Search the Community

Hey guys! For a while now, it has been a problem that people leave when they see who you are in battle. Sometimes people prefer an easy fight, other times they tag someone they realise is a friend. Other times they have heard rumours of the person that they have attacked and prefers to stay away from whoever this person may be. This problem first started back when names were removed from Open World. This was not too bad initially, although I personally wanted the names to be displayed. With the latest changes to tagging I see some new problems arising in battle. People now spawn much closer than they did before, and it takes a lot longer to leave battle. While I am personally in favour of this new mechanic, I do see some of the old things being somewhat out of date. If people join and decide to leave because they will not fight the person they have tagged, it will now take 8 minutes to get out of battle and for both sides to continue playing the game. I do not wish to discuss the mechanics already implemented, I am sure that the developers have had their reasons and I am fine with that. What I want to focus on is what is now outdated. I suggest the following two solutions to the problem: Make names visible in Open World again Make names invisible when the battle starts and only reveal them after 5-10 minutes For this feature I would also suggest disabling battle chat until the end of the ‘reveal timer’ or until one person has died from the opposite team. With option no. 1, we will satisfy a lot of people who are worried about tagging players in Open World, but it is likely to introduce a reluctance to PvP against some people thus reducing PvP combat. Option no. 2 is the one I personally consider to be the most interesting, this means that during the initial phase of the battle you will not know who you are up against. This could keep some people in battle who would otherwise leave very early. Feel free discuss; maybe the third option is to simply leave the mechanics as they are. 🙂

There was a tagging incident 20 minutes ago in OW. A req + niag tried to tag a herc. 240 BR trying to tag 170 BR and they got a "BR too high" error message. If this isn't a bug then what are we missing or what could have caused it?

I've been experiencing problems with the tag circle since it was introduced - I have to be extremely close to tag. The same happens to me when I'm in a group with someone it won't drag me into combat unless I'm almost next to my opponent. This guy made it into port despite me sailing behind him (inside the circle) for ages before he got close enough to the forts: https://imgur.com/a/DOVyh

After leaving a battle there should be a restriction that prevents you from entering a port battle for 5 minutes, as is the case now when you log out at open sea but for less time. There are certain players who in order to avoid screeners get a friend from another nation (or an alt) and then tag them and sit in the battle. They then jump straight out into the port battle, avoiding screeners etc...

We still struggle with problems caused by the difference between OW speeds / time compression and battle instance speeds. Here's a new (I think) idea. In port battles, attackers already have to be inside an outer circle while defenders join inside the inner circle. Could we use an expanding outer circle idea in OW? The first circle represents the tag and immediately after. Players within the tag circle are pulled into battle like they are now. Players outside the tag circle need to be within the outer ring (but not inside the inner circle) to join the battle. Obviously they will be joining further away from the battle start and will sail to the combat at real world speed. As time passes, the outer ring grows larger and further away from where the battle started. One can still join the battle, but only from inside the outer ring and will join the combat at battle instance speed. Eventually, the join ring is quite far from the original tag. With this solution, I don't think you even need to close the battles. Reinforcements may join at any time while the battle is going on but the more time that has passed since the battle began, the further away they will be when they join. The camping of crossed swords problem will still have to be dealt with by the player invisibility/hyper speed "solution" but ALL PLAYERS and AI NEED TO BE INVISIBLE while you are cloaked.

Let's talk about "ganking". What is a gank? For most players it is any fight that they start with any perceived disadvantage. Let's talk about this game. This is a wide open world, very large. The odds of two fighting forces matching open sea and having a "fair" fight is remote, to say the least. So, intended or not, one side will usually be the "gankers" and the poor victims the "whiners on the forums". There is just no way around it in an open world pvp game. Or is there? Various mechanics have been tried that have all resulted in loss of playability, and in my experience, player loss (multiple games I have seen it). One of the giant attractions of this game for myself and others players I used to sail with was open world, unrestricted pvp. Then came the mechanics, BR mechanics that resulted in people missing fights or getting split, mechanics that favored the defender (open battles near port with social), forts, npc fleets around capitals, etc. Then personal fleets that intruded on the pvp, making it damn near impossible for a solo pirate to get much done. Either way, what did we see? People leave the game. Also, the failure to address a simple thing like battle screen camping. I often log out at battle screen, either because I have to log (usually) or because I know a fleet is waiting outside for me. Don't remove that, just incentive coming back out into the open sea with some help getting out of the immediate area. Long invisibility, even longer cannot join battles? Something so a player can leave a battle with some confidence of escaping a revenge fleet. Look, you can sail around this damn game for literally hours and never see a single player sometimes. And when you do, of course you and your mates all jump them because hallelujah it's a player to sink or capture. If anything, the game mechanics should favor and encourage those that sail near enemy ports to hunt. Give them a break. Make this game what it once was, cutthroat pvp and disregard the losers whining about ganking. Remember, for every one player crying about ganking, there are at least two more players high-fiving over his pool of tears and shattered timbers. Give us heat maps to find where the enemy does missions, trades, hides, whatever. Put the "Action" back into "Naval ACTION".

Often times captains can get distracted or tired on long voyages. As such they can be easily caught off guard when tagged. A captain may not realize he has been tagged on the open sea because he is checking his charts (looking at the map), or observing the crew (have another window open, like looking at the forums). Currently, there are only visual cues to when someone is tagging or being tagged. A simple addition may be to add an audible cue for when a tag is commenced as well. For example, a quick beat upon a drum followed by the chatter of crew as they scurry to quarters. Similarly, a few strikes upon the bell or a quick flourish on the whistle could have the same effect. The audio would be heard by everyone in the battle radius being tagged. There could even be different audibles for when an NPC is tagging and when a Player is tagging.

Today I was sitting outside of the British harbor of Ruatan with my Trader Lynx. Pietjenoob came sailing up to the harbor and started tagging me. At which point I entered the harbor and exited again. Subsequently he tagged me again and I entered port again. This went on for 8 or 9 times. In Go this would be called a 劫, kō situation. "A play is illegal if it would have the effect (after all steps of the play have been completed) of creating a position that has occurred previously in the game." I think it needs addressing in the mechanics to prevent it from happening. I'll open a topic on it. At this point I considered it to be trolling. His counter point was that me sitting outside of harbor doing nothing is trolling him. I subsequently gave him warning that I would raise a tribunal. Which he blatantly ignored and tagged me again anyway. I then went for lunch and when I got back and out in Open World, he simply tagged me again. Granted that the broken mechanic allows for infinite tagging in a situation where it can not change the outcome. I do not consider this to be the griefing. I consider the ignorance of the warning, when clearly presented with a situation in which actions of Pietjenoob could make no difference of the outcome for any of the 15+ tags he made, to be the griefing offense. Even after my only recourse of action, going for lunch, made no difference in his actions. I respectfully request that Pietjenoob be demoted 1 level and given a stern warning. Awaiting your final judgement, Skully

I see a problem with Counter tagging. Counter tagging is used by people who don't want to get caught. It works in the way that you tag the hunter as soon as possible (So that you spawn as far away as possible in the battle instance). This makes it very hard and time consuming, and in many cases even impossible to catch a trader. So here is my suggestion. Introduce a second tag radius. The first radius is as big as currently in game, however it is only possible to tag people in front of you. Tagging people who are behind you is impossible. The exact angles can be discussed, but I think a 100° tag cone in front of you is a good idea. The second radius would be much smaller. In this radius there is no tag timer, the tag is immediately. This will make it impossible to counter the tag by making the enemy overshoot you when sailing directly towards him. EDIT: Maybe a cone is not the best idea, since it should also be possible to tag people sideways. So I added a second (very quickly made) picture to demonstrate what would maybe work a bit better. Tag is interrupted if tagged player leaves the blue area.

So today I was sailing my privateer around and got tagged/ganked by a group of 5: 2 connies, 1 trinc, 1 surprise, and 1 frigate I believe. I really don't mind bc I'm learning pvp & running but with that br they should not be able to tag such a small ship as the privateer. I'm curious as to how tagging actually works. Is there even a br percentage cap (i.e. In order to tag, the tag group br cannot be more than 120% greater) or such? If not, there should be to reduce ganking. If there is such a mechanic, it needs fixing.