New Captains - Read This First

[Inigo Balboa aka Ronda]

Remember, this is not a tutorial, but just a little compilation of the forum threads to help you make your 1st steps in the game. 

This topic was initially written for Sea Trials, so may contain some obsolete info, links or screenshots.  I will resume working on this post soon...

 

Before you make your order...

- Create a Steam account if you don't have one already.  Install Steam on your PC. The game is only available through it.
- It wouldn't hurt to make sure your video card fully supports DirectX 11.  Check it on your card's manufacturer site.  Briefly – it should be higher then NVIDIA 400 or AMD 5000.

 

A tip from Prater:

 

Just because dxdiag says you have directx11 doesn't mean your card supports it.  Dx11 can be installed on Windows even though the video card doesn't support it, so instead of checking dxdiag you need to check the manufacture specs on your card.  This is mostly an issue with older cards, especially integrated chips (mostly concerns laptops).  If you have an integrated chip, here is a list of Intel chips.  Basically, in this list anything in the 7th generation should work with Naval Action.  Those before the 7th will NOT and there is nothing that can be done about it except get a new computer or if you have a desktop computer get a video card.

 

A list of AMD chips is here.

You can also take a look at this forum thread.

Purchase:

The game is available on Steam.

And register on the forum if you haven't already

 

Installation and activation:

Please see this thread for the detailed instructions.

 

Login:



Currently you can login only with your Steam account, but you can give name to your character and choose nationality.   You can have only 1 character per Steam account.

 

If you cannot login (getting Error message), please check here first.  

Welcome to the game!

 

 

And there you are, at the capital of your nation.

 

There is a chat screen on your low left corner.  It has many cool options.  Note the tags Global, your nation (Neutral on this screenshot) and Help.  Mouse click there and type if you need an advice or just want to say hi to the world   Click + if you're missing some tabs.  You can also have a private chat with your friends, but first you need to find and add them to your friend-list.  Then right-click on your friend's name in the list to see the options as shown below.

 

 

Also if you right click on any player's name you'll see a menu which gives you a bunch of options.  For example, use Copy if someone posted a web link you need.  Note that Trade works only if you and your partner are at the same town.

 

 

 

On the "town" menu, you can also buy or sell ships, equipment and other stuff, check your progress (xp), buy repair kits, upgrade your ship with various modules, install new cannons, move stuff from Hold to Warehouse, hire NPC to sail with you (for low rank players only), take missions (quests) etc.

 

"Outpost" button lets you buy a slot and then open an outpost, which gives you a warehouse and 5 "docks" (slots) for ships.  At the very beginning you only have an outpost at your capital.  You can buy new outposts at other towns.  Keep in mind that every outpost will be more expensive then the previous one you've bought.  Right now you can also teleport to any one of your outposts, but it has 4 hours cooldown.  Teleporting to outposts is possible from town (not at sea) and only for the character (no ship).  Teleporting to the capital works from the sea and in that case includes your ship too.

 

Note that cannons have Class and Caliber, those numbers on your equipment screen stand for Class.  For example, [7-9] means you can install either long or medium cannons of class 9, 8 or 7, the caliber doesn't matter.  Numbers after / are for carronades' class ([7-8] on my screenshot). 

 

 

 

Remember, you can buy any ship if you have enough money, but if your rank is too low - you will not be able to hire full crew.  Less people you have - more time you need to reload cannons, turn yards etc.  Here is the thread about ranks.   And another one.

 

(to be continued)

 

Sailing:

 

Ready?  Hit Sail and you will see your ship in the open world.  Now you're free to do anything you want.  Look at the map (or hit M ingame) and travel, trade,  find other players and go PvP, chase some NPC and fight (click on the ship to see what nation ant type she is.  Currently you're ok to attack ships of any nation besides your own.  And if you see that red line "Contraband goods found",  you're ok to attack even NPC of your nation).  If you attack any other ship of your nation you'll become a pirate (currently no way to "undo" it, so beware). 

 

 

All nations are at war right now, so you can only use ports of your own nation and neutrals.  Use W, A, S, D to control your ship's speed and direction.  

 

To see your stats and to use repair at sea, click the stats button in your top left corner (it looks like 3 horizontal bars).  Hit REPAIR and the game will use your repair kits if you have any and if you ship needs to be repaired.  

 

 

You can always buy more repair kits at any town.

 

 

 

Missions:

 

Currently the only "quest" you can do is "search and destroy".  Click "missions" at any town, and you will be able to chose from the list.  You can accept up to 3 missions at once (from the same town or different ones, it doesn't matter).  Missions will give you some extra money and XP, on top of what you would earn from the regular battle vs NPC.

 

Hit M to open your map and see your missions location (crossed swords symbol).  Now you have to sail and found it at the sea.  Sometimes it can be confusing if several symbols are close to each other.  Yours will be slightly higher in the air.  And if you click on it you would see "Admiralty Order.  Event is too far" or this tab as you sail close enough:

 

 

 

Battle sailing and chat:

 

Chat window is in your low-left corner. First hit Enter, then type, then press Enter again to send.

Hit Enter and then Tab if you need to switch from Team chat (blue) to All (white) and back. 

To see the main chat window (your national, clan etc) - hold CTRL and then click on the tiny "menu" symbol on the right of "Enter text..." frame.

 

 

You can also see your speed here (it was 9.3 knots for me when I took this screenshot) and some stats of your ship. 

 

To change your speed use W and S, note how "Full" and 100% changes to "Half" and 50% and so on.  Also you can hit B for "battle sails".

 

T controls staysails.  In case it doesn't work correctly, hit W or S to reset them.

 

The other way to handle your speed and turning is to turn your yards manually.   Hold Q or E for forward mast, Z or C for rear mast(s) and see how it all works. 

A and D turn your ship's rudder.  Double tap A or D for permanent left of right rudder setting, tap once the opposite way from locked left or right and it will centre again.

 

Hold A or D down to turn rudder temporarily. Let go and it will center again.

F will turn on the Skipper Auto mode (will turn your yards to keep maximum speed for your ship...  which is not what you always need ) 

 

Shooting:

 

There are different shots that are used by your cannons (1,2,3 keys to pick).  Balls are used to punch holes in a ship’s hull and to shoot down masts. Chain is for tearing holes in sails to slow down your enemy. Grape is effective against crew.

 

In the middle of your screen you will see your cannons' status.  Let's take a look.  Right now I have 2 cannons loaded with balls on "back" of my ship and 9 on the right.  My left cannons are still loading and cannot shoot yet.

 

 

To enter aiming mode, right click when looking in the direction you want to fire. To fire - space-bar for a single ranging shot, or left mouse button to fire a whole broadside.   To fire only one deck you can lock others by hitting F1, F2, F3, F4 (when in aiming mode). 

 

Another way is to fire "as is", without aiming mode - that would be [ and ]

 

Note that you have 3 different fire modes controlled by V - random, rolling front and rolling back.

 

Also R allows you to "lock sector".

 

K is for mortar "mode" on Mortar Brig.

 

SHIFT pulls up the scope. You can zoom in using mouse wheel. 

 

Remember, even if you loose the battle you receive experience points, based on your shooting.  

 

 

Damage and Repair:

 

Here is the diagram located in the top left corner of your screen:

 

 

4 bars show your ships armor. If you look carefully you will see that they are surrounded by an outline of a ship, facing right.  As you can see, my ship has badly damaged stern (a bar disappeared there) and took some other damage.  Numbers indicate how many leaks I have above and below the waterline on each side.  Red 1 below the line means 1 leak under the waterline.   Also my pump is somewhat damaged (it is yellow.  Red means "broken"). 

 

That means I'd better use repair (first you need to buy them at the town).   Press 5 and select which part needs to be repaired.  Also there is a Survival mode (8) used to pump out water from ship's hull (see your low-left corner), repair leaks and extinguish fire.

 

 

Keep in mind that Survival mode slows down your other tasks (Gunnery mode (7) makes reloading faster, Sailing mode (6) adds a bit to your ship's speed and maneuverability).  Here is the detailed explanation of how the crew "mods" work.

 

 

Boarding:

 

Let's capture that ship!   Hit "9" and get your crew ready (note that it slows down your cannons reloading and other tasks).  Read this BOARDING GUIDE for detailed explanation.

 

 

Remember, both ships need to slow down (5kn or less). Look for "boarding possible" indicator and hit G. 

 

 

If you win, you can hit X and take command of the ship.  No matter if you did it or did not hit X, when you leave the battle you'll need to choose what to do with your new ship (right click on it) - take command, send to your outpost or sink (admiralty doesn't work yet).  If you send it to your outpost, you'll be able to sell it later when you arrive to that town.  If you see some loot - drag it to your Hold.

 

 

Crafting:

 

Each player has "labor hours" which are used to craft materials (and ships).  You receive 41 labor hours per real hour (984 lh per 24 real hours).  It doesn't matter if you're online or offline.  Maximal amount of your lh is 1000 + (20 x your craft level).

 

You receive "crafting XP" when you craft materials and ships, and gradually level up, which allows you to build better quality (basic- common-fine-mastercraft-exceptional) or higher ranked ships and modules.  Higher quality ships have more slots for modules, but the final amount of them varies and does NOT depend on a crafter (random).

 

 

Also the crafter cannot choose the 2nd trim of the ship (currently speed or stiffness), it's a random too:

 

 

Here is the explanation about trims and wood.

 

To craft ships you first need to build a shipyard at a town where you already have an outpost (and upgrade the shipyard to lvl 2 or 3 for higher ranked ships).  Also you need blueprints.  At the beginning you have blueprints for Lynx and Traders Lynx.  Other blueprints can be obtained when you craft ships or break them up (small chance).  Some blueprints will be given to you automatically as you level up.  You can buy blueprints from other players, but you need to be at a certain craft level to build a ship (lvl 13 for a basic snow, but lvl 15 for a fine snow for example).  

 

Here is the crafting path.  You can also find it here.  Note that the 2nd link provides a great tool for crafting calculation (many thanks to the author!)

 

Currently top crafting level is 50.

 

Clans:

 

Currently you can create a clan,  but it only gives you a tag and a "clan" chat window.  More functionality will be added later. The clan leader can promote his clanmates to "Officers".  Clan leader and officers are able to accept new members.

 

Graphics, Sound, Controls and Social settings:

Hit Esc and choose "options":

 

 

Note that transparent sails option is a very helpful one for larger ships (for shooting from the deck).

 

A tip from Samba_liten: if the water graphics freak out on you, simply change the graphics setting to low for water and you will be able to play.

 

 

HERE IS A FULL KEYBOARD CONTROLS MAP

thanks, Destraex!

 

 

That's basically it.  Set your sails and enjoy. Don't forget to report ingame or on the forum if you see any bug.

Search the forum for some sailing video guides, here are some to start with:

 

 

Edited April 15, 2016 by Inigo Balboa aka Ronda

[trindade]

Very handy stuff for new players, thanks

[Petrov]

Good work!

[Taylor]

Really good. This should be sticky'd somewhere.

[romaink]

Excellent post!  I've been playing only about a week. The info in this post will make a newbie's introduction to the game a much less frustrating experience.

 

 

Romain

[Balck]

Pin it!

[samba_liten]

Can I add that if the water graphics freak out on you, simply change the graphics setting to low for water and you will be able to play.

[Inigo Balboa aka Ronda]

Thanks guys)  Add whatever you think is useful. 

[BBrown]

Very well done Balboa. I vote this should be pinned.

[samba_liten]

Erm..one more thing - To chat press enter, type, then press enter again to send. To exit chat press esc.

 

And one more... to enter aiming mode, right click when looking in the direction you want to fire. To fire - space-bar for a single ranging shot, or left mouse button to fire a whole broadside.

 

Last one, i promise... if someone could scare up a screeny with some explanations for the damage indicator... my editing skills are pretty bad.

Basically though, the 4 bars in the top left of the screen show your ships armour. If you look carefully you will see that they are surrounded by an outline of a ship, facing right. That means the two vertical bars represent your front and rear (bow and stern [i hope i got that right! would be embarrassing otherwise...]) armour, and the two horisontal bars represent your left (port) and right (starboard) armour, top and bottom bar, respectively.

[trindade]

 I vote this should be pinned.

 

+1

[nornica]

Great topic for new players. It should be pinned, put on page, and linked on FB.
It's like mini-wiki.
Good work.

[Mad Mike]

Yep, great stuff, much appreciated.

[Ink]

Well done! Pinned 

[Balck]

And there was much rejoicing among the squids!  Huzzah! 

[Inigo Balboa aka Ronda]

Thanks for all feedback, I'm working on it

[Capt. Rice]

This is very helpful thanks

[Prater]

For the system requirements you might want to include a bit about confusion with directx.  Just because your dxdiag says you have directx11 doesn't mean your card supports it.  You need to double check with the manufacturer as you stated above.  This is mostly an issue with integrated video chips in laptops instead of discreet video cards.  Some people have become quite upset because they have looked in dxdiag and it says they have dx11 when actually their card is not compatible with dx11 so they need to check the specs on their card instead of looking at dxdiag.


So, if you have an integrated chip, here is a list of intel chips (Intel HD Graphics):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_graphics_processing_units#Seventh_generation

 

Basically, in this list anything in the 7th generation should work with Naval Action.  Those before the 7th will NOT and there is nothing that can be done about it except get a new computer or if you have a desktop computer get a video card.


I do not know much about amd chips as I have never owned one or if I have it was several years ago:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_graphics_processing_units#Comparison_table:_Mobile_GPUs
 

[Inigo Balboa aka Ronda]

For the system requirements you might want to include a bit about confusion with directx. 

 

Yes, thank you.  Added to the 1st post.

[Another Joe]

This short tutorial was a great help for my first day with this great game.

[ParaBellum]

Very nice, much appreciated!

[Flyingtower]

Thank you very much! I would be lost without this!

[Hotspur]

For Chat, if you want to enter team chat hit enter (or return), then hit tab. The chat window should then say TEAM.

When not in Chat, use the Tab key to see who is in the current game and which side they're on.

[leo1954au]

Are you able to set your own keyboard setups or have to use what the game gives you,   I remember playing games back in the late 90's the arrow keys were always used for movement but not anymore it seems.

[springonions]

Very informative and helpful!
You have my thanks!