Naval Action-PC Game in the Works

[DeRuyter]

Steve, thanks for the summary. I'm sure a lot of people find Naval Action fun. But to me, it seems to be set up so rigidly that there's only one way to play and enjoy it (MMO, career mode, unlocking ships), and that's not that way I enjoy wargames. It's a shame, because the environment looks so great that it would be a promising computer alternative to physical miniatures. What I'd want would be the option to set up one's own live game on open water or a water-land map (either provided ones or modder contributions) select any available authentic ship types, set the various conditions for the scenario, and play. Then one could stage historical battles, or use it as a tactical engine to resolve battles when they occur in operational-level naval wargames like mine (A Glorious Chance) or 1805 Sea of Glory, etc. They could easily have done that, but the online gaming world always seems to follow the money (no surprise there) and aim for the largest and most commercial audience.

You are really describing a different game - this is an open sandbox MMO centered around 18th century naval ships and combat. They are developing an economic side of things as well. In that sense some people say it is very flexible because the players determine everything, economy, diplomacy, ship building, etc. So the historic strategic situation found in say "1805 Sea of Glory" is determined by the actions of player organized clans. I participated in a port battle last night to take a British port and stop their advance up the Yucatan towards Cuba and Fla. One of the largest KS ever funded was for an MMO - Star Citizen, so yeah big $$ in this style of game. The NA developers are a small group and their other title is similar to an old school game - Ultimate General -Gettysburg. Not sure you can mod it though. AFAIK one of the devs did a lot of mods for Total War Napoleon - which is similar to what you are describing.

In the past players have arraigned large "Trafalgar" style battles, but obviously one has to use the ships available in the game. (Available on You Tube) So you can get the feel of a large fleet battle or frigate action with some of the historic ships. Since I am also a wargamer first I do like your idea though - to be able to set up a specific battle would be great - like the old computer moderated rules Clear for Action - only with graphics! I wonder if you can do this with the Total War series?

BTW - I wouldn't describe it as "gamey" head to head kid stuff - this is not a FPS (First Person Shooter - ie Call of Duty) clicky game. There are a lot of people involved that have put in a lot of effort to get the ships and combat model as realistic as possible. In fact it is too slow for a lot of the "kids"!! In my group we have several retired military and others who have studied naval history much as we do here. Also as Jim noted there is a server which is essentially coop rather than fighting between the players.