John Hood

Those AI fleet are next to the Loki rune the dummest idea the devs ever had IMHO. Example me in 3 india chased by an enemy player... I made it like an inch behind the AI fleet and apparently if its behind them they dont react... they did simply nothing. At the same time they disturb trading and they dont seem to follow thier range. I got sank by an AI fleet from the danish behind the settlement. This whole system is just stupid, the old system where you could actually call for help if you where attacked within the zone was simply better and more helpfull.

So overall I actually like the new features... but: Who had this brilliant idea with the Loki Rune? Did you all came up together to figure out how to make leveling for new players even harder because no random people can come into the battle? Did you watch to many disney movies and got an aladin komplex? How about fixing the annoying stuff like you load charge, you run low of it and half of your crew loads nothing... That would be an actual improvement... Or show on the clock when a battle is locked... compared to open.... show the general region on the compas again... you know helpfull shit... but no we got loki runes LOL

Here is the thing about le req... and I am guilty of that too... you shadow a new player wait until he is somewhat bad in the wind you rage board and voila a kill. So easy even I can do it The thing is and I know its now just me if I am in any other ship but le req and somebody calls for help because he got attacked by one, I honestly ignore... like you can outrun a le req by using the wind, you also never catch one that knows how to work the wind in any other ship but a le req. And even nicer if you bring a le req to catch another one he can chain you while you chaise him... you got your awesome front guns that do nothing basically while you chase. And this is a common thing about le req... I was hunting the wind was in my advantage and I sailed by 3 enemy 5th rates... nobody even bothered trying to chase me because its useless. This ship is like purpose build to annoy new players that prolly even get shocked if they know what do to if they get into pvp...

Oh and I forgot something WHY OH WHY... on the sale did you put Le Req the greatest pain for new players because its a newbie hunter on sale... There are to many of them already... you could used Le Herm, or Ratt... Ships that are balanced... I really looks like you actually want to get rid of new players really!

Make the game more interesting for more casual players... I know two people that actually quit after the release because of the wipe and regrinding all stuff, and because the leveling against the cheating ai is a pain. Also after the front lines settled it was almost impossible to do mission for combat marks for them... you moved the areas where ai spawns to for the missions right on the front line... I can deal with it, casual players not... new players will be frustrated as well. For me I got all the DLC ships I got ganked, fine move to the next one and wait a bit until the ship I like is available again. New players that just try it out with ships they actually work for do not have the luxory and they feel frustration I bet. I mean for example if you play the UK you need to travel for ages to do the 5th rate missions and end up mostly in areas between two nations that just wait for you. One goal of a game design should be that its fun, and does not turn into frustration central. Bring back protected zones so that people can skill up thier ships and gain so level and get pvp ready instead of just being pray for your oh so beloved hard core pvp players. Those few that you seem to cater to the most will not pay your bills and development, the mass of people you get slaughtered are the ones that pay and can cause growth. Also protected zones are actually more realistic, or do you really think pirates would have come to a real strong navy base like KPR to raid? of cause not there would be (like it was with protected zones) a strong response by the royal navy. They would have not sat in thier ships and joke "oh look one of ours is getting ganked!" Especially how you set the whole thing up most big clans leave kpr alone, and kpr is where all the new people start... A lot of fun if you just start and are the victim!

All the people that dont like how the wipe got handled should form fleets of seal clubbing to show that it was senseless LOL basic cutter pvp fleets, that would be epic

That is my point that makes the wipe for the sake of new players pretter stupid stupid!

Is it really worth even bothering... I am not even playing until after the wipe and will see from there if I stay in the game or not. This whole farming books again thing... I mean I played one year until I had all 3 collections together and they actually said we would keep that... Anyhow I am worried about the release notes and ignore the game for now LOL

Awesome and where did they state that I need to pass the tutorial when I paid for them... ? Again they take usage away from me for something I paid for and I can only use it again when I do certain things. That is awesome! Heck they should make it maybe at least so that people that paid for the DLCs automatically gets a passed exam? So you got use of your stuff...

Well I would argue that. After all thier intended use is to sail them. I paid for something I could use, the developers before said you keep xp etc. Taking something away that I could use and paid for and deny me the usage is kinda really shaky. But yes I am no lawyer and there are people from so many different countries with different laws and just because of that I think its kinda like a mine field

Actually I forgot about that, but that makes the wipe even more senseless if it was about new players. The people that play for ages will do the tutorial rather quick and we will sail our 5th rates against the poor new folks that will prolly struggle with the tutorial for a while. The demasting part was a pain for example on the first few tries LOL

Honestly that is one of the things I suspect. A total wipe and then with the release annouce DLCs that ease the pain. I would not even be surprised to see it on launch date after all would be the best time to rake in money. Here by your Admirals rank back... or here are the 3 Book collections for sale etc. I even further think this will be a free game sooner or later and financed by DLC content.

Well you can not crew them after a wipe now can you? Thats pretty much making them useless until you level up. That depending on play style can take a while. So it is denying people use of a paid good... Correct or not?

I would be fine with a peace server like wipe.... but I really think the battle server be handled different is causing trouble. Again one big point being the DLCs. By wiping my XP and not letting me use stuff I paid for... I mean I am not mean and I will not do it... but people that paid like for all the DLCs about 100$ combined and not being able to use them for a while might get mad. You just can't sell a product and then say "haha" you can not use it anymore. Thats pretty bad!

A few points: - It seems like with this annoucement you pretty much made the game until the launch look like a wasteland... , if people would have keept at least xp and books on the war server then they had at least an incentive to play. Now I for example just wait for release and play something different until then... - Ok you level the playing field at the start... how long will this last. The hard core games will quickly be able to man thier dlcs and the new player hunt will be on. Also you will always have the problem that new players will be thrown under the sharks. I mean in a month time new players will face pretty well prepared veterans again anyhow. - I wonder if you create a legal problem. You sold DLC's to people, you need a certain XP to crew your DLC. You reset that, so at least for a limited time I got no usage of my paid for DLC. I wonder if this in some countries can cause issues. - Not sure if you all ever said that but when I started the common thing people said in chat is that you keep books and ship xp at least. But ok this was only second hand information but would be nice because the book grinding is a pain Just my few cents