Zoky's answer to most important question in universe or how to make NA great

[Zoky]

Intro

Problem with RvR in NA is that there is no reason for nations to fight each other. There is abundance of resources in every port of every region. Compare that with EVE where resources are much more limited and region specific. And that scarcity of resources is driving force behind strife in EVE universe. Force us to fight for survival!

And before someone say "what about small nation?",  I say adapt or die. Its the natures way. It was big mistake to make game with 8 different teams in first place. There should be 3 nation max + pirates that are actual pirates.

In order to fix NA I propose another wipe with some mechanics change.

1. Map and General Setting of Game

Make only spain, gb and france available to chose from start. Make AI more rare and mostly single ship but make them actively pursuit enemy player, and if possible make them not suicidal. Make cuba spain territory, jamaica english and haiti french. Those areas should have normal to high AI presence and should not be conquerable. They should contain very small amount of resources that you can't actively mine but are enough to build some starter ships. Treat every other area as unexplored and subject to conquest. Unexplored areas should contain no prebuild ports and none to low AI presence. Some of unexplored regions can have native villages on coast that you can trade with and they should trade some of rare goods, but in very limited amount. Most of resources should be located in unexplored regions and be mostly region specific. Example: Panama coast should hive biggest concentration of gold in game. While there can be some other regions outside panama coast that contain gold, but they have it in very small amounts. And make resources limited for mining. Something like whole panama region can only mine 100 units of gold per day total. There can only be 5 max gold mines in that region split among all players. In order to mine gold you must bid first for gold mine permit. Permit last 7 days for example. Same with every other resource in every other region.

2. Conquest

In order to build in unexplored regions you must first conquer them, duh. To conquer region one must first build port in that region if port is not present. Ports can be build only is specific location. Basically use current port locations. To build port one must bring lots of resources to that region. Something like war preparation but more varied. That process should take 48 hours to do. That operation should be separated in 2 steps. Stockpiling of mats and building. Enemy nation can raid building spot in order to slow down construction of port. If enemy conducts raid during stockpiling then they can take portion of mats with them, that owner must bring again. If enemy raid is conducted during building then building time is prolonged but owner don't need to replace mats. After two raid successes during port construction enemy can trigger port battle for that region. If port is already finished then enemy must conduct 5 successful raids in 7 days period in order to trigger port battle for that region. Enemy can chose to raze enemy port after second successful raid in last 48hours. Razed port must be repaired before it can be used again. Repairing is same as building but is conducted faster with smaller mats requirements. If port is not repaired after 72 hours it becomes free port and anyone can start repairing it after they bring mats required. First nation that repairs port after it becomes free port gets ownership of that port. Owner is elected among captains that contributed in port construction and port defense. For every beneficial action every captain will receive certain amount of votes. Voting is conducted every 7 days. Owner can hire AI patrols and AI port defenders and can construct forts (2 max) in order to boost defenses of port and region. Owner becomes official member of nation council. Council is responsible for nation defense and offence. 10% of every transaction made in nation ports goes to nation budget. Council can use that gold to hire privateers and to help port owners to build defenses. In addition another 5% tax is collected in every port and split between captains depending upon their shares of votes in those ports.

3. Raids and Port Battles

First raids. They should be like smaller port battles, 30vs30 with element of surprise. They can be conducted anytime. They are always open. If defender doesn't have full 30 ships to defend then AI ship will enter after 5 minutes on defender side until there is 30 defenders. These are same AI ships that port owner hired before. All AI ships and player SOLs parked in raided port are destroyed if raid is successful. If someone can come up with better raid mechanics please write in comments. Please keep in mind that raids should be surprise attacks and organized attacker should have advantage.

Now about port battles. Same as now with few differences. No limit on ship rates that can enter. It's 50vs50 with no AI interference. In order to avoid only 1st rates in port battles economy must change as well as way of acquiring of SOLs. And that brings us to...

4. Economy and Crafting

I believe that with resource scarcity economy will be much more healthy then now. There should be no free ships or free gold given at start of game. Instead admiralty will loan ships to be used for mission if captain does't have its own. There should be big change in missions. Instead of current mission structure there should be emphasis on open world interaction. Combat mission should be patrols of selected area that are completed once you sank/capture enemy AI or player ships in chosen area of operation, similar to silent hinter games.  Trade missions will be done for trade companies that can loan ship to player that doesn't have its own trade ship. You will have to transport cargo from port A to port B in order to complete trade mission. Exp and captain ranks should be divided between combat and trade. Every ship should have rank requirement. If you lose ship you lose exp also. Its possible to be demoted. Exp required for sailing 5th and 4th rates is only rewarded for OW pvp on pvp server. Exp to progress to 3rd rate and up is only rewarded by participation in port battles. Again losing ships loses you rank. You can't sail ship even undercrewed if you don't have rank for it. Combine that with progressively larger requirements to build bigger ships and we will have more diverse port battles. Crafting can stay mostly the same with addition that all mods are craftable so that RNG is eliminated.

5. Pirates

They should be denationalized and allowed to sail max 5th rates. They shouldn't own any port but at same time are allowed to raid any port. They get lots of gold and exp after successful raid. Pirates should be allowed to enter any port and trade there but with increased taxes. They could enter port only if there is no national player in tagging range. That way they are prevented from exploiting. They can get recruited to fight for nation if there is contract offered. Requirements for sailing 5th rates much larger then for national captains. That way only best pirates can sail in 5th rates. Pirates can't craft but they can convert any captured ship that they can sail into pirate version of that ship. That conversion is paid with gold and its expensive. Pirate versions of ships should carry more cargo then regular versions and be better armed but with worse armor stats. They should be same speed as regular version to avoid any balance issue. Pirates use pirate crew instead of regular crew. Pirate crew is better then regular crew but worse then marines. Pirates cant use marines knowledge book. When fighting same ships but with marines odds should be equal. Example: pirate frig vs regular frig with marines should be equal at boarding. When boarding trader ships pirates should get huge morale boost. Traders shouldn't be able to use combat related mods and knowledge books.

6. ROE for PvP Servers

Get rid of all unfair advantages that defender has in battle like laser accurate stern guns. Make area control default. Lower join timer to 2 mins instead of 3. Lower attack timer to 10s instead of 15s.

Conclusion

I want NA to be better game with more varied content and with something for everyone. If you have something to add please post in comments and please help devs make better game. There is too much grind now for casual players and hardcore players are turned off by bs rvr mechanics. Lets make NA great again and vote for me

P.S. I want pirate frigate outlaw skin 

[Nelsons Barrel]

In general: I like it very much.

To point 3. i would like to see for raids a revival of the flagsystem, so ports have porttimers like where you have above ~65%(numbervalues in concepts are not written in concrete) of the playerbase online so that you will not have some kind of nightraids when there is absolutely nobody to defend. That way of going with a percentage will lift the chains of localisation of the playerbase to where they live, if you have more americans online on the server, they can do it in their primetime, if its the EU playerbase, the times are open for them in their primetime. Should we ever get a healthy playernumber we could also go with a fixed number. Going with the flagsystem allows a real use of the OW because you can defend the raid already outside of the port.

As the game is technically limited to a maximum of 52 (biggest stated number by a dev) players per battle, your numbers are not useable but even with a 15vs15 as raid and a 25vs25 PB you get plenty of fun and tactics.

And what I really really like of your concept is the council mechanic, because right now the game has councils for each organized nation but nobody who is in them has a real legitimate right to be in.

 

EDIT: DONT FORGET THE SIGNALING PERK CAPSLOCK!!!

Edited August 2, 2017 by Eleven

[HarryButpain]

Let's say one nation starts to dominate a server and all players of the losing factions leave their nation to join the winning one. How can the game be repaired in a scenario like this? 

Edited August 2, 2017 by HarryButpain

[Zoky]

7 minutes ago, HarryButpain said:

 

Let's say one nation starts to dominate a server and all players of the losing factions leave their nation to join the winning one. How can the game be repaired in a scenario like this? 

 

Good question. There are 2 possible solutions.

1. Let that nation win the map and then reset map and give players of that nation special skin

2. Introduce logistic mechanic. All ports in unexplored regions must be supplied on regular basis. Similar to war supplies now. We can either make players do delivery or AI. Either way make them vulnerable to enemy players. If port doesn't receive supplies in time it enters free state. Any nation that makes supply run first gets port.

How to prevent alt abuse? Make merit system where only people that actually worked for the win get rewards. Similar to proposed votes system.

Edited August 2, 2017 by Zoky

[Rebel Witch]

some nice ideas but it wont make this game any better. so long as naval action stubbornly sticks to only npc nations players can join it is going to run into major balancing issues, a seesaw battle trying to fix them and a player base that gets bored taking ports for an npc entity.

 

this game needs an eve online revolution, the mechanics of eve online for a tall ship world primarily put the npc nations in a new map of europe thats your newbie and carebear and rebuilding area that is "safer" to play in but much less profitable.

the rest of the maps, world are open ports that players can conquer for their own clan, own them, shape them, fight over them, make their own empires , alliances, with over extension penalties to keep the strongest clans from taking over everything.

the ow speeds need to be doubled, there needs to be trade wind spots so players can go from the europe map to the other maps quickly without taking hours of time. and oh yes trade wind zones would be camped and be a center for much pvp!

regardless of my ideas, this game needs serious loving. keep the ideas flowing, i may not think they are what the game needs but nobody has all the answers at this point.

[Prater]

20 minutes ago, Rebel Witch said:

some nice ideas but it wont make this game any better. so long as naval action stubbornly sticks to only npc nations players can join it is going to run into major balancing issues, a seesaw battle trying to fix them and a player base that gets bored taking ports for an npc entity.

 

this game needs an eve online revolution, the mechanics of eve online for a tall ship world primarily put the npc nations in a new map of europe thats your newbie and carebear and rebuilding area that is "safer" to play in but much less profitable.

the rest of the maps, world are open ports that players can conquer for their own clan, own them, shape them, fight over them, make their own empires , alliances, with over extension penalties to keep the strongest clans from taking over everything.

the ow speeds need to be doubled, there needs to be trade wind spots so players can go from the europe map to the other maps quickly without taking hours of time. and oh yes trade wind zones would be camped and be a center for much pvp!

regardless of my ideas, this game needs serious loving. keep the ideas flowing, i may not think they are what the game needs but nobody has all the answers at this point.

You might want to look at the developer news posted today.

[Guest]

Destroying the pirate faction is a terrible idea. Denationalizing is fine, limiting what ships pirates can sail is awful.

[Jack Spencer]

4 hours ago, Zoky said:

And before someone say "what about small nation?",  I say adapt or die. Its the natures way. It was big mistake to make game with 8 different teams in first place. There should be 3 nation max + pirates that are actual pirates.

Starting with only the British, French and Spanish as nations would be interesting. I assume that would also mean having only the basic cutter and acquiring or building only those ships common to those 3 nations. So eliminate ships such as Cony, Rattlesnake, Essex (before capture by the British). Maybe the game could allow exploration of the east coast of the US, establishing outposts/ports and declaring independence (once again) and forming a US nation. So then US ships could be built.

 I agree that pirates should not be a nation and should play the game by roaming about pillaging and raiding, and capturing ships. Pirate infamy comes from hit and run tactics, not from capturing and holding ports. becoming a nation, or building ships. What pirate or clan of pirates in the real world ever had the facility, resources or organization to build a ship beyond a basic cutter? Pirates should sail only what they can capture. Pirates should be able to raid outposts and ports, steal resources they can carry in their holds, but not be able to capture and hold a port. 

[Zoky]

48 minutes ago, 38gbear61 said:

 

Destroying the pirate faction is a terrible idea. Denationalizing is fine, limiting what ships pirates can sail is awful.

 

If pirates are denationalized then SOLs have no purpose for pirates. That's why I suggested that pirates be limited to max 5th rates.

[Zoky]

51 minutes ago, 38gbear61 said:

Maybe the game could allow exploration of the east coast of the US, establishing outposts/ports and declaring independence (once again) and forming a US nation. So then US ships could be built.

That sounds interesting. But gaining independence should be hard.

[CaptVonGunn]

Manned Forts.... We could board them and man the guns last year.. Why can the Port Defenders not assign a guy to each Fort? Add a mortar to each square one and have at it. The Forts would have to be built up and armed by the owning faction.... Soldiers to man them would have to be donated form the Owning factions Players.. ie you assign 50 of your guys to the Faction for manning Forts....

 

  With Upkeep

[Zoky]

6 hours ago, CaptVonGunn said:

Manned Forts.... We could board them and man the guns last year.. Why can the Port Defenders not assign a guy to each Fort? Add a mortar to each square one and have at it. The Forts would have to be built up and armed by the owning faction.... Soldiers to man them would have to be donated form the Owning factions Players.. ie you assign 50 of your guys to the Faction for manning Forts....

To be honest my first suggestion for port battle was with much more engaging land action. Defender and attacker will have to assign battle master for each side. That battle master will have top down look at map and will use land units like in real time strategy games. Attacker will have to bring and unboard those land units during battle. Defender will have to hire those units before battle. Problem is I think it's not realistic to expect that level of gameplay from this small team of devs. But hey miracles do happen 

[Archaos]

On 8/2/2017 at 2:29 PM, Zoky said:

In order to build in unexplored regions you must first conquer them, duh. To conquer region one must first build port in that region if port is not present. Ports can be build only is specific location. Basically use current port locations. To build port one must bring lots of resources to that region. Something like war preparation but more varied. That process should take 48 hours to do. That operation should be separated in 2 steps. Stockpiling of mats and building. Enemy nation can raid building spot in order to slow down construction of port. If enemy conducts raid during stockpiling then they can take portion of mats with them, that owner must bring again. If enemy raid is conducted during building then building time is prolonged but owner don't need to replace mats. After two raid successes during port construction enemy can trigger port battle for that region. If port is already finished then enemy must conduct 5 successful raids in 7 days period in order to trigger port battle for that region. Enemy can chose to raze enemy port after second successful raid in last 48hours. Razed port must be repaired before it can be used again. Repairing is same as building but is conducted faster with smaller mats requirements. If port is not repaired after 72 hours it becomes free port and anyone can start repairing it after they bring mats required. First nation that repairs port after it becomes free port gets ownership of that port. Owner is elected among captains that contributed in port construction and port defense. For every beneficial action every captain will receive certain amount of votes. Voting is conducted every 7 days. Owner can hire AI patrols and AI port defenders and can construct forts (2 max) in order to boost defenses of port and region. Owner becomes official member of nation council. Council is responsible for nation defense and offence. 10% of every transaction made in nation ports goes to nation budget. Council can use that gold to hire privateers and to help port owners to build defenses. In addition another 5% tax is collected in every port and split between captains depending upon their shares of votes in those ports.

I like the general idea of this and have added some of it to my suggestions, developing a bit more on port building, in this thread

 

[Zoky]

I still think that my idea is better then devs future clan wars. And they need to spend more time developing OW PvP.

[Captain Dug]

Zoky knows the truth