Nassau 1715 - Arma 3 mod

[Bava]

"In an honest service there is thin commons, low wages, and hard labour. In this, plenty and satiety, pleasure and ease, liberty and power; and who would not balance creditor on this side, when all the hazard that is run for it, at worst is only a sour look or two at [hanging]? No, a merry life and a short one shall be my motto."
- Bartholomew Roberts
A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates (1724)

"Fear not the sea, for those born to hang will never drown."
- Ancient Proverb

Intro
Nassau 1715 is about the economic, social and power struggles that occurred in the West Indies during the early 18th century and the events leading to that, telling the true and brutal story behind some of history's most notorious criminals who plundered the seas and the bold and determined men who hunted them down.

This is a proof of concept release.

This is not meant to be a complete conversion for ArmA 3. Rather it's meant to show that this concept, 18th century naval warfare, is possible in ArmA. Another goal of the proof of concept is to attract more developers to help with the long term goal of creating a complete total modification for ArmA 3, DayZ or even ArmA 4. After the proof of concept release the project will be reevaluated for a viable total modification.

In the long term, the mod is planned to encompass some of the most significant events in Europe and the West Indies that led to the Golden Age of Piracy, including parts of the War of Spanish Succession and the English privateer voyages in the West Indies against the Spanish and French. These events come together with the wrecking of the Spanish Plate Fleet of 1715 off the coast of Florida, leading to the rise of the Pirate Republic at Nassau, New Providence Island. From there, Nassau 1715 explores the world of pirates of the West Indies and the East Coast of America, and the steps taken by the English government and colonies to suppress them, using real life events as a story backdrop for multiplayer gameplay in an open world setting.

The biggest feature of Nassau 1715 is being able to authentically sail large vessels, therefore sailing, while greatly simplified from real life, is difficult and challenging, requiring basic seamanship and knowledge. You must read the field manual in the game and review the Quick Sail Guide in order sail.

Screenshots

Features
Included in this release are

• Several Sloops (including: Adventure, Albas, Royal James and Antelope)
• 1-Pounder Swivel Gun
• 6-Pounder Naval Cannon
• .62 Flintlock Pistol
• .69 Naval Pattern Carbine
• 17 Uniforms (not counting variants)
• 3 Vests (not counting variants)
• 4 Hats (not counting variants)
• Map of Gun & Cat Cay
• High Seas Map
• Ingame Documentation/Field Manual
• Some Basic Missions (SP & MP)

More content will be added over time.

Quick Sail Guide
Quick Sail Guide

Considerations while playing
You must learn how to sail in order to sail. This is not an arcade game, it's an authentic simulation of sailing. It will be difficult. You should expect to be frustrated and confused at first. Only after studying the art of sailing you will be good at sailing. In order to become a better sailor you should listen and follow the instructions of more experienced players who know how to sail. Sailing is a crew effort based on skill and knowledge. If you are a beginner you should avoid shoals at all cost or you'll run aground. Because this is an early proof of concept release, features, classnames and assets may change and/or be removed. This mod brings gameplay features that have never been attempted before in ArmA, so there will glitches and other issues. Lastly this was develop with the idea of being used on a multiplayer server.

Compatibility
We did not specifically develop this mod with compatibility to other popular mods in mind, therefore you may encounter some issues if you choose to use this mod with another mod. Compatibility with other mods isn't a priority since every other mod is from a different century.

End User License Agreement

• Do not reupload any 3d or 2d assets, original or derivatives, including, but not limited to, the Steam Workshop
• Do not retexture or remodel
• Do not port to other game engines
• Do not use on monetized servers

Derivatives
Some of our work has been kindly donated specifically for this project, therefore for development and copyright reasons we don't allow reuploads, derivatives or retextures of Nassau 1715. However, if you do want to create derivatives or retextures please consider actually becoming a part of the team to help create more content and/or modify existing content.

Thanks and Credits
Philipjn from the Pirates Ahoy! community for donating the base model of the sloop
Major (Retd) Kelly, Militaria, Army Badge and Uniform Button Dealers - www.KellyBadges.co.uk - www.KellyBadges.co.uk
Peter Davis - HMS Surprise Simulator
Keith H. Burgess, Wychwood Forest, Armidale NSW, A Woodsrunner's Diary

Team Members
Delta Hawk - Lead Artist, Shipwright
Bloodwyn - Lead Scripter
Luca - Lead Terrain Artist
Bava - Historical advisor and Shipwright
ppitm - Historical advisor, Research and Sailing Master
Kola - Artist
J0tA - Artist
Noklaschmi - Artist
LAxemann - Lead Sound Artist

How to connect with us
Discord
Twitter
BI Forums
Pirates Ahoy!

Steam Workshop Please do not reupload anywhere else, this modification will probably change often with updates

Steam Workshop :: Nassau 1715

 

[Pieter Boelen]

This does sound pretty brilliant! Would you want me to feature your article on the main page?

Here are a couple of questions I can think of:
- Will there be a single 3D world? Or smaller "levels" for each scenario?
- If a "large" world, how do you handle travel between islands?
- Is it possible to walk around a ship while she sails?
- Can you sail a ship by yourself or is team-work required/recommended for that?
- How long do you imagine a player could/would spend within the same single scenario/game?
- Is this meant 100% for multiplayer or might there be single player potential as well?
- How much "free play" potential is there?
- Will there be NPC characters and/or ships?
- Will there be dialogs and/or quests?
- Will this be free or paid?
- Will it require the original game?
- How much post-release user-modding might be possible/supported?

As you probably know, I'm personally only really familiar with ye olde PotC:NH, so I'm wondering about the similarities and differences with that.
Based on what I've seen so far, you guys are definitely doing an amazing job and I wish you all the best in your endeavours.

 

[Bava]

Thanks for reminding me to do a proper Q&A some time soon, Pieter!
Good questions, by the way, keep them coming.

Is it possible to walk around a sailing ship?

Yes, it is. Pictures, especially the moving kind, explain things better that a thousand words, so here´s a small video I made some time ago:

Keep in mind that this is still very much WIP and as such contains debug UI, placeholder icons/textures etc. and does not represent the final quality we´re aiming for.
But I really like to show the PA! community what has been achieved so far, especially in the sailing 'departement'.

Can you sail a ship by yourself or is team-work required/recommended for that?

Sailing alone is possible, but e.g. for a quick tack team-work is going to be essential, especially on larger ships.

Will there be NPC characters and/or ships?

Basic AI for ships already is implemented.

Will it require the original game?

Yes. APEX DLC recommended.

Will this be free or paid?

Free.

Will there be a single 3D world? Or smaller "levels" for each scenario?

For this and the rest of your game-world related questions, I have to summon @Timb

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Thanks for reminding me to do a proper Q&A some time soon, Pieter!

Always a good idea!

Good questions, by the way, keep them coming.

I'll let you know when any others spring to mind.
Hopefully some other forum members will pitch in too.

Yes, it is. Here´s a small video I made some time ago:



Keep in mind that this is still very much WIP and as such contains debug UI, placeholder icons/textures etc. and does not represent the final quality we´re aiming for.
But I really like to show the PA! community what has been achieved so far, especially in the sailing 'departement'.

Holy crap, that's IMPRESSIVE!
Are all those lines as accurate as I think they are? If so, this mod is not going to be for the faint-hearted!
But since I started the Enkhuizen Nautical Academy earlier this year to learn exactly this sort of stuff, it looks particularly awesome to me.
Plus, those other old-school sailors might interested too as this looks to be a great way to, quite literally, learn the ropes.

Sailing alone is possible, but e.g. for a quick tack team-work is going to be essential, especially on larger ships.

Now that I've seen that video, indeed if you deal with every detail manually like that, you really do need a large crew; just like in real life.

An old colleague and good friend of mine once told me he sailed a square rigged ship with only one other person.
I can barely imagine how that could even be possible, but I have no reason to doubt his story.

Yep, I'm impressed!

 

[Bava]

Are all those lines as accurate as I think they are? If so, this mod is not going to be for the faint-hearted!

This...is....ARMA!

But no worries, we have enough 'landlubbers' on the team to keep our sailing expert and me in check so things don´t get out of control. Literally

And one thing´s for sure, we don´t want to add things for complexity´s sake, but for a rich gameplay experience. For example, all those lines ensure that team-work is encouraged when sailing a ship in battle (
and an experienced crew will have an edge in terms of speed of maneuvering/positioning over an in-experienced enemy)

But if you want to take the sloop out for a spin alone and just want to have some fun sailing into the sunset, that´s also possible. In fact, that´s what I'm doing when I´m not working on the mod.
Our coding wizard did an amazing job with the sailing system

 

[Pieter Boelen]

This...is....ARMA!

Sounds to me like you've got the right ideas.

And one thing´s for sure, we don´t want to add things for complexity´s sake, but for a rich gameplay experience. For example, all those lines ensure that team-work is encouraged

I think that's what happens in real life too. Good thing to aim for.

 

[con20or]

This looks amazing - i'm not usually a MP guy so I will probably just play it myself but - WOW. Its appeal to age of sail fans is obvious - and as a learning tool! I can imagine sailing SP if a storm hit it would give a whole new meaning to a 'click fest' , just like in real life.

What is APEX DLC?

 

[Bava]

Glad you like it

Regarding APEX : Apex | Arma 3

 

[con20or]

Glad you like it

Regarding APEX : Apex | Arma 3

Thanks - I have an ARMA3 bundle but will try to figure out if I have it look for it as an addon.

I know Age of Sail is a niche genre but this mod looks so impressive it is easily the type that wins awards - I honestly mean that - just so much potential and so novel. Good luck with it!

Edit: Whoop - APEX already in my steam library.

 

[Armada]

I salute you for attempting such a feat with an engine that clearly wasn't built with sailing in mind. I wonder what the devs would think!
I know first-hand how badly optimised Arma 3 is, especially with mods, so hopefully performance won't give you too many headaches.
I may have to check this out at some point. Looks impressive so far!

 

[Timb]

This does sound pretty brilliant! Would you want me to feature your article on the main page?

Here are a couple of questions I can think of:
- Will there be a single 3D world? Or smaller "levels" for each scenario?
- If a "large" world, how do you handle travel between islands?
- How long do you imagine a player could/would spend within the same single scenario/game?
- Is this meant 100% for multiplayer or might there be single player potential as well?
- How much "free play" potential is there?
- Will there be NPC characters and/or ships?
- Will there be dialogs and/or quests?

Let me try to answer some of the gameplay and mission questions, though this is still very tentative since we don’t have an experienced, dedicated mission maker. This is a general direction we would like to go based on established gameplay in ArmA.

Since this modification is based on real life events we plan on having several smaller missions based on these events, such as the pirate crews assaulting the Spanish at the 1715 plate fleet salvaging camps, the Spanish raiding Nassau or North Carolina attacking Castillo de San Marcos in 1702. These missions would have a similar pace to other ArmA 3 missions, usually taking about half an hour or two hours to complete depending on the event. For example, the pirates assaulting the salvaging camps would be about an hour at most. It is very possible on land there will be interactive AI, either fighting you or working with you. Players would be able to accomplish the missions in multiple ways, i.e. using the guns on a ship to bombard a camp, carry out a full beach assault or a combination of both. There can be some single player missions but they would be rather small and linear.

And then we would like to create an open world sandbox mmorpg mission set in the height of the Pirate Republic in New Providence Island. How big the map will be and what islands it will include is still being discussed. Something that ArmA players are familiar with is sector control and we would like to bring that mechanic to this mission in the form of either Pirates or the Royal Navy/provisional militia controlling islands or shipping lanes for monetary gains and power, which can be used to purchase larger ships or more powerful guns. As for island travel it may be possible to fast travel/teleport by yourself between islands that are under the control of your side, but sailing from island to island will take some time, especially sailing against the wind, giving faster ships like the sloop a distinctive advantage. We would like to also include side missions and quests, ranging from having to clean or repair your ship or salvaging supplies from a guarded wreck with the reward of either richest or simply surviving a little longer. At this time AI will mostly be limited to land, but we are working on getting AI to sail. ArmA can support up to 80 players on a server but a good estimate for the average number of players on a server would be about 30.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Sounds like you're covering pretty much all bases, @Timb!
If you manage to accomplish even half of that, I think a lot of people will be very happy!

 

[Timb]

Hey guys, does anyone have a canvas flapping in the wind sound?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Hey guys, does anyone have a canvas flapping in the wind sound?

There's a sail luffing sound in PotC:NH . Would that work?

Also, how fussy do you need to be about copyrights?
I know, for example, YouTube can be EXTREMELY picky on that...

 

[Timb]

Also, how fussy do you need to be about copyrights?
I know, for example, YouTube can be EXTREMELY picky on that...

The ArmA community is very sensitive to copyrighted material. I would prefer to get permission from the copyright holders if possible.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

The ArmA community is very sensitive to copyrighted material. I would prefer to get permission from the copyright holders if possible.

In that case, maybe @Captain Murphy or @Flannery can be of help?
I've got no clue where our sounds came from...

 

[Captain Murphy]

The sounds we use are paid and licensed so putting them into a free mod would never be allowed. It will be difficult to find really good sounds for free that have a license that allows for free distribution with/without attribution, but some are out there. More than likely you will have to find ones that are allowed for distribution with modification and attribution. Pretty much any 'flag' sound set will have the sounds of cloth sliding over itself (ala cloth flapping too) but will need some modification to work as a good sail sound by making it a lower tone to make it seem 'larger'.

 

[Timb]

Good idea with the flag flapping sound. I'll look for some free samples. It shouldn't be too hard to find something. ArmA and Steam are frustrating to deal with when it comes to copyright issues.

 

[Timb]

Hey guys, just wanted to share this with you all. Captain Charles Vane of the Ranger, along with her consort a captured prize the Buck sloop, taking on water on Cat Cay, Bahamas. Mid 1718.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

That looks wonderfully piratey, @Timb!