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  1. So while we are waiting for the first core patch to drop I thought it would be a good idea to start talking about Nation gimmicks and see we ideas people have. I'm curious how unique the other Nation are going to be compared to each other. For example the United States could be: Heavy cruisers are less likely to have torpedo's but have strong artillery. US Dreadnoughts are going to be very slow but heavy armor and artillery. The US will be great at open water combat but not as great at costal defense. So what do you guys think of these gimmicks? The third one might make no sense but it's an example. I would love to see what ideas ya'll would have for the Nations and lets hope they'll be added.
  2. Gentlemen! MDRA announces the opening of our own discord channel for anything concerning business between French administration and honorable visitors of all nations. https://discord.gg/5Y2DfEV Sections let you find present offers, ships and for starters, a number of elite ship notes, which will not be available in port shop but over direct contact with me only.
  3. A l’attention des développeurs et nouveaux joueurs potentiels, je me permet après plus de 1000 heures de jeu (pvp) et ma présence depuis l’alpha, de modestement donner les raisons de mon insatisfaction et départ probable à terme de Naval Action. Je sais en effet partager un nombre certain de ressentiments avec de nombreux joueurs, et pour certains qui ont déjà délaissé ce jeu. La première d’entre toutes les raisons est le déséquilibre total existant entre les factions. Le nombre de joueurs étant la première des richesses, il est inadmissible qu’il n’y ait pas d’équilibre obligatoire en nombre de joueurs. Vous avez souhaité réparer cela en octroyant des avantages aux petites factions comme de meilleurs bonus de ports, et les nouvelles fleet IA qui s’attaquent aux grosses factions. En l’état cela ne suffit pas, le curseur est mal réglé et vous intervenez trop tard, regardons la carte et surtout les assauts menés sur les villes par les clans pour s’en rendre compte. Vous pouvez avoir tous les avantages du monde, si vous n’avez personne, vous êtes faibles. Cette première raison est désastreuse et passe à mon sens rapidement l’envie à un nouveau joueur de s’impliquer dans ce jeu. La seconde est votre incapacité à maintenir la communauté de joueurs dans un cadre de règles garantissant à tous un jeu équitable. Et vous me voyez venir, les comptes alts (ou doubles comptes) promettent à n’importe quel joueur honnête de se faire léser par d’autres qui survoleront littéralement les difficultés économiques, de grind, et ne se priveront pas d’utiliser ces alts pour faire de l’espionnage, du dumping commercial, aspirer d’une manière opportune un ensemble de joueurs dans des combats qu’ils ne veulent pas afin de les ralentir ou pour mieux les exposer à d’autres dangers, etc. Vous promettez de donner des avertissements à ces vilains garnements qui s’en contrefoutent ouvertement et continuent, puisqu’à l’évidence l’immunité est la règle, devons nous une énième fois donner et redonner encore les noms ??? Vous manquez à vos obligations et c’est épuisant. Tant que nous en sommes aux joueurs, une mention spéciale aux groupes de joueurs toxiques et expérimentés qui passent leur temps à pourrir le peu de choses viables. Je pense bien sûr aux membres du clan NN (ex-fr devenu russe) qui pour de tristes raisons trouvent leur plaisir dans le ganking, le harcèlement, bref la mise en difficulté de tout ce qui est français dans ce jeu, car s’en étant trouvés eux même écartés pour sociopathie lourde, et qui ne parviennent pas à avaler la pilule. Nous sommes d’accord, vous développeurs, n’êtes pas responsables, mais : 1/ C’est aussi ça la triste population de votre jeu (la France n’est pas la seule dans ce cas, mais avec eux on a du level...) il faudra faire avec, et cela ne vous autorise pas beaucoup d’erreurs 2/ C’est au stade actuel seulement vous qui pourrez réagir, mais pour cela il faut écouter la communauté Enfin, s’il est besoin de le préciser, ce jeu est très chronophage, long au grind et le niveau PvP est élevé pour un nouvel arrivant. Ajoutons que s’il ne joint pas un clan il n’ira pas loin, si ce nouveau joueur rejoint une faction défavorisée, comment objectivement, peut-il vouloir continuer? Sur qui va-t-il s’appuyer? Les anciens joueurs désabusés et fatigués de votre incurie? Nombre d’entre eux n’ont plus la foi. Donc non, il rejoindra une super faction ou désertera le jeu une fois fatigué. Autant de raisons qui concernent les potentiels nouveaux joueurs et à qui visiblement vous ne pensez pas. Et avec seulement 500 joueurs sur le serveur, je ne sais pas si vous vous rendez bien compte du problème (Vos objectifs n’étaient-ils pourtant pas de 4000 joueurs??? Laissez moi rire, puis m’attrister). Cette incapacité à séduire de nouveaux joueurs est un grave problème (que vos dlc payants ne résoudrons sûrement pas). Au lieu de vous atteler à la tache pour enrayer cette situation plus que critique, vos mises à jour portent sur des bonus de vent, des loki et loggbook….. De qui se moque-t-on ? Où sont les nouveaux navires en jeu ? Où est la viabilité et l’intérêt du commerce ? Où est la protection des nouveaux joueurs martyrisés par le premier **** qui passe ? Et encore une fois, où est l’équilibre entre nations absolument nécessaire à la survie de votre jeu ???? Bienvenue aux nouveaux ! Nota Bene : A l‘attention des admin, si ce post (qui n’a rien d’irrespectueux) comme d’autres devait être supprimé, je me ferai un plaisir de le remettre dans la note Steam de NA (c’est mieux, ça s’adresse à des joueurs qui n’ont pas encore acheté le jeu)
  4. Every since the introduction of other currencies, I have wondered why Reals is the only one we can purchase player made items with. Take this poll if you think we should be able to set what currency we wish buyers to pay for our items with. For instance, I'd like the option to sell ships for Reals, Doubloons, Victory Marks, maybe even a specific ship build, or any combination of these, rather than Reals only and having to convert these myself. Just give me the option to choose how I want paid, plz and ty. What do you think? Discuss...
  5. A simple suggestion, but probably not so simple to do. I think the ability for a clan to hoard the resources entirely, as much as it benefits my clan, is not the direction we should go, and it has been brought up multiple times that solo players, small clans, and clans that aren't "in the group" are shunned out of it. I suggest the clan delivery mission gets split up. What we have now for wood: 1 million logs - clan basically controls who gains access. What we should have: 1 million logs X amount is owned by the controlling clan that owns the port and subsequently anyone in their friendly clan list. Y amount is publicly available for the Nation as a whole The clan that owns the port should have SOME control over how much is available. with the smallest Public amount being 200k, and largest public amount being 800k. Clan should be able to manage it in the clan window of port management. Once the clan has decided on the split, it cannot be changed. This 100% insures that a clan controlling a port will ALWAYS have a secured resource supply of wood, but is also insures that a Nation will always have the ability to also gain in the spoils. If the clan wants to keep the majority for themselves, they are able to. Alts be damned, I don't care. I think this is the best solution for the arguments on both sides. So 2 missions would be in the ports. a Public mission and a Clan mission. Same can be done for rare resources like copper ingots, and cartaghena tar.
  6. I get the message "Unable to Generate Quest" when trying to take a clan resource quest. I have previously completed clan resource quests a couple of times in a port where my clan was on the friend list but when I tried to take a quest for clan resources in a port owned by my clan I get the message "unable to Generate Quest" even though I have sufficient doubloons, I am in the owning clan am onboard a ship and have spare mission slots. I have seen others report similar difficulties and I am not sure whether the issue is the fact that I am in the port owning clan rather than on the friend list. I have F11'ed it as well, but this problem needs urgent looking into as rare resources are currently scarce and people need to get their crafting up and running again.
  7. Hi, Apologies if this was covered some place else. What is the requisite to build a labor office? I am attempting to build one in my nation capital at KPR, and it doesn't show up as an option under buildings - just coal mine and lignum vitae forest. Any ideas?
  8. So i'm reading one of the Alan Lewrie adventures (King's Captain, Dewey Lambden), which covers the Nore Mutiny of 1797. This was a major issue in the age of sail and i'm wondering if it has a place in the game. As all of you history buffs know, the mutiny was caused by a number of factors. low pay and pay in arrears, brutal officers, no shore leave for years on end and horrible food (issued at 13 ounces to the pound). Many games factor in "keeping the plebes happy". Could we have (and do we want) a "Mutiny" trigger in this game. It's a good add for the realism factor, but of course, gameplay should come first. To do it, the only way I can think is to institute operating costs for each ship you own. Adjustable by the Captain (you), if you pay more, you get a happy crew with high morale. Pay less and you get a surly crew. Leave them surly long enough and you get a Mutiny. Once a ship mutinies in harbour, you'd have to put up a lot of money to get it back. At sea, you could find yourself in a boarding mini game without warning and lose your ship. How will it add to the game? Some players will flat out hate this as they don't want any distraction from PVP, but part of this game is economy and that means covering your overhead as well as making profit. This could make the economic part of the game more vibrant. For your consideration, Messrs.
  9. Introduction Building castles in the sky! I have just about 200 hours invested in this game. Most of that during the sea trials phase when there was no open world. I have spend 40-50 hours in the open world now. I have yet to actually win a PVP fight, or buy/craft a first rate. I'm not very high level.Nor have I played any other games similar to Naval Action, or worked on a dev team. Now, having said all that, here are my thoughts on what I would like this game to be in my own personal Utopia. If you agree with any of it, please comment, and maybe we will see it implemented in future. If you disagree, please keep it civil. Nations [N] I understand the desire of many people to sail under the flag of a certain nation. I love being able to fly the flag of my mother country myself, something that I'm not able to do in a lot of games. Having said that, I'm enough of a history nerd that seeing the "wrong" nations present bothers me. I'd like nations restricted to their historical starting positions. See [OW2] for ideas on nations. Having said all this, if we get a Baltic Sea "area" implemented, and the Russian nation decides to sail over and occupy Haiti, that's fine by me. Each nation should have a national government which should be made up of representatives from each of the three organizations. [See N 4-12 for organizations]The national government should have the ability to decide national policies through a voting system incorporated into the UI. This system would enable a player to make a suggestion, with a time limit for his fellow members to vote yay or nay. A majority of yays would mean the policy could go into effect on expiry of the timer. National policies - A limited list of ideas for what these could include: Raise / lower national taxes on x goods by x%. Create / cancel trade tariff of x% on x goods for x nation(s). Declare war on x nation. Sue for peace with x nation. Accept reject peace treaty / alliance with x nation. Offer alliance to x nation. Announce blockade of x nation's ports, making it illegal for citizens to trade with x nation, and making neutral ships within x distance of each port legitimate targets for citizens of blockading nation. Cancel blockade of x nation's ports. Issue warrant for player x with a reward of x for his capture. Each nation should be made up of players belonging to one of three organizations; the navy, the merchant marine or private captains. Clans should not be limited to players of a certain type, but should be able to recruit all kinds of players. The Navy - The navy should have a rank hierarchy. To rank up would need xp gained from missions issued by the ai navy, or from fighting foreign navies, much like xp are gained in-game now. Each rank would allow you to command larger ships, just like it does at the moment. I would like to see a few differences though - each rank should allow you to add more and or bigger ships to your fleet. Also, a navy player should not be able to command the largest merchant ships, and the rank requirements for merchant ships should be higher for each ship comparet to a player in the merchant marine. The ranks would also determine a players ability to initiate port battles and conquests, with larger battles reserved for the higher ranks. Battle and other groups should be limited in size by a player's rank. Players of the highest rank would be eligible for election to the national leadership. The national leadership of the navy would be responsible for setting priorities for the AI controlled national fleet, issue contracts for ship construction, and send representatives to the national government. The size of the leadership would be determined as a % of the number of players belonging to the navy and updated at intervals. AI fleet priorities - These would dictate the behavior of AI warships, and would be set by the leaders of a nations navy within the limits set by the national leadership. They could include trade protection, defensive patrols in x province, blockade duties of x ship type [warships/merchant ships] in x province. The priorities could be set as a % of each ship type assigned to the various duties. The decisions would be voted on by the navy leadership at regular intervals, and decided by a simple majority vote. AI ship construction - The navy leadership would issue contracts for warships, to be payed for using the national budget as determined by the national leadership at regular intervals. The contracts would be open for a set time, during which player crafters could build and sell ships to the navy at the set price. At the expiration of the timer the contract would be filled by AI crafters according to crafting capacity, and assuming the navy leadership set a price per ship that allows the AI crafters to make a profit. Player crafters, of course, could choose to meet orders at a loss, should they choose to do so. Player owned warships - Individual players would acquire their ships by crafting them, buying them on the open market, or buying them from the navy. Ships sold by the navy should be offered at ai determined prices, forcing the national and navy leadership to provide them at a loss, thereby making taxes and tariffs etc more relevant. The Merchant Marine - This organization should have an appropriate name in each nation. For example, the British merchant marine could be called the Honorable East India Company. Ranks in the merchant marine should govern the maximum crew and fleet size, as well as how many and what type of commercial orders can be created by a player. Merchant marine players should not be allowed to command the largest warships, and the rank requirements for warships should be higher than for players in the navy. The highest ranked players would be eligible for election to the board of directors of the merchant marine. Their responsibilities would include setting the insurance rates as a % of the value of the cargo transported by captains who desire insurance. The money made should go into a central account from which any claims would have to be filled. Merchant ship building - Merchant ships should be bought by the individual players from AI or player crafters. Merchant marine escorts- The board of directors would be responsible for issuing contracts for the construction of escort ships to be allocated to AI escort captains or sold to Merchant marine players who wish to take on that role. The ships would be payed for with money made from insurance profits, if available. Private Captains - These captains are free to play what ever role they desire in the nation. There should be no leadership for private captains, apart from the national leadership. Ship availability and crew/ fleet size should be dependent on player rank, and players should be restricted from owning the largest warships and merchant-ships. Letters of marque - These should be available for purchase by private captains, and be required in order for a player to purchase any but the smallest warships. Import / Export permits - These should be available for purchase by private captains, and be required for trade with ports outside the player's own nation. A separate document should be required for trade with each foreign nation. Sailing without a letter of marque / shipping contract - Sailing in a warship without a letter of marque would classify a player as a pirate and make him liable to be attacked by players of any nation as well as AI patrols. Sailing without an import/export permit would classify a player as a smuggler and make him liable to be attacked by a navy player of any nation as well as by AI patrols after his ship has been inspected. Outposts should be build-able by merchant players. Navy players should be able to build naval bases. Independent players should be able to build bases. Naval bases should have increased dock-space, but be unable to construct resource buildings such as farms. Outposts should likewise be limited to more civilian / trade focused buildings. Pirates Pirates should not be a nation. Piracy should be a legal status, as as such anyone wanting to play as a pirate should simply engage in piracy. It should not be possible to start the game as a pirate, although a new character could make himself a pirate instantly by illegally attacking a ship. Pirate havens - Pirates should not be allowed access to normal ports except through the smuggling mechanic. Instead, each island/ selected islands should have a hidden pirate cove. Players would identify these by engaging a mode in-game and sailing near / around an island for a sufficient time. Once identified, a pirate cove would be claimed by a pirate as his base, providing dock & warehouse space. Smaller versions of production buildings would be construct-able in pirate coves, reflecting the illegal nature of society in these places. I'm sure some unique ones could be imagined, making some form of profitable production possible for pirates. A cove could be shared by a number of pirates, such as a clan. Such groups would still not be considered nations though. Progression Different types of players should gain XP in different ways. I have listed the various player types above. Navy players should gain rank in the navy through earning combat XP. I see no reason to change anything about the way such XP are awarded at the moment. Navy players should earn less XP through trade. Let's say a 50% reduction, just for the sake of argument. Merchant players should earn XP through trade. Just like combat awards XP based on damage done, trade could award XP based on profits earned. Not simply on money made through selling things, but on actual profit. This would incentivize players to find profitable trade routes, as well as motivate them to sail farther afield despite the risks of piracy etc. Merchant players should earn less XP from combat. Let's say 10% of combat XP from battles where the merchant was the aggressor, and 90% from combat where the merchant was attacked by another player. After all, we don't want merchants to just linger in the safe zones! Diplomacy See [N 3] for how wars are declared, etc. Member(s) of the national leadership could be designated as a diplomat. A diplomat would use a UI function to propose/demand terms in order to agree a peace treaty. Once the dipomats have agreed terms, they would become available for ratification in the national leadership UI. All this should have real world time limits, enabling offensives, victories and losses to influence negotiations in progress. Diplomats should also be able to hammer out alliances using a similar system. Alliances should enable ships from separate nations to enter battles on the same side when fighting nations they are at war with. National leaderships should be able to define separate tarrifs for trade from allied nations. Intelligence Gathered by spies and networks established in enemy ports. Each spy/network would be able to gather only one type of intelligence. There ought to be four types of intelligence: Military, Commercial, Diplomatic and Technological. Military Intelligence- This would cover the number and type of ships based at the port as well as the number of troops and forts. Commercial Intelligence - This would cover stockpiles of goods, needs, availability and prices. Diplomatic Intelligence- This would cover any treaties, wars, orders, etc. currently in force. Technological Intelligence - This would cover the currently available technology, and perhaps give a chance to acquire same. Employing spies- Spies would be open world NPC's with skill levels and experience. They would be employable by players, nations, and companies. The employer would be charged a salary cost every day/month/year to keep the spy in his employ. Networks- A group of spies deployed in the same port by the same employer would form a network. The larger the network the more information it would be able to provide. The larger the network the easier it would be to detect. Counter-intelligence- A police chief/policemen would be other employable NPCs in the open world. They would limit the amount of intelligence enemy spies can gather, and also give a chance of capturing the spies working in a port. Ports and Capture Port capture should take place in phases. Phase one would require a declaration of war on the nation owning the port. Phase two would be a port battle as they are currently present in the game. In case the aggressor is victorious the next phase is enabled. Phase three would involve landing a force of soldiers to take control of the hinterland. The soldiers would have to be transported in on merchant ships, and there would be a timer for this activity. The troop transports would be intercept-able by defending ships. The number of soldiers necessary would be determined by the size of the target force, as well as any defending troops. If a sufficient number of troops are landed in phase three, the port is considered occupied. An occupied port contributes taxes to the occupying nation, and any buildings/ships are inaccessible to players from the original nation, except as per the smuggling mechanic. To gain permanent ownership of a port, it has to be ceded as part of an official peace treaty. This would slow down & hopefully limit zerging. Each port should have a governor. The governor would be responsible for local taxes and docking fees. He would be able to use this income to construct defenses and improvements. Possible improvements include infrastructure, such as roads which would give a bonus to any production buildings present. Housing, which would give a bonus to population growth. The governor could also invest in crop diversification, or introducing new industries, each of which would result in new production buildings becoming available. Each effort would have a real time implementation period, as well as a resource and money cost, and would have a chance of failure. Economy All ports should have a maximum capacity for buildings, determined by their population. Players should have priority in taking up this capacity, but any unoccupied capacity should be filled by AI producers. All goods should be produced in buildings either by players or AI. No goods should "drop" at any port. Goods should be transported by AI traders to meet first basic needs of ports lacking that good, and secondly luxury & production needs. Goods not produced in the Caribbean (or any other area)should need to be imported to that area from an area where such goods are available. All production buildings should be construct-able by players in ports where production of that good is possible. Production buildings should have needs. These could be basic, e.g. food for the workers, as well as advanced needs, e.g. a sugar farm would need slaves and fertilizer. These needs combined with the needs of the general population of the island would dictate prices in the local market. AI traders and small craft should follow routes designed to meet the needs of the cities. Sinking them should be a means of economic warfare, and protecting them should be important for players. The triangular trade was of enormous importance to the major powers at the time of the game. Thus I'd love to see it represented in-game. In case political correctness is a concern, slaves can be referred to as indentured labor. African indentured labor should originate in Africa, obviously, and Chinese indentured labor should be available from American ports. Historically the Chinese laborers arrived a bit later than the game period, but i suppose that can be forgiven. Players should be able to set up contracts offering loans of all kinds of money which would be repaid with interest determined by the lender. Players should be able to send trading ships on runs under AI control, to help keep important ports supplied. If a ship is lost under AI control it is destroyed. Goods transported this way would be sold to the shop in the target port, or delivered to the player's warehouse, depending on the player's choice when setting up the trade run. It should also be possible to ship owned goods from a warehouse in this way. More than one player should be able to join their AI ships together, creating convoys that sail together. It should also be possible to define the route taken by a convoy, and to drop off ships at ports passed. There should be an option to purchase insurance for any cargo. Insurance rates should depend on a player's history of successful or otherwise delivery of cargoes during his career. It should be possible for players to sell insurance to other players as well, at any rate desired. Crafting & Ships Each nation should rely mainly on ships historically employed by that nation. Blueprints for non-national ships should be more expensive to get - perhaps only obtainable through technology espionage. Upgrades should be craft-able, and dependent upon crafting level, so that only an expert crafter is able to craft the best upgrades. I do like the book system that we have now, so perhaps upgrades could be "learnt" from books, and then require a certain level to craft. Crew/Marines/Soldiers Crew should be recruit-able in ports subject to limitations of population size. Crew should be divided into categories according to skill levels - Landsmen (a small malus to re-load times, sail setting etc), Seamen (no bonus or malus), Able Seamen (a smal bonus) and priced according to their skill level. Lower leveled crew should be upgrade-able once they gain some experience. Crew should require food and water to be carried in a ship's hold. Lack of either should lead to crew deaths. Food and water should be consumed over time, limiting a ship's radius of action without replenishing these supplies from a port. Related to the above, relevant illnesses, such as scurvy, should be modeled, along with preventives, such as vitamin c rich fruits. Marines should be recruit-able for navy captains subject to the same limitations as crew. Soldiers should be recruit-able by port governors for defensive purposes subject to the same limitations as crew, and the availability of defensive buildings with spare capacity. They should also be recruit-able for merchant and private captains, subject to the same limitations as crew, for the purpose of port capture. Soundtrack I would love to be able to listen to a soundtrack of period music, including both instrumental/classical music popular at the time as well as shanties and sailor's songs in general. To make this even better, the soundtrack ought to reflect your nationality, so that a British captain would hear, for example, Hearts of Oak, but a Danish captain would not. Open World (OW) Spotting distance- I would like this to depend on the mast height of your ship, as well as the mast height of the other ships in the area. A cutter would not be as easy to spot as an SOL, etc. Related to this, I would like national flags to be rendered on open world ships, and I'd like the ability to fly a false flag. Just like in history, it should be illegal to fire at another ship while flying a false flag (unless you happen to be a pirate!), and there should be penalties for doing so. This would necessitate the creation of a system like the RN's private signal, or, in modern terms, IFF. A hotkey ordering the crew to hoist the private signal would do. The other ship would then respond, or not. A nice ( and i hope) simple way to introduce some more tension! Further, it would be nice if ships sank below the horizon, or vice versa, rather than pop in and out of view range. Size- this is definitely utopian, but hear me out. I'd like the world extended to the west coast of Africa and Europe, as well as southwards along the coast of South America. This would have several benefits. Portugal could become an in-game nation. The safe zones could be moved to the European coast for most nations. See other relevant sections for more detail. Alternatively a sort of off-map boxes could be used to achieve the same effect without having to create a huge map with all the problems that entails. Such a system could also be used to link a series of smaller maps, or theaters. The Caribbean would obviously be one. The Mediterranean could be another, the Baltic a third. Perhaps the English Channel and part of the North Sea would also be a nice addition. Off map boxes - These should rely on a teleportation mechanic that charges money and is not instant. I.e. to send a ship to the Baltic from the Caribbean could cost 50,000, and take 1 hour of real time to arrive. It should be possible to teleport ships with cargo in the hold when traveling to/from off map boxes. The same mechanic could be used to travel between separate map areas. This teleport should not work directly from port to port. Rather it should create a random-ish exit point on your current map. Once you reach that exit point the UI should prompt you in the same way it does on approaching a port, and by cicking the prompt you'd initiate the teleport. The player should be prompted to return to his outpost, like after losing his ship in battle (if the time delay mechanic is implemented). Winds- I would like the wind to be more closely based on actual weather patterns. With somewhat predictable winds, players will be channeled into certain routes/choke-points where PVP combat will naturally occur. Of course, due to the speeding up of time, real world patterns would not work well in game, but something similar to them, with an element of randomization would be very nice indeed. See here for animated wind map: http://yachtibis.com/caribbean-weather/ Ship inspection - Navy players and AI patrols should be able to perform an inspection by remaining close to a ship in the open world for a certain amount of time. Only after such an inspection is carried out should any smuggler status be revealed to the inspecting fleet. Ports- Each port should have a population. The size of the population would dictate the needs of the port, which in turn would dictate prices in that port's market. Shortage- A shortage of essential goods in a port should lead to a decrease in population in that port. Workforce- the available population should dictate how many production buildings can be constructed in that port. Exploration - The Caribbean was more or less fully explored in the geographical sense by our period. Exploration should follow the idea of the historical artifact good available now. These should be sub-divided into, for example, Mayan artifacts, Voodoo dolls, etc., as well as natural history artifacts, such as new species of insects etc. These should not be available in shops, unless they have been sold to the shop by a player. Instead, there should be fetch quests along the lines of the current sealed bottle mechanic. These should come from buildings available to governors to construct in their port. These buildings would be named after, for example, The National Geographic Society, depending on the nation. They could also be generated by ship's officers, with the relevant skill. Navigation - At noon each in-game day the ships position should be marked on the map. This should be weather dependent and in-exact to a degree. AI ships should spawn at ports, and require resources to build. Hence, if I sink an AI snow, the owning port would spend enough resources to rebuild that ship as it re-spawns it. AI ships should have proper missions. Hunt merchants, escort them, protect an area, etc. AI ships on a protection mission should attack players and other ai that intrude on their turf. There should be enough AI ships in the world to keep the economy going, but not so many that players can make no difference. Not that the role of the AI ships should be to keep the ECONOMY going, so simply to spawn as random targets! NPC Characters All NPCs should have appropriate skills, and be able to acquire more through leveling up. The employing player should be allowed to control the leveling up process, but if the NPC leaves his employ and is subsequently hired by a different player, it should not be possible for the new employer to re-arrange skills already gained. NPCs should be randomly generated and become available to employ in ports according to a logical system. A national capital should have more NPC available than other ports. The numbers generated should also depend on the type of port and the population level. NPCs should be transportable, just like the trade goods representing various persons we have in-game at the moment. There should be employable officers with a portrait and name available. Each ship should have slots for an appropriate number of named NPCs, effectively replacing the perk mechanic. Officer NPCs should give bonuses in suitable areas, according to the experience level of each officer. Each officer should have a chance of death in combat, and in case of capture should have a small chance of becoming available to the capturing player. Buildings should require NPC managers, with skill levels governing the output of a building. Each NPC should have, and gain as they level up, skills relevant to their position. The skills should provide bonuses and maluses, giving the officers a sense of personality. Example skills could be natural scientist, which would generate mini-quests that give the player a chance of acquiring valuable goods such as "insert name of rare butterfly here". More examples to come. Player Characters Avatar - Each player character should be represented by an avatar. I love the art style of the game so far, and I'd really enjoy a full length portrait of my captain wearing the appropriate uniform for his nation, rank and organization. Name - I'd love for each character to have a first name, a family name and a nickname. There should be some form of personalisation or role-playing aspects to a player character. The ability to buy a home in a port, preferably with a nice piece of art to enjoy. To find a wife, even if she is nothing but a portrait. To have children once a wife is present. These children could then grow up to be NPCs in their own right. In-game Encyclopaedia I would like to see one. I would like it to contain entries on the nations in the game, the history of their presence in the area, as well as entries on ports containing a brief history and perhaps basic information such as what production buildings are available there, populations size and type, current owner, etc. Sailing I'd like to see leeway modeled in the open world. I'd like to see the open world ability to sail directly into the wind changed to more realistic behavior. PVP I can't state strongly enough the belief that artificially encouraged pvp doesn't work well in an open world game. If you want merchants for pirates to attack you need an economy with appropriate game-play loops for traders to engage in. Rewards to motivate people to take the risk of being attacked by pirates. The economy is the bedrock on which the rest of this game should rest. Damage & Repairs In addition to sail damage I'd like to see rigging damage. To repair this would necessitate a new type of consumable. Crew damage should be split up into the various crew types outlined above, and dependent on hit location. Thus, chain to the sails and rigging would be much more likely to kill topmen. Damaged and destroyed cannon don't seem to have any impact after a battle at the moment. I'd this to be changed. I'd like to see weather damage to rigging and sails, as a consequence of raising too much sail in strong winds. Missions Passenger mission. Port to port. Fishing contract. Catch x amount of fish. Issued by ports lacking in food and at risk of population shrinkage. Ships Fishing vessels. Ability to convert traders cargo space to horse/cattle transport. Add passenger capacity to all ships. Ability to convert cargo hold to troop transport I'm done for now. I reserve the right to add more ideas, should any occur to me.
  10. Putting aide all technical choices, either by design or by limitations... To simulate the natural decay of a wooden ship I suggest the following. - Maximum HP of the ship to lower for % value for a given amount of repairs done. Example: Ship will decay 1% of the maximum HP for each 25% HP recovered ( combined masts and hull ). So a 1000 HP ship, would become a 990HP ship after spending enough repairs to recover 250HP combined. Only takes effect after return to port. There's no pros nor cons other than simulating lifetime of woods in a abstract way given we do not use time nor timers.
  11. THE PROBLEM: One of the structural problems in the current economy appears to be the constraint the Euro Trader mechanic places on the growth of a nominally healthy contract market. Changes to the ET have been previously mentioned by @admin in the context of adjusting taxation: In order of priority the ET mechanic ought to be addressed first. At the present the ET places an effective boundary to price rises in core commodities used to craft ships and cannons. As the as the price of a contract to sell approaches 4x production costs the length of time to complete the contract increases. This is to be expected. But the result unfortunately appears to be that the maximum that a seller can charge and have the contract complete in a reasonable amount of time appears to range between 2x and 2.5x the production cost. This does not allow the merchant to factor in labor hours as a cost, and is not competitive vs the money to be made in the transport of dropped trade goods. It seems possible to consistently maximize hold values of trade goods at approximately 3x purchase price. This decreases the incentive for new entrants into contract markets where the ET is active. Why invest in production capacity to sell at contract when better money can be made elsewhere that does not require labor hours? There have been exceptions. There was a player who seemed to be consistently placing stone contracts Charleston at 8x production cost. I've concluded this was intended to exploit the ignorance of new players. Not all seal-clubbing occurs at sea. But then again, stone is a market with very little contract activity to begin with, which is what makes that sort of nonsense possible. The ET also appears to exacerbate price collapses in those resources where a healthy production capacity exists. As an example, the iron market is currently in overproduction in US ports and seems to consistently price below 2x production cost. But as the ET limits the price rises elsewhere there is not a lot of money to be made transporting iron out of the US reinforcement zones. The iron market is saturated and is likely to stay that way for a while as a result. Inventory appears to be getting dumped into port stocks, further depressing the possible contract price. A PROPOSAL: 1) The ET should automatically suspend operation in any port where the total sold count over time for all resource contracts reaches a set threshold. Reaching the threshold signals the existence of healthy contract markets and the ET is no longer necessary. Price rises in in production resources will then be mitigated by the entrance of new producers into the markets as the returns become competitive with dropped trade goods. Some server-side data collection will be necessary to establish the threshold, but one possible set-point might be an average of current sales contract volumes in from all capital ports on the Caribbean server. This might not work, however, on PvE, where the player population is probably too low for the average to have any meaning. 2) The ET should resume operation in any port where the total sold volume falls below the threshold. This provides a safety net in the event of a regional population collapse, allowing players to obtain resources, and limiting exploitation in markets with a limited number of sellers. 3) The UI should signal the presence of an active ET mechanic, with the appearance of some sort of flag in the shop screen. 4) Once the ET threshold has been successfully set the stamp tax can then be applied in the reinforcement zones to activate in concert with it. When this threshold is reached a healthy regional economy exists that will support taxation. The tax will now generate an outward pressure on player production toward ports outside of the reinforcement zones where applying the tax in the absence of a healthy economy would merely hasten implosion. AN OBSTACLE: There are not currently enough types of necessary or desirable production buildings. My thinking on this has shifted somewhat since posting here: At that point I thought it was possible for a non-alt player to compete in the economy against a player using one or more alts. I have since concluded that this is in reality quite difficult. Alts have an effect on the economy that reaches beyond direct competition against another player. They enable a player to opt out of contract markets, or exploit them without fulling participating. They can sell in a market, and in some cases manipulate it, but do not actually have to buy anything from it. Some players with alts might buy at contract but there is no inherent need to do so. Having (briefly) been the resource manager in one of the newer clans I am also not convinced that players with alts have any inherent incentive to cooperate in stocking a clan warehouse. But that is a separate issue. This ought to have been blindingly obvious at the time. But the effect wasn't completely clear until after I purchased the Admiralty DLC and discovered I could do something similar. The difference being the DLC provides a slight brake on this in the form of labor hours and outpost permits, but as a practical matter there is no difference between the two when considering the actual effect on the economy. Alts and the Admiralty DLC become weeds on the hull. The economy can tolerate a small amount of this but at some point, the drag created will cancel out any meaningful forward motion. Any sort of adjustments to the contract markets are unlikely to have a visible positive effect, as long as a players have a way to sell resources without being obligated to buy any. The number of types of useful player production buildings needs to be radically expanded. It probably ought to be at least double what can be controlled by a player using the Admiralty DLC, or a player using a single alt. The only other alternative to radically expanding the number buildings appears to be abandoning the contract system altogether. But this removes an entire tier of player-generated content from the game and seems to me to increase the onus on the developers to develop more.
  12. This post has been written in someone's suggestion thread, among the answers, so I think it is staying there rather obscured and I should repeat it in a topic in its own right, for getting more attention. Let's give tools to the owners to turn their ports into attractive places for visitors, no matter if to their clan members or others. How could this be done? By upgrading ports by a selection of buildings there, which produce advantages the visitors want to enjoy, or buy special things there due to those buildings. And with every turnover by visitors, the port becomes more profitable. The port becomes meaningful and deserves to be defended when it is unique for some reason. Examples? - clan offers dockyard places in addition to the ones the player owns. so he can have more ships and park them in this port for a daily fee depending on size of the ship. - clan builds a special wharf which, contrary to player-owned wharfs, can add additional upgrade slots to an existing ship - for a good price of course. Boy, how they will flock to that port!! - clan can produce rare resources, at a low rate compared with original spawning areas (for example crooked cedar outside of crooked islands), in buildings only available to them (not players). They set up auctions for achieving the best prices, which are announced up front and require people actually go visiting the port for bidding. Needless to say, those auctions have nice fees the clan will earn. Player A buys 100 copper ingots for 520 gold a piece, clan adds 20 % provision, makes 52.000 + 10.400 gold for the port-owning clan. And outside the port, some vultures will wait to intercept the precious acquisitions... - clans do some research efforts in experimental facilities in their ports, where built. Certainly eats ups money first, and the outcome is (random generated and thus) unpredictable, but once the research would be successful, a new upgrade named after that port would be generated in the game, with slightly different statistic values compared to the normal upgrade it is based upon. For example, a Bovenwind Refit which gives 1 % more speed than the standard Bowenwind Refit, by the name "La Tortuga Bovenwind Variant" if invented in that port. And it could only be produced in this port and nowhere else. Or the contrary: a slightly less efficient variation which requires a bit less raw material for building, like four Nassau fencers instead of five. And of course it is sold there and flushes the treasury of that clan... - clans build large amusement quarters in town which allows cheaper crew recruiting compared to other places. Again: the clan earns with every sailor being hired in their amusement quarters. Question is, if each port with a special building can only have one of them or several. A port equipped with special clan buildings will become very precious and of course other nations want to conquer it. But... there is some risk the special building(s) will get destroyed during the fighting. It could even get connected with the actual port battle. The bloodier and the more ship losses in PB, the higher the risk special buildings(s) will burn to the ground. Then the winner has to build new ones from scratch.
  13. In the days where we fought over 1 port to control an entire region, where the "Strong Hull" regions were similar, if not better than the Cartaghena we have now. While I disliked the overpowering nature of some regional bonuses in the past I can't help but think that we lost a great opportunity to expand on it with the current RvR structure we have now. I am not saying we bring back all those regional bonuses because we now have them in the form of rare resources, and I believe that is alright for what it's worth. I'm thinking more along the lines of economical improvements and incentives to both get out of the safe zones and create a reason to capture and hold multiple ports that we may otherwise not care about. I'd rather give the carrot that's on the stick than hit someone with a stick. I would love to expand, improve, or change the following proposals I have in order to enhance RvR, crafting/trading and to bring more life to regions outside the safe zone. Find a purpose to actually using it instead of the "buy goods and bringing them back to our respective nation capitals" (nothing wrong with doing that though). Regional bonuses Could be the following: I created the Poll for a quick view of suggestions I made, I go in more detail here. These bonuses would ONLY go into effect after a Nation controls all ports in a region (after downtime) and would be given instantly (clan does not need to manage it) the next day. If a Nation was to lose a port in the region, the Bonuses would be lost after downtime. 1. Port Maintenance reductions for the nation (clan port holders) when holding all ports in a region. Simply put, if the nation owns all the ports within a region, the port owners get a reduction in maintenance costs. Could be 25%, could be 10% - the number can very. Clans and a Nation could find reason to work together to hold a regions ports that may otherwise be considered "useless" as they now may hold strategic value. Consequently this may increase RvR and Port Battle fighting as a clan or nation can disrupt this bonus by holding one port in the region. So it becomes a hotspot for conflict. 2. further increase in labor reduction/resource production bonuses. the bonuses a clan can give (at the expense of higher maintenance) for ports they own to make their labor hours be more efficient as well as resources produced more (or faster) is really awesome, and I know of some people who do take advantage of these perks for ports outside the safezone. Possibly increasing this bonus even more when a Nation holds the whole region of ports could further point to giving better rewards for the risk (risk of having assets get locked by enemies when the port is taken away). So if the bonus is 20% increase trade and 40% reduction in labor hour cost. The regional bonus could increase both by another 10%, making it 30% and 50% respectively. again, numbers could change if needed. if a clan does not have those bonuses active in the port, the regional bonus would just give them a 10% and 10% bonus respectively. 3. increase chances for better ship crafting (purple and gold ships more likely to be crafted). Holding a Region should grant Crafters the ability to take advantage of the region's resources and manpower in order to construct powerful vessels. giving nations and clans another reason to capture the whole region. This bonus could be guaranteed or just a better chance to get the good ships. Again, an enemy nation or opposing clan could disrupt this bonus by taking just 1 port in a region. 4. increase in chances for better ship trims (like very fast, very cramped, very agile etc) as well as a way to "force" a ship trim possibly. This goes in line with #3 as well and pretty much the same thing. Possibly allowing Crafters to regulate what trims on what ships, or just having a higher chance for better trims. I know there are quite a few more that other folks could add, or on the opposite end, a few reasons for why this may be a bad idea. I'd love to hear either side of the argument
  14. Spotted this quoted elsewhere and what follows is a possible partial explanation and at least a partial solution. I am not a zero-risk player but I started on PvE. I am a long-term Civilization player and I rather blundered into NA while looking for something more interesting than Sid Meyer's Pirates. I've never done anything even remotely similar to NA or online multiplayer. The US nation on PvE was a place to sort out the game mechanics. But there is structural obstacle in the economy that frankly contributes to boredom on PvE. It affects the Caribbean server as well, but less obviously so. I've posted about this before. There seems to be very little interest in the community on the matter. The bottom-up view on this is that the inability to see contract activity without visiting a port creates a functional bottleneck in player economic activity. It is probably not an issue with high server populations. But in a low population environment, either on the server as a whole, or in a particular region, it is going to be a game killer. The effect on PvE is that a player very rarely can get a contract filled outside of a national capital. At any price. It is a feedback loop. Since since the econ activity is in the Capital, that is where you do the contracts, and resulting in very little buy/sell activity outside of it. Which means a PvE player really can't get very far from a national capital if they are interested in at least some interaction with other players. I circuited Cuba scouting the area (from Charleston) and the Caribbean region was pretty much a player desert. My opinion, is that at a minimum, player buy/sell contracts need to be on equal footing in the trader tool with the port stock. I watch port stock looking for reasonable consistency in availability before I spend time sailing any distance. The same thing ought to be true of buy / sell contracts rather than the current complete crapshoot. It would be nice to see the same thing with ship sales but making contracts visible would remove the bottleneck. The econ activity would be present elsewhere to actually support shipyards outside the green zone. In the PvP environment it is possible to kludge around the problem by maxing out outpost permits. But addressing contract visibility would help here as well. Player activity would start to spread out beyond the green zones and at least some of the argument about green zone mechanics and OW incentives would become irrelevant. Including the argument over taxes. Would like at least a yes, this is on our radar, or we have this alternative in mind, or no. An explanation would be nice, but I can live with a flat no, and I will not quibble with that, or any explanation you offer. I suspect this is not a trivial coding project and it is your game.
  15. New player on the PvE server here, with economy suggestions. I've hunted around for this and I apologize in advance if the issues have already been addressed somewhere. Improving communication between buyers and sellers in-game will boost the level of economic activity, particularly by newer players. I haven't played on the PvP server yet much but it seems like this might boost the number of targets for you all as well. Two suggestions, either of which might help. 1) Make contracts to buy visible on the trader tool. If I understand the codes it currently shows (A)vailable, (P)roduces and (C)onsumes. Add a column to display (B)uyers. 2) Provision outposts so owners can post notices and advertise their presence in a town. I am guessing free-format notes would probably overload the servers so this would need to be standardized. The content could be limited to nationality, clan, and commodities bought or sold. All optional elements as there might be situations were you would want to post products for sale but not advertise nationality or clan. The notices would need to expire, possibly five days after the player's last contract at that outpost. (And YES the new tutorial was extremely helpful to a new player trying to wrap my head around the cannon mechanics!)
  16. I hate RNG. With that out of the way: I suggest: Advancing crafting experience. Atm we have crafting lvls and the RNG that's is basically useless. I'd like to see the crafting trees expanded by for example giving the crafters increasing specialization: A clan (or individual) could have a crafter that specialized in first rates and for each first rate he moves up in the xp and after for example 20 first rates he get a choice for a trim he can add to the first rates in the future (and it is NOT random what trim he can add - it's a chosen perk just like the ordinary perks). This can be expanded to specific ships and not just ship types. If for example a crafter specializes in H.Rattlesnakes then he get's the possibility to add more and more trims to add. And most important of all: NO MORE RNG!
  17. Hello fellow Captains, Long ago me and my clan mates discussed a possibility for the Devs to introduce Whaling to the OW. This could be an option such as fishing which would in return enhance trading and economy as whaling was one of the most rewarding, however, harsh and gruelling activities in the Age of Sailing. If such a gameplay opportunity exists it would: 1. Enhance Trading and Economy, by adding additional depth to it (new resource, balance difference between other rare resources); 2. Enhance PvP. It could potentially bring more traders into deep seas where PvP would be done. To go into more detail, these would be specific zones for, say, whale migration, thus making some waters more dangerous and profitable. In return, not only us, PvPers, the Master Race, would benefit but also those who trade would have to defend themselves by adding combat ships to their whaling fleets; 3. Enhance Global Chat trash talk and PvE rage (depends); 4. Add some side history to sailing vessels and the region. The resource would obviously be, Whale Oil and it should be extremely rewarding, however, balanced between other resources so they don't become obsolete. What is very important - do not make it as a fishing option or Pray option (yes, I know). This should be a completely different action, which can be done at specific zones (need to do some animal migration research there) so it does not come a free ticket to unlimited wealth and has it's downside. I haven't thought about this in more detail but I'm keen to participate in developing this with and advice etc. Please share your thoughts on this. May the wind be with you, HMS Victory
  18. Hi captains, me again with another suggestion. Currently the hull repairs are much more expensive than the really cheap (to cheap) repairs at the habours. For me the hull repairs are something you would need to make temporary combat damage repair (CDR). To balance the running costs of ships more to a steady cost instead to, if i have to use hull repairs i lose money, i would make both repair methods completly different. 1. Hull repairs get way cheaper. They no longer repair the ship with the same performance. Every damage you repair only gains 30% of its original strength back. You can repair leaks, masts, etc. If you for example repair your demasted ship, the mast only has 30% strength and can't use full sails on good wind conditions anymore, because of the stress. So you can make a ship sea worthy but not combat ready anymore. Therefore repairing to full hp during battle is no more. 2. Habour repairs are now essential. Therefore they become much more expensive. If your ship repaired with hull repairs, they won't be counted for the harbour repair (these patchworks have to get removed anyway). I would calculate cost as follows: cost for a new stripped ship = 100% -> for every 1% damage you need to get repaired you pay 1.1% (yes repairing is more expansive than new). This would still be viable except your ship is completly garbage (5% hull left...) 3. Repair your ship yourself at a shipyard. Dependend on what is damaged an how much the needed ressources and manhours are calculated. 4. Let an ally repair it for you. Same conditions as 3. except he wants to make profit.
  19. The Suggestion is Simple. Right now Trade happens almost 100% Local. With no Info on other Ports available. Now how could we improve that without breaking immersion. The Answer is by addint Trade Posts and Taverns. 1. Trade Posts Trade Posts would allow us to Post Buy and Sell Offers not only in the Local Port but in a certain Range of Ports around that Port. Of course the Tradepost would demand a Share of the Profit for Spreading the Offer around. And even if the Order is visible in other Ports the Goods still need to be bought to the Port where the Order came from. 2. Taverns Taverns would allow us to get gossip from the Sailors that travel around. We could see what Surrounding Ports have in their Stores. It might also be used for Missions and Events later. And even as a bit of an Player News source for example if a Large Fleet Battle took place this might pop up in the Infos for a Port 3. How it works. There is two choices. Either use regular NPC Trade Routes. So the other Ports get the News when NPC Ships travel by to update them. Which gives alot of Immersion as Info would spread along trade routes realistically making info more outdated the further away you get and also allows to interdict info. Or we go with a Simple Timer based on Distance. In which Info Spreads The lazy variant so go say ^^ What will this do? Most of all it will increase Player Trade. If I see that someone in Port A wants to buy 1000 Iron for 600 Gold each and that in Port B someone sells 1000 Iron for 400 Gold each. I can Buy it and Ship it thus getting a Reward and get Economy Running. It also allows Players to find Ships and Stuff without docking in each port. If I know from the Tavern that 10 minutes ago there was still 60 long barrel Cannons in Port X and I need these I can go there directly instead of randomly searching for a place to get Long Cannons. This as well greatly promotes Economy Even better. This could include info like 10 minutes ago an Enemy Fleet was roaming the Area or that someone attacked Traders there etc. Making it easier to find PvP or avoid it when you want to Transport big stuff ^^ Finally it would greatly add towards making the world feel alife
  20. Currently the Economy is mostly Dead. And worse alot of Ports are entirely meaningless. Trade barely Exists as well. We need a Jumpstart and we need a Baseline. EVERY Port should Consume Goods and EVERY Port should Produce Goods. Not only Basic Raw Materials but even Items. This Production and Consumption can be Limited to make sure that Players run the Economy in the Big Picture. The advanced Production should be listed as Ressources as well. For Example. Our Port has Iron Mines, Silver Mines and a Workshop. So he Produces Iron Ore and Silver Ore He also Consumes Iron Ore and Silver Ore as well as Coal Due to which he also Produces Iron Ingots and Silver Ingots Ports would be bigger or smaller. A Port that has a Shipyard for example would consume vast amounts if Ship Materials but also Produce a Number of Ships every day. While another Port would have only ressource deposits and no industry. Hence not much Consumption but due to this a much higher production of the base Goods it has. This would get the Game Economy Running again and give people places to fight for as well as establish certain trade routes where players can get a profit
  21. This thread is to discuss my suggestion to get one of the core game mechanics fixed for those interested in other parts of the game outside of combat. This will provide alternative options of gameplay and to supplement non-trade/crafting orientated gameplay (Missions, PvP, PvE, Conquest, Exploring). The biggest issue with the economy revolves around supply/demand supplemented by a player run economy model and low population numbers. To address this we need to break down the economy into the different parts and address each part and how it ties together. First I will cover off on common terms used throughout, then I will identify the key areas with suggestions to fix each if needed, and finally I will provide a conclusion. Terms Common terms used: Store inventory - The quantity available within the shop of a port Raw resources - Goods produced through 'harvesting' in the craft menu - i.e: Logs, Ore, Hemp, etc. Manufactured materials - Parts made from raw resources and other manufactured materials but are not usable themselves - i.e: Frame Parts, Planking, Rigging Parts, etc. Manufactured goods - Finished products usable as consumables, upgrades, and cannons - i.e: Hull Patches, Turning Trim, 6pd Medium Cannons, etc. Trade goods - All the products not usable in crafting but consumables for ports - i.e: Sussex Oak, Fine Leathers, Parisian Furniture, etc. Goods - Encompasses all the previously mentioned goods - Trade goods, Raw resources, Manufactured materials, and Manufactured goods Currently in game: Supply The supply of goods can come in three different forms: Acquisition Appears in the shop for sale Acquisition is a static figure with a % chance of occurring to add stock to a port. Production Produced by players Production is goods produced through raw resource harvesting buildings Trade Populates the port inventory through the sale of goods to the store Trade occurs when players sell goods to a store or when NPC trade ships arrive at a port (unconfirmed the effect). Consumption The consumption of goods in a port are static transactions that reduce the port stock by a set amount every hour. Biggest Issues: Population Player numbers are FAR too low to support the existing model! Acquisition Quantity of acquired goods are purely added by a static figure that does not adjust based on nation population/activity Acquired goods are mostly only shippable from region capital to region capital, other ports are not interested in the goods Production Raw resources produced by players are more expensive than NPC port prices, it is actually more affordable to source from NPC shop inventory then from player contracts Some goods are ignored by players and therefore create massive shortages when NPC shops are not populating regularly as an alternative No profit in shipping goods from raw resource ports to the manufacturing hubs Some raw resources are not available through production Trade Goods moved from an acquiring port to a consumption port are being consumed at a static rate similar to acquisition of goods, there is no adjustment for player population/activity to increase/decrease in proportion Dock space Limited to a small number of slots globally Limited in number of upgrades available Upgrade costs to increase number of slots are astronomically high Building Slots Global limit of 5 buildings Upgrading buildings is costly for minimal gains Production ports Minimal variations of raw resources of ports in proximity to one another meaning ports further from a hub will rarely see any activity Proposed changes: Ports Dock space: Needs to be port dependant, not global. Each player with an outpost in a port should be granted 1 slot in a production port or 3 slots in a regional capital. A player will then need to purchase the upgrades currently available at the current prices to increase their slots available that is applied globally (to make it easy to store a players data). The UI also needs to indicate slots currently used vs total available so a player can visually see how many they have total in a port, currently there is nothing. Outposts should remain the current model of purchasing additional spots however, the increasing pricing without a hard limit needs to be slightly more reasonable. Building slots: (I will cover buildings in more detail later) Limits need to be port specific, not global. In a raw resource port the limit should be 3 and regional capitals 5. 'Upgrading' of buildings needs to change. Buildings Speaking of buildings, it needs a different approach: When you purchase an 'upgrade' to an existing building it should use up an additional slot within that port - A capital cannot have a level 3 shipyard, a workshop, AND a level 3 oak lumber camp. Raw goods ports will require more careful planning, one should choose to either a single level 3 resource building OR 3 separate level 1 resource harvesting buildings if multiple resources are available within a port. This means that for someone to have level three harvesting buildings across multiple ports it will quickly become time consuming and more investment capital required in outpost permits. This will limit massive conglomerates but reward the hard working and smart investors while remaining viable for players entering the resource or manufacturing market. Workshops should be upgradable - Level 1 to class 6, level 2 to class 3, level 3 all cannons/carronades. Again, this will force players into considering investing in a level 3 shipyard OR level 3 workshop unless they invest in another regional capital and split their manufacturing across multiple hubs. Port Population There currently is no difference between major hubs and smaller ports while consumption/acquisition is static. This needs to change to provide the dynamic and evolving world for players to interact with. I am proposing that population be based on two key figures - Production activity and Trade activity. Production Activity As players construct outposts and production/manufacturing buildings within a port, it will 'grow' the population figure of the port with better figures from 'active' ports (players harvesting resources) Port population increases the 'consumption' figures to reflect more people settling in the port for work at the production buildings. Trade Activity Key component as a flourishing port where raw goods are purchased from NPC producers which in turn promotes increasing NPC stock availability of that good to be supplied to the port store at a price above player production costs but not cost prohibitive to purchase nor restrict player profits in port either (~50% markup?) Sale of consumption goods to port encourages the growth through supplying the needs of a port. At any point that players demolish their buildings and outposts or when consumption goods go unfulfilled for long periods then the population would decrease. The supply of goods should remain with the three primary methods mentioned earlier however to address shortages and supply: Acquisition Expensive Trade goods should be exclusive to regions, not necessarily nation but will promote smuggling activity when another nation in a far port has a valuable trade good where massive profits could be made. Lower cost nation specific trade goods appear in all regional capitals and are in demand in all non-capital ports based on population. Raw resources specific to ports can be treated as 'acquired' as an interim measure to replicate NPC producers. Needs to scale based on port activity as mentioned above in trade activity Manufactured materials should appear in small dynamic quantities to replicate NPC crafters, needs to be expensive (2-3x player crafting) to provide space for player sellers without blowing the market out of proportion. Production As per buildings section above, players will be the primary producers of goods Raw resources in the shop will be populated under the acquisition section until NPC producers could be implemented in a better form. Trade Ports need to have far more consumption items including commonsense items such as whole fish, fish meat, and food supplies. Ports need to have consumption of all trade goods with better prices the further they are away from regional capitals or when they are becoming larger/wealthier from player activity/trade. Goods Pricing This has been partially covered previously but prices are currently very confusing. There is no commonsense approach to this, when production cost for Oak Logs currently is 73 gold and I can purchase them for 42 from an NPC shop, it defies logic. This is where prices need to be adjusted and as developers you can influence the economy to ensure it doesn't stagnate while promoting shipment of goods. Raw resources Purchase prices at raw resources ports should be low but not lower than production costs with a little margin thrown in (50% markup?) Purchase prices at manufacturing hubs should be punishing but not insane (~300% markup from craft cost?) Sale prices of raw resources in production ports should punish stuipidity (half production cost) Sale prices of raw resources in manufacturing hubs should be profitable enough to encourage movement of goods to restock but not out do player purchase orders (50% markup?) Manufacturing materials Purchase prices for manufacturing materials in hubs should be expensive but not entirely cost prohibitive for basic ship/upgrade construction (2-3x crafting cost) (Oak frames but not Teak frame, etc) Sale prices of manufacturing materials in hubs should be above the cost of materials if harvested and crafted to offer the option to supply the port when no one else is interested Sale/Purchase prices of manufactured materials at raw resource ports should be very low to encourage moving goods from non-hub ports where a player has chosen to manufacture Manufactured goods Sale prices on finished products should be above crafting costs as a last resort but not enough to exploit Purchase prices should be punishing but not insane (~500% markup from craft cost?) Trade goods All lower priced goods should be low buy prices in region capitals and high sell prices in resource ports linking in with population All high end trade goods should be regionally priced, moving goods from one regional capital to another should be good but not insane profit with modest profits if sold to resource ports within a region, again feeding the population/consumption. Ship Production I haven't found any major flaws to the current crafting system, it's been mostly the economy that has been the flaw that is breaking the ship building industry. The one change that needs to happen is that player crafted ships NEED to have at least 2 or 3 durability to actually ENCOURAGE purchasing player ships over NPC ships. The PvP servers are dying for a few more durability or ships while the PvE server is flooded with overpriced capped ships with no effort to craft better. Secondly, selling/breaking up ships. What is the go here? You want players to craft ships to increase craft rank, ok. But what do they do with the unwanted masses they need to make in order to progress? Selling them at 3% of the production cost to the NPC store is cost prohibitive. Swamping the market with cheap boats destroys the 'player led' model economy. And breaking up ships for a meger few pieces of scrap is an insult. What needs to happen is breaking up a ship should yield between 25-50% of the craft materials. NPC sale prices need to be at a minimum a slight profit from the cost of crafting the ship (~20%) to encourage people to pursue ship crafting. *edit: Admiralty Store One thing I didn't mention is the admiralty store, everything that is available that is not merely aesthetics SHOULD be purchasable with gold. This prevents pricing small clans/solo traders out of business and also prevents the current turn towards a P2W style. As it stands to obtain the correct marks one must either play PvE server or participate in the majority of PBs to earn enough to provide ships for the players focused on PBs and PvP. It just doesn't make sense to force the people who choose to supply the market instead of battling with engaging in a part of the game they aren't interested in and if they never did indulge in it wouldn't make a difference to the greater scheme of it. Asking a crafter to harvest 25 conquest marks simply to produce a single SOL for other players will hugely inflate prices due to the grind cost associated with it. On the contrary asking a PvPer / PvE mission grinder to have to trade goods and craft goods as a prerequisite to sail the next ship up would infuriate the player base. This needs a serious rethink, it needs options for both sides. Combat orientated players SHOULD earn less gold but SHOULD have an avenue to BPs / Permits / Upgrades etc. the same as Crafting / Econ orientated players SHOULD be earning the most gold but also SHOULD be able to purchase everything at a premium (i.e: Victory BP for 5 mil, Permit for 200k, Crafted ships will thus sell around 1-1.5 mil on the market or less internally). /edit* Conclusion These suggestions to fix the economy are based on my experience having played many 'economy simulation' games from as early as the original Sid Myer's Pirates!, Port Royale series, PotBS, to name a few more relevant games, and many more. These suggestions are by no means to completely resolve the economy issues but at a minimum revolve around tidying up the markets, providing a 'player led' economy model while using NPCs as a way to moderate prices and prevent abuse of the markets. It will encourage players to branch out beyond the starting regions, encourage supplying the ports they use to harvest resources, provide a more dynamic and immersive economy that can bring about more player interaction in the wider regions of the map. I'm not looking to hear how PvP needs this or that, they have had their time, take that to your own suggestion threads, please keep criticism constructive. If you don't agree with me on trying to fix this mess before the game is completely abandoned then please, by all means spend half your own evening devising an alternative, I long to hear more people offering solutions to the problems.
  22. Economy: Remove AI port consumption of crafted materials and remove the AI consumption of rare wood logs we need for crafting = should help getting a player driven economy. The way the economy works now it is not rewarding enough for players to bother supplying the player marked with much or anything at all.. Because it is so much easier to craft 10.000 iron ingots and sell it to a AI ports, that are consuming crafted materials. As long as the traders and crafters are not supplying the player marked, we will never see the healthy competitive prices on ship, cannons or consumables. Because there are to few who are making this stuff now the prices stay high and the solo players will have a hard/terrible time ingame. Also the AI ports are for some reason consuming the rare limited woods.. So traders players are buying it up, thereby pushing the prices up, just so they can sell it to AI ports.. In the big picture this is contributing to making PvP expensive! But I would still argue for lowering the prices on crafting fir log, oak log and iron ore with 50%. Because we need so much of it just to craft the basic stuff, like repairs and cannons. A different solution could be to lower the need for it in all crafting recipes with 50%. Then we would need less and have more labor hours, but that is a larger change and risk effecting more aspects.. Speed meta/upgrades: Reduce drop rate, nerf speed gain % and/or add more drawbacks. Speed caped ships should be rare and impossible for most ships. The speed mods are to powerful and to common now. Copper plating, Gazelle Bow Figurine, Crooked hull refit (has a nice drawback at least), Bovenwinds Refit ( I have not tested this), Optimized ballast and probably some more. We also have the perk for extra storage space now that gives you extra speed if you don't load you ship up to much (this might be a bug). This all needs some nerfing and/or more drawbacks for balancing. Because when you have a ship that can carry 75 + rigg repairs in the hold and still be speed capped at 15 kn, then you are uncatchable. At best it just becomes a stale in OW between players with speed capped ships. And the losers are those who enter OW in a ship that can't reach the speed cap. So now if you have a ship that does 14.99 kn, just stay in port. If you go out looking for PvP you will be hunted down and killed by a/several faster ship. And if you try to hunt the players outside your own port they will out run you. IMO it should be very rare to have a speed caped ship, almost impossible. My fir/teak Suprise does 15 kn with repairs, just with 4 speed modules. It should not be so easy, and it should not be possible to do with so many ships. Leaving a battle instance/Revenge fleets issue: In a battle we often sail in one direction for a long time. Even after the battle is over, we can still sail for another 15 minutes. So why can we not leave a battle instance and enter open world in the same position? Because when we leave we magically reappear where it all began. And that makes it to easy for other player to camp the battle site in OW. I'm assuming the coordinates between OW and in the battle instance are interchangeable, but they might not be. A solution then could be to calculate the distance traveled in the battle, and then add that to our X and Y coordinates when returning to OW. I'm also supporting the removal of the battle cross when the battle closes, but not as long as we still have the invisibility feature. Because the invisibility cloak is abused to surround unaware players. Therefor we need the battle crosses ingame as a warning sign to players traveling through. Reducing the join time for battles further, adding Exit to friendly harbor option or increasing invisibility time will not help PvP, at least not long term. It will guarantee a gank fest right now that will slowly kill of our new players. Because the losers in those fights will be solo players and new players. And when they get scared away from sailing in OW, then we all lose.. Feel free do discuss and disagree.. ^^
  23. Prior to the patch yesterday i had 197 PVE Marks. Today i downloaded the patch and when i logged in it had converted to the new Combat Marks. (So 197 Combat Marks.) I took a 2nd Lieutenant Mission and went out and killed two "Rookie Snows" and earned 4 more Combat Marks and upon returning to port i now have 0 Combat marks. Instead if 197 + 4 = 201 Combat marks i now have 0, they all have disappeared.
  24. Conquest Marks, PVP marks, PVE Marks, Gold... There are so many currencies in this game that it is impossible to balance them all. Get rid of them all except Gold. Combat earns XP and Gold. Crafting earns XP (and profits in gold if you sell your wares). All items in admiralty are priced in gold. Adjust the amount of rewards and prices as you will based on difficulty and desired scarcity. It seems to me that a) this system would be easier to get the economy right and b)would allow players to pursue their own paths to "success".
  25. Hey captains, I noticed that multiple players are experiencing issues with the way the port wares work. One reason why the economy was subjectively more profitable before the wipe might be the reason that there were simply less active "player" traders. So I would suggest to scale parts of the economy based on players online. Possible factors would be: Frequency of Consume/Produce Amount of Goods I think the NPC fleets are already scaled this way - or at least it seems this way. What do you think? Edit: I also think this would be in tune with the devs demand/supply policy
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