France Declares Unrestricted Naval Warfare On Britain (PVP2)

[Arsilon]

You guys did good last night. We told you such at the battles.

We had to test the flag transfers. Rumors said that it could be done. It is not true. A flag can not be traded directly or result from a ship capture. Their is a place for an ally to transfer flags in the game. If they ever come out with a solid alliance system I would like to see a version of it come back. If you have an ally fighting a war across the map you can't actually go to them to help with port battles without a flag. As PVP2 goes the British have taken the whole center of the map. To fight anything on the other side of them you have to go through them.

FYI- that wasn't a screening attack. That was most if our port battle fleet running into most of yours. When we realized you had x10 third rates in the area to the several we had we decided to attempt to keep as many of your third rates in the sea engagement as we could manage. Your heavy rates escaped and since the battles were so close they couldnt get retagged by the Swedes before the timers ran out to get them into the PB. You enjoy a huge advantage in BR and by default ship technology whenever we can't get the Swedes into the same fight. Not to belittle the action last night, you gents did a great job.

 

Also keeping in mind part of the intent was to get you to actually bring the big boats out.  Our early scouts said you guys were milling around Vieques in about 6-8 3rd rates so we get a fleet together and head up there to play and they all ported up and instead brought out the cutters (see the previous post on this) with claims, "Woe is me!  This is all we have and you guys outnumber and outweigh us!"

 

So after the Swedes decided to take Spanish Town we figured why not force your hand to bring out the big ships and commit one way or the other.  So we succeeded in proving that despite your whining claims, you guys can bring out the big guns and in appropriate numbers if you really want  to and we also were able to test some mechanics that we were wondering if/how they might be used against us or for us in the future.  We have already admitted there were some flaws in timing and execution while doing so.

[Yowilly]

the cutter zerg was best part of last night

 

it was a hoot

[King Prince Chambermaid]

You're saying "you're" like you mean all of Britain here. A few players attacking newbs does not represent all of Britain. Yes, some British clans will want to attack you, but there are also many others who would like to work with you for help against the US. Some British clans want to expand eastward, some want to expand westward to fight the US, and some want to train up. Having a couple British guys attacking you does not mean that all of Britain wants to attack you, it does not mean all of Britain is fighting you, and it does not mean that large portions of the British Navy don't want to work with you. Different clans cannot control each other, so don't be declaring your position on an entire nation based on the actions of 1 clan, especially if that clan is smaller.

 

At this point Britain has twice as many active players attacking the US as we have defending it. You can see that by the port victories going up Cuba right now- we're barely able to hold you back. I think the whole "US is unstoppable zerg" theory has had holes poked in its hull and sank. The competing theory "British are unstoppable zerg" seems closer to reality. 

[Arsilon]

Well as soon as we can get Zerg #1 and Zerg #2 (you pick which is which) to actually take each other on directly rather than the patty cakes they have been fooling around with up to now the better off we will all be.

[Bach]

At this point Britain has twice as many active players attacking the US as we have defending it. You can see that by the port victories going up Cuba right now- we're barely able to hold you back. I think the whole "US is unstoppable zerg" theory has had holes poked in its hull and sank. The competing theory "British are unstoppable zerg" seems closer to reality.

It does seem so and since Brits are essentially the whole center of the map I guess we may as well fight them too. That's just me thinking out loud and not representing anyone. I think a lot of us came from POTBS where we got +10 points per port and when you hit 300 you WIN. There is also the human nature distrust thing of ever letting anyone else have a port near you. Had the British left the French colonies alone in western Haiti or even some Nuetral ports things would be less pre-determined. I'm not blaming them. We had a similar thing happen in France when some of us suggested leaving the pirates some ports near France. The USA also has it as there was clearly no need to capture all those French ports in the Gulf. The end result is that if we ever wanted to team with the USA over there we had an extremely long relocation and flag carries. It's a deterant. Hopefully, when the map does reset we all leave POTBS thinking behind us and leave potential allies some ports to move around the map. As it stands if France were to ally with Britain now we would just be sealing ourselves off from the rest of the game. Now it's not impossible to walk across Britain with their assistance in giving us ports. But there is no other way to do it. So nobody goes anywhere in PVP2 without a majority British player consensus on letting them do it. This is why I say we might as well fight them now. But if the map resets we should all rethink how this one went. Edited March 9, 2016 by Bach

[Slamz]

I wouldn't doubt that the U.S. (and probably Britain) are losing players. Same problem that wrecked the pirate team: leadership is not doing enough to push the players into the hard-hitting PvP battles, which is actually where the real fun is.

 

Maybe they are and I'm just not in a position to see it, but that's the impression I have -- bored British guilds wandering over the mess around with the Swedes. Bored U.S. guilds wandering over to mess around with literally empty French ports.  People still attacking the Spanish in general. Maybe these are just the derp guilds but I hope there's a big war going on between the major powers because if there's not, you guys are going to bore your own nations out of the game.

 

 

I do think this version of the alpha does not create enough war pressure, so players feel tempted to just sit around and grind NPC fleets, but even admin himself has said this is "boring as hell".

 

If you want to retain players, you must start wars, preferably big, violent wars against the biggest powers you can find.

 

And not just concentrations of 150 ships in one part of the map (which might actually cause PvP to not happen) but really running around in enemy territory, setting up outposts at Free Ports and hunting for players.

[Lord Roberts]

The issue of losing players is not poor leadership it's the game, it's becoming boring for a lot and extremely bland with nothing to do, there has been an extreme drop in players in the last 2 weeks.

[Yar987]

The issue of losing players is not poor leadership it's the game, it's becoming boring for a lot and extremely bland with nothing to do, there has been an extreme drop in players in the last 2 weeks.

 

That seems to be pretty typical before a big patch comes though. Wait until the drop off before the next big patch, when the port/resources reset comes.

Edited March 9, 2016 by Yar987

[Æthlstan]

I have been overall dissatisfied with the PvP opportunities on this server. We french tend to foght together. PURGE and OMG can be counted to bring 10-15 each every night, if not a little more. LMN can get about the same. If all 30-45 of us are in the same area some of us (with my luck usually me) are in the wrong spot at the wrong time and miss the 15-20 or less british that are sailing around getting into fights.

I got into 3 tussles witb the british last night in as many hours.

In my mercury:

I picked a fight with a frigate and a belle poule. I think I almost got the belle poule, as he went into survival mode a ton and was sitting low in the water right before I sank.

I jumped in on a single TFC player and 9 brit AI, most of them 5th rates with 1 3rd rate.. Ignored the AI and almost got him boarded but the AI overwhelmed me.

I jumped in with the swedish screening forces and got in a 3v1 fight against a 3rd rate.

All were lots of fun. I sank twice. But not sufficient reward for 3 hrs of sailing.

If you other brits havent come to play yet I dont think you ever will. Might just have to wander up to cuba and see what I find up there.

[Bach]

The issue of losing players is not poor leadership it's the game, it's becoming boring for a lot and extremely bland with nothing to do, there has been an extreme drop in players in the last 2 weeks.

Seriously?

What is stopping you from contacting 1-2 other British guilds and going at the USA on three different fronts? One front alone won't do it. You gents have been NPC grinding till your eyes bleed to get big rate ships. So if you only do one front only the 25 biggest ships really get to play. You need to attack at least x3 locations nearly simultaneously to spark a world war. You also spent way way to much time trying to secure borders instead of making allies. I don't think there is one nation the British or the USA could call an ally. You need some diplomacy to rock the stalemate. This game needs diplomacy functions. It also needs huge tax costs or deterant a for taking every plot of land in the map and leaving behind a fortress and thousands of soldiers defending it. It's to easy to own everything you see and have free NPC forts and soldiers defending it against anyone who can't muster 10 hvy frigates. Neglected towns never revert to neutral and conquered nations have no hope of recovery short of a mass exodus of players from a major power.

The mentality of the players and human nature is always the problem. We grind for the top. Though all that means is that in a month only 3rd rate captains will be allowed in deep water PB's. We all captured every free dot around us to "secure" borders and only succeeded in squelching world wide combat. Truth is collectively we're all too stupid, paranoid and short sighted to be trusted with nice things.

But it's an Alpha and the designers need to know this so they can make the needed adjustments.

Mr. Roberts, assemble your fleets, squadrons and allies to take back those American colonies for King And country!

[Æthlstan]

A tax system or some kind of heavy maintenance requirement to keep ports would only make things a grind fest.

The problem is with players, not the game.

[Lord_Howe]

I have been overall dissatisfied with the PvP opportunities on this server. We french tend to foght together. PURGE and OMG can be counted to bring 10-15 each every night, if not a little more. LMN can get about the same. If all 30-45 of us are in the same area some of us (with my luck usually me) are in the wrong spot at the wrong time and miss the 15-20 or less british that are sailing around getting into fights.

I got into 3 tussles witb the british last night in as many hours.

In my mercury:

I picked a fight with a frigate and a belle poule. I think I almost got the belle poule, as he went into survival mode a ton and was sitting low in the water right before I sank.

I jumped in on a single TFC player and 9 brit AI, most of them 5th rates with 1 3rd rate.. Ignored the AI and almost got him boarded but the AI overwhelmed me.

I jumped in with the swedish screening forces and got in a 3v1 fight against a 3rd rate.

All were lots of fun. I sank twice. But not sufficient reward for 3 hrs of sailing.

If you other brits havent come to play yet I dont think you ever will. Might just have to wander up to cuba and see what I find up there.

 

You sir are a fighter.

My compliments to you once again.

 

i agree that the PvP rarely rewards the time expended.

Many tweaks possible... I wonder if the smaller team in a battle get some bonus to offset the fact that they are much less likely to get kills/assists. Might encourage people to stay in fights that would currently be pointless for them.   

 

Anyway... *Salute*  

[Slamz]

The issue of losing players is not poor leadership it's the game, it's becoming boring for a lot and extremely bland with nothing to do, there has been an extreme drop in players in the last 2 weeks.

 

What are you doing right now?

 

If I was you, I think I would be dragging my clan up to at least 2 different U.S. area free ports and operating out of there, sacking all the U.S. ships we can catch and alternating between the free ports if one area gets too hot. Eventually try to drag a flag up and take a port -- deep water if you think you can get 25 heavies in to defend it, otherwise shallow and park a bunch of Navy Brigs there for defense.

 

 

We French have a bit of a problem in that we don't have an especially exciting area to attack from at the moment -- a problem we must soon fix -- but you Brits already have the ideal territory to attack from.

 

I don't see why you're bored unless you just find endless PvP to be boring. Remember it doesn't have to be a frontal assault.

 

If you aren't getting endless PvP then I have to ask "why not". Seems like you're in the ideal position for it.

[Chetamista Noud]

Idk, content is out there, you just need to get the motivation to go find it.

I do think some kind of reason to only take needed ports for a faction is needed along with some form of diplomatic system, giving access to PB and ports to allies. This doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to accomplish. ...but I'm no software engineer.

[Capt. Rice]

The issue of losing players is not poor leadership it's the game, it's becoming boring for a lot and extremely bland with nothing to do, there has been an extreme drop in players in the last 2 weeks.

its hard to get people to play with a rock once they already toss it down cliff....

[Michel de Toulouse]

The issue of losing players is not poor leadership it's the game, it's becoming boring for a lot and extremely bland with nothing to do, there has been an extreme drop in players in the last 2 weeks.

 

Did you read his post? Slamz just said that in order to prevent people from getting bored you have to do stuff that is fun (logically).  Sitting around and being peaceful is no fun.  Making risky plays, geting in huge battles, and exploding are fun.  The issue is entirely with the leadership.  YOU need to get off your ass and get your clan into an all out war.   If you do little battles once a week and stuff, then yes, people will get bored and leave.  You need to change it up.  Make a risky play.  Do something that is challenging.  Try to take a florida port.  Go after the east coast.  Do something FUN.  You have the perfect map position to do pretty much anything you want! Bloody hell mate, stop whining that there is nothing to do and go organize an attack on Yank's jugular.  It isn't rocket science.  

[Ci'Ki]

We [uSA] defended a port vs 20+ pirates, then attacked a port defended by about 20 pirates fought them in open water, the brits took that time to attack another cuba port we had, sure they took it, there was no one able to get there to defend it, while the brits were successful i doubt it is entertaining to fight those five towers over and over.

[Michel de Toulouse]

We [uSA] defended a port vs 20+ pirates, then attacked a port defended by about 20 pirates fought them in open water, the brits took that time to attack another cuba port we had, sure they took it, there was no one able to get there to defend it, while the brits were successful i doubt it is entertaining to fight those five towers over and over.

 

 

Player vs Tower is super boring, I agree.  Until proper land is added, these battles are serious snoozefests unless a ton of players show up to defend.  

[Taralin Snow]

Maybe next time the Brits can draw the US defenders while the Pirates PvT an undefended port.  Mix things up!

[Yowilly]

Hello?