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Port Battle Night Flips Gone… Just read… Table of UTC times and PB times are at the bottom of this POST Merging the Servers is truly needed, but trying to solve the Night Flip issue seems to be a problem for most. FIRST open your mind and think about this. The table shows different locals around the world including the UTC Timer. At whatever time, a PB happens someone somewhere it’s going to be a night flip. Flip the Problem instead… Having a 3am Port Battle on a School night is no fun. Mrs. nChances’ comment of “you’re a dick Norf…” am truly starting to believe crawling out of bed at some un-Godly hour. However, at weekends its quite a different story and one will Snort, Smoke and drink just as much as you do. We play NA for longer and at either ends of our normal play times than done in the week. So, you know how to suck eggs? Now before you stop reading or rolling your eyes make sure you read to the end. ALL PORT BATTLES will happen between UTC Saturday and UTC Sunday. PB will not be a weekly event anymore. I shouldn’t need to point out WHY this is needed for both commercial and population numbers. It’s ideal for the present community size. When we are at 5,000 a day then re-open the Weekly. The attacker has TWO decisions to now make. Attackers Decisions… The first is what day UTC Saturday or UTC Sunday he wants the Port Battle. This is decided on what day he pops the Hostility Mechanic. Popping on a Saturday, Sunday or a Monday will result in a NEXT Saturday Port Battle. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday will result in the NEXT Sunday Port Battle. So, shortest prep time is Popping on a Friday to Battle that same Sunday. The Longest is popping on a Saturday resulting in the PB the following Saturday. You get the idea, right? The second decision the attacker will need to make is a Start Time of the Battle. This by far the cause of 75% of the bull shit posted on the main forum, “…but its middle of the night for me…” Unfortunately the Dev’s need to listen, unlike me and the Mrs. Who don’t give a fcuk… really, I don’t care. However, I do care about the games survival so this is the chance element that comes into play. The Attacker will be given three choices Early, Mid or Late day session time only. Look at the UTC timer at the bottom of this POST again. Shouldn’t need to explain it to a bright well-meaning bunch as you lot but E_PB_1 to E_PB_6 are the six early session time slots. The attacker picking the early start, the GAME will randomly pick one of the six times. In this case E_PB_4 or UTC 13:00. The window is SIX hours in size so NOT exact like before 46hours and you’re done… You can see how this element is just wide enough in time scale to cause problems on either side. That chance is a key element… A bit of Give N Take is needed now… The PvP EU guys will be really happy with this obviously. The weekend so NOT at that un-Godly hour that a couple of lines and a French red wouldn’t solve. The strategic forced element of PvP Global pushing the night flip strategy can still sort of work. But it’s a six-hour gamble… it works… it’s a chance element… I wanted this to be the front end start of my BLOCKADE Port Battle Idea 1.02 which is in the suggestions thread somewhere. This extending out across three days instead of just two days. The two ideas work well together now to bring All players of any Nation Clan or solo into every Port Battle event into a single focus… If you think the idea is rubbish let me know, if you have a better one likewise… Norfolk

What if a port battle would have screening phase and port battle phase. Everyone can join port battle lobby, and if there is enough players for all roles, each player may be in one role. If there is not enough players, players may join 2nd role after battle. You play 1st the screening phase (could be even multiple). If you win, there will be another match that will be the port battle. It would be possible to create different kind of port battle screening scenarios as well. For example: (You have to win majority) 1. 25vs25 2. 3x 5v5 3. 10vs10 + 3x 5v5 4. 9x 3vs3 5. 10vs10 + 5x 3vs3 6. 2x 25vs25 Screening fleets would be for smaller ships, frigates, max 4th/5th rates for example. Port Battles then for big ships, SOLs, min 4th rates for example. Or BR limited, or rate limited, or BR&Rate limited. Development would be pretty simple, as you only need a lobby for this. There can be countless of different screnarios. No issues with ROE, or with things like small/big nation etc. Current screening mechanism could be then used for Raids and/or Flags. We would have 2 different systems, maybe richer PvP offering as well. About the night flip: Times for battles could rotate, for example in steps of 4 or 6 hours. Everyone will have their night battles/flips.

Possible Night flip solution Hey all, First off I'd like to ask everyone to please be respectful and constructive. I know this is a very polarizing issue, but this is an attempt at a solution, so give it a chance. It is clear that these "Night Flip/Work Flips" are really causing issues between the nations. Here's a suggestion. What if each nation could vote on the time period in which they are unable to fight. Similar to diplomacy, each nation could set a window of immunity in which attacks against their nation can't be initiated. Heres my idea of how this immunity period would work. Voting - Let's say we are playing for the Purple Nation. Each player of the purple nation gets to set a start time and end time for the dead period. There is a limit to the length of this period, let's say 8 hours. All the votes of that nation are compiled, they are averaged together, and the result becomes the immunity period. Immunity - During this time period hostility cant be generated against the purple nation. However, the purples can still attack the other nations around them, and they can still join allies in defenses/attacks. Example 1 - Purple nation has 10 members that all agree in advance to pick a time from 1:00 - 9:00 to be the immunity period, and it is set. Example 2 - Red nation has 20 members, and they can't agree. 10 members vote for 6:00 - 12:00 8 members vote for 2:00 - 10:00 2 members vote for 15:00 - 23:00 The result is 5:18 - 13:18. This allows everyone to have at least a little input on the overall decision. Yes, some large groups can swing it one way or another, but they wont have full control. Possible ramifications - This could lead to a dead period where no attacks can be made against an alliance if they all set the same dead period. I realize this could be seen as a problem, but perhaps this suggestion combined with a way to regularly split up the alliances could solve this. I'm very open to feedback, and am willing to listen to other points of view. Also the 8 hour window is just an example, it could be more or less. Discuss. EDIT: Update: I have changed the method for compiling the votes. Instead of a majority takes all, the votes will be averaged together. This allows everyone to have some input. Update: Changed Example 2 to better fit this version.

Heyho, I leave this here, but I think wraith solution might be the better one. You'll find it here: