weissenwulf

Perhaps you could only raid ports with ships specifically crafted for such a role, i.e. they must have a player-made upgrade included in the same vein as Oak/Teak/Fir/Stiffness, et al., -- "Blockade"? Or ships that wish to participate in port battles must be equipped with a specific player-made Basic Upgrade -- "Landing Party"? Not the best articulated ideas admittedly, but you get the idea: force Port Battles to be directly tied to the economy by tying it to the attacking faction's ability to craft, stockpile, and then organize and distribute items necessary for the invasion.

The biggest factor in the long term unraveling of the political situation is whether or not the Devs will move away from the idea of a "EU" and "US" server and instead create "Primary" and "Alternate" servers. As you correctly point out, PVP2 is so lopsided that it's not even really a viable server in my opinion -- we need server consolidation in order to get cross-timezone play. Then nations will have to coordinate across player groups, form meaningful alliances, etc. -- only then will we see which nation will come out on top, if any.

I'll tell you what's worse than the grind... that every post on this subforum is a poll.

More important? I'm not proposing that at all. The PVP mechanics are relatively deep already. The trading isn't. As it stands right now, if you want to make gold and XP -- for the most part -- you need to engage in some form of combat. And it's fine if that's the primary focus, of course, as the game is called "Naval Action". But wouldn't it be neat if trading was also an adventure of its own?

That's fine; many new games draw inspiration and mechanics from long-standing franchises. Appropriately so. But I'm really more interested in ways to improve trade as a gameplay feature -- since I'm convinced that will draw more players to our game.

It's all semantic, ultimately, as there are numerous different and equally appropriate names for large and small groups of ships across the naval traditions of the countries involved. So long as we all agree that a term used for describing a hierarchical structure of interrelated families is inappropriate.

I agree that Clan is not appropriate. I went with Fleet, as that's the most inclusive of traders, explorers, combat ships, etc. It always annoyed me that World of Warships called groups of ships "Platoons". How tacky, unimaginative, and incorrect.

The intent here is not to compare NA to EVE Online. How do we encourage risk/reward in trade while also making it interesting to execute?

Perhaps you're right, but care to explain why exactly it wouldn't be suited? How do you simultaneously encourage trading, create risk/reward tied to supply/demand, while also making it entertaining for both combat and trade-oriented players?

I mentioned this in an earlier post and wished to briefly revisit it. What if the OW took some cues from the EVE: Online concept of High and Low security player areas? If you're not familiar with how it works, essentially this: in High security (+1) space, human players are able to attack other human players, but at the cost of immediate interdiction and retribution from NPC police called "Concord" that are effectively impossible to destroy. So attacks against players in "Hisec" is extremely rare to the point that players interested only in PvE are able to do so in peace. Everyone can still transit through Hisec space and that's where most trade hubs are located. In Low security space (gonna combine EVE's Low and Null into just Low for the sake of argument), players are free to attack each other without any retribution. However, this increase in player risk also results in far more rich rewards from PvE activities -- missions, trade, resources for crafting, etc. Where EVE really nailed it was how they connected the areas of space. In order to trade effectively, players had -- but were not required to -- transit across danger areas of low security space. You could always take the safer route, but it cost you time. This areas of transition between high/low security were great hubs for PvP amongst willing and unwilling players alike. How would this work in Naval Action? Well, how about trade lanes? Say, for example, you wished to move Hemp from Gustavia to Ponce (just to use a random example) to sell for a huge profit. You consult your map and find your nation's Admiralty has established a trade lane in that direction. If you are attacked in this trade lane, your battle instance will populate with the overwhelming force of your Admiralty's navy (response would be, say, 2x-3x the BR of your attackers). You're still in a pickle, but you have help. However, unlike EVE, you have to physically navigate the trade lane effectively. When in the trade lane, your UI will reflect that in the way it does in Ports (i.e. green, controlled by X nation), but there are no other navigational aids. You need to chart your course well. Should you stray outside the trade lane, in a storm or at night, or the wind fails you and you need to tack significantly, your trade lane indicator will disappear and you're now vulnerable to attack. Pirates and enemy navies frequently ply the seas around trade-lane chokepoints, so if you intend to arrive safely, you need to sail carefully -- not just point your ship in a cardinal direction and grab another beer. (Admit it, we all do that all the time.) These trade lanes could connect the entire OW, but not completely. In specific areas, perhaps the trade lanes have gaps? Or perhaps players could contest trade lanes in fights against Admiralty AI fleets? Thereby cutting off safe trade to key ports. With successful navigation of a trade route comes reward, naturally -- so moving specific goods between nations should be a profoundly profitable endeavor, just as it was in the Age of Sail. Perhaps the presence of an ongoing or recent Port Battle should briefly spike the price of goods the NPCs will pay in order to encourage players to move goods into particularly dangerous waters. What are you thoughts? I really think that an essential component to this fantastic game's long-term success is a more articulated trading system. EVE has shown that there are legions of players interested exclusively in accruing in-game wealth. While I fully acknowledge the heart of this game is the combat, I feel such a trading system would be relatively easy to implement while being inclusive of players not interested in such gameplay -- it could also subtly encourage risk-taking and, ultimately, strategically laid ambushes and ganks against trade routes, a element entirely consistent with the game's historical context.

Send you a PM.

Has anyone mentioned sea birds? Easy to model and would add to immersion near ports...