Naval Action

I only found out about this game a few days ago (saw a video of it on the ATAG forum infact.)

Naval Action Website

It's an online Age of Sail game, similar to the MMO Pirates of the Burning Sea, but more realistic (sort of like Pirates of the Caribbean vs Master and Commander )

In the finished version it's supposed to have stuff like an open world map, exploration and the like - at the moment it just has small battle arenas (sort of like Arena Commander in Star Citizen) which consist of sinking French people (huzzah!)





Now I shall retire to my cabin to play the violin.

This looks good. I've never dabbled in sea faring games before. I suppose us Welsh folk have a history in His Majesty's Navy



Not sure about the hat though.

I'm not sure my PC could take another game at the moment. It struggles with star citizen as it is. Not sure when I'll be able to upgrade.

It does seem rather a feeble hat, given the wide range of hatage available during the Napoleonic Wars.



I'm not one to talk though, the most famous Naval Officer from around these parts is Fletcher Christian (though he was from puny Cumberland, not glorious Westmorland - they should stick to making sausages!)

The game isn't very well optimised at the moment it must be said (you need to have a DirectX 11 card or it won't work, apparently) but as with all of these early alpha games, it will be optimised later on.

something to keep an eye on.

Behold my mighty ship and her 8 cannons! Huzzah!



It's those pesky Frencscots again!

is it any fun and yet playable?

I've only played 3 battles so far with the starter ship (you gain experience or what not to unlock the more powerful ships) and only PvE so far (there is PvP but I haven't tried it yet) - but I haven't had any technical issues yet.

I'm not sure what other sailing games you've played, but at the moment I suppose it's similar to the Naval Battles in Empire Total War and Napoleon Total War, where you just spawn in a big sea map and have a fight - but rather than controlling the whole fleet you manually control a single ship.

Compared to other games I've played such as Pirates of the Burning Sea, it has a lot more detail to it - for example as well as controlling the rudder you can also manually control your individual masts to place them in the best angle to turn quickly (or leave them on automatic, where they're positioned for the best speed) - and you can fire individual cannon shots to get the right range to target, rather than just firing all your cannons at once.

So far it's fun, but I have a crappy ship so it'd be better if I see how much fun it is when I get a proper ship, at the moment the ships they have playable are:

Dutch Armed Yacht
American Schooner Lynx (a.k.a HMS Mosquidobit )
Cutter
Brig
Snow
French Corvette Unite (a.k.a. HMS Surprise )
British Frigate HMS Trincomalee
American Frigate Consitution
British Third Rate HMS Bellona
Spanish First Rate Santisima Trinidad
British First Rate HMS Victory

Though more are being worked on.

It's still very early in development though, so I imagine it'll get boring quite quickly while it's just arena battles.



Presumably one of my co-captains thought I was taking too long having a gun duel with this Frenchman in co-op, so decided to ram him.

Turned out nice again.

Got myself a new ship, at least they're starting to look like actual warships now and not random yachts with cannons on.

looks better
guess some extra canons as wel

Decided to have another go at Naval Action to see how it's progressed, as they've added the Open World for Alpha testing, which consists of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, then north into the Atlantic as far as Bermuda.

The Open World works like in most sailing games, where the ships are sped up and battles take place in instances, though compared to other games (like Pirates of the Burning Sea) the world is very large, and with realistic graphics and day/night cycles, bad weather, etc. I sailed a voyage between the western coast of Jamaica to Little Cayman Island, which took 20 minutes in real time with a favourable wind, so probably would have been 30 - 40 mins with the wind against me.

Also I was trying to sail to Grand Cayman rather than Little Cayman, which brings me on to the point that the open world has no GPS or map icon stuff, and all you get is a compass - so it's very possible to get lost.

At the moment they've added the following nations you can play as:

Great Britain
France
Spain
United Provinces of the Netherlands
Denmark-Norway
Sweden
The United States
Pirates
Neutral (not at war with other nations, but will fight Pirates)

Apparently those are all Nations that had territory that is on the map, though I'm not sure what year they were going by, judging by the French Tricolor and British Flag (plus the ship selection) it's during the Napoleonic Wars - other nationalities will be added once they expand the map, though not sure where they'll expand it to.

There are two Open World servers at the moment, one PvP and one PvE, most people are on the PvP server, which includes port battles and capturing settlements - though I decided to start on the PvE server so I can learn how to sail properly, as they'll wipe the characters before launch anyway, so I can move to the PvP one then.

I would prefer it if the battles and the open world sailing all happened on the same map, rather than battles being instanced - though with the increased ship speeds on the open world it's understandable that they'd have to be seperate.

The game should also be going on to Steam some time this month, when it presumably will be available to purchase again (though I'm not sure why they're hiding the game from everyone at the moment)!

Here are some screenshots of the Open World, sailing around Jamaica:









Intercepting a Frenchman who decided to run away (obviously ):





Accidentally sailing to Little Cayman:

i guess i will buy it at some point

I picked a good day to sail back to Jamaica.

It's already on my long list of stuff to buy soon(tm).

Seems that the game will go on Steam Early Access on the 21st of January.

The game is now on Steam early access for £30.

following it

Apparently the people who play in the French faction speak French, this is almost as shocking as the fact that the Germans in Storm of War speak German.

The question is what faction should i be playing ?

Well, there was a HMS Conflict if that helps. (And a HMS Speedy, and HMS Seawolf for Razy, though no HMS Dixon yet - give it time!)

Other than that I guess either the Dutch or the French Dutch.

Had my first Hornblower style adventure - joined a Fleet of 30 + ships to take a Pirate held port, but broke off with a Squadron of five other ships to escort the attack leader to a friendly port to pick up an attack order or some such while the rest of the fleet formed a blockade - almost got lost in a storm on the way, then got attacked by four Pirate ships who we fought and sank while the attack leader disengaged to continue the mission - then after the battle the four of us were in the middle of enemy held territory (the other bloke had to withdraw during the battle and go for repairs).

Then we tried to find the rest of the fleet, but got into a fight with four Pirate ships who all split up and ran away - after which we were joined by another Captain who informed us that the port battle had gone ahead, but we lost (must have been a pretty large scrap given the size of the fleet) - after which we were attacked by 11 Pirate ships, so legged it back to Kingston.

Just a shame we were all sailing in little 12 gun Cutters/Yachts as they wiped the servers a few days ago.

nice

prefenting pressing the purchase button

I'd say at the moment it's good if you like open sandbox PvP, as if you spot an enemy player ship anywhere (other than a small area around the main port for each nation, or within 1 - 2 mins or so of spawning in where you're unattackable) then you can attack or be attacked - it's the sort of game that a lot of MMOs used to start out as before everyone stated whining about being ganked and theybremoved PvP stuff to only certain areas.

If you prefer PvE and quest stuff then it's probably best to wait, as there aren't any quests yet other than 'go here and sink a ship', plus things like the UI are very simplistic and un-developed.

Seemingly if you make a character before the end of the weekend you get some free ships, though I don't think they're anything you couldn't just buy in game, so not really worth buying early just for them, also I'm not sure if they apply to people that buy on Steam or just those from the earlier release.

Have to wait 12 minutes to log in due to the server being full.

With the server queue and the time it takes to sail anywhere it's a good game if you like browsing the internet a lot.

Maybe I should learn to play the violin, or take up zoology...