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Content plans for the first half of 2017


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I like the inclusion of missions and the hostility rating. I find it disappointing those would be removed.

 

There are two reasons I support the continued inclusion of missions. First, at least for the lower level or new players, it is difficult to find a suitable target to get XP and blood themselves. If all you have is a basic cutter or a pickle, you need something pretty equal to fight. I can't tell you the last time I saw either of those sailing alone in the OW, even in the rookie area.

 

Second, for the higher tier missions, they are still a great way to get modules since wrecks no longer give them. Don't give me "free market, blah blah blah" - I understand how that works. If you get rid of higher tier missions (and this assumes elimination of "epic events", which serve absolutely no purpose at the moment since they do not have an epic reward to go with them), and eliminate hostility generation, then it is highly unlikely you'll get a fleet of 10-25 people together "just for the fun" of going after a large NPC fleet. If you have that many people, they will be looking for PVP and such NPC fleets will be either 1) obsolete and unnecessary, or 2) used as screening forces by players. You would need an all or nothing approach to this, and I believe the "nothing" approach would make the seas rather barren, leaving only the "all" approach.

 

Finally, there are those amongst the player base who, while and preferring PVP, do not always have the time to go on a long hunt, but would nonetheless like some simple combat in the open world. Hostility and missions both support this.

 

Nonetheless, glad to see there is a vision for 2017.

Edited by James Cornelius
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Dumping hostility and missions...good

Bringing AI back capable of attacking in OW....good

Adding a port conquest mechanism dependant on some sort of ?PVP type achievements....good

Adding pirate raiding etc...fantastic!

Adding pay to play ships....terrible!   This opens a Pandora's box.

Dropping officers...neutral

In addition to these changes, I suggest dropping the politics/alliances.

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The six month roadmap is very discouraging in several ways to include the potential for play-to-win and the developers becoming frustrated over the feedback from testers.  I remember many times in reading the forums how we are ONLY testers and the game is still in beta.  For the developers to walk away from our feedback at this point in time is dangerous to say the least.  I am also deeply concerned over the lack on new content in the game and the appearance that the game is no closer to going "live" than it was months ago.

Specific comments on features:

1.Admiralty - looks like another rework of the Port Battle system.  Is this the proverbial third strike?  Certainly the current system has pretty much reduced port battles to a rarity and any improvement in both quality and quantity would be greatly appreciated.  Personally, I recall the summer port battles as both engaging and fun with lots of fighting and screening.  I would not mind getting back to that period even if it includes some sort of flag mechanic.  Screening for port battles nowadays is pretty much a waste of time.

2. Missions-  really?  better before missions?  Not sure where you are getting your feedback but try again. You have a function that works in the game but you are going to delete it because you don't like it.  Sure missions are boring and it is a grind to level but without missions how are you going to level?  Dailies could be fun with the right incentive but I doubt they will be anything more than fancy missions.  If it ain't broken don't fix it.  Please expand on why you think missions are bad?

3. Raids - okay this could be fun and perhaps new content but without more information hard to tell.

4. Pirates - do they still exist?  Only kidding.  Something needs to be done.  Personally make a decision pirates are either a nation or independent scallywags and go with it.  Right or wrong you will have a position in place and people can decide what to do from there.  Remember, you can't please everyone.

5. Officers - why change things?  Again, what is broken with officers?  The mechanics work and they do add variety to the game.

6. NPC changes - I hope this includes the return of traders.  NPCs are more of a graphics enhancement (nice to see other ships sailing) than anything else.  The elimination, almost, of solo traders really hurts those who just want to capture a trader for a few minutes of fun and to get their cargo.

7.  Kickstarter - bad idea.  If we are talking about only the "skins" fine but if you are talking about paying for better quality ships this would be a huge mistake.  Many people are already frustrated by the fact that Heavy Rattlers, Aggies, and Ocean Blueprints are not readily available.  Personally, I think that all blueprints should at least be available, perhaps not easily obtained, but not by some random luck in an event.

8.  The other items are pretty much self explanatory and do not warrant feedback.

Bottom line, no new content and breaking things that are not broken simply for the sake of making changes (my two cents since no explanation of why missions and officers are broken).  This game had so much potential but I fear it may have peaked this past summer.   Also, for those out there who are bemoaning PVE, please realize for this game to work it will take many types of players including PVPers, PVErs, Crafters, big guild types, solo players, hardcore players and casual players.  Yes, PVP is fun but if you want a PVP sandbox this game has developed (hopefully) beyond that.  There is room for everyone if we think big.

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Sweet.  Jesus.  People.  Its CLEARLY NOT PAY TO PLAY....  Its saying if enough people are interested in UPGRADING a ship that many of us wish looked better, they will do a Kickstarter to update and replace it in-game for EVERYONE.  If you dont want to, you certainly do not have to contribute.  Do you not understand how that works?  But more likely, its the same people who cry holy hell about having to contribute a little something will be the first ones to use it once its introduced and say how great it looks.

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A kickstarter??

For a game that in a year's time added very little in meaningful content that can be summed up in a few words.. Land in PB's, some forts along the coast, fishing and a prey button?

For a game that is still balls deep in alpha dev stage with a steep price tag of 37€..

For a game in which most of its patches consists of mainly balancing and mechanics changes..

This thing is nowhere near completion and by the looks of it it will be a long time before it seas the light of day. At this point one might as well call it "abandonware"! 

Majority who played already left for the greener pastures with only the faithful few remaining, and now there is talk of a "kickstarter"? 

The roadmap for 2017, more rebalances, cutting off what little content no matter how boring it may be (missions), and actually NO new content. This is a joke! 

 

 

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12 hours ago, admin said:

Community relations heads up

  • In 2016 we have been very active on the forums, responded to you multiple times a day, participated in the discussions, argued with you and sometimes fought with you. We found that our openness/directness started to be used against us, sometimes because of us. We will be doing some changes in the way we talk and discuss things with the community. 

 

People seem to be overreacting to this statement. It says nothing of reducing or curtailing communication, it really only speaks of changing its nature. To me it implies they will be more guarded and less candid, which in most respects is a shame.

The devs do need to be a little more careful about dropping premature bombshells that lead players to temporarily stop playing.

Beyond that I sincerely hope the dev/tester dialog continues much as before. I don't have a problem with them being human, unlike some others here in these forums that are accusative or abusive at the drop of a freaking hat.

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5 minutes ago, Rabid_Infidel said:

A kickstarter??

For a game that in a year's time added very little in meaningful content that can be summed up in a few words.. Land in PB's, some forts along the coast, fishing and a prey button?

For a game that is still balls deep in alpha dev stage with a steep price tag of 37€..

For a game in which most of its patches consists of mainly balancing and mechanics changes..

This thing is nowhere near completion and by the looks of it it will be a long time before it seas the light of day. At this point one might as well call it "abandonware"! 

Majority who played already left for the greener pastures with only the faithful few remaining, and now there is talk of a "kickstarter"? 

The roadmap for 2017, more rebalances, cutting off what little content no matter how boring it may be (missions), and actually NO new content. This is a joke! 

 

 

Name me a Age of Sail game that comes close to the quality of Naval Action. The combat is amazing, we have a really nice ship variety and it looks gorgeous. Tweaking needs to be done in this stage of development. But for an alpha it's one hell of a game.

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Just now, Pada said:

Name me a Age of Sail game that comes close to the quality of Naval Action. The combat is amazing, we have a really nice ship variety and it looks gorgeous. Tweaking needs to be done in this stage of development. But for an alpha it's one hell of a game.

Isn't that a sad irony in itself? A naval game WITHOUT a competition in it's niche that barely tops 800 players at weekend peak times!

I think this speaks volumes more about the state of the game that i could ever write in my lifetime!   

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2 hours ago, Pada said:

Tell me if i'm wrong but i think star citizen does exactly this, it's still in alpha and uses kickstarter to expand it's content.

Not correct at all. SC had one Kickstarter that ended, past-tense, Nov. 19th 2012, that appropriately launched the project and got it off the ground. All continued crowdfunding has been done privately, and even private funding has ceased adding stretch goals since the end of 2014 due to huge project scope creep.

I'm wholeheartedly against this concept of using outside funding to finalize the product. What would make -more- sense, and what has worked for countless other game developers, is a game sale. While it might seem counter-intuitive to charge less for your product, even for a limited time, it is a proven business practice that sporadic, short sales actually increase revenue. 100 copies sold at half price will definitely net you more than 20 (or even 0) copies sold at full price. I hear time and again from friends and friends of friends that they aren't comfortable paying $40 for an early-access game with mixed reviews, regardless of their legitimacy, but they would definitely pick it up and give it a go for $20.

Furthermore, if the game goes on sale, older players will encourage new players to join and come back themselves. it's a win-win; devs get more revenue, and we get a more active player base to sink pillage sail with.

The icing on the cake: If the game really is struggling and the community is leaving, why would it make sense to be less active and engaged with that community? There is indeed a careful balance that must be struck between making a game and discussing making it great with its playerbase. Maybe argue less and just provide simple feedback to suggestions or ideas or take a few minutes each day to read some of the more well thought-out posts, even if they're wildly wrong. "Hey, this is a neat idea. Not quite the direction we were thinking, but you have some sound points that we'll consider." Feedback to let you know that you are indeed listening and care, fulfilling the promise of "Community driven development."

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What's the difference between kick-starter and a cash shop! (this was a joke ffs)

Noone is being forced to part with real life money, we have all already purchased the game so wheres the problem? 

If players want to invest abit more money into the game shouldn't be there own choice. Christ iv got a little bit invested into SC (at least that's what my girlfriend thinks lol) cough *orion, bmm, redeemer to name but a few* cough!

But after all isn't the indervidual players choice how much of little we spend! If we can afford £20-100 let us spend it where we please.

I don't mind getting access to ships or cosmetic addons. This game needs cash to drive development!

Also this discount your product down talk is rubbish. The product has its value your customers either pay or they don't. 

Edited by monk33y
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1 minute ago, monk33y said:

What's the difference between kick-starter and a cash shop! 

Huge difference. I'd be a-okay with an in-game cash shop for cosmetics, extra harbor slots, extra fleet slots (not active fleet ships), and so on. Hell, I'd even be okay with a $5 "Silence, Nave, and Take My Dubloons!" option! At least there I know that 100% of my money that I'm sending goes to GameLabs. Valve and Kickstarter both have their percentages (Valve @30%, Kickstarter@8-10%). If it was only about the money, I'd be okay with Kickstarter, but I feel that it'd only be appropriate if the game was really drowning and gasping for air as a last-ditch effort to resurrect it and launch it back into the limelight.

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From all the good News in the map we are getting drawn into a probable extra crowdfunding pack... *shrugs*

What about the Pirates change ? Surely many folk are happy with it and hoping for a extra layer of challenge on outlaw choice if it ever comes to be.

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2 minutes ago, Kiithnaras said:

@Hethwill, You betcha. I only wish smugglers would get the same treatment instead of being nixed.

 

True that. I like their removal if it means they can be reworked and be diluted as a "dark matter" mechanic in-between the other mechanics and completely unlike it is now.

Like a grey zone and uncomfortable activity to conduct, that can be high risk but if planned well yield good profit.

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Kickstarters for ships now? Could this be a hint of some financial difficulties the devs are having? 

Also, please don't remove missions. They and "small battles" are really the only things that keeps me coming back to this game.

Edited by Arvenski
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The good:

-Raids

-True Pirate mode

 

The awful:

-Eliminating hostility, you "buy" a port battle? How does this create gameplay? How does this create immersion?

-Return of Lord Protector just about ruins this game for anyone not in Euro time zone. At least players around GMT have the ability to wake up in the middle of the night if they want to PB for an American time zone port. People in American time zones do not have the same option to simply take off work in the middle of the day to PB on European time. The idea that all timezones are equal for a Lord Protector system is inherently flawed.

-NPC changes. AI should never attack players on a PvP server. That is why we play on a PvP server, to fight other players!! Back when NPCs still had aggro, it would ruin PvP to have to dodge ridiculous AI tags from ships that posed no actual threat of harm or fun. There has NEVER been a PvP fight that was enhanced by the sudden addition of an AI ship, "elite", or not. Now we have to deal with this again. Why???

 

 

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Aggressive PVE AL will be a bonus for those on the PVE server.

Brining in the older conquest system will have its advantages if the map is divided into timezones so everyone can play pb and raids in their prime time. This is a must or the game will wither without most of the non euro population being able to access port battles.

Asian localisation? Asian server coming? Hopefully not with the same problem as World of Cheats. :)

 

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Officers cease to be is also a good topic.

For one it simply removes the "oh darn need to grind perks" feeling many players pass through every time they have to train a new officer.

Another thing is that it gets under the wing of the player and definitely warrants no more resets making way for a career prototype maybe.

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Something needs to be made clear that wasn't addressed in this post. The game community needs to know if/when (round about time) there will be a wipe. As a clan leader I have many people waiting to know. In your plans for the first 1/2 of the year you have not mentioned it.  No doubt there are Hundreds of players that are waiting for the wipe to come back to the game. The wipe rumor is wiping out the player base. we need to know when/if this is planned. Would like to hear it from an admin not a moderator pls.

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A more aggressive AI for PvE server would be a big plus. With no penalty for doing it, just about everyone leaves the smuggler flag on. Problem is, with the political system declaring anyone not allied is an enemy, killing the flag would also kill trade. As it is, deals between players are dependent on free ports and being able to slink into enemy ports. End that and trade flow stops; that stops crafting.

Non allied friends and neutrals did exist during the time period. That would make it less necessary for the flag. Having something like it raise the AI awareness -- put a price on your head? -- could set the mark for the nation"s AI fleets to start attacking you.

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Much of this sounds good, however, the worth of other changes remains to be seen once implemented. I really only have one question/2 parts......................

 

When is the big "going live wipe" and what will be able to keep once the wipe happens? (rank, crafting level, etc) If this info has been accurately posted recently, please forgive me. If not, please respond.

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17 hours ago, admin said:

American ship pack Kickstarter event.

 

  • We constantly receive requests to improve USS Constitution to the level of new ships like Endymion. Constitution was the second ship we built in NA. To make it happen we will arrange a Kickstarter to fund this project. The Kickstarter will also contain additional US based ships on stretch goals. If this event is successful we will set up such events for other underrepresented national vessels too.

 

I actually think it's a great way to get more ships - let those who are willing pay to get them build - everyone ingame will benefit regardless of funding source.

 

BUT........ I DO NOT LIKE this sentence:  If this event is successful we will set up such events for other underrepresented national vessels too. ("other" underrepresented nations???? Americans are not underrepresented!!!)

I will gladly fund a Danish ships pack but as I would never pay to get more American ships this might never happen!!!!????!!!!!!?????

Why should we pay for MORE US ships before we can get what many are clamoring for: small nation ships!! ????????????

I sincerely hope this statement will be changed.

I will pay most of a development pack of Danish ships myself if I have to and contribute to Swedish and dutch ships - but keep me out of more American vessels!!!!

 

And an in game shop for paint and trinkets would be great!!! BUT NO P2W

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