How to make players come back?

[Simon Cadete]

How to get players back? Pretend you’re a developer and you want to save the game. What would you do? What changes would you make or what features would you add or remove from the game? Basically if you were one of the game developers what would you do? 

One last note I don’t think putting the game on sale works because all you get is new players That end up quitting anyway

[TheHaney]

 

"...Ships are content. There is no other content in game and we don't pretend there is. Ships are complex and amazing. All other content is basic."

-----

My advice to the developers? Abandon that thought process. Adding more ships doesn't equate to content. Not in the framework of an MMO at the stage this game is in. Pull everybody off ships and spend some solid months solely working on actual, playable MMO content, from better PvP accessibility to deeper economic trading to more developed missioning.

Edited December 1, 2017 by TheHaney

[Slim McSauce]

Have a game that can hold its own. Fun for every section of play. If players have to constantly be mindful of the population then they won't have fun. If we can make the game fun with the population it has, then it'll only get better with more people.

If players can't have fun now with 200-500 pop, then it won't grow. Little outside of full release will give the quick population boost the game requires now to play optimally, so we're in it for the long haul.

If I was a developer, first thing i'd look at besides UI and tutorial is OW content, and give players as many things to do on OW to try to make it as fun and engaging as battles are. Although impossible, it's a good mark to shoot for.

Edited December 1, 2017 by Slim Jimmerson

[Christendom]

The real problem is that other than grinding missions there really isn't any enjoyable or enthralling PVE content.  This is an MMO, PVE content keeps the fans in the seats.  No raids, no exploration missions, no delivery missions....just the same old boring sinking of AI.  They kinda are getting the idea with increased loot and difficulty in epic events, but too little too late.

Stale content = a stale game.  People stop showing up.  New ships is not content and that mindset is exactly why this game is not doing well.  

Happy PVE players make happy PVP players.  It's all about that casual content

Edited December 2, 2017 by Christendom

[Teutonic]

10 minutes ago, Christendom said:

The real problem is that other than grinding missions there really isn't any enjoyable or enthralling PVE content.  This is an MMO, PVE content keeps the fans in the seats.  No raids, no exploration missions, no delivery missions....just the same old boring sinking of AI.  They kinda are getting the idea with increased loot and difficulty in epic events, but too little too late.

Stale content = a stale game.  People stop showing up.  New ships is not content and that mindset is exactly why this game is not doing well.  

Happy PVE players make happy PVP players.  It's all about that casual content

couldn't agree more.

[CaptVonGunn]

6 hours ago, Simon Cadete said:

How to get players back? Pretend you’re a developer and you want to save the game. What would you do? What changes would you make or what features would you add or remove from the game? Basically if you were one of the game developers what would you do? 

One last note I don’t think putting the game on sale works because all you get is new players That end up quitting anyway

Make them come back?  I dont know threaten their families? 

[Edward Teach (Blackbeard)]

1 hour ago, Christendom said:

The real problem is that other than grinding missions there really isn't any enjoyable or enthralling PVE content.  This is an MMO, PVE content keeps the fans in the seats.  No raids, no exploration missions, no delivery missions....just the same old boring sinking of AI.  They kinda are getting the idea with increased loot and difficulty in epic events, but too little too late.

Stale content = a stale game.  People stop showing up.  New ships is not content and that mindset is exactly why this game is not doing well.  

Happy PVE players make happy PVP players.  It's all about that casual content

True. And to make it more fun, if you activate your SMUGGLER FLAG, and an enemy AI spots you, that AI should chase you. Unless you’ve got a military/trade agreement with that AI’s nation. Hopefully they should include an indication that whenever you click on a players’ ship, it would show whether you have a military, trade, non-aggresive etc agreement with the player’s nation. Can’t explain it very well since I’m drunk right now but hope this makes sense. 😭

[George Washington]

Devs do not believe in MMO content and player train is long gone. As it was predicted by many on this forum the time is now. @TheHaney listen I have seen hundreds of suggestions like yours since day one with zero effect, save your time for other things. It’s not worth it. 

Edited December 2, 2017 by George Washington

[NavalActionPlayer]

9 hours ago, TheHaney said:

 

"...Ships are content. There is no other content in game and we don't pretend there is. Ships are complex and amazing. All other content is basic."

-----

My advice to the developers? Abandon that thought process. Adding more ships doesn't equate to content. Not in the framework of an MMO at the stage this game is in. Pull everybody off ships and spend some solid months solely working on actual, playable MMO content, from better PvP accessibility to deeper economic trading to more developed missioning.

Agreed - and make various play styles possible - not everyone wants to be in a clan for starters

[NavalActionPlayer]

Oh dear I find myself agreeing with Christendom. Things must be bad for that to happen  but he speaks truth.

"Happy PVE players make happy PVP players.  It's all about that casual content "

[Sir Lancelot Holland]

In the history of warfare no one ever attacked anyone over a multi coloured piece of cloth, it was always for land, wealth, for political and economical or rarely religious grounds. A clear and present danger to a nation has almost always been the case for war (perhaps with the exception of the Trojan wars which were basically fought over a woman!).

The function of  any Navy is the protection of a nation's trade, a nation's territorial waters and the projection of power on the high seas. Once those parameters are established then there will be reason enough to fight, Karl von Clausewitz said that " war is an extension of (state) policy by other means"  and when one nation objects to another nation's 'policies' the result is often war, emulate that and you get all the fighting you desire, or possibly more than you need!

 

[seanjo]

How to make players come back?

 

The phrase you are looking for is: "How to encourage players to come back?"

Sadly, this is a niche game, it is inherently slow, it's population will always be low.

[fox2run]

The sentence "save the game" says it all. If a game isnt good, players leave. I have stated this 117 times and what to do and when the game was fun but to no avail at all. Some of the users wanted realism before gameplay. Hence players leave as realism isnt always fun if out of balance. The whole idea of an OW was good, but it just doesnt work, as very few have the time or pleasure to see a ship sail around in waters for hours on end. Some has, however, and those guys took control over forums and game development. Naval Action Legends was the recykle bin, players that liked pvp-battles was thrown into. But something went totally wrong in this approach. OW became a weird place without action and too much grind for the single player. 

Clans is fine to any game, but to build a game around a few dedicated souls doesnt provide any long lasting backbone. Clans are toxic and they split and live and dies as players leave, find other games, have kids, get married etc. 

The player base for this game are players who have some basic knowledge of navies, age of sail, napoleonic wars and to some extend piracy in the carribean.

Mature players with some knowlegde about the historical period. Mature players also have less sparetime than medium grade school kids. Hence they simply cant throw hours and hours after a game that provide little or no action at all. 

The game was fun until around april 2016. Until then it was relative easy to advance, buy ships with miltiple durability so a loss wasnt bad. Battles stayed open so that most players could sail out, find a fight and make the best of it right away. If 200 battles where ongoing and open - the action wasnt hard to find.

Open battles had this unexpected experience in them. You never knew what happened. Did reinforcements arrive in time? Could the outnumbered fleet make it out in time? Or was it possible to help a friend in need? The system wasnt perfect and had room of exploits - but the basic idea with a world with a lot of ACCESIBLE BATTLES in it was second to none.

Unrealistic in terms of time versus space and with the help of modern communications as it was, it was actually a fun day to day experience. I have never been sitting so much on the edge of my chair as I did back then. The gameplay was GREAT. If you lost a ship, you had more duras so a loss wasnt crippling. Kind of a respawn you could say. The nations was full of players that rapported on enemy positions, asked for help etc. So much life!

In open-ended battles like this, you had the risk of getting outnumbered and loose, however, which not was in everyones taste. Espicially the gankers or the players who liked to be certain of a win (the control-freak-types) argued for a cut down in timers, supported to those who didnt like the idea that their small nation might be outnumbered and loose map-territories. Hence they could control the single battles they thought.

All this was combined with the complaining traders that saw little use as their role as merchants wasnt that important. The single-player was more or less self-sustaining (which was a great feature imho) and they didnt feel the market was done properly. 

As the game saw less and less action for the single player, they left in numbers and those who still played the game was the hard-cores (in terms of time aviable-not nescessary combat skills) hence the development focused on their needs with dedicated clan-system where the port battles where in foucus. Before the port battles where open for all, but clans hated the idea of random players joining in so they where left "to screen" etc. 

Well, what the game actually did was to exclude the biggest player-base more or less down the road by making a good, promising product too narrow and grindy for a few players out of a niche market. I dont play the game as its not working anymore. The fun - factor has gone and what could be a great age of sail title has turned into a Arma-series-equivalence on the water. Its far from in everyones taste. Most players loved the great battle-mechanisms but in a world where you struggle to make things work, it seems more forgiving to play other games like RO2 or Warthunder maybe, where access to somewhat realistic action is much easier to get. I myself look forward to Hell let Loose that looks like they have the balances right between realism and gameplay....
 

That was my 2 cents - feel free to discuss... :-)

 

Edited December 2, 2017 by fox2run

[NavalActionPlayer]

36 minutes ago, fox2run said:

The sentence "save the game" says it all. If a game isnt good, players leave. I have stated this 117 times and what to do and when the game was fun but to no avail at all. Some of the users wanted realism before gameplay. Hence players leave as realism isnt always fun if out of balance. The whole idea of an OW was good, but it just doesnt work, as very few have the time or pleasure to see a ship sail around in waters for hours on end. Some has, however, and those guys took control over forums and game development. Naval Action Legends was the recykle bin, players that liked pvp-battles was thrown into. But something went totally wrong in this approach. OW became a weird place without action and too much grind for the single player. 

Clans is fine to any game, but to build a game around a few dedicated souls doesnt provide any long lasting backbone. Clans are toxic and they split and live and dies as players leave, find other games, have kids, get married etc. 

The player base for this game are players who have some basic knowledge of navies, age of sail, napoleonic wars and to some extend piracy in the carribean.

Mature players with some knowlegde about the historical period. Mature players also have less sparetime than medium grade school kids. Hence they simply cant throw hours and hours after a game that provide little or no action at all. 

The game was fun until around april 2016. Until then it was relative easy to advance, buy ships with miltiple durability so a loss wasnt bad. Battles stayed open so that most players could sail out, find a fight and make the best of it right away. If 200 battles where ongoing and open - the action wasnt hard to find.

Open battles had this unexpected experience in them. You never knew what happened. Did reinforcements arrive in time? Could the outnumbered fleet make it out in time? Or was it possible to help a friend in need? The system wasnt perfect and had room of exploits - but the basic idea with a world with a lot of ACCESIBLE BATTLES in it was second to none.

Unrealistic in terms of time versus space and with the help of modern communications as it was, it was actually a fun day to day experience. I have never been sitting so much on the edge of my chair as I did back then. The gameplay was GREAT. If you lost a ship, you had more duras so a loss wasnt crippling. Kind of a respawn you could say. The nations was full of players that rapported on enemy positions, asked for help etc. So much life!

In open-ended battles like this, you had the risk of getting outnumbered and loose, however, which not was in everyones taste. Espicially the gankers or the players who liked to be certain of a win (the control-freak-types) argued for a cut down in timers, supported to those who didnt like the idea that their small nation might be outnumbered and loose map-territories. Hence they could control the single battles they thought.

All this was combined with the complaining traders that saw little use as their role as merchants wasnt that important. The single-player was more or less self-sustaining (which was a great feature imho) and they didnt feel the market was done properly. 

As the game saw less and less action for the single player, they left in numbers and those who still played the game was the hard-cores (in terms of time aviable-not nescessary combat skills) hence the development focused on their needs with dedicated clan-system where the port battles where in foucus. Before the port battles where open for all, but clans hated the idea of random players joining in so they where left "to screen" etc. 

Well, what the game actually did was to exclude the biggest player-base more or less down the road by making a good, promising product too narrow and grindy for a few players out of a niche market. I dont play the game as its not working anymore. The fun - factor has gone and what could be a great age of sail title has turned into a Arma-series-equivalence on the water. Its far from in everyones taste. Most players loved the great battle-mechanisms but in a world where you struggle to make things work, it seems more forgiving to play other games like RO2 or Warthunder maybe, where access to somewhat realistic action is much easier to get. I myself look forward to Hell let Loose that looks like they have the balances right between realism and gameplay....
 

That was my 2 cents - feel free to discuss... :-)

 

+1

[George Washington]

2 hours ago, fox2run said:

The sentence "save the game" says it all. If a game isnt good, players leave. I have stated this 117 times and what to do and when the game was fun but to no avail at all. Some of the users wanted realism before gameplay. Hence players leave as realism isnt always fun if out of balance. The whole idea of an OW was good, but it just doesnt work, as very few have the time or pleasure to see a ship sail around in waters for hours on end. Some has, however, and those guys took control over forums and game development. Naval Action Legends was the recykle bin, players that liked pvp-battles was thrown into. But something went totally wrong in this approach. OW became a weird place without action and too much grind for the single player. 

Clans is fine to any game, but to build a game around a few dedicated souls doesnt provide any long lasting backbone. Clans are toxic and they split and live and dies as players leave, find other games, have kids, get married etc. 

The player base for this game are players who have some basic knowledge of navies, age of sail, napoleonic wars and to some extend piracy in the carribean.

Mature players with some knowlegde about the historical period. Mature players also have less sparetime than medium grade school kids. Hence they simply cant throw hours and hours after a game that provide little or no action at all. 

The game was fun until around april 2016. Until then it was relative easy to advance, buy ships with miltiple durability so a loss wasnt bad. Battles stayed open so that most players could sail out, find a fight and make the best of it right away. If 200 battles where ongoing and open - the action wasnt hard to find.

Open battles had this unexpected experience in them. You never knew what happened. Did reinforcements arrive in time? Could the outnumbered fleet make it out in time? Or was it possible to help a friend in need? The system wasnt perfect and had room of exploits - but the basic idea with a world with a lot of ACCESIBLE BATTLES in it was second to none.

Unrealistic in terms of time versus space and with the help of modern communications as it was, it was actually a fun day to day experience. I have never been sitting so much on the edge of my chair as I did back then. The gameplay was GREAT. If you lost a ship, you had more duras so a loss wasnt crippling. Kind of a respawn you could say. The nations was full of players that rapported on enemy positions, asked for help etc. So much life!

In open-ended battles like this, you had the risk of getting outnumbered and loose, however, which not was in everyones taste. Espicially the gankers or the players who liked to be certain of a win (the control-freak-types) argued for a cut down in timers, supported to those who didnt like the idea that their small nation might be outnumbered and loose map-territories. Hence they could control the single battles they thought.

All this was combined with the complaining traders that saw little use as their role as merchants wasnt that important. The single-player was more or less self-sustaining (which was a great feature imho) and they didnt feel the market was done properly. 

As the game saw less and less action for the single player, they left in numbers and those who still played the game was the hard-cores (in terms of time aviable-not nescessary combat skills) hence the development focused on their needs with dedicated clan-system where the port battles where in foucus. Before the port battles where open for all, but clans hated the idea of random players joining in so they where left "to screen" etc. 

Well, what the game actually did was to exclude the biggest player-base more or less down the road by making a good, promising product too narrow and grindy for a few players out of a niche market. I dont play the game as its not working anymore. The fun - factor has gone and what could be a great age of sail title has turned into a Arma-series-equivalence on the water. Its far from in everyones taste. Most players loved the great battle-mechanisms but in a world where you struggle to make things work, it seems more forgiving to play other games like RO2 or Warthunder maybe, where access to somewhat realistic action is much easier to get. I myself look forward to Hell let Loose that looks like they have the balances right between realism and gameplay....
 

That was my 2 cents - feel free to discuss... :-)

 

Simply a great answer. 

I will highlight this - buy ships with multiple durability so a loss wasn't as bad. As I mentioned this in my previous replies we need insurance to eliminate Fear.  

Edited December 2, 2017 by George Washington

[Kiefer Cain]

In order to have more sheep for the wolves to hunt, the sheep need grass that is worth eating and a knowledge that sheepdogs (real players...) are potentially and capable of coming to the rescue.

Econ content/interface is a factor in my not wanting to sail or even play the game.  I want to see information that gives me reasonable confidence that my trip to another port is going to be worthwhile.  That trip should be made knowing I am supplying or demanding from a player economy, not this npc trade goods- single player game concept...  There is zero immersion into this world when I supply/transport a trade good to a port.  I would like an economy that relies more on player prices and less on artificial npc prices.  There just isn't enough of an econ (it isn't pve) mechanic to hook me into playing the game every night.  I don't have the time (right now) to enjoy the awesome pvp content, but I want to be a part of the Naval Action world in the few minutes or hour I have to log in. 

The NA 'world' requires a herd of sheep. That herd needs content, for the rest of the game to be fully lubricated to run better.  These sheep don't always munch on grass.  Some of them can become wolves in the blink of an eye... 

Simply providing price histories and server/region/local price averages/trends would be a great interactive tool for this 'sheep' to start munching on.  Many many things POTBS did wrong.  The econ interface isn't one of them.  Perhaps a review of that game's econ interface would be worthwhile.

[TheHaney]

9 hours ago, George Washington said:

Devs do not believe in MMO content and player train is long gone. As it was predicted by many on this forum the time is now. @TheHaney listen I have seen hundreds of suggestions like yours since day one with zero effect, save your time for other things. It’s not worth it. 

Oh, I don't mind. I spent three years poking at Sauropod Studios developers working on Castle Story (another amazing concept by a poorly run indie studio that took so long to accomplish anything it has essentially no player base). 

I suppose I get a kick out of suggesting changes that never happen. It's like my work but slightly more interesting. 

[George Washington]

12 minutes ago, TheHaney said:

Oh, I don't mind. I spent three years poking at Sauropod Studios developers working on Castle Story (another amazing concept by a poorly run indie studio that took so long to accomplish anything it has essentially no player base). 

I suppose I get a kick out of suggesting changes that never happen. It's like my work but slightly more interesting. 

Tell me about it. 

Edited December 2, 2017 by George Washington

[Sir Texas Sir]

13 hours ago, Captain Biggus Dickus said:

True. And to make it more fun, if you activate your SMUGGLER FLAG, and an enemy AI spots you, that AI should chase you. Unless you’ve got a military/trade agreement with that AI’s nation. Hopefully they should include an indication that whenever you click on a players’ ship, it would show whether you have a military, trade, non-aggresive etc agreement with the player’s nation. Can’t explain it very well since I’m drunk right now but hope this makes sense. 😭

We need a reputation system in game so that you can have good and bad reputation with each nation.  If you have good trade reputation with another nation you don't need a smuggler flag to get into port with a trader (still can't use a war ship though) and do trade.  If you have a medium rang trade rep than you have to use the smuggler flag that should make you able to be attacked by all and the battle should be treated just as if your a pirate.  These battles should have no Green on Green rules too.  It's simple just make all battle positional join and have the rule that only green on green against the rule is same nation and only if you want to report it (exclude pirates).   Bring back the old way to become a pirate too but tie it into the reputation system.  You can't make a pirate char you have to become one in game.   If you dont' want to be a pirate any more you gain good reputation (a privateer system would work great for getting that with a nation) and than once you hit a level of high enough reputation you get the option to join that nation perm.  

We need PvE content.  Simple actual missions to get folks to do things. I would love a semi fog of war on the map too.  It shows capitals of regions and that is it.  You have to actually travel to that region to find the other ports and map them.  Than if you travel to all regions in game you get an achievement/tittle.   Again this could be tied into a reputation system too.  Some one that been all over the map could have a high Exploration skills which might boost there Trade skills too for the reputation of other nations since you have info and knowledge from your travels to trade.

Missions that reward you stuff instead of the random drops.  Kill 100 AI you get a mod drop.  Kill 100 Players you get something else.  Make these items that can drop in any battle but it gives folks a goal to get an extra copy by doing said missions and turning them in.

Leader boards and I hate them when they become a compittion, but what I would love is to be able to look at my stats. How many players have I sunk, how many AI, how many of those where done in boarding?   Stuff like that.  How bad am I?  Do I get sunk more than I sink others.  Just basic info about my char in his life and action in game.  This could be public to make a semi leader board.  I been told a lot of this info is in the api files so it wouldn't be to hard to collect it.  Though I would prefer it more just to look at my own stats, but a leader board would be interesting.  You can also list the last 5-10 kills or been kill from which would help curve folks grinding alts and cheating to pad stats. If that info is very clearly shown than folks would be less likely to do it. 

 

 

[jodgi]

18 hours ago, Christendom said:

This is an MMO, PVE content keeps the fans in the seats.

I haven't played anything but MMOs since 1999. I haven't played anything with PVE during that time, this has been a very deliberate thing.

I have collected quite a few friends during my time here. None of "my guys" will come back for better and more PVE, it will have the opposite effect on us.

Maybe we're just super special?

[jodgi]

14 hours ago, George Washington said:

listen I have seen hundreds of suggestions like yours since day one with zero effect,

When was this "day one"? I suspect you came in after the feature freeze, so to speak. 

[Christendom]

1 hour ago, jodgi said:

I haven't played anything but MMOs since 1999. I haven't played anything with PVE during that time, this has been a very deliberate thing.

I have collected quite a few friends during my time here. None of "my guys" will come back for better and more PVE, it will have the opposite effect on us.

Maybe we're just super special?

I've also been playing MMOs since the late 90s and used my dial up connection to first log into Ultima Online way back when. 

Sounds like you haven't been playing very successful MMOs.  All the good ones have decent PVE systems that keep players in the game for the PVP people to hunt.  UO, EVE, Everquest, WoW.....all had/have good PVE systems, whether it be crafting/raiding/farming...whatever, that keeps folks coming back to the game.  More importantly, they had variety.  The very best ones combine PVE with mundane tasks and make folks forget you're not out killing people.  The problem with folks like you is you think that anything that isn't PVP oriented is carebear and anathema to how MMOs should be played.  The best games offer multiple different play styles and doesn't force folks to play how they don't want.  NA has yet to achieve that. 

Perhaps your friends are special, I dunno.  PVP in naval action is still at it's core fundamentally the same.  ROE changes, safe zones, wind profiles...whatever.. all have changed a couple of times, but the OW in this game still livesand breaths by it's population.  It's a simple meta really, keep the sheep occupied so the wolves can hunt em.  I've seen admin echo these sentiments multiple times now on the forum, but in practice the changes he keeps implementing seem to continually ruin the PVE experience in the game.  

I personally dislike most PVE aspects of MMOs, I like to either solo hunt or in small groups and spend hours being bored just for that occasional chance of a good gank.  In NA I think I only have the aggie fully unlocked with slots.  I hate grinding, I hate hostility missions, I hate hunting AI.  Most of my skill books came from spares the clan had.  BUT I do comprehend well enough how good MMOs function and it all revolves around fun and easy casual content.  The rest takes care of itself.

Edited December 2, 2017 by Christendom

[TheHaney]

3 hours ago, jodgi said:

I haven't played anything but MMOs since 1999. I haven't played anything with PVE during that time, this has been a very deliberate thing.

When I talk about PvE generally I'm not just referencing stuff like quests and AI combat and so on.

 

A good example is Life is Feudal. If you haven't tried it, I definitely recommend it for the hardcore, medieval or pvp aficionado. The MMO version should either be out or is about to release (it spent years as a 64-player server game). There are no quests, no AI, no missions... the only opposition is other players. That being said, there's a huge PvE component in the sense that it takes 8 players the better part of a week to manufacture swords:

- You need to prospect for, and mine, whatever mineral you wish to use (which requires tools and skills that have their own progression)

- You need to smelt that mineral into a usable metal (which requires tools, skills, buildings that you need entirely seperate resource chains for, like making clay and charcoal)

- You need to hammer that metal into your blade and pommel (which requires blah blah you get the idea)

- You need to source and cut down the trees you'll use for the handle components

- You need to fletch that wood into the appropriate pieces.

- You'll need the entire massive infrastructure around raising animals, skinning, curing the leather, cutting the leather, and learning how to wrap the leather around the handle.

- Each player is only capable of becoming an expert in ONE of those above skillsets, which means building a GOOD sword takes a town's worth of people. And suddenly, they have a marketable, profitable item. That they can trade with another group for THEIR massive-investment marketable item, such as clothing. Or building materials. (Or they can just kill them all and take their stuff).

ALL of that is, in my mind, PvE activity. Which ultimately leads to PvP. So we aren't talking just about missions, or AI combat, or crap like that... PvE can manifest as systems of gameplay.

Edited December 3, 2017 by TheHaney

[Rikard Frederiksen]

Well, if I were told to think of three ways to encourage players to return, I would do the following...

First: Introduce PvP 'hotzones'. Regardless of how they emerge (placed by server every couple of hours, or built off of where battles are taking place), what I would do with them is have them increase in size as more battles take place, and rewards begin to increase. The more battles that are going on the bigger the zone, which in turn means higher rewards, so more and more people can get in on it and feel rewarded for fighting. Also some minor rewards for input, not just for winning.

Second: Ditch permanent upgrades (maybe retain ship knowledge, but in the guise of officers*). The game is supposed to be about skill, not farming for stuff to get a statistical advantage that can nullify an opponent's skill. So I'd throw them away. However! Anyone crafting a ship would be able to boost an (one, singular) aspect of a ship in a small way, dependant upon crafting level. Except speed. Leave speed out of it. To take a current 'upgrade', a level 10 crafter building a Lynx would be able to craft it with a reload speed increase of 1%. A level 50 crafter would craft the Lynx with a 5% reload speed increase. The only downside, I suppose, is that people would only buy the level 50 craftsmen ships, but at least it would make being a high level craftsman worth it. Frankly, though, I'd rather see the ship crafting system redone, along with 'crafting level', but within the confines of current systems, the above is what I'd do.

Third: Already mentioned in this thread but worth it for the repetition, insurance for ships!

 

*An idea I've had for a rather long time, and one I am rather partial to, is that you employ officers to serve on your ship to give you a minor boost that might be dependent on the officer's experience, depending on their role. The number you would have depends on the ship's Rate. If you have a 1st Rate, you have space for 5 officers, for a 7th Rate, 1 officer. Anyway, that is by-the-by.

Edited December 3, 2017 by Rikard Frederiksen

[TheHaney]

3 hours ago, Rikard Frederiksen said:

he game is supposed to be about skill, not farming for stuff to get a statistical advantage that can nullify an opponent's skill.

But that's literally how every successful MMO in history works.