Alliances/Factions/Ship Town Ownership

[Redbeard]

What it says on the tin.

1.) How in the world do you guys figure out what nation a ship belongs to on the WORLD map? I can recognize flags well enough, but even with arcade settings and such the game still shows ships as a different type based on nation. So Dutch ships are Fluyts and ENglish are brigs etc.

This is useless to me, because remembering them and recognizing the ship types is utterly beyond my skill level.

Should I just go to sea/engage and look at the flags? or am I missing something here? I feel like it would be very hard to tell who is who if you just engage everything on site.

2.) Town ownership. I recently went to Phillipsburg/town and found it besieged by the French. Which made me question who owned the town. Talking to the guards tells me, but I feel like there is an easier way.

 

[imado552]

What it says on the tin.

1.) How in the world do you guys figure out what nation a ship belongs to on the WORLD map? I can recognize flags well enough, but even with arcade settings and such the game still shows ships as a different type based on nation. So Dutch ships are Fluyts and ENglish are brigs etc.

This is useless to me, because remembering them and recognizing the ship types is utterly beyond my skill level.

Should I just go to sea/engage and look at the flags? or am I missing something here? I feel like it would be very hard to tell who is who if you just engage everything on site.

2.) Town ownership. I recently went to Phillipsburg/town and found it besieged by the French. Which made me question who owned the town. Talking to the guards tells me, but I feel like there is an easier way.

hello my friend
if you can't remember the ship type for each nation there is a notification before engaging anyone that pop up and tells you who you are going to engage whether pirates or French or spanish....etc

2-i don't understand that island has french and duth colonies i think so it might be the two nations were in war
you can simply check the flag on the fort defending the colony

 

[Pieter Boelen]

The worldmap ships are quite distinct. Each nation has its own type that fits with that nation.
They also have a matching paint scheme and sometimes an extra flag.

England is a black and yellow Brig because that is the famous Napoleonic paint scheme
France gets a black and red frigate with flag for the same reason
Holland a fluyt which is typically Dutch with the matching green and gold colours
Spain is known for its treasure galleons so a galleon is what they get, with red cross on the sails to make it more Spanish
Caravel for Portugal as that fits well with the Columbus expedition
The US share the brig but with an alternate paint scheme

Once you get used to them, they should be quite instantly recognizable.
It may help to zoom in on the map so you can see them better.

The F2> Colonies interface can tell you who owns what.
Alternatively, use the M-key/F2> Inventory>Maps>Archipelago Map and right-click on any island to see the town ownership.
Zooming in on the worldmap will show an animated flag indicating town ownership too, but possibly only after your first visit.