Travel Advisory for the Lesser Antilles

[Slamz]

Be advised of increased pirate activity in the general area of the Lesser Antilles until further notice. The French Royal Navy, having run the Pirates out of Mortimer Town, have chased the survivors to the four winds and even now our quarry scurries to scatter and hide.

Known Pirate vassal state, Denmark, is known to be sheltering and aiding the Pirates and all captains are advised to be on the lookout for solo 1st rates wandering around near Christiansted. Their holds must be inspected for pirates and collaborators. Any 1st rates resisting inspection must be burned.

The French Royal Navy will continue to destroy the pirate threat on the open sea but advises all trade ships within the Lesser Antilles to arm themselves and to strongly consider an armed escort.

Citizens of the rest of the Caribbean may enjoy reduced levels of pirate activity but are warned to not let their guard down as it cannot be predicted where the Pirates will flee to next.

[Molecularbioguy]

If Sainte Lucie is any indicator the pirates seem to have beaten y'all back to the Lesser Antilles.

Should we put out a travel advisory that the Lesser Antilles are now off-limits to vessels sailing French flags? Either that or operation Fall Gelb is successful, proceeding with Fall Rot.

- Hugh Smythe

Edited August 3, 2017 by Molecularbioguy

[VirtuallyIdiotic]

I think the Dutch will be fine. Since what remains in the Dutch nation does deserve to take what they want and get pay back on the French for all the weeks of misery and frustration that occurred. 

Edited August 3, 2017 by Davos Seasworth

[Dharus]

16 minutes ago, Molecularbioguy said:

If Sainte Lucie is any indicator the pirates seem to have beaten y'all back to the Lesser Antilles.

Should we put out a travel advisory that the Lesser Antilles are now off-limits to vessels sailing French flags? Either that or operation Fall Gelb is successful, proceeding with Fall Rot.

- Hugh Smythe

You mean Operation Afganistan has just begun.

[Vernon Merrill]

I hear the Fort Royal is pretty.  I've never been there, personally.  No need.  Hmmm, if thats where people are maybe I'll make a visit...

[z4ys]

6 minutes ago, Vernon Merrill said:

I hear the Fort Royal is pretty.  I've never been there, personally.  No need.  Hmmm, if thats where people are maybe I'll make a visit...

I always thought freetowns are french towns because of the white flag.

[Bach]

6 minutes ago, Vernon Merrill said:

I hear the Fort Royal is pretty.  I've never been there, personally.  No need.  Hmmm, if thats where people are maybe I'll make a visit...

There actually isn't much there. We went there last night and only saw one other French player the whole time.  We encountered several Pirates running with a Swede but they had no stomach for a fight and ran off. We did a lap around the entire Antilles and saw nothing but the same swede keeping an extreme distance in his Endy.  There is nothing really here to be had.  It's all no risk tactics without any fights. 

Have to figure out something else to do before it gets too boring.

[Barbancourt]

16 minutes ago, Davos Seasworth said:

I think the Dutch will be fine. Since what remains in the Dutch nation does deserve to take what they want and get pay back on the French for all the weeks of misery and frustration that occurred. 

I'm thinking you don't understand the purpose of this game. 

 

 

[VirtuallyIdiotic]

23 minutes ago, Barbancourt (rownd) said:

I'm thinking you don't understand the purpose of this game. 

You are looking only at one aspect of the game presents rather than the full extent of the content we have before us.

 

Added on later:

Yes, people should be at war, open world pvp and port battles. But, there are always times for player driven content that the game allows thanks to the population which are "temporary" agreements. If the agreements exceed certain duration, though much like the Pirates and Danmark alliance or the Carebear Alliance pre-wipe for example then there is an issue of course. It is up to the players to keep the server ever changing and fluctuating at a relative rate where the server can sustain itself. Otherwise populations will decrease like we have seen in the past. This is not in any means a condemning what the French are doing (avoiding PB and focusing heavily on OW PvP). That is one way to play the game and that is perfectly alright. Although people should not place their views or stance of how something should be played, especially a game such as Naval Action, when there are so many possibilities. 

 

36 minutes ago, Vernon Merrill said:

I hear the Fort Royal is pretty.

It is very beautiful. Both in game and in real life. 

Edited August 3, 2017 by Davos Seasworth

[Barbancourt]

12 minutes ago, Davos Seasworth said:

You are looking only at one aspect of the game presents rather than the full extent of the content we have before us. 

 

Well, there's sinking, burning, explosions, ramming, bloody hand-to-hand slaughter, salt on the forums...oh, and the sunsets are quite nice.

 

[Bach]

30 minutes ago, Davos Seasworth said:

Added on later:

Yes, people should be at war, open world pvp and port battles. But, there are always times for player driven content that the game allows thanks to the population which are "temporary" agreements. If the agreements exceed certain duration, though much like the Pirates and Danmark alliance or the Carebear Alliance pre-wipe for example then there is an issue of course. It is up to the players to keep the server ever changing and fluctuating at a relative rate where the server can sustain itself. Otherwise populations will decrease like we have seen in the past. This is not in any means a condemning what the French are doing (avoiding PB and focusing heavily on OW PvP). That is one way to play the game and that is perfectly alright. Although people should not place their views or stance of how something should be played, especially a game such as Naval Action, when there are so many possibilities. 

There are a lot of good points in the above and I think there are deeper cause and effect issues.

For example:. 

If ports are flipped on a nation off hours they can't very well choose to be PB players even if they wanted too.  The initial Dane war with its off hours PBs probably had as much to do with France becoming an OW PVP nation as the French players themselves. 

Perpetual alliances are not good for the game. They are essentially stagnating factors that keep drawing the servers society back into the same polarized tendencies.

"No fighting" alliances are actually totally counter productive and stagnating.

Teleporting is actually bad for the RvR game. <ducks thrown objects>. I know you don't want to hear it but teleporting is a tricky thing. It helps to increase PvP but at the same time it serves to limit a RvR diversity.

A lot of these factors influence the likely paths players tend to choose. 

[VirtuallyIdiotic]

15 minutes ago, Bach said:

There are a lot of good points in the above and I think there are deeper cause and effect issues.

Agreed. As I always believe there is never a black or white. Always a murky grey. As much as we want to see a clean answer you will more than likely never get one.

17 minutes ago, Bach said:

If ports are flipped on a nation off hours they can't very well choose to be PB players even if they wanted too.  The initial Dane war with its off hours PBs probably had as much to do with France becoming an OW PVP nation as the French players themselves. 

Yep. One reason most people avoid fighting the Danes in the first place. A war with Danmark just becomes a frustrating and exhausting venture. 

18 minutes ago, Bach said:

Perpetual alliances are not good for the game. They are essentially stagnating factors that keep drawing the servers society back into the same polarized tendencies.

"No fighting" alliances are actually totally counter productive and stagnating.

Agreed and that is why I found it essential that the alliance system was removed. The "no fighting" alliances I think you simply state in the above remark that they should not be perpetual if they do exist at all.

20 minutes ago, Bach said:

Teleporting is actually bad for the RvR game. <ducks thrown objects>. I know you don't want to hear it but teleporting is a tricky thing. It helps to increase PvP but at the same time it serves to limit a RvR diversity.

Teleportation I do not see as a negative for RvR or PvP. Frankly, did not care for teleportation because it got to the point where it was almost abused. Felt if a nation wanted to go on an expedition they have to risk leaving behind their own regions. Always felt that the pirates should not be a faction like the other nations. Could not build any ship really past a 5th or 4th rate, could not capture ports, and had to use free ports as means of bases. 

[Slamz]

2 hours ago, Molecularbioguy said:

Should we put out a travel advisory that the Lesser Antilles are now off-limits to vessels sailing French flags?

That is what a travel advisory is, really.

Civilians are warned to clear out and lay low.

This is now a military matter.

Pirates still believe that ports matter and they're going to "really show the French" by taking ports, even though we have no use for them. Meanwhile, we continue to top the PvP scoreboard, almost exclusively on the backs of the Pirates.

Maybe they came to FR to fight us ship to ship but that's a bit chin-scratch worthy. We were trying to get them to do that around MT and the "elite" Pirates vanished. We mainly beat up the other pirate clans while their leadership found some excuse to be 1000 miles away in a different direction every day.

Have they come to FR to fight us near our base of supply? That certainly makes things better for us, if so!

[Vizzini]

 Here was I , thinking we needed to get Booster Jabs or something or be on the lookout for Terrorist activity  

 

I personally was hoping that we might see you lot near Les Cayes soon Slamz , looks like a good central spot to me !!

[Slamz]

26 minutes ago, Vizzini said:

I personally was hoping that we might see you lot near Les Cayes soon Slamz , looks like a good central spot to me !!

I like to roam. Last night we were around Cayman Brac. Bagged a Pirate Aggie, Connie, Trinc, Hvy Rattler and 1 actual Santisima (it exploded). We were supposed to hit Kidd Island area but with the port battle I wanted to check that area out instead and it paid off pretty well.

Previous night we were around La Tortue and killed all those Pirate screeners heading to the port battle.

Also popped back to FR last night because we heard a Swede L'Ocean was wandering around by its lonesome but never did find it. Found a handful of Pirates and a Swede (probably the same) in an Endymion but they barely got closer than the edge of visual range.

Tonight? Who knows!

La Navasse is still useful sometimes but that was more of a British hunting base. Now that we aren't hunting Brits, southern Haiti is rarely interesting.

I hear there's action around La Mona sometimes though. Teutonic bagged some Danish trader today.

France aims to be like the old American Express commercial: "we're everywhere you want to be."

[Grundal]

Noted.

The only time I was in Mort was when I sailed my basic cutter out of the harbour on day 1 of the Great Wipe!

Have fun where ever you PvP.

Magoo.

[Mike the Mongel]

3 hours ago, Bach said:

There are a lot of good points in the above and I think there are deeper cause and effect issues.

For example:.

If ports are flipped on a nation off hours they can't very well choose to be PB players even if they wanted too.  The initial Dane war with its off hours PBs probably had as much to do with France becoming an OW PVP nation as the French players themselves.

Perpetual alliances are not good for the game. They are essentially stagnating factors that keep drawing the servers society back into the same polarized tendencies.

"No fighting" alliances are actually totally counter productive and stagnating.

Teleporting is actually bad for the RvR game. <ducks thrown objects>. I know you don't want to hear it but teleporting is a tricky thing. It helps to increase PvP but at the same time it serves to limit a RvR diversity.

A lot of these factors influence the likely paths players tend to choose.

But telling your own Nation not to go to PB, just to be able to use this excuse is sad, not trying to burn on ya Bach...but why do some French players would rather PvP on Global chat while a PB is getting ready to start ? and then run to the forums or heat up the BS on global.

I still see just a few egos on all Nations trying to run the show and they are clashing, people really need to get it together.

LOL and what the hell is OW PvP..is this to make players feel better..last I look there can be PvP in PBs yes ?

 

Edited August 3, 2017 by Mike the Mongel

[Bach]

17 minutes ago, Mike the Mongel said:

But telling your own Nation not to go to PB, just to be able to use this excuse is sad, not trying to burn on ya Bach...but why do some French players would rather PvP on Global chat while a PB is getting ready to start ? and then run to the forums or heat up the BS on global.

I still see just a few egos on all Nations trying to run the show and they are clashing, people really need to get it together.

LOL and what the hell is OW PvP..is this to make players feel better..last I look there can be PvP in PBs yes ?

 

I think every nation has or occasionally gets the very vocal players. I'm not sure what, if anything, could ever be done about it. For competitive gamers it's like the rivalry between two sports teams. But it can get out of hand. Rivalry in itself isn't a bad thing.

Actually, I think if we were allowed to see the data we would see that PB often contain very little actual PvP.  It can be there but in my experience it seldom is.  Either one team doesn't show up. One team shows up with a clearly superior force or after the first few loses one team opts to withdraw.  I think very few PBs actually come down to knock down drag em out ship slaughters.  But we do tend to see more bloody battles in OW battles.  I'm not saying one is better than the other. Each players have their fancy. 

One caveat, before 1st rates became prolific I think we actually had bloodier PBs.

 

 

[Slamz]

5 minutes ago, Mike the Mongel said:

 what the hell is OW PvP..is this to make players feel better..last I look there can be PvP in PBs yes ?

OW PvP is simply more accessible:
You can do it with any number of people.
You can do it in a variety of ships.
You can sometimes make really spectacular catches (like traders full of loot, or a lone 1st rate).

PBs by contrast are very rigid:
Need 25 people. That's a big commitment.
Need very specific ships.
The only thing you'll be fighting are other very specific ships.
PB mechanics tend to result in most people going "poof" in mid fight because the "scoring" portion is over.

I think this game shines when fights are in the area of 2-10 people per side, in a mix of ship types. Bigger OW PvP fights can be exciting too but I have never seen the allure in 25 fat, slow ships bumbling around.

Of course, other people are welcome to it. If France had 25 captains who wanted to do it I'd be all for having them take some ports. I like teleports. Go take northern Haiti! We just don't have 25 interested captains.

In truth, getting 25 French together is almost the entire active team so it's not that easy to pull off, especially when we're mostly spread out and it's a 2 hour sail for a lot of people.

PBs are basically just broken right now, but OW PvP is always open for business.

[Dharus]

PBs havd been broken since PotBS...  a fresh design might really be good for the open world game.  Legends can satisfy the arena mode.

[Vllad]

58 minutes ago, Mike the Mongel said:

LOL and what the hell is OW PvP..is this to make players feel better..last I look there can be PvP in PBs yes ?

This is a great question Mike. The answer is occasionally.

This really comes down to 3 things.

1. PB's are interesting contest of guessing but generally it is not about fighting. The confined space and the point system essentially mean a few boats might get sunk but they are very un-bloody affairs. That is not to say that they can't be but generally they aren't.

2. Sailing to a small box and sitting in it is not any representation of fighting with sailing ships. France excels at and prefers open water maneuvering battles where we can fight in multiple kinds of ships. Purge killed a Santi last night with 2 Cerbs. You can't do those kinds of things in a port battle.   

3. PB's require grinding to create PVP. blah...

I am not knocking those captains that like PB's but if you dislike PVE the most reliable form of PVP is not Port Battles but open world PVP.

French clans just all agree that we all prefer OW pvp to PB's. It is more fun for France, we get to sail different kinds of ships, we get to use different tactics and we only have to do minimal amount of PVE to generate it.

Finally it is what France does well. France is full of really good ow pvpers. Regardless of what people think about France I don't think anyone would deny we have some really good ow pvpers. We aren't line fighters and we would probably all suck at it anyway so why not just do what we do well? We are a team of guerilla fighters, we might as well be guerilla fighters.

 

I will never forget our first PB when I knew what kind of nation we were going to have. Teutonic asked for volunteers to screen for the PB and every single clan volunteered for screener duty. Teutonic said in TS, "Well someone has to actually fight the Port Battle..." All he got in response was a bunch of groans.

When you are having to fight over who will get to screen I think pretty much describes what kind players chose France.

Edited August 3, 2017 by Vllad

[Sir Texas Sir]

4 hours ago, z4ys said:

I always thought freetowns are french towns because of the white flag.

Love it even the french have french jokes.  lol

[Mike the Mongel]

1 hour ago, Vllad said:

This is a great question Mike. The answer is occasionally.

This really comes down to 3 things.

1. PB's are interesting contest of guessing but generally it is not about fighting. The confined space and the point system essentially mean a few boats might get sunk but they are very un-bloody affairs. That is not to say that they can't be but generally they aren't.

2. Sailing to a small box and sitting in it is not any representation of fighting with sailing ships. France excels at and prefers open water maneuvering battles where we can fight in multiple kinds of ships. Purge killed a Santi last night with 2 Cerbs. You can't do those kinds of things in a port battle. 

3. PB's require grinding to create PVP. blah...

I am not knocking those captains that like PB's but if you dislike PVE the most reliable form of PVP is not Port Battles but open world PVP.

French clans just all agree that we all prefer OW pvp to PB's. It is more fun for France, we get to sail different kinds of ships, we get to use different tactics and we only have to do minimal amount of PVE to generate it.

Finally it is what France does well. France is full of really good ow pvpers. Regardless of what people think about France I don't think anyone would deny we have some really good ow pvpers. We aren't line fighters and we would probably all suck at it anyway so why not just do what we do well? We are a team of guerilla fighters, we might as well be guerilla fighters.

 

I will never forget our first PB when I knew what kind of nation we were going to have. Teutonic asked for volunteers to screen for the PB and every single clan volunteered for screener duty. Teutonic said in TS, "Well someone has to actually fight the Port Battle..." All he got in response was a bunch of groans.

When you are having to fight over who will get to screen I think pretty much describes what kind players chose France.

Thank you brother for the response, a lot of that does make sense.

We pride ourselves in BLACK as being PvPers but also recognize the importance of the RvR aspect, we have had quite a few discussions in our TS about each and understand that they basically support each other..RvR to continue the logistics aspect, especially for a large clan.. staying just focused on OW will not sustain a large population on one side.

So we have to balance the two, we take our lumps and I have definaintly personaly taken a few , but its all good fun

Edited August 3, 2017 by Mike the Mongel

[Bach]

Kill Board seems to indicate the Danes need the travel advisory the most.  Well done French captain. o7

[Vllad]

1 hour ago, Mike the Mongel said:

We pride ourselves in BLACK as being PvPers but also recognize the importance of the RvR aspect, we have had quite a few discussions in our TS about each and understand that they basically support each other

We all play on a pvp server so we are all PVP players. It is good to know NA can satisfy multiple types for multiple kinds of players.