Random

Very small suggestion - please add an extra space between player's rank and name as they appear in OW - the way it is set up right now if a player is not in a clan the rank and name form a single word (clan membership breaks that word up by having brackets around the clan tag). My apologies if this has been pointed out already.

Foe me the game was most fun in early months following the Steam early access release. Back then fights were plentiful wherever I went and people engaged each other with wild abandon and little regard for their ships. But I do not think that it had anything to do with any particular mechanics, but rather the novelty of the game. With time, as they inevitably do in most things, people naturally developed tendencies to game the system and the understanding that it is just pixels evolved into a burning desire to win at all cost.

If so many people "misunderstood" or "misinterpreted" your meaning, perhaps you need to work on your communication skills... I still have no clue what you are complaining about and how you would like it fixed...

Do you have any hard data other than your subjective information? You bring up several valid points, but dismissing similarly valid counter points will not help you engage others in a productive discussion. How do people who like PvP ruin the game for others on PvP server? I mostly do trading/crafting/missions on PvP server due to time constraints that do not allow me to engage in meaningful PvP. I, however, understand that I chose to play on a PvP server and that other players could be coming by to hunt my trade fleets. I welcome that challenge and that risk as it makes things more meaningful and interesting. I do not wholly understand what you are proposing. Do you want people to be able to engage in risk free PvE on PvP servers? Please elaborate and propose something specific that would alleviate your concerns and provide a more enjoyable gaming experience for all.

I don't think he said that there was an agreement. It seems that he is reiterating Swedish demands, though it is unclear if anyone ever agreed to them or to whom he presented those demands to prior to posting them here...

In case zee Germans come...

From whom would you defend France from Basse/Grand Terre? That location makes little strategic sense and two regions are definitely not required for "defending France". Sounds like a bunch of hastily produced bull to me...

I know that, but that's not always the best route to take for them... Say I have three traders lynxs, they can all go in a different direction and have a good chance of escaping, but there's no way to make them do so right now.

I went into a mission sailing my Surprise and having a Brig in my fleet. We had one Essex to fight and I figured that I'll have the Brig put a couple of broadsides into the Essex and then escape. But then it happened to me again... My suicidal fleet ship attempted to board the enemy and lost. This time, however, I explicitly told it to follow me as soon as the battle started. The fleet map/fleet interface acknowledged my command, but as I passed the enemy ship on its port side and turned hard to starboard, I saw my Brig lower its sails and come in on Essex's starboard side to initiate boarding. That's issue number one; why did it not follow me as instructed? Issue number 2 has already been voiced several times: why did the AI trade a slightly damaged Essex for a Brig when it won the boarding? Issue number 3 is where did the rest of AI crew go since only 110 of them went to the Brig and none were left on the Essex? Issue number 4 is why could I not retrieve whatever the Brig had in its hold? The interface told me that it had 22.9 something of something on board, but there was nothing displayed in the window (both of us were at a complete stop when I searched it). Issue number 5 is me getting double the PvE marks and gold. It appears that the system treated the battle as me having defeated both the Essex and the Brig, while I only really fought my own Brig since the Essex just sat there with 0 crew after taking over my Brig. This can probably be exploited in many different ways such as figuring out a way to have large AI ships board a small fleet ship for a much easier fight and quick PvE marks/gold/loot rewards... Now on to my humble suggestion: We have several perks that are geared towards helping individual players in combat. We also have fleet perks that do not give any bonuses to individual players, but instead allow them to add AI ships to their fleet. This is a great feature for traders as that allows them to transport more cargo in one trip. AI, however, is pretty dumb. On top of that, controls that we are given are severely limited. If I have three trader ships in my fleet and I tell them to escape, they will all go in the same direction; there is no way for me to tell them to split up other than to have one or two of them follow me. See above regarding my hesitation to tell AI to follow me from now on... What if by expanding fleet commands we opened up a whole new way of playing? What if we had not just skilled individual players, but also skilled fleet commanders? I would suggest adding options to tell AI to keep it's distance or to close in (for long gus vs carronades loadout), to use different ammunition instead of just "demast", and to be able to set course for each fleet ship similar to the way protractor works on the map. Add a wheel that players have on their screen to the fleet/map screen and have it show the direction of each fleet ship as it is selected. Add to that wheel a control tab that player can drag to set the course for that ship. I think that this will greatly increase capabilities to command a fleet in battle, while still being fairly difficult to master and time consuming in battle.

Now who is assuming? I provided relevant information that (although as Hethwill pointed out should be taken with a grain of salt) shows a steady decline of the playerbase. Personally, I will wait for the full release to raise any alarms regarding the playerbase, but the correlation (not necessarily the causation) is there. I did not draw any conclusions as I don't have enough data to do so. Neither did I assume anything, especially regarding reasons why people left the game; I would advise you to follow suit and speak of facts, not suppositions and highly subjective assumptions. For me personally, the game was a lot more fun with 5 minute timers, but at the same time I was also subject to the "freshness" factor of the game. After 1500 hours of playing it (yes, I had a lot of free time) this factor has worn off, but as my interest in the game has not faded, I would encourage everyone to test the new "circles" system, reflect on it, and to offer meaningful suggestions and seek compromises as this game is not being advertised as "PvP or bust" game, but rather seeks to establish a thriving world of opportunity to do as you wish in a sandbox setting. From what I have seen so far from the "2 minute timers are great" camp, your arguments seem to center solely on PvP aspect of the game. If you only focus on that, however, what do you need this giant map for? It wastes time and limits PvP, ask the devs to remove it. Alternatively, realize that there is more to this game than your approach to it and that other players have their own playstyles and their own preferences for various activities. Respect their position and seek a solution that works for everyone, otherwise this whole thread, forum, and the very idea of testing are meaningless.

http://steamcharts.com/app/311310#6m

I applaud your initiative and will gladly offer my services translating Russian to English and vise versa.

I don't think you are wrong in promoting social play style. It is a multiplayer game played online with other people. A choice, however, has to reside with each player, and an option to play solo has to exist if a game is to attract large following. Otherwise limiting player options will also end up limiting the game. A sandbox is a sandbox; I can sit in the corner of it and dig my way to China, or I can join others and build a sand caste to rival the Hohensalzburg (beautiful place, btw). I fully agree that a trader has to be escorted by either smaller vessels, or at least ones of similar size and class (perhaps one of each at most). A lynx with 2 Constis for an escort is not only an abomination due to BR differential that precludes it from being tagged, but also due to the sailing profile of this fleet. I don't even get the point of having anyone or anything escort a trader lynx, seems so unnecessary and counter productive, that I can't even come up with a single reason why someone would do that (though I believe you when you say that you've seen it). My friends do volunteer to help me and they have escorted my Indiaman loaded with notes and other valuable stuff. But when they are unavailable and I feel like I need to take extra precautions, I like to take a token escort with me. I call it a token escort because it only really protects from solo hunters using small ships; a group of 2-3 enemies would still have a field day with me and my fleet,so in this way, I too promote social playstyle with my fleets Trading as a French is hardly a stress free environment; there are Brits and Dutch galore in our waters and I prefer to remain self-reliant and use fleets instead of the social perk (as I do support the need to modify it and achieve some sort of a compromise). Hunting is a hustle, but it is also a choice activity (as is anything in a sandbox), one cannot complain of hardships when they are the result of one's choice. I don't complain about Brits and Dutch, I expect them to harass us to their hearts' content, I welcome it, it makes the game more fun. I imagine you won't disagree that finally capturing your prey after a long hunt is also very satisfying. Would this satisfaction not be diminished by making hunting easier and restricting defensive options of your prey? I've long supported the idea of being able to send my trader loaded with my goods to a port of my choosing in the OW. The risk is mine and the choice to do so or to sail the trader vessel myself should also be mine. Along with that, I would like to see ship teleports either restricted in some way or eliminated. I believe that would create much better front lines, add a modicum of realism, and promote sailing in the OW (along with patrols to intercept enemy reinforcements to the front lines).

Fleets preclude people from solo playing... Don't sail a fleet, get a friend to escort you instead, start playing socially already... It gets confusing sometimes. Why do traders get told to get other players to escort them, but solo hunters seem to be immune from the same argument? What do fleets do exactly? On one hand they offer a modicum of protection for solo players. On the other they don't let solo hunters get the prize they feel they should be able to get. The problem as I see it is not in the fleets, but rather in the way people view them, as well as other OW mechanics that are currently flawed. People sail a trader with 2 Constitutions as an escort? That's not their fault and it's not the fault of the idea of fleet mechanic, for now they can't sail their Consti with a trader in tow. That will change (according to Admin) and most of the current grievances in this regard will be eliminated. Will some still sail these crazy fleets? Probably, but I'm willing to bet that most people will trust themselves to protect their trader, rather than rely on AI to protect them. You can't tag a fleet because of BR differences? That too is not the fault of the fleet mechanic, you wouldn't be able to tag a similar group of players either, so don't complain about fleets, complain about BR/tagging issue. What a lot of people don't realize about the fleets is how much of a hassle they really are. Suppose I wanted to move a lot of goods from one place to another -A to B. I grab an LGV, assign a Rattle and a Surprise to a fleet and set sail from A. I get to my destination- B - and face a choice: to sail back with this fleet, or to cap a trader with each individual ship and teleport them back to A to repeat the voyage. After a short while I give up on the fleet and only use it to guard my LGV when I move something that is truly valuable to me. If anything, the benefits of it go both ways. You, the hunter, might be alerted to the fact that I really don't want you to capture my trader, and I, the trader, get a modicum of protection at the risk of losing all 3 ships and their crew (along with my goods). Fleets are not a bad idea, they might not have reached their perfect iteration yet, but the devs are still working on it. Crying foul and demanding complete removal of them gets us no where, instead, help them figure out the sweet spot where vast majority of all players can benefit from such mechanic.

True, though it does benefit me as I often play on my laptop outside and the glare is so horrible when it's "night time" that I can't see anything. I would support the change to longer and more diverse night time, though. Perhaps some nights can be starry and others could be cloudy and dark. If we can also dim the lights at night, at least on smuggler ships (and maybe paint the sails black?), that would add another dimension to the night time in the game.