captain_andrey

This will never happen, the optimal set up will always be made of similar ships, ships that are able to sail together. Diverse fleets will get split up, the slow ships will get kited and the fast ones will be primaried. A homogeneous fleet composition has the advantage of running away from anything bigger than itself or destroying anything smaller than itself.

Its going to be 23 Ingermanlands, which is pretty much exactly the fleets we are going to see if the devs implement the changes they listed.

A BR limit just like any limit will produce an optimal set of ships to bring to any battle, the current optimal set is 25 first rates, a br limit will produce an optimal set that people will bring over and over again. And if I am going to sail the same this every day to PB it might as well be a 1st rate.

I would also support xp loss for sinking in a line ship. There should be another rank past rear admiral to act as xp buffer. Losing a santi should probably lose you 50k xp or so and maybe 5k for 3rd rate. Its changes like this that would establish a natural balance of what ships are used in battle, not the artificial limits the devs are proposing.

That is the natural progression of any power. That is how it should be.

I dont think you realize how many ex EVE players are playing this game. Yes I am very interested in map painting. Showing up with organized and unstoppable force that steam rolls your opponent because they are too scared to even undock is why I want to play this game. Nobody ever won a war by winning a close battle. You want to show your opponent that you have organizational skills to bring exactly 25 firsts in the battle, not one more or one less. You want to show them that you have industrial muscle to be able to replace those ships when they are lost. You dont just want to win and sink a few more ships than the opponent, you want to crush them until they dont even want to login the next day to defend. Thats how you win wars. Also all this talk about these or any other changes the devs could make would make anything more accessible to casual players. Why should it be? Why does someone who only logs in on a weekend and can barely crew their ship feel entitled to participate in a battle that was planned for days and weeks by dedicated players, players who play together every day, practice their lines, their communications, their fire focusing just for a chance to be able to show off their skills against a equally well prepared opponent. Any additional limits placed by the devs on top of existing 25 player limit will only serve to alienate the casual players in the eyes of the organized clans even more. Line battles with 1sts are very easy even for unskilled player to be effective in. Sail in line, dont crash into the guy infront and fire every now and then. Winning a frigate battle is a completely different story, skill will come into play a lot more. Skill that the casual player just doesnt have. Why should this player get in the battle ahead of skilled captain? There are plenty of things that a casual player can do in this game, but I dont think participating in port battles should be on the top of that list.

No i am talking about inside port battles. For any major offensive there will be more than one simultaneous port attack. Not many clans or nations can field multiple 1st rate fleets. Many ports are still being taken with 3rd rates or even connie fleets. And what is with the obsession with not having 25 first rate battles? If two opposing forces have the ability to field such a force why not let them? Even now it is not sustainable to field a 1st rate fleet every day as the losses can not be replaced by crafters. Look at Aves. British held it for a week but had to endure a daily attack. The losses were piling up on both sides and it was no longer possible to field a full first fleet. With proposed crew hiring system such losses would be even more catastrofic. You have to let the game reach a natural equilibrium of risk vs reward for fielding big ships instead of bringing in artificial limits. Even the 25 player limit seems rediculous unless the servers cant handle any more. Let the game balance itself out instead of using bandaid features to limit gameplay. Other bandaid features were tried and failed to fix anything (1.5br anyone?) and the same will happen to this one. Players will find a way around the restrictions and will turn them to an even bigger advantage. Oh i see you brought 25 connies to attack my port. Here why dont you try to get through my 25 santi screening fleet first. You should have brought 25 santis of your own. Oh you did, thats cool.. remember when we had these fights in port battle instead of open water. Yeah but i like open water better at least we have land in it...

Well that is just not true and if you really beleive what you are saying here then you are making game mechanic changes based on false information. If your nation or clan only plans to take one port in the time slot then sure they bring their best ships. Most major offensives would involve multiple attacks and screening battles where lower rate ships are very well used. If you want frigates to be viable in the port battle itself then make them actually viable instead of forcing people to sail ships they dont want to sail. On top of this 4rth rates are currently disposable ships with connies being aquireable from the ai shop. The scafters are being shafted again. Why would anyone use crafted ships costing 4 high level notes when you can have virtually free ones. This will be disposable 3rd rate spam all over again only these ships will have 4 dura.

I disagree with any artificial mechanic to limit ship sizes in battle. There should be tactical reason to bring smaller ships eg shallow capture point, low winds or capture point that is significantly upwind from starting position.

A nice solution would be to let people vote on flag purchase. Only players in geographical proximity of the target port get to vote. A vote succeeds if after 30 sec more people voted yes than no or as soon as 10 people voted yes. This will also bring the need for at least 1 player of the attacking nation to be in proximity of target port, making buying 10 simultaneous flags much harder to coordinate yet still possible.

Well done guys!

Wow thats disgusting. No matter, the mechanics will be fixed one day, but the Spanish have just signed their own death warrant on PVP1. Prepare to be wiped off the map and re-roll Pirates.

I agree that the surrender option should be removed after the battle is over.

You can pretty much attack through anything except Defend if you have decent mods

Is durability trade an exploit when both player are on same side and one surrenders the ship for the other to capture?

Why didn't you let me explode?!!