Little things you'd like to see

[BlouBulle]

Just 2 or so minor additions that would be nice but not game breaking:

 

 

Angel Shot (bar shot, does more damage to masts if it hits but less to the sail and rigging... Langrage and link shot would also be nice).

 

Ship shudder and sway when firing, now I don't expect that cannon recoil as I hear it was removed, however a little bit of ship shudder will reduce the accuracy of a full broadside slightly and increase the sexy close range battles.

 

But most importantly, I would love a tutorial sand box (basically the VS NPC map, but no guns on the NPCs (they fire blanks).

 

 

 

 

Oh and my ship must be the only ship using Paixhans guns!

[Magnum]

I tried to get a screen shot to show you all.

 

If you hit tab while in regular view mode - it will bring up a "roster" your team and enemies.

 

I would love to see see a measure of the health of teammates on that roster - so we could know who to go and help!

 

Knowing the enemies health wouldn't hurt either

[Crankey]

Crew mixture and animations.

 

More crewmen and mixed animations, serving guns, sail drill, climbing shrouds, running to repairs.... officers on deck strolling, aiming to fire. Marines, manning sides and tops.

[Robert de Keith]

Mini map  ...  Your ship should be a different colour (red, blue ...)  so its easier to distinguish from others,

I hit a few ships thinking mine was not the ones sailing at each other  ...  (heat of the battle )  aye  

[Grunf]

Mini map  ...  Your ship should be a different colour (red, blue ...)  so its easier to distinguish from others,

I hit a few ships thinking mine was not the ones sailing at each other  ...  (heat of the battle )  aye  

Actually, since friendly fire is a thing, this way you need to pay attention to your target's flag.

If he is on a different team, you know what to do ;-)

[NorthernWolves]

Signal rockets for night or poor visibility conditions or beyond the 12 to 14 mile mast to mast line of sight, for locating friendlies or for any other type of signaling that clans or players choose to use it for. It could be an item purchased along with supplies in game as well. Maybe even the 'blue lights'?
 
A period mention of signal rockets other than the all the mentions of them the night before Trafalgar that are well known:
 
"Fraternité and the Atalante attempting to notify them by rocket signal. These signals were confusing and many ships failed to understand, sailing for the Raz de Sein rather than the main channel. Pellew added to the problem by weaving ahead of the fleet shining blue lights and firing rockets, further confusing the French captains as to their location....

One ship had been lost:, the 74-gun ship of the line Séduisant had driven onto the Grand Stevenent rock during the night and sank with the loss of 680 lives.She too had fired numerous rockets and signal guns in an effort to attract attention, succeeding only in compounding the confusion in the fleet."

[Chromey]

Maybe a meter that showed gun elevation so if I need to adjust my mouse away from firing then come back Id have a reference as to what my last angle used was.

[Kmdr 1.GR Holm]

-I would really like to see an entire gun crew, not just one man working each cannon.

 

-Guns rolling back into the gun port after fired

 

-Musket fire (One of the greatest Naval Captains of all time dies from musket fire, Lord Nelson)

 

-Actual commands in that ship's language i.e. French ship, people yelling in French, English, people yelling in English etc.

 

-Funny little things the crew says throughout the battle i.e. "Oh what I wouldn't give for a swig o' rum right now." or when on the Surprise someone might yell, "Quick's the word, sharp's the action!"

 

-Ship's rigging being torn apart by cannon shot.

 

-Men being visibly wounded by cannon shot i.e. being able to see them being killed (gory, but would add much realism)

 

-Actual visible men furling and unfurling the sails

 

-And finally, just less scarcity of men on deck. There would be powder monkeys running about and men dragging away wounded. On the Constitution there is only one man EVERY OTHER gun. There should be 4 or 5 PER gun.

 

This might sound over demanding or crazy and I'm sure this won't make it until the release game, but thought I would make some suggestions.

[Devante del Nero]

I had an idea for character creation while looking at old naval officer portraits.

 

What if your character customization was in a painting and that's how you could see what your character looks like -- if never an actual model of yourself (since you are after all looking out of your own eyes while you're playing?) then the painting could be displayed in your profile, hung up in your cabin aboard your ship -- or your company office or whatever. I saw something like it in a turn-based steampunk rts game although not very well done. It would take a talented digital painter with an intimate understanding of layering.

[Magnum]

Maybe a meter that showed gun elevation so if I need to adjust my mouse away from firing then come back Id have a reference as to what my last angle used was.

 

Like Alex-SD also mentions it would be nice to have a version of the quadrant gunners used.

 

Especially since we also have to con (drive) the ship while shooting at each other.

 

In the RN the labor was divided among several crewmen the Captain only had to call out what he wanted and the computer er crew  would jump to see it done. Since we don't get a real crew - it helps for the computer to quickly kinda know what we are wanting and to help us get there.

 

Adore the Game!

 

Rick

[Semni]

I was thinking it could perhapse look somewhat like this:

[Robert de Keith]

Mini map  ...  Your ship should be a different colour (red, blue ...)  so its easier to distinguish from others,

I hit a few ships thinking mine was not the ones sailing at each other  ...  (heat of the battle )  aye  

 

Actually, since friendly fire is a thing, this way you need to pay attention to your target's flag.

If he is on a different team, you know what to do ;-)

You canno see no flags on the minimap ,  aye  lads  uck,uck ,uck

[Ghosthawk1776]

Crew mixture and animations.

 

More crewmen and mixed animations, serving guns, sail drill, climbing shrouds, running to repairs.... officers on deck strolling, aiming to fire. Marines, manning sides and tops.

Total War has these animations on their ships. I am sure they will be added at some point, if they want to put TW in the dirt.

[Ghosthawk1776]

Hmm. I haven't seen or heard anything about crows nest on ships. Is that feasable?

[BrutishVulgarian]

Fishing, it wouldn't take much effort, just some spots around the globe where the fish are biting. If it became popular it's a win and you can add some animations and crowds of seagulls. If it fizzles it didn't eat much development time.

I always liked fishing in Uncharted Waters Online.

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

Hmm. I haven't seen or heard anything about crows nest on ships. Is that feasable?

 

Only if they're whalers.

[Magnum]

The game seems to run at between 30 and 60 to 1 "time scale" different parts have different scales

 

It seems that an epic battle that would be an all day affair IRL can usually be knocked off in an hour or perhaps two of game time. Battles couldn't be to much slower without being "dull" or much faster without being "peewpeewpeew" arcade style.

 

Reloading is on it's own weird time scale since IRL guns were ROUTINELY reloaded every 2 to 3 minutes (maybe really big one every 4 or 5 min) - most of the guns I have timed in game reload in from 30 seconds (small guns) to 1 and 1/2 min (large guns) which is WAAAAAY slower than the time compression would suggest.

 

30 seconds at 30/1 would be 15 minutes and 60/1 would be 1/2 hour. 1 and 1/2 min would be from 45 min to 1 and 1/2 HOUR. If a real gun crew took 1 and 1/2 hour to reload - they would rightly swim home.

 

But if the small guns reloaded in 2-3 SECONDS and the larger guns in 3-4 SECONDS to stay true to the time compression - the game would be TOTALLY "peewpeewpeew" and no one would want to play it.

 

Pick your poison, as they say ......

 

Personally I would like loading times speeded up  "a bit" 10% to 20% - but not much more

[Anne_Bonny]

On the thread of Females and Avatars

I MAY be the only Female on here at the moment and wanted my 2 cents worth.

First off, there were far more females sailing the Ocean Blue than you might think, and many of those were not just wives of officers, though there where the share of those.

Some of the most successful pirates in history have been female. While we all know of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, those two were not really successful, but they were women and they were pirates. Fact about Mary. Mary or Mark as she was known as served on board a British ship when she was younger. She then joined an Infantry unit, fought n the Nine Years war, joined a mounted unit and gained rank and was known as one of the best fighters in the unit. During this time she fell in love with a man and after the war the two wed. She dressed as a woman until the death of her husband and as was the ways of that time, it meant she had nothing. She joined another ship and sailed but the capt was not good. When Calico Jack and Anne raided her ship, she joined them. Anne found out about Mary being female and the two at times dressed as male, and other times as female. it was a known fact that the the two were female pirates

If you want some great books

Seafaring Woman: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Stowaways, and sailors wives

The Only Life that mattered - About Anne, Mary and Jack
Mary Read, Sailor, Soldier, Pirate

These are but a few

It is a fact that women did serve more often than though on ships. Most disguised themselves as males. This has been the case in history and goes back a long time.

So Yes, I want female avatars. Not all manly looking ones, but not overly serialized as that is not realistic either.

Now with that, what do I want - Be able to name my ship
Be able to change my country flags (This was done often to lure or to keep one's ship safe)
Not sailing through Land (I see this a lot and hope it is just a thing in test) I want to see damage from sailing into land or reefs
Music... Yeah that would be cool, period and typical naval songs
Voice commands - When you give the command to turn to port, have the voice say Turn to port like an officer repeating commands (No biggy if they are not but would be cool)
Storms - We have rough sea's and they can be a pan, but man are they cool to sail and fight in
Real weather aka fog, no wind
Ships sitting in water lower when loaded with heavy cargo, and sitting high when low cargo.
Rumors

Ok that will do for now I think.

 

[Magnum]

snip ...

 

Now with that, what do I want - Be able to name my ship

Be able to change my country flags (This was done often to lure or to keep one's ship safe)

Not sailing through Land (I see this a lot and hope it is just a thing in test) I want to see damage from sailing into land or reefs

Music... Yeah that would be cool, period and typical naval songs

Voice commands - When you give the command to turn to port, have the voice say Turn to port like an officer repeating commands (No biggy if they are not but would be cool)

Storms - We have rough sea's and they can be a pan, but man are they cool to sail and fight in

Real weather aka fog, no wind

Ships sitting in water lower when loaded with heavy cargo, and sitting high when low cargo.

Rumors

Ok that will do for now I think.

 

 

Voice Command is already available for $8 (with a free 21 day trial) from VoiceAttack --- http://www.voiceattack.com/download.aspx

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

On the thread of Females and Avatars

I MAY be the only Female on here at the moment and wanted my 2 cents worth.

First off, there were far more females sailing the Ocean Blue than you might think, and many of those were not just wives of officers, though there where the share of those.

Some of the most successful pirates in history have been female. While we all know of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, those two were not really successful, but they were women and they were pirates. Fact about Mary. Mary or Mark as she was known as served on board a British ship when she was younger. She then joined an Infantry unit, fought n the Nine Years war, joined a mounted unit and gained rank and was known as one of the best fighters in the unit. During this time she fell in love with a man and after the war the two wed. She dressed as a woman until the death of her husband and as was the ways of that time, it meant she had nothing. She joined another ship and sailed but the capt was not good. When Calico Jack and Anne raided her ship, she joined them. Anne found out about Mary being female and the two at times dressed as male, and other times as female. it was a known fact that the the two were female pirates

If you want some great books

Seafaring Woman: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Stowaways, and sailors wives

The Only Life that mattered - About Anne, Mary and Jack

Mary Read, Sailor, Soldier, Pirate

These are but a few

It is a fact that women did serve more often than though on ships. Most disguised themselves as males. This has been the case in history and goes back a long time.

So Yes, I want female avatars. Not all manly looking ones, but not overly serialized as that is not realistic either.

Now with that, what do I want - Be able to name my ship

Be able to change my country flags (This was done often to lure or to keep one's ship safe)

Not sailing through Land (I see this a lot and hope it is just a thing in test) I want to see damage from sailing into land or reefs

Music... Yeah that would be cool, period and typical naval songs

Voice commands - When you give the command to turn to port, have the voice say Turn to port like an officer repeating commands (No biggy if they are not but would be cool)

Storms - We have rough sea's and they can be a pan, but man are they cool to sail and fight in

Real weather aka fog, no wind

Ships sitting in water lower when loaded with heavy cargo, and sitting high when low cargo.

Rumors

Ok that will do for now I think.

 

 

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.  

[Semni]

SLOW THE GAME DOWN:

 

I have to admit I'm actually quite happy with the pace of the game.

 

At the current pace the game manages to be relatively sedate while avoiding being dull. It flirts with aspects of simulation while not losing sight of being a fun game.

 

This is important because we play games and simulators for two very different reasons. I've seen some games fall into the trap of sacreficing gameplay for the sake of simulation while still  not being that great a simulator.

 

Maybe you want to try some more stand-off gameplay? Equip your ship with long range weaponry and keep your distance? That'll give you a lot more leeway to adapt to the situation.

[wolf727]

The game seems to run at between 30 and 60 to 1 "time scale" different parts have different scales

 

It seems that an epic battle that would be an all day affair IRL can usually be knocked off in an hour or perhaps two of game time. Battles couldn't be to much slower without being "dull" or much faster without being "peewpeewpeew" arcade style.

 

Reloading is on it's own weird time scale since IRL guns were ROUTINELY reloaded every 2 to 3 minutes (maybe really big one every 4 or 5 min) - most of the guns I have timed in game reload in from 30 seconds (small guns) to 1 and 1/2 min (large guns) which is WAAAAAY slower than the time compression would suggest.

 

30 seconds at 30/1 would be 15 minutes and 60/1 would be 1/2 hour. 1 and 1/2 min would be from 45 min to 1 and 1/2 HOUR. If a real gun crew took 1 and 1/2 hour to reload - they would rightly swim home.

 

But if the small guns reloaded in 2-3 SECONDS and the larger guns in 3-4 SECONDS to stay true to the time compression - the game would be TOTALLY "peewpeewpeew" and no one would want to play it.

 

Pick your poison, as they say ......

Sorry, I made a big mistake. My comment was actually for the game, "Ultimate General: Gettysburg" and NOT this naval game! Sorry about that. This is the first time I came to this forum - I just joined. Now I have to find where I can make the comment for "Ultimate General: Gettysburg".

[wolf727]

I have to admit I'm actually quite happy with the pace of the game.

 

At the current pace the game manages to be relatively sedate while avoiding being dull. It flirts with aspects of simulation while not losing sight of being a fun game.

 

This is important because we play games and simulators for two very different reasons. I've seen some games fall into the trap of sacreficing gameplay for the sake of simulation while still  not being that great a simulator.

 

Maybe you want to try some more stand-off gameplay? Equip your ship with long range weaponry and keep your distance? That'll give you a lot more leeway to adapt to the situation.

 

Sorry, I made a big mistake. My comment was actually for the game, "Ultimate General: Gettysburg" and NOT this naval game! Sorry about that. This is the first time I came to this forum - I just joined. Now I have to find where I can make the comment for "Ultimate General: Gettysburg".

 

Yep, I didn't realize the comments here were for the naval game.

[Bolitho]

OK, these are just suggestions. I love the game as it is but I'm suggesting some possible enhancements anyway.

 

Control.

 

Wind speed and direction.

 

Time of day.

 

Sea conditions.

 

Possible enhancements.

 

Surrender option.

 

Targets on land (gun batteries, forts, artillery etc.

 

Depth call-outs (leadsmen) and charts.

 

Detachments of Marines (boarding, land action etc.)

 

 

Keep up the great work.

[ObiQuiet]

Assuming the terminology issue of Left/Right vs. Port (or Larboard)/Starboard has been debated and a decision intentionally made to use Left/Right in the game UI, I'd still vote for a per-Player option to use "P/S" instead.   Like a F/C or Mi/Km units option in other applications.

 

(Edit: same for Bow/Stern for the chasers instead of Front and Back)

 

(I still have a lot of threads to read in the forum, so forgive me if this topic has already been debated or discussed in a thread my searches didn't discover.)

 

So far it seems that this particular piece of terminology is not bound to any L or R keys, so it may make no difference in the overall UI except a few labels, like those for reloading the guns.

 

Thanks!