Account, Server & Nation

Three choices stand between installing the game and your first time at sea: your captain, your server, and your nation. None of them is complicated, but two of them shape how the whole game feels — the server decides whether other players can hunt you, and the nation decides whose colours you fly and, in the war world, who counts as an enemy. Here’s what each choice means, and what a new captain should pick.

Your account and your captain

You own the game through Steam, and that’s your account — there’s no separate website signup to play. The first time you launch, you create your captain: you choose a name and pick a starting nation, and that captain is your identity in the game world. You have one captain per server, so the server and nation you pick at creation are where you’ll actually begin.

Choosing a server

Naval Action runs two worlds, and this is the more important of the two decisions:

• The Peace server — no open-world player-versus-player combat. You can sail, fight the AI, trade and craft without another captain being able to hunt you on the open sea. This is the place to learn.
• The Caribbean (war) server — the full sandbox: open-world PvP, nations conquering ports, and the permanent loss of ships in battle. Tense and rewarding, but unforgiving.

Choosing a nation

Every captain sails under a nation. Your nation sets where you start on the map and which ports are friendly, gives your rank titles their flavour (the rank ladder is the same for everyone, only the names change), and — on the war server — determines who your enemies are and which conquest your clan fights for. On the Peace server the stakes are gentler, since no one is hunting you, but your flag still decides your home waters and your community.

The playable nations are the great naval powers of the age of sail:

• The major powers: Great Britain · France · Spain · The Netherlands
• The other navies: United States · Denmark-Norway · Sweden · Russia · Prussia · Poland
• The Pirates: a faction apart — see below.

The Pirates are not just another navy. They play by different rules, with their own separate set of rank titles and a more cut-throat, less diplomatic style — a distinct way to experience the game rather than a re-skin of a national navy. They’re a popular pick, but know that you’re signing up for something different, not just a black flag.

Which nation should a new captain pick?

The honest, practical answer has little to do with history and everything to do with company. Naval Action is far better with people around you — for help, for fleets, for a market with goods actually moving — and the population doesn’t spread evenly across every nation. On the servers our community tracks, the bulk of the activity sits with a handful of flags, notably Great Britain, France, Spain and the Pirates. Sailing where the people are beats picking an empty nation for its colours.

So: if you’re joining the NavalGaming community, the simplest move is to ask which nation we’re sailing and join it — you’ll have crewmates from your first hour. Failing that, pick one of the populated nations above. And don’t agonise over it: you are not locked in for life. Nations can be changed later in the game (through “forged papers,” which the Prolific Forger DLC makes easier), so your first choice is a starting point, not a life sentence.