Spanish issues.

[Neith]

Spain have a problem because they don't wanna cooperate with other fractions. They tried dominate this server and this plan failed and now you change this game to help people like them ? 

 

Only with one, maybe two things i can aggree. Flag for every next port should be more expensive and fraction should have more than one safety port. 10 port which are can't be captured help a lot in hard time. It lets weak fractions take a breth and comeback to the game when they understand theirs mistakes.

 

Please don't add to the game "alliances", because this server will shared for 2 sides and it will be end of fun!

[theprof739]

Port investments will also slow down the conquest because to make flags you will have to build naval bases. No naval base - no flag. Naval base must be protected at all costs to be able to expand.

 

Now that is an absolutely inspired Idea, give more reason to defend a port, because it can enable expansion while fueling the economy to build up more naval bases. 

[Neith]

After port investments and land in battles are added into the game there will be a port reset. 

Fail... maybe close this game for 1 year and finish your job properly ? Then open for all. Or plz work on this product but don't use wipe as easy fix for all. It not help, because without system improvement this problem back. What wipe do ? Discourage people to play and scare new players. I can don't go to sleep and fight for port, but have to know that i don't lose it in the next path...

[Peek79]

Connect faction conquering abilities with soldiers arriving from Europe. Only such soldiers can fight for ports. Naval forces can open possibility of land attack.

Number of soldiers can be controlled by admins.

 

That way ... war and terrain can be "controlled" much easier.

Edited February 16, 2016 by Henry d'Esterre Darby
Edited for nonconstructive rant and political reference.

[Gaizka]

"After port investments and land in battles are added into the game there will be a port reset."

 

I think we are all looking forward to see land battles implemented, but dont bother reseting the server before solving the problem. It would happen again. We cant fight sea battles not land battles at 5 am.

 

"We are thinking of making all ports except for capitals neutral, giving all nations an equal chance. Alternative solution is to allow setting port defence windows in clean uncaptured port by nation vote."

 

That would be an improvement, but the problem would still there IMO. Some nations (such as USA or Russia) have different times. There is a big time diference from East coast to West Coast. With little efford from their part, they could conquer a port in our (EU) time and set the timer again at 5 am, making it impossible to retake forever.

 

This timer issue is affecting the Spanish atm because we are closer to the US in the map, but i dare say it would be a problem for any european player.

 

Gaizka

BSGG Diplo. 

Edited February 16, 2016 by Henry d'Esterre Darby
Removed direct insult.

[tatannn]

my tought about how to prevent a nation be complelty defeated

 

-in EU server, delete night PB windows  02h-08h AM

Why ? because US players can attacks on afternoon on weekends (evening for EU)  and put timer back late on night preventing them to be attacks back

 

-Make migration campaign : each 2 months for example, add a feature allowing to switch to low populated nation keeping your gold / ressources / upgrades and ships by copy pasting the capital outpost to the new one 

 

-Make 4 cities uncapable near the capital, one on each type of ressources, that's will be able to keep a certains craft in the nation ( incoming buildings + European traders).

 

-make no pvp area near capital lot larger to prevent capital camping/blocade it will be like a "safe zone for newbies"

 

-when create a caracter delete the difficulty told for each nation. I know that's some people are joining USA as example, and when I ask them why they have join they told me that's because it's written USA is told as easy and french ( in my case ) as hard . in french we had a word : "auto-réalisateur" it might be like : auto-making ( because hard prevent people to joining , and then few people -> hard in RvR)

[Eldberg]

May I just point out something here to the Spanish complain about the US taking ports...

1. Both the US and British have similar numbers of ports 69 / 70.
2. The vast majority of these ports were taken from the Spanish (despite Britain being allied with the Spanish).
3. The US do not just attack at their prime time (your night time), we have attacked many times at your set port timers, resistance appeared, then vanished after the first few fights.

Moving onwards from this...
1. Port Battle system is deeply flawed. A map re-set, every port being neutral to begin, or even buildings will NOT fix this. The flaw is in the timers and the fact that this is a multi-national game.
2. In-game player voted diplomacy (enforced by hard coded rules) is necessary. Unfortunately one group in the Spanish nation has caused so many issues... The actions of few bad apples should not affect everyone else.

 

[LeBoiteux]

I think we are all looking forward to see land battles implemented, but dont bother reseting the server before solving the problem. It would happen again. We cant fight sea battles not land battles at 5 am.

 

It isn't "land battles" that will be implemented but "land in naval battle" that is the actual landscape in OW when tagging or being tagged will appear in battle instances. Land battles aren't expected as far as I know 

[Neith]

Gaizka, not personally You. Just people who want represent You as the faction leaders Sorry if it hurts You.

[marecek05]

1. Taxes - each national port you own gives every day a certain amount of gold to all players of the nation.

2. Create flags that enable you to set conquest windows for your own national ports, for some money (and you can still be intercepted).

3. National diplomacy, voting and hard coded rules that if you break them make you a pirate.

4. Individual diplomacy, a.k.a. hiring of mercenaries. You can offer a player to join your faction temporarily (week) for a sum of money. If both players agree, the assets in original nation are locked and hidden and a player switches nation with a current ship and the new nation's hard restrictions apply to him. Player's original nation assets are awarded 20% of the agreed sum on the switch. Rest of the sum will be awarded, if player does enough damage in PVP (could be preagreed in the agreement) during the week (we already have algorithm tracking damage over time).

 

Low populated nations will therefore be receiving more money that they are able to spend on hiring player mercenaries and buying both port defense and port capture flags.

 

After the wipe, Spain would still be a low pop nation with many ports. They would be filthy rich and able to hire mercenaries from more populous nations quite easily.

 

In regards to tactical port battles rules, I am for delayed actions, more expensive conquest flags and all that jazz, but before drastic changes I would want to wait to land battles to come. I still have high hopes that 60+ 42 pounder long guns firing hot shot (this time it applies) would be abel to defend pretty well.

Edited February 16, 2016 by marecek05

[Gaizka]

Appolozie gladly accepted. Please take into account that when you generalize you are usually wrong.

 

We (at least many of us) asume that discoordination between clans has been one of the reasons of the current situation, but by no means, the only nor the main one.

 

We are traying hard to solve our internal problems and organize ourselfs. Some changes have allready been done and I  think the lider you are talking about is no longer there.

 

Gaizka

BSGG Diplo

[Txibi]

 

Hello Captains. 

 

It came up in a moderators chat and we would like to discuss the problems of Spain as a nation with you. Solving those problems will help other nations experiencing the same issues in the future. 

 

Some of the problems spain is experiencing are not intended as we expected Spain to be one of the most populated nations (like it was in POTBS)

 

Current priorities do not allow fixing the problems immediately but in the future we plan to address them. 

Current ideas.

• Alliances system allowing port entry for allies and their participation in port battles
• Limitations on flag purchases to slow down expansions for large nations (harder to address)
• Spanish language advertising to bring more spanish players into the game - your help is needed here too
• Hard limits on the number of players in nation (a-la other mmo games). 
• Underpopulated nation bonuses. 

Please share your concerns and proposed solutions in this discussion.

 

 

1-Alliances system allowing port entry for allies and their participation in port battles

 

El problema es que la IA no ofrece resistencia y que una vez ganada la batalla maritima, se da por conquistado el puerto. Mantener un puerto conquistado debería suponer un gasto de recursos, al ser gratis, se entra, se conquista, se abandona y ya no se puede volver.

 

Mantener un puerto extranjero bajo tu control debería generar un gasto de recursos, en oro, materiales o lo que sea y si no puedes mantener ese gasto, se debería perder ese puerto conquistado a otra nación.

 

GOOGLE TRANSLATE: The problem is that the IA does not offer resistance and once won the sea battle, is given by conquered the port. Keep a port conquered should mean a waste of resources, to be free, you enter, is conquered, she is abandoned and can no longer return.

Maintain a foreign port under your control should produce a waste of resources, gold, materials or whatever and if you can not keep that spending should lose that port conquered another nation.

 

 

----------

 

2 - Limitations on flag purchases to slow down expansions for large nations (harder to address)

 

Retrasa el problema, pero no lo soluciona. Un puerto con IA debería ser capaz de ofrecer una resistencia, debe tener una posibilidad de resistir el ataque. Si todo puerto atacado que no disponga de jugadores es conquistado de forma casi automática ofreciendo una resistencia testimonial, el problema continua.

 

GOOGLE TRANSLATE: Delays the problem, but does not solve it. A port IA should be able to offer resistance, must have a chance to resist the attack. If all attacked port that does not have players is conquered almost automatically offering token resistance, the problem persists.

 

______

 

 

3 - Spanish language advertising to bring more spanish players into the game - your help is needed here too

 

Dificil como está. El juego está cogiendo mala fama de que hay que jugar entre las 3 y 6 de la madrugada porque los norteamericanos aprovechan para atacar a esa hora. La gente estudia y trabaja. Jugar a un juego que te quitan los puertos mientras duermes y que no puedes atacarlos en tu tiempo de ocio da muy mala fama. Nadie quiere jugar a un juego en estas condiciones y la mala fama de esta situación está empezando a expandirse. La gente habla de un juego en el que sólo se puede jugar en horario de norteamerica, al que hay que conectarse a las 4 de la madrugada y al que no merece la pena entrar.

 

GOOGLE TRANSLATE: Difficult as it is. The game is catching bad reputation to be played between 3 and 6 am because Americans advantage to attack this time. People study and work. Playing a game ports that take you while you sleep and you can not attack them in your free time gives a very bad reputation. Nobody wants to play a game in these conditions and the bad reputation of this situation is beginning to expand. People talk about a game that can only be played in North America schedule, which must be connected to 4 am.

 

_______

 

4 - Hard limits on the number of players in nation (a-la other mmo games).

 

Más que limitar, se debería reflejar la gran cantidad de población con la IA si no se llega. Y esa IA sea activa. Debe auxiliar en aguas españolas a un jugador atacado sin necesidad de pedir ayuda si el jugador español no inicio el ataque. Y debe representar un peligro real.

 

GOOGLE TRANSLATE: Rather than limit, it should reflect the large number of people filling the IA if it is not reached. And that IA is active. The IA should help in Spanish waters to a player attacked without help if the Spanish player not start the attack. And it must be a real danger.

 

_______

 

5 - Underpopulated nation bonuses.

 

Podría ser una solución, pero yo propondría gastos por los puertos extranjeros conquistados como digo en la 1. Mantener un puerto no es ganar la batalla, es mantenerlo. Y eso conlleva gastos, ya que teoricamente son enemigos extranjeros bajo tu yugo y no colaboran contigo.

 

GOOGLE TRANSLATE: It could be a solution, but I would propose spending by foreign ports conquered as I say in the 1. Maintain a port is not to win the battle is to keep it. And that incur costs because they are theoretically foreign enemies under your yoke and do not cooperate with you.

 

_______

 

 

Recuerden revisar dos problemas clave: Que la actividad del juego es de madrugada. Y el problema de obligar a estar conectado a todas horas.

 

Un juego que te obliga a estar constantemente conectado y sobre todo conectarte casi todos los días de madrugada es un juego con la vida útil muy corta.

 

Remember to review two key issues: the activity of the game is early morning. And the problem of force being connected at all times.

A game that forces you to be constantly connected and above all connect almost every day 1 a.m to 6 a.m is a game with very short shelf life.

 

 

Txibi.

[chorrohumo]

Hello Captains. 

 

It came up in a moderators chat and we would like to discuss the problems of Spain as a nation with you. Solving those problems will help other nations experiencing the same issues in the future. 

 

Some of the problems spain is experiencing are not intended as we expected Spain to be one of the most populated nations (like it was in POTBS)

 

Current priorities do not allow fixing the problems immediately but in the future we plan to address them. 

Current ideas.

• Alliances system allowing port entry for allies and their participation in port battles
• Limitations on flag purchases to slow down expansions for large nations (harder to address)
• Spanish language advertising to bring more spanish players into the game - your help is needed here too
• Hard limits on the number of players in nation (a-la other mmo games). 
• Underpopulated nation bonuses. 

Please share your concerns and proposed solutions in this discussion.

 

Thanks admin for your interest in this!

 

Here are some of my ideas:

 

- Make more capitals for the Spanish faction ... La Habana, Veracruz, Cartagena de Indias ... productions for the most valuable resources in those and in the ports next to them increased in big numbers. On one side adds to the historical flavor, Spain I think has to be a faction that is very rich in resources while it covers an initial very wide territory with other factions on all sides tempted to attack its commerce and take ports. This would make Spain more attractive to crafters, traders, etc ... and bring more people into the faction. In relation with this I think faction balance might benefit from making them slightly 'different' by some small bonuses, so maybe if you want to do trade you would prefer x faction cause for instance gets cheaper ai scort, if you like boarding you would prefer another faction cause of a bonus in pulling ... things like this would help making factions less 'national' which I think is a good idea too.

 

- I like the mercenary ideas some other members suggested here, temporary moving players for other factions into fighting for Spain. This might include a 'salary', mercs getting money/resources according to what they do, more pvp against enemies, more port attack/defense action more salary. A mercenary system has to force interested players to engage in combat not in trading/crafting, etc ... somehow.

 

- Port capture system needs a deep rework in my opinion. Current events last days where we had lots and lots of ports being attacked not only totally disrupt the game but they lack the historical flavor as well ... operations at the time in the area were very limited cause of logistics, and in the case of Spain ability to defend because of the fact of their bigger ability to muster land armies not to mention fortifications, etc ... It doesnt make much sense to me that Spain, or any other faction for that matter, can lose a huge part of Mexico in one night.

 

So imho port captures need to be made expensive, a lot more expensive, and additional flags for second, third port, etc ... made exponentially more expensive. Also more difficult in combat terms, AI defense fleets, increasing tower effectiveness, etc ... Even in times where Spain was already weak in the area, for example the War of the Spanish Succesion it was difficult, very difficult, for its enemies to take ports and to defend them in the long run. Amphibious operations are even nowadays probably the hardest ones in the game period they were a whole lot more difficult, limited and risky.

 

I very much like your proposal on other factions being able to join port defense/attack.

 

Another way around this might be adding some requirements to port captures effectively turning one 'captured' port in a port that belongs to the attacker faction for good. So what I'm thinking, a port would be 'contested' for a number of days after a succesful attack.The attacker woudl have to stablish a 'supply' route to the captured port and keep it running for some days, having to meet for instance a number of visits to the port by traders bringing in certain goods, or visits to the port amounting a joint BR number (high number) for an specific period of time. This would introduce in the game blockade tactics, supply intercept, etc ... that are benefitial in my opinion.

 

- It makes no sense that ports captured have a retake window time that makes it as hard as possible for the time zone of most of the players in a faction. There's been a lot of talking on this and there's a lot of smarter than me members that have interesting ideas about it. I'm not personally for eviction of american players from the EU server, or for any eviction for that matter, of course ... but it's obvious that the window time as it works now hugely benefits players not in EU time zone. I don't see the fun in setting all those taken ports at 04-06 am. It's not the only reason that we are where we are but it's really making things a lot harder if not next to impossible. So, I don't know ... double windows, only windows that make sense to the server time zone, random windows ... I have no problem at all, on the contrary, with players from anywhere playing in the server of their choice but in an EU server it seems reasonable to me that players from other time zones adapt to the servers 'natural' times, not the other way around. This applies to any server location of course. Again, it's a sensitive area and there's people with a lot more experience than me in this issues but Im sure the current system is not the best solution.

 

I would ask too everybody to be calm and respectful when dealing with this issues, no benefit in getting all emotional, using agressive tones, etc ... So please no general statements referring to all members in a faction after having had a bad experience with one member/clan, words like 'arrogant', 'rude', etc ... It makes the experience here, well, boring.

[Kaskeria]

Admin.

Frankly, this is quite a difficult problem to solve.

The current situation was something to be expected. As I joined Spanish faction(and being myself Spaniard) it was clear that being poorly populated and having so many ports would mean that we would lose at least half of them over time and the current situation makes think its goits be even worst.

Spanish faction has the highest number of ports(cities) to defend in a widely spread map as they where historically, but only have the option to defend them by sea, which is not historical. Cuba its a perfect example of this. Historically any foe who had landed, and somehow captured a city on that island would have to fight with land troops sent from nearby towns to recover it. Meaning that full-occupation attacks on this kind of places would need incredible amounts of resources and manpower to have some chances of success.

Let me explain so you don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that Spanish(or any other nation historical isle/region) shouldn't be conquered in game as it would remove the "sandbox" part of it.

One solution would be to create two types of attacking flags:

1. "Raiding flag" allows the attack on ports and the subsequent raiding of it for the next 48(?) Hours. Meaning that attackers would be able to capture player ships docked there; and divide the gold equivalent of the value of resources, materials and outposts established in that port. That monetary transfer would be done progressively in the next 48 of the attack thus encouraging defending players to defend/recover the place.

2. "Conquest flag" This type of attack would mean a full scale permanent force sent to occupy and hold the port and city. Should be something money and resource EXPENSIVE, symbolizing the huge efforts to be made in such ventures. I would suggest that attacking faction should have to craft provisions, weapons, and train/craft occupation troops. In addition to the high cost of the proper flag.

Before some of you call this idea "Spanish bias", think that this is something that will only make the map less "volatile" and will for sure just delay complete conquest Spanish ports by other factions seeing the lack of Spain players.

I get it, the Spanish players for whatever reason can't get their act together. I know it sounds insulting but it's not meant to be. But the last thing you need is bias accusations that favor the Spanish or any other nation.

No worries, I don't feel offended.

This is something related with our real social behavior and national problems on which we are more eager to cut our throats between us for minor quarries than joint together again a common problem. But I don't want to make a political discussion over this.

There are also some individuals from Spanish clans that by their behavior and way to treat faction members created animosity, and with it, future collaboration quite difficult for their harsh manners and prepotency.

Sorry for any typo/grammatical/vocabulary errors. Hope I explained myself good enough.

Kask

[Gamu]

Good Morning,

In addition to all the points already mentioned , this is my proposal.

The actual map does not provide the coexistence of seven nations in its current arrangement .

I propose to leave the central areas without capital alone with free ports, etc. And each faction start at an edge region on the map. In this way possible attacks come only 2 sites, not all directions.

Sorry for my English .

[Siegfried]

Relocate capitol to Santo Domingo. Or Cartagena de Indias

 

Make another faction chat for english speakers. Some spanish players attack at people speaking english in spain channel.

 

Introduce chat moderators. Many times flamming chat arise and nobody can stop it.

 

Make all ports neutral or that we can set timers in own original ports. Many spanish players complaint when a far away port was taken and they didn't understand that a undefended port is not our anyway.

 

Limit nations to islands. Maybe La Hispaniola shared by french and spanish.

 

Limit assault flag time to 20-30 minutes. Or limit the distance to 1 or 2 ports from the own port.

 

And one new idea. Give incentives for people playing far from capital. Now all people play in capital and nobody wants to move at other place. In a big faction that is the cause nobody is defending. That and the loss if that city fall, and our cities were falling while we sleep. Nobody wants wake up and see their outpost with their stuff was lost.

 

For that Regional capitols are important. You can set Capitols only conquerable when all arround ports are lost. And if Regional Capitol fall, give a free delivery system to another capitol. Making missions in far regional capitols give more XP and gold. Give capitols a stock for all resources and in bigger quantity.

 

And when a faction with people from different timezones is fighting, make a stadistic about that hour that people play and force extended window when more people from each faction is online. I think that is fair.

 

Add in port battles a system as in sports with semifinals and finals. You want attack a port, then various days are needed for that. Based in playerbase timezone put the battles. 1 battle in one timezone with NPCs filling slots, 2 battle in the other primetime with NPC filling slots and 3 battle in a middle ground. Then a normal port battle start in the timezone who gets more points but they need win against port battle defences too.

 

This way ports taken more slowly, less prone to random factors, more intense and all people from different timezones can partake in it.

 

Sorry for my wording, today I am not inspired for use foreigner languages.

[Ramon Luna]

May I just point out something here to the Spanish complain about the US taking ports...

1. Both the US and British have similar numbers of ports 69 / 70.

2. The vast majority of these ports were taken from the Spanish (despite Britain being allied with the Spanish).

3. The US do not just attack at their prime time (your night time), we have attacked many times at your set port timers, resistance appeared, then vanished after the first few fights.

1/2. US is next to Spain, not Britain. This is the reason. Lets see which faction is next...

3. Its hard to defend from an attack, but in the case of US, its imposible to fight back. THIS is the only problem.

[theprof739]

Here is my proposal for an improvement  to the current system, these ideas were all inspired by others so I claim no particular credit. I posted this in the defeating a nation thread but, I feel here is also a reasonable place for it.

 

1st. a nation can set it's defense timers from the outset, but must sail into the port to do so. that way the places close to capital can be set irght away, and not be capped outside the timer, and large spread out faction will have to sail out to the periphery of their empire and manually set the timers or risk losing ports at the fringes of their empire.

 

2nd. a conquest timer must be bought at least 24-36 hours ahead of the intended assault time, giving nations on both sides time to prepare. During the countdown until the assault unlock, after the flag is bought the attack must destroy a number of AI patrol fleets (5 fleets for example) in the reinforcement zone of that port. This will "weaken" the defense of the port, representing the cutting off of said port from supplies, allowing the conquest to happen.

 

3rd. based on what admin said earlier in this thread: "Port investments will also slow down the conquest because to make flags you will have to build naval bases. No naval base - no flag. Naval base must be protected at all costs to be able to expand."  Capitals, regional, capitals, and naval bases are the only ports from which a capture flag can be bought. and by building up naval bases you no only allow fruther conquest but you now have towns that are even more vital to protect, while feeding the economy.

 

4th. in order to capture these regional capitals and naval bases, you must first capture the surrounding towns, (say 2 on either side). this will allow allow more time for the defender to concentrate on the defense of their naval base, while also giving them a nearby port to strike out and try to recapture the neighboring ports, that is closer than where their enemy must sail from.

 

5th. once landmasses and different fort sizes are in place, A regional capital/Naval base has a fort that can be upgraded to a massive star fort, making assaulting it a daunting prospect. it neighbors will have smaller ports, allowing them to be taken slightly easier, but with players being able to build up a ports defenses either in the fort itself or in the number of AI patrol fleets outside it that must be destroyed first, vital areas may be built up into a nearly impregnable state, that both attack and defend should feel impressed when such a region changes hands.

[Don Alonso]

The Alliances is a great idea idea! Also as are the bonuses for underpopulated nations.

 

But the Capital should'nt be La Habana. Because is just in the Middle of the Map, far away for vital resources, and impossible to be defended as players playing Spain are so few. I'm thinking specially in the newbies, If Spain hope that new players join us.

 

Also, neither the Ragional Capitals should be so easily  conquered. So no nation can be totally erased.

 

Thanks for your call, admin/devs

Edited February 16, 2016 by Don Alonso

[Spitzenhund]

My only suggestion which I know has been said many times before but I want it to be given good thought.

Each faction starts with 3 ports each that are uncapturable. Every other port is either a Free Town or Neutral. 

[Alan1]

So you don't see an issue forcing 3 players, none of which speak a common language try and play together and communicate in battle?

You do know they speak English in those clans right.. I was there

[victor]

Sorry for wall of text, but I try to give a reasoned answer to the OP

 

In real life I am not spanish, I live in western Europe and I am quite an experienced mmorpg player (in particular I played a lot POTBS and EVE online); In game I am a level 2 (almost 3) Spaniard, I speak both spanish and english, I am based in La Habana (where else?).

 

I do not think dropping the game now that my capital city is surrounded by enemies , since I can earn decent XP and gold also (loosing PVP fights) in my basic cutter with yankees (being in Cuba I'd rather say "Yumas"). I farm and wait for better days. Let's see.

 

Going to the merits:

 

1) first thing to do, in my opinion, is that the game developers must choose now the "path of the game", that is if they prefer a real sandbox model (like EVE online) with no wipes and the potential to establish sovereignity by the clans on the whole territory of the game or a "hybrid" model (like POTBS) in which there is a "victory" treshold and then a wipe and reset of the world.

 

a) If you choose the "POTBS scheme" a lot of problems will be automatically solved by the recurring resets. All the nations will gain victory points by conquering ports and when one nation reaches the required amount of points, such nation "wins the map".

When a nation wins:

- its members get tokens for special rewards (I mean not only cosmetic, but real rewards like special upgrades or ships!);

- the map resets back to the initial status,

- all ships and goods stored by all the nationals (if not in a free port) are sent back to the national capital city.

- to balance the game, I would suggest also to add a formula to "mix the cards" which could be the following: the nation that wins, for the next round, will have a higher "victory treshold", while the other nations will gain a lower "victroy treshold" according to their rank (i.e. if we have the following rank: 1 Spain (/irony mode on!); 2 Usa; 3 France; 4 UK; 5 Sweden; 6 NL; 7 DK: then Spain - in order to win next map - will have to gain 10% more of victory points; USA 2,5% less; France 5% less; UK 7,5% less; Sweden 10% less; NL 12,5% less and DK 15% less ). The percentage are cumulative, in the sense that if one nation wins two maps in a row it gets 10% + 10% for the third, while if it wins one and than gets second in the second it will have 10% - 2,5% for the third round. This should create a rather "fluid" situation in which each nation will have - at some stage and also in case they have a low population, a terrible teamwork and a lot of scattered around ports (coughs ... ehm ... i.e. Spain) - it will win some map. The percentage set forth are just indicateve and shall be set by the developers according to their wish to incentive a rapid balance or just to avoid the perpetual supremacy of the "best" nation. This solution should avoid people to choose the nation thay prefer, not droping it if it is a loosing one. Also this kind of solution will solve indirectly a lot off the other problems (lowbie trouble, scattered map ports, low population, timezones) provided that the resets are frequent enough (let's say that the "average" victory treshold should be set at a level that a reset should occourr every 4 -7 weeks).

 

In summary the "POTBS approach" solution would be a much easier way to catch almost all the birds with just one stone.

 

If you choose the "EVE" scheme (real sandbox with no reset) things become more complicated, because you will need to appount separate solutions for each problem. So it is better to go in order, problem by problem. I think in fact that the so called "Spaniard problem" is not just spaniard, in the sense that the only issue which is really "Spaniard only"  is the one of the huge amount of scattered ports, while the others are general problems of game mechanics that now affect Spain (also because we spaniard seem to have done a little to try to solve them) but tomorrow could affect other nations.

 

i) Noob trouble around capital:

 

- first possible solution is easy and is taken directly by EVE online: create safe zones (let's say 5-7 ports) around each nation capital where PVP is forbidden and that have enough resoruces to maintain a small scale trade and production community.

- second possible solution is more complex: whenever a high level char (from level 5, I'd say, but could be different) begins a fight with a lowbie (until lvl 3 I'd say, but could be different) alone it gets a huge penalty in XP (calculated in a percentage of the total XP which increases with the difference of level) if it damages, sinks or boards or captures it (while if the lowbie starts the fight or chooses to enter in to a fight and finds high levels on the opposite side, nothing special happens since it was him that decided to put himself in danger). In the last case (a high level enters in a fight going on and finds in the opposit group both high levels and lowbies) the lowbies are given the chance to leave, or they must fight normally with no penalty for the high level.

- third possible solution: let lowbies choose (with a long cooldown) one "not hostile" nation, whose ports they can freely access and whose players cannot attack the lowbies (the lowbies of course, on their side, cannot attack IA ships of the "non hostile" nation unless they do not want to loose their neutral status until the next cooldown). 

 

ii) Low population in a nation

- first solution is the simplest one: increasing XP and gold gain for low populated nations;

- mandatory is also giving double chat (adding an english ONLY chat) for non english native speaking nations: let's say "spain" "Spain Eng" or "Sweden" "Sweden Eng";

 

iii) port battles

this is by far the more difficult task to deal with in case developer choose the sandbox (EVE like) approach.

I'd say that the easiest way to solve it is:

- to limit the numer of conquerable port by each attacking nation each day (I.e. USA can attack only two ports per day per nation)

- to give the defender time to organize the defense and also to decide the time window of the battle.

The scheme could be the following: a) the attacker attacks the port and must "propose" at least two time windows for the battle, a defender org has 24 hours to reach the city and to "choose" the preferred time window, c) the following day the battle takes place in the "agreed" time window.

 

The problem of this solution is choosing who - for the defenders - is entitled to "choose" the window (in order to avoid that fake org - allied with the attacker - will immediately step in the city in order to choose the time window which best suits the attacker). To solve this the developers could keep a "representative" orgs list for each nation, which are allowed to "agree" on time windows.

 

iv) Too many cities scattered around (the only "spanish only" problem)

- give spaniards three unconquerable capitals (vera cruz, cartagena, La habana), where they can move (with a long cooldown and/or paying a fee) their goods and stored ships

 

c) (off topic) total rework of the frame of the game:

 

nowdays people choose a nation to side with and stick there forever or they loose all XP and gold creating another character. Why not thinking to players organizations just as "corsair fleets" that can get a letter of marque from each nation and can shift sides after some time.

 

With a letter of marque for spain (in example) the org has access to all spain ports, can conquer ports for spain, and can attack (or be attacked by) any other org that has a letter of marque for other nations.

 

Moreover - in order to avoid too easy "shifts" but leaving the possibility of them - there could be a cooldown in getting a new letter of marque and/or a system thorugh which each org gains "loyalty" points with the nations, giving access to certain rewards for lowalty. On the other hand the reputiaton of a clan could also been affected by attacking the ships and/or the towns of a nation, so that such clan - in order to get a letter of marque form a nation - should pay a lot of money to the admiralty of the "angry" nation or should perform some other kind of action (i.e. to free some port of that nations that have been conquerored by other nations) in favour of such a nation (i.e. if Spain is "angry" with an org that has a letter of marque for France, that org can attack former spanish ports conquered by US and choose to give them back to Spain or to pass to France: in the first case the org will gain or loose no reputation with france, will gain of reputation with Spain and will loose reputation with US; in the second the org will gain reputation with france, will not loose or gain reputation with Spain, and will loose of reputation with USA).

 

This solution will boost also diplomacy and metagame at a stratosferic level, since player oganization will decide to ally toghether and part with a certain nation and can play double games on their letter of marque (generating a very complex and intriguing scenario).

 

Sorry again for the wall of text

 

Nos vemos cerca de La Habana

Edited February 17, 2016 by victor

[Wili]

Hello Captains. 

 

It came up in a moderators chat and we would like to discuss the problems of Spain as a nation with you. Solving those problems will help other nations experiencing the same issues in the future. 

 

Some of the problems spain is experiencing are not intended as we expected Spain to be one of the most populated nations (like it was in POTBS)

 

Current priorities do not allow fixing the problems immediately but in the future we plan to address them. 

Current ideas.

• Alliances system allowing port entry for allies and their participation in port battles
• Limitations on flag purchases to slow down expansions for large nations (harder to address)
• Spanish language advertising to bring more spanish players into the game - your help is needed here too
• Hard limits on the number of players in nation (a-la other mmo games). 
• Underpopulated nation bonuses. 

Please share your concerns and proposed solutions in this discussion.

 

All that would help but the real problem we are facing is not addressed within that list.

 

I don't think is a Spanish problem only, any faction fighting other nation with opposite timers will face the same problem.

 

 

We would need to have the ability to recapture ports in EU time, something like 10 a.m to 01 .am. We have enough people to capture ports in that time.

For that we would need to have a wider timer margin longer than 2 hours, with a 6 to 8 hours timer we would have a chance to capture ports.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Wili

[Wili]

I made some kind of graphic, I hope it makes sense:

 

 

I think we would need a minimum of 6 hours capture timers for being able to have a chance conquering ports in our prime time.

 

4:00 a.m. Game Time = 5:00 a.m. Spain Time

 

 

Maybe setting a 8 hours safe time for each nation by players vote would help too, so no other nation can attack your ports without timers while your nation is sleeping.

Spain could have a protection for all his ports from 1:am to 09:am for example, same for all other nations.

That 8 hours sleeping protection time would prevent timer trolling by enemies with the same time frame also, some enemies with the same time frame are setting defence timers to 4 a.m. in the morning hoping there will be no players online for attacking their ports.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Wili

[Quineloe]

The spanish Capital needs to go to the east, Cartagena or whatever, so the Spanish players are matched with the Germans and other  Euros playing Dutch. Playing without a capital is a severe setback even if you ignore the lack of teleport, the resource production of the Capital is a huge benefit not easily abandoned.

 

Alternatively Spain gets redesignated as the hardest faction, being the only one that has effectively lost its capital. Therefore, no bragging rights can be obtained by non-Spanish players for anything they ever do because they didn't do it on the highest difficulty.