[Serious] Server Health

[Bach]

Here is a wild idea.

We could all just do our own server merge and go to PvP EU.  Right now they have 125 in our time zone and we have 160. We could make it 285.  PvP would come back and the weekend RvR would be incredible!

Seriously, think about it. There isn't really any RvR on PvP Global to be missed anyway. Am I right.  We could even join the predominantly English speaking nations and divide into Brit, USA and Pirates.  It's essentially the exact same thing we have been talking about dividing into but with a few hundred spare players running around and over 500 on the weekends.

[Rhodry Heidenrich]

Just now, JG14_Cuzn said:

And werent you still GB?

 

Nope.

 

[Sir Texas Sir]

8 hours ago, Davos Seasworth said:

I felt like camping a factions capital did significant damage to the server's population. People whos capital is being camped reduce their play time or take breaks.

If you actually look at the Combatnews unlike what some folks think it's not BLACK at CT hunting. It's mainly GS6 a small fairly new clan of r guys that PvP.  They sink jsut as much as they sink US ships.  Hell at the start of them setting up there base over there they sunk a lot.  Kinda like DEA out side of Mort that keep fighting the French.  I been saying this over and over and over.  The only way you get better is you have to fight and that means you will sink a few times.   Both these clans are very much on par with many of the smaller clans and some of the older clans in US/GB and they are very young (time in game) players.   BLACK only goes to Savanna late after every things is done and a few guys go hunt.  Most the fights i hear are against older players running around in 5th rates and something bigger.  I really don't think it's a bunch of  vets kiling the new players at CT.  Unlike what French has been doing at Mort which we keep telling these guys not to go out a lone and to go in good groups. It's learning and weeding out the weak to be honest.  If you can't handle it on a PvP server than maybe the PvE server was better pick for you.  I love how we saw 50-70 folks show up to empty Spainish ports to get the conquest Marks cause you had to show to get them, but now that there is real fighting or you can just get them through buying/CM trade or what not hardly any one wants to show.   We seen this even on the Pirates side.  Why should they show to help when they get the free mark any way.  Those game cahnges hurt the server more than one nation or another camping a port.  If anything it should make your nation stronger if you just get out there and fight back.  

2 hours ago, Chijohnaok said:

From reading the Patrick O;Brian and Dewey Lambdin novels my impression of peace time was that frigate captains sat around at half pay.  They were a nuisance to their wives....they went to the Admiralty office every few weeks looking for work, then they came back home and pestered their wives again.  Their highlight was when war finally broke out again. 

Fun times I'm sure.   

You want to know what most Pirates where?  Privateers out of a job cause there was no war.  As some as a War sparks up they get a pardon from one side or another and get a LoM and become a Privateer again.  Maybe the problem is we have to many pirates cause there is not enough wars going on between the nationals?  It's actually the number two reason I hear folks leave nations to come to pirates (not talking the wining team fence jumpers every nation has).  

1)Can't stand the bicker fighting and being unorganized as a nation and clans. The problems in some nations are the clans/players that never leave and are still very toxic and keeps leading them down the same path that doesn't work.

2) Cause no one fights, they all sit in port and don't want to fight or they only come out to fight AI fleets in some safe place.  

3) You have the fence jumpers that just trying to get on the winning team, a lot of these switch back to a National when they find out it's not as easy as they think it is having every nation that hates you.

1 hour ago, Duncan McFail said:

Nope. Pirates aren't giving up 5 ports right next to our capital for this idea. Make it away from capitals entirely. Nations don't need to be right next to the area. Just close enough to get there within 15 minutes. Look into the George Town area. Pirates, Brits, and French are already there. We'll givce the Danes Trinandad and Brits can give the US Pinar Del Rio.

Notice it's every port we pretty much like to take (and pirates one EU normally do too) to have a buffer around Mort to protect it.  Every time we start to talk about things like this the first they do is want us to give up key regions/ports.  I never see an offer of something like well if we can set  up this zone you can have this area if you want.   It's always the pirates must give.

How about the Brits give the US some of the Gulf Ports back so they can grow and grind up safely there.  Hell we be happy to give them NO if they can just show they aren't going to give them right back to Brits at the drop of a dime.  Now that we have silver and coal closer to Mort I wouldn't mind giving up north Bahamas to the US, but the problem every time we do this they can't keep with agreements and roll the south Bahamas while we are away doing other things.  Even better let France have NO/Texas to be a buffer between US/GB.  We would give Remidos/Trinadad back to Spain if Brits gave them one or two ports on the south side of Cuba and folks actually no attack it if they ever get players (rumor is they might get a small clan soon).  Hell I"m sure a few regions could be arranged to go back to french.  Dutch are pretty much set with there little zone down there.  If we balance out the nations and just drop the RvR stuff until the patch comes than we can help each nation grow a bit better.  If you want PvP than you just go get it.   La Navaasas always been a big hot zone for such things.  

7 minutes ago, Rhodry Heidenrich said:

Hombre,

This is good, as you do what you do. On the flip side, I think you know that nobody else necessarily wants to play by  your rules or on your terms. Warfare at its core. 

Also, yeah port battles are PvP.. Only when other people show up to actually engage in them. Otherwise they're a really boring cycle of grinding NPC fleets for hostility, then capturing empty circles while shooting each other's sails. "Good job everybody, we fought the enemy and he was us." 

When was the last time BLACK got a good, exciting, "this could go either way", nail biting, action packed, this is better than sex, Admiral Nelson's corpse just got a boner, 1st rate broadsiding boogaloo PB? I know the last time I was involved in something like that was Port Antonio last year, and I was just in a piddly little 3rd rate. 

I'll be honest George Town when we saw there numbers popped in and the ships we didn't expect to win that fight and it was a 4th rate. It was a good brawl and the first time VCO/TF faced us and not a ragtag mix of US/GB players.  They might of had a better chance if they didn't show up as late as they did but hay we learn.  PnP guys that where undergun and number had a great brawl in that port battle.  I didn't make it to that one, but hay it's the point that you don't need them to all be 1st rates. The problem is when you get screened and split up and it's not fun for every one.  Now that fleet group has fixed that problem they could just have the fight out side the port and stop us with a proper 25 vs 25 fleet battle out side.  We would be just as happy.   I personally hate 1st rate battles cause they are kinda boring as hell.  It's all about the movement, chaos and brawling I love I get in light ship and Frigates battles on OW or in Port Battles.  The guys that want only 1st rate battles will be gone by time legend comes out any way or move on to some other game.  

I would love for the devs to actually make pirates more like privateers so we can join other nations fights with a LoM and work as Mercs (kinda like Merc Units in MWOL can join other factions for a contract).   Than the guys that don't have them will be your true outlaws/pirates.   Though it just seems the Devs do not want to touch the pirates and give them a proper mechanic in game.

 

RVR is pretty much dead for now and the game is going to get low numbers until this new patch comes out in 5-6 months.  We could work things out and turn it more into a PvP server with set regions.  Than we can pick certain buffer regions between nations that folks can fight over if they want some RvR battles.  Though if we do something like this it needs to be fair to all and set rules set up and if they break those rules the other nations need to follow and help punish that nation.  

[Slamz]

1 hour ago, Duncan McFail said:

Port battles are actually pvp if you bother to show up that is.

Yes but I see two choices:

1) Interesting OW PvP with no set meta and a variety of ships and which I could log on and potentially find within 10 minutes with little or no organization required.

2) Set-piece PB PvP all following the same meta (slowboat tank) which takes about 2 hours to arrange and 49 other people to participate and we must be online at a particular place at a particular time with particular ships.

#2 sure looks like a stupid waste of time to me when #1 is better gameplay in every way. If I was king, I would somehow make this entire game revolve around OW PvP and just get rid of "port battles" which serve no purpose.

I really don't understand your fascination with port battles. I would rather have 25v25 open sea (which would also be far deadlier).

Edited August 11, 2017 by Slamz

[Teutonic]

33 minutes ago, Bach said:

Here is a wild idea.

We could all just do our own server merge and go to PvP EU.  Right now they have 125 in our time zone and we have 160. We could make it 285.  PvP would come back and the weekend RvR would be incredible!

Seriously, think about it. There isn't really any RvR on PvP Global to be missed anyway. Am I right.  We could even join the predominantly English speaking nations and divide into Brit, USA and Pirates.  It's essentially the exact same thing we have been talking about dividing into but with a few hundred spare players running around and over 500 on the weekends.

this...is actually a good idea

[Sir Texas Sir]

36 minutes ago, Bach said:

Here is a wild idea.

We could all just do our own server merge and go to PvP EU.  Right now they have 125 in our time zone and we have 160. We could make it 285.  PvP would come back and the weekend RvR would be incredible!

Seriously, think about it. There isn't really any RvR on PvP Global to be missed anyway. Am I right.  We could even join the predominantly English speaking nations and divide into Brit, USA and Pirates.  It's essentially the exact same thing we have been talking about dividing into but with a few hundred spare players running around and over 500 on the weekends.

The problem with that is man of the AUS players pings go insanely through the roof and have you ever seen a screen shot from the CCCP Danes?  I don't know who they would play over there and that is where they started at.  I have all my chars started but no XP redeemed on EU just encase they do something stupid merge like the last time and not properly wipe every one.

[Rhodry Heidenrich]

@Sir Texas Sir,

Thanks for the answer, but for me it just paints a pretty bleak picture. A couple of decent fights over the span of a couple of months pinpoints how uninviting RvR is in its current incarnation, and I understand why. Outside of Conquest/Victory marks (or whatever the hell they're called these days) there's no actual reason to do it. The only people who get hurt by being "one regioned" are new players who haven't figured out the game. Meanwhile, veteran players are bored and trying to find reasons to actually log in and play... which brings us to the original intent of this topic. It's too bad it couldn't have remained without the poo flinging, so shame on the guilty parties for that. 

@Bach

As of this post it's 9pm Pacific time and I just logged into the EU server, and wow.. 73 players online. I'd have to see how the player population is on a weekend during this time to see if I'd even consider switching to that server. Honestly, having 160ish online at this time of night on Global is a hell of a lot more appealing, and although I think your idea has some merit behind it-- it would require a pretty large chunk of the Global population to decide to do it too.. and as STS has said, there are some players who probably have no interest in playing with really crappy pings or dealing with lag spikes. 

 

 

[Duncan McFail]

7 minutes ago, Rhodry Heidenrich said:

 

A couple of decent fights over the span of a couple of months pinpoints how uninviting RvR is in its current incarnation, and I understand why. Outside of Conquest/Victory marks (or whatever the hell they're called these days) there's no actual reason to do it.  Meanwhile, veteran players are bored and trying to find reasons to actually log in and play... which brings us to the original intent of this topic. It's too bad it couldn't have remained without the poo flinging, so shame on the guilty parties for that. 

Pretty sure you never or rarely rvr'd with us. Same with OW pvp. As for the point of this topic if you can't see the hidden agenda then I need to get you glasses for Christmas. We have Teutonic basically asking not to be one ported and trying to allocate Pirate territories for a fight club area right next to our capital. Which would turn into easy launch base to camp our capital easier. I'm sure Pirates and Danes 1 porting French does nothing but make the non-hardcores use some forged papers. Same happened with French camping our capital. In the end it trims fat of both of our nations. If the worry is about server health then look to the huge grind to unlock ships, the difficulty of getting rated ships, and the hours of travelling on the open seas. The devs will be the ones to fix those.  Don't hate the player hate the game mechanics.

[Bach]

Poking around the EU merge idea. They have about 80 late PST to 450 early EST and of course the weekend have almost double that.

The only nations worth joining in North American times would be GB, US and PR.   Currently PR are true pirates living out of neutral cities.  GB is a strong RvR nation.  US is a weak RvR nation.  EU time Swedes and Danes are dominant on the server with Spain and GB close.  If we divided in with the stronger clans going US/Pirates and those not as confident going GB we could balance out well. EST will get a lot more action and we all would on the weekends.

Ping is certainly an issue for AUSZ and CCCP. But to be honest, its not like we're getting to play with them all that much on Global either.

Edited August 11, 2017 by Bach

[Christendom]

26 minutes ago, Bach said:

Poking around the EU merge idea. They have about 80 late PST to 450 early EST and of course the weekend have almost double that.

The only nations worth joining in North American times would be GB, US and PR.   Currently PR are true pirates living out of neutral cities.  GB is a strong RvR nation.  US is a weak RvR nation.  EU time Swedes and Danes are dominant on the server with Spain and GB close.  If we divided in with the stronger clans going US/Pirates and those not as confident going GB we could balance out well. EST will get a lot more action and we all would on the weekends.

Ping is certainly an issue for AUSZ and CCCP. But to be honest, its not like we're getting to play with them all that much on Global either.

I'm not keen on doing the admin's job for him nor am I keen to grind up more slots, money and resources on a server that is sinking a little slower than our current one.  

@admin could very easily code in an option to sync both your grind and character XP on both servers, or give folks a transfer option.  

Edited August 11, 2017 by Christendom

[Teutonic]

29 minutes ago, Bach said:

Poking around the EU merge idea. They have about 80 late PST to 450 early EST and of course the weekend have almost double that.

The only nations worth joining in North American times would be GB, US and PR.   Currently PR are true pirates living out of neutral cities.  GB is a strong RvR nation.  US is a weak RvR nation.  EU time Swedes and Danes are dominant on the server with Spain and GB close.  If we divided in with the stronger clans going US/Pirates and those not as confident going GB we could balance out well. EST will get a lot more action and we all would on the weekends.

Ping is certainly an issue for AUSZ and CCCP. But to be honest, its not like we're getting to play with them all that much on Global either.

I see the potential in it. I have contacted others to get responses on what would be a likely outcome. We shall see what this holds

3 minutes ago, Christendom said:

I'm not keen on doing the admin's job for him nor am I keen to grind up more slots, money and resources on a server that is sinking a little slower than our current one.  

@admin could very easily code in an option to sync both your grind and character XP on both servers, or give folks a transfer option.  

While I like the idea from Bach, I must agree with Christendom that the money, slots, resources we all gathered is a pain to "redo." I think giving folks a transfer option holds merit. What say you @admin?

This is only discussion but it seems to be a short term solution.

[Rhodry Heidenrich]

47 minutes ago, Duncan McFail said:

Pretty sure you never or rarely rvr'd with us. Same with OW pvp. As for the point of this topic if you can't see the hidden agenda then I need to get you glasses for Christmas. We have Teutonic basically asking not to be one ported and trying to allocate Pirate territories for a fight club area right next to our capital. Which would turn into easy launch base to camp our capital easier. I'm sure Pirates and Danes 1 porting French does nothing but make the non-hardcores use some forged papers. Same happened with French camping our capital. In the end it trims fat of both of our nations. If the worry is about server health then look to the huge grind to unlock ships, the difficulty of getting rated ships, and the hours of travelling on the open seas. The devs will be the ones to fix those.  Don't hate the player hate the game mechanics.

 

I RvR'd quite a bit awhile back when it was done to dig up actual PvP, which has been a long time now (Editing this in to clarify: Think back to when we'd pull PB flags and didn't really care if the PvP happened in or outside of the port. What mattered was the fights, location irrelevant).  Since the wipe? No, not really because I find grinding NPC fleets for hostility to be exceptionally boring, and despite that I did actually come do some contention grinding despite my distaste for it. I came to Savannah under the misguided notion that I'd get to do some screening PvP for the 1st rates. But, we know how Savannah went and I wound up having zero reason to be there.  Also, I have not owned anything above a 5th rate since before the wipe. Wasn't going to take up slots in PB's that would be better suited for someone with a meta-ship anyway. Never asked for one because I had zero intent of participating in port battles so I wasn't going to ask for something I wouldn't use. The only 1st rate I've ever had was a Victory 7grams gave to me not long after the hostility patch, because I was coming to hostility missions in a Constitution, you know.. a ship I actually liked. 

 When it comes to OW PvP I prefer to do it solo, and I don't like camping capitals which is what BLACK was doing to the US after the Savannah port battle. I did some with the clan there for a day or so until I got tired of seal clubbing. Outside of that, I did contribute to the clan by putting half of the econ materials I produced into the clan warehouse, and I know full well that you probably recall me giving you labor contracts while asking for exactly dip-squat in return (although I did make a joking comment about extracting repayment to you, once). Other than that, I did what amused me which wasn't pounding empty PB's for ports that don't matter. 

Anyway, I don't need glasses man, though I appreciate the offer. Perhaps at Christmas you can get me a bag of peanuts. I like honey roasted. Really don't think there is some kind of paranoia inducing scheme behind the idea Teutonic offered. I don't know the guy that well, but he's never struck me as being that petty. 

Other than that I do agree with you (despite seeing some irony in it..) about camping capitals and not really wanting a big PvP-centric area being created near Mortimer town. You're looking out for your own which is something I'd not piss in your cheerios about. Also agree with you on things such as ship-skill unlocking. I STILL don't have more than two slots on any of my preferred ships unlocked for the same reason I'm still not max level. I...hate...grinding (see:hostility). I also hate the RNG nature of getting skill books, too. RNGesus has been extremely unkind to me when it comes to those things. 
 

 

Edited August 11, 2017 by Rhodry Heidenrich
Duncan smells like feet and week old Pizza Hut pizza.

[Skully]

37 minutes ago, Teutonic said:

This is only discussion but it seems to be a short term solution.

It's only a bandage on the problem.

I like the idea, it would bring everyone into the end state of the current ruleset sooner.

I can only speak for myself, why should I fight? I have no incentive to sink.

[Duncan McFail]

You wanna spend some time and voice your opinion on what you don't like about the game then it's a good time. Devs listen. You wanna make the game more interesting as a community then do it. Remember this is a sandbox style MMO. You wanna let your epeen be shown then organize a pvp tourney. You wanna organize a race around the carribean then do it. You got the wealth to give players a good treasure hunt then do it. If you really want to improve player retention in this game then that's some examples of how to do it from our side. The devs will take care of the rest. 

[Landomatic]

<eats popcorn>

What a great thread!

[Landomatic]

2 hours ago, Duncan McFail said:

You wanna spend some time and voice your opinion on what you don't like about the game then it's a good time. Devs listen. You wanna make the game more interesting as a community then do it. Remember this is a sandbox style MMO. You wanna let your epeen be shown then organize a pvp tourney. You wanna organize a race around the carribean then do it. You got the wealth to give players a good treasure hunt then do it. If you really want to improve player retention in this game then that's some examples of how to do it from our side. The devs will take care of the rest. 

What?!  You actually want a community of players to make THEIR community better?!?!  That's insane. How dare you print such radical notions. I bet you expect players to hold themselves accountable and be respectful to their peers also . . . Games are only fun when players: undermine eachother, trash talk everyone, gloat about their combat prowess, are generally condescending, are racially insensitive, and encouraging of their mates to leave their nation as a solution to conflict.  Everyone knows toxicity and flagrant egoes keeps games going, indefinitely.

[The Ghost of Sir Edward]

One change that the developers could impliment would be to change the ROE to where they actually seemed logical. If a BC can be attacked by a first rate, than a BC should be able to attack a first rate. Having the current ROE is basically telling new players that they are their for the amusement of others.

[Duncan McFail]

49 minutes ago, Landomatic said:

What?!  You actually want a community of players to make THEIR community better?!?!  That's insane. How dare you print such radical notions. I bet you expect players to hold themselves accountable and be respectful to their peers also . . . Games are only fun when players: undermine eachother, trash talk everyone, gloat about their combat prowess, are generally condescending, are racially insensitive, and encouraging of their mates to leave their nation as a solution to conflict.  Everyone knows toxicity and flagrant egoes keeps games going, indefinitely.

You're precisely right Lando(with the most sarcastic tones known to man). If everyone is worried about server health then start a big brother program and take a noob under their wing. Help him level and show him all the ins and outs of the game. He will surely grow to be a contributing member of society. Nope. 

A lot of players are put off by the lack of instant gratification. The age level of the people that enjoy this game is much higher than the average MMO. Most of the people complaining that this game is too hard have parents that warn them to be careful after leaving New Haven.  This is a hard core game, but not as hardcore as it used to be. 

This is a semi-hardcore game. There's players that give up easily. This is not the game for them. Then there's players that realize what this games about and build up to inflict that on other players. You have to have thick skin to enjoy this game. If not the devs have been kind enough to provide a pve server.

 

Edited August 11, 2017 by Duncan McFail

[Captain Lust]

36 minutes ago, The Old Pretender said:

If a BC can be attacked by a first rate, than a BC should be able to attack a first rate. Having the current ROE is basically telling new players that they are their for the amusement of others.

You obviously weren't around for basic cutter abuse, sweet summer child? Bet you'd enjoy risking your hard earned ship versus a angry mob of 10 free basic cutters that can also repair for free indefinitely with no reward for sinking them?  Also a basic cutter attacking a 1st is pretty retarded... you can sterncamp him all you want you'll never board it or take it down...it's just trolling and do you think a actual captain of a shitty cutter would have taken on a 1st rate back then?

[Simon Cadete]

So we're talking about organizing some type of planned and balanced pvp fights? Well we don't have to do anything!!

Just wait for Legends to come out and it will be all set.

It will be hard to get people that only gank to agree with fair fights. Those fights  take... ahah.....skil...

[Duncan McFail]

6 minutes ago, Simon Cadete said:

So we're talking about organizing some type of planned and balanced pvp fights? Well we don't have to do anything!!

Just wait for Legends to come out and it will be all set.

It will be hard to get people that only gank to agree with fair fights. Those fights  take... ahah.....skil...

We'll see if they feel like doing organized combat. I'm sure they don't want to risk 1st rates. We can wait for a response, but I'm sure it will be 4ths or below that they'd be interested in. Of course with no time to produce or learn them. 

[Cabral]

19 hours ago, Skully said:

Enough chitchat lets work out the agreement.

I think we can all agree which Nation has lost the Conquest Competition and should be removed from play.

Since Pirates are at the top I think it would be best to merge France with Pirates.

That should give enough peace to the French players to rebuild. If they are worried about being attacked by BLACK, I'm open to the suggestion of merger with Britain or Denmark.

I actually think Britain would make @Jeheil very happy, because then he doesn't have to join France to get to a fight.

Anybody see any problems with this arrangement? 

 Jesus... that server is a mess. On Eu server we are losing some players but we don't have that unbalance. That map is getting all black and 2 nations already dead?

[The Ghost of Sir Edward]

1 hour ago, Captain Lust said:

You obviously weren't around for basic cutter abuse, sweet summer child? Bet you'd enjoy risking your hard earned ship versus a angry mob of 10 free basic cutters that can also repair for free indefinitely with no reward for sinking them?  Also a basic cutter attacking a 1st is pretty retarded... you can sterncamp him all you want you'll never board it or take it down...it's just trolling and do you think a actual captain of a shitty cutter would have taken on a 1st rate back then?

Yes the open world is tough, but instead of creating rules of engagement that favor the experienced player over a new player why not just use a simple solution. Instead of the care bear ROE in place now, make basic cutters off limits to PVP. No one can attack another player or be attacked by another player while sailing in one.  

[Vernon Merrill]

1 hour ago, Cabral said:

 Jesus... that server is a mess. On Eu server we are losing some players but we don't have that unbalance. That map is getting all black and 2 nations already dead?

Not dead.  Actually I get far more PvP on GLIBAL server as French than I ever did over on EU. 

The Rats are just mad because nobody is playing the RvR game over here anymore. 

[Archaos]

21 hours ago, JobaSet said:

Here is what really happened to the server.

Black had a plan for the wipe why didn't you.
WHY? Every single time there has been a wipe the Nations gang up, and as a group have slammed us to one port and kick us while we were down.  We were going to try and stop it this time.  We as a group combined and mass produced 1st rates as fast as we could, While also slowly taken ports for marks.  The main goal of to build even more 1st rates and then we lvled them all of them.   While many Nations wanted to RVR and PVP we put a self imposed limit on our selves for the long term Future of the pirates.  We defended all ports when needed until got pushed to far.

And so it began! 

The US would not leave it be, constantly beating their bird chest, attacking ports attempting to Duel flip .  So we punched them in the Nose and took Sav.  The US caved for Brit support and Shot them selves in the foot and Still to this Day have not even stopped the bleeding.
They Lost every port in Gulf for support that never amounted to anything. As the Brit Nation Grew to big.  It is, Was, and Will never Change its all about numbers.  And they Had them.
The whole Time Pirates Steadily pushing out more and more 1st rates and getting slots(I expect a nerf and any time now, now that most have all five slots in most 1st rates and the Nations do not).  

Welcome to the other problem once we(Pirate) established that we are the Dominate Nation(Yes we are a Nation) in organization skills.  And the nations/Devs plan to stifle the Pirates Failed after completely changing how slots xp worked, removal of pvp marks, how getting Permits worked, Etc more or less everything we did was removed, So the other Nations would stop crying.  But we kept Adapting.  

The worse thing you can ever do to a well skilled and organized group... you wish to hamper, is give that organization a goal.  They gave it to pirates. Up until this point in Game there was no clear cut who was winning, who was not.  Enter the bullshit of Victory marks, I get it it should have been easy who every has the most people should get most reward.  But Once the Pirates had a goal it was over for the nations.  It was over before the 1st week was out and everyone knew it.  Then they Nerf how many VM you get,  We still on top.  Then they made it were VM didn't mean crap, and everyone and the Dog could have a 1st rate.....  None of that maters we are still on top.  

With that all said

We have and are still taken a hit with the French in PVP at the moment.  Not because we can't do it, we just didn't/don't have the Ships and Slots on many of the Ships to Fight head to head at that moment.  So we had to take a beating for a week or So near mort.  We listen to bird chest getting pounded we don't need Dots bla bla. From a Nation almost 2 hours away from home.  Then they(French) slipped, falling into a hype induced entitlement coma. hello kittyed up and  Flipped a port on us(Pirate) for some unknown reason.  This one act has changed the server as we know it!!!  The ramifications wont be seen for weeks to come.

Every Single Post in last two or three weeks has been to nerf Pirates in some way.  Or being accused of Hacks, exploits, Alt abuse, Let us not forget the Cheaters. With nothing from the Mods to quail this, outright , other than me getting ban for saying DRINK to much. Nations are given a free pass to spew off the chain bullshit to get your side excited...  But in realty, As my not so Subtle friend once pointed out GETGOOD get organized.  The French are doing it and Brits are following suit with the US well we will have to see.  They may have an edge on right NOW, but I am not to worried, but it appears most are that we will adapt again.  Just look at post over last 2 weeks.

 

This post right here shows what the biggest problem in the game is. Please dont take this personally as it is not just BLACK or Pirates as I have seen the same in many clans and nations. The game becomes about the winning not the taking part. It becomes more than a game it becomes winning at all costs.

It is quite clear from the post that this was all planned and well organised and I would have to say well done your plan worked and you have become the big dogs on the server. The problem is now that you are in that position there appears to be some sort of vanity or entitlement. You seem to feel that decisions made by the Devs were done directly against you because people moaned. You made a plan in the start to sit back and build up in preparation for this, you ground out your ship slots and prepared to unleash your attack. But dont you see it has become all about the winning not about enjoying the game. Even your attitude to the French bringing the battle to your doorstep, you state that you are not ready yet to face them but soon you will have got all slots unlocked so you will be unbeatable. Its not as if the French are attacking you in ships that have all slots unlocked. Your reaction to the French having the temerity to flip one of your regions speaks volumes, its sort of "how dare they play the game".

People say they are always looking for PvP in the game yet you hold back until you know you can win once you have all slots unlocked. This is the biggest failing of PvP in most games, people only PvP when they know they can win. 

You claim people are out to get you nerfed, but what is actually happening is the same as would happen to any other dominant nation in the game, people will complain about any slight tactic you use for your advantage. Look at when the Brits were seen as the dominant nation, all the complaints about them and how they had it easy due to the population size, they were accused of not creating content for others etc.

It may seem I am picking on BLACK but I am not, the reason I raise it is that this post makes it quite obvious. I saw the same on PvP1 with SORRY, also with the Danes pre-wipe where they felt it was their god given right to be able to enter port battles because thats where they were strongest. Look at the Swedes on EU at the moment, they are strong because they hand picked members after the wipe with the sole intent of becoming dominant on the server.

I think people need to step back at times and look at what they really want out of the game, is it to be so powerful that you can crush all opposition or do you want to have fun PvP win or lose. Because at the end of the day that is what will make the server a success or failure.

Edited August 11, 2017 by Archaos