Seasonal Patch: The “missing link”
The concept existed in Darwin's time, that a chimpanzee-like missing link—that looked like something between humans and apes—would eventually be found at the root of the human family tree.Lucy found in 1974 proved this concept; Ardi further connected these missing links.
Just like the scientists who study the human origin, we strive to find all missing links in the sailing model to make Naval Action (and future games) better.
Missing link one: The Battle Sail
- Everyone knows why Captains of the Age of sail fought on battle sails. Battle sails allowed to have a clear deck, improved visibility and reduced the risk of fires and falling sails. Many did not know why this allowed the ships to perform, sail and turn and the sailing model did not allow for that. Ships sails worked in linear progression.
- Careful and deep study of 18th century books on Seamanship helped us to uncover this link and connect the dots. Extra sails have diminishing power and every next sail that is set provides less and less power to the ship. As a result you will sail at very good speed and have best turning at just half of your sail set.
- For the majority of vessels sail settings will change to
- slow
- half
- battle
- full
- Undercooked sail settings (like sails opening and closing when increasing sail) will be fixed
Missing link two: The Wind shadow
- Ships fought in lines, station keeping was important. Captains who could not - were court martialed, as lack of station keeping caused great danger to fleets and their task. Why they had to keep station and plan maneuvers carefully? One of the main reasons was wind shadow.
- Wind shadow significantly cuts the wind to leeward. At certain range (depending on the height of the mast) the wind could be completely cut. If you sail in a frigate by the leeward side of the first rate you will completely stop - No wind there. This is being implemented in Naval Action.
- Your position to the enemy or a friendly ship becomes a lot more important. Ships will get stuck if they don’t keep the station, blobs stop working, chases change, enemy ships will no longer be able to push you into the wind to board.
Missing link three: Sail setting vs Sail furling
- This one is simple but important. It takes longer to furl (remove) the sail than to set it (drop it down). In active battle captain will have to turn yards and depower sails instead of removing them.
Gunnery changes
- Multiple treatises on gunnery and ordnance were studied and the main lessons will be applied to Naval Action gunnery.
- All guns over-penetrate at close range, but long-range penetration does not diminish a lot for heavy guns
- Long range accuracy grows with cannonball weight
- The wind shadow and proper sail power will increase the battle distance on some occasions, and the changes the sailing model will help tactical variety in battles
Other changes and fixes
Visual overhauls for ports
- Dutch
- British
- USA
- Prussia
- China
- France
- Russia (eventually)
In second part of the patch (or maybe earlier)
- Port battle conquest quest
- New battle ensigns
The patch is now on testbed.
How to get access to the testbed
- Find the game in your steam library
- Right click and go to properties
- Go to Beta tab
- Enter the key - YlYBRbu8J1UC5py43DY0
- Select the beta called: Testbed
- And click close
- It will download automatically.
- To return to the main game select none instead of testbed in the beta tab.