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unmerged(137907)

Lead Designer -Nitro Games
Mar 21, 2009
172
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www.nitrogames.com
Just spent better part of the day going through suggestions and wishes on all the threads.

Many of them were really good. Picked about 50 of them for further comments from our tech before final choice on what are actually going to be implemented on the game.

In the future, please put all suggestions/wishes to this thread.
 
Sugestions /Wishes

Did someone say wishes ?
1. Warehouses with automatic buy/sell
2. Fleets that access warehouses to pick up and put down
3. Multiple trade routes for a single fleet
4. An expansion pack with the west indies and north america - sugar, cod, furs, whaling, etc... salt outwards, salted fish inwards
5. More commodities (it is unrealistically sentimental to not have slaves)
6. A land trade route that a Venice and Genoa can ship from/to - perhaps trying to get goods past the turks ( barabary pyrates ? Black Sea trade ?)
7. Smuggling - 90% of the tea imported by Denmark was smuggled into England at a huge profit, amounting to almost half the english tea trade at times
8. Nation specific ships - flytes only by the dutch, Xebecs were usually in the Mediteranean, Galleons by everyone, etc (Galleys ?)
9. the ability to 'basic sim city' your ports
10. the ability to capture your enemies capital and end a war
11. more storage taken up by supplies for the crew for the longer journeys
12. most of the smaller islands in the game did not export anything - but they were important forts/ports and were expensive to maintain, far more than the profitable mainland ports
13. Where are the east indies in the game ? you know, like mentioned in the title
14. 70 - 80 % of the spice trade was pepper - why not make it separate from generic spices ?
15. accurate flags - the dutch east india company had a orange, white and blue flag...the flag for the english was used for only a short time as the English east india company...the pre-union flag in its corner would be more accurate
16. If you include china and the east indies, there is nothing else left in that part of the world
17. settlement and colonisation of some areas - this increased the agitation between the big powers
18. local revolts due to corrupt companies
19. increasing profit through corruption
20. fleets with more than 5 ships
21. the goods need amending - diamonds were not found in south africa till well into the 1800's and gold came from further north in africa then it is in the game
22. some ports should sell multiple top range trade goods
23. most pyrates sailed smaller ships with very large crews and they gave you the option of surrendering your goods and being allowed to leave or fight and die - this should be included
24. Boarding is somewhat too difficult
25. ships currently bob up and down at least 3m. this is too big a swell to fight in everytime...usually the sea was flat
26. Different weather for different areas and different times of year - sailing around the tip of africa in winter had a sphincter factor of 10/10
27. loss of crew..scurvy, etc and the more you lose crew the less they want to sail with you...Mutiny ! and replacement problems

When you finish that lot :rolleyes:
give me a yell and I will add some more :rofl:
Hats of to the EIC crew, it is a good game but it can be excellent...
 
A complete pea soup weather condition in the battles. A weather where some regions of the battlefield get dynamically more clear or more foggy, resulting in dangerous condigtion where you sometimes see your enemy, sometimes don't. A la Master and Commander:

master-and-commander-the-far-side-of-the-world-3.jpg
 
On Pirates:

1. More revolts and pirate raids ending up with pirates taking over the city so more pirate spawn points appear on the map. It's boring when there are only Pirates around Madagascar and Arabia. Why aren't the famous Pirates of Barbary Coast in the game, 17th century was their golden age so they should be represented, at least by a Pirate port in Tunis.

2. Independent ports should be able to spawn pirates sometimes so not only Madagascar is a problem but also all those generic ports noone wants.

3. Pirate fleet make-up should be changed. Now it's always a single Cutter, Xebec or Galleon, after 1630 a Frigate and after 1670 a SOL46.

Frigates should be unlocked for Pirates in 1640. SOLs in 1680. Having a ship attacked in 1670 February by a Pirate SOL46 is a bit a stretch.

Maybe each ship should have a cost in points. For example Sloop 2, Schooner 3, Cutter 3, Xebec 5, Galleon 6 and a Pirate fleet before 1630 should be allowed to have 6 points max. So either three Sloops, two Schooners or maybe a Xebec with a Sloop or a single Galleon? This way it would be far more interesting. The amount of points Pirate can use up would raise slowly over the years to 15-18 by 1680.

4. Less experience for beating Pirates to prevent exploiting Pirate hunting to level up captains to max before they hit 30. Experience should be relative to strength of both fleets, if you beat a big one, you get more of it. If you beat a single Cutter, getting a level up is a stretch.

5. Pirate attack chance should be lowered for AI fleets and increased for player ones. I know it's cruel but the way it's now even SOL46 Pirates avoid my 1x Frigate + 4x East Indiamen fleets while AI Flutes and other junk keep getting attacked over and over again. AI has ships lost around a hundred around 1680 while I'm still under ten.

6. Pirates shouldn't just go and sink everything they see. They should be active and attempt boarding. Auto-resolve should allow ships to surrender and be boarded so Pirates slowly build up their fleets with new warships (trade ships they should sell).

7. Pirates should have some displayed in the game amount of points (pirate power bar or whatever). If they are winning many battles and are left not attacked their spawn rate should be going up (more people willing to pursue piracy seeing it's safe). When player actively hunts their fleets down (they lose many ships) their spawn rate should be going down slowly since the trade wouldn't be so attractive anymore.

This would leave a player with a question how much he wants to hunt down Pirate fleets. If he does that all day long, Pirates should be soon extinct outside of some really dangerous areas. If he ignores the problem completely, Pirates should eventually literally swarm the seas. :)

8. Each Pirate fleet should have bounty increasing over time as they attack more convoys and sink more ships. Killing such a Pirate would pay the player handsome amount of money.

9. Pirates should ask for ransom. "Give us X gold and we won't attack", "Give up your cargo and you can sail away safely".

10. Pirates shouldn't stop shooting immediately after a ship surrenders. There should be a chance they shoot a few more times after that happens. This way surrendering all ships at 10 hull points couldn't be exploited to immediately evacuate your ships from combat.

11. Pirates shouldn't be as visible on the map as normal fleets. They should be sneaky bastards visible only if they are closer than half of fleet's view range. This way you often wouldn't even know what hit you. Only fleets that are patrolling and actively seeking enemies should be able to see Pirates at full range.

12. Player should be able to mark a ship of his with the skull flag and send it to Pirate other factions. Such a fleet would become a Pirate one controlled by AI and would attack AI fleets while sparing player ones. They would pay the player who created them part of their loot but there also would be a risk that such a fleet will be sunk or even breaks free and starts attacking your ships.

13. Maybe related, maybe not. Smuggling. Companies should be able to smuggle goods to each other's ports to sell with better profit there and ruin competition prices. It would happen at cost of mutual relations often leading to war. There also should be a chance of losing goods to customs.
 
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My wish is port fighting it would be nice and more realistic battle like if ship will losse 50% hull he also losse cannons, crew, marines etc. You can also add visual effects with this. I see this game will be perfect :rolleyes:
 
If we are putting together a wish list.

How about treating the sailing rigs as the individual parts of a whole that they really are. Other than the sloop, cutter and xebec, the rig of each ship are interdependent multi-mast systems. Each mast system consists of 2 or 3 individual masts stacked atop the previous. Sloops and cutters have only mast system made from two separate masts. Each mast carries at least one yard with sail and possibly supports a stay sail.

This would allow:
1) a damage model that would allow and individual mast are yard to fail. Depending on which mast of the system that fails could cause the entire mast system to fail. Meaning if you causes enough damage to the lowest mast of the mizzen system the entire mizzen mast would go over the side, rather that plopping the entire rig over the side when you get to a pre-determined damage level.

2) the ability to set, reef and douse individual sails. It would not need to be a complicated process merely using the plus or minus to increase or decrease sail area in a pre-defined order. You would likely need an ordering system for each ship type. If you were to put these orderings in a file then each user could configure their own ordering, if they so choose. You could still keep the Battle/Full setting if you wished. Ideally it would be nice to control the sails individually.

3) as you increase of decrease the sail area the resultant thrust would be used to calculate your ships speed. Setting a sail with 75% damage would add only 25 % of the thrust that would normally be added.

4) for the captains that have the repair sail property you could erect a portion of the mast system or add 1 or 2 new sails replacing the damaged ones.

5) For the larger warships such as frigates, SOL46 & SOL90 have the capability to increase past the 100 % full sail by setting studding sails on the fore and main masts.

6) it would be preferable to have the sails show shot holes, rents or major areas missing rather than having the sails take on a charred blackened appearance. It would not be likely to get large amounts of charring due to muzzle blasts at more than point blank range. The other ships are not shooting paint pots.

Who let the sailing sim guy in here??? :eek:

Greg.
 
- We REALLY need a "Create new fleet" button on the after-battle screen. Today 4 Flutes surrendered to my 5x Brigs fleet, they were FULL OF SILVER (over 400t total) and I had to abandon them all. That's just sadistic that devs do that to us.
 
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Tun off text above ships in battle, ammo looting and graphics.

1) As far as I can see the option to switch off the info text above ships in battle is not in the game. I feel that it really should be, 'cause it it just feels too arcade to emerge yourself in the naval battle, only to be reminded that you're playing a game, when text about ship name, damage etc. pops up over ships constantly.

I'd like to be able to turn all that info text off, and really get into the mood and realism of battles.


2) An option to loot ammo after battle. I've posted that suggestion in another thread, so just reminding. :)

3) The ability to set graphics render detailed ship rigging etc at longer distances. As it is now, one can only fully enjoy the great ship models at very close range, as the graphics switch to a simpler model as soon as you gain a little distance from the ship. A slider in Options to set the detailed draw distance?

-Danevang
 
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Diplomacy on Hard makes no sense. Here's Denmark who have no ships and no cash to build one rejecting my peace deal even though I want to pay half a million cash:

diplo.jpg


AI should know when to give up the war... could be based on "Company power" score?
 
Most of the suggestions I'd have is in the battle mode:
PLEASE! Mission editor I don't know if any of the developers sail or know anything about sailing but, I find that the battle scenarios are really annoying. Most of the time I start these scenarios in "irons" or ship heading straight into the wind, that is certain death for a sailing ship, no commander would ever put his ship in that position. The fleets also start in cannon range, I have no time to set up a strategy for combat, I don't know if this is to balance a human player with a crappy AI but I'd like the chance to start ships at a distance.

The speed of the ships is all wrong, most frigates will do 10knts at least in good weather and all I can get out of mine is 4knts even in a storm? Its nuts to see the maximum speed of a ship in sunny weather at 1knt. I'd read that speeding up them up would throw out the balance of the game, this is pretty crazy... I'm sure you could find a way to do it. My suggestion is a Mission editor. You could set up your own battles. I don't know if you have seen editors in other games but that is something that would be great for this game. I'm not to sure on the size of maps you have for the game already but, I sure it wouldn't be to difficult to make large maps that have the coastline of Africa and India with the islands etc, I've seen them in other games and they work well. I'd also like to be able to insert ships onto the map with direction, formation, number, country of origin, and type. Being able to select type of weather, wind speed and wind speed direction would also be great. All of this could be saved into a folder for multiplayer and single player/campaign scenarios.

Thank you for the opportunity for us to say our piece!
 
Game mechanics changes

Kim,

Two incidents have just cropped up that I think should be changed in the next patch.

1. In addition to moving combatants farther apart at the begining of a battle the ships should have all guns loaded and run out, even if they are going to flee. This reflects that if a ship sights another and they don't know if it's hostile, they will load their guns and arm the crew. If a lookout then says it's a bigger ship/fleet then they flee. In one battle I had a pirate fire SEVEN broadsides without my ship getting one shot off.

2. In another battle today I had two Galleons attack a pirate Xebec. The weather was stormy. There was a line of islands off in the background. I ordered the two ships to tack and attack the pirate. What they did was run straight into the islands and one wrecked, the other went to 3 hull remaining by the time I was able to click on flee. If I can expect ships not to follow orders the battle scenarios are worthless. I realize that you can't model every situation but in this kind of weather the ships would not have been running under full sail, even when chasing an enemy. Especiall when on the lee shore of a land mass.

I'd like to know your thoughts about these two situations.

Another question: how are the AI countries taking ports when the player is still using small ships? Can you realistically expect to take a two star port with 2-3 sloops?

Thanks,

John
 
Most of the suggestions have already been mentioned and there was a blurb on the East Indies.
When I first saw the title of this game, I thought, "cool", that would mean the VOC (1602) for the Dutch, not so.

There is Dutch India, which refers to the Dutch colonial possessions on the Indian subcontinent and the Dutch Indies refers to the far wider notions of the Dutch West Indies (in the Americas) and especially the Dutch East Indies (mainly present Indonesia, the colonial jewel in the Dutch crown.

The Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC in Dutch, literally "United East Indian Company") was a trading company, which was established in 1602.
It was the first multinational corporation in the world and the first company to issue stock. It was also arguably the world's first mega-corporation, possessing quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, negotiate treaties, coin money, and establish colonies.

The Dutch East India Company remained an important trading concern for almost two centuries, paying an 18% annual dividend for almost 200 years.

The above could either be a patch or an expansion and that would make it a "true" Multi Nation Trading Game.

Thank you
FD
 
Diplomacy on Hard makes no sense. Here's Denmark who have no ships and no cash to build one rejecting my peace deal even though I want to pay half a million cash:

diplo.jpg


AI should know when to give up the war... could be based on "Company power" score?

Eventually they do. I just finished one where Denmark and Sweden hung on in the same conditions, no ships, no cash, and no ports. I'd taken everything on the map except the home ports, they were at war and wouldn't accept a peace offer. I couldn't get them to negotiate!

So I had to wait, thinking I'd get the 12 Indian port victory, when in year 9 they quit.

I think there are holes in the AI routines, the "logic" isn't logical. Maybe it's because I grew up with Mr. Spock. :rolleyes:
 
A few early wishes

Perhaps some of these are already there undiscovered by me or are less significant that I think:

I'd like to disable the lazy swing across the map when clicking on the minimap and have the view snap to the new location immediately. I'd like to be able to give a move order by clicking on the minimap and open a port window from it as well.

I would like less dragging and dropping in the trade screens instead having the unload all icon be an actual button, for that matter I'd like to multi-select the ships in my fleet ctl-clicking on them, for example and load/unload several or all at once. As you can tell I have not yet played with the trade route functionality.

Since auto repair in ports is available I'd like my cargo ships to default to the cargo tab. I'd like the port to remember which windows were open.

I'd like to move the windows around. This is likely to become less important as I get more familiar with the load and ports but the trade information is a bit hard to read and I'd like to see what stock is in the warehouse or market so that I do not have to try to remember which stocks to look at in the trade overview window.
 
Kim,

1. In addition to moving combatants farther apart at the begining of a battle the ships should have all guns loaded and run out, even if they are going to flee. This reflects that if a ship sights another and they don't know if it's hostile, they will load their guns and arm the crew. If a lookout then says it's a bigger ship/fleet then they flee. In one battle I had a pirate fire SEVEN broadsides without my ship getting one shot off.

2. In another battle today I had two Galleons attack a pirate Xebec. The weather was stormy. There was a line of islands off in the background. I ordered the two ships to tack and attack the pirate. What they did was run straight into the islands and one wrecked, the other went to 3 hull remaining by the time I was able to click on flee. If I can expect ships not to follow orders the battle scenarios are worthless. I realize that you can't model every situation but in this kind of weather the ships would not have been running under full sail, even when chasing an enemy. Especiall when on the lee shore of a land mass.

I'd like to know your thoughts about these two situations.

Another question: how are the AI countries taking ports when the player is still using small ships? Can you realistically expect to take a two star port with 2-3 sloops?

Thanks,

John


1. The initial loading should not take that much time. No way player ships should load slower than AI... Your ship really did not load its cannons until pirate had had time to fire 7 shots??? Did you have ammunition?

2. Ships in AI control, also in RTS mode, have collision avoidance and will not sail on rocks if they can avoid it. In that particular instance it's possible that your galleons were pushed to the rocks by the heavy wind. Next patch will infact lessen this drifting in heavy wind.

About that another question, AI companies get same kind of galleon fleet from their crown to conquer their first port just like the player does in the first years of the campaign.
 
I join the majority of suggestions and I will add a few:

1. Possibility to pass in a window of other port from a window of open port;

2. Port attack in a tactical mode! (stone walls and heavy artillery of a fort against a wooden covering and flexibility of the ships; if in attacked port there are ships, there is a probability that they will have time to put to sea and become participants of battle, etc... (autofight it is not serious)

3. The editor of maps, access to 3d to models and manual on modding (the description of variables, calculation of speed of the ship in a tactical mode and etc)!

Excuse for my english and thanks for this game,
i hope, it becomes even better :)
 
From russian forum. Mine only a translation... i hope, clearly... :)
Captains of the first expeditions had letters of recommendation of the governments and kings, and accurate frameworks of what transactions and contracts they can conclude with local governors. Captains floated and operated at own risk: opened trade, put shops and carried the information home. I would enter (let and at simple level) primary contracts with local princelings about trade. And there, where they would be concluded, here it would be possible to send escorts for autotrade. Further these points at a certain situation could will extend to a trading station. The monopoly which would throw out all competitors from this place could become an expansion limit. Further we build a fort and already even the local princeling on english money cannot us so simply to expel. I would make all other map part terra incognita for the company. That is: there, where we have put the points autoroutes are possible, the rest still it is necessary to investigate and become stronger. Both passion of research and simplification of routine in the known.
 
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Continuing my wish list....

28. in the message window could we toggle messages...click on the notification to open the message, read the message, click on the notification to close the message. This makes it quicker to go through the messages when you are in the midst of something stressful.

29. in the construction message, could we have a centre map / go to button for where the construction occurred for when we want to continue to expand the same construction.

30. for the sake of realism perhaps we could only drop marines off at a port where they can be recruited (I know I would hate to sign on a ship only to be fired in India or Africa), or when conquering a port they could become the garrison. Anyway, shouldnt a detachment of marines be standard for a warship of this period though perhaps not for all nationalities.

:)
 
Ship repair time.

It should take some time to repair ships, so that I can't just damage an enemy, flee and repair instantly, catch up with them again a second later in strategic mode, damage them some more, etc.

Repair time would also add to realism, as you could then lose a battle, but still know that the enemy ship is never the less knocked out of service for a period of time.

-Danevang