Henry d'Esterre Darby

I didn't consider pumping, good point sir.

The larger ship and more guns takes a far larger crew to operate, and a larger crew and more stores to repair. I'm not sure there's a ton of difference in the ratio of men to broken stuff quite frankly.

Just a quick caution - I'm not entirely sure the key mapper is fully functioning. Change your mappings at your own risk, you may end up getting results that are difficult to fix.

Glad to have you in the fleet sir! Welcome.

Read here please: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/2018-help-missing-steam-key-email-what-to-do/

Only if people that are unable to render the crew are not put at a disadvantage. Whatever is shown, that crew can not provide extra information on enemy ships that can not be gleaned through a means that doesn't require them. They're not so bad.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQfJ8ZcpIAU#t=1920 It shouldn't, but nor should it create a requirement for a first-class machine to run the game.

Err...I believe you're wrong on a number of counts. People in battles didn't die like flies, quite often there were surprisingly few injuries and deaths resulting from an hours long battle - a quick read of some of the more famous naval actions shows a comparatively light loss of life. Worst place was on a line ship? Sure, maybe if you ended up in the mid-decks during a large action like Trafalgar (such actions happened, but are comparatively few over time), but a larger ship of the line generally spent most of its wartime on blockade, where death from boredom was far more likely than from action. While there wasn't much in the way of prize money, you could be assured of plenty of food to eat, free alcohol, clothing, a deck over your head, and a place to sleep, which is far more than some of the folks on those ships could expect if put ashore, where you didn't have the social programs you have today to keep them fed, clothed, and housed. Hammocks only in the forecastle? No, due to the large number of men, they were often spread throughout the major gun deck(s) of the ship. Yes, there were a few cabins for the higher ranked gentlemen, but in general there were hammocks all over the place to accommodate the large number of men a warship required, not just in the forecastle. While I am sure there were some ships with flogging tyrants for Captains or other officers, I've also heard tell that very often those officers that pushed the discipline too far met with....accidents. Ships were quite dangerous you know. Flogging wasn't certain death, and at least in the British Navy, small offenses didn't mean certain death or the loss of a hand. Stores in the Caribbean itself were quite sparse, however, there were a lot of resources closer by than the European Continent, be it South American or American ports. I think instead of maggots you're thinking about weevils. Yes, they got pretty bad in the hard tack on a long voyage. The salt beef and salt pork, while not the most appetizing thing after being boiled to a crisp, could stay nutritious for quite some time. Hull rot was certainly an issue. There are quite a few marine animals that enjoy boring into wood. Early ships were tallowed to prevent this, later ships had copper sheeting attached to their bottoms to slow down the ability of the more destructive animals to bore in. Ships could be beached or drydocked and careened, which, even if they were coppered, had to be done to remove speed killing growths of weed that could occur in the warmer climates. At times, sailors who could swim might be asked to dive down and cut away the worst of the growth at the depths to which they could reach easily. As for ships of the line, they existed throughout the world at various times, sometimes in respectable sized fleets, in response to threats in those areas. Did they deteriorate in those areas? Certainly, just as they did on extended blockade duties close to home. Constant working and weathering will fatigue any material, especially wood. After years of service, some of the better maintained could be restored to good condition, and the worse condemned to be transports or supply hulks.

Mr. Danforth! Surely not, who indeed could hate such a loyal and stalwart companion to Naval Action as yourself? Such a hatred is completely unthinkable.

What does "losing" mean? Can a computer controlled nation hold anything more or less than their core ports? If the computer controlled areas are fixed, and the striving nations are player based, "losing" means your "nation" is wiped off the face of the map, and at some point a new nation or alliance will arise to challenge the victor. If the area contested is large enough, it will not be possible for one nation or alliance to hold the entire map, there will always be new player groups ready to chip away at the current superpower.

I'm not a fan of "reality" resets. Make everything fluid enough that it can ebb and flow naturally. Having to make the system reset is a crutch and a cover for inadequate gameplay mechanics IMO.

I disagree. If a Cutter boards my Snow, or my Bellona, and I can't just instantly counterboard, you've created a cheesy delaying tactic. They can tie me up for a cycle or two, and then I have to spend even more time counterboarding once I've crushed them (whereas currently, their ship is immediately lost to them if they fail a Boarding). If you're going to have a system such as you described, I should be able to dedicate 10% of my crew to defense and 80% to going straight across to the other guy's ship. There's a lot of complexity involved in your scenario, and the simple way you've approached it doesn't do the job in my opinion. There is using people to attempt to cut loose during the boarding action, using people to attack the other guy's ship if there's an opening, people to prevent the other crew from cutting loose, etc.

First of all, I'm always happy to see lady gamers about. Welcome! We have an entire thread on using false flags as a ruse de guerre. There are a lot of serious gameplay issues that this introduces. The Devs are aware of that request, and it has been argued extensively. You might want to find that thread and weigh in if you have some additional thoughts past those that have been expressed. In reality, false flags often would get a ship in closer, but there was a higher and higher potential for that ruse not to work, especially if there were two warships as they'd also attempt to exchange the private signals. Gameplay with this feature is extraordinarily complex due to the reality of how this was done, knowledge of what particular ships looked like, etc. Voice Commands - A voice repeating your control inputs has been discussed as well, it isn't done to avoid annoying and repetitive noises the entire battle (the 800'th time I hear "Aye, Left Full Rudder sir!" I'm going to headdesk). Land is just temporary right now, I'm sure it will be solid once the Devs get around to it.

They may still send out today, hang in there!

There's no "weekly version", there's an always on (minus an hour or two here and there to put up new versions of the game) server that you can play as often as you want/whenever you want. Yes, it's online only. Total initial download is 700mb I think, and then patches when the come seem to be about 150mb or so. Soon.

Mr....umm....Tom? Please don't forget the option of counter attacking during a Boarding action. I shouldn't be locked into Defense just because the other guy grappled me.

Up to you. I've had far less fun and gotten far less usage with games I've spent as much on in the past.

Welcome to you all!

Thinking further, since the gun must be run out to fire, I can see that information being available on the side your facing only.

This. It can be a handy reference, in reality, we could do without it on enemy vessels.

Welcome Mr. Zulu! Glad to have you sailing with us.

Certainly, you can have that without having a first person slasher for boarding. I also want to be able to walk around town/land as an avatar. I don't want to run onto the other ship and attempt to pistol the other Captain as fast and as many times as possible to win the Boarding.

We absolutely don't need PotBS style avatar combat. It was awful, unrealistic, and made zero sense. I'm fine with boarding in the abstract.

Your Steam issues are likely a result of NA being in a testing status - the streaming feature doesn't work either from what I'm hearing. This. The idea is to only show images that have the game in working order. Admin has also posted that you can put videos on YouTube and Stream the game as well so long as you mention that the game is in Pre-Release Alpha status, and don't emphasize any problems or bugs that you encounter, editing them out where possible would be a good idea in my opinion.

Only if they're whalers.

Disagree on this. If I capture an enemy ship as a Captain in a National Navy, it's not my ship - it's the Admiralty's. If the ship is salvageable, the Admiralty may choose to bring it into the service, and I'll get some prize money for it, but it's not my ship. I don't get to keep it. If the Admiralty doesn't bring it into the service (let's say instead of a First Rate, it's a sloop), I might choose to purchase it out of pocket for the prize price (if you wanted to stay true to history here, you could put it on the Auction Block for that nation's members to bid upon it), but I wouldn't see this happening much with Rates.