I posted a much longer thread down in naval simulations. This game is in Alpha at the moment and all pre-order guys are playing it already. I am not sure if it is simulator enough to have it's own forum here.
It is certainly very accurate when it comes to ship models and the sailing is the best I have seen in a sailing game that is not a dedicated civilian yacht simulator but rather about war.

Is it possible or even worth getting a sub forum here for it? Would enough people be interested?
The game is sort of a cross breed. At the moment it is fairly realistic while not being a hard core sim.
But like I said I do not know of any hard core sims for the age of sail currently.

The other thread... which I have been posting updates in.
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4011270/NAVAL_ACTION_-_Pre-Order_up._T#Post4011270

http://www.navalaction.com/#ageofsail

Yes that is the surprise I am sailing

Thanks for sharing, had not heard of it.
Looks absolutely stunning. Very tempting indeed.

Cheers,
Slug

can you do a review of it? then we can post and link to a new sub-forum...

thanks!

A sub forum would be neat. Unless the developpers do something very silly, I think Naval Action will be there for a long while - there's no age of sail naval sim engine quite like that one!

It's only in alpha. The open world is not in yet. I guess I could do a light preview. But it would not be representative of the full release product. So many things in the game are not fully worked out yet. But the combat is already satisfying.

Looks great and definitely a subject I'm interested in.

I'm a little confused by their site. If I buy it now do I get access immediately or do I have to wait? They are giving steam keys to existing owners so when is it released on Steam?

Steam Keys to the limited sea trials are sent every friday. It is indeed very clear on the pre-order shop page
To everyone who bought before 18pm kiev we will try to send out the keys on friday (no later than sunday evening).

Eventually it will be available directly on steam when early access starts

Thank's Destraex.

BTW I just copied and pasted from the devs... I am not WE

I have permission to do a preview off the devs.
Will pop it over to you as soon as it is done.

hey Strike Fighters isn't a hard core sim and it has it's own forum lol. Why not?

I'd use a dedicated forum for Naval Action here.

Not to be a buzzkill as the game is coming along great, but it's also in an extreme early access phase right now. Like Elite Dangerous it might make more sense to wait until it gets closer to a full release (or even a Steam release, you can't buy it anymore until they sort that out) despite the entertainment factor. You never know with these titles, they could vanish tomorrow due to a million different reasons.

Peally there are a lot of games already on steam which have disappeared already. Online gaming is always a risk like that. Battlechess is a good example. On steam but buggy and unpatched with the devs in chaos.

The point here is that in my Australian time zone there are 200 players generally even though this game is not yet released on steam... although the alpha is on steam and downloaded through steam. In other words it's on steam... just not on the steam store yet being advertised.

They sorted out the paypal issue that was caused by a few people complaining they did not expect the game would be finished!!! In reality I expect it was people who purchased and had no idea they had to wait for the "friday" steam key email to reach them. But anyways as soon as the paypal issue was resolved the game sold out! They ran out of steam keys.... but now have a new steam key batch and things seem to be running smoothly with regard to that.

I imagine most people will get this game only when it does arrive on steam finally. The devs do not plan to do that until the other major feature is available in alpha.... the open world.

So yes it could vanish. If that did become the case I have already had many hours of great fun sea battles.
Here is the plan for the next few months from the devs:

"""Hello Captains.
Here are our development plans for this winter and spring: Jan-May 2015.
1. New ship models
The following list of vessels will be delivered for testing by the end of Spring. Some ships might get delayed by storms.
•Mercury brig
•La belle poule
•Ingermanland
•La Renomme
•Privateer Schooner (based on Lynx - with more guns)
•Brig Navy Edition (based on Brig - with more guns)
•HMS Pickle
•28 gun light frigate
•Gunboat
2. Open world distance and speeds testing
3. Ship customization
•Ship parameters randomization
•Simple ship upgrades
•Simple loot
•Simple crafting
4. Gameplay
•Updated damage model 4.0
•Improved sailing of for-and-aft rigs
•Better turning and rudder mechanics
•Commander tablet
•New game types: Operations gameplay – 24 hours large battle map with respawns, and shore defences
5. Other improvements
•Improved chat
•Manual
•Soft launch of early access on steam
With your pre-orders we are moving significantly faster. Thank you for the continued support and feedback you are providing us with.
Special thanks to all community correspondents, streamers and youtube content makers, who are making awesome videos about our game"""

This looks really interesting, might have to take a closer look.

Regards,