Ships without a Quarterdeck even had an invisible "line" past which only Officers and those with immediate duties could pass.

So, as a small ship, I can just put myself right in front of a Victory where I can't be avoided and do damage to them while taking none myself? Grief city. I don't think you have thought this one through fully sir.

Good estimate sir. I believe the range for regular guns is 1200 yards, and long guns, 1400 yard according to the XML files.

A number of us agree that there should be increased dispersion at longer range, especially vertical dispersion. This simulates a smooth bore cannon's firing characteristics, as well as the inability of a gun crew to sight as effectively at longer distances - this can be equated to firing a modern rifle with iron sights. At closer ranges, it is easier to use the fat front blade, at longer ranges the blade might obscure the target completely as you raise the muzzle higher to account for bullet drop. As the blade obscures the target, figuring out exactly where you're aiming becomes far more difficult. I think the same thing happens with the cannon. As you elevate to deal with additional drop, the front of the cannon obscures the distant ship, making aiming more difficult. After a certain distance, I'd like to see an exponential increase in dispersion, both vertical and horizontal. This should bring engagements far closer together.

We still have a couple of "new" (actually pre-existing ships that were pulled to have their models redone) ships pending addition, and then the results of the Player Poll + a Wild Card ship to be added some time this year. You can rest assured that there will be more ships added throughout the year. We don't know when any of those ships will make their appearance. I'm also looking forward to the Gunboat for those that had accounts prior to January 1st.

Haha! Actually, your seamanship and grasp of manual sails was far superior to mine own, however, I believe my marksmanship and choice of load for the cannon was superior. Methinks had I not had plenty of comrades, thou mayest have had me by the lee, thou impertinent base-court bladder! Seriously though, after our lead ship ordered me to "take care" of you, your maneuvers on approach as we closed were extremely well executed. I was hard pressed to keep you from raking me more than you did. Well played sir.

May I make a small observation? During battle the commander was not at the wheel. He was usually on the windward side of the Quarterdeck. The Commander might take the wheel for a moment if they wanted to feel how the ship was sailing, but other than that, they generally didn't conn the ship themselves. While I'm at it, I'm not sure you steer standing at the center of the wheel, you'd be off to one side or the other (I could be wrong on that). So, If you're going to make a "first person" commander camera, put it on the windward side of the Quarterdeck. I also really like Maturin's suggestion for masthead and fighting top cameras. I'd even take those instead of the zoomed out above the ship mode.

Very nice, so much better than a single four-letter word.

Admin has already commented on this subject at http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/3154-slave-trade-preferences/page-3?p=63731#entry63731 . In short:

I suppose it entirely depends on whether you're trying to create a perfectly historically accurate game, or a game based on history but that allows flexibility. I think you run into far less trouble when, say, everyone joins Britain because "Britain is cool yo" if the primary focus isn't on the major powers.

I'm a forum moderator, I can wield the Edit, Hide, and Lock Hammers, but the Server Reset Hammer is locked away from me. We popped a message into a monitored channel, but that's the limit of what we can do. Servers should be back up.

They were down, they should be back up now.

Server status can be found here: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/649-server-status-updates-servers-are-on/?view=getnewpost

Both will be great information. I do love that you came and posted detailed screen shots - thanks!

That's one of the details that must be worked out. I'd assume that unless you wanted to be branded a pirate, you wouldn't shoot at them unless your nation declares war against them, and then preys on their shipping. You'd likely want to stay clear of their home waters to avoid being stomped by the local computer controlled national fleet. The protected home waters are a crucial part of ensuring new players and pvp-adverse players have a small place to thrive until they're ready for the big, bad world. Outside of those home waters, they'd be fair game. Bear in mind that while they'd have a lot of players due to default membership, there would likely be little to no organization that would rival a well run player nation.

The game is still in Alpha. I'm sure more staff are on the horizon, but for now, the team is what it is, and asking a hard working developer to pull the night shift very likely won't happen. Once the game is closer to go-live, you should be able to expect 24 hour support.

That's what the screens look like, but I'm not sure if it's just a result of how he saved the images or whether that's a true representation of what is on his screen. Just trying to help the Devs by getting more information. To uldo - please hit F11 in game while you're seeing the strange water and fill out a ticket. This will provide a ton of great information for troubleshooting purposes.

I'm not sure if it's the image compression, but what exactly is wrong with your water? Is it that weird blue color as it goes off to the horizon?

Duplicate thread, locking.

The way I have described my personal vision of Player Nations is the following: Similar to Eve Online, the computer runs the core seagoing powers - let's just say Britain, France, Spain, US (northeastern seaboard only), Portugal, Holland. The initial list isn't critical, just an example. Those nations hold, on the map, their original core territory - no colonies (so, for example, India's coastline is not owned, neither is Australia, etc). That leaves tons of unowned coastline. You then treat the rest of the planet's coasts and islands as player nation ownable. People who don't want to participate in nation versus nation can stay in the computer run nations, those that want to challenge for territory and make their own way can attempt to settle and hold land. This should result in an extremely flexible and mostly player-run system which will provide an extremely rich political tapestry within which we can frolic and play. There are certainly a lot of details to hammer out, but that's the system I'd like to see myself.

I've suggested exactly that model, without forcing a family to be the fence, you just have a computer fence. No need to mess with the cargo after it's sold at the discount. Similarly, purchasing goods at the haven would cost more than doing so at a national port.

Get a 20 dollar floor fan, take off the side of the case, aim the fan into it and turn it on high. Done. Noisy, but works wonders.

There has to be a risk/reward to smuggling. The risk to smuggling in real life was imprisonment and likely the loss of your ship. In game, I could see having uncustomed cargo, but the penalty should also be severe as a risk. Possibly loss of ship and all her cargo, or perhaps a fine of 10 times the value of the illegal cargo, with the ship impounded and sold if you can't meet that fine.

The only thing is, there were and are no "neutral" traders. In reality, all ships must be registered with a nation, they must fly the flag of that nation, and they do so in order to receive the protections of that nation and its allies. Everyone is a citizen of a particular nation, I think you'll find it extremely hard to get about in the world without a passport designating you as a member of a particular country. A very large part of naval action in the Age of Sail was the warfare between nations - "neutral" ships that can put into port anywhere are not a part of this. In my opinion, all players must be affiliated with a particular nation. I hope there are player-run nations as well as computer run, but your ship's flag is what drives the interaction between you and everyone else you encounter on the seas. The only true neutral ship is a pirate ship, and they are kill or capture on sight to everyone. If you want to be a truly neutral merchant, you're effectively asking to be a pirate that happens to carry cargo.