Jump to content
Game-Labs Forum

Lyric

Ensign
  • Posts

    272
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Everything posted by Lyric

  1. I think it's a good idea, and contrary to Captain Comery, I don't believe it's "too much". In financial terms, everything can be balanced in a couple of small patches, so the "we can't afford it" argument is completely irrelevant. The more attention to detail and features implemented, the further away we step from arcade, and towards sim sandbox / realism.
  2. This is not at all accurate as someone has already pointed out. During the war, there was a massive shortage of frigates, but not necessarily in comparison to the amount of SOLs there were, but due to demand. To quote Nelson, was I to die this moment, "Want of Frigates" would be found stamped on my heart. Frigates ARE the ideal hunting vessels. The best in chasing, inshore patrols and protecting convoys and such. Sadly due to the sheer amount of tasks idealy assigned to a frigate, there were never enough of them. This is why you sometimes had smaller SOLs scouting ahead of a squadron, simply because the Flag officer in charge hadn't been given any on his assignment. At the same time, having everyone casually hunting in a victory is not something that needs to happen, for everyone's sake. Addressing the "Pirates in SOLs debate", Pirates simply did NOT build their own ships. Which at the present is the only way to aqquire SOLs. It solely depends on whether you want Pirates to be the game's hard mode. If they were allowed to build SOLS, place a rather big brick wall infront of them which is the economy. If you present them with much less resources, they will take a lot longer to aqquire SOLs. It will also encourage them to fill out their piracy roles and look for trade routes to sabotage and contraband to ship from national ports etc. On the other hand, if capturing was the only way of aqquiring bigger ships, it automatically goes into extra-realistic, hard mode due to the 1 durability rule. A big attraction perhaps to fans of H1Z1, DayZ, Rust, Arkevolved and other survival, realism games.
  3. Lets talk about ship moderation for the mutual benefit of the Devs and dedicated NA Playerbase. Firstly, who remembers the AI fleets? It was a great idea and i'm sure that the concept will be implemented some time again in the future, perhaps in a slightly subtler fashion, but sadly one of the main reasons they didn't take off is because of the sheer amount of 1st rates permitted to be in the same battle. I'm sure the Devs will have already had this in their minds, I know from global chat, their players certainly have; How exactly will we as a collective STOP every player roaming around in a large ship of the line, or 1st rate and instead, use a variety of ships to aid their purpose. One of the biggest countermeasures is the game itself. You simply cannot have 10 players in a group in 84+ gun ships and expect to capture an abundance of enemy player's ships left, right and centre. Nor can you expect to reinforce your allies or Islands with the speed of a handicapped snail. However, there is absolutely nothing stopping players bringing 20 santi's to: - The arranged trafalgars - The PvP events arranged by the game itself - Arranged Guild v Guild skirmishes - Port Battles - Trade Convoys What I propose is an Ship-based experience system to run alongside the current experience system already in place which will give bonuses the more you play in that class/rate of ship. I propose that this, alongside with the Officers [ http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/6935-officers-traits-in-depth/?mode=show ] will replace unecessary modules such as reload speed, steel toolbox etc [but not built ins such as planking, rigging, live oak, speed etc], [i'm not 100% sure of the crew number for each rank. I've been out of game for a short period of time]. Ensign - 40 crew Midshipman - 50 Crew J.Leutnant - 110 Crew Leutnant - 150 Crew Master & Commander - 210 Crew Post Captain - 300 Crew Flag Captain - 400 Crew & 1 ship [Max BR of x] Commodore - 600 Crew & 2 ships [Max BR of y] Rear Admiral - 900 Crew & 3 ships [Max BR of z] That is the system we have in place [minus the AI fleet concept allowing for a small addition of vessels, mainly for trade convoy purposes] This is the system I suggest we implement alongside it. For each ship class [unrated, 6th rate, 5th rate, 4th rate, 3rd rate, 2nd rate, 1st rate] introduce an experience system which points players towards using one vessel for a long period of time in order to master that ship and earn rewards / bonuses. By doing this, you discourage the use of their favorite frigate by day, and hopping into their ported 1st rate for a port battle as that 1st rate will have no bonuses whatsoever. For example if I discovered my guild's port was about to be attacked, I would pick my consitution. Why? Unrated Ships [Level 3/10] 6th Rate [Level 2/10] 5th Rate [Level 7/10] 4th Rate [Level 3/10] 3rd Rate [Level 2/10] 2nd Rate [Level 2/10] 1st Rate [Level 1/10] Because I have Level 7/10 exp in 5th rates meaning I have a number of passive bonuses to work with, from increased crew space, faster reload etc etc. Your valued opinion would be greatly appreciated! Kind Regards Richard Bolitho
  4. I believe this will be addressed to an extent when more features are implemented into the game. The reason reinforcement zones are a bit edgy at the minute is because they are ALWAYS in the top corner of our UI. Why is that? Because nearly every battle we have is close to some port or other when actually combat should be occurring in the middle of the Caribbean ocean. Sure you could do some inshore patrols but not to the extent that were doing now, which is literally hugging the coast. As soon as long distance trade routes, missions and other stuff are introduced to draw the action slightly further away from the ports this problem will become less of a problem.
  5. So in previous topics, primarily ganking, the "Honour system" has been rather popular, even being offered as a solution to cut back the ganks. I definitely think there needs to be some sort of points system in order to open the doors to great new features and gain a certain amount of control over the day to day actions of NA's captains. Below is a list of ideas that could possibly be linked to the honour system. Pick and choose, comment or dismiss. I'll leave it to you. A) Player Made Missions. How many games have prebuilt quests for you to stumble upon. How many "!" Exclamation marks must you press to get that loot you've always wanted. Lets shake things up and introduce playermade missions. This essentially includes registering what action you want to take, the ships/captains you want to register for said adventure and the fee needed to do so. What could this include? - Trade Convoys. Introducing a state of risk alongside the need to trust makes things very attractice. For all you know that player who you just paid to transport your cargo from A to B, mysteriously didn't make it to B and is later seen enjoying a nice holiday in jamaica. = MINUS HONOUR POINTS [For the player now in jamaica] - Captain's Report. This is linked to the point above! In game at present we have a small history tab which keeps a log of every action undertook while you are in game. Whether you sink 5 ships and gain 300xp or whether you buy 50 iron ore for 100,000 gold because demand is through the roof. What IF. You were able to trade these logs. What if as a condition of agreeing to transport cargo from A to B you have to hand over your report to your employer so he can see you have do exactly as he asks, and if you ran into any trouble etc. And what IF, you have the ability to delete stuff from your report which includes a small decrease in honour, but may have it's pros in gold. - Port Battles. Let's assume our game allows for players to become governors of islands. The result of this will be that the biggest, baddest guilds have the biggest islands, a heck of a lot of income and a near inpenetratable series of forts acting as island defence. Obviously this is not good. Let's give some leeway to the smaller guilds. Let guilds hire mercenary player captains to help them capture an island. If said hired captains fight to their last and sink, or win. They GAIN HONOUR POINTS! If said hired captains flee to save their ship, they suffer MINUS HONOUR POINTS. - Inshore patrols. Again, if we look on the defenders side, lets say that we can employ players to perform numerous patrols around our islands, with a small reward for every enemy ship sunk in their territorial waters. If they stick the whole way through the mission they GAIN HONOUR POINTS. If they give up or leave before they have completed the mission. They suffer MINUS HONOUR POINTS. Ganking The hottest topic since Nelson swam home in a cask of brandy. Quite simply, introduce a system that rewards honour points for fighting whilst outnumbered or letting ships go. And deducts honour points for destroying a smaller ship whilst vastly outnumbering / outgunning them. Battles - "STRIKE DAMN YOU!" I think surrendering to the enemy should have it's consequences. Not only should you suffer a loss in honour points but your officers should be at the mercy of the enemy. This makes surrending less appealing. BUT, if the enemy were to OFFER surrender by pressing their very own "Strike damn you" button, they guarentee you will retain all your officers. Whether that actually happens or not is completely up to them and if they fancy losing a few of their own honour points in order to take out your officers, and capture your ship with much greater ease. [EDIT: PRATER: Surrendering needs to be encouraged, not discouraged. Surrendering should carry no loss of honor, while sinking or being captured by boarding might.] - Every victory should reward honour points based on the rank of the enemy you defeated or captured. Honour Rewards: - There is no such thing as an honest pirate, so I suggest the pirate nation have a different system entirely based on reputation. - If we have 2 factions, as it has been suggested by Admins, "Privateers/Mercenaries" and "Military". Let's make it so all military factioned players have their honour level on display to all players. The Privateer faction however, does not. Thus implementing the trust / risk factor. - Ship name changes. If you capture, buy or craft a ship, you should be able to rename it, at the cost of a certain amount of honour points. - Ship morale gets a passive boost depending on your honour points [which may jump up and down depending on how you spend them] - Islands sell modules / cannons at a cheaper price, or the tax rate is decreased Or some other financial bonus etc. Thoughts and ideas?
  6. "Karma" [Your inevitable defeat is the direct consequence of being my enemy]. Historically, captured ships used to keep their name if they fought well and did their nation proud. Let's reverse it and introduce some sort of achievement system to acquire the ability to name change.
  7. Hey! So I wanted to bring up, or possibly have reiterated if it has been said already that It would be a good idea to keep certain ships to certain nations. For example, one of the most famous ships of all time, the Victory, should only be craftable by British players, and the santi by spanish etc. I think by doing this, you aren't really denying anyone the chance at all the ships, especially when we have 100+ ships in the bank, but you are offering a challenge. If you in future see a Dutch player sailing a victory, you will go into battle with him knowing he has somehow been able to defeat and capture an enemy player's 1st rate.
  8. I agree that different names would be better in order to avoid confliction or weird mechanics, but I'm really loathe to discard the Admiral, Vice, Rear as it's more historically accurate. Plus if you make the max exp rank commodore, it would fit in fairly nicely. But if anyone has some good name suggestions/substitutes for admiral/vice/rear, speak up!
  9. Hello! I know I've already mentioned this idea to a friend, and it will most likely make an appearance in another thread, but I had a few more ideas, and wanted to explain how I'd visualize OW groups working in the future in greater depth. So, essentially every time you group up with your friends, you are essentially, [using other game terminology] raiding together. So if we consider that in a typical raid group you usually have a leader. And perhaps a second in command. If we incorporate this into Naval action, add a bit of history, this is the result: A Fleet with a Leader and 2 assistants with the titles Admiral, Vice Admiral, and Rear Admiral. 3 squadrons in the fleet, with the same fleet chat. Each admiral has their own group, is able to see exactly who is in the other group by clicking the icons above [4 players] or [6 players], and also have different colored writing to distinguish them from their captains. All fleet members should also be able to see the green, red and blue tags so they know exactly what squadron they belong to, even in a battle instance. It makes seeing which line of battle you should be in a lot easier, if there are more than one. The only problems I forsee with this are: - the title confliction between the grouping and experience [rear admiral specifically] - more clutter on the UI [maybe have an clickable arrow to hide/show the group interface] - more ugly looking flags. Bring in nicer flags please! See pics below. Thoughts?
  10. Sure! What about: Win a battle = Bonus to Crew XP and Morale [Keep all your crew] Escape a conflict = Bonus to Crew XP [Keep all your crew] Lose and get captured = Bonus to Crew XP, Decrease to Crew moral [Keep all Crew] Lose and sink = Lose all crew except 1 or 2 random officer(s), depending on size of ship. This ALSO increases the sense of loss, decreases the rewards of stupidly aggressive play + encourages people to play smart Also, absolutely!!! Officers and crew should NOT work in the same way as modules. If you have rubbish officers and a ship full of kids and landlubbers you should recieve an initial, rather large decrease to ALL your ships stats. Which is why it is imperative you win as many battles as possible, play smart, press gang and lead your crew well!!
  11. Well yes you're right that could happen but on ships that had seen a lot of action, the more mature, experienced officers weren't in vast supply. Sometimes kids as young as 15 could make Lt. The age is relevant to the experience trait.
  12. So my idea is to give Officers personalities that affect ship morale, your decisions and ship performance. Essentially if anyone has played football manager, you are always on the lookout for fresh talent and historically captains always loved having experienced, easy to work with, reliable officers. So why not give Officers traits, personalities and make them tradeable. For example, 1st Lts usually gave their opinion /input to the captan in regards to tactics, so when you check in with your own ship to monitor morale/repairs/supplies/best locations to press gang, having a good 1st Lt can make the difference between getting accurate information and doing well, or making bad decisions and causing mutinies, starvation etc. The other Lt's were usually assigned to each gun deck, and sometimes the masts which again could provide small bonuses similar to the modules. Having officers with extremely different personalities or traits could sometimes however lead to conflict, and having officer bullies could spark mutiny! Introducing demand! Make it so you can swap officers with other players, or even trade an officer for a favour, maybe information, trade goods whatever it may be. That means players are constantly fighting to finding and acquiring the very best for their ship. This must also be slightly restricted within reason. Hiring 5 new 1st Lt.s in the space of a few days is slightly ridiculous, make it so an officer has to have served a minimum amount of time before he can be traded, maybe 5 days. Here are some examples of Traits - Discpline [bully ] [strict] [Fair ] [Honorable] - Personality [Hostile] [indifferent] [Eager] [Reliable] - Port Knowledge [ignorant] [Average] [Well traveled] [Adventurer] - Leadership skills [Non-existent] [Good] [inspiring ] [Hero] - Experience [Landlubber] [sailor] [Professional] [Old Salt] Where would said officers spawn from? In war promotions come swiftly. If you lose a couple of officers in a fight, get the midshipman promoted, and get yourself looking for some more midshipmen in the next press gang. Historically depending on the size of a ship you'd have: [the ages are an educated guess] Captain 1st Lt. [usually aged 20 -32] [speaks directly to the Captain regarding tactics + plans] 2nd Lt. [usally aged 19 -26] 3rd Lt. [usually aged 18-23] 4th Lt. [usually aged 17-20] 5th Lt. [usually aged 16-19] 6th Lt. [usually aged 15-18] and about 4-8 Midshipman [usually young boys aged 12-15 of medium-high class whose next step in the promotion ladder would be Lt.] Thoughts?
  13. Well at least it won't go to waste in the hands of the Americans and TDA. They'll likely throw it all overboard!!!
  14. Agreed. Only for allies though. All enemies of the aggressors should be dragged in if they are in the circle
  15. Recently on a couple of patrols, the SLRN were stalked by a couple of enemy Lynxs whose intention was to just shadow us and call out our location. I have no problem with that as we can always chase them off, however a line must be drawn when said Lynxs decide to hug the centre of our formation meaning of we engage them we all are pulled in. After much thought towards resolving this, my suggestion is to add more detail to the engagement ring [not the one of your finger!]. I suggest when you engage an enemy you can choose which of your allies [who are also in the circle] you want to take into the battle with you initially. This allows fleets to better manage their forces and to combat the said scenario above. For the people who say: why don't you just spread out and get one person to kill him? Because it means we are slowed down again. We need to all spread out, get one person to engage and then get back into formation which all takes up a lot of time. Time we don't have if we are trying to entrap an enemy So why not go in together and kill him? Because 1.it will pull in big reinforcements for his side and again it slows us down massively.
  16. I think the issue now is that because of time compression, you would just have a sailor spamming "sail there on the horizon!" every 2 minutes. I was all for the idea, but after sailing in OW, I don't think it is viable anymore. Plus despite time compression, sailing from port to port does still take a decent amount of time, scanning the horizon for sails is about the only pastime we get at present.
  17. Thinking about it yes, the state bonuses may be unnecessary, that was a spur of the moment idea. The main point is to think of businesses to run to generate income.
  18. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, I would not hold it against a man to speak his own.
  19. Not at all, players aren't being punished for anything. This is about bringing realism even closer. You just WOULDN'T have a large SoL sailing without support close at hand, it would be extremely vulnerable. Hence why you need a fleet. And as regards to money earn't, captains in fleets earn the same as captains without, but as i said the 20% that is missing goes to the fleet coffers. This, as i said, stops us having every player zipping around in a 1st rate, which would just be ridiculous.
  20. Hello, I thought we might delve into professions a little, so we always have a little something on the side whilst battling it out at ships. I think each player should be limited to 2 businesses / professions, or 3 if their fleet controls an island. Also each profession should give some sort of bonus, such as the ones suggested below. - Brothels = +3 to crew morale - Taverns = +20% to recruitment - Tailors = +10% income - Blacksmiths = -20% to cost of weapons + cannonballs - Gunfounders = -20% cost of cannons - Shipyards = increase chance of finding rarer ships - Charting = - Decorators = -15% cost of ship exterior decorating + cabin furniture. - ? - ? - ? - ? - ? - ? - ? - ? - ? - ? Thoughts / Suggestions?
  21. Hey! I'd like to talk about the Fleet's treasury, delving deeper into realism and ship balancing. By ship balancing, I mean, not having every person out there in the world sailing around on 1st rate. 1.SHIP BALANCING This is already sort of discouraged in the current open world, but I believe it should be borderline impossible for lone wolves to aqquire a 1st rate, and extremely difficult to aqquire a SoL in general. If they did somehow manage to afford one, it would be nearly useless as a SoL by itself is very prone to being engaged and destroyed by a small group of frigates, or a group of ships in general. 2.FLEET TREASURY My opinion is that in the UI, one or two people are chosen to act as the Fleet's treasurers. On top of this, I think that as a lone wolf, after every victory, you only recieve 80% of the total earnings. If you join a fleet however, you still get 80% of the winnings, but the other 20% is automatically transferred to the Fleet's coffers, so the fleet has a constant income. Players should also be able to transfer gold or ships to their fleet. The main point of this is that the Fleet Admiralty decides which ships captains will be sailing depending on skill, experience and past record. It also enables for the purchase and storage of high end equipment / ships so when new recruits join, they are given the very best equipment, depending on the Fleet's wealth and power. 3. MORE INCOME So we already have a constant stream of income from Fleet Captains, I think other income possibilites would be, captured islands [which pay money directly to the fleet that controls them, who, in turn,have to pay a certain amount of tax to their nation from this income]. And of course you have trade convoys etc. Thoughts / opinions?
  22. This is a good point. People talk about when they saw 200+ people online. Now we're lucky to go past 35. Most of the time its 25 people which isn't great. PLEASE make it so even in battle you can talk in main lobby so we can actually round up people to play big games. I say big games, I mean a 8v8 at least. Which isn't big. Sadface.
×
×
  • Create New...