Don't over think it

[Bach]

Ok, I think we're all probably diving too deep and looking at too many small details in regards to current game issues.

Some macro level simple solutions.

Problem 1 RvR-  Teams become dominant too quickly resulting in long sails very fast and camped Home Counties. 

Macro level solution- Slow RvR down by making conquest each port instead of county. I know, it will require more battle maps. Or just let the OW battle generator generate the map and let the fight be a normal OW fight with last man standing winning the port. County capital battles can keep the circles.  This will generate a new type of RvR battle favored by faster less tanky ships for non-county capitals. RvR slows down and teleport bases for defense stay open longer. Home ports become slightly more difficultt to camp.

Problem 2 Alts-. Alts infiltrate nearly every aspect of the game and create issues new and old players tend to view as unfair or pay to win. No one looks favorably on a game they view is unfair to them.

Macro level solution- Allow each nation green on green conflict just like the pirate nation and add in a time counter so each player, including pirates, may only green on green once every 48 hours.   If some player is just being nasty then at least he can only do so every other day. But if an entire nation hates him or he is an alt he will learn to keep a low profile very fast.

Problem 3 "night flips"- Night flips are a problem only in that they cause the port to change hands and unfairly deny off hours players the attempt to defend their buildings and outposts.  Yet somehow it needs to be allowed to be fair to the players that flipped the port.

Macro level solution- the game data base already tracks hostility generation that does not zero until the port battle. Allow off hours players to assign their personal hostility on that port to "counter attack". This choice must be made before the off hours PB zeros out the hostility pool. But if enough player pledge their personal hostility to equal 10,000 points it will generate a "counter attack" PB. This counter attack will occur following any flipped port at the average time players submitted their counter attack hostility. This will allow players that spent the time and effort to defend a port a chance to immediately take it back while facing on hours allies if any. If the counter attack succeed the port does not change hands at the daily reset.

Problem 4 seal clubbing - as population shrinks camping capitals becomes even more prevalent and puts even more stress on new players. 

Macro level solution- Just double the radius size of the green zone.  This will account for most low level mission running around the capital and keep true seals safer. 

Problem 5 game morale- morale is low and results in many negative reviews.

Macro solution - in addition to the above release one of the pending ships into the game in some ways. That is all it will take.

Edited August 14, 2017 by Bach

[Vizzini]

Make sure the game is balanced also , all nations should be viable and operate the same with the same resources at their disposal. A  Level playing fields is needed, at the start of the game and all the way through it.  There should be no need for any nerfs at any point if everybody is treated the same but they have a different colour flag

 

 

[Rebel Witch]

On 8/14/2017 at 11:10 AM, Bach said:

Problem 1 RvR-  Teams become dominant too quickly resulting in long sails very fast and camped Home Counties. 

Problem 2 Alts-. Alts infiltrate nearly every aspect of the game and create issues new and old players tend to view as unfair or pay to win. No one looks favorably on a game they view is unfair to them.

Macro level solution- Allow each nation green on green conflict just like the pirate nation and add in a time counter so each player, including pirates, may only green on green once every 48 hours.   If some player is just being nasty then at least he can only do so every other day. But if an entire nation hates him or he is an alt he will learn to keep a low profile very fast.

Problem 4 seal clubbing - as population shrinks camping capitals becomes even more prevalent and puts even more stress on new players. 

Macro level solution- Just double the radius size of the green zone.  This will account for most low level mission running around the capital and keep true seals safer. 

Problem 5 game morale- morale is low and results in many negative reviews.

Macro solution - in addition to the above release one of the pending ships into the game in some ways. That is all it will take.

These are great points, i would like to agree on some and counter others you made.

Problem 1,  The core problem this game faces is that every player is forced into a small box, meaning they are forced to fight for one of several npc nations and they everyone is put into a fighting pit and told to tear the other guy to shreds. The problem that blood sport causes is it leaves no options or fall back for players. You either kill or be killed and slowly players check out and go play other games because they want more options such as to take a break from pvp and go craft without getting ganked etc. The games faces a HUGE problem because pvp is one box and pve is another box and players who want to try out pve or pvp in those boxes get slammed or its not an option at all. The real solution is to merge pve and pvp servers then create a pve zone which is smaller and low reward, and a pvp zone which is huge and high reward for players. then players have far more options for play style depending on their situation or feelings that day.

Problem 2,  alts are not the problem, they are a healthy activity and source of income for the game and developers. The problem with the game is not alts its what i described above. if people are using alts to do MORE in the game its none of your damn business , go play your game with your one account! see my description of problem 1 for the source of most players frustrations. but if players try to put in game mechanics to PUNISH players with alts, it will be a suicide for the game and the developers time.

Problem 4, seal clubbing is not the problem, pvp players have every right to club whoever they want. the problem is how i described in problem 1 its that PLAYERS HAVE NO WHERE TO GO, they have no options to avoid pvp. There needs to be safe places for newbs, for carebears, for losers who need to rebuild etc. and for gods sake dont create new player areas, just make one area of the map that is a pve zone.

Problem 5, game morale is a big problem but some of that is self induced too. Players have so few options depending on which limited box you join pvp or pve box. as the dominant pvp clans crush all others in the pvp box, the losers have no where to turn, they get seal clubbed, they get mad, frustrated start lashing out at people using alts, they have no where to turn to play without losing stuff. THAT is what is killing this game. players NEED OPTIONS.

The worst mistake the devs could make for a ow pvp game is to start punishing or limiting pvp players that is why pvp players need a large size of map for their competitive rvr AND they should reap great rewards for it.  BUT there must be an area of the map where players who choose to carebear, start new, lose everything or just want to fall back and relax, there needs to be an area of the map that is safe and away from pvp.

 

[Bach]

Most all area of the map outside of the capitals areas are nearly completely safe.   You can sail a 1st rate to any free port in the gulf and mission run for a month and probably not encounter a sole player trying to pvp.   On global France we would tell new player to go down the SE corner of the map and set up shop and level. But you know what happens?  Most never do it. For some reason they insist on staying at the Capital.  If anything happens to them they get upset and often blame the rest of us for not protecting the capital enough.  I see what you are saying but even if you put in PVE areas you can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink.

Now there is a problem with rebuilding once a nation is one ported. It is not impossible and the Devs have all the necessary items available to the home county.  But its not easy and most new and some veteran player, without guides, wont figure it out.  The econ game is actually well set up now for nations to rebuild or just survive being one ported. My nation is essentially one ported right now. But if I wanted to build a Victory I could.  The problem with rebuilding isn't that players cant make ships. Its currently that many have this perception that they cannot play the game effectively without a 5 slot first rate and that's a fleet they just don't want to rebuild.

Players absolutely need more content options. Not sure how the devs will deal with that. But the obvious hard facts are that only a small few actually play the game for hard core RvR. Meanwhile the game seems centered on this small aspect.  What might surprise some is that the remaining player are NOT actually hard core pvp players. They are the next smaller group to RvR hard core.  Most players just want to build things, level up, explore new ships and systems. RvR and PvP is just something they do on the side.  So like it or not RvR and PvP probably should NOT be the main focus of the game but just one of various options.

I wouldn't be against a proposal to add a PVE area to the map. I liked your suggestion on using the North Sea down to Spain as a home PVE area.  As much as I maintain rebuilding and surviving is possible under the current system I also understand its more than the average player wants to put up with.   So I would still back a PVE North/Baltic sea area but I think we should save the Mediterranean for potential conquest area.  EVE survives because the play area is so huge that when one team becomes dominant in one area the losers just move. I think Caribbean and Mediterranean competitive areas and a North/Baltic PVE core would be a good solution to most of the issues out there (except Alts).

Alts remain an abuse problem for both PvP and RvR.  You have to allow players some way, even if very restricted, that they can deal with alts screwing up the pvp and rvr game.