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Looting Mechanic


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The loot system that now exits in the game is frankly, terrible. To be clear I do not mean the actual "loot" but the the looting mechanic of having to be very close and at a low speed to a "sunk" ship to get the option to loot.

 Every one who has ever done any PvE, will have on multiple occasions, lost loot due to being downwind of the sinking ship and unable to get back to it. Had it sink before you can get to it, or simply been 10 feet away and needing to be 9 feet to loot. With no way to do anything about it. The "new" loot system ( over the old Esc battle, loot screen) was just about bearable but with the wind changes/sailing profiles it has made looting so much worse.

Just as an example, I boarded an AI ship the other day won the fight but was unable to loot it as it was out of looting range (!?!). Not only that but it was behind me and upwind so i had no way of getting back to it in my Agamemnon what so ever.

To me and many people I play with, this should be top of list of things to change as soon as possible. I sit in my clan's Discord and every day someone is complaining about the loot system. the ships right there at edge of your finger tips and you can not loot it, is just annoying beyond words and all you can do is watch it sink.

The added effect of this problem means to have a good chance to loot you have to drag out missions/fleets etc and wait till they downwind of you to shoot and sink them and this adds a huge amount of time where you just sit waiting for the AI to sail to the point where you can give them a "killing blow" and have a chance of making it to them before they become unlootable. The AI also compounds the problem as it has a  tendency to beach its ships and get stuck in fights near land, making looting harder if not impossible in these locations. Especially true if your in a bigger draft ship. 

Suggestions:

1. An easy temporary fix would be to increase the radius substantially of where you can loot a ship from. Increasing the time you can loot a ship after it has "sunk" would also help allot.

2. A floating crate or some wreckage could appear after the ship has sunk, that itself never sinks allowing players to take the time if they can/want to, to sail to it and loot.

3. A system like the "brace" ability that has a wind up/wind down could be added that stops all actions on your ship and starts a timer that would be shorter or longer, dependant on the range of your ship from the one you wish to loot ( would still need a max looting range to work)  and after the timer finishes you would have your loot.

4.  Introduce a mixed system where you can still loot ships if you close enough but if your against AI and you've sunk or captured every enemy ship in the battle (i.e. "won") you would get a loot screen at the end with everything that was on the sunk ships regardless of if you physically looted it or not during the fight. However, if you had to run and leave with AI enemies still alive then you would get no loot screen, and only have what you were physically able to sail to and loot as your reward.

In a group, you could choose the loot option that suits your group best (an option that many games have had) everyone in party gets an equal but randomly assigned share of the loot at end, or free loot, where if you can sail up and loot in the fight then its yours. Free loot would be the default option with shared loot only available while in an actual pre-formed Team/battle group and  would be set before joining the battle.

Just to be clear this would only be for PvE/missions/fleets not for PVP. 

 

So when your working on the next patch, if you could please take a look at the Loot System and give it a tweak to be less brutal and frustrating and bad... I think everyone will agree it would be a very welcome change.

 

 

 

 

 

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Another idea....I sink a ship. I click on the sunken ship, then launch a small looting boat (Captains Launch). It doesn't matter if this is animated. The time it takes is according to distance to the sunken ship. While your "Captains launch" is out looting, the player would be unable to raise sail, repair ship or crew - but could fire cannon. Launch returns and you have the loot. Yes, I know there would be a weight/quantity concern, but perhaps a cap on war ships loot weight and traders could not be looted this way. There could even be a Captains Launch upgrade that reduces the time it takes to loot.  Just an idea. I have no idea what it would take to implement. It might even allow the possibility of even trading someone a limited about of goods at sea. As always - just food for thought.

Edited by Guest
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1 hour ago, Headless Parrot said:

Another idea....I sink a ship. I click on the sunken ship, then launch a small looting boat (Captains Launch). It doesn't matter if this is animated. The time it takes is according to distance to the sunken ship. While your "Captains launch" is out looting, the player would be unable to raise sail, repair ship or crew - but could fire cannon. Launch returns and you have the loot. Yes, I know there would be a weight/quantity concern, but perhaps a cap on war ships loot weight and traders could not be looted this way. There could even be a Captains Launch upgrade that reduces the time it takes to loot.  Just an idea. I have no idea what it would take to implement. It might even allow the possibility of even trading someone a limited about of goods at sea. As always - just food for thought.

yes this is like my 3rd suggestion Parrot just better said :P but yeah that would work too.

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I share the frustration that it seems as soon as a ship gets sunk it almost seems like a mini-game to beat the wind-clock before the ship dives itself into the wind. Although begrudgingly I do see merit to this system. 

  1. I like the idea that similar to capping a ship if you want to do something other than simply fight and sink a ship you have to display a tact and differing approach to a sail, I like that there is some planning required to setting up a ship to be looted rather than simply sunk
  2. I like that there could be a strategic aspect to a game in resigning to a ship being sunk with intent to loot, but other strategic priorities such as enemy ships might take precedent, and having to priorities either looting and fighting, and that the enemy could be trying to deny you loot after a sink, either through spite or strategy.
  3. looting realistically should be a time consuming endeavor, I'm kind of glad that when you do get into loot range it is instant, although unrealistic, there should be some sort of compromise to balance this out

Some suggestions to change the looting dynamic. I realize these suggestions don't make it easier really, but might improve our relationship with looting.

  1. Having perks that increase salvaging range, and maybe even the types of loot that could be salvaged. I like the idea that similar to other specialisations such as trading and boarding, crafting, that salvaging and salvage crews/fleets/clans could be a different type of player in the game that could provide an interesting challenge for pvpers or salvage crews and how the interact with fleets following battles and may encourage a more organic economy. Clans could employ other salvage clans, or hunt them, would give pirates an extra dynamic. There are some opportunities for interesting dynamics this way I believe.
  2. Have mods that help salvage or loot to give further choices
  3. Having easily removed good such as reps and trade goods be removable in battle, but bulkier things like refits and rigging you would need to cap the ship to access through breaking it up either at port, or if you had a salvage perk mentioned in mentioned in suggestion 1, you could also have it so if you have one of these perks you could spend time in OW after the battle over that battle site spending a timer to salvage wrecks, the compromise being OW exposure to ganks/rival salvage crews/interception, similar to bottle wrecks in game already
  4. You can see battle wrecks in OW and come back to them for maybe 30 mins whatever afterwards, encouraging pvp over old battle sites, you could also use this to track hunters or fleets adding to excitement, especially for new players or players in strange waters. Again this could be perk driven, I like the idea of skill being in the captains (reflected not just in real life but also through perks) rather than in the ships (not entirely of course, it takes skill and knowledge to build ships well too) hence the leaning towards perks.

 Or if we simply want to make the current system easier:

  1.  Increase loot range
  2. Have A.I ships lose interest in turning as soon as HP is depleted, reflecting them getting to lifeboats, or getting drunk one last time, or stringing up their officers or whatever
  3. make certain loots, either entirely or by percentage "float-able" maybe with refits and heavy upgrades they sink with the ship as is, but certain good, or a percentage of could always be available reflecting them floating out of the ship, that way a captain that still has ships to fight can still get some reward.
Edited by Giobhniu14
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forgot to add this this patch.. sorry guys

will add next one. time will increase significantly, distance slightly, speed difference will be slightly reduced.. 

MOST IMPORTANTLY. We are considering the following mechanic. One of the player's ship upgrades will drop to hold if the ship is sinking.. But need to calculate it's effects on money sinks first.

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2 minutes ago, admin said:

forgot to add this this patch.. sorry guys

will add next one. time will increase significantly, distance slightly, speed difference will be slightly reduced.. 

This is good to hear, so thank you. Will look forward to change and testing it out. It's very much needed.

2 minutes ago, Intrepido said:

You cant loot when going in negative speed. Please fix it.

yes this is also true for boarding or at least negative speed causes issues. With the option to board being available but pressing it has no effect.

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6 minutes ago, admin said:

forgot to add this this patch.. sorry guys

will add next one. time will increase significantly, distance slightly, speed difference will be slightly reduced.. 

MOST IMPORTANTLY. We are considering the following mechanic. One of the player's ship upgrades will drop to hold if the ship is sinking.. But need to calculate it's effects on money sinks first.

Maybe option to randomly get some of the cannons too like with AI?  I like the chance to get them or mods instead of having to capture the ship.  Gives more reason to take the price whole and than see if it's worth keeping.  

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MOST IMPORTANTLY. We are considering the following mechanic. One of the player's ship upgrades will drop to hold if the ship is sinking.. But need to calculate it's effects on money sinks first. 

Good news !)

 

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2 hours ago, Bobzillah said:

if people just learn to sail and plan ahead they would get the loot ,incase of boarding make shure you are in the proper position for looting ahead.... or when you sinking one keep sailing behind it or turn it into the wind like with boarding so you would be right next to it and then you can loot it . hoop admins change nothing cause people just need to learn how to plan ahead and sail properly .this is a good way to make people try sail better and punish them if they dont . earn youre damn loot people learn 2 sail.

SO really? we need to plan our battles around the ability to be close enough to loot as opposed to just winning the battle and sending off the boats to loot?

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On 2/3/2018 at 4:28 PM, SKurj said:

SO really? we need to plan our battles around the ability to be close enough to loot as opposed to just winning the battle and sending off the boats to loot?

This is why I like the boat idea. Drops your crew for a bit (like 20 or something) but at least doesn't require you to be a floating target for 5 min while you try to loot a ship.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 03/02/2018 at 7:02 PM, admin said:

forgot to add this this patch.. sorry guys

will add next one. time will increase significantly, distance slightly, speed difference will be slightly reduced.. 

@ admin

Any chance we can get an update on when this change will be added? It has not been listed on either of the previous two patches that have been released since your response.

Kind Regards.

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Yes. I often get frustrated of not reaching a sinking ship for looting because it always seems to be unreachable in time. If we think of longboats being put into the water for a visit, that alone makes our depending on wind to reach the booty ridiculous.

Great reason to implement boats to the game, by the way. Purpose does not stop with this.

Edited by Cetric de Cornusiac
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First to sink a ship that you want to loot you should analyze the situation and think if you will reach him , and sink him in the best moment . The white flag is on when they are surrounded or captured . If he is sinking the people on the board don't think to put a white flag , just to escape . The enemy flag should remain on .

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12 hours ago, BPHick said:

Cutting out mini-game?

Mini-game or your longboat is leaving your vessel right in the battle instance, just has to spawn next to the ship. Once manned and maneuverable, you give orders to it (like looting a defeated ship). Other purposes I described somewhere else, like ordering the manned boat to assist you in boarding, from another side, which would give you a bonus for melee. Thanks to the roars it would not depend on wind, but stay slow at all times. However, it would become a target in its own right once in the water and not immune against enemy fire.

Edited by Cetric de Cornusiac
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