My thoughtful post on how I would change Naval Action

[jaydubya]

Problems with Naval Action, as I see it

1) It is not noob friendly *at all*

2) If you want to PvP, you have to put a lot of time into setup and risk

3) The business model is incoherent, at best.

4) Nation balance, and the way the devs seem to continuously want to reward the bigger nations

5) There's essentially no instruction to new players to help them work their way up the skill curve

 

Things that are good about Naval Action

1) Combat simulation feels immersive and reasonably fair and balanced

2) The rendered world looks *amazing* (this is one of the most beautiful games I've ever seen, both in OW and in battle)

3) The more you know about sailing, and about the ships you are using and fighting, the better you'll do (there is a reward for paying attention and learning)

 

Things that are mixed:

1) Long sails to trade are (or can be) terrifying, which is a good thing, in terms of emotional connection, and a bad thing if you're new to the game (and you don't realize how much danger you're in)

2) Post-battle Invisibility (revenge fleets are unrealistic, but gank squad invisibility sucks)

 

 

So, how do we make the game better without ruining the good things?  

1) You need to go to a F2P model.  Give everyone who bought the game a 1, 2 or 3 year subscription, whatever.     Your business model is killing your game, b/c who wants to risk $40 on a mixed-review game?

     1a) Make it so you can buy more port slots, more buildings, more outposts with real-world money.    

     1b) People who are on subscription get more post-battle rewards

     1c) I'm even ok with the concept of premium ships, although that's much more contentious in an OW model

2)   Abandon a bit of the OW verisimilitude to create a PvP arena between Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti/DR.   Every nation has a permanent port there, and anyone who wants to sail their ships up to the battle arena can do so.  

     2a) You don't lose your ship if you lose a battle in the PvP arena.   (reason: ships cost a lot of time and money.  I am not good at PvP.  I have no incentive to even try to get better, because crafting and building new ships is so time-consuming)

      2b) This makes PvP better because it provides a nice central point for fleet action.  PvP is exciting, and draws players.  Make it more attractive.

3) Balance the nations a bit better by making the rewards better for small nations for various things.  For example:

      3a) A small nation bonus to XP and gold post-battle

      3b) More frequent sealed-bottle drops?

      3c) Other?

4) It should be much riskier to privateer or pirate around in a nation's home port "county".    

      4a) In practice, if locals see ships hiding on the back side of their island, they would notify authorities.   Every captain would be alerted - in your home county waters, there should be feedback to new players that enemy players are nearby, and roughly where they are.    

      4b) In addition, in your home waters, if you are attacked, allied AI ships should randomly show up to assist (either that, or make the "join battle" timer much longer, perhaps only for the local nation's ships).  Make these battle markers more obvious when you're in home waters.

5) Restructure port battles so they're less ridiculous.    

      I like the idea of hostility, in general.   It's not super-realistic, but it seems to work well - both sides are competing to raise and lower hostility in the OW.  Awesome.

     Once you trigger a Port Battle, the mechanics should change.    Instead of both sides having to sail their fleet to the battle,  use the "Battle Group" mechanic to create a "Port Battle Offense" and "Port Battle Defense" group.   When the time comes to join the battle, everyone is teleported to the appropriate instance, and battle commences.   No one loses their ships.

     5a) This eliminates the various exploits to hide fleets near the battle, etc.   That was all handled during the hostility phase.    Just have the battle.

     5b) With less to lose, it makes the port battles more fun, and less costly to smaller nations

     5c) I think that it should be more difficult to raise hostility in smaller nations (i.e. it takes a *lot* more hostility to trigger a PB on a nation with 3 counties than one with 30)   

 

If you make changes like this, you'll have more players. People are much more willing to try a free game, and since almost no one is buying the game anymore except for alts, you won't lose any money.   People who want to PvP will have a nice, fun place to do it.  This can transition to Legends fairly elegantly.  People who want to prey on enemy nation traders can still do it, but its much more difficult in the target's home waters (which is where the new players will typically be).    Port Battles don't require hours of planning and logistics.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Archaos]

People already complain about too many alts. If game was F2P everyone would have an alt in every port and in every nation. F2P would be a disaster, trolls and exploiters would have a field day as there would be no consequence, they would just start a new free alt account and carry on.

[Wind Catcher]

1 hour ago, Rickard said:

NO!!! you basically want to create Naval Action pay to win! I will quit once that happens!

Do it now, before it's too late. +1 -1 it makes no difference. Some good points here and should be noted.