Flags, Ensigns, Banners

[Mirones]

Blue Squadron used also by HMS Centurion

[prophoss]

after reading the previous posts, I would find it hard to keep it historically accurate and leave out the signal flags, but can't see them being used that often except by those who choose to be historically accurate. A captain's job is to know all the different  in's and outs of his ship. This training started when he was about 12 yrs old. How could you expect a newbie player to be able to do all that is needed in battle or general running of a ship and crew in a storm and "enjoy" the game?

(perhaps this isn't the proper place for this post?)

Just my thoughts, for what that's worth

[Captain_Wick]

Thought this was interesting......


http://napoleonguide.com/sailors_ukexpect.htm

[Capt. Harry Flashman]

Any option to design your own flag?

[Cosstarica]

Naval ensign of Wallachia:                           Flag of Wallachia (XVIth - XVIIth century)

 

                              

 

Naval ensign of Moldavia:                            Flag of Moldavia :   

 

                             

 

or

 

[Lord Hood]

Obviously during this period for the Royal Navy it was the Blue, White and Red ensigns that denoted the rank of the Squadrons command. I would also like to see not only the ensign but also the command flag for the Admiral if that could be a possibility. The command flag would fly from the main topmast. For the Royal navy the flags for a Rear Admiral was a St Georges Cross with a dot in the upper and lower left corner. The Vice Admiral had a St Georges Cross with one dot in the upper left corner and an Admiral had a St Georges Cross. The Admiral of the Fleet (Admiral of the Red) would fly a Union Jack from the main top. As shown on Howe's flagship at 'The Glorious First of June' (below). I would love to see them incorporated in the game.

 

[BrutishVulgarian]

Flying a "Catch me who can"  banner, as I downwind kite in the open world would be fun.  Not that I would do it in damage rated alpha testing.

Also, I would like the crazy mast raking angle, even if it ain't practical.

[Wetworth]

Wanted to post a few but BrutishVulgarian beat me to it. So I'll second his suggestions for "Don't Give Up the Ship" and others.

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

I know you guys focused on more important aspects now but will be great if you consider possibilty to make own sails and flags like it was in PotBS. 

Cheers

 

No to the sails please - it just wasn't historically done with very few exceptions.

[nornica]

The possibility of making own sails and flags can be dangerous when more people start playing this game, who are not focused on historical experience of the game.

Sooner or later we would see dickbutts or other random things.
Maybe own sails or patterns should go first to devs, and they will have the last word if that pattern is accepted. But it would make developers life even more complicated, taking their time away from concentrating on other things.

Imo we should put in this topic as much historic sail and flag patterns as we can find in whole interwebz and books.

It would be nice tho to see similar sails and flags for groups/fleets of players.
Example:
We are in a british navy with friends, but make small fleet of 6 ships, so we get small roman number one in the corner of the flag. So people recognize us, but we dont mess our nicks with clan/fleet names.
I dont know how it was done in real. Did fleets got their personal flags.
Its just an idea.

[Mirones]

well i know of the blue red and white ensign of the British

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_ensign

 

there are some others for british govement and other naval flags

[McCullogh]

In PotBS the designs were not released until reviewed by the devs...and they were actually pretty strict...although they may have lightened up towards the end.  I put through the Scottish National Flag and the Scottish Red Ensign (which i proudly fly here) and it took me several tries and the assistance of a designer (to the the colors/shades and fade just so) before they accepted them.

[Bart Smith]

Here are some polish flags:

And here example how flags were placed on masts:

[Devante del Nero]

User created are likely a low priority if it's even something you're considering implementing, but that would be an amazing addition to the game that I believe would create a great feeling of personalism between the game and players. The logistics are sticky, but, PotBS did actually have it working rather well through a community process that also passed by administration approval, but the mechanics of it stopped working when they did the changeover I guess...

 

Should do it though!! (and not just so freelance designers like myself can make a few bucks on the side by advertising on your forums) ;P

 

This is one of my original designs for a pirate flag in the spirit of historical pirate flags but with a twist, I would love to have in game(disregard watermark):

[Bart Smith]

Great table showing flags and ensigns:  

https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/36184mb/The_Maritime_Flags_of_All_Nations/Copley.html

https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/35319/Bellin.html

http://jordaens.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/534901101.jpg

Some MASSIVE source of all kind of british flags:

http://imperialflags.blogspot.co.uk/

Example of polish galleon Wodnik with flags:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bandera+polska&biw=1920&bih=955&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=7BmLVJ_fJq6y7QbAhoEQ&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#tbm=isch&q=smok+galeon&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=NRiOGJuSGNw5TM%253A%3BAPYVqefkgqdxHM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fs1018.photobucket.com%252Falbums%252Faf309%252FSabbstone%252F4.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.konradus.com%252Fforum%252Fread.php%253Ff%253D1%2526t%253D220570%2526a%253D1%3B900%3B675

[Leviathan]

This is one of my original designs for a pirate flag in the spirit of historical pirate flags but with a twist, I would love to have in game(disregard watermark):

I think this would look much better without the lower pair of arms but that's subjective of course. Still a very nice job.

 

 

I would like the possibility of custom designs but i'm not holding my breath for it. I'd take some new ships and open world first.

[Devante del Nero]

I think this would look much better without the lower pair of arms but that's subjective of course. Still a very nice job.

 

 

Thanks it might, but it was part of a series with a Chaos Star theme (eight arrows radiating from a single point) so I gave him eight arms, but his legs could count for the other two. And I was thinking the bottom two would be open to show that they welcomed surrender and new recruits, the pen and paper represent the duty crewmen agree to, the goblet is their reward for serving, the sword is what is expected of members, and the spear behind the back is a warning that if vessels do not surrender they will fight.

[NorthernWolves]

I would like there to be a dev approved custom flag system. At Decatur Armada we are currently working on some squadron flags using period American symbols and imagery, for internal use, but it would be nice to one day see them flown not as a main rear flag, but as a secondary flag, banner or streamer.

[Clickenhof]

Found this site which i think would help. Here you will find most navy's of the time we are looking for.

 

http://tmg110.tripod.com/archive.htm

[Månis]

Found this site which i think would help. Here you will find most navy's of the time we are looking for.

 

http://tmg110.tripod.com/archive.htm

That's the country flags, but many countries has different flags for the navy so that page isnt really accurate.

[BrutishVulgarian]

This looks good, from this site  http://special.lib.uci.edu/collections/british-naval-history/

Imagine what the whole book has.

[gautrek]

As I said else where just make then visible to the user only. Then people can do what they want and I can stay with the flags and colours I like. The WOT system works fine for me. There are hundreds of user made camos and such like. I did download a lot to make the game look nice. But they just appeared on my PC. There was even a blank image for the clan tags as most of them spoilt the look of the game .

 

Why do people want to inflict their ideas on others?

[Månis]

As I said else where just make then visible to the user only. Then people can do what they want and I can stay with the flags and colours I like. The WOT system works fine for me. There are hundreds of user made camos and such like. I did download a lot to make the game look nice. But they just appeared on my PC. There was even a blank image for the clan tags as most of them spoilt the look of the game .

 

Why do people want to inflict their ideas on others?

Because it's their ship and not yours? You can also turn that around, why do you want to enforce your ideas on others?

 

Ships in Sweden had several flags that told showed the rank of the commanding officer on the ship.

[Flip]

I would like there to be a dev approved custom flag system. At Decatur Armada we are currently working on some squadron flags using period American symbols and imagery, for internal use, but it would be nice to one day see them flown not as a main rear flag, but as a secondary flag, banner or streamer.

 

Definitely agree. It adds a nice personal touch to ships and shows off your guild/fleet/clans colours, as long as they are period friendly and not outlandish of course.

[Robert Danforth]

As I said else where just make then visible to the user only. Then people can do what they want and I can stay with the flags and colours I like. The WOT system works fine for me. There are hundreds of user made camos and such like. I did download a lot to make the game look nice. But they just appeared on my PC. There was even a blank image for the clan tags as most of them spoilt the look of the game .

 

Why do people want to inflict their ideas on others?

 

But WoT also has clan logos, which is more like what will be on banners and flags.

 

Keeping paint color/patterns historical is easy enough, but people are going to want to fly their banner. And like WoT, if it's offensive or breaks some kind of TOS, it can be reported and handled.