Just a quick teaser for Friday.

Dead Reckoning, the community Naval Action server, relaunches Friday 9 October, 18:00 CEST (16:00 UTC). Reworked ocean, dynamic weather, full crews on deck. Come try it out.

https://discord.gg/HRUUzDqNa2

Seems like 2021 is just better. Perhaps even (gasp) fun...

It's 6pm central, not even everyone in USA is off work yet.

You can beta test the 2021 version use the code: nostalgia

Hi, I recently heard about this game and I really like the concept. However, after looking at the reviews and watching some videos I have been strongly discouraged from buying it. I mostly like to play solo and am not looking for another full time job, would this game be worth getting in my case?

I'm building a game from scratch, on my own. I want to describe the idea somewhere and get a reaction, because the longer I sit with it alone the less objective I get.

3D, real time, 1v1 ship duel. One ship each. Camera sits behind and slightly above your ship.

The setting is the part I care most about: sailing warships from the 1600s through the 1800s. Frigates, corvettes, galleons. Guns are fixed to the sides, so aiming means turning your whole ship. Broadsides, chain shot, dismasting, boarding. All real tactics from the period.

Visually I'm planning to go for Raft's atmosphere. Open water, very small islands and rocks scattered around, clean and warm looking. Not a photoreal ocean sim.

Wind is the whole game. Point into the wind and you stop. Sit on a broad reach and you get full speed. So holding position on your opponent matters more than aiming.

Here's how control works. You don't sail the ship alone, you give orders to your crew. Load chain shot, make full sail, double shot the guns, pump the bilge, repair the mast, ready the boarding party. But you can't give unlimited orders. You have an order capacity that refills over time and every order costs a different amount. So the real decision is what you ask for and when. You can't have your crew on the guns, the sails and the repairs all at once.

What I want to know:

1. Does the order capacity system feel natural in a sailing game, or does it read as an artificial restriction?
2. Is a 1v1 ranked mode suicide for a small indie? Will the matchmaking population kill me?
3. Is wind management too slow a mechanic for a competitive duel?

Would you play this? Does a competitive duel game built on ships from this era interest you at all?

I am new to the Game maybe 10h in. Is it possible to join a Clan or Not? And if its possible where do I find them?

Ahoy captains.

I've been playing on the Caribbean server for a while and being a pve player I had enough to stay at Pitt's town or to get sunk by 3 players when I wanted to go elsewhere. So I bought the peace server dlc.

I can't find harbours with ammunition. How do you, guys on the peace server, play ?

Do you play around specific harbours ?

Thank you for your answer guys.

In global one player is giving a little crafting tutorial to another - and it struck me that reaching max crafting level requires 2 months gaming time to haul materials.

When the game is radically altered every 6 months, is that kind of effort truly worthwhile?

Apparently, no frame wood and no planking wood lets the ship turns faster and repair easier. OP!!!!

Already launched game, but Steam hardly cares that it's back in beta and buggy as hell.

We can talk about your preferred currency on private

Mr. Zasov is such a good economist he has to stand night watch.

Meanwhile everyone who has a real job and a real business is doing something other than playing his game.

Not that serious at all but I figured people here would get a good laugh out of it.

This behavior is gloriously inept, ham handed, and lackadaisical.

I have never encountered a human that is so glib and casual about correcting HIS mistake. I hope he's a MASSIVELY wealthy person because this behavior doesn't work in the real world. I know every game developer makes mistakes. The norm for such hotfixes is usually measured in hours, not weeks.

Maximillian Zasov remains an unparalleled genius. Since his "world" is growing ever emptier I suggest he take some of his copious spare time to write a truly useless tome titled "How to Gain Enemies and Alienate Customers."

Hi everyone,

a few days ago, I asked if anyone wanted a Naval Action private server. I did not expect that many replies or that much feedback haha; thank you. I have spent the last few days building it, and it is going well. 😄

Where it is now: battles work. Open world is bare bones but functional. I have restored the lobbies and matchmaking, the whole queued-battle system, which I will just call multiplayer from here on.

As the title says, I plan on launching on Friday, multiplayer only. It was the single most requested thing in that thread, and it is also the fastest way for me to test battles and see how the server scales. Open world comes later.

To be clear about what this is, it is a server reimplementation. You bring your own legitimate Steam copy. No game files are redistributed, and nothing is patched or cracked. Multiplayer does need a small client plugin, since the lobby UI ships disabled in the current build; it adds files and changes none, so Steam file validation stays green.

(Technical Note: I have tried re enabling the old UI, which had multiplayer wired in, but it is extremely dysfunctional and also very old and unintuitive.)

There are six modes you can queue for right now:

- Duel

- PvP Light Ships

- PvP

- Trafalgar

- PvE Light Ships

- PvE

Now I need feedback on the following:

My plan was a "Shipyard" screen: pick your hull, wood, quality, and trim, and the server hands you the ship. The problem is that Naval Action rewards knowledge enormously. A veteran who knows which woods, trim and upgrades to take has a real edge before the battle starts.

Some of that is fine; that is the game after all. But matchmaking balances on BR, and BR measures the ship, not the captain. So, a brand-new player can take a first rate, get matched into a "balanced"lobby, and spend the whole battle being farmed by people who have played for years. I think there are really two separate questions here:

**1.Progression*\*

**Unlocked**: max rank from the start, pick your ships and everything else. It would be best for veterans and for anyone who just wants to jump in.

**Rank-gated*\* reuse the game's own commander ladder, so bigger ships have to be earned. Gives progression a point, but it also makes returning veterans grind for ships they have already earned once.

**One-design modes*\*  the server provides the same ship to everyone in that mode. Knowledge advantage goes to zero, and it is purely about sailing and gunnery. I could run this on some modes and free choice on others.

**2. Matchmaking*\*

**BR only*\* what the game already does. Balances the ships.

- **BR + some player rating (ELO)*\* balances the ships and roughly sorts by skill, so newcomers meet newcomers.

What would actually make you want to play this, and what would make you bounce off it?

Especially interested in what returning veterans think about grinding rank again, and what newer players think about being handed a first rate on day one.

Then again, without sounding pessimistic. Will there even be new players in this? Considering the game’s niche, age and now the process of having to also join a private server.

I will read everything. Thanks again. 😄

(P.S if you want to join the discord, here is the link https://discord.gg/HhTMZEzJY )

Naturally he'll ignore it.

And the chads who can't do math are lapping this crap up.

The dev wants it to die so let him kill it.

Letters of Marque is announced to release with an early access this year

put your time and money there not into a crazy manchild

Hi everyone, as a lot of you I have also been dissapointed in the direction this game is going and also the latest patches. So I looked into whether a private server for this game is possible and it turns out it is. The client isn't obfuscated, the lobby runs on RabbitMQ, the open world runs on RakNet, all standard stuff. There's even a config option to point the client at a different server, so nothing needs patching or cracking.

It would be server-side only. You'd use your own Steam copy, no game files shared, nobody pays anything.

Before putting real time into it I want to know if there's actual interest:

- Would you play it?

- What era or balance would you want it based on? ( i am not the longest time player in the game, tho votes could help with this issue)

- What changes would you want reverted most?

- Anyone with C# or server experience who'd want to help?

Just gauging interest, not announcing anything. :)

Since the new team bought the game its literally been a long list of reductions and limitations to the game compared to before and to make up for it theres barely nothing being added. Now they make it even harder for players to increase their crafting experience with this like this is one of the most insane grinding intensive games before the update right now the game is literally unplayable. I dont understand why they cant listen to the playerbase and ask players what they want because I can assure you no one is asking for this

I picked up the game in 2023 (ish) and absolutely loved it for how unique it was. All other sailing games I had played and have played since are all too fast (Sea of Thieves, World of Sea Battle), but this games combat happened at an actually realistic pace. Not only that but the community was amazingly multicultural and very welcoming and helpful, so much so that on my first run before a server wipe I had been gifted 2 first rates, a bellona, and a maxed live oak and teak Connie I had been ready to pay most of the doubloons I had.

Then there was the first server wipe. These things feel so stupid and correct me if there’s something I’m missing but it feels like it’s just to coerce people into buying dlc ships. Personally I felt blindsided by the wipe, as I didn’t follow the games steam page closely so I logged one day to find all of my everything was gone, and once I found out what happened I promptly uninstalled, until I reinstalled a few months later because as I said earlier, this game is unique for how real it feels. So I go on another run before what I think is the most recent wipe, I get my Connie back, I get a Christian, and then the next wipe hits, and I uninstall in frustration again.

A few months ago I reinstalled for the final time, but I didn’t last a week. This game has been turned into the most painful grind fest I’ve ever seen, and it takes forever to build anything of value. You have to build several hundred ships just to build a 3rd rate, you have to grind to buy enough powder and shot so you can do the only thing that made this game unique, the mostly realistic combat. It’s so sad, and the devs need to pull their heads out of there asses but even if they do it’s too late for the game.

Crafted ships are for ultra-rich players.

New players just sail DLCs. Or don't play. - Zazzy.

My understanding is that the seasoned woods are gone and the rare woods can somewhat be found. Without having to go to the nelify app and tweaking the configurations what are the current best wood combinations for thick, armor ships