Jerome

Please note that my suggestions are to remove restrictions and encouraging players to play the game any way they want. The "anti-ganking" mechanics are all artificial rules within open world that restrict people from playing. Remove restrictions and let people fight it out. Less restrictions, more play styles, more players = profit.

No, it is already too hard for people to catch enemies open sea.

I like the idea of having the port randomly selected.

Anything to let us find actual players I'm a PvP game.

Lol. At this point it is clear you are my intended victim. Wrong, my opinion is that PvP should not be influenced by mechanics, just players. If players want to play cowardly, they can. If they want to behave in a manner they consider fair or honorable, they can. But to regulate players with mechanics is a no go.

Awesome idea, the current map is terrible.

When I sail with a couple friends in surprises, we are not out looking to gank. We are looking for fights and we have engaged in plenty of fights we were outgunned and won. And we have been ganked, ran from ganks, and ganked players we have come across as opportunity. It is not "gank mentality", it is simply hunting for PvP. We bring what we have and you bring what you have and we meet in the middle, no mechanics balancing it one way or the other. The other day I jumped an indiaman with an NPC escort of Inger and Essex. I was alone in my surprise. I can within an ace of sinking the indiaman but had to run because his fleet came within an ace of sinking me. Sheesh.

Because unrestricted PvP leads to more action. I personally don't like hunting for an hour and seeing nothing, or in the case when battles had BR restrictions, hunting for an hour and then having your group split by BR mechanics. I had some friends quit then and there. When we got ganked we always wanted vengeance and sailed out for more.

No, it is factual that your mechanic ideas led to players leaving. No offense mate, there are plenty of threads with your ideas discussed. This ain't one of them.

Some of your suggestions are my main complaints and the main point of my post. If you are sailing alone and get jumped, that's it. I happen to like the new tag system, minus the mega NPC fleets. The only reason people hunt capital waters is because the chance of finding other players is greater there. Where else would a person seeking PvP go? A remote port where the chances of finding a player is low? Randomly in the middle of the sea? Your point there is asinine, OF COURSE players hunt busy ports! They should not be punished for that like they have. And no, players in port should not get to hop out and help, that is not realistic if you consider time compression nor is it fair. And again, to encourage players to leave battle screens, give them a chance to reorient in the open sea. Never restrict battles with BR. Are you kidding? The abuse of that plus the resulting group splitting triggered the first major player base loss in this game. It was also a contributing factor to the demise of potbs. Get rid of BR altogether. Players don't quit over being ganked. They quit because of no action.

Let's talk about "ganking". What is a gank? For most players it is any fight that they start with any perceived disadvantage. Let's talk about this game. This is a wide open world, very large. The odds of two fighting forces matching open sea and having a "fair" fight is remote, to say the least. So, intended or not, one side will usually be the "gankers" and the poor victims the "whiners on the forums". There is just no way around it in an open world pvp game. Or is there? Various mechanics have been tried that have all resulted in loss of playability, and in my experience, player loss (multiple games I have seen it). One of the giant attractions of this game for myself and others players I used to sail with was open world, unrestricted pvp. Then came the mechanics, BR mechanics that resulted in people missing fights or getting split, mechanics that favored the defender (open battles near port with social), forts, npc fleets around capitals, etc. Then personal fleets that intruded on the pvp, making it damn near impossible for a solo pirate to get much done. Either way, what did we see? People leave the game. Also, the failure to address a simple thing like battle screen camping. I often log out at battle screen, either because I have to log (usually) or because I know a fleet is waiting outside for me. Don't remove that, just incentive coming back out into the open sea with some help getting out of the immediate area. Long invisibility, even longer cannot join battles? Something so a player can leave a battle with some confidence of escaping a revenge fleet. Look, you can sail around this damn game for literally hours and never see a single player sometimes. And when you do, of course you and your mates all jump them because hallelujah it's a player to sink or capture. If anything, the game mechanics should favor and encourage those that sail near enemy ports to hunt. Give them a break. Make this game what it once was, cutthroat pvp and disregard the losers whining about ganking. Remember, for every one player crying about ganking, there are at least two more players high-fiving over his pool of tears and shattered timbers. Give us heat maps to find where the enemy does missions, trades, hides, whatever. Put the "Action" back into "Naval ACTION".

Never played Eve but not allowing logoffs in battle screen would make this game unplayable. Even potbs allowed you to and they had map magnitude smaller.

Battles in NA are beautiful, great graphics. But it is a lot like playing a shooter with no gore. Add some things to make it more visceral. When you get rigging shock you should here a bosun roaring for men to grab axes and clear those spars. Crew casualties should be accompanied by cries for the surgeon, crew shock should likewise have audible cues like the sound of a midshipman saying "we must strike sir!". Fires should have the crew fighting desperately to extinguish it. Broadsides should have crew cheering and yelling. As it is, when major damage occurs you don't notice unless you see the white text calmly informing you of "crew shock" because Poopdeck's Surprise just raked you with carronade and your scuppers are full of blood. That would be a nice visual effect too. Basically make combat more intense and add audio or visual cues for significant events.

+1

I would like to see an option to lock the user interface. It is annoying to have the UI dragged around accidentally while panning the view.

One of the best part of this game is unrestricted PvP. The worst thing you can do is limit that.

Crew damage is fine.

On #3, isn't that the point? To improve ship performance? Everyone has access to them.

Players hiding by massive AI fleets because it ruins hunting. Players with NPC escorts, detracts from having to work with others and brings NPCs to PvP. Boogers.

Actually one or two good rakes has historically ended battles and the game gets it right.

Just give people 1 minute invisibility and retain the ability to log from battle screen. That allows people to log after a long fight but also gives them a fair chance to get back on the open sea.

Let this garbage perk rest in peace.

Is there going to be an option to lock the ui in place? Very annoying when you scan the horizon and accidentally drag the chat box across the screen.

Waiting for outlaw explanation. Attacking other pirates was a great mechanic I thought.

I think the game will be more dynamic and appealing if you let players chart their own courses. Alliance mechanics may be nice but their should be ways to break alliances, backstabbing, double-cross, or go rogue. Maybe a rep system for players and for nations with penalties for low rep.