Games

War in the age of sail with Naval Action

Fancy yourself as the next Nelson? This surprise hit is one of the most accurate combat sims ever.
Written by Damien McFerran
10 min readPublished on
Holding the line

Holding the line

© Game Labs

Combat during the age of sail was often confused and chaotic, with the roll of sea and direction of the wind sometimes as deadly as your enemy's cannon. However, as famous admirals such as Nelson, de Grasse and de Ruyter proved time and time again, success during this period was built on a solid strategic foundation, with those who took initiative and risks often rewarded with overwhelming victories.
It's surprising then that nobody has ever truly managed to capture this kind of warfare in video game form; although there have been notable recent attempts, they fall way short of faithfully replicating the utter mayhem of war at sea before the arrival of steam – the really-hot-water type of steam, that is, not the massively popular PC game download service, though we’ll get to that.
That's not to say that some haven't at least tried. Ubisoft's 2013 epic Assassin's Creed: Black Flag being perhaps the most famous example. "We have played this game a lot," says Maxim Zasov, founder Game Labs – the studio responsible for serious age of sail simulation Naval Action. Black Flag introduced naval warfare alongside its traditional stealth-focused gameplay, and for many gamers, is the closest they've ever come to combat in the age of sail – yet it falls way short of doing the topic justice. "Black Flag creates amazing atmosphere, but the representation of the age of sail combat is unfortunately inaccurate," laments Zasov.
Ukrainian studio Game Labs is relatively young studio, but the team have a bold vision and strong foundations. "We're a small indie team of 20 developers working on several games related to historical settings," says Zasov. "Our first game was Ultimate General Gettysburg, and that achieved critical acclaim from fans of the hardcore strategy genre. Many developers on our team have made games before and worked on titles like Battlefield, Metro and many other exciting games."
We wanted to convey some of the experiences an age-of-sail captain would face at sea in the 18th Century
The urge to create Naval Action – a PC-based title which aims to give the player a comprehensive and authentic simulation of what it was really like to command a massive, wooden-hulled ship-of-the-line during the age of sail – came from the team's own personal desires.
"We wanted to make a game we wanted to play ourselves," explains Zasov. "We wanted to convey some of the experiences an age-of-sail captain would face at sea in the 18th Century. There are of course a lot of games that tackled this setting well and right, but many of them are outdated and some do not replicate the things we believe are important to the age-of-sail combat."
Such titles include Sid Meier's Pirates and Age of Sail 2, and while Zasov admits that these provided some inspiration, what Game Labs is attempting to do with Naval Action goes way beyond what has been gone before.
We are creating something unique that never has been done before
 "In many cases it is easy to stand on the shoulders of giants when developing games," he says. "In our case, because of so many innovations in combat implementation, there is no single example that we relied on or were inspired by. We are creating something unique that never has been done before; Naval Action is the first sailing combat game where you can individually control the yards, with detailed implementation of gunnery and wind-backing force allowing historical tacking and manoeuvres similar to boxhauling – hauling back the foresails whilst steering hard round – and clubhauling – turning sharply into the wind by dropping one of the front anchors."
If that sounds a little bit too technical for you, that's because it is. However, Game Labs have been careful to pick and choose which elements of the past to include and focus on, while carefully avoiding those historically accurate features which might make the game boring or slow-paced.
"Age-of-sail battles were slow and deliberate," continues Zasov. "Inexperienced crews could not set sails fast. Captains might sail for months without seeing any action and 80 percent of casualties were caused by hernias and disease, not combat duty. A lot of times a captain of a combat vessel had never seen combat before and spent a lot of time on long blockades or patrols. This is why Naval Action is not a full simulation. We keep some of the elements from the age of sail in game – like long journeys in a massive open world – but a lot of boring and tedious things are cut from the experience."
Join the navy and see the world

Join the navy and see the world

© Game Labs

By trimming away those elements which might dull the action, Game Labs have created a title which encapsulates the thrill of command during this turbulent period in world history. Just as there were a wide range of different characters sailing the seven seas during the age of sail, Naval Action allows the player a degree of freedom when it comes to picking their role in this world. "Depending on the player, they might be part of the large fleet intercepting the enemy assault force trying to capture their national port," he says. "Or they can be sailing a fast vessel solo, attacking smugglers or traders of the enemy nation and running from superior forces. As in real life, the concentration of force matters and no skill can help you if you face the large fleet with ships of the line alone – in this case you will have to escape. Or you can be a trader or a smuggler, getting goods from enemy ports and selling them at profit elsewhere."
You can sail wherever you want and do whatever you want
The game is akin to an MMO on the high seas, and features a massive open world which can be explored at will. "You can sail wherever you want and do whatever you want," Zasov explains – but there are obvious limits. "There might be people who will try to stop you. There are safe zones around capitals, but elsewhere everyone is fair game. That is what makes it exciting. It is how it was in the real age of sail; captains fought other captains. But of course sandbox games have their own drawbacks. It does not tell you what to do. You have to figure it out yourself. Build an empire, a trading company or be a pirate and sink everyone you see. The world is huge and there are areas where you might never see people. Some areas like the channel between Hispaniola and Cuba are somewhat crowded and you can always find trouble there. The world is truly huge and you can’t see one shore of the Lake Maracaibo from another, even on a clear day."
Another reason players might not want to stray too far from the beaten track is the fact that they have to navigate using the same tools real sailors had back in the day. "Players navigate by landmarks, sun and compass," explains Zasov. "We recently added a coordinate map, but once you know your surroundings the player can navigate just based on feel."
In battle it all depends on the enemy and the situation
 When asked to describe typical engagement, Zasov bristles with excitement, clearly animated about the scope the game affords the player. "In battle it all depends on the enemy and the situation," he says. "If he is planning to board the enemy he will have to slow it down by destroying rigging and sails, and then boarding. Or, if he wants to just inflict damage to enemy fleets, he can sink the vessel."
Merely deciding to attack comes with a huge number of responsibilities. "You have to control the wind and distance, be careful to not get raked, be wary of potential boarding attempts to not get overwhelmed with powerful boarders and marines. You also have to control the crew distribution between various tasks and duties, and time repairs as well."
That such a staggering list of tasks exists should come as no real surprise. The wooden monsters portrayed in the game could be crewed by almost 1,000 men, each with a different role to play. The commander of the ship would ultimately be responsible for each and every crew-member under his charge, barking orders as the battle unfolded around him. Unsurprisingly, Game Labs have had to compromise a little in this regard. "Managing the crew of up to 1,000 people involved a lot of leadership and motivational elements that are impossible to implement in a game," Zasov says. "We used the following philosophy: all tasks can be automated by using the auto skipper and 'AI boatswain', but the player can always override the command or crew distribution and potentially extract extra performance from sails or guns."
Choppy weather, mate

Choppy weather, mate

© Game Labs

If you do intend to go hands-on, then you need to get a pretty solid understanding of how a ship-of-the-line functions. "Each task has a certain crew requirement to operate," explains Zasov. "For example, a 6lb gun requires four men to reload. If your ship has 40 crew and 10 guns you will need at least 40 men to reload all guns simultaneously – but if you fire from one broadside you only need 20 for five guns. In this case, you have 20 men free who can then operate the sails. If you have holes in your hull to repair you need three men per leak. If you have three leaks you need nine men to be sent to repairs. These can be taken off gun crews or sail crews, or both. We coded the automatic boatswain who controls things for you but you can always override the command; by telling the crew to not reload the deck opposite you free up some men. By taking people off sailing if you are stationary you can use them elsewhere, for example if you are firing at a fort from a stationary position."
Despite its dizzying complexity, Naval Action currently lacks any kind of in-game tutorial mode, a fact which has led many to brand it too obtuse and difficult. However, Zasov claims that he and his team have had feedback from numerous players who say they actually prefer learning the ropes (no pun intended) for themselves.
"Some players do prefer it this way!" he says with a laugh. "They don't want the game to do a lot of handholding. We trust our player intelligence and most of the core mechanics are done in the way that players can learn them themselves." The rewards for perseverance are quite clear; you gain a unique understanding and respect for the people who actually did this for real all those years ago. "We believe that if one of our players was sent back in time, they would be able to command a light frigate in battle," says Zasov confidently.
Naval Action isn't a finished product yet, and is currently in Early Access on Steam. Zasov and his team are happy with this approach, but admit there are drawbacks. "It is a two edged sword," he says. "Early Access gives the option to experiment and test new things and mechanics, but sometimes people who love the first version become unhappy because the game is changing. But we still believe the open development opportunity provided by Early Access was worth it. Our community is awesome and a lot of features have been implemented based on their suggestions. Most ships we add to the game were proposed by players and all bugs are found and fixed swiftly because of community help." 
The focus now is to add more features while maintaining that razor-sharp historical accuracy. "The current priority features are player-driven politics and alliances, new conquest mechanics, new port battles with land and land based fortifications and user interface improvements. Regarding other features, we want to keep things secret to surprise the players. Shipwrecks and fishing were such recent 'secret' additions, and they were loved by most players."
Regarding a release outside of the PC, Zasov is adamant that despite its mind-boggling complexity, Naval Action will be sailing to consoles when the time is right. "We want the game to happen on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but we don't want to to over-promise and under-deliver – so we can't talk about dates and deadlines on this issue," he says with the kind of diplomatic charm that a gentlemen admiral of the era would be proud of.
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