DeRuyter

Nice quotes. Interestingly she is as famous for fighting off Endyimon's boats (she was down on crew off on prizes too) than for her privateering (See Roosevelt). Keep in mind thought that she was initially rigged as a schooner so it is unclear with which rig she made her best speed. As @Serk points out she is now properly rigged as a hermaphrodite brig in game and one would think she would sail faster downwind.

I hadn't actually thought of Pickle as anything but a topsail schooner, maybe because all the sources list her as schooner rigged as is the replica. Actually both Pickle and Prince have a fore and aft rigged foresail on on the foremast which technically makes them both schooners, but Prince has a square topsail on the mainmast as well. The Pickle is modelled in game with a forecourse which is not normally carried on a topsail schooner and differentiates her from Lnyx and the Privateer, but I don't think that would turn the rig into a hermaphrodite brig. If that were the case neither Pickle or Prince should have the foresail (fore and aft rigged).

Right but my point was they were well established by the time of NA - and as I noted they are still there today.

Actually the Dutch did have a colonial presence there, and still have territories there today - Curacao, Aruba and Bonaire. There is also Sint Maarten, St. Eustatius and Dutch Guiana (Surinam). These were all established in the 17th century before the period of NA. Of course as you know the Dutch settled in NY before the English and even founded Albany. They were present on the East coast of the US as well as the Caribbean. This is before talking about piracy against the Spanish. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Caribbean So yes the Dutch do deserve some ships.

We have Topsail schooners in the game, Lynx, Privateer and Pickle. Prince was rigged as a schooner but also as a hermaphrodite brig (brigantine) which is what we have in game. The schooners above are later examples after they did away with the square sails. A very popular rig used on the US coast and Canada for fishing and cargo hauling. Some of them also dropped the bowsprit and were called "knockabout schooners". We have some replicas and restored original schooners sailing on the US east coast, Lynx being one of them.

Yes but to include many of those ships, beautiful that the models may be, would require extending the NA time period. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see ships from the period of the Anglo-Dutch wars in NA. However most of the ships in game were built more than 100 years after this with newer technology (from hull shapes and rigging to battery and gun size) so the earlier ships would be overmatched.

or remove the in battle repairs.

That may be but he is mostly a tabletop miniatures guy and rules author. Known in those circles for taking adapting a popular ACW rule set to the Napoleonic period among other things. From that perspective it is a fairly in depth and positive review. Note one of the criticisms was the lack of flags but again that can be traced to miniatures when you generally paint command groups with officers and flags for each unit.

No I meant single player game (Einzelspieler Kreigspiel) ie; "Ultimate General Civil War". You need xp in reconnaissance to gain knowledge of the enemy's strength. In NA some suggestion has been to give only some information when you click on a ship in the distance, same thing.

+1 to @TommyShelby post. Pre wipe I spent time crafting and ship building and yet still could go out for pvp as a casual player. Post wipe I was spending too much time grinding pve and trading and in the end I hardly had time to pvp and didn't really get the sought after refits and skill books. I wouldn't mind going out in a capped AI ship or one without the "necessary" mods, but it would be a waste of time because you get nothing for getting sunk by a player with a fully modded ship. Patch looks like it will help with crafting grind. Get rid of RNG skill book/refit drops - grinding pve for mods. Then there is the repairs/repairing but that's another topic.

I beg to differ. Fog of war is a common principle in military science and used in many wargames whether you are playing against the CPU or PVP.

Interesting that the game mechanics treat her as a schooner and the model is of a hermaphrodite brig or brigantine but with both a fore course and a foresail (fore and aft). It is one or the other really. Some sources also list her rig as a schooner and the rig could easily be modified one way or the other. Also interesting that she was noted to be a fast sailor and shouldn't be as slow as a Privateer or Lynx downwind. BTW she was captured in a gale when the wind overpowered her rig (springing her masts) and she was run down by British frigates. She was armed with 6 long guns and 12 12 carros at that time. Wouldn't Merc and Niagara throw a much heavier broadside though?

You should see the replica in person then, even better.

Better to have some fog of war than people calculating on a spreadsheet how many cutters they need to tag a 4th rate, etc.

The easiest way is just to tag the ship you want to attack, then you'll know if you have enough BR.

Just wanted to bump this outline. Lots of good ideas IMO. @admin The national reputation system may work well with the new clan wars type RvR system you have proposed.

@admin Lots of great discussion and ideas in this thread. I would just add that with possible capitol changes and map reset you may want to give everyone another set of Forged Papers in case players want to change nations for this new conquest system.

@Hodo Great topic. Battle sails were also known as maneuvering sails for much the same reasons as you mention - the easiest sails to control in different weather and battle conditions. The courses require the most manpower when tacking or gybing as well. The Constitution's current sails are essentially maneuvering sails - jib, forestays'l, tops'ls and spanker. I believe they have also added other stays'l and maybe t'gallants. I have had sails catch fire but I am not sure if that started in the hull and spread. I was at full sails and on fire next thing I know my rigging was down to 70% from 100% and on fire! One thing to keep in mind is that battle sails varied with the wind IRL. Nelson had to sail towards the French line with full sail including stuns'ls. Of course we don't want extremely light winds in NA @admin Battle sails - another reason to have some variable wind and weather conditions, for example someone using full sails in high winds has a good chance to suffer rigging and sail damage. Also you would have a much less heel and a more stable firing platform with the right sails set in battle - more player skill involved. As a sailor I am always interested in this feature.

@Skully is linking you to a developer's answer to a player with the same situation as yours. Seems like you were aware of the instructions to sync accounts on all servers (posted on the log in screen), would have been a good time to sync your families accounts too.

I am with you here there should remain a sense of nationality. There have been ideas posted to have a national reputation system which regulates what ports you can get in and what forts fire on you. Also I believe Ink posted that different nations can't be in the same war company so in effect you still have national based companies. So if your clan or war company mostly attacks Spanish ports then you may not be able to enter Spanish ports other than those taken by your war company (maybe allow smuggler trader though).

An answer to the purpose of nations and a good way to keep some history in the world. Kind of reminds me of Sid Meier's "Pirates" - If you kept attacking a nations ships and ports eventually you couldn't enter that port or the merchants wouldn't trade with you. You did choose a nation starting out though. In the suggestion above players would essentially be privateers maybe working for a company or maybe not. Need to work out mechanics like starting area or what flag you ship flies, etc. Speaking of flags - with the war companies you should be able to create and fly a company flag on your ship.

I watched Black Sails and thought it was a good show. However Black Sails was loosely based on pirate activity in the Bahamas circa 1718 and Woodes Rodger's term as governor. Even on the show, which took liberties with the history, one could hardly call the pirates a "nation" similar to the others in NA. A loose association might be a better description, in particular at the end of the show. (BTW: Woodes Rodgers was not killed by pirates and continued as governor driving off a Spanish invasion.) Don't be so quick to assume it is some national player beaten by pirates making these suggestions. A quick forum search will turn up dozens of threads on how to make pirates a real pirate faction not just a nation with a black flag. Many of these suggestions were made by and for pirate players.

I think limited NPC ship capture is a good change for a new player or someone leveling up, playing solo, etc. Something I am currently doing on one server (did not redeem xp). This would be a simple fix for the concerns everyone has posted so far. Still far better to cap a player ship or craft one with the wood and upgrades you want.

IMO this forces some decisions instead of everyone running max speed set ups. For boarding this may mean more crew management as @Hodo noted. Most of these mods should have some kind of penalty enforcing a trade off. Having said that extra sailing crew penalties should relate to the mod/skill used. Studding sails should require extra crew as they did IRL for example. An argument could be made for extra crew on certain rigging refits as well. The magic (err morale boosting) bow figures should offer some small benefit and leave it at that.

1. Dual invisibility 2. Longer join timer at end of speed boost. I think @Pratermentioned 3 minutes. 3. No speed boost after outlaw battle. I think the longer timer may help solve the problem of an alt sitting outside spotting for an invisible ship. There may be more suggestions in the thread but these are the main ones. by Prater !