Vasco

I'd go for either third-person or TW-style battle mode, but in keeping with whatever way the developers decide to implement avatars. It's a real immersion killer watching numbers on a spreadsheet rather than seeing a full crew in action, whether it be as part of it or observing your crew and marines swarming the enemy decks.

Sails need to be set for the conditions, including the ability to reef sails which we don't currently have. I'd like to see an increasing chance of substantial damage to the sails (being ripped or ripped away and flapping in the wind), masts and yards (losing a section or even a whole mast) if the ship is carrying too much canvas. Also, too much sail in storm conditions should include the risk of taking on a lot of water and risk the ship capsizing when sailing close to beam reach.

This may tie in to the quality of the NPC crew but my thoughts run to the standard red bar but with one bar above and one below representing the minimum and maximum elevation to hit the selected target based on all the relevant factors (cannon/carronade calibre/length and ammunition type). This band would increase or decrease depending upon the competence of the NPC crew. By rights, we're the captain of the ship, not every senior member of the crew.

The simplest support is just so basic - allow all the HUD elements to be placed on screen where the user desires them to be. The sailing compass that sits in the bottom left; for me that is bottom left on the leftmost monitor well outside of my field of view and I have to slide across to read it. Just being able to set the centre screen up as if I was playing on a single 22" monitor would be great.

I run 2 x nVidia GTX 580s driving 3 x 22" 16 x 9 aspect ratio monitors in surround. Naval Action looks breathtaking on 3 screens but it is unusable because the UI cannot be adjusted to fit in the centre screen. Please consider multi-monitor support for the released game.

Rule Britannia! Britannia rules the waves! .... What was the question again?

Lots here and most of it really good. Mine: Realistic navigation: Use of sextants, marine chronometers and charts (in fact, reproduce Admiralty charts from the period as PDFs if you can get hold of them)