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Development priorities 2


  

1,567 members have voted

  1. 1. Please vote on the priorities for the next 3-4 content patches

    • Hired crew and officers (incl supplying them with provisions, food production and fishing)
      188
    • Overhaul of War & Peace mechanics and national relations, pirate role and national alliances
      832
    • Open world PVE: epic events, more variety of fleets, more missions (incl delivery missions)
      365
    • Arranged PVP: Leaderboards, tournaments, pvp events, duels and ow duel flags, balancer improvements
      74
    • Overhaul of resource distribution, labor hours rework, crafting improvements, exploration for resources
      108


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I see alot of Brits priorities are still the pirates

 

 

If that's the case, and I suspect it is not given that many pirates also want to have more pirate like play, I think they will be very surprised at the outcome.

 

I don't see, given previous answers given by Admin, that they will take anything like crafting top of the line ships away from pirates abilities.

 

I honestly hope that what they do is implement mechanics, like temporarily flying a false flag from a captured ship, that ANY nation can use.  

 

Pirate in "feel", but usable by any nation.

 

That is what I hope they mean by adding "pirate" to the options to focus on.

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I don't really understand what "War & Peace mechanics" even means, so it's hard to vote for that absent some more concrete definitions.

With that said... anything which provides meaningful RVR activities outside of the "Port Battle Meta" would be a huge improvement.

 

The "Port Battle Meta" is what leads many people (and especially clans) to focus almost all their time on grinding NPC fleets, so they can get 3rd and 1st rate ships to win port battles, so they can paint the map with the color of their faction... at which point, they (presumably) realize how meaningless map-painting currently is, regret the hundreds of hours spent grinding, and go do something else with their lives.

 

I voted for changes to the economy as I believe economic success is what should fuel the ability to acquire large ships, not NPC grinding. I'd like to see a system where map-painting / huge empires became more and more susceptible to being picked apart by privateering, and where attention and resources would have to be paid to protecting trade routes and the ships that ply them. This would make having huge empires become much harder to sustain, and it would give real and meaningful things (in an RVR sense) for small nations' players to do, even if they were operating out of a single national port, or a free port.

 

In the real world, nations fight over access to resources, and gaining (or excluding) access to those resources is what allows a nation to thrive (or causes it to decline). I'd like to see more of that have an influence on the world of Naval Action, because I believe it would give something important for all classes of ships to do, as opposed to just treating those ships as something to be "gotten through" on the way to 1st rates and... boredom.

 

You do realize that the "map painting", as you call it, is all about gaining the resources you talk about...  right?   You can economically strangle a nation by taking away their ports, especially ones with critical resources like hemp and coal.  That being said, I think that port conquering should be much, much harder.  Hopefully the introduction of various forts and national improvements will solve that.

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Basically, it is hard to vote on few word...

 

Pirate role? What is that supposed to be? As I want any change, I simply voted for it. But, it´d be very helpulf if the devs could outline what they are exactly thinking of?

 

It is like voting for parties, they (at least) come up with a programme or an agenda not only headlines.

What they do in the end, is another story, same for the devs.

Edited by Wilson09
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Hum? Wolrd of Warships? NA is looking like it more and more, just centuries after. Im quit to play WoWs, maybe i should quit to play this too...

WOWS?, hardly the direction this game is going. More towards a wannabe Eve.

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huge empires became more and more susceptible to being picked apart by privateering, and where attention and resources would have to be paid to protecting trade routes and the ships that ply them. This would make having huge empires become much harder to sustain, and it would give real and meaningful things (in an RVR sense) for small nations' players to do, even if they were operating out of a single national port, or a free port.

 

 

Nice idea. But like me, I suppose you dream your own "castle" of RvR-gaming. Don´t think we will see this sort of sophisticated gaming

experience in the future. But, time will tell and many will look over the game again after having finished the grind.

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I've voted Overhaul War etc, but I'd really rather use my vote to take 1 vote away from "Hired Crew"

The last thing I'd like to see is even more economy micromanagement, mandatory money sinks and stuff like that. I wouldn't mind seeing officers, but I don't want to get nickled and dimed even more at every opportunity.

I'd like to see more open world PVE. Large convoys with trade ships, preferably with the new big ones that are also armed, so you have to take on these convoys with groups yourself. Solo trader raiding is getting pretty dull, and grouping for the small fleets (mercury, navybrig and brig as escort for example) is simply not worth it because the trader carries the same amount of cargo and sinking 6th rates is a waste of time.

Overhaul of Resource and labor is something I really want to see, but I think a better open world PVP system is more important. I'm really disappointed that being a shipwright has reduced me to less than a click per day because the ships I am building now require more hours than I even get per day. It feels like a Zynga Facebook game in that regard, except I can't obtain more hours in any way.

People keep saying one player shouldn't be able to do everything, I don't understand that argument - one player already CAN do everything, it will just take him longer. Also, one player not being able to do everything is one thing. Forcing the economy on every single player because otherwise your ship building can't keep up with ship losses from PVP is another. Many players do not want to engage in the economy at all. When we started distributing labor, a lot of players, rank 6-8 mind you, not new players, gained craft level 1 that day.
Is it a sandbox if everyone has to do everything?

 

IMO the fact that hardly anyone voted for crafting changes speaks for itself - very few people actually want to run the economy, so no one would vote for it. Yet every single 40+ ship builder I've ever talked to is unhappy about being reduced to a click a day - or less.

Edited by Quineloe
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I really don't think officers should be anywhere near a priority currently.  It doesn't provide additional content, only polished mechanics.  That is not to say it would not be a valuable feature, but it would not provide good ROI for content generation.  You could also simply remove an entire option to that list by bringing back reinforcements in some fashion to PVE against.  Every single option up there is important to this game's success, but sometimes you have to pick which ones are good enough and which ones don't exist at all or a hampering game play.  Diplomacy must happen ASAP.  It eliminates much of the zerg issue plauging all the servers.  Pirate mechanics would be cool, but I currently don't care much (and I am a pirate).  There would be plenty to do if diplomacy existed.  The pirates, with enough skill, could easily become a mercenary force in the mean time until such time as more depth was added to their mechanics.  

 

Crafting still needs a lot of work.  There is a very intriguing overhaul suggestion on the first page of this thread.  It is very detailed and extremely deep in terms of mechanics.  Working towards something similar to that would be great.  I would caution that there needs to be a VERY obvious way to communicate to players how the quality of the ship affects its performance when viewing it in the shop to buy.  

 

Arranged PVP is great, but it is not by any means a make or break item for this game's success.  Plenty of games do not have this and have done exceedingly well.  We already have a leaderboard in the form of a map of all the ports your nation has taken.

 

What is not on the list is merging the servers.  This needs to happen if the scale of the map is to stay the same.  I played for 5-6 hours the other day and maybe spent 60 min of that actually doing something.  That is unacceptable over the long term to most players because it isn't normal for people to be playing that much on a regular basis.  You should be able to accomplish something of value in 2hrs or less with at least 50% of that time playing the game.  IE 60 min sailing around with 60min of shooting guns.  This is would of course be a different ratio for econ players, but similar idea.  Though if you want PVP to succeed, shooting things should make you at a minimum just as much as sitting in a port trading resources.

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You do realize that the "map painting", as you call it, is all about gaining the resources you talk about...  right?

Of course. But the current iteration of the map saw each faction having roughly equivalent access to all resources via the starting array of ports included in their default territories. Meaning there was no particular "need" to acquire new ports to get access to previously unavailable resources.

 

In theory there is an RVR aspect to map painting, in the idea of depriving other nations' access to those ports, but in practice so far it hasn't meant much. Eg.: Spain on PVP1, Pirates on PVP2, etc. They find ways to work around the limitations via captured NPC ships, access to goods in free ports and via NPC traders, they have whole clans defect to fill their ranks, etc. Being diminished down to one port hasn't been that big of a deal due to a bunch of things both cooked into the current game mechanics as well as introduced via the actions of the players themselves.

 

In fact, if you take some time to sail around in the more far-flung USA and/or GB holdings on PVP1 and PVP2, you will see there are very few if any players from those factions doing anything with those ports or the resources they contain. Besides theoretically depriving other nations of access to those ports, the captured ports are doing essentially nothing other than being painted the color of the conquering faction on the world map.

 

It's still early days, I'd just like to see the core of these mechanics fleshed out into something more meaningful than the very restricted Port Battle meta, which in my view is currently dominating player focus to the detriment of all other forms of PVP gameplay. When in fact the map painting that results from it doesn't really matter in an RVR sense.

Edited by surfimp
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I really don't think officers should be anywhere near a priority currently.  It doesn't provide additional content, only polished mechanics.  That is not to say it would not be a valuable feature, but it would not provide good ROI for content generation. 

 

  ^ This right here ^

 

We just got our hands on crew mechanics, and those are great, but the combat is/was already great.  Combat alone will not make or break the game, and officers are polish on those mechanics, not a fundamental change in behavior.

 

It would be like putting on a nice jacket but still walking around in your underwear.  Putting on a nicer jacket won't stop people from noticing you have no pants.

Edited by KrakkenSmacken
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Ultimately, maybe as part of this next development push, the game has to do more to drive players into the war experience.

 

Right now it's very easy to grind NPCs, show up for port battles and then grind more NPCs. There is little practical reason to go hunting. It doesn't really even hurt the enemy (due to high gold rewards and 5 ship durability). So a lot of people feel justified in just PvE grinding even though it's boring -- at least it gets them the big ships they'll need for the port battles.

 

I hope these new war components can somehow encourage hunting and open sea combat.

the solution is simply : DONT ALLOW joining the port battles with capped ships!

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the solution is simply : DONT ALLOW joining the port battles with capped ships!

That I think would be a mistake.  You could easily incorporate features that have been in games before that would drive pvp opportunities without limiting access to it by requiring exclusively crafted ships.  Crafted ships are already head and shoulders above NPC ones

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the solution is simply : DONT ALLOW joining the port battles with capped ships!

Thoughtless solution, and not really that simple.

 

How exactly would you identify a capped ship?

 

Does this include capped from a player?

 

If not, what happens if the ship got capped once from an AI, and then once from a player?

 

What happens to it's history if you trade it?

 

How far back do you go?

 

Too many pointless things to track without addressing the "real" problem, which is not really capped ships in port battles, or the easy use of them, but rather other mechanics surrounding the purpose of targeting AI rather than players.

 

 Eventually there are going to be enough people just plain old building the ships that are currently capped in numbers, especially since we have been promised to NEVER have a XP reset.

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I really don't think officers should be anywhere near a priority currently. It doesn't provide additional content, only polished mechanics. That is not to say it would not be a valuable feature, but it would not provide good ROI for content generation. You could also simply remove an entire option to that list by bringing back reinforcements in some fashion to PVE against. Every single option up there is important to this game's success, but sometimes you have to pick which ones are good enough and which ones don't exist at all or a hampering game play. Diplomacy must happen ASAP. It eliminates much of the zerg issue plauging all the servers. Pirate mechanics would be cool, but I currently don't care much (and I am a pirate). There would be plenty to do if diplomacy existed. The pirates, with enough skill, could easily become a mercenary force in the mean time until such time as more depth was added to their mechanics.

Crafting still needs a lot of work. There is a very intriguing overhaul suggestion on the first page of this thread. It is very detailed and extremely deep in terms of mechanics. Working towards something similar to that would be great. I would caution that there needs to be a VERY obvious way to communicate to players how the quality of the ship affects its performance when viewing it in the shop to buy.

Arranged PVP is great, but it is not by any means a make or break item for this game's success. Plenty of games do not have this and have done exceedingly well. We already have a leaderboard in the form of a map of all the ports your nation has taken.

What is not on the list is merging the servers. This needs to happen if the scale of the map is to stay the same. I played for 5-6 hours the other day and maybe spent 60 min of that actually doing something. That is unacceptable over the long term to most players because it isn't normal for people to be playing that much on a regular basis. You should be able to accomplish something of value in 2hrs or less with at least 50% of that time playing the game. IE 60 min sailing around with 60min of shooting guns. This is would of course be a different ratio for econ players, but similar idea. Though if you want PVP to succeed, shooting things should make you at a minimum just as much as sitting in a port trading resources.

I agree with this (and I am a pirate too), he makes really good points, 100% agree with every word.

Nice post Cpt Farragut!

And this:

I've voted Overhaul War etc, but I'd really rather use my vote to take 1 vote away from "Hired Crew"

BTW, I would like to thank the devs for actually engaging the player base in these questions. Its incredibly refreshing and gives us all insights into the thought process of where the game is headed.

Join the war - it is the real experience. Age of Sail captains fought real people. You are robbing yourself of this experience.

Edited by PrewashedYeti
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Part of me feels that the AI should be more dynamic.  AI fleets should attack, not just players but ports as well.  Storms should cause damage and be a real risk to ocean voyage, and bring an added element of uncertainty to battles.  Wind should be variable.  Resource distribution should be less homogeneous.

 

Another part of me feels that the biggest challenge to the game is its time requirement.  The map is huge - which is both great, but translates in a significant time investment requirement for players - particularly if they want to pvp given the distances to be covered (then added to the battle timers).  When I play - i rarely have more than an hour or two to spend at a clip - so I often have to refrain getting into something long. 

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Tough choice, really. I think a resource overhaul is an important part of the war & peace process -- it changes what we're fighting over, which is important.

 

But changing resources with the current war mechanics would not fix anything, I think. Same big problems.

Fixing war mechanics with the present resource system would actually help a lot, so I see that as priority.

 

I do really look forward to officer/crew mechanics and I think more PvE content would help people stick around to reach the endgame, but I think we need to work on that endgame so they have something to reach -- the war!

 

2nd'ed.  Need ports to be worth fighting over and resources need to be more varied & scattered.  Would also be nice to have ship building limited by some sort of port resource as well ala PotBS's system of harbor & deep harbor mechanics.

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Today I learned that being outside the ring in a port battle makes your ship take magic damage.

 

Please come up with something better than that :)

 

We had a real fight going on that was suddenly made stupid because the ring of death appeared and a couple of ships just got melted.

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Today I learned that being outside the ring in a port battle makes your ship take magic damage.

 

Please come up with something better than that :)

 

We had a real fight going on that was suddenly made stupid because the ring of death appeared and a couple of ships just got melted.

The Ring? You must of watched the movie then right?

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I'd like to see the pirate role changed, and I play pirate. I wouldn't mind being restricted to free towns, and have to eek out a living but have the freedom to be anywhere. Pirate outposts could be less expensive to counteract the lack of ports and pirate raids could take the place of capturing ports.

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Overhaul of War & Peace mechanics and national relations, pirate role and national alliances.

Long overdue, and it will also give more reason chasing around the OS and as such give a meaning to the dull sailing. Not to mention pirate role could really make this game truly unique and interesting.

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