Improve NPC's number

[verseaux]

Hello,

 

Well my request is quite simple, could we have more NPC sailing on the coasts and seas?

 

Since the last patch, we need to farm more to up our ranks, and killing NPC is at 90% what we need to do to level up, there are too few players in the server to pvp and use that way.

 

 

I ve been sailing near Louisiane,  Central American coast, or in the south est of venezuela, but could'nt find so many ships...how can we enjoy the game if we waste time sailing on the OW? We must admit that right now OW is quite empty and boring, sailing two hours irl without finding almost a ship is terrible.

 

Could it be possible to fix this? Maybe there are too many NPC for the server to manage, i don't know, but as a player i really feel there are not enought NPC in the world.

 

When i began the game i also used to see some big battles beetween NPC, it almost desapeared too, it was a good possibility for little ships to have a nice battle. It could be an option to regulate the number of NPC on the server, but still let's possibility to players to grind xp by joining this battles.

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

VerSeauX

Edited November 8, 2015 by verseaux

[z4ys]

And when you find some ships and you need cutters and brigs they sail between 3rd rates.

[Captain146]

+1

[Red Jack Walker]

+1

[LeBoiteux]

Do you ask for more NPC just to have more fights (because the OW would be empty and "boring") or to level up to frigates and bigger ships as soon as possible ? It seems to be above all the latter option, right ?
 
Whatever your motivation, I guess that your request is part of the reflection on the current progression system and small ships : http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/7577-feedback-on-the-current-progession-system-patch-8/

because part of Admin's concern about it is how...

(...) to create a system that will cause players to sail more of the ships more often (...) to accomplish the goal of keeping a wide array of smaller ships out on the open seas?  How can we make ships that are not currently popular more useful and desirable to sail?

Edited November 8, 2015 by LeBoiteux

[verseaux]

Well i request more NPC just get more action in generally, i don't know about the little ships because i am chasing most of the time frigates and above, but i just feel that sailing in the OW is not the finnality of this game, we are here to craft, trades or fight.

 

Right now i spend too much time in the OW doing nothing, cause i can't find those ships to fight, maybe it will be different when game will be released, with more players, or with port battles, making game more dynamic.

 

I can understand that admins don't want to we lvl up to fastly, but don't avoid it by making us wait that we can't encounter targets.

 

En français car l'anglais n'est pas ma langue maternelle.

 

Je trouve que je passe trop de temps à chercher de quoi m'amuser, NA est un jeu, donc quand je me connecte, je ne veux pas passer mon temps à chercher une hypothétique proie, je veux de l'action tout de suite et "rentabiliser" mon temps de jeu.

 

Là certaines zones sont désertes, le monde devrait être vivant et dynamique partout, même si historiquement ce n'était pas le cas bien sur, mais on est sur un jeu, pas une simulation, même si j'aime le réalisme.

 

Mettre 1 mois à atteindre un niveau  ne me pose pas de problème si j'ai de l'action, mais mettre un mois à passer un lvl parce que je ne rencontre personne...là je perds mon temps...que ce soit en petit navire..ou en navire de ligne

 

Pour moi (et c'est subjectif), il faut éviter les temps morts et favoriser la dynamique du jeu.

Edited November 8, 2015 by verseaux

[LeBoiteux]

I can understand that admins don't want to we lvl up to fastly, but don't avoid it by making us wait that we can't encounter targets.

 

Mettre 1 mois à atteindre un niveau  ne me pose pas de problème si j'ai de l'action, mais mettre un mois à passer un lvl parce que je ne rencontre personne...là je perds mon temps...que ce soit en petit navire..ou en navire de ligne

Pour moi (et c'est subjectif), il faut éviter les temps morts et favoriser la dynamique du jeu.

You're right : boredom wouldn't be a great solution to slow down the progression !!! I'm sure it isn't in Admin's plan  .

But increasing the number of NPC may speed up the progression too much in regard with Admin's goal to have small ships in OW...

So what about more fights but some without rewards and/or fights with far fewer rewards than now (in terms of xp, lvl up, gold...) ?

Edited November 8, 2015 by LeBoiteux

[verseaux]

Yes decrease a little bit the xp reward  (but not gold because with port battles we're going to have a lot if pvp fights, we will need cash to buy new ships) could be a solution, then add more NPC and make more battles beetween NPC to reduce automatically their number on the server.

[LeBoiteux]

Just...

...a little bit 

??? 

I do think we need more drastic actions about progression and access to ships.

[Red Jack Walker]

There are just a couple of ways to have more small ships in OW on regular basis: 1) find a role/purpose for each class of ships and 2) attracting many new players day after day (because sooner or later everyone will gain his promotion and will fulfil is licit desire to sail bigger, better or favourite ships, even if we decide to nullify experience in some battles). I agree about the fact that rank progression needed to be slowed down, but making it too difficult, slow or frustrating could discourage new players from joining this wonderful game and that's a no-no in my opinion.

Edited November 8, 2015 by Captain Foster

[maturin]

I think we have a pretty good balance now. There are always enough NPCs in the more populated areas, and players should have incentive to cluster together.

[Balsafer]

Yes that is one thing the Admin/Devs keep forgetting influx of new players sailing the lower end ships that is what they are there for the new players and if the Devs want those ships to retain usefulness advertise the game more new people will join and use such ships also make more money. Forcing people to sail ships they don't like as much is not the answer.

[LeBoiteux]

Yes that is one thing the Admin/Devs keep forgetting influx of new players sailing the lower end ships that is what they are there for the new players and if the Devs want those ships to retain usefulness advertise the game more new people will join and use such ships also make more money. Forcing people to sail ships they don't like as much is not the answer.

Unfortunately for GameLabs and your view, there won't be endless masses of newcomers (buyers). That's the laws of the product life cycle. 

Furthermore, lots of newcomers are to become top-tier veterans sooner than later in any grinding system, even if devs try to slow down lvl up. 

Only casuals will keep on sailing small to medium ships if nothing is done to have all players sailing those ships from time to time...

Btw, it is not about sailing small ships, it is about sailing all the ships that are developed, not just some fav' one.

Edited November 8, 2015 by LeBoiteux

[Captain Comery]

More NPCs are needed very much.from some of the comments I gather that the NPC have a heavy presence in certain locations, none of which are near pirate towns, which need to be spread out more.

Also the one thing that I notice with NPCs is that they are mostly 74s or brigs and the occasional Cerberus but with the honour kill system that makes it harder to lvl up. If you need to take something like a bellepoulle out in order to get to the next rank you are gonna have a damn hard job finding one not to mention catching it. Larger ships are more slippery than trader ships!

Would love it if a cutter were able to take down a 74 but that's not gonna happen. If we don't get a wider range of and vast quantity of NPCs Naval Action will be as dead as the cutter vs 74 scenario.

I feel like we have gone back to the open world version where some players were still in sea trials trying to get the sanitisima and there were a very select few in open world.

As for ship,variety perhaps a treasure ship would tighten up some lose ends?

After all we are so close in retrospect to being presentable for open testing for everybody and I do understand that will fill a few gaps in the sea but we need a plan B with more NPC ships in case the launch is a bust. The bust thing might not be true but I'm sure that I speak for many when I say what do the devs plan in the worst comes true.

I mean what are the odds everybody out there is going crazy about this game when we have GTA 5 or all of the call of duty's to battle against?

That is a trafalgar in its self! For all we know we may be overloaded with players which I hope is true but we all want to know admin, what is your overall plan B

I mean we need publicity to get this game fully going with some type of advertisement or perhaps one or two live streams by famous members such as RamJB (may have spelled name wrong) which would start this game off with a bang. I myself never heard of Naval Action until I read about it in PC gamer.

If this seems like some type of personal attack on the dev team or anybody else let me assure you that it was not my intention to do so.

Rant over.

Edited November 9, 2015 by Captain Comery

[verseaux]

I think we have a pretty good balance now. There are always enough NPCs in the more populated areas, and players should have incentive to cluster together.

 

Maybe because you stay in the same area as you said, where most of the players stay.

 

I ve been travelling from all Belize coast to Miami to Charleston, sometimes i am sailing for 20 minutes without encoutering a single ship. And what about if i want to farm in a quiet place, safe and far away from others players.

 

An another thing that i noticed, there are a lot of french ships cruising in Belize and North American coast, but no french port around 1000 miles away.

 

I should encounter a lot of american ships, but almost nothing when i go up from Miami.

 

NPC roads need to be reworked a bit i guess, to be more logical depending of the proximity of national ports.

 

Don't feel that i am only complaining here, i am just trying to improve the gameplay experience, i saw some people in the global chat that were speaking and be desapointed too about  the low NPC amount, sailing for hours without finding nothing.

 

This is a really frustrating feeling

[Neusdoorn]

As a newcomer in OW I recognise the problem pointed out about the NPC's.

 

I've been struggling to find good battles in my yacht and Cutter, I do see lots of 3rd rates and Frigates with an occasional trader.

I would think that near your homeport you have lots of activity and lots of small traders going from port to port.

The tradelanes should be more crowded.

 

You would think that the number of small ships should be much higher then bigger one's.

I feel there is nothing to do as a new player other than searching for battles and with the lack of small ships you need to team up.

 

Going solo on a yacht, long distance sailing and grinding early ingame is an annoyance.

Focus should lie on trading in small ships so that you can upgrade and then take on a battle when you're ship is not the smallest in the pond.

Edited November 13, 2015 by Cpt Olbaard

[flyingdutchman]

got the same problem its hard to find small ships

[Hugh Latham]

I haven't had a problem finding low lever ranking targets, but that may just be a local problem. A cutter can take ai brigs without too much difficulty.