This creates a complex vista of political shifts between competing nations, as they seek to control ports and trade routes.įor anyone who has enjoyed a rollicking novel about the age of sail - an Alexander Kent or a Patrick O'Brian - or who loved the movie Master and Commander, this is a game worth investigating. In theory, everyone is always at war with everyone else, apart from their own compatriots. Like Eve, this game also has its own guilds, in this case tied to prominent nations of the 18th Century, as well as pirates, who operate under slightly different rules. Naval Action is often compared to space combat MMO Eve Online, and the similarities are worth mentioning.
In bigger battles, involving dozens of ships and lasting more than an hour, just surviving feels like a major triumph. It takes a while to get the hang of all this, but once an enemy is sunk, the reward is a feeling of real jubilation. In a battle against a single enemy, which can last perhaps a quarter of an hour in early game stages, the player learns to make use of wind and sail in order to gain positional advantage, before letting loose volleys of cannon fire, which must also be controlled for elevation and direction. The concession to ease-of-play is that the wind is always blowing at an agreeable, non-life threatening rate.Ĭombat is where the use of wind really comes into its own. It's impossible to sail into the wind players must tack. Naval Action is about sailing ships, not motor boats. It's also a good place to practice the fundamentals of wind direction. The over-world is a lovely, nautical environment of sunshine, squalls, headwinds and coastlines.
Larger ships, right up to a first-rate battleship, can be purchased.
Naval Action has its own in-game economy based on player trades. Trading begins based on a number of useful items or commodities. In the over-game, players travel to friendly or neutral ports, opening up each as they arrive for the first time. The player starts in a friendly port, according to whichever country they have chosen to represent. In Naval Action, each player is given a ship: A square topsail schooner, to be precise. Its success is embedded in its central appeal: It sends us back to a time of romance. This Early Access game has proven to be a hit, with concurrent peaks player numbers of 2,000-to-3,000 and sales so far of more than 70,000 copies. It’s historical."īeing historical is important to Game Labs and to players of Naval Action. There are lots of obscure rules that help a developer say, ‘This was in the fighting instructions and so that’s why we can ban you for it'. "We ban people if they commit that kind of offense several times. "Profanity was forbidden in the British Navy," explains publisher Game Labs' co-founder Maxim Zasov. Obviously, it's not possible to monitor personal hygiene or drunkenness, but it is possible to keep an eye on bad language and outright rudeness. Players who enter the sailing ship combat world must abide by rules of common courtesy, or face censure. In an attempt to create realism and to foster a sense of decency on its servers, the makers of MMO N aval Action have appropriated this Article, at least insofar as is reasonable. One such Article decreed that court martial be levied against "all persons belonging to his Majesty’s ships, being guilty of profane oaths, cursings, execrations, drunkenness, uncleanness or other scandalous action."
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