Naval Action

As a veteran player and someone who truly loved the game...I have no desire to play the game in its current state. Adding ammo/powder to the game has destroyed the fun and I will NOT waste hours of my time (that is already demanded by the game), just to save up enough money to fire the guns maybe 50 times before you are out of powder. Naval Action... what ACTION LOL.

I used to play this game a lot, and i mean a lot, then they buggered the game up completely and i stopped playing it, i have recently been told to check my account in naval action, and i find that i know have been completely wiped and i have to start again, absolute case of extortion to me after all the time i put into this game. Please don't play this game and teach them a bloody lesson...

imagine grind for over a hundred hours, buying ships, cannons, and other stuff, just to come back to the game and its all gone, with zero compensation. rest in peace my 10/10 l'ocean

This game used to rock. It was not everyone's cup of tea and for good reason -- it was slow, grindy, and punishing. But Good Lord what I wouldn't give to go back to 2021 just to play that version of the game again.

The new version of the game feels like it actively punishes you for just existing. You spawn in a Sloop (A Lynx to be exact), fully separated from your faction, with nothing to your name. No guns (yes, your ship now spawns unarmed), no gunpowder (yes, your guns now require gunpowder), no shot (yes, your gunpowder is useless without cannonballs!), and no MONEY to purchase the things that the core gameplay loop demands -- Not to mention repairs and extra crew!

In its current iteration, you are FORCED into performing menial cargo delivery tasks simply to purchase the items that used to come stock in previous versions of the game. There is no physical way for you to jump into combat without first slogging through at least 2-4 hours of cargo runs. Mind you, these are not short-route cargo hauls, each hop takes at least 10-15 minutes, only giving you enough to purchase a menial amount of the overall supplies required to operate.

This is insane and is literally antithetical to the literal name of the game: "Naval ACTION". There is no action without grind. Big thumbs down.

Once Great, Now a Grind-Heavy Slog – The Latest Patch Ruined It

As a long-time player of Naval Action, it's incredibly disheartening to see how the latest patch has derailed the experience. What used to be a finely balanced naval simulator with a rewarding progression system has now turned into a frustrating grind fest that actively punishes both returning veterans and new players alike.

The most glaring issue is the pacing. Before the update, the game struck a decent balance between realism and playability, allowing for steady progress through ship ranks and a sense of reward after each engagement. Now? Everything feels artificially slowed down. XP gain and resource collection have been nerfed into the ground, and ship crafting has become an exhausting chore rather than a strategic objective.

For returning players, all prior progress feels meaningless. The patch invalidates months (or even years) of effort by restructuring systems without meaningful compensation or a transition path. It’s as if the developers expect us to start from scratch, but with even more grind than ever before.

As for new players, I genuinely don’t know how they’re supposed to enjoy this game anymore. The early game is now a dead zone — low rewards, long travel times, and minimal guidance. Combine that with the already steep learning curve of naval combat, and you've got a recipe for player attrition. The barrier to entry is simply too high now.

Starting even for returning players after the wipe is horrific. No starting money, forced to do trade runs, and when you can even afford cannons, there's no convenient combat missions to enter like the good old days. Warehouse space and outposts are now significantly smaller than before unless you pay for the DLC....

This game was sold to a new company now it has $700 dollars worth of DLC, its not the game a bought anymore i wouldn't support the new company.

A good game with great potential, though.. as of this message, followed by the time of it being posted, the owner of the game as well as it's dev's could be doing better for the game and it's community, they are a bit money-hungry, but trust me, it's a decent game and there's something that just always seems to pull me back to it.. similar to how Warthunder brings back others who were in a hiatus from time to time.

At least it's not as bad as Warthunder when it comes to grinding the game. That's a relief at least.

Note: for the people just starting out, I recommend doing cargo missions all the way until you can crew a frigate and then just attack Le Gros Ventre's which are merchant ships about the size of a frigate.. they tend to be slippery buggers, but they carry valuable doubloons from time to time.

Best of luck and may fortune follow your path! :D

this game is a joke now i loved and supported this game when it came now sow you half to pay big money to have nice ships and play the game way to go guys make it so 80 % the world cant afford it and don't care any more this game will dwindle and die like many other pay to play win games i would avoid this if you want a ship sailing experience and go for a one time buy game there are MANY BETTER SHIP GAMES COMING OUT SOON Screw greedy game makers 50$ irl for ship in game is absurd might as well be the next star citizen most the world have lives and need to pay 50 $ for there gas not a file on a pc that can be copied in 30 seconds let that sink in lol

Naval Action is a very slow paced game which is plagued by microtransactions and poor decision making from the developers.

Devs divorced the player base and forcing them to pay alimony with this update.

This game has been turned into a clan based gankers paradise. I spend all day trading in safe zone earning enough reals to equip a ship with ammo only to be turned into a raging inferno on receiving the first broadside from an NPC ship a level lower than mine. This has happened twice in two days. Then I send three empty merchant ships to trade in DEEP water where only ONE deep water port is in the safe zone and get ganked immediately by some clan or other losing all three long worked for merchant ships. Solo players forget it you can't compete anymore. Only big clans will get anything from this game. The ammo is stupidly expensive and rare. The game play has been stacked towards big clans the same as EVE. I wasted money on DLC ships to try to play but the devs nerfed them and made almost all the safe zone shallow water where they can't go to any ports. It now sucks which is a shame because i wanted to play it.

What the hell have they done to this game? I was waiting for the wipe to revisit, see if it was again playable. Man, I quit while sailing in mid-ocean. Was later like, no...give it a shot. Then I learned you needed to buy shot and powder. Then I learned that you have to do calculations to determine how much shot and powder you need given the respective cannon. Then, I found out the wood types are reduced MASSIVELY. Then, I see that I can't sell DLC's for more than 1k reales to make quick cash. Then, I realized this game is just about the most boring thing I could do with my time. It would take hours to even get around to any "action". The only logical conclusion I can come to is that the developers are purposefully trying to kill the game. Nothing else makes sense.

Goodbye game or ruin my mood sim. Everything has been taken away, materials, ships etc. I simply refuse to accept this pile of sh*t, hope the devs are proud of themselves.

This game is a scary mess. The combat is trash. The Boarding is even worse. Sure it looks pretty but that does not outweigh the horrible mechanics. Then you have to contend with a shop/marketplace that makes it unbearably expensive to want to fight. crafting is behind a paywall. the game is heavily Grindy. And more processor intensive than Eve online. And that is saying a large amount. Then just when you even start to get anywhere they wipe the server. And you start the insanity over again. plus since they changed the combat mechanics. the tutorials are grossly difficult to complete. mind you it is supposed to be a tutorial not a legendary mission. Not in this game. The tutorial to teach you how to simply play is a legendary task with scary time limits, ships and ammo that do no damage, and bad instructions. i wouldn't recommend this game to my worst enemy.

I have been playing this game for many years, And throughout my time playing the devs have been screwing up and expecting us to pay a large premium for DLC ships. Over the weekend they put the nail in the coffin for me and wiped all my progress on the peace server.

That was a lot of work and time I put into the game to get all my ships, all my resources, all my gear.

I'm uninstalling and never playing again and I'm never spending another damn dime on this game or its publisher.

BUYER BEWARE! endless grind. DO NOT BOTHER WITH THIS GAME!!!!

Devs have killed the game with its new update and added a pay to win dlc ship for shallow water combat.

After 6 years of playing a fun game here i draw the line. Countless changes that make no sense made this game decline in the number of players. Also adressing wrong areas of improvment, with to large effect. Devs are NOT intrested in what you want, as long they get your money.
Wiping PvE server is the final spit in the face for the otherwise very loyal playerbase. Deleting someones work is total disrespect, and players supporting the wipe is for the most part are in envy. Their ego realizes it will take 1500+ hours to "catch up", then instant gratification feelings are screaming "unfair". It is NOT unfair to let players who have worked hard to enjoy the fruits of it. This wipe is unfair, and after the promise at release "NO MORE WIPES". This is breaking that promise, and you deserve to go out of business for lying. Deleting ingame stuff that especially is considerd endgame that require alot of effort, is proven manytimes to alienate a large part of players. That small sliver of trust for the game, is now burned.
Stay away from this game!

One update to ruin them all!

The game has been wiped and its refreshing, except, it isn't! You create your new account, hop in with 0 funds, but at least you get given a free ship (with no guns...) Oh wait, the game is now a trading simulator, my bad! That's right, you'll now spend 20-45 mins sailing to the designated port to click 3 buttons and sail back again making next to nothing. You basically watch videos in the background, sailing in a world so boring and lack of life outside of NPC ships. Riveting...

The new system...

The new system consists of; trade to build up funds, collect resources to then start a production line, to allow yourself to rearm to enter battles. There once was a time where players could make the choice of being a combat captain, trader, builder or profit from all, whereas now, you are forced to take all routes. Effectively, you are playing the game the way the devs want you to, this is what the elitists helped shift the game into.

This new system shouldn't be all that bad, but unfortunately, due to the nature of this game and its mechanics, its incredibly boring, time consuming and takes away the choices the player may want to make. The introduction of the new cannon shot and gunpowder adds a new layer of frustration. I actually think such a mechanic could be practical in many games, but again, due to the nature of Naval Action and its scale, its another time wasting mechanic that doesn't really feel realistic or immersive as some claim.

The combat...

Be it this update or a previous one, its very apparent combat has been seriously slowed down. Once what felt like a good balance of speed against strength, angling your ship to deflect shots, out manoeuvring in combat and creating diverse ship builds to match a preferred playstyle, has now been butchered and watered down. Wood types have way less of a difference than they ever used to and the game in general feels less skill-based than ever before.

The community...

The community of the game is extremely toxic and I mean, extremely toxic! (This also includes the devs). Both sides taking shots at one another, be it the elitists that cherish every change the devs make for the good or worse. Or, the loud and obnoxious that make any feedback near impossible to hear. There is still a stubborn bubble that will defend the game to the ends of the earth, but unfortunately, they are ironically the very ones that have lead the game to Davy Jones locker.

The problem...

This game is one of the kind, simply there is no ship-action game out there alike, or as many now say, "lack of action" in a game called 'Naval Action'. It has no competition and that's precisely the problem. New players can give this game a shot by all means, but as many now fear, this new update has killed whatever starting experience the game had before (and even that was incredibly rough). Its a sad downfall of a game plagued by horrific development, a stubborn toxic bubble of players and forever changing mechanics.

Conclusion...

As much as many want to stay positive, to understand the changes, to actually want to play and enjoy the game once again, its beyond difficult. You will be hated and ignored for criticising and giving different feedback to what others want, and ultimately the game just isn't fun anymore in its current state. Its been bad for 3 years now, but the new devs (old devs, new name), have decided to amplify the situation.

You will probably reach top tier in War Thunder across 2-3 nations before you even reach any comfortable position within this game, and boy that's really saying something! And remember this, they promise this is the last wipe, like for serious this time... For sure... No more wipes... They actually 'for reals' this time, no kidding... Like, this is the last one, their being honest because they said it... Again... No more time wasted, no more wipes! ;)

Pros:

• Visuals
  
• Fantastic ship models
  
• People willing to help you learn
  
• Sounds and battle ambience
  

In-between:

• Combat (once good, now poor, but still unmatched)
  
• Performance (its good, but not great for such a small game)
  

Cons:

• Punishing grind
  
• Overpriced DLC's
  
• Unfriendly UI
  
• Starting-to-mid game experience
  
• Backwards development
  
• Toxic community
  
• Reoccurring wipes
  
• No feedback recognition
  
[*]Bland open world

Overall, a generous 3.5/10 game in its current state

Naval Action was a really fun game, for a long time. Grindy for sure, but the battles were what kept me locked in. Always played PVE, I only wanted to sail ships at my own pace. Unfortunately, the last patch killed it for me. Having to do cargo missions in ship that has no cannons, requires ammo and gunpowder is a complete waste of our time. Rename it to "Naval Mindless Grindfest", it has lost all "Action". You can't even board ships without guns now, which means you are always stuck to doing boring cargo missions.

Probably its going to remain the same, so I'm out, hopefully singleplayer comes along so we can mod the hell out of this game and make it good ourselves, don't waste a dime on its current state, not worthy it.

"But now I’ve got no legs at all, they were both shot away by a cannonball."

Make the gunpowder free and nobody would car if the needed to restock. adding price to gunpowder and ball isnt realistic its just a way for you to force your own player base to buy the new dlc ship. i understand you want to make money and nobody will stop you doing that unless you decide to destroy the game that people enjoyed playing so that you can try to force people into buying a dlc, i have news for you however, the people who would have bought it (the long term fans) are refusing too. the new people are not playing enough to stay and buy the dlcs. you have destroyed your own money maker by not listening to the people playing and paying the game.

what a clusterfu*k of a game ...some 2300+ hrs in this what was already a barely tolerable game run by devs that are nothing but narcissist light weight no bodies who know nothing about game development, marketing and listening to their most important assets their player base... if anybody who thought this new team was going to be the saviour of what could have been a great game then they are just kidding themselves...if you dig deep and look hard enough behind this facade you will find the same names that were with the previous development group...only thing that has changed here is the name they run under like the cockroaches they are... the DLC's are way over priced for what u get and is a good example of a money grab for some rusky bit*h oligarch...score for this game minus 10

This game is spiraling into destruction.

I first started playing in January 2020, and for a time, happily enjoyed myself, working my way up to some merchant ships and sailing a small flotilla across the Caribbean, building outposts as I went, and establishing a network. I joined a clan, ran supplies for them, and bought some bigger warships.

As time went on, the changes became more and more unfriendly to players. I took a few breaks, some longer than others, but would return. Finally, a couple years back, the patches made it nearly impossible to capture larger warships, such as first and second rates. This sounded the first of the death knells for the game, from my end.

Then the announcement of new management for the game came. Some small measure of hope crept back. Warning posts promised that it would be a new name, same game, same poor decisions, but I still allowed the hope to remain. That hope started fading fast when reports from the beta arrived. After many delays (in keeping with the way these devs do things), the big patch and final (final for real this time, they promise guys!) wipe arrived. And the changes were even worse than expected.

I spent most of a day playing, running cargo, ramming enemy vessels to board them, and selling whatever I gained to afford gunpowder and shot. Finally, having crew, cannons, shot, and powder, I set forth in my Trincomalee to capture a Les Gros Ventre merchantman.

I ran out of shot. Very nearly ran out of powder, too. Fortunately, I had done enough damage that it ended up sinking, but an entire days worth of play went into a single battle against a single merchantman. Not sustainable. 1/10, would not repeat.

And now the devs are making it so you can't board without guns. A classic example of "NO, YOU HAVE TO PLAY IT MY WAY!" At this point, the devs are playing Calvinball with the game, constantly changing the mechanics to try and force the players to play the way they want them to, with no regard for what the players actually want or enjoy. They are intentionally killing the game to sate their own egos.

Let this stand as a warning to you all. Do not play this game. Do not buy any DLC for it. Do not support it in any way until the developers are replaced or have proven they will listen to player feedback (like, at all).

What was even the point of wiping the Peace server? So that players don't have advantage over bots? Huh???

Let's recap the latest update:

• A wipe of a strictly PvE server where the economy was bad enough even when players and clans were active, now good luck finding something outside of the starting town.
  
  
• Millions of credits, thousands of doubloons and resources, hundreds of guns and upgrades, dozens of ships and buildings gone, reduced to atoms.
  
  
• Absolutely no compensation about anything mentioned above: the more you played, the harder you got fucked. I've never seen such anti-player move before, and I played World of Tanks and Warthunder...
  
  
• Now you need gunpowder in order to use your guns, yay more realism! But apparently Nassau was the only town capable of producing it in the entire Caribbean during the 18th century...?
  
  
[*]Usually updates bring either more stuff or more polish, but the devs being alternative decided to remove missions, useful mechanics (outpost teleporting), add more annoying, repeating messages with huge windows, and they even removed the polish nation!

But hey, at least you still got your xp and rank, Admiral, you just have to use your trusty cutter to farm those millions again, but having a harder time as there's the gunpowder to buy now and guns cost a fortune...

I saw a major update after years of being fed up with this game's course, changes, etc.
So I was excited to pick up again because well... the new devs might have done a good job... right?

How wrong I was.
Officially done with you now, Naval Action. RIP.

My honest thoughts...

The latest update has seriously messed up the game mechanics. While the ideas behind the changes are great, the execution is a disaster. Here’s what’s wrong with the current state of PVP zones:

Mission Scarcity – Almost no missions are available, and the few that exist require hauling absurd amounts of weight.

Gunpowder Shortage – Finally got your first warship? Too bad, good luck finding gunpowder to actually use it.

Paywalled Basics – The game now feels like it’s pushing you to buy DLCs just to access fundamental features.

Outpost Trap – Unlocked your first outpost? Surprise! Your ship contract slots are 0/0, forcing you to pay $35 for a DLC (+5 slots) just to upgrade and use them, or grind for a while for a single slot upgrade.

No More Teleporting – Even with an outpost, fast travel is gone, making gameplay unnecessarily tedious.

DLC Ship Advantage – Every 24 hours, players can respawn a new DLC ship, putting new and struggling players at a huge disadvantage. Unless you’re exceptionally skilled (or join a clan), you’re practically forced to buy DLC ships to survive.

The developers had a solid vision, but the predatory monetization and poor balancing have ruined the experience for me. Wait until things improve if they ever do.

Im officially done with this game, and it frustrates me to say that. I've played this game when it first came to steam, and been playing it off and on over the years. But the game just kept getting worse and worse. The straw that broke the camels back for me, was this new server merger/wipe they did. I was looking forwards to the wipe actually, but unfortunately, they couldn't leave well enough alone when rolling out the changes. Im speaking from my resent Peace server experience, and found out they ended up gimping the new player experience, restricting everything to you, except a few select things you can do. There are probably things I've missed, but frankly im done giving this game chances. This game is a fully released game, that still wipes peoples progression after a period of time, because the games systems and economy are terrible. I was never against the wipes, but at least before, we had a means of getting back on our feet, unlike now.

If you're seeing this review, I highly recommend steering clear of this game. Its not worth the time, nor effort, because it just seems the devs stopped caring a long time ago, and that they don't care about what happens with this game going forwards. This used to be a great game, but now its just trash to me, and I wish it wasn't so.

New updates make it almost impossible to enjoy... Don't believe me? Go look at the Discord. My honest review would be to long so let me summarize. DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME. Nothing but a horrible time wasting graveyard of false hope.

Cannot recommend.

Before the update:
Used to be a hop-on-pew-ships-hop-off cheap fun.

After the update:
Gunpowder and ammo required, for realism, ok, I'll get on board with that.
Gunpowder can only, and I mean ONLY, be bought in 1 place. Nassau, the shallow water starting port. For realism too I'm guessing? lol.

This means that if you're sailing a deep water 5th rate or better and you run short of Gunpowder, you MUST get back to a shallow water ship, sail to Nassau, buy more powder, sail BACK to your port, and transfer the powder to your main. Because Realism.

For other "Realism" design choices, shallow water ports have cargo missions to earn some basic money, cool.
Deep water ports rarely have any missions for cargo. Because it's realistic that people in the Caribbean suddenly stop goods transport.

Save your money, skip the game.

After buying 500 GBP worth of DLCs, I still can not play the game normally. All because I apparently need to buy their newest DLC ship to be able to even afford firing my gun. The dev just want you keep paying for the same game loop.

The game was great back in 2016, the game had a solid playerbase even within PVE server then after multiple wipes, pay to win premium ships that got the devs greedy to the point that now the game is unplayable even if you pay premium ships.
I had faith in the latest update to see it back to it's former glory after the multiple disapointments of updates they made. Guess what, it's an even bigger disapointment.

After years of getting post poned of a supposed major update and what felt like a shadow developer swap, everything has remained the same. Perhaps worse, Wipes on all servers, which i would not have minded in general. Missing Missions on anything beyond the starter area, forgetting the fact you start with nothing so have fun to ball it out on endless deliveries that pay way better than the supposed fixed trading, which by the way is worth it if you have to walk the dog in the mean time. But hey, lets post pone promised updates and fuck the war server for years and just release a new dlc just seconds after the ungodly unpolished main update. I paid for this game a long time ago, i paid for DLCs that have been fundamentally changed just now, see Rotterdamm (Reduced Cargo Space from 12k to 3,7k for a Trader, which weirdly enough i bought it for smh), having removed its sole selling point. Ty for that. My friends with beyond thousands of hours suffered even more. It´s a beautiful game combat wise, or in general realism, and i wish i could still stand behind it. But at one point, despite how much i want the game to revive, devs need a reality check. With all of it said, to any F2P People, its a hella good game your looking for in that genre, enjoy it , but fuck me support those devs once with a penny and you suffer the same fate. Good game, shit devs, boycott dlcs, bring em down. It could be so more but we older players fucked up with tolerating and funding it too much

Can we just remove this game from Steam at this point? The game is unplayable now as a new player unless you have DLC to even have a small head start, and the devs ban anyone who complains in Discord.
This is a scam at this point and RIP to the people who bought DLC, myself included... I thought the painting thing was cool and it was on sale.

What an awesome game:
-quick start PvP battles for ADHS players from the main menu
-great and epic sea battles with almost no player limit
-mission rewards for all participating players and not only for ninja looters
-big active clans
-affordable ships of every quality thanks to the durability system
-functional easy trading
-outposts that produce trade goods for you
-thousands of players on every server (Asia, NA, SA, EU, ... you name it and the same for PvE)
-crafting is painful though - but very rewarding
-UI is a placeholder but works

Then they wiped during beta and suddenly all the servers were empty. After that they somehow made it to a release version, ditched everything good that remained and went full retard mode.

10/10 would play the alpha and beta again.

if you want a job after a long 8 hour day then maybe this is for you its a total grind fest to begin with now the devs want you to invest more time more effort to do dog dick in the game wish i could get my money back

Not too many games come about where one can make up many many different ways to play it. From playing it I've also learned so much about ships and their capabilities and their past stories, many of which inspire us prior to a port battle. This game, you should have some friends or be all you can be is best i can put it. hope this helps. sea ya.

Graphics are nice but that's about it really, it gets boring after a while. Pvp sucks unless you join a clan

I can't comprehend why they wiped the War server. What a joke. Hundreds of hours to waste.

That game is basically a scam, do not waste a dime in it.

I have never written a review for this game, but I would like to as I cross a rubicon of hours that no other game has sucked me in to do so.

If you are looking for the best attempt at a recreation simulator of naval combat with some iconic age of sail ships of the past, then look no further, the physics engine and level of thought that has gone into making Naval Action what it is today is a testament to their small team and utter investment in the end result, the experience is almost entirely player driven and it is seldom seen in this day and age where a game forces you to come together as either small communities or solo groups.

The game doesn't spoonfeed you, and you will have to work to progress, but believe me, you'll meet some fellow Age-of-Sail lovers along the way, and probably learn a thing or two about becoming a sea captain.

Fly under the British, French, Spanish flags or perhaps, take up the black skull and crossbones of the pirate nation, either way, you'll find yourself embroiled in a persistant war of domination and control of the ports in the 'New World'

See you on the seven seas Captains!

Very complicated

Naval Action recently got new Devs. They are reverting the game back to the good old days. Play the BETA version! This will bring back a lot of old players! Cant wait to see what they'll do.

This game has been plagued by horrible development choices for years however at its core it can still be fun. The reason this game will always remain dead is the player base . You cant mix players playing for a decade who have not done anything new in years all they end up doing is making the game miserable for new and inexperienced players. Tried picking up the game again only to be attacked by 3 rank 1 ships with my rank 5. This is one game I will never touch again good riddance.

It's a good thing! :-)

Dev PoV

-Make game called Naval Action
-Make PvP server
-Make players lose money when PvPing
-Make going AFK while trading the most profitable way to play
-Make not PvPing the only way to PvP on a PvP server

Profit????

I mean, realistically it is a really fun game. It has a little bit of a learning curve when you first start playin but not too terrible. It has a decent realism feel especially with the naval battles. And honestly for a free game it’s not bad at all.

It's a Good niche game

Liking the new changes so far. Keep up the good work.

I've followed this game since the very beginning, having been looking for something to replace an old age of sail MMO I played quite a lot.

As soon as I could pre order/gain alpha beta access, I was in. It was a huge step up from the previous games in the genre, physics were great and graphics were beautiful. The base game was rather polished, and there honestly wasn't much for game breaking bugs that I ever witnessed.

PvP is where I usually hung around, and after 500 some hours I was enjoying my top of the line connie dubbed The Crimson Jewel. There wasn't much that could beat me. Small ships had to be perfect on their timing, and larger ships stood no chance in 1v1. 2v1 I still could usually kite them down and finish the fight. It is a game that really does reward you for honing your skills and purpose building your ships and you feel like a badass pirate captain.

Then, they wiped the server. Said they needed to clear the board because too many people became rich due to 'bugs'. Okay, fine. So we all restarted. And made our money the exact same way we did previously. The issue is the levelling system that reduces your crew. I believe they had gifted the older players with some starting cash and/or their original level, but I can't quite remember. Long story short, I retried and kind've enjoyed the buildup again but honestly never made it back to where I was initially.

Then, I came back for a third time to find that I had been reset again. Okay, fuck that. I started just doing PvE because they kept resetting the PvP servers over the years. Once again, built myself up to about mid level enough to crew some shabby 5th class ship and lost interest.

Just now, I figured hey, got more time now might take another crack at it. Should be starting where I was before since I was on PvE.

And I'm met with the dreaded player creation screen. I've been playing since 2016 and I need to yet again restart. Absolutely no coins, ships, or levels. Nothing to show for 715 hrs on record.

It's a great game, the devs obviously have some horrible strategies in managing their playerbases. I think seasonal pvp was a decent idea, but resetting pve AGAIN? How does that make ANY sense?

End of the day, player counts are the telling factor. I wouldn't expect the servers to stay up too much longer anyways. And as a result, I won't be buying anything from the developers of Naval Action in the future. They ruined what was a very fun, informative, and beautifully crafted game with a passionate audience. The gritty nature of the carribean and seeing an unknown ship in the distance and the feeling of despair (or a juicy target) goes hand in hand with letting things progress naturally. But they couldn't keep their grubby fingers off of it.

I'm currently on a cycle of revisiting nostalgic games for myself, and unfortunately this one if not one I'm going to waste anymore time and money on.

This game hasn't just died; It's been murdered by its developers. It used to be an extremely fun and realistic 18th century naval warfare simulator. Now it's just a crafting and trading sim. When you loose a battle, you loose your ship and everything on it. Given how f-ing grindy this game is, that's just not fun. You work for hours and hours to get to the stage where you get access to ships of the line, to get to the stage of the game that you really came for, being the line battles, and then when you loose one single time you get to start all over again. Also; The battles are bonkers. I laid my ship of the line alongside an AI one and scored more hits than he did. I had 10 more guns per side. Heavier guns too. And yet he did more than twice the amount of damage to me compared to what i did to him. And so i lost my ship and have to start over again. I'm done with this game, and i'm not going to play it again.

Oh, and what a charming f you from the devs towards all the players who actually bought this game; To now make if free to play and hide the actual fun mechanics which we were promised in development behind DLC. Scumbags.